Watt's Up

Car Air Compressor

2008-05-11T20:37:00.013-05:00

I've been worried about my car tires being under inflated. About a week ago I stopped by a gas station to fill up my front right tire. I had a terrible time trying to use the machine. Their nozzle was messed up and I couldn't get it to seal. It kept leaking air. It was a total waste of time. I'll never go back to that station. So this weekend I've been investigating 12-volt portable air compressors. I don't want something cheap or junky. I've already got one of those. I'd like something solid and well made. I thought that an auto parts store would be the best place to look. Yesterday I decided to shop for one by stopping at the local Auto Zone. However, I wasn't impressed. So I kept looking. I went to O'Reilly's, Pep Boys, NAPA, even WalMart and another AutoZone. I still didn't find what I wanted, although I saw two possible ones - one at Pep Boys and another at the second Auto Zone. Still I didn't buy one. Arriving back home I went on the internet to search for one. After a few searches I started to get hits on the one I saw at Pep Boys with good reviews, but I found out that it had to be attached directly to the battery. I was looking for one that used the lighter socket. It was then that I found another one from the same vendor that used the lighter socket. I also remembered that Pep Boys had one. So today I went out and got it. It's a Master Flow Cyclone and it was on sale too.
Photo courtesy of amazon.comSo when I got home I checked and inflated all my tires and Matthew's car's too [he was here for Mother's Day dinner]. Wouldn't you know that my tires weren't that low, but now I've got a great little relatively-quiet pumper. Woohoo. Hey this is my life and this is what makes me tick - it's the little things.

Robofest 2008

2008-04-12T19:23:00.002-05:00

I spent the better part of the day volunteering at the local Robofest 2008 competition at the Hill Country Middle School. I was the scorekeeper as I had last year. Again it was great to see the students competing. I am always impressed with their creativity.

Lego re-kitting is done

2008-04-06T16:24:00.008-05:00

I have finished re-kitting all the old Lego kits. Yup all the kits that I'm going to re-kit have been checked and double checked. Here is what I did (I'm probably repeating myself from an earlier post). I sorted the kit's parts from the mass of miscellaneous parts. I printed out each kit's instruction and inventories from Peeron.com, and put each in a separate binder. I ordered any missing parts from BrickLink.com. I built each kits following the instructions to check if I had everything. After assembly I broke the kit down, again inventoried it and ordered any missing parts. When the parts arrived I put them in the correct kit which I put in a box with its binder with the other kits.

Here are a few pictures of the last few kits:8820 Mountain Rambler
8054 Universal Building Set
7720 Battery Train Set

This all started because of this last kit and a few others which I remembered we had purchased over twenty years ago. Then as I sorted and inventoried the parts I kept finding other unique parts which caused me to re-kit even more kits. The Train was the inspiration and it was also the last kit I re-kitted. Finally a month or so ago I stopped searching the mass of parts to figure out what kits to re-kit. I thought it was fitting that the Train was the last kit that I re-kitted and the last kit I verified by building it. Best wishes ol' Legos and especially best wishes ol' Train. I don't know what I'll be doing with you, but whatever happens to you now you are all organized in plastic bags. Ready anytime for someone to again have the enjoyment of putting you together and making you move and go.

Robofest 2008 Game "RoboSavers" Randomizer

2008-03-22T19:11:00.009-05:00

I wrote a program to help at the local 2008 Robofest Game "RoboSavers" which is a Randomizer program to setup the play area. You can ask it to randomize for either the junior division (balls stay on the line) or senior division (balls up to 6" from the line). I plan on volunteering in about a month as the scorekeeper.

Update: Randomizer V2

I have to do this

2008-02-20T19:41:00.001-06:00

I am being spammed by my daughter because I haven't updated this blog in forever, but she doesn't realize that my focus for the past two months has been preparing and running the AT&T Austin Marathon last weekend which I've blogged about constantly at Watt's Running

Past Year 2007

2008-01-01T17:35:00.001-06:00

Here is my summary of my blogging over the past year. Two themes that happen day-to-day without any specific posts are my work and my running.

