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?

  • Monthly Image: Hawk vs. Squirrel

    A hawk, perhaps an immature Red-Tailed, landed on a branch outside the kitchen window while we were eating lunch.

    After a minute or so, a squirrel ran up the maple and began taunting (?) the hawk:

    Immature Red-Tail Hawk vs. Squirrel - approach
    Immature Red-Tail Hawk vs. Squirrel – approach

    The hawk obviously had no clue what’s going on inside that critter’s little brain:

    Immature Red-Tail Hawk vs. Squirrel - faceoff
    Immature Red-Tail Hawk vs. Squirrel – faceoff

    The squirrel alternated between inching out on the branch, closer each time, and dashing back to the tree trunk, for maybe ten minutes. It eventually reached the rightmost patch of lichen, a foot from the hawk, without suffering any damage, after which it ran down the tree and away. We have no explanation.

    Perhaps this is the same squirrel as before? All we know: (over)confidence goeth before gibbage.

    Taken with the DSC-H5 near the end of the adventure; it took me a while to deploy the camera. The first picture looks diagonally upward from the kitchen, through three layers of 1950-era glass. The second comes from the back door, zoomed about 10x, with no tele-adapter. Obviously, good color correction didn’t happen here…

     

  • Pi Measuring Tape

    This clearly demonstrates that the world is even more weird than I imagined (clicky for more dots):

    Pi Tape
    Pi Tape

    I don’t measure that many big cylinders that I can’t figure out their diameter by hand.

    The prices suggest folks who need Pi Tapes need them bad.

  • Monthly Science: Time-release Pills

    I left a time-release melatonin pill in water for a day:

    Time-release melatonin - 24h water
    Time-release melatonin – 24h water

    Perhaps an acidic environment would be more to its taste?

    Here’s another pill after a day in vinegar:

    Time-release melatonin - 24h vinegar
    Time-release melatonin – 24h vinegar

    In both cases, poking the somewhat dissolved pill separated it into gummy chunks, so it’s probably working as designed. I suppose the usual stomach churning would help.

    This being a quack nostrum, there’s no way to tell what’s inside or how much you’re getting, but I didn’t expect to get way more B6 than you’d expect from the large print on the label. Lesson: always read the fine print, no matter how well it’s concealed.

    0/10 – would not buy again.

    As before, the results do not differ significantly from placebo, so this is a triumph of hope over experience.

  • Internet Of Things, Banking Division

    We were sitting in the Credit Union and, as usual, I scouted out the WiFi situation:

    IoT Thermostat in the Credit Union
    IoT Thermostat in the Credit Union

    Huh. Not what you’d expect to find in a bank lobby.

    In case you haven’t seen what can happen with a thermostat, you can pwn a Nest.

    Searching with the obvious keywords should provide plenty of reasons why the Internet of Things isn’t ready for prime time, not that that will slow it down in the least.

  • Vacuum Tube LEDs: Miniature 7-pin Tubes With a Bottom Shield

    Apart from the Bakelite bases on octal tubes, I figured there should be no problem shining a light up through the glass envelope. Come to find out that some of the tubes with Miniature 7 bases have an electrostatic shield (?) across the bottom that pretty well blocks the light.

    This 6BJ6 has a neatly trimmed octagon:

    6BJ6 - octagon shield
    6BJ6 – octagon shield

    The shield plate, if that’s what it is, doesn’t have a standardized shape. This 6CB6 sports a simple square:

    6CB6 Square Shield
    6CB6 Square Shield

    The Box o’ Hollow State Electronics contains one 6BE6 tube (a heptode with five grids connected to four pins) without a shield:

    6BE6 - Clear base
    6BE6 – Clear base

    Yeah, those pins are rather grotendous.

    And another 6BE6 with a semitransparent smudge not connected to anything else; it would look accidental if it weren’t inside the tube:

    6BE6 - Tinted Base
    6BE6 – Tinted Base

    All the shielded tubes are pentodes, for whatever difference that makes.

    These tubes may be a bit too small compared to the hard drive platters; Novals will work just fine for my simple purposes.

  • A Curiosity of Sparrows

    There’s obviously something going on inside the long-abandoned nesting box:

    Sparrow investigating bird box
    Sparrow investigating bird box

    You’ve seen this happen to people, too:

    More sparrows on the bird box
    More sparrows on the bird box

    How many sparrows can fit on the roof of a bird box?

    Four sparrows investigating bird box
    Four sparrows investigating bird box

    There’s always room for one more:

    Late season sparrows on bird box
    Late season sparrows on bird box

    Perhaps they were having a family reunion?

    Taken with the Canon SX230-HS from the patio, zoomed all the way, and ruthlessly cropped.

  • Diurnal Pumping, Fluid Division

    I caught this just before it made a mess:

    Sta-Bil jar - diurnal pumping
    Sta-Bil jar – diurnal pumping

    That container lives in the garage, where the air temperature pretty much tracks the weather.

    When the air in the main compartment heats up, it pushes fluid up into the dispensing compartment. Although both caps were screwed on finger-tight, apparently the smaller cap leaks just enough that the pumped fluid can push the air out through the not-so-good seal.

    Another few weeks and it’d be sitting in a puddle!