Steve's Junk » Miscellaneous

Krebs to Poise Formula

smackaay — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 02:50:17 +0000

Looking for a decent formula on the net for a Krebs to Poise conversion I’m left empty handed. I found a chart that had listed direct numerical conversions. Here’s the Best Fit value in the Quadratic form ax^2+bx+c=y y=0.00419037x^2+(-0.306745)x+6.40025 y=poise … Continue reading →

3 point quadratic regression formula

smackaay — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 22:01:05 +0000

While developing the in-process stormer viscometer, one of my goals is to allow the end user to calibrate the device with 3 fluids of known viscosity. With a bit of help from mathematica, I’ve found the formula and for whoever wants it, it’s posted, also for my own future edification. This formula is meant to convert 3 data points of the form {X1,Y1},{X2,Y2},{X3,Y3} into a form of ax^2+bx+c=y. This is probably the fastest way to do this kind of operation on a microcontroller. Here’s an image of the formula

Reverse Quadratic from data

also, here’s a dirty FreeBasic program using it. regress-3point.bas

Also, for fun I decided to do a cubic version. This is in the form of 4 data points {X1,Y1},{X2,Y2},… converting to ax^3+bx^2+cx+d=y

Cubic equation inverse

You gotta love Mathematica!!!

Still goin’ at ‘er, now attending the self employment program

smackaay — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 04:31:35 +0000

Well, no new project pictures or anything. Summer is almost here and I’m pretty happy about that. I’m going to start at a training course for 8 weeks starting May 11.
The program itself is funded through the Canadian Government or Employment Insurance. This program is geared for people who wish to start their own business but lack the experience starting one. This program also has a 4 month post-class coaching period. From what I understand, they assist with the minutia of business and get you hooked up with financing. This program also allows one to keep collecting EI through the 6 months of the training, but not afterwards.
My idea in this case in terms of starting a business is a nebulous one at best at the moment, however, I think that by lending my skills as a machinist and programmer and technical dude, hopefully I can eke out a living or perhaps even a prosperous business in these difficult economic times.
I think that this program will help give me an introduction to the business skills I lack in abundance. Anyways, hopefully tomorrow will be a sunny day, I want to do my full report on minolta md lenses.

A Drawing of a Servo, for reference.

smackaay — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 07:29:56 +0000

Well, my servos have all come in for a project I’ve been working on. These ones being some cheap Chinese servos that I picked up off Ebay. Here’s a photo of one of them.

Chinese 9G RC Servo Photo

Now that I have them I guess I have no excuse in not doing the project, especially since I bought so many of them, despite them being cheap. In starting my project I’ve decided to offer a PDF of a drawing for the servo since I had no idea how big they were or what they would measure until they arrived, thus, if anyone else wants the drawing, they can use the dimensions for their own purposes.
Here are a couple of pics of the drawing for reference.

Chinese 9G RC Servo drawing

[caption id="attachment_548" align="aligncenter" width="373" caption="Chinese 9G RC Servo Solid"][/caption]

As the project progresses I’ll review the functionality of the servos. After I had ordered them I had read that they are susceptible to outside interference, especially from the likes of human contact around the housing. From what I read, this made the servo “Freak out”. We’ll see I guess, I’m going to make a standard testbed circuit for testing anyways.

So, anyways, for anyone who wants it the drawing, here’s the PDF

Chinese 9G RC Servo PDF

Hopefully someone will find it useful.

Plastic Part Design

smackaay — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:50:55 +0000

In short, I’ve finished the reverse engineering of an enclosure. It was more work than I expected but all of the draft angles check out and the drawing is workable for changes. Here are some pictures.

whew! Doesn’t look like much but it was a bit of a challenge. Looking forward to more challenging drawing projects.

Credos/Sayings that some people seem to live by…

smackaay — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 05:49:03 +0000

“With low enough standards, you can achieve anything!”

“If you aim for the ground, you’ll always hit the mark.”

“If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing poorly and half way.”

“If at first you don’t succeed. Lower, lower the bar.”

“If it can’t be done quickly, it’s not worth doing.”

………………
Just saying…

Playing around, drawing a valve.

smackaay — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 07:05:24 +0000

I was a little bored today so I decided to draw a valve. While the dimensions are entirely drawn from my head and the valve itself wouldn’t be very efficient, I like the look of gas compressor valves. It took me a couple of hours to draw but they look OK.

I didn’t tag them or describe them. There is a seat, a guard and a valve plate. I omitted the dowel pin, bolt, center nub and lock nut. I just wanted to see what it looked like in solids.

A new Youtube video

smackaay — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 07:45:30 +0000

Yes, I haven’t made a new youtube video in some time. Now the video I make is a redux of one I’ve made already, namely Doki Doki Panic. The reason I redid it was because the original wasn’t narrated. This one is, for only to add some personability and add some information to the video about Doki Doki Panic.

A look at some pictures from Saturday

smackaay — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:46:50 +0000

On Saturday Oct 25, 2008 (In Edmonton AB of course) there was some snow and record winds. I figure it’d be fun to post some pictures from that day as well as some of the damage from afterward. Click on the pictures to make them larger and see a description.

Playing with the Gallery

smackaay — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 06:18:03 +0000

Well, I’ve been thinking about deleting the gallery that’s been installed since I started this site. So far I haven’t even paid any attention to it since it recieves very little traffic and frankly, I don’t pay any attention to it.

I was thinking about deleting it… Instead, I’ve decided it’d be better to revive it, keep all the images that are on there and use it as a backup for all of my raw images. I’ll keep anything sacred close to the chest but other than that, I’m gonna make it public.

So, http://smackaay.com/gallery/

I’m going to start uploading sets of images, slowly but surely, as to avoid bandwidth charges!

Well, this is much nicer.

smackaay — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:20:44 +0000

I’ve been looking around at various themes for wordpress. Being a fan of simple, straightforward designs, I picked Block2. Persoanlly, I like it better than the previous one, it’s very nice though I may change it over to some sort … Continue reading →

Interesting thing about the U.S. mortgage crisis

smackaay — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 03:35:22 +0000

Here’s an interesting audio tidbit I found about the US mortgage crisis. Well worth a listen (click “full episode”)

http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1242

Listen, very informative.

Updates and such…

smackaay — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 22:12:59 +0000

So I’ve been working from home for a while and now I’ve moved all of my equipment to my place of work. I’ve been given a new office to work from and it seems promising so far. I’m also going to revamp my site a bit. I’m not certain as to wether or not I want to keep the gallery intact or use it as a backup server for my images. At this point, I’m not entirely sure.

So, hopefully I can get some stuff done this winter and continue riding well into december. Let’s hope so I guess…