You had another pretty successful day today. You woke up around 0730 and then went to Bob Moore's house to do yard work (he had purchased your silent auction item of yard work). You were accompanied by Sydney Ambrose, Liam Wade, and Travis Libsack.
After working until 1045 you headed back to your house. You cleaned your room, studied a little bit of WHAP and waited until the next meeting for the project at 1400. When that time rolled around Liam showed up and you guys built another part of the float.
You created a mount for the communication dish that will be stationed on the float. The challenge was to make it so that the dish could rotate (allowing it to always face the other dish), but not crush the servo that is supposed to drive it. You finished around 1730 and Liam headed out.
Then after dinner you headed to Travis's to make mock-ups of the dome with LEDs and cameras. This was helpful to an extent, and you guys think you have finally found the best solution for the LEDs. The solution calls for the LED heat sink to take the place of the dome where it is located so that there is no glare and no black plexiglass needed.
Sunday, May 18, 2014
Weekend 2: Only the Beginning
You woke up today and headed over to Bob Moore's house to work in his yard. He previously had won you (and some of your friends) at a school auction. After pulling out barbells for a few hours, you got a ride to Nick's house and drove the truck back home. At home you worked on your own yard for a few hours and then had some lunch. After lunch, you took a shower and then started work on the project.
You first fixed the Socket Servers which took about two hours. After completely re-writing the servers, you think that they're all set. You take a break from intensive python and get the DS18B20 temperature sensor woking on the BeagleBone. You also try out the battery monitor. The values from the ADC read seem to be jumping all over the place...you think that it's either a bad connection to the battery or the BeagleBone is just bad at reading analog values.
You finish with the servers and temperature sensors/battery around 17:00. You then start writing a few different blog posts (C920 Camera, temp sensor, battery, etc.). At around 18:25 you head outside to cook the steak you're having for dinner. At around 19:30 Nick comes over and you spec out the different camera designs. After finding the field of vision of the camera and physically setting up a camera scenario, you know the design needs to be changed.
Nick worked on perfecting the CAD design while you added to the sensor-reading python code and purchased the final materials (hopefully) needed to finish up the project. At around 22:30 Nick left, and you finished up work for the day.
You also have realized that this weekend is just the beginning of a very, very long week.
You first fixed the Socket Servers which took about two hours. After completely re-writing the servers, you think that they're all set. You take a break from intensive python and get the DS18B20 temperature sensor woking on the BeagleBone. You also try out the battery monitor. The values from the ADC read seem to be jumping all over the place...you think that it's either a bad connection to the battery or the BeagleBone is just bad at reading analog values.
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| Temp Sensor and BeagleBone |
You finish with the servers and temperature sensors/battery around 17:00. You then start writing a few different blog posts (C920 Camera, temp sensor, battery, etc.). At around 18:25 you head outside to cook the steak you're having for dinner. At around 19:30 Nick comes over and you spec out the different camera designs. After finding the field of vision of the camera and physically setting up a camera scenario, you know the design needs to be changed.
Nick worked on perfecting the CAD design while you added to the sensor-reading python code and purchased the final materials (hopefully) needed to finish up the project. At around 22:30 Nick left, and you finished up work for the day.
You also have realized that this weekend is just the beginning of a very, very long week.
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Weekend 2: Python and Darts
Today was a full day of work for you...over 14 hours of project work! You woke up and headed to Nick's house at 9:10 to work on the tether. Unfortunately the density of the wire used in our tether was too much. Even with the meshed casing and foam tubing, the buoyancy of the tether was still not great enough to allow it to float. There was still about 5 extra pounds of weight that couldn't be accounted for. The only fortunate part about this morning was that the tether casing worked extremely well!
After finishing with the tether your headed to your house at around 11:00 and began working on finishing the battery monitor while Nick created some CAD models. You wrote a post about the battery monitors, started one about MJPG-Streamer on the BeagleBone, and organized all of the python code into a few modules. When Josef and Liam arrived at around 12:30 you continued working on the Python code. You organized the GPS, battery monitoring system, and stepper modules into a easily executable file.
At 14:20 you stopped for a quick snack and then continued working. At 16:30 you went outside and tossed a frisbee and then went back inside for a game of darts. While playing darts Liam telescoped two darts which I though was awesome....
After working on the servers some more, you and Josef finally got a byte connection working (from Python on the BeagleBone to Java on Josef's laptop). After getting this working, you headed over to Liam's house for dinner. At Liam's you had chicken noodle soup, bread, salad, and bagels with nutella (that wasn't actually real nutella). After eating dinner you headed back to your house.
For the next couple of hours you tried to get threads running the Python server, but to no avail. You settled on using a logic loop to receive and then send data. At around 23:00 you, Nick, Liam, and Josef ate pie adjourned. It was a long day and not as productive as you had hoped, although you did get some blog posts written, the streaming method solidified, and different python modules completed.
