TheSaint Posted February 5, 2019 Share Posted February 5, 2019 2 hours ago, DDE said: Interesting question: what’s better, ruggedized industrial laptops that are borderline-bulletproof, or sane maintenance practices? We looked at the ruggedized laptops and, for us at least, they didn't make any sense. They cost roughly 7-8 times what one of our standard laptops did, and based on our revised costs after I took over the maintenance we didn't expect them to last 7-8 times longer. We actually got to the point where we were retiring a lot of the older laptops rather than losing them to attrition, simply because we improved our maintenance and educated the sups. Plus for us losing a laptop in the field wasn't mission critical, it didn't take down the site. The sups did most of their communication with the subs by phone or FTF on-site. Most of their on-site documentation was hard copy,. So if their laptop went down, waiting for a new one to come out by 2-day air didn't lose the company anything except some status reports and some convenience for the sups. if we were in a situation where losing the laptop brought the site down and we were losing money by the minute, then yeah, the ruggedized units would have made a lot more sense. 42 minutes ago, kerbiloid said: Virtual remote desktops, accessible by the personal smartphones and by the cheapest available nettops with a reduced linux with the only program loading on startup: a remote desktop client.. Actually, the last project I was working on there before I left was to bring up a Windows Terminal Server that would publish an application to the sups desktop that they could use to make their status reports directly into a project management application the company had purchased, instead of writing them up in Excel and emailing them to their project coordinators. I didn't get a chance to finish on account of my move and the company's impending bankruptcy and merger, but it would have been a slick system. It was kind of funny, because the owner had originally wanted me to write them a project management system in Sharepoint, since they had a Sharepoint system included in their Small Business Server license. And I was all, "Sorry, I'm an infrastructure guy, I don't really have the skill set to do that." He was always grumpy about that afterwards. it was the classic case of, "You're a 'puter guy! You can make 'puter stuff!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
razark Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 (edited) It's February, and I just submitted a service request that my air conditioner is not working... It's nearing 80° (F) in here. I'm really starting to regret boiling that pot of pasta for dinner. Edited February 6, 2019 by razark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qzgy Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 Math quiz was a small disaster...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shpaget Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 Well, yesterday I found out where I fit on the idiot of the week chart, and (TL;DR) the results are disappointing. Story time. For the last two and a half or so years I've been working (on and off) on an elevator for trains on the layout where I work. The the design of the elevator itself seemed good from the day one (and so far still seems so) but I had trouble with the motors, namely deciding how powerful they needed to be. I've tried two sizes of steppers and while the second (twice as strong as the first one) was mostly sufficient, there were a couple of instances where, at full spewed, they skipped a step or two which led them to stall out. In addition to that, the steppers being steppers, they are fairly loud. It's just their nature, which we didn't particularly like. So we broke the piggy bank and went all in. I ordered some industrial grade brushless servos that have the smarts to behave just like steppers, so all my electronics and software still work without major changes. From the moment they arrived and I first tested them I was thoroughly impressed with every aspect of them. They have all the torque you may want and torque limiting (should you want such a thing), silent running, feedback to the microcontroller, error checking and closed loop control. Like I said every thing about them is great, well, except the price, which was aligned with the axiom "you get what you pay for", but I digress. Back to the story, at the start of December we finally put the elevator in action and for more than a month it operated without issues. Well, without issued caused by the elevator. The software running the trains barfed up a few times and caused trains to stop a bit too late. The first time is not a problem since the elevator has custom made full metal barriers (such as on level crossings, but across the rail track) on each end of the elevator and on each fixed level, and if the train stops too late the barrier stops it. This collision is intended as a last line of defense, not as a part of regular operations. The thing is, once the train hits the barrier, the barrier needs to be checked for misalignment of the barrier arm and the U groove on the opposite side in which the arm sits once lowered. The crash can cause the arm not to sit in the U groove properly and the next train that hits the barrier can crash through. This chain of events (computer failing to stop a train in time, and nobody noticing it before it happened again) is not likely to happen often, but over the course of 40 days it naturally did happen. Murphy made sure of that. The result of this is that a locomotive that crashes through the barrier went over