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: Photography & Images

Taking & making images.

Sony NP-BX1 Battery Status

The genuine Sony NP-BX1 that came with the AS30V camera suffers from voltage depression (green trace) and no longer survives a typical ride:

Sony NP-BX1 – 2018-04-24

The STK C battery (red trace) is also pretty much kaput, so the two of them go into the recycle bag.

The very short blue trace is the Wasabi F battery after a ride, showing about 1 W·h remaining of the initial charge. After a full change, the upper blue trace shows it has a capacity in the same range as the others. Our rides are about an hour long, so the camera draws somewhat less than the 1 A test current, roughly what I’d estimated from other data.

The cluster of traces along the top show the remaining Wasabi batteries are all pretty much alike, with the older F and G batteries no worse than the newer (and unused) H I J K batteries. I’m underwhelmed by the overall performance of the latter four, as I’d expect them to be better than their well-used predecessors.

I’m still mulling an external 18650 cell grafted into a NP-BX1 carcass, but it’s stalled behind some other projects.

2018-05-14
Zeiss Ikon Ikoflash 4

A flash gun is hard to beat for straight-up nostalgia:

Zeiss Ikon Ikoblitz 4 – box

This Zeiss Ikon Ikoblitz 4 is in fine shape:

Zeiss Ikon Ikoblitz 4 – front

And no more grubby than one might expect after all those decades:

Zeiss Ikon Ikoblitz 4 – back

I distinctly remember Flash Guide Numbers:

Zeiss Ikon Ikoblitz 4 – guide-number calculator

The red dial scale has the Guide Numbers (aperture × feet) and the lower black dial scale gives the lens apertures. The manual doesn’t mention the black figures above the red Guide Numbers; they’re metric Guide Number (aperture × meters), which would have been obvious back in the day.

The tidy shell slides off when you release a latch in the back:

Zeiss Ikon Ikoblitz 4 – front – stowed

Then the reflector unfurls:

Zeiss Ikon Ikoblitz 4 – front unfurled

Mirabile dictu, the previous owner removed the 15 V “hearing aid” battery (Eveready 504, 60 mA·h in the 504A alkaline version) before storing the flash, leaving the contacts in pristine condition:

Zeiss Ikon Ikoblitz 4 – CR123A test fit

A 3 V CR123A primary lithium cell snaps perfectly into the battery holder, which I define as a Good Omen: a dab of circuitry could turn this into self-powered and highly attractive Art. This would be one of the very few applications well-suited for the coldest blue-white LEDs.

One could adapt an A23 12 V alkaline battery (33 mA·h) to the holder, at the cost of half the capacity.

The silver shield just to the left of the battery conceals a 250 μF (!) nonpolarized capacitor.

One could build a bayonet-base (GE #5 / Press 25) adapter or poke a doodad with a 9 mm cylindrical base into the M2 bulb adapter (unrelated to my M2 printer):

Zeiss Ikon Ikoblitz 4 – bulb adapter

Herewith, the Zeiss Ikon Ikoblitz 4 – Instruction Manual, should you need more details.

This hardware may be a progenitor of Gibson’s vat-grown Zeiss Ikon eyes.

2018-05-07
Heavy Hauling

A recent road trip presented this spectacle in the first Pennsylvania rest step on northbound I-83 (clicky for many more dots, then scroll to see it all):

Heavy Hauling – panorama mid

It’s a 150 Ton Flat and Depressed Well 19 Axle Trailer, including four axles on the front truck:

Heavy Hauling – front

Another truck on the rear pushes uphill and provides lateral control downhill:

Heavy Hauling – panorama rear

The weight block on the rear truck provides more traction, because friction depends on normal force.

The PA transportation folks were verifying the overall weight and per-axle distribution by weighing three axles at a time:

Heavy Hauling – weight check

Each scale has a 20 k pound range:

Heavy Hauling – weight check – detail

The ones I saw reported 10-14 k pounds, so figure 24 k pounds per axle, then multiply by 19 to get 456 k pounds overall.

