fri jan 4
Like a lot of us, I’ve put on a few pounds. Not very many, but not very few, either.
In college, I weighed 195. I was buff, without even trying.
When I worked, I weighed 218. I thought my scale was broken, because that’s all it read for 30 years.
When I retired, I hit 190 from working too hard. If I was a cow, I’d have been tough beef.
Today, I’m at 210, and I’ve put myself on a diet, even though I’m not sure I need it.
sat jan 5
Dieting isn’t easy.
There’s a guy down the road who bakes amazing bread and cruffins, and he free-delivers on our road. You order on Monday and he delivers on Friday. So I ordered my usual $13 worth of goodies on Monday, decided to go on a diet on tuesday, did real good on wed and thursday, and then my bread order arrived on Friday. Crash landing!!
You gotta taste his cruffins. Crispy and moist round croissants dusted with cinnamon and sugar for $2, and the only reason they’re not hot is because it’s cold in his car.
wed jan 9
I need to understand and implement EtherCAT for c3pr, and it’s not going well. (Don’t even bother to google EtherCAT. You’ll only confuse yourself.)
I started out a total blank and, working diligently, stayed that way for about 2 weeks, before I slowly started seeing the light. (I don’t think I’m as smart as I used to be.)
The other day, I finally got the bus to scan the drive, so I hooked up the rest of the wires, powered up the motor for the first time, and it said … ‘no power at motor.’
So I re-checked my wiring and cuffed myself upside the head because the ground pin was missing! The one that says ‘Be sure to ground‘ in the wiring diagram. So I grounded it good and solid, powered it back up, and …
BAM! Sparks shot out the side, smoke filled the room!
And and the display said … ‘no power at motor.’
I need to think about this….
mon jan 14
I went to the grocery store today in mid afternoon, when business is slow. I pulled in to the checkout aisle, where 3 clerks were chatting in the bagging area, and I made a lame joke to the cashier that ‘You won’t need help bagging my stuff, huh??’ She smiled and started ringing up my groceries, and all 3 clerks just walked off.
I ended up bagging my own groceries.
This is the mill they used to planarize my truss.
Big. Very big.
C3pr’s arm. Soup to nuts.
mon jan 21
I’ve been walking. For my health.
Up the road, and back.
Down the road, and back.
When you live on a dead end road, you don’t have a lot of options, unless you drive somewhere, take a walk, and then drive back.
I got myself a fitness app for my iPhone to keep track of my walks and, when I went to set it up, it asked me if I wanted it to connect to my Smart Shoes. That would be no.
The weather has been nasty and, twice now, I’ve walked when it’s been blowing snow. I can tell you that having the wind and snow in your face and having the wind and snow at your back are two very different things. And walking against the wind in a snow storm is less than half the fun of riding against the wind on a motorcycle.
Gates and Dodge are two competing titans of the timing pulley industry.
Remember that, because when I needed a timing pulley for C3pr, I got online, selected some parts, and ordered them. Part of my order was a flanged pulley from Gates, but they shipped me a flange-less pulley from Dodge. I double-checked what I’d ordered, and contacted customer service. “That’s funny,” they said, “because we ordered it for you directly from Gates.”
They checked with Gates, who told them “No way! Not possible!”
Meanwhile I really, really needed a flanged pulley, so we checked the database, ordered a flanged pulley, and gave Gates a heads-up about it. They shipped me another flange-less Dodge pulley. In a Dodge box. WTF ?!?
Again, they checked with Gates, who told them “um … yeah, we ship each others’ parts” and “um … yeah, our catalog is wrong, and we don’t make a flanged pulley.” (although they offered to make one for $388)
Collusion?
So I kept my flange-less pulley, and I put flanges on it.
tue jan 22
I needed an access hole where the shoulder joins the upper arm, so I could adjust the limit switch without taking off the wrist first. Say that fast, twice.
You can tell I must rrrreally need this access hole, because it involves drilling two holes in two pieces which I’ve put a shit ton of work into making. So if I screw this up, I’m screwed.
