Long, busy day today… then a quick stop over at the Haunted Forest to work for an hour or so with John S. We put the final touches (we hope0 on the retrofit of the ProjectX pumpkin robot for the year. This years changes include wireless control of the arms and wireless audio for the mouth.John S did that.. it’s really nice being able ot work with him on this.. very clever guy. I also modified the code to ‘park’ the arms after 15 seconds of inactivity to prevent someone from inadvertently crashing them into the ground as the beast is lowered. after several visits from the F-U fairy, er were able to get the arm controllers reprogrammed.. (the processor on the right controls the left arm and visa versa.. and the control on one of the arms is backwards because of the plumbing on the pneumatics ).. Nothing like figuring out a mix of code, high pressure air and electronics in the rain in the woods… … while talking to nice newspaper lady (Megan).. and listening to an early evening work call.. . well. it could have been worse.. it could have been rainy. cold and dark like it was on sunday.
Anyway.. I’ve got my fingers crossed…. hope it holds up..
Here’s a quick vid I took of one of the tests.. the vids is on it’s side.. right now.. I rotated it and am waiting for that to push through youtube..
not a great movie.. but you get the picture..
Last couple of weeks I’ve been circling round this common theme of ‘becoming’.. somehow moving to the next level of something. I haven’t figured out quite yet. .. I keep thinkign I’m holding myself back somehow out of.. what… fear ? habit ? .. obsessiveness ? .. Not sure.. I was having with a freind today when he started talking about the same sort of thing.. regarding his own creativity. .. he described it as being “hinged” .. as in .. he was having trouble becoming “unhinged” .. i.e. able to totally let go and be mindlessly creative.. .I’ve been thinking about that all day.. He’s right, . obsessing about becoming more creative most often has the opposite effect. The more I concentrate on finding the next perfect outlet ..or next perfect project, the more clouded my judgment seems to be.. I think I am looking for a way to become “unhinged” too.. or at least less hinged. … (without obsessing about it so much.. ) wish me luck
I don’t normally read my horoscope.. but I happened to find this one in a london newspaper last friday.. i know it’s not very scientific to try and predict the course of ones life due to the the arrangements of large rocks floating around in space at the time of your birth.but what fun is it to be scientific all the time. As it happens.. I have been trying to figure out my next big move in life… and I . have been stressing about it.. .. really stressing.. as in having trouble sleeping because of it.. Somehow I found this horoscope comforting.. I think it’s telling me to conjure something up…
End of a very nice weekend.. fished painting the belltower.. then headed to the Haunted Forest to finish rebuilding the project-x pumpkin robot.. This is year 3 (or 4 ?) of the 21 foot tall beast. ( bidi rheumatic pistons. a 20 foot pneumatic sheet rock jack, 4 bidi pneumatic solenoid valves, 3 arduinos,2 monster servos (for the mouth) , leds, a bunch of switching electronics, a ton of urethane goo) an it’s an adventure every year to reassemble the creature an get it working. You can see it working here. The big change this year is that I made a radio control setup to control his arms.. that and some other changes reduce the wiring harness the creature lifts by about 15 wires.. .. As always.. it’s a big adventure tying to install, debug and test electronics in the woods.. this year my freind John S is helping. john actually worked on the creature about 3 years ago when he was an intern at IBM.. now he’s been hired.. and is helping me on a this project.. and I hope many more to come.. Homer met us a few hours later and together we integrated the electronics and pneumatics.. i love working with these guys…
As always.. we underestimated the time we needed.. so we ended up swapping air hoses and wires in the dark.. lots of cursing.. but it was worth it.. it seems to be working… (cross your fingers. )
got home around 7:30 .. to find a big bowl of dianes homemade borscht.. yummmmmmmmm
Gabe gave me a great lesson in photoshop today.. I’ve never mastered’ ‘layers’ before .. gabe taught me to use them to mix animals.. like this gorilla-eagle (goreagle ?) we made.. fun !
ok.. time for sleep. big and interesting week coming up.. wish me luck on that..
more as it happens..
