Today you get mostly information rather than happenings. Like this nice picture of the local blimp. I heard the pilots get paid a fortune for mainly standing by all year. If there was ever perfect blimp weather this would be it. The gondola is enclosed, so it is air-conditioned. I was reminded another reason not to own an expensive motorcycle. Mine fell over after the kickstand peg sunk into the gravel. Lost a headlight and some plastic furniture.
That’s small stuff, as today was my annual physical for the stents implaced last year and there are no complications at all. The easiest way to tell is they don’t have to see again me for six months. Once more, several people in the halls asked me if I worked there, and I don’t look like no janitor if that’s what you’re thinking. Back to my checkup. I was so happy I went to a salad bar and pigged out. I don’t usually do salads as I find them horrifically overpriced, like this one. Eight bucks for lettuce?
The appointment also went fast, allowing time to chat with my doctor. Like myself, she is on a self-imposed diet. It took me six months to get used to the taste of some foods, such as potato and egg, without salt. She says it was two years for her, so I no longer feel alone with my struggle to cut out every last food that could affect my heart or anything that goes near it. Oh, and for the first time in the clinic, my blood pressure was normal, at 122/78. Normally just going there sends me over the limit. I told you it could be done!
Having more time afterward, I stopped to check prices and specs on 4G phones. As it turns out, except for the big players like AT&T, there is not much out there in my price range. Even the MetroPCS, the only 4G service available on a monthly basis (no contract) is $50 per month, but that does include “unlimited Internet access”. I’m skeptical about that wording since you are either on the Internet or you are not, so there is something they ain’t sayin’. MetroPCS has failed to tell me the whole truth before.
Still no Arduino. I’m waiting another day before complaining. I’ve located software that [is supposed to] analyze and display the workings of any circuit diagram. That is, you arrange the schematic on-screen, and the values, lights, and even an oscilloscope simulates the result. I’ll keep you posted on this but I can tell from the description it costs the big bucks. All the more reason to form a club, anyone in electronics will tell you the equipment can bankrupt you. It is cause and effect that cheap meters are inaccurate, although there is not a single sound fundamental electronic reason why that should be.
I’ve also found code for the old Stamp® brainboard and it uses ordinary BASIC commands, code that is far easier to follow than the C+ family (designed by idiots for idiots). I was looking for a simple way to convert a digital cameral to time lapse. You might enjoy my logic, here goes. I want to take a one minute video, but this is not so simple, as 30 frames per second means 1,800 photographs. I feel the real-time event should be at least four hours duration, meaning one photo every 8 seconds.
Since this is less than the time-out cycle of any camera I own, I need only bypass the shutter mechanism, allowing me to avoid the complicated probing and circuitry shown in most hobby magazines. Instead, I simply measure the voltage across the shutter pins and build a timed pulse to trigger it. The Arduino should prove ideal for prototyping. Once operational, do some calculating with a timer (555) and a capacitor to apply the proper charge at said interval to a transistor (a 2N3904), which will trip the shutter. In theory.
I know from experience a 512 MB SD (SanDisk) card holds 2,224 photos of the size and resolution I seek. If not, any flash drive will do. What I don’t know is how to convert the series of still photos into a rapid-fire display to emulate a video. I’m confident somebody out there has crossed that Rubicon.
I’ve stated occasionally that my interest in these electronics has no direction whatsoever other than to say I trifled with it in my time. My reading has progressed ahead of my experience meaning I’ve not yet wired a single smart circuit, but I know plenty more about robots than I ever did. I’ve stumbled, tripped and staggered into something that might just provide a real goal. Called wireless sensor networks, it combines several disciplines. Not long ago I speculated about crash-diving a robot airplane into a danger zone to get pictures no human could take. Hmmmm.
I’m reading 1984, which I first read in as a grade school homework assignment. Hey, teacher, I told you it was a little deep for teenagers. It is no more interesting second time around but the scenarios are more familiar. Orwell guessed wrong about the viability of communism, but he was surprisingly correct about government control, and the fact there will always be a resistance leader against that control. Does it really matter whether mind control is done politically or electronically?
Most unusual product, doubling as today’s trivia, is a $90 gadget you hold up to your Morse Code speaker. It listens and spells it out for you in plain English on an LCD display. I consider that a brilliant stroke and am thinking that would make a good amateur project shortly. I ran into Howard, the ballet dancer, at the library and found out he has dabbled in programming. He was quite the famous dancer in California years ago. Now he teaches at the local academy.
Florida is like California at half the price.
Why? Do I look like a doctor?
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