Introducing Curious Kraken
For a while I’ve been wanting a more capable Internet Enabled RC car, something that could go outside. Well, I finally got working the Wild Thumper I got a few weeks ago.
This is still very much a prototype
I initial tried controlling the motors with 3 L298Ns for each of the wheel pairs, but they overheated. So I tried a couple of other motor controllers, the ones that did the trick are a couple of BTS7960s.
Rated for high current, heating is simply not an issue
I ported the Nosy Monster code to work with them, and I improved several things, mostly around smoothing controls. You can’t just start these motors are full power, you need you ramp up and down. This is to be mechanically gentle on the motors, but it also helps with piloting.
Outside!
We’re figuring out the wifi range around the house, it’s worst than I thought, well, for live streaming video at least.
Iterating on a case for the electronics
The suspensions are excellent, the motors could be beefier
More to come…
Yellow Jackets Sapwood Oasis
The day was hot and they were exited to find several logs oozing sap. Their diligently staying on the sapwood made it clear sap is what they were after. I left them a few logs I’ll pick up later.
Argiope Aurantia
Never seen one of these before but it turns out it lives in every U.S. state.
The Nosy Monster’s Big Brother
Every time I throw the Nosy Monster outside, it can’t handle even the best cut grass. The wheels just don’t cut it. So I finally splurged and got a Wild Thumper from SparkFun.
There’s a million things I’d like to do with it, and I don’t know how many I’ll get to. But at the very least, I’d love to have the vehicle able to go outside. WiFi goes pretty far around the house, and it so it would have a nice range of operation.
I’d love to set it up so random people on the internet can pilot it. Maybe via some sort of voting system.
I’d love for it to be energy autonomous with a solar panel.
And I’d love for it to be able to take some rain and snow.
The later is unlikely to happen, the rest very well may over time. Ultimately, this will be a better setup allowing for more development.
The Nosy Monster will remain in its current funny form. We’ll need to find a cool name for this new one, but I want to see what it looks like when it’s done first.
Second Coat
Went on after the boards have been screwed in to cover all these puncture points.
Electrical Parasite
When your cat rubbing itself all over things impacts electrical production.
It’s fun but she doesn’t have enough surface to make a real impact :).
He Stepped Up the Defenses
He started watching Primitive Technology and was inspired.
Finished laying decking
The last board is ripped to size, then I try to mimic its factory round bevel with the sander. Worked pretty well.
The ends having been cut need to all be resealed.
228 square feet, half of the house we moved into.
The trees are perfectly placed for some late afternoon shade. These nice trees are the few sticks which survived our reclaiming the land from brush years ago.
Sealing Cedar Decking
Load off my back, money in his pocket.
Portraits and Stuff
Esther at different “resolutions”, rendered with Ivan Murit’s Texturing
Robin & Esther, the lines created pen motions conducive to ink goop
Nicole Texturing’d I need better lit pictures of my subjects.
I got a CMYK pen to experiment with multi color renders, particularly ones where the colors can mix into the full spectrum.
And so…
Nicole CMYK, the result is cool but I definitely want to improve. On a wall it’s a bit spooky, it captured her essence perfectly but it dissolves into chaos as you get closer.
Interpolated Random Grid courtesy of llemarie @ turtletoy.net
Bricks courtesy of markknol @ turtletoy.net
The Great Seal of Vermont, courtesy of Vermont
Appalachian Autumn courtesy of base12 @ turtletoy.net
I was looking for blue ink, I pretty much had to get this “the last color of the king”. A nod to the 1789 scholarly experiment to check if noble blood was in fact blue. Spoiler alert, it wasn’t. I love Noodler’s Ink, I came looking for UV ink and stayed for the jokes (and the quality). Gee I wonder what color billionaire blood is.
The fountain pen is loaded with it now, I’ll be playing with handwriting in the near future.
I was never an artist, at all, but I have really enjoyed how my pursuit of perfection with the plotter, mechanically, electronically and programmatically has ended up making me care deeply about ink quality, flow, and paper properties. It reminds me of all the times artists explained their art medium and I was completely oblivious to it. I never understood that the medium was relevant, yet today it defines the boundaries for what I can do. It’s the possibility space. Much of the artistry of pen plotting comes from the various algorithms, processes, programs, one manages to get running and combine. It’s as much a skill as learning how to draw, it takes effort and skill. Only a borderline unhealthy obsession with seeing a machine wield a pen drove me develop one for years, yet today I’m happy the journey took me from the automaton to exploring more artful things. I’ve been bathing in computing for as long as I can remember, it’s nice to look outside a little. And in the end, it’s computing that took me there. How’s that for a stream of consciousness?
More Compost
I asked a neighbor if they were doing anything with manure from their horses. turned out they had a ton extra and were cool with giving it away. It also turned out it was all piled up nicely already, and was pretty much already compost. I left things very tidy and we gave them some soaps Nicole made, what an absolute score.
6 loads without a dump truck
I added the 2 buckets of ash we keep for icy weather. We’ll have time to rebuild our stock come Fall. We’re mixing in wood chips and grass clipping. Pretty much anything green we can get our hand on. It will be a serious pile of serious compost soon.
Chestnut Progress
3 year update after planting 3 little Chestnuts, piggybacking off a New York guy’s effort to reintroduce Chestnuts to American forests: they all look wonderful.
The stronger growth comes from the one that’s in the shade, go figure.
We got a few more this year since they’re doing so well and promise to deliver a bounty in a few decades.
We’ll find them a spot in due time.
Deck Work
I worked through the week end, but it was really fudging hot and that slowed me down. Still, the deck it taking shape. And that shape is that of 2 decks to be joined with a couple of steps.
Megadouche Back in Business
The intermediary seasons between Summer and Winter have always been a challenge for us. When it’s not cold enough to make a fire, but it’s cold enough to not take a cold water shower outside. With Megadouche‘s ability to deliver infinite hot water, it really is not an issue to bathe outside even when it’s cold. It was evident immediately after “inventing” it last year, that it would remain as a permanent fixture of our homestead. This year I set it up as soon as possible in April and I polished it a bit. And boy has it been nice, it really is the absolute best thing we’ve made. It’s not just nice as taking showers outside is really pleasant, it also changes the dynamic of our day completely. When it’s too hot, or when we work hard, we can just hop under and just get a refresh. No longer are showers something that needs to be planned, moved with buckets, and kept for the end of the day.
The solar setup is all scrap lumber and spare parts. Old panels, old batteries, old charge controllers. It looks funny but it performs well. This year I added 1 panel because we started moving a lot of water right off the bat and I could tell the batteries were getting depleted.
The sediment tub with the siphon coming from upstream. A great formula.