After finishing with the tether your headed to your house at around 11:00 and began working on finishing the battery monitor while Nick created some CAD models. You wrote a post about the battery monitors, started one about MJPG-Streamer on the BeagleBone, and organized all of the python code into a few modules. When Josef and Liam arrived at around 12:30 you continued working on the Python code. You organized the GPS, battery monitoring system, and stepper modules into a easily executable file.
At 14:20 you stopped for a quick snack and then continued working. At 16:30 you went outside and tossed a frisbee and then went back inside for a game of darts. While playing darts Liam telescoped two darts which I though was awesome....
After working on the servers some more, you and Josef finally got a byte connection working (from Python on the BeagleBone to Java on Josef's laptop). After getting this working, you headed over to Liam's house for dinner. At Liam's you had chicken noodle soup, bread, salad, and bagels with nutella (that wasn't actually real nutella). After eating dinner you headed back to your house.
For the next couple of hours you tried to get threads running the Python server, but to no avail. You settled on using a logic loop to receive and then send data. At around 23:00 you, Nick, Liam, and Josef ate pie adjourned. It was a long day and not as productive as you had hoped, although you did get some blog posts written, the streaming method solidified, and different python modules completed.
CAD...CAD...and more CAD
Today, Travis came over to your house and you worked on figuring out the density of the tether. This involved figuring out the volume and weight of the wire, foam cord, and spool covering. It looks like the tether is going to weigh more than the water it displaces and so will not float or be neutrally buoyant, instead it will sink some. This is okay as it is what happens to most lines/cords that go into the water - whether for anchors or fishing.
After that you went to Travis's house and worked on CAD models of the front of the submersible. You have been trying to figure out how best to fit the LEDs, cameras, and heat sinks into the dome and still be able to have tilt cameras and stereoscopic vision.
Today you were thrown another wrench in the fact that you are now going to have three cameras. The webcam for steaming high quality video and two raspberry pi cameras for the stereoscopic visions. This makes for a very crowded dome and is a jigsaw puzzle to try and fit everything. You probably tried about five more ways to fit everything without a great solution, on top of the other five to ten that I have already tried. Your CAD folder for lights has more than twenty files in it now, as an idea of how many models you have had to make.
You then played darts and Frisbee as a break, and then started working on blog posts for both this and the actual blog. Shortly after you left for Liam's where you all had a dinner of salad, smoothie, and chicken soup. You then headed back to Travis's and finished up the blog posts.
After that you went to Travis's house and worked on CAD models of the front of the submersible. You have been trying to figure out how best to fit the LEDs, cameras, and heat sinks into the dome and still be able to have tilt cameras and stereoscopic vision.
Today you were thrown another wrench in the fact that you are now going to have three cameras. The webcam for steaming high quality video and two raspberry pi cameras for the stereoscopic visions. This makes for a very crowded dome and is a jigsaw puzzle to try and fit everything. You probably tried about five more ways to fit everything without a great solution, on top of the other five to ten that I have already tried. Your CAD folder for lights has more than twenty files in it now, as an idea of how many models you have had to make.
You then played darts and Frisbee as a break, and then started working on blog posts for both this and the actual blog. Shortly after you left for Liam's where you all had a dinner of salad, smoothie, and chicken soup. You then headed back to Travis's and finished up the blog posts.
Baxter and camera disassembly (5/16)
You, Nick, started the day by unpacking from Model UN. Then Travis came to your house and you worked a little with the float. Then the two of you headed down to Baxter to talk with Mr. Amory and deliver a McMaster order he needed for their part of our project.
When you arrived they were setting up the CNC router to cut out motor bracing for the motor thrusters. You showed Amory our heat sink ideas and he was not a huge fan, telling us that getting to fit inside the dome would be much better.
You guys also looked into buying 10" PVC for the float because the batteries you bought won't fit in the 8" you currently have. You found the best deals on eBay, but were not able to find a good price on end caps so you decided to wait.
You then returned home to get ready for Frisbee, but first you went to the dump and met with NHS officers to plan the NHS induction ceremony. At Frisbee the team master the play called "dice" and learned a new play called "YKK."
After Frisbee you headed to Travis's house and worked some with the camera's. It turned out that the new webcam is much bigger than expected. Even after taking of the casing so that only the circuit board is still attached to the cord the camera is 3.25" long and so barely fits in the sub.
Friday, May 16, 2014
Baxter, More Change, Sports, and RoboGoby
Today you woke up and biked to Shaw's to pick up the car (which you brother had driven to the bus stop in the morning with). After you picked up the car you drove to Nick's at around 09:45 to pick him up. At Nick's you sorted the materials from the McMaster order and created a box to bring down to Baxter Academy. After sorting the materials you quickly checked if the timing belts fit (which they did!) and then drove down to Baxter.
