There’s gold doing the hula again, wavering up to $50 per day for no apparent reason. I’m watching why silver didn’t follow quite as expected, meaning silver could drop unexpectedly to the $26 range. I’ll be watching. For a laugh, read the label on a jar of anchovy stuffed olive. See where it says the can has eleven servings? Pause here for a chortle. Eleven? Maybe for those who hate olives.Much later, the club meeting could be considered a success or not. While we tried to move along at the same speed, that concept has proven idealistic. If you don’t rapidly apply a lesson, trust me, over time the knowledge will fade until you don’t even recall that you once learned it. While there has been real progress, there has also been lost effort that must be repeated. Why? Because nobody comes along to me and says, “There, there, let me take you by the hand and lead you through this.”
Building on what we do know for sure, I’ve assigned some tasks, including the design of small devices that will reinforce all the basics. Assigned, like I was the boss or something. But it turns out people were using chips they did not understand in circuits because I said so. I’d say to use a 555 and next day find out it was configured monostable instead of astable. So it happens whether I take charge or not. Remind me to be less critical of the dictators.
The Poor Man’s Potentiometer was a meeting hit. It also looks snazzy. But odd, of even more effect was the sheet of design work completed before I built the device. This is not as natural a sequence as I thought. The good news is that we are beginning to see these Integrated Circuits as groups of similar acting parts that fit into large, loosely-defined families. Of those thousands of chips, maybe 15 to 30 are likely to be of any use to a robot builder.
Lots of keen-eyed proofreaders spotted the missing resistor on the board, fifth position from the right. I broke it with my pliers. So just replace it. Okay, here is a container of 500 assorted resistors. Find it yourself.Suppose I wanted to buy a potentiometer? Digi-Key alone lists 1,856 items. This tells me that ICs are subject to the same poor engineers as computers. Instead of thinking, they continually paint themselves into a corner and wind up designing a hundred models with a hundred quirks. Then hire MicroSoft to re-write the manual and call them “features”. Just when everyone learns the feature, come out with a new version that hides it. Then move your help manual on-line so it requires an Internet connection to find it.
At this point, I am trusting that we will stumble across a definitive publication that tells us how to sort out the ICs that we need. As in the past, a lot of the trouble of searching for things is that you have to guess what the bastards called it. Using “most popular ICs” as a search criteria gets you three outfits who want your personal data to check out your credit rating before the sales flunky calls you back in the middle of dinner. Without knowing what those lamebrains called it, you can’t search for it until you’ve found it. MicroSoft again.
Scottie donated a box of connectors to the club. They are kind of heavy duty and some are the weirdest I’ve seen yet. More engineering, I suppose. I looked on-line for motorcycles. Peering closer at my intended route to Colorado, I pass right through Ft. Worth and Dallas, where I have not been for something like 25 years, give or take 36 months. A lifetime. I have no recollection of what it even looks like. But I can’t stay long, I’d still have another 653 miles to go. In 2003, Frank & I drove to San Diego in 43 hours and I said, never again. Then lookie here, along comes another situation.
Now for the real scientific discovery of the week. You know how M&Ms claim they melt in your mouth, not your hand? Can they be made to melt in your hand without applying heat? Or melt period so all the colors run together and make the yellow ones look like they have measles? Yes, simply put them in the freezer overnight. Then, as the bag thaws, the colors will run and get all over your fingertips. You heard it here first.
