One year ago today: June 11, 2014, spaceports and bolts.
Five years ago today: June 11, 2010, a nothing day.
Six years ago today: June 11, 2009, guitarists and shoemakers.
MORNING
Don’t you love the way the events around here fade away to nothing and suddenly reappear months later? Now it’s celestial navigation on hold while the Arduino begins a quantum leap. This can be partially explained by how much money is available for things. Last evening, I bought servo motors on sale, but that still cost me $40. So, you’ll be hearing about those for a while. Here’s a picture.
So what did I learn? Well, the larger motor too large and powerful for most of what I do. I bought the smaller motor because it was the last one from the Radio Shack move. It turns out to be powerful enough for robotic functions. The unit contains internal gears that slow the rotation but gain a surprising amount of torque. You cannot stop the spin with your fingers.
Since this is the blog where everybody eventually learns something, even me, a few words on what you see in this photo. I’m pointing to the smaller, or “micro” servo on the left. The regular or familiar size is in the middle, a tremendous difference, when you consider today’s run-of-the-mill robot likely contains 30 or 40 of these motors. My airplane simulator requires a half-dozen.
To the keen observer, yes, on the right is an Arduino, also called a “micro”. I don’t recommend these for learners, as they require extra cables and other hardware to make them work. By far the popular Arduino is the “Uno”. You can spot a growing array of these in the background. These are required in some numbers to build almost anything. Why? I’ll explain.
Each Arduino can realistic contain only one program. This makes it particularly difficult to test one sub-module, say the code that makes a servo return to its center position. The ghastly C+ code makes this even worse because each standalone test module must still waste precious time creating objects and including code sections that never get used. Trying to reload and test modules with a single Arduino on the workbench is a part of the process the inventors kind of left out.
I own seven Arduinos of three different models. Micro, Uno, and ATMega. Most are occupied doing nothing but said sub-module tests.
NOON & NIGHT
“What others think of you is none of your business.” --Farm wisdom.
Nothing to report. While messing with Arduino code, I listened to documentaries on old airplanes, as in WWI. Spads, Fokkers, and Sopwith Camels. Interesting how the slightest technological edge repeatedly bought each side the upper hand for a while. Of course, when the Allies had it, it was “air superiority”. When the Germans gained, it was “The Fokker Scourge” and “Bloody April”. I was more interested in the airplanes than the military or the politics.
That’s correct—and ace would fly an airplane long enough that the enemy knew it, then it was handed over to a greenhorn, knowing the enemy would be reluctant to tangle with it. For example, the “Black Devil of Stalingrad” very rarely flew his own airplane for that reason.
Most of the hot afternoon, it was Arduino time. I now realize how limited the unit is. That’s why you’ll find so many of the projects are simple adaptions or copies of analog events. You might say the Arduino cannot walk and chew bubblegum at the same time. Many sources will tell you how it is capable of running twelve servos at once, but the code to do so must approach diabolical complexity.
There are infinitely more examples of Arduino code available now. And if you hear of the Yun, it is the Arduino adapted away from MicroSoft and Apple so that it runs on the Linux platform. Watch for that one, since although Linux is the adopted operating system in China, there are 300 million Chines who speak or are learning to speak English. Remember what they said about Shakespeare and an infinite number of typewriters. Well, that is kind of how China actually invents things. Only once every two thousand years, mind you, but it’s been about that.
Right now I’m experimenting on how to get the Arduino to read potentiometers. This is a tedious process largely because nothing in real life follows the wonderful examples shown on the Internet. I’ve got to learn it sometime and it is not like there is anything else happening in this town on a hot June afternoon. Also, as has happened before, while I’m no expert on the Arduino, I’ve got years of experience learning to do things right. I’ve been approached on the possibility of running a class.
I’ll think on that one. It would have to be for cash only. The concept makes sense, as I can see thousands of Arduino owners must have given up upon discovering that the programming is far from easy. The package says the product appeals to designers and artists, but that is largely bunk. Such people tend to be right-brained and programming in C would drive them bananas in a hurry.
Later, I’ll look at some real estate.
Last Laugh
When you get it . . .
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