While in Portland you talked with Mr. Amory extensively about the camera/light setup in the submersible. You also got to see more of what the kids at Baxter are doing on the project. After meeting with Mr. Amory you and Nick ate at El Rayo in Portland. After leaving El Rayo with out take-out order we quickly stopped at the electronics store for some 2W 1K resistors for measuring the voltage of the batteries.
Once you got home you ate your burrito and then headed to frisbee practice. After a productive frisbee practice (the team learned the "dice" and the "ykk") you headed to swimming. Swimming was also good, but you were extremely tired afterwards.
After swimming you went to the community center for the tennis teams's spaghetti dinner fundraiser. You met Nick at the fundraiser. The food was good.
At around 10:00 you met with Nick, Liam, and Josef in your basement. You showed everybody the camera feed and Josef tested it with OpenCV (which worked fairly well...it needed to be sent a slow frame-rate though). While in the basement you worked on running strings/processes using python.
At around 23:00 you tested the voltage divider with the 2W resistors mentioned above. Unfortunately, they also got warm, but you do not understand as the divider you created should only use .5W not 2W...you will recalculate the values tomorrow. Here's a picture of the 2W resistors!
While in Portland you talked with Mr. Amory extensively about the camera/light setup in the submersible. You also got to see more of what the kids at Baxter are doing on the project. After meeting with Mr. Amory you and Nick ate at El Rayo in Portland. After leaving El Rayo with out take-out order we quickly stopped at the electronics store for some 2W 1K resistors for measuring the voltage of the batteries.
Once you got home you ate your burrito and then headed to frisbee practice. After a productive frisbee practice (the team learned the "dice" and the "ykk") you headed to swimming. Swimming was also good, but you were extremely tired afterwards.
After swimming you went to the community center for the tennis teams's spaghetti dinner fundraiser. You met Nick at the fundraiser. The food was good.
At around 10:00 you met with Nick, Liam, and Josef in your basement. You showed everybody the camera feed and Josef tested it with OpenCV (which worked fairly well...it needed to be sent a slow frame-rate though). While in the basement you worked on running strings/processes using python.
At around 23:00 you tested the voltage divider with the 2W resistors mentioned above. Unfortunately, they also got warm, but you do not understand as the divider you created should only use .5W not 2W...you will recalculate the values tomorrow. Here's a picture of the 2W resistors!
Thursday, May 15, 2014
MEMUNC 2014 – Berlin Conference 1884 (5/13 - 5/15)
You just returned from a three day endeavor at the Maine Model United Nations conference in Gorham, Maine. For the past couple of months you have been meeting every Monday night from 7:00-8:15 to practice parliamentary procedure, negotiating, and to do research on your country. As a delegate in the first every throwback committee (the Berlin Conference 1884) you had to do research on the United States POV...this was difficult as the US did not even attend the conference (the US was an observer state). It didn't phase you though. You entered committee ready to make change. Your tried multiple times to create an inter-contiental railroad in Africa and open up the continent to further economic exploitation (although while trying to help the African people). You also tried to get voting status rather than observer status for the United States. Unfortunately, neither of you proposals passed. This was due to the insanely fluid stance many European countries shared...at first they were extremely racist (as they should be), but they quickly started to support African terrorists.
After three days of debate, a dodgeball game (which you helped win), and a disappointing Jeopardy game, the conference was over. At the awards ceremony you won Best Delegate for the Berlin Conference (and won a cool surf helmet) and also was apart of the US delegation which won best delegation at the conference!! Yay!
Although the past three days had been exciting, you had not worked on the project much. On Tuesday, you, Nick, and Liam met. You ordered supplies online, finalized pieces for the laser harp, and learned a new frisbee throw.
After the conference you went to frisbee. You were very thirsty and dehydrated there. After that you went to swimming and now are finally about to eat dinner.
It was a good three days, although this weekend will be much more productive for the project.
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| MEMUC Insignia |
After three days of debate, a dodgeball game (which you helped win), and a disappointing Jeopardy game, the conference was over. At the awards ceremony you won Best Delegate for the Berlin Conference (and won a cool surf helmet) and also was apart of the US delegation which won best delegation at the conference!! Yay!
Although the past three days had been exciting, you had not worked on the project much. On Tuesday, you, Nick, and Liam met. You ordered supplies online, finalized pieces for the laser harp, and learned a new frisbee throw.
After the conference you went to frisbee. You were very thirsty and dehydrated there. After that you went to swimming and now are finally about to eat dinner.
It was a good three days, although this weekend will be much more productive for the project.
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