What did you do in your shop today?

im glad my post has peak your curiosity. once i saw the smd soldering i had to try it. soldering in general is fun for me sorta like playing with legos 

i like it even more everything works 🙂

Posted by: @pakabol

im glad my post has peak your curiosity.

That's the whole idea of these blasted forums Bill started.  We're supposed to be inspiring each other. ? 

I had put all my robot stuff away and basically gave up on it as my aging brain was begging for some downtime.  But now with the DroneBot Workshop and these new forums I'm getting back into this stuff.   My brain is screaming at me, "Stop it! Let's go out and mow the lawn or do something simple!".  And then I calmly say back to  it, "No, we're going to sit here and work on robotics."   And then I have a sip of iced tea and continue to play with my robotics junk much to the disappointment of my brain who would rather be sleeping right now. ? 

Posted by: @robo-pi

Posted by: @pakabol

im glad my post has peak your curiosity.

That's the whole idea of these blasted forums Bill started.  We're supposed to be inspiring each other. ? 

 

i feel the same im only 37. but there is so much i want to learn. and never enough time in the day. not much in to the iced tea but im down with a cold beer so hear a  cheers to you and bill 🙂

Posted by: @robo-pi

I had put all my robot stuff away and basically gave up on it as my ageing brain was begging for some downtime.  But now with the DroneBot Workshop and these new forums I'm getting back into this stuff. 

Yes the forum is a great motivator as it provides somewhere to show off your work.

I try to squeak in a little bit of work on my robots everyday if possible.  The last few days I've been trying to learn about the Jetson Nano and facial recognition programs.   That almost seems like a waste of time since I have very little to show for it.  Although I suppose I did learn some important things.  First thing I learned is that the Jetson Nano is simply  a fast processing system capable of running facial recognition software.  The actual software is independent of the Jetson Nano.  And this led me to OpenCV and their free online tutorials which I might try to start reading though as a course.

In any case, tonight I finally did do a little tiny bit of work on two of my robots.   I added two STM-32 cards to each of them.  One on either side of the Arduino Mega board.  I'm doing this because I'd like to use Bill's idea for the DB1 on these little tiny car chassis.   I'm anxious to see how this will eventually work out.

Here's some pictures of the boards I've added, they aren't wired up yet.  I mounted them on tiny pieces of thin plywood attached to the posts that hold up the shelf for the Mega.   They fit so well it's like they were meant to be there. ? 

Looks very nice. I hope it will not be too tight for all the wiring.

hj

Posted by: @robo-pi

I try to squeak in a little bit of work on my robots everyday if possible. 

Your work is looking great Mr. Pi, and a little bit done on any project will add up to alot. One example is the Russian 5 year plans which is where I got the idea to so the same with my projects although I refuse to set deadlines. My bosses hated that I refused to acknowledge their deadlines.

I'm rambling now. Your work is looking great Mr. Pi.

Posted by: @hstaam

Looks very nice. I hope it will not be too tight for all the wiring.

According to Bill's schematic there will only be 9 wires going to each stm32 board.   I haven't  yet decided how to connect them.  At first I was thinking of soldering on pin headers and using Dupont cables to connect them.  But this would result in wires stick out from the sides of the robot quite far.  Plus they would have the added danger of coming unplugged.   So now I'm thinking of just soldering the wires directly onto the STM boards and just having them plug onto the Mega at the other end.

I'm hoping to have one wired up fairly soon, I'm anxious to start playing around with the motor control code.  In fact, I don't think Bill has yet posted the code.  I'm looking forward to seeing how well the acceleration routines work as well as using the encoders for measuring distance traveled.

Posted by: @robo-pi

I try to squeak in a little bit of work on my robots everyday if possible.  The last few days I've been trying to learn about the Jetson Nano and facial recognition programs.   That almost seems like a waste of time since I have very little to show for it.  Although I suppose I did learn some important things.  First thing I learned is that the Jetson Nano is simply  a fast processing system capable of running facial recognition software.  The actual software is independent of the Jetson Nano.  And this led me to OpenCV and their free online tutorials which I might try to start reading though as a course.

In any case, tonight I finally did do a little tiny bit of work on two of my robots.   I added two STM-32 cards to each of them.  One on either side of the Arduino Mega board.  I'm doing this because I'd like to use Bill's idea for the DB1 on these little tiny car chassis.   I'm anxious to see how this will eventually work out.

Here's some pictures of the boards I've added, they aren't wired up yet.  I mounted them on tiny pieces of thin plywood attached to the posts that hold up the shelf for the Mega.   They fit so well it's like they were meant to be there. ? 

Those little chassis are nice for a lot of things. They do need a bit of power with the 48:1 GM on it.

Here is one I used for multi-sensor tests. I had a Dagu Mini driver and drove the motors off that for better power to the motors. I also replaced the wheels with rubber ones. 

Today, I decided to attack an old Philips CD player, that's no longer working!

But it is not giving up the two motors and laser unit voluntarily, it seriously looks like a job for the Dremel, a hack saw and, if all else fails, a sledgehammer.

today i started work on my bi-spherical thingy ive been taking a few photos this is what ive got done so far all sober cuz i want it to work 

this first picture is after unbagging

and this is where i took a break (old back injury makes sitting hunched over painful)

i might do a bit more later but no smoke, hash or edibles makes jon something something 

Posted by: @pakabol

today i started work on my bi-spherical thingy

That looks like quite a challenging project.  How are you soldering?  Are you using a hot air method, or a hot plate or oven method, or are you soldering each connection individually with a soldering iron? 

Posted by: @robo-pi

Posted by: @pakabol

today i started work on my bi-spherical thingy

That looks like quite a challenging project.  How are you soldering?  Are you using a hot air method, or a hot plate or oven method, or are you soldering each connection individually with a soldering iron? 

well im using a small dab of solder paste then hot air to set the components then i go back over each connection with the solder iron and solder

Personally i would rather use to much solder and have to wick some off. with the SMD it can be hard to tell how much to use. so i flood it with flux and solder. getting the feel of how much to use. but is seems to be an art form 

nothing you cant fix with flux and wick 😛 

I sit gazing with broken hands from the day's work I have to be in a certain state of mind to get anything creative done no not today perhaps tomorrow I'm old yeh tomorrow for sure I think

I was at work today (actually working, so, not on the robot) and one of the guys said that there was a game that he had extra parts for, and they no longer had the game, so if I wanted, I could have those parts (I get quite a bit of spare stuff from work. I never have any idea what I'm gonna use it for, but, it looks too good to throw away)

Today was Christmas (sorta)

I picked up a tube with 15 12V micro-relays... for free

Yea. I don't have the slightest idea what I'm gonna do with them