the edge of the elevator, lost power as soon the front set of wheels fell off the cliff and the rear set lifted up. Now the locomotive is halfway over the ledge and the elevator doesn't know that. The software running the trains is the one responsible for deciding where and when the elevator moves, and not knowing about the loco over the edge, it directs the elevator to go up. The only problem is a locomotive that is about to be caught in a pair of scissors made up of on one side 10 x 12 mm brass profile holding the fixed level (10 mm plywood) and the elevator itself, which is a beefy aluminium 150 x 50 mm L profile 8 mm thick. The motors are 200 W each, geared down 2:1 and turning a ball screw with 5 mm pitch. Smething has to give and it sure as hell is not the elevator. Actually the fixed level is the one that suffers the most. Brass profile is sheared off in the root where it is turned down to 9 mm and meets the iron frame of the elevator itself, and the plywood stands no chance. Locomotive suffers only minor damage to decorative wires on the roof. Everybody here is impressed with the power of the system and on more than one occasion we discuss the dangers of it. Even though the elevator is behind a plexiglass, we install additional safety panels to restrict access to the moving parts to prevent fingers being caught in the dangerous parts. This also prompted me to install additional safety measures for the trains. I made new barriers, this time a little bit more sturdy, added sensors which should detect if the barrier arm does not sit in the groove properly, and optical trip wire sensor to detect if the train stopped too late which will at the same time block the movement of the elevator and report the error to the PC. Since I was already doing some software and hardware changes I decided to do one more thing that kind of bothered me. The original design had only one sensor for zeroing placed on one end of the elevator, but two motors driving the entire thing (one on each side), which meant that if the motors got slightly (one step) desynchronized on power up this small error will add up and each day it will get worse. So I installed another sensor on the other side and reprogrammed the initialization sequence to recheck the leveling each time the elevator is turned on. So, now I have everything hooked up, it's time to test it out. A few minor issues with the software which I quickly fix and the startup leveling works flawlessly, except that during the very slow movement during homing sequence there is a squeal coming from somewhere. I quickly locate the source. It's the timing belt between one of the motors and the lead screw which doesn't sit in the middle of the timing pulley and rubs (lightly) against the side flange. I can't do much about it and let it be for the time being until I finish up the wiring, reprogram positions of the fixed levels and readjust lateral track positions. Now that this is done the though of readjusting the timing belt comes back to mind. I really don't know why, it's not even a problem as it doesn't squeal in normal operation, only in the very slow movement during homing, but in this moment the elevator is moving and I have a bright idea to just push the belt a little bit downwards towards the middle of the pulley. Well, it was a bad idea. The belt is made of steel wire rope reinforced rubber and grips the skin very well. In a split second my finger went from the side of the belt to the inside of it and towards the pulley about to be caught between the belt and the pulley. I managed to pull out just a little bit too late and got the tip of my finger caught before I ripped out a piece of skin. Like I said, I'm an idiot and could have lost a finger. The motors would not even slow down and the steel wires in the belt were not likely to yield before my finger got mushed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kernel Kraken Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 I bought a fountain pen, and it was slightly clogged. I shook it a bit, and it exploded permanent ink all over our off white (now a bit yellowish due to wear) couch. That kind of turned me off from buying more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSaint Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 31 minutes ago, Kernel Kraken said: I bought a fountain pen, and it was slightly clogged. I shook it a bit, and it exploded permanent ink all over our off white (now a bit yellowish due to wear) couch. That kind of turned me off from buying more. Fountain pens or white furniture? One of the best sight gags I've ever seen. Malcom in the Middle. They did an episode where the parents were reminiscing about when their kids were babies, and they did a flashback scene to when they brought their first baby home from the hospital. They walk in the front door, and everything in the house, the carpet, the furniture, the curtains, everything, is snow white. They don't talk about it in the dialog at all, but anyone who has ever been a parent just died laughing. Absolutely brilliant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shpaget Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 41 minutes ago, Kernel Kraken said: I bought a fountain pen, and it was slightly clogged. I shook it a bit, and it exploded permanent ink all over our off white (now a bit yellowish due to wear) couch. That kind of turned me off from buying more. When I was a school kid I had one of these: Might be worth a shot? