The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

Category: Oddities

Who’d’a thunk it?

Left Turn on Red

Coming out of Adams, we’re ready to make a left turn onto Rt 44:

Left turn on red – 2014-07-24

He was one car back in the left-turn storage lane when his light went yellow-to-red, crossed the stop line on the red, and was one car length over the stop line and accelerating when our light changed to green.

We’re ready to start rolling on green, but we’ve learned to wait a few heartbeats for just such occasions; what counts as a fender-bender for you would be a fatality for us.

Y’know how motorists get very, very angry at cyclists? I’ve always wondered why they don’t get that angry when motorists do those same stupid things, at higher speeds with much more energy.

We ride as though we’re thin cars, which is how it’s supposed to be done, and generally don’t get too much hassle.

One thing that is annoying, though: short-stroke yellow cycles that last maybe two seconds. We can cross the stop line on green, accelerating firmly through the intersection, and still get caught in the middle as the signal changes to green-to-yellow-to-red behind us and red-to-green for opposing traffic. No, we didn’t run the yellow, but that’s what it looks like.

2014-08-09
Flashlight Switch: Poor Solder Joints
My desk flashlight has three “functions”:
- 5 UV LEDs
- 10 white LEDs
- laser pointer
A four-click rotary pushbutton switch actuates the three functions (plus “off”) in sequence:

Flashlight switch – internal wiring

All three lights became intermittent, which suggested a poor return connection at the far end of the battery. The case is, of course, aluminum, with coarse-cut threads that grate as you tighten the parts. I cleaned the crud out of the threads, anointed them with Ox-Gard compound, and discovered that the laser and UV LEDs were still flaky.

Taking the thing apart and unsoldering the switch connections revealed the problem:

Flashlight switch – bad solder joints

Yup, two lousy solder joints. They’re not exactly cold solder joints, because there’s not really a joint there to begin with; the switch tabs never got hot enough to bond with the molten solder before it cooled.

A dab of flux and touch from a hot soldering iron solved that problem.

Assemble in reverse order and it works better than it ever did before!
2014-08-03
Monthly Science: Bicycling

Faired Tour Easy on crowned road

Mary signed up for the National Bike Challenge and is currently ranked 4201 out of 32 k riders, by simply getting on the damn bike and riding. About 3/4 of her miles count as “transport”: grocery / gardening / shopping / suchlike. We’re no longer biking to work, but when we did, riding ten miles a day, every day, added up pretty quickly; we chose houses in locations that made bicycle commuting possible.

Her father, at age 84, also signed up and ranked neck-and-neck with her until cataract surgery cut into his riding schedule; their standings flip-flopped depending on who updated most recently. He’s our role model for getting old without slowing down.

I’m not participating, being far more quantified than anyone really should be.

Makes you wonder what the bottom 28 k (*) riders are doing, doesn’t it? I mean, sheesh, my esteemed wife spots most participants an entire lifetime or two; her father spots them three or four. They’re not star athletes, that’s for sure, but they’re doing just fine.

I commend to your attention:

Less Exercise, Not More Calories, Responsible for Expanding Waistlines

Takeway: half of adult Americans report no physical activity at all.

May I suggest a health(y) plan?

(*) The Challenge had over 40 k riders at one point. We think they’ve tossed folks who haven’t done any riding at all, which might serve to improve the overall averages.

2014-08-01
Turtle Teleportation: Love Road

We spotted another turtle while on a grocery ride:

Turtle on Love Rd – as spotted – 2014-07-02

Although this is certainly meddling in the turtle’s affairs, it seemed reasonable on a torrid day with plenty of hot asphalt to cross:

Turtle on Love Rd – pickup – 2014-07-02

I made the (possibly unwarranted) assumption that the turtle wanted to cross the road; I’ve been wrong before.

In any event, this must be what teleportation feels like:

Turtle on Love Rd – delivery – 2014-07-02

There’s not really much on that side of the road, other than an inactive oil spill site left over from when Love Oil ran a tank farm. That’s why it’s called Love Rd, of course.

Perhaps someone else will help the turtle cross the road in the other direction…

2014-07-26
Forester Wheel Cover Decorations

Inspired by our Larval Engineer’s ~~threat~~ promise to decorate the Sienna, I just had to do this to the Forester:

Forester wheel cover decoration

They’re intended to fit around the keyhole under a car door handle, but cars don’t look like that these days; they were a surplus deal from long, long ago.

The reflectors stand out nicely in subdued light:

Forester wheel cover decoration – flash

The hub covers have an embossed Subaru logo and the reflector has thin foam tape, so it’ll be interesting to see how long they last. Worst case: 3D printed replacement hub covers with integral reflectors.

2014-07-19
Checkout Scanner Configuration

One of the price scanners at Stop & Shop was already lit up when I arrived:

Price Scanner – Baud Rate Selection

Let’s take a closer look:

Price Scanner – Baud Rate Selection – detail

Can it be that S&S, having outsourced the scanning & bagging operations to its customers, now expects sysadmin skills?

Given our previous experience, I didn’t even think of fiddling with it…

And, yes, I know that “baud rate” is an oxymoron.

2014-07-13
N9991W Checklist

Back in 1998, we bought this house “with contents” and spent the next year sorting the heap. Among the treasures was a half-size clipboard with a black Dymo label on the clamp:

N9991W clipboard – front

And what’s obviously an airplane checklist on the back:

N9991W clipboard – back

I looked up N9991W back then and didn’t find anything useful; it was early on with the Internet, so perhaps the records weren’t so readily available. Time passed, our daughter grew up using the clipboard for this-and-that, and it accumulated the usual scuffs and doodles.

Searching for N9991W now produces a plethora of information, including the fact that N9991W belongs to the Lehigh Valley Flying Club:

N9991W – Lehigh Valley Flying Club – 2014

It’s a Piper Cherokee 140 built in 1967 and, after nigh onto half a century, it looks just fine, doesn’t it?

There’s no way to know how that clipboard came to rest in what was to become our basement, probably no later than the mid-1980s, but it’s good to know they’re both still around.

May it continue to land with the shiny side up and the rubber side down…

2014-07-05