The driver of the lead escort vehicle said the tarp covers a machined steel assembly weighing around 200 k pounds, with a total “vehicle” weight a bit under 500 k pounds. This is the second of four similar loads going from the Port of Baltimore to somewhere in Ohio where they’re assembling a huge press. It seems American manufacturing is still a thing.

They’ll be driving for four or five days from Port o’ Baltimore to Ohio, following a route described in excruciating detail on four pages of notes, plus another 16 pages of permits for the series of bridges rated to carry however many axles will be on them simultaneously.

Some searching produced a video of a similar load in transit, perhaps on the same trailer. Another video shows a different trailer jockeying into position beside a ferry (!).

For the folks involved, it was just another day at the office.

2018-05-03
Pixel XL Camera vs. Barred Owl

A pair of barred owls have been doing call-response “Who cooks for you” chants during the late afternoon, we finally spotted one, and I have a Pixel XL in my pocket:

Barred owl – overview

That’s with the camera zoomed all the way, so it’s blowing up the raw pixels by a factor of four. Cropping out the middle and resizing by 300% shows the result doesn’t have much detail:

Barred owl – zoomed 3x cropped

We snagged the binoculars on the way out the door, so we got a better look than you do. The camera you have is much better than the camera you don’t, but big glass always wins over tiny optics!

2018-04-29
Canon NB-5L Batteries: Final Status

A friend now owns my trusty Canon SX230HS camera, but, given the restrictions on shipping lithium batteries, we agreed there was no point in transferring ownership of my nearly dead batteries.

For completeness, their final state:

Canon NB-5L – 2018-03-25

The original Canon OEM battery (orange curve) looms above all the offerings from various Amazon sellers.

Searching for NB-5L will excavate many posts relating my misadventures, tests, and test fixtures:

NB-5L Holder – Coil spring – Fit layout

Maybe I should build an astable multivibrator with a slip-in battery compartment.

2018-04-09
Monthly Science: Hawk and Squirrel, with Turkeys

All of the local turkeys come together during snow storms, often lingering in the circle of pine trees in our back yard to get some protection from the wind. Mary spotted a Cooper’s Hawk in the midst of the turkey flock, with its wings spread around a recently captured meal:

Hawk with squirrel – wings spread

When she first saw it, the hawk had its back to us and looked like a cluster of dead pine branches; the recent back-to-back storms have cleared out quite a bit of deadwood.

When I quietly opened the back door for a better view, the hawk noticed and gave me the stinkeye from 100 feet away:

Hawk with squirrel – 2

The flock had moved out of the pine circle to surround the hawk and examine the situation, although they weren’t harassing it:

Hawk with squirrel – 3

We’ve counted 27 turkeys, more or less, on some days, well and truly outnumbering the hawk:

Hawk with squirrel – overview

Fortunately, turkeys feed mainly on insects and seeds, rather than tearing into carrion, so they’re not competing for the prize:

Hawk with squirrel – detail

Shortly after I gave up and went back inside, the hawk sank her (?) talons into the squirrel, lifted heavily into the air, circled around the pines, and flew off toward the Mighty Wappinger Creek out back.

A casual search suggests both the hawk and the squirrel weigh about 1 lb = 500 g: I’ll never complain about heavy grocery bags again!

2018-04-01
Baofeng BL-5 Battery Pack Base Dimensions

My original idea for the APRS + voice gadget was a snap-in battery pack replacement holding the circuit boards and connected to an external battery pack. A trio of dead Wouxun radios, plus the ready availability of 18650 lithium cells, suggested putting two cells in the backpack, along with the circuitry, and skipping the external pack.

Here’s the base of a Baofeng BL-5 pack overlaid with a 1 mm grid:

Baofeng BL-5 – Base with mm grid overlay

The grid is parallel to the case body and centered left-to-right, with a Y grid line set at the front face of the pack, where it’s also flush with the lid surface. You can read off the coordinates of all the points, feed them into your CAD model, and maybe, with a bit of care, get something 3D-print-able.

Haven’t used it yet, but it’s bound to come in handy at some point.

2018-03-25