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDE Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 53 minutes ago, Kernel Kraken said: I bought a fountain pen, and it was slightly clogged. I shook it a bit, and it exploded permanent ink all over our off white (now a bit yellowish due to wear) couch. That kind of turned me off from buying more. You know the old blotting paper? Be sure to have some variant of tissues around, something like Kleenex. My pen leaks a bit, likely due to vibrations, so cleaning it is a practiced routine. Serious maintenance includes repeatedly filling and emptying the reservoir with watered-down vodka to thoroughly purge any dried ink build-up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geonovast Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 24 minutes ago, TheSaint said: They don't talk about it in the dialog at all, but anyone who has ever been a parent just died laughing. Absolutely brilliant. I did not experience that at all when we brought my daughter home. Of course, I've always had cats... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adsii1970 Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 I love fountain pens. I have several Parker fountain pens (over 20 years old) but the sad thing is the model of cartridge is no longer produced by anyone. Until I can find a nice replacement which will not cost an arm and a leg, I'm using gel pens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kerbiloid Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 (edited) I was using a fountain pen in school, long ago. For a year, just to try. Now my ballpoint pens get dry between the rare cases when I use one, and every time when I have to write something, it's a challenge because keyboards are much more common. Feeling myself here like in a steampunk club. Edited February 6, 2019 by kerbiloid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richfiles Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 On 2/4/2019 at 12:11 PM, DarkOwl57 said: There's no way! NFL100 was by far the best. Seeing Tom Brady handing Baker his rings and watching Odell... Odell, it was amazing! Maybe that's just the football in me though. Amazon Alexa was pretty good though Saw all those rings, and I was just waiting for a devastating snap! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kernel Kraken Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 4 hours ago, adsii1970 said: I love fountain pens. I have several Parker fountain pens (over 20 years old) but the sad thing is the model of cartridge is no longer produced by anyone. Until I can find a nice replacement which will not cost an arm and a leg, I'm using gel pens. Depending on price range, I've heard the Parker IM is a nice pen for about $50. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrandedonEarth Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 11 minutes ago, Kernel Kraken said: Depending on price range, I've heard the Parker IM is a nice pen for about $50. Parker IM... the original Instant Messager? i used to use a cartridge fountain pen back in high school, it actually improved my chickenscratch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adsii1970 Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 12 minutes ago, Kernel Kraken said: Depending on price range, I've heard the Parker IM is a nice pen for about $50. I'm almost afraid to go back with Parker. Yes, they are good quality pens, but if they ever discontinue making the ink cartridges... Then I am in the same boat I am currently in... by the same company. 2 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said: Parker IM... the original Instant Messager? i used to use a cartridge fountain pen back in high school, it actually improved my chickenscratch When I first read this in passing, I thought you said "it actually improved my chicken sandwich..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richfiles Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 11 hours ago, Shpaget said: Well, yesterday I found out where I fit on the idiot of the week chart, and (TL;DR) the results are disappointing. Trains, brushless motors, and a mushed finger. First, OUCH!!! I work for a company the builds brushless motors. I've been in that industry since 2001. I can vouch for the capability of some of those motors. The ones I used to work on at my first motor manufacturing job had servo drives that ran on 3-phase AC, and drove the motors at 295 volts at up to 30 amps continuous, 45 amps peak, driving 3-8 inch diameter rotors with motor housings (including magnets) being 8 inches up to just over a foot in diameter and a foot to a foot and a half long (that's just the stator length, the motors were closer to 2 feet long, to accommodate for the sensor hardware). A touch bigger than what you were using. Definitely powerful. You could reverse it, even at full speed, and you only saw the shaft for a fraction of a second before it was already at full speed the other direction. Crazy torque! Also amazing how it can hold torque, even when stopped, thanks to the closed loop feedback. We used to use an analog tachometer for torque feedback, and hall sensors for commutation. Yeah, you painted quite the picture in words! Is the elevator for staging or storage, for some in layout structure, or is the layout a split level layout, or something else entirely... Or did I miss you actually saying what it was for? Either way, it sounds like an incredible layout. What scale? Pics anywhere? I do N scale, but have no layout... Only trains and buildings. It's what I have space for at the moment. Back when I had two jobs and no time, I was buying up all the cool stuff, while I could afford it. Now I have time, and one job, but a whole lot less money. Might have to switch to buildings again... Scratch building can be done on the cheap! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shpaget Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 Yeah, that does sound like a few sizes up from what I'm using. While I was playing with these ones I held them in a vise (that's actually what the manufacturer strongly recommends to do before you start fooling around with them) and tested them for torque and acceleration. Definitely near instant top speed and braking/reversing. It did make entire bench shake on direction change, so I toned down the fun XD. These things have a USB port so you can hook them up to a PC and fire up their software that graphs out every thing imaginable (requested and/or actual speed, actual torque, total power, power as fraction of maximum, divergence from requested position... the list goes on). The purpose of the elevator is to connect three rooms. The connection from the first room is below the level of the second one so we need to lift the train about 40 cm in pretty much next to no lateral space. In the second room the train can turn 180°, get back to the elevator and choose to go back to the first room or go to the third one, that just happens to be in the basement, so the elevator goes from ~90 cm above floor down to 40 cm below floor level (roughly 20 cm below the basement ceiling). There will be 5 fixed levels - one for the first room three for the second room and one more for the basement. The elevator has to tracks and the trains always run forwards (if the enter from the left side they leave on the right and vice versa). It's H0 scale, and from the beginning intended to be open for public so there had to be some compromises made. You can visit our website here (sorry about the annoying illness pop up). Go to Layout -> Gallery (or Videos). N is great. Fits so much in a small space and still maintains good level of detail. Scratch building is a lot of fun, but I never seem to get to do that. I have a list of projects that I need to do but, sadly, none of them include actual modeling. It's mostly electronics and mechanical contraptions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kernel Kraken Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 1 hour ago, StrandedonEarth said: Parker IM... the original Instant Messager? i used to use a cartridge fountain pen back in high school, it actually improved my chickenscratch Currently what I'm trying to use it for. And drawing. Oh my gosh so much drawing. 1 hour ago, adsii1970 said: I'm almost afraid to go back with Parker. Yes, they are good quality pens, but if they ever discontinue making the ink cartridges... Then I am in the same boat I am currently in... by the same company. When I first read this in passing, I thought you said "it actually improved my chicken sandwich..." A good way to not fall into the cartridge trap is converters. You can fill them up with ink form inkewlls, put them in your own like cartridges, and viola, futureproof. The pen I most recently bought, a Pilot MR, comes with one out of the box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lapis Posted February 7, 2019 Share Posted February 7, 2019 oh boy, yesterday I decided that I wanted a new os,(elementary os) but to install it I had to shrink the partition with my current os(Ubuntu) one miscalculation involving converting strange numbers of megabytes to gigabytes I broke ubuntu as I found out sadly after booting into it. the way I broke it was I made the partition that had it on there too small. then making things worse Elementary os broke so I had to delete BOTH partitions and install a new os(Q4OS) that worked and since my home folder(along with steam and ksp) was on a separate partition so it was safe. But finally I had a working os. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
munlander1 Posted February 7, 2019 Share Posted February 7, 2019 Im not allowed to play on the ps4 or computer on weeknights. My brother, if he works for 30 minutes is allowed to play for an hour. I ask my mom if I can do the same and I get a flat out no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
razark Posted February 7, 2019 Share Posted February 7, 2019 (edited) It's now 81° (wow, it's dropped) in here, and no word on any AC repairs. Bleh. At least it's going to get cold soon. Then I can whine about not having any heat, instead. I've also come to the decision that in my next relationship, I get to have an affair, get a free car, and take 40% of her life savings. And the TV. It's a !#@$&) $300 TV! what? How godsdamn petty do you have to be to demand the TV? Well, at least I now know what my dad can do with that (even bigger) TV he just replaced at his house... Edit: My sister sent me this: Edited February 7, 2019 by razark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDE Posted February 7, 2019 Share Posted February 7, 2019 17 hours ago, StrandedonEarth said: i used to use a cartridge fountain pen back in high school, it actually improved my chickenscratch My parents’ rationale as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
razark Posted February 8, 2019 Share Posted February 8, 2019 Cold front hit. And the AC started working again... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KerbMav Posted February 8, 2019 Share Posted February 8, 2019 I love the idea of public transport. But I hate using it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSaint Posted February 8, 2019 Share Posted February 8, 2019 Something I ate did not appreciate being eaten. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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