June 12, ,2015

Yesteryear
One year ago today: June 12, 2014, celestial navigation & coffee.
Five years ago today: June 12, 2010, the bingo show.
Six years ago today: June 12, 2009, awwww, Pudding-Tat.

MORNING
           I was researching fossils, since I’ve probably found some in my life and thought they were old seashells or something. It would be nice to find a real one, but also to date it and such. I was intrigued by how modern organisms become less of a match for these fossil creatures the further back you go in time. I wonder how the religionists would explain that? Usually they say the methods of dating the rocks are all wrong, but that hardly makes any sense when they propose no other logical method.

           During my hunt for something to do, I found fossil expeditions, a tour that happens out near Arcadia, a town known mainly to long distance motorcyclists and few others. Along the Peace River, near Ft. Meyers. Trivia, there are no dinosaur fossils in Florida. Lots of mammals and crocodiles and such, but the nearest dinosaur fossils from here would be in Alabama and Mississippi.
           From what I can learn from their not-very-helpful website, the price is $75 per adult, well within my travel budget. Bring your own lunch. The site does have an 800 number for information. I'm dumb, but not dumb enough to call an 800 number. Anyway, that would be quite the adventure for me.
           Kleptogamy. Ever heard of it? Reading that weird book, “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors” (no link), I found that it describes a means by which lower order males get their females. My goodness, both my brothers are kleptogamists. It works by constantly conspiring to keep the dominant males pre-occupied with defending their status that it becomes possible to slip in and have sex with the odd unguarded female. Like you, I think that is disgusting behavior. On the part of the females, I mean.

NOON & AFTERNOON

           “Y’all can’t tell which way the train run by lookin’ at the tracks.” Texas wisdom

           Afternoon found me working on the “joystick”, but it is more accurate to say I was looking a simple ways to translate three-dimensional signals into and easy-to-understand format. Not so easy, it turns out. So Trent and I got together to review the state of things. After a few wrong turns and connections, we finally wound up at Jimbos, the seafood place on Dania Beach Boulevard. On the Intercoastal. This is the actual view from the bar.

           By happenstance, Trent knows the area around Arcadia and it is a nice town. This fossil idea appeals to everyone on this end. It turns out I’ve driven through the town twice without any recollection of the place. Except the name, I mean. It is on the main route (I-70) that I take when traveling the Florida west coast. It must be one of those places that is too soon or too late to make a stop. The advertising shows rodeos and cowboys, but I cannot place a single memory to the town.
           The night was unusually muggy hot and the place was full of married couples. There is no indoor seating. I talked to the manager who says Kiss Country is doing a show in early August and they do sometimes scout for country musicians. True, I am not a country musician, but when I play it, I can do it right. That’s the result of not having learned to play from a music teacher. Never had a bass lesson in my life. More on this country show if I decide to follow through.
           This is the first time I’ve been to the place since Arnel and I played there five years ago. I found the prices quite low for a place with such great reviews. You are next to the drawbridge where the big boats head past. It’s probably worth a visit, the décor is rustic. This is the seafood restaurant out in Dania, not to be mixed up with my old club, Jimbos, that was a California-style dive bar.

NIGHT
           I still play computer solitaire when downloading or processing large files. I don’t play Spider that often, but I knew it must be possible to play that game well enough that you lose by not having at least ten cards. That is, you clear so many suits that you cannot turn over the remaining stacks. Until today, it was only a theory. Shown here is proof it can be done, at least at this intermediate level.

           Alas, I don’t remember how I did it. I was compiling some Arduino code and was not paying attention. It’s so hot outside I stayed here for another afternoon under the air conditioner. I’m designing a custom cover for a GPS unit. My last unit, a Garvin, lasted on the motorcycle until the first time it got wet. All of it, crap. A GPS that cannot tolerate getting wet. Where are people supposed to use such a contraption?
           This may not have been the most thrilling Friday night in Florida, but it was probably one of the more productive. Of course, much the same could be said if I had spent the evening playing tiddlywinks.

ADDENDUM
           Here’s a snappy picture of a sub-module test, the type mentioned y’day. This is where a single routine of an Arduino program (called a “sketch”) is run independently. This makes the components of a program easier to debug. You might find this interesting.

           By now you recognize certain parts, like the servo and the Arduino circuit board. What’s new here is the potentiometer (pot) setup. Unlike traditional electronics, the servo is not connected to the pot. In fact most servo require some control circuitry to operate, and in this case, that is what I programmed into the circuit board.
           This is that 10 bit input I talked about, it ranges from 0 to 1023, the range of decimal numbers that can fit into 10 bits. But the pot works on 8 bits, which maxes out at the number 255. All the coding takes place inside the big chip seen on the Arduino.
           But it would not work and I had to find the answer. This is the servo that drives the pitch of the model airplane. That’s the control when the plane is traveling straight ahead but is climbing, diving, or in level flight. Level flight is the value 128, halfway between 0 and 255. (Of course, this airplane is restricted to 30° up or down. No stunt pilots allowed.)
           And it was maddening to have it just not work when everything was correctly in position. Not shown here is how my computer monitor is rigged up to display the pot readings in decimal form, in other words, I tried everything. Finally, approaching midnight, I found it. A defective ground wire. Circuits that utilize transistors, like this one, must have a common ground.
           That’s the clear plastic rectangle top right of center with all the wires running off it. One of those wires was bad. Whew, now I can sleep tonight. But make sure you drop back to see the working prototype. I have lots of work to do, for instance, the servo “jerks” instead of rotating smoothly, so I need to design a smoothing algorithm. This is done by calculating a moving average, a trivial task for any accountant. Fun or what?


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