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Photos with tag "knoxville"

2008-08-11: Fetching A Motorcycle

So many motorcycles

The new acquisition safely back at home

The seller's neighbor is apparently into Ham Radio

2008-08-03: Ninja 250 Starter Troubleshooting

...This being the other	The service manual only called for liquid gasket in two spots on the alternator cover	For future reference	The alternator. Weird that it sits in the oil supply
Fixed magnets in the housing	The armature removed from the housing	Brushes	Rear side, showing the armature
The pinion inside the housing	Disassembling the starter	Starter motor idler gear and a coolant pipe	Starter motor out
Alternator cover and front sprocket covers removed to remove the starter

2008-07-31: Little PIC

Circuit board bottom side

Circuit board top side

All he does is scurry around and run into stuff

A quick little palm-sized robot built from stuff I had lying around

2008-07-28: Leslie And The Street Signs

So we drove around and took pictures of them all

Leslie came to visit and was enthralled by all the suggestive street signs

2008-07-06: Kells Comes To Visit (Kells' Polaroid)

We bowl

Andrés beats

Dan frets

2008-07-17: Sushi w/Amy, Andres, Erin, and Fels

A lovely evening	And then he pulled it off accidentally all by himself	I was trying to make Fels look emo
	Mmmm	How colorful	Dan does complicated math
Sigh	I think that guy behind us was getting tired of all the flash photography		Amy is somehow in every picture
Heyyy

2008-07-13: Motorcycle-Integrated Garage Door Opener

The bike put back together	The box installed beneath the bike's seat (using two AAA batteries to provide the 3v for now, since the voltage regulator circuit isn't working right for some reason)	The circuit boards installed in the enclosure	Underside of my board
My circuit board -- an LM317 adjustable voltage regulator to bring the bike's 12v down to 3v for the garage door opener, and a relay to 'press' the button when the high beams are on	Underside of garage door opener PCB, with power and switch wires soldered on (also a small black jumper wire to replace a connection previously made by a pushbutton	Craftsman garage door opener with the three pushbuttons removed, and with the corners trimmed to fit in my plastic enclosure

2008-07-12: Benchtop Power Supply

My work area now (tidied up quite significantly)	ATX power supplies need a small load in order to stay on, so a power resistor provides that. I guess I also could have replaced the power LED with a 12v light bulb	Green 'power switch' wire shorted to ground to keep the supply on	Unneeded wires removed
I'd have preferred to solder the wires to the binding posts, but they didn't take solder very well	The upper fan was originally mounted inside the case, but I moved it to the outside to make room for my wiring	Pretty decent power capacity	A benchtop power supply built from an old ATX computer power supply

2008-07-06: Kells Comes To Visit (300D)

2008-07-05: Kells Comes To Visit (Digicam)

Kells makes us dinner!

Kells nudges the ball into the pins by sheer effort of will

(1c)

Bowling, pastime of kings (1c)

2008-06-29: BullyBot

Stick 'em up	All put together	IR detector prototype -- this will be attached to the gun on BullyBot	IR emitter circuit prototype -- this will go on each of the other robots (the digicam sees the IR light from the LED, though in real life it's invisible)
All his bits are working (my work table is a little messy)	Underside of board, showing all the wiring. Maybe it's about time I start investigating printed circuit boards	Top side of board with the Pololu Low Voltage Serial Motor Controller removed	The "Output Module" (circuitry for all motors, servos, etc)
Space between the platforms to mount the Arduino and other circuit boards	The assembled base	Preparing the upper base - leftover aluminum drumsticks from Little Drum Machine become DIY standoffs	Bottom of lower base
Lower base assembled	Lotsa holes	It might be a good idea to add another servo on the right side just to add support	View from the other side
Gun mounted on the second servo to aim it left and right	The base of the robot. Those axles will need some support	Mounting the servo to aim the gun up and down	Removed parts
Useless parts Dremelled off	Extending the axles