“Be careful,” I told myself. “Don’t fuck up.”
I spent a whole morning carefully mounting the shoulder on the mill, with the arm and wrist screwed in. The access hole had to be rrright where the 3 of them mate, and if I screwed up one of them, I’d screw up all of them.
“Think this through,” I told myself. “Take your time. Don’t fuck up.”
I had some lunch and I ‘let it go down’ while I pondered whether I’d missed anything. I went back to the shop and thought it through one last time.
“All systems go,” I told myself. “What can go wrong?”
“You idiot,” I told myself. You totally fucked it up!”
Years ago, I got my finger caught in a router table and mangled the bone in the end of it, and I ended up making a sudden visit to a hand surgeon’s office. And when they were finishing up stitching me up, the Dr looked me in the eye and said: “You were lluuuuhhh – keeeeyyy” and then she sent me home.
That’s how I felt when it ‘only’ took me an afternoon to fix the damage I’d done to C3pr’s arm and shoulder. Are you feeling lucky? So was I.
thu jan 24
I ordered a bunch of stuff and, except for my shock absorbers, everything is “in the mail.’
Ribbon cable connectors? In the mail.
Cable carrier? In the mail.
Valve springs? In the mail.
Linear rails? In the mail.
Servo? Still getting fixed, and not even in the mail yet!
Please, Mr Postman
Apparently, Vermont’s recent stretch of nasty weather has horrified the nation.
Fake news. It’s really not that bad, folks. (I bet I spent more time recreating outside last week than all of you combined)
Today, though, I didn’t like it. The weather warmed up, it rained, the snow melted, and the garage flooded when the slush backed up in the drain. No harm done, but there’s nothing worse than cold, wet feet from standing in a puddle when your shoes are almost – but not quite – watertight.
The tip of the iceberg.
fri jan 25
I decided I needed brakes on the waist and shoulder, to immobilize them while C3pr is ‘in the shop.’ They weren’t very hard to make (and they aren’t very pretty), but they’ll get the job done. I wanted something lightweight, quick, and dirty, made with materials I have on-hand. So I rooted through some boxes, found some machinable plastic and – voila – instant brakes.
It turns out that the plastic sort of self-lubricates when it rubs on steel, so the holding power is not very good. Dumb.
Asbestos would have been a better choice.
ANYTHING would have been a better choice than plastic.
And juuust when you thought Reid must have run out of things to screw up, I pulled off the biggest snafu in recent memory.
Remember the servo drive that blew up on me? Well I checked everything – and I mean everything – out against the user manual more than once, and then inquired with customer service. I sent them a photo of the connections, and a video of the smoke in the room, and they told me to send it in. On their end, it seemed to work fine, and they sent me a video of how they tested it. I pointed out that their Ground pin was not connected, and could they please hook it up and try it again? They did so, and it still seemed to work fine, and they sent me another video of how they did it. I was about to point out that their Ground pin was still not connected (and could they please hook it up and try it again?) when a thought struck me.
I slapped my forehead. My jaw dropped. Fuckin-A !!!
That pin I kept telling them about wasn’t Ground after all. It’s not supposed to be connected. The drive blew up because it’s not supposed to be grounded. Duh !!
I wrote them an abject letter of apology and promised to buy more of their stuff.
OK. I know what you’re thinking: “Reid, that was really dumb. How could you be so stupid?”
I know, I know.
I really don’t know.
wed jan 30
I’ve been enjoying my walks, and I walk every day.
A couple of miles. In bad weather and worse, and the badder, the better.
Drivers wave. People stare. Dogs bark. Joggers say hello. Cars slow down. The school bus honks.
When I walk, I am King of the Road!
As you can tell, I’m spending a lot of time working on C3pr. If you’ve read this far, and now I tell you that I’ve made more progress than mistakes, then you are probably thinking that I must be making one hell of a lot of progress. I am. It’s just not obvious.
Looking good. Stay tuned. Buckle up.
thu jan 31
I blame it on exercise, portion control, and a low carb diet.