Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Monday, January 28, 2013
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Raspberry Pi!
I've joined the world of Raspberry Pi owners, a cool little 500MHz computer the size of a credit card for $35!
Notes I've accumulated to make this work for me:
Notes I've accumulated to make this work for me:
- Install Debian GNU "Rasbian Wheezy" ISO onto a 4GB+ SD card
- Follow the partition resizing instructions posted here by Simon the Pi man
- Remember the vi editor key commands, as they are seldom used (like dd is delete line)!
- Set the screen to align to my 52" Sony Bravia:
- edit /boot/config.txt and set the overscan_* parameters:
- left=20; right=22; top=-21; bottom=-16
- Install some helpful tools, for example Wireshark:
- sudo apt-get update
- sudo apt-get install wireshark libpcap-dev
- sudo cetcap cap_net_raw,cap_net__admin=eip /usr/bin/dumpcap
- Set static IP for our robot (10.38.16.99), but also DHCP to the internet (/etc/network/interfaces)
- Install OpenCV and other required tools:
- sudo apt-get install git build-essential cmake libgtk2.0-dev python-dev python-numpy libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev libswscale-dev
- mkdir OpenCV
- cd OpenCV
- cmake ..\OpenCV-2.4.3
- make
- sudo make install
- Trying to follow along with FRC team 3574's use of OpenCV
- Question becomes, "what possible frame rate might this deliver?"
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Water goes up in Hong Kong!
We'll see how this looks on a computer, but the wind was kicking the water up the waterfall, throwing it across the upper level.
This is the view outside my very windy hotel window, some 12 stories above this outdoor area.
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Friday, November 23, 2012
Time to try a new idea
The original water delivery for this Lennox HCWP2-18 whole house humidifier that was installed with our Water Furnace geothermal system seemed to be a pretty poor design. The salesman told us it was a good idea that we use hot water plumbed into the humidifier, as Geo systems don't generate as much heat as your gas fired furnace. Sounds good, right? Well, in practice I could see way too much water being delivered to the Water Panel, which yielded a bunch of hot water going out the overflow (which was simply put through a hole into the sand under our basement floor, not to an actual drain!). I've tried regulating the flow upstream by simply not opening the valve substantially, but due to the hot water, the valve behaves differently as it runs.
So, I finally did a bunch of research and put together a couple items that restrict the flow at the output, creating a more of a uniform mist and allows the solenoid to work properly (at full pressure). I found the parts at Ecologic Technologies, Inc, and assembled them today. The 0.012" orifice I selected delivers in the neighborhood of 0.46 of a Gallon Per Hour to the humidifier, much better than the gallons per hour I used to see go through there.
It took about 7 minutes before any water was seen in the overflow pipe, and that was more like a dampness, not a flow. It used to be less than a minute when I had the valve partially closed, which would then sometimes not even have enough pressure to open the solenoid, so worked sporadically.
So, I finally did a bunch of research and put together a couple items that restrict the flow at the output, creating a more of a uniform mist and allows the solenoid to work properly (at full pressure). I found the parts at Ecologic Technologies, Inc, and assembled them today. The 0.012" orifice I selected delivers in the neighborhood of 0.46 of a Gallon Per Hour to the humidifier, much better than the gallons per hour I used to see go through there.
It took about 7 minutes before any water was seen in the overflow pipe, and that was more like a dampness, not a flow. It used to be less than a minute when I had the valve partially closed, which would then sometimes not even have enough pressure to open the solenoid, so worked sporadically.
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Thursday, November 15, 2012
A bit of Mystic Point showing itself
Mystic Point is found in Hong Kong Disneyland, between Toy Story land and Grizzly Gulch, to be open in 2013.
I like the sign entering Grizzly Gulch:
"Population 108 [not countin' the bears]"
I like the sign entering Grizzly Gulch:
"Population 108 [not countin' the bears]"
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Night view of Hong Kong Island
This is the view of Hong Kong island as seen from Ozone, the world's tallest bar from the top of the 5th tallest building in the world, the tallest one in Hong Kong:
A curious fabric display near the ICC
Between Kowloon Station on the way to dinner at Prime Steak House near the base of the International Commerce Centre, we came across this interesting display in Elements.