2008-06-17: Mountain Picnic w/Andres & Kelsey

(1c)	Gross
A pleasant picnic at the top of Windrock Mountain

2008-06-16: Park w/Andres & Kelsey

Actual size	Andrés in mirror is closer than he appears	Battle scars	This is probably the most awkward picture of myself I've ever posted online (1c)
Now we have nothing to look at but his soulfulness laid bare	Sure, he looks soulful, but did you also notice that the sweat marks on his shirt look like a dude flipping the bird? (1c)	Kelsey considers Andrés' skateboarding
Nooooo	Fortunately, soggy clothes don't impede Dan's "looking tough" abilities	Soggy clothes make skateboarding harder, especially when you're not very good to begin with	Dan takes a turn
Quite proud of himself	Whoo!	Grind	Scoot scoot
Phew		Conveniently, the park also has a small skatepark
	Or lie	It's a really nice place to sit and enjoy being outside
	The day is too nice to spend watching TV

2008-05-31: Basic Rider Course

The bikes parked in the staging area during a 'bio break' (to combat the hot weather, we were instructed to drink lots of water -- they repeatedly insisted that our urine should be 'clear and copious')

Each student with their assigned bike

Ahh, my trusty 125cc Eliminator on the left

The students gather at the beginning of the first day

2008-05-25: '89 Civic (ZC engine swap)

The swapped engine has 135hp, compared to the original engine's 85hp, which makes it pretty spritely while still getting 35mpg around town

The cheap-yet-fun ZC Civic I bought from Mike a few months ago

2008-05-24: The Ordeal Of The Engine

Johnny! Put him down! (5c)

2008-05-01: First Lawn Mowing Experience

The back lawn will be a separate challenge to tackle	Completely irrelevant picture of the driveway and garage	Unfortunately, I picked the wrong time to look for a cheap lawnmower at a pawn shop, so I ended up having to buy a shiny new one	Yeah, I'd say that was ready to be mowed
After sitting still for eight months, the lawn suddenly burst into life, and I found myself rushing out for a lawnmower

2008-05-13: Protest Being Indoors

Bedroom	Native	Delight	I am rapt in Andrew's piercing gaze
High one!	Andrew is much larger than tiny Ariel	Ariel joins in	Then sports resume!
The sports are suspended in favor of socialization	Kate and Ariel arrive to share in our outdoors	Amy has successfully identified the frisbee	Keeping several irons in the fire
Keep your eye on the ball	Andrew seeks respite in music	There we go. Good job, Amy	Amy misses the ball. The ball was standing still.
Amy's outdoor outfit was outstanding	Is everyone surreptitiously striking sexy poses in my shots?!	And strikes a sexy pose in response (1c)	Andrés contemplates something sexy
Nerd!

2008-04-25: Gastropub w/Andres, Amy, Sarah, Tony, Ariel, Andrew

Seconds before malt vinegar eye death

What a good time everyone is having

A momentous occasion - Amy rediscovers fish

2008-04-23: Ambient Light Project

Thin sheets cut out of white styrene sit in front of the glass panes and act as diffusers	An Arduino for intelligence, and a 3 watt R/G/B LED can produce 16 million colors	Power jack on the back
Glows different colors, connected wirelessly to computer upstairs so it can receive information about the weather, etc and vary its color in response (2c)	The 'intelligent' ambient light project

2008-04-07: Little Drum Machine

Which means I don't need that motor driver PCB I spent so much thought and effort soldering up. Ah well	I put his head on a servo because that zippy little pager motor just wasn't precise enough	Underside. I moved the microphone away from the "bass drum" motor because it was picking up the whining of the motor louder than the drumming itself	Rear view. Ahh, isn't that so much cleaner?
Sampling board on the left (hot glue makes it so easy to mount things)	The final robot. Motor driver on the right side	This helped a lot -- glued small plastic tabs to limit the rotation of the head	My sketched-out plan for the circuitry. Just like the motor driver PCB, it took some clever arrangement to lay everything out efficiently
Fits right onto the microcontroller board	Six hours of soldering, phew	The completed PCB. So much neater	That's a mess
Here's the final messy circuit, just before I recreate it on a PCB using a hard disk ribbon cable to keep things neater	Underside	Once the circuit is finalized, I'll probably solder it up on a PCB to eliminate that rat's nest	He's now almost completed, construction-wise
Reverse view	Bracket fabricated to mount the sonar "eyes" onto the motor	The solder side of the board (I need a finer tip for my soldering iron)	My first PCB -- a motor driver to turn the "head" back and forth
Now he can record his beats, play them back in a loop, and jam out along with them	I hacked a little sampling circuit board, removing the pushbuttons and soldering up wires so the robot can trigger the record and playback functions	Bass drum motor detail	"Bass drum" mounted
Rear view. All those long cables will be trimmed down once I know exactly where I'm actually mounting everything	Some revision of the circuitry mounting, and he's got a little drumstick to bash on things now	Rear view	Main body glued together
Clear as day, eh?	One of the tiny pager motors, geared down and hot-glued to a "drumstick"	The breadboarded circuit. The small blue board is a motor controller for the two tank tread motors, the three transistors to the right of it will each control one of the three "drumsticks", and the green wire towards the top is for the LCD	The underside
The base of the robot	Gluing it up	LDM's 'superstructure'	Dadoes and everything!
It's nice having access to a woodworker and his tools

