One year ago today: August 27, 2025, short, easy, consecutive.
Five years ago today: August 27, 2021, Pitcairn.
Nine years ago today: August 27, 2017, plan for survival.
Random years ago today: August 27, 2004, multi-banding.
First thing, after grilled cheese sandwiches for breakfast, is a trim for L’l Texas. That patch grows as fast as the real thing, grass six feet tall. And trim back the kudzu in baci, of course. Or the squirrels can use it to hang down to the birdfeeders. Before I forget, possum #2 spent the night in a cage and is now back in the bushes. I needed an hour to do the Tennessee calculations, a reminder the money part is my department. True, I live well because I learned the system—but only defensively. I do not know how to rob the system like a Minnesotan. And I came from so far behind, just learning that much (defending my money) is probably what gave me all these heart attacks.
After that, it proceded much like any brake job and I think I owe this clamp about $200. In the end, the repair set me back $59 for parts because Howie would not accept any payment. And as for boxes, he reports that over the past two years, he seems to have already acquired a lifetime supply. I’m having a low-energy day, but I’m already considering a “C-clamp Appreciation Night” on the town. I’m also brewing up two quarts of iced tea, one each with white sugar and turbinado. The latter is an acquired taste, it also fits into this month’s budget which is projected to be only 94ȼ out, also thanks to a C-clamp.
The strain from y’day has me down for the count, so I went back at that coffee maker. This thing is a marvel for what it does. Very impressive that they can sell these for $25. The ordinary single serve K-cup model. It’s made of some of the toughest plastic I’ve cut yet. I believe, but don’t know if the piece that detects if the lid I closed is a Hall effect sensor, something I’ve only read in theory. Inside is a mass of sensors, heat, water level, coil temp, all attached to a tiny microcontroller. These are precision components and I am astonished.
The part that drips hot water is called a showerhead. It incorporates a water flow control to ensure the grounds are saturated. There are tubes and valves to regulate the whole process. Coffee is actually the oils extracted by the hot water as it flows through the grounds. These are not shoddy contraptions, I doubt I would be able to build one. And who ever did knows more about coffee than most of us.
While I lifted nothing, most of my shoulder muscles are just stiff enough to keep me seated, so I also did more design work on my DIY doorbell. I found my old desk bell and sawed some parts, which I got wrong. The coil that activates the solenoid is a devilish design that can only be put together in one right way and ten wrong ways. A few of the steps need three hands, this component was made to be left along. I have no diagram fo you but is simple. A current raises the plunger, which has a pushrod that cuts off the current, allowing gravity to drop the plunger onto the clapper, which reconnects the current and this repeats as long as the doorbell button is held.
One problem right away is the contact switch. Shown here, this and all I have TOK (test okay) but they are normally open. I need one to act as a cut-off when the solenoid is fully retracted. I ran a number of tests on gear that has got spread all over the place since last year. Additionally, I bought a grab bag of ICs from Hacktronics back in the day, and I have around 20 I did not know what they were. I’m sure I inventoried them but cannot find the file. So rather than celebrate tonight, I’ll see about that. If so, I’ll print you the list. For all I know some of you have gotten inspired by my crazy puttering.
Wow, has the on-line datasheet community gone for a dump. Used to be you could look up stuff for free, the shared information concept the Internet was all about. Not so, now they want you so sign up before they’ll tell you anything. Most will not even say the chip’s function unless you create an account. I recall when real estate was first to do this. Leave your name and number and we’ll call you back—after we have established your net worth. There is always something shifty about people who won’t tell you the price until they know who you are.
Central Harlem, yesterday.
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I finished the Archimedes move, it gets steadily cornier with the usual plot of characters switching sides, but you figure long before the end they are talking about the Yamoto. Claimed as the biggest battleship ever, it was sunk on its first mission. I fell asleep in my office chair again, I think one day that’s where they will find me. I woke up and the day was gone, it was past 6:00PM.
Once, I had Amtrak on my bucket list, but they messed up. Tripling the fares just before I retired was only one factor. They are spread through this blog, so find them if you like. Today I read the announcement that Amtrak is ceasing the only thing left they had going, the only thing I would still consider: the double deck passenger car. They called it the Superliner and bought 479 of them. When I first planned a trip in 2007 (the trip was to take place five years later in 2012), the price up the east coast, across the north, down the west coast, and back across the south was around $800 dollars. You can still get ten-day rail passes, but to live aboard the train for a complete tour now costs something like $2,500 each way.
There are package tours and those wanting only travel should factor in half the journey happens at night. Now Amtrack has ceased their last major passenger draw, the double-decker car. I remember reading in 1971 that they cost $1 million each, It would be another ten years before I could afford things like a train ticket My last long train trip was on the City of New Orleans to Memphis and back to Hammond (New Orleans) in November 2013. I sang on Beale street. The only other time I stayed in Memphis was with the Reb in 2020. Today, don’t waste your money or risk your life.
The citizens of Ceuta are blocking the Red Cross from feeding the illegals. The days are already noticeably shorter, which results in more reading around this place. I think January-February is time for a major replanning and overhaul of my system. A lot of things will be gone, again judge me by the projects I got done, not the fifty unfinished when I kick the bucket. Already I can see boxes will play a part and the biggest box will be something like the new K-box, the smallest maybe something like electronics.
I have a sketch for you, that’s the term Arduino uses for its “programs”. This looks simplistic, but I challenge 99% of people to do it. This light is not just blinking, it is speeding up and slowing down. Most Arduino demos that control motor speed put a piece of tape on the spindle so you can see it. I’m testing a method of having a light blink, what I need is the speed slowed down to below human POV (persistence of vision), and some of these tiny motors can spin 5,000 rpm.
While I’ve got you here, allow me to issue some warnings and heads-ups, because you are looking at a system with some very profound and real drawbacks. The dangerous ones involve IoT and A.I. Right off, I warn that the primary danger is ALWAYS that the connection between the source and the readout exists only in the imagination of the coder. Show of hands, how many people know an imaginative coder? Tesla doesn't. MicroSoft hasn't any. They have never existed at IBM. Etc.
First, there is no off-switch, this will run forever if there is power and nothing breaks (the wires running off screen carry power only, no signals). Danger? You bet, because the blinking (in this case) is being directed by a motor that is not even there. That’s correct, this, and any fly-by-wire setup, has no physical connection between what you see and the instrument.
In the hands of a dumbo writing code for things like sensors or cockpit displays, you’ve got huge potential problems. They don’t call them idiot lights for no reason. There are other concerns you never see, I’ll describe just one.
Microcontrollers have limited memory. There is not a lot of room to start adding in safety modules. The code just to make this LED blink to a simulated PWM setting chewed up 1,656 bytes. You can expect some fail-safe features but I doubt any such device can ever be made human-grade safe even by law. What you see here alone took 14 hours of proramming time and research and it is not finished.
ADDENDUM
Yes, I am aware the composite photos in this blog do not display well on most smart phones. But this blog is formatted for a desktop computer. The blog roots are for a coffee-break or rest spell and I have no intent to tinker with that. To get the best enjoyment from this now million-plus hit site, please get an extra cup of coffee, and enjoy. You tell them I said it was okay.
Last April I began experiencing symptoms that led to my surgery. I should be half-healed, but those very indications are appearing as I lose energy slowly and periodically still after more than 200 days. The most persistent is waking up with a mild headache for the first hour that disappears after I take my pills, none of which are painkillers. I quickly get okay each day, so I’m not in a panic, but we are watching very closely.
