You may have to stare to see what’s in this photo. That’s my feet in the Atlantic Ocean, about knee-deep in the water. Yep, the electric bike is proving its worth. I’m beginning to think I should have bought one years ago. The scooter is still necessary for road transport. For short trips, the eBike is comparable and in some cases faster, since I can cross a vacant red light.
Next, I’ve been slowly checking my ability to drive an automobile, in this case, Dave-O’s truck. He’s awaiting some documents from New Orleans, so we’ve been having morning coffee at PJ’s Bagel House. And I’ve been driving there, around a five mile round trip. If you don’t know, driving was affecting my blood pressure enough that I gave up driving cars some years ago. It cannot be proven, but the condition was likely aggravated by a highly stressful job. I am hoping that over time, I can once again drive at least short distances. Note, I seem to have no difficulty driving a bicycle or scooter or riding in a bus or airplane. Explain that one.
PJ’s Bagel House is a rarity. A family restaurant. It has a counter with stools, a vanishing tradition. There is something about a stool that invites the lone diner without taking up a booth. Also, the menu is what it should be: right out of the 1950’s. I might add it is the only restaurant in this town that employs single, young, slim, pretty blonde girls. By young, I mean late teens and not one year older. Sorry, North Carolina.
The Thursday club meeting was supposed to be short, say a half-hour. But matters have evolved to the stage where every topic has become sophisticated. Yet that is a wonderful sign of the progress since March. For example, today we weighed the pros and cons of a single wheel drive over multiple wheel drive for an entire hour without conclusion. Agt. M prefers multiple, I champion economy and simplicity. I say one wheel on a rail, a monorail. This conversation could not have taken place a quarter ago.
Much of the discussion centered on the ability to control speed and direction without using gears, which I do not know how to program. A monorail solves the problems of steering while qualifying as a robot. While a multi-wheel vehicle gives another degree of freedom, with my current level of programming skills steering would require remote control. Robotics and remote control are not the same thing.
The club owns one advanced sensor, the ultrasound (sonar) device. I have yet to operate it on the bench, much less get it to control anything. We have several dozen passive sensors such as relays and photocells, but being passive they are reactive only. The heart of the system has to be the Arduino brainboard. I have decided to begin writing the computer code before the robotic components are built to demonstrate to Agt. M the complexity required. Please, gang, never forget I am still learning the Arduino.
What I’ve been able to figure is the ultrasound sensor collects a signal from the nearest object in its path that will reflect an adequate echo. This is equivalent to a sonar “ping”. The transmitter must be carefully controlled to the microsecond, that’s 1,000th of a millisecond. This I can do but short distances increase the error margin. The standard is 29 microseconds per centimeter at sea level. The maximum length we can use is 50 centimeters so the apparatus will rest on a kitchen table. These will be sensitive measurements indeed.
The operation is slightly more involved. The sensor emits a ping, and continues to emit the ping until an echo of that particular frequency (40kHz) is detected by the echo sensor. When the echo arrives, the sensor stops transmitting. The duration of the ping is proportional to the distance. Is this how sonar really works?
Currently, I am standing by the computer and tracking documents for Dave-O. I’m beginning to suspect he might have been wiser to go to Covington and take delivery personally. If it takes longer than today, I may suggest that very trip. I have one task today and that is to put a speedometer on the eBike. Strange it does not come with one, nor any lights.
I also purchased a New York bike lock for my expensive transportation. It cost enough. The upper limit of mileage is around the advertised twenty miles, meaning a ten mile travel radius. More stats to come as I learn them.