2008-04-05: Evening Out

...Andrew, Amy, and Andrés (2c)

Barley's with Zach, Kate, Ariel...

2008-03-31: Harry the Discbot

Testing is made a lot easier with a speaker (ripped from an old 486 PC) to play beeps and boops, but with nowhere to mount it, I just have to carry it behind him like a wedding train	Harry disassembled. The 4 rechargeable AAs provide (4 x 1.2v) 4.8v for the motors, while the sonar and microprocessor are powered by the 9V battery on the top level	Front view	Rear view. CDs conveniently provide a hole in the middle for routing wires between levels
When all you have is a soldering iron, everything looks like a circuit	That's one way to attach a foam model airplane tire to a servo control horn	The majority of the breadboard is taken up by just the two H-bridges (4 transistors each) for controlling the two motors. Aside from that, pin 6 controls the servo to position the sonar, and pin 2 interfaces with the sonar itself	Fabricating the bracket for the sonar sensor was probably the most difficult part of the whole project
Harry the Discbot

2008-03-20: Sassy Ann's w/Amy

I'm glad she's having fun

Pretty cool place

I've been to the Sedona airport! Or near it anyway.

Aww yeah, $2 PBR

2008-03-17: St. Paddy's w/Ariel, Amy, and Andrew

At Ariel's behest, the barman served us Grasshoppers, which, based on the taste, I surmise must be the street name for 'cough syrup'

2008-03-16: Igor The Photovore

Igor's simple circuitry -- two parallel Miller engines, powered alternately one at a time from the large blue capacitor. The choice of which motor to spin is influenced by both the 'eyes' and the whiskers

Igor is powered only by the sun, so he's entirely self-sufficient. He seeks out his food source (with his awkward shuffling gait) whether you're watching or not

2008-03-13: Built To Spill w/Ariel

Most of the band members looked like Bobby (not pictured)

2008-03-14: Garage Tetris

And there's still a good amount of free space	The Civic and the trailer together make for a similarly tight fit, but not enough to make it annoying to park	Not much space left over on either end	The Buick is huge enough that it pretty much gets an entire half all to itself
Thank goodness the Civic is tiny	It was a fun challenge figuring out how to store 2 cars, an ATV, and a trailer in a 2-car garage

2008-03-01: Building Robots

Herpe is kind of an idiot so his circuitry probably won't progress past the breadboarding stage	Feivel meets Herpe, the curious-yet-skittish-puppybot	I call him Feivel	Eyestalks etc wired up, all done
Goood, goood	Backup switch glued and soldered in	Soldering the "crap I bumped into something, let me back up" part of the circuit	Battery taped in and relay glued in
Starting to solder up the circuit for real	That little black chip in the middle is the simple brain	Prototyping the circuit for a phototropic robot built from the parts of an old mouse

2008-02-28: Microcontrollers

The logic behind it is protty simple

(See?)

First project: a simple lightmeter

Finally learning to program microcontrollers

2008-02-22: Ariel's Get-Together

Amy says hello in creative ways	Ariel would really prefer that I didn't take a picture of her	Andrés is bashful, Amy less so
But he wants to make it clear that he's not a pansy	Andrew sips a milky beverage		Ariel hosts another brunch-in-the-evening get-together

2008-01-28: Park w/Andres, Amy, & Eliza (Nikon F3)