tue jan 7
The cliffhanger final episode of my 2019 blog ended with a light bulb going off in my head.
“So that’s the problem,” I said to myself. “I can fix that.”
Famous last words.
I needed to re-wire the entire machine to get rid of ground loops and stray noise. This is a big deal, and every single wire was going to get moved, so I stocked up on spade terminals, just in case I should run out. I spent 3 days on the re-build, and I watched my spade terminal inventory dwindle. And then … Finally! A package from Amazon, containing all the rest of the parts I still needed! I whisked it down into the cellar and hooked it all up, and when I finally got down to the very last connection, I was also down to my very last spade terminal. And I couldn’t help but smile while I hooked it up.
That’s gotta be a good sign, don’t you think?
My last spade connector
thu jan 9
Normally, nothing works.
(I’m talking about c3pr here)
Oh, everything works, all right. Just never all at the same time.
But today, everything seems to work. All at the same time.
It’s amazing, and I’m trying not to let it go to my head.
I put in noise filters, and my spurious clock pulses disappeared.
I replaced the wrist motor, and now the wrist is cool and quiet.
Remind me to stop burning up my motors.
I fixed a smashed wire on the hand motor.
Same stupid mistake I made on the Kawasaki starter motor.
I gave the bundled cables a little extra slack, and now they twist a little better.
I even swept the floor, and now my desk chair glides soundlessly across the concrete.
When I wire it like this, it works. Go figure.
mon jan 13
OK.
So.
It turns out that not everything works.
If you look on the bright side, that’s waaay better than ‘nothing works.’
I took four days off, and when I logged back on, it didn’t take long to find something that needed fixing. But for those four days, I didn’t want to touch my computer. I didn’t even want to go in my office. I spent that time savoring the feeling you get when there’s nothing broken, so there’s nothing to fix.
It probably won’t happen again.
Instead, I made a portable bottle sanitizer.
Ain’t she a beauty?
Actually, there is something I needed to fix, but at least it isn’t software.
I totally under-powered the Hand motor, and the way I mounted it was flawed.
Having said that, I’ve given myself a solid B for effort, a pat on the back, and another crack at it.
Lunch
Tue Jan 21.
Yesterday, ‘for no reason at all’, my cameras stopped working, and I worked myself into a frenzy trying to track down the problem. What could be wrong? What’s this going to cost me? Shit! Turns out it was my fault, of course, but it’s scary how easy it was to convince myself that a cable or a camera must be broken, since I see nothing wrong with my work.
Of course, it was me.
According to google, epoxy doesn’t stick to waxed paper.
Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.
When they’re all stuck together, does this count as one biscotti or two?
tue jan 28
My truck is broke. My steering is rrreally stiff, and the problem comes and goes.
It was really bad the other day, so I made an appointment to get it looked at. But when appointment day rolled around, the truck steered just fine, all the way into town.
The lady at the desk laughed out loud when I told her that.
I needed about 50 grams of epoxy to finish my new Hand re-build. I shook the can, and there seemed to be plenty, so I got everything all set up, and then I went to pour the resin from the can. Eleven grams came out.
Shit. Now I gotta put everything away, buy some epoxy, set everything back up, and try again. A couple of days or a week go by and …
Unless ….
The last time I ran out epoxy, I ran out of hardener. This time, I’d run out of resin. Do you suppose brand A’s hardener works with brand B’s resin?
Against my better judgement, I tried it, and it worked.
The new Hand
A perfect example of why my shop seems so small.
A box holding a box holding a box holding (count ‘em) eleven little boxes.
All of them empty.
Inflation has taken its toll.
thu jan 30
Here is a quick video of C3PR doing yoga poses.
You can see that the Hand is still busted, but … you should have seen the other guy!
I’m always looking for a good use for my cider-gone-bad.
I use it in my Water Pik. It’s antiseptic properties are real.
fri jan 31
I bottled some hard cider today. It is bone dry and delicious.
I’ve got five 5-gallon glass carboys going, and I bottled half of each of two of them, combined the rest into a ‘blend’, and then set up an experiment to see if I can get the yeast to re-start. Remind me to check on it in a couple of months.
Watch for yourself: