Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.
Having run the Newmowa NP-BX1 batteries through my old Sony HDR-AS30V helmet camera a few times, a plot seemed in order:
Newmowa NP-BX1 video duration vs charge
The cluster of dots shows most of our rides last about an hour.
The line is an eyeballometrical fit, slightly coerced to pass through the origin because that’s where it should go.
The 9.1 mA·hr/min slope is in reasonable agreement with past results, given different batteries and charger. The Keweisi meter emerged first from the box.
Straining the hr/min dimensional nonsense out of the slope suggests the camera averages 550 mA and 1.9 W. Derating those by a few percent to account for the recharge efficiency might be in order, but they’re surely in the right ballpark.
At first we thought a mighty crunch in the morning meant the trash collection truck had dropped a garbage bin from a great height, but the sound of sirens and a myriad flashing lights revealed the true cause in our neighbor’s front yard:
NHR Crash – frontal view
The extent of the damage was more apparent from the road side:
The driver was walking around uninjured and the ambulance left quietly.
A day later, the trajectory became apparent:
NHR Crash – trajectory
The right side barely kissed the tree on the right, but the front wheel hooked the utility pole (that’s the new pole in the picture), snapped it off at ground level in addition to the usual break maybe ten feet up, and bounced a piece off the other tree:
NHR Crash – utility pole
I didn’t know you could shatter a cast aluminum alloy wheel, but the missing half of the outer face was lying amid the rather scrambled stone wall along driveway.
We’re reasonably sure we know the cause. Feel free to draw your own conclusions.
After the flatbed hauled away the car and everybody left, I harvested a few pounds of interesting debris from the lawn:
NHR Crash – tempered glass
It’s tempered glass from the driver-side windows, shattered into small chunks and barely hanging together in those sheets. Laminated windshield glass is entirely different stuff.
The smaller chunks glitter like jewels:
NHR Crash – tempered glass fragments
Obviously, the window had a bit of tint.
The smallest chunk, seen from its flat surface, shows the cuboid fragments:
NHR Crash – tempered glass fragment – front
A side view shows more complexity:
NHR Crash – tempered glass fragment – side
Tempering prevents a glass sheet from shattering into long knife-blade shards. Although the edges of the fragments are not keen, we are dealing with broken glass: they are sharp.
Broken tempered glass also sheds razor-edged flakes perfectly shaped to penetrate bike tires, although most roadside glass comes from ordinary beverage bottles. The tiniest flakes can make a mess of your eyes, so exercise at least some rudimentary shop safety practices.
Those slabs ought to be good for something, even if they fall apart at the slightest touch …
The metal-shell version is advertised as “09872-60066 Calibration Pen for fit HP DesignJet 2000CP 2500CP 2800CP 3000CP 3500CP 3800CP Original New” which makes absolutely no sense, as those were inkjet and laser printers with (AFAICT) no need for a “calibration pen”. Because nobody with those printers will buy (or even look for) a widget they can’t use, the price is surprisingly low, compared to the real ones occasionally found on eBay.
My guess: somebody halfway around the planet found a pile of Genuine HP plastic snap boxes, filled them with knockoff sights vaguely similar to the original (perhaps intended for a different plotter?), and marketed them with the usual (lack of) attention to veracity.
Found behind a store in Red Oaks Mill, overlooking the Mighty Wappingers Creek:
Tree stump around guide rail
The old rail fell off its (long gone) post before the tree grew around it and the newer rail (upper right) definitely isn’t fresh from the factory, so this tableau has been on display for quite a while.
The tree’s growth rings have pretty much weathered away.
We’re bicycling on Collegeview Avenue, approaching the eastern traffic circle (of three) along Raymond Avenue. I’m in the lead, hauling a trailer with the week’s groceries:
Zero Clearance – Ed Front – 2021-09-07 – 0497
The four digit frame numbers tick along at 60 fps for my helmet camera and 30 fps for the rear cameras.
Note the “splitter” (a.k.a. “pedestrian refuge”) on the left, intended to separate Collegeview’s incoming and outgoing traffic. It formerly had one non-reflective black bollard on each side of the ladder crosswalk, but errant drivers destroyed so many bollards along Raymond that they’re now WONTFIX remnants. The flush concrete disk in the lower left of this picture will become relevant in a few seconds of real time:
Zero Clearance – Ed Front – 2021-09-07 – 0593
Collegeview has the same deteriorating pavement as found along Raymond Avenue, so we must maneuver beside the potholes:
All of us are slowing to stop at the traffic circle, with Mary behind the car that will eventually stop beside me:
Zero Clearance – Ed Rear – 2021-09-07 – 1522
Mary could see the car behind her in her helmet mirror, but she’s slowing to stall speed with no time for sightseeing and no room for maneuvering. The view from the camera on the seat frame behind her left shoulder:
Zero Clearance – Mary – 2021-09-07 – 0957
Two seconds later:
Zero Clearance – Mary – 2021-09-07 – 1078
One second:
Zero Clearance – Mary – 2021-09-07 – 1110
Two more seconds:
Zero Clearance – Mary – 2021-09-07 – 1182
Mary has stopped, as shown by the parked car’s unchanging position in the frame over on the left in the next images. The driver, however, continues creeping slowly forward; there can be no doubt she sees Mary at this distance.
After three more seconds:
Zero Clearance – Mary – 2021-09-07 – 1270
One second later, the front wheel is exactly at Mary’s left foot:
Zero Clearance – Mary – 2021-09-07 – 1308
The same events, viewed from the camera on my bike, start less than one second from the 1522 image above. I’m stopped, while the driver next to me continues to roll forward.
Mary is extending her left leg in preparation for a complete stop, at about the same time as the 1078 image:
Zero Clearance – Ed Rear – 2021-09-07 – 1542
Three seconds later her toe touches the pavement, while both she and the driver continue moving forward very slowly:
Zero Clearance – Ed Rear – 2021-09-07 – 1634
Five seconds later, she is stopped with her foot firmly planted:
Zero Clearance – Ed Rear – 2021-09-07 – 1773
And the driver continues moving:
Zero Clearance – Mary – 2021-09-07 – 1333
Another five seconds and the sidewall bulge of the car’s radial tire is pressing her foot to the pavement:
Zero Clearance – Ed Rear – 2021-09-07 – 1934
A closer look:
Zero Clearance – Ed Rear – 2021-09-07 – 1946 detail
She yanks her foot away:
Zero Clearance – Ed Rear – 2021-09-07 – 1953
While the driver continues to creep forward:
Zero Clearance – Mary – 2021-09-07 – 1397
Sometimes, it’s the only way to get some attention:
Zero Clearance – Ed Rear – 2021-09-07 – 2026
Mary is now off-balance, leaning on the car door, explaining what just happened:
Zero Clearance – Ed Rear – 2021-09-07 – 2152
Mary regains her balance as the driver backs cautiously away:
Zero Clearance – Mary – 2021-09-07 – 1546
Were the bollard still atop that sad concrete foundation, the driver might not have driven up on the splitter to get around Mary, if only to avoid scuffing a fender:
Zero Clearance – Ed Rear – 2021-09-07 – 2479
Compare this clearance with what you saw earlier in the 0957 image:
Zero Clearance – Mary – 2021-09-07 – 1627
Mary can’t get far enough away, but this must suffice:
Zero Clearance – Ed Rear – 2021-09-07 – 2761
Now the driver can pass her again with more clearance:
Zero Clearance – Mary – 2021-09-07 – 1891
I pointed to the car, then to the circle, and shouted “GO!” because neither of us wanted to be in front of that particular driver:
Zero Clearance – Ed Front – 2021-09-07 – 2540
We’ll surely meet her again, ideally with more clearance.
The USGS has a hydrology station just downstream that reported about 10 feet of water, the “moderate” flood stage, around the time I took the first picture. The normal level is 3 feet.
The “major” flood stage is 14 feet and, back in 2007, this is what it looked like at 15 feet:
Red Oaks Mill Dam – 2007-04-17
Our reference point is a drain pipe on the retaining wall behind the hotel: when the Mighty Wappingers Creek covers the pipe, it’s well and truly flooding.
Photo from the Pixel 3a, zoomed all the way, and showing why digital zooming isn’t the way to get nice pictures. On the other paw, it’s the camera I always have with me.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 