January - Quiet house so I need to find things to do. Hmmm, what to do, what to do...
February - Repaired hot-water heater and house fence w/ Matthew, and completed my 5th marathon.
March - Had colonoscopy and volunteered at Robofest tournament.
April - Got PS3 and monitor at work which was a nice improvement.
May - Found that PS3 game Resistance: The Fall of Man was a bore for me. Hmmm, am I too old for this?
June - My father's birthday party in Buffalo with my family staying at a great Bed and Breakfast in East Aurora was wonderful. A true highlight.
July - nothing much to report, stopped blogging for a while.
August - ditto
September - Started sorting Lego blocks back into kits, also starting building life-size rubberband car for Austin Maker Faire. Started running class for February 2008 marathon.
October - Showed rubberband car at Austin Maker Faire w/ Annelle and Mike. Another true highlight.
November - Continued sorting Lego blocks back into kits.
December - On a month long vacation, helped Matthew clean, paint, and improve his new home, finished sorting Lego blocks back into kits, volunteered at First Lego League (FLL) tournament, had Christmas fun with family and friends. My final true highlight.

Bottom line is that I feel that I'm a person who does very little over an entire year's timeframe - or I just don't post about it. I think the latter is more true.

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

2007-12-31T17:00:00.000-06:00

So far Stephanie and Justin have flown away. Beth and Matthew have driven home. Marylib flew out today. All we have left is Katie who flies out next Saturday. Then it will be back down to the two of us - the nuclear couple. The house is getting quieter and quieter.

Happy Holidays from Austin

2007-12-26T18:44:00.000-06:00

from Justinsomnia: Happy Holidays from Austin

Back: MaryLib (Kathy's mother), Stephanie (Justin's girlfriend), Justin, Katie, and Matthew; Front: Brian, and Kathy

Update: Four previous years of Christmas photos (all courtesy of Justinsomnia).
2006

2005

2004

2003

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care

2007-12-19T22:49:00.000-06:00

Lego Construction 3

2007-12-11T14:37:00.000-06:00

Nearly done... nearly done. I've been saying that over the past few weeks, but somehow I keep finding another kit to extract from the rubble of Lego blocks, plates, tiles, and other parts. Here is what happens. One or two parts in the rubble catch my attention so I look up what kits they are in and I realize that I've got yet other parts that are from that same kit. So TADA I sort that kit, and register the missing parts to be ordered. So another ten kits have been done this way.

Yesterday I received the remaining parts for the 6971 Intergalactic Command Base that I had purchased. That night Katie and I built it while watching some of our favorite TV programs. This morning I took it all apart and re-bagged it. Another one hits the dust.
Here are all the kits that I've sorted (ordered by release date and part count) from the mass of parts I had. For each one I printed the assembly instructions and inventory list and put both of them in a binder. I still have about ten kits that are missing some parts and they are waiting for me to order the parts when I get the money (probably after the holidays).

Number	Title	Year	Part Count	MSRP
7720	Battery Train Set	1980	406	?
6871	Star-Patrol Launcher	1984	66	?
6971	Intergalactic Command	1984	312	?
390	Helicopter	1986	24	?
6845	Cosmic Charger	1986	48	?
6039	Twin Arm Launcher	1988	73	8.50
8832	Roadster	1988	85	?
6590	Vacation Camper	1988	106	?
6054	Forestmen's Hideout	1988	198	17.50
6085	Black Monarch Castle	1988	665	68.00
6675	Road & Trail 4 X 4	1988	793	?
8865	Test Car	1988	892	?
6895	Spy-Trak I	1989	143	15.00
6060	Knight's Challenge	1989	160	22.00
8054	Universal Building Set	1989	194	?
8854	Power Crane	1989	508	?
6896	Celestrial Forager	1990	87	?
6923	Particle Ionizer	1990	187	24.00
8064	Motorized Universal Building Set	1990	211	?
8820	Mountain Rambler	1991	139	?
6261	Raft Raiders	1992	78	13.25
6057	Sea Serpent	1992	117	16.50
6852	Sonar Security	1993	60	6.00

So for now I'm done. I've boxed up the remaining parts, and stored them all in the garage.

FLL Volunteer

2007-12-09T19:07:00.000-06:00

I spent the day as a FIRST Lego League (FLL) volunteer. It was an all day event from 7:15 AM to 5:30 PM. This was a Lego robotics competition called Power Puzzle. There were about 60 teams comprised of 3-10 elementary and middle school children and two adult coaches. I was a judging room monitor. I wasn't a judge. I just helped make the judges better. There were two judges, and two monitors for each room. One monitor worked the door lining up the teams, and the other one did the timing. I was a timer. This allowed me to watch the teams work. As a timer I started the stop watch when the team entered, called out five, two and one minutes to go, and stop when it was all over. I helped in the technical room in the morning where the teams were judged about their robot's design and implementation. Then I helped in the teamwork room in the afternoon where the the teams had to build a non-robotic figure on the spot with movable arms and legs while being judged for their cooperation. There were lots of other things going on, much like a geeky sporting event, including head-to-head non-destructive robot competitions and research presentations/skits. It wasn't hard, but it was fun especially watching the young people being so creative

Pantry Shelves

2007-12-07T07:37:00.000-06:00

Katie and I have been building pantry shelves at Matthew's house this week. A few weeks ago Matthew removed the old wire shelves leaving his kitchen pantry naked. About a week ago I filled in the hundreds of holes left by those old shelves. Last weekend we purchased the wood for the shelving at his nearby Home Depot. We purchased two 4x8 sheets of 3/4" MDF for the shelves (very heavy), and about a dozen 1x2 for the supports. The people at Home Depot used their fancy linear saw to cut the sheets into six 16" strips that are 8' long. Five of them are to be the primary shelves and one of the strips we further cut into four 4" strips for can shelves. This week Katie and I decided to work together while Matthew was at work and build him new shelves. We've had a good time working together on this project. On Monday we taped and painted the pantry white. We also carefully measured and layed-out where each shelf would go. On Wednesday we cut and mounted the 1x2 supports onto the walls. This consists of five primary shelves including a can shelf on the left-hand wall, and four separate intermediate can shelves also on the left-hand wall. We also cut and fitted the shelves for mounting. On Thursday we predrilled and counter-shunk the shelves in preparation for mounting (over one hundred holes). Then we mounted the shelves and caulked around them. For mounting we screwed the shelves into the 1x2 supports and we also screwed the shelves into each other. The caulking took hours because we had to caulk every edge top and bottom and every hole smoothing them all by hand. Our next job is to paint all the new shelving white and to touch up the walls.
Putting up 1x2 supports on Wednesday.We've been spending about five hours each day doing this work, and we probably have five more hours of painting. Somehow I don't think Matthew knew how much work this was when he tore out the old wire shelves. Oh, and have I mentioned that he took out the shelving in the master bedroom closet too. But that's another project. So right now we're his sweat-equity home improvement "elves". We appear after he leaves for work, make a mess, clean up and disappear before he gets home.

Update: See Katie's "This is what I have been up to since I been home" blog entry about painting the pantry shelves.

Lego Construction 2

2007-11-17T17:11:00.000-06:00

I finished building the Power Crane (8854) today. I think this one was Matthew's, but I could be wrong. This is the last kit I have inventoried so far. It is a very neat kit. It does so many things: rolling, steering, pads raise/lower, crane pneumatic lift up/down, crane extend in/out, crane swivel left/right, and hook up/down.
I also think the non-flash picture is cute too.Now I've got to go back and start inventorying the last few kits from the parts that I have, and I'll be done with this "chore". It not been my favorite thing to do. That is I wouldn't go out and buy more kits to build and own. In other words, I wouldn't be doing this unless I had this goal to organize our "family" Legos. But I have found that I've gotten a certain level of satisfaction that I now know that each kit is complete and buildable.

Lego Construction

2007-11-06T23:11:00.000-06:00

After having sorted out thirteen different kits I have been building them to check if I selected the parts correctly. It took me several hours to build each of the following kits. So here is the Black Knight's Castle.And the Auto ChassisIt reminds of the great times we, the children and I, had putting them together. Now to break them down and put them back into their separate bags.

Friends in town 4

2007-10-21T22:25:00.000-05:00

The second day at the Maker Faire was much like the first. However, I had a 10K road race to run. So Mike, Annelle and Kathy went on ahead. I arrived at about 10 AM a bit stiff, but happy to have run a good race. Again we had our same "jobs". The adults and kids loved riding the big car. While riding each would have a big smile on their faces and most would do the "beauty queen" wave - elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist, wrist. After their ride Kathy would give each one a "www.amazingrubberbandcars.com" rubberband wrist band. We did have three big car rubberband failures - sudden snap. But then we had more space and we were making longer and longer runs - tightening the bands more. In about 5 minutes each broken band was removed and a new band was installed. The Faire ended at 5 PM, and we packed up Annelle and Mike and they headed off on their trip home. Wow, what a weekend! We got home and crashed, double crashed - what we learned is that we're no longer spring chickens. But we had so much fun. Now we need a weekend from our weekend.
Update: Me making small rubber band cars with my sweetheart

Friends in town 3

2007-10-21T21:57:00.000-05:00

We're Makers! We have Maker Faire badges - woohoo!. Mike made up gray T-shirts for both Kathy and I with the cover of his book on them. He and Annelle had blue knits shirt with the cover too. We left home at 8:30, got to the Faire at 9 AM, did some last minute setting up and the Faire started at 10 AM. We were in the children's area. Lots of family oriented things were located there. Annelle and Kathy were a great team. Annelle would push the big car back, explain how it worked and Kathy was at the other end as the big car catcher. After the ride Annelle would gently direct them to Mike who would tell them about the book. Very smooth. I was a "maker" sitting on the edge of the booth cutting cardboard, gluing it and making small runner band cars to give out. We did that from 10 AM to 6 PM. Amazing how tiring doing this is. If that wasn't enough... After the Faire closed for the night we quickly closed up and headed to town to see the Newsboys. We got the tickets through Annelle and Mike's daughter. We were right down front. Great seats, and a great time. We got home and crashed - we were exhausted.
Update: Our display just before the crowds arrived
Update: Newsboy Concert showing the drummer on his vertical spinning stand - awesome!

Friends in town 2

2007-10-21T21:12:00.000-05:00

We arrived at the Austin Maker Faire at the Travis County Exposition Center at about 9 AM for setup. Within about 1 1/2 hours we had put together three tables, and decorated them. We positioned the big car out front.We came back home for lunch. On the way back home from Maker Faire I phoned SegCity and made a reservation for a tour of Austin on Segway HTs. At 2:30 we arrived at SegCity, met the 6 other people taking the tour, and our guide, Alexa. We saw a safety video, took a short course on the unit (balancing, turning in place, and negotiating a figure eight around two cones) then we were off on the tour - whee!. For the next 2 or more hours we toured downtown Austin including the City Hall, and the Texas Capital.By the end we were exhausted especially Kathy who had a small spill on the Segway. [Also maybe we should have remembered that for the next two days we'd be on our feet about 8 hours each day - oops] But tired legs didn't stop us from enjoying BBQ at Rudy's

Friends in town 1

2007-10-18T21:00:00.000-05:00

Our friends, Annelle and Mike, arrived this evening. They drove in from Florida, and they are staying with us for the weekend. It is nice to see them again and we've got a busy weekend ahead - every minute is filled. The last time we were together was three years ago, and that time we visited them at their home. More to follow...

Large Amazing Rubberband Car video now on YouTube.com

2007-10-11T06:21:00.000-05:00

See the large Amazing Rubberband Car video now on YouTube.com.

Coming to Maker Faire Austin

2007-10-11T06:04:00.000-05:00

The video has been linked to from boing boing!!? here, here, and here. That's so cool!

and also my son's weblog: here

Thanks Justin for the links.

Car Construction 6

2007-10-07T23:04:00.001-05:00

October 7: WOOHOO! The band clamp and wheels work.Play videoEngineering Change 3: I had a thought, but I'm not going to pursue it. It would be nice to add in a simple one-way ratchet clutch mechanism so that when the car is rolled in reverse it tightens the rubber bands, but when it goes forward it does not. This would stop the roll back as shown in the video. However that would mean we'd need brakes whereas now it's got automatic rubber band breaking.
Next I completed the signage the car, chair and rear wheels. I used brown paper to match with the overall color scheme. I put it through my printer without incident. Also I added flat "bumpers" to the front and rear to finish the ends. On the bumpers I added paper license plate holder and license plate.OK, I think it's ready to go. That is, it's all done. Click on picture to see larger image.
Update: Engineering Change 4: (wraparound drum) To provide more thrust the rubberbands should wrap around a 3" to 4" diameter drum instead of around the 1" axle. Then the drum should be attached to the axle [how to do this is left as an exercise for the "student"]. Using a drum might also make Engineering Change 3 (one-way ratchet mechanism) easier to do.
Engineering Change 5: (seat pins) Since the seat is removal sometimes when pushing the seat to move the car back to wind it up the seat begins to rock backwards. So the car sides should have a way to pin the seat into the sides - maybe just two nails or a 1/4" dowel.

Car Construction 5

2007-10-07T22:56:00.000-05:00

October 6: I've been building the wheel mounts. I've been puzzling about what to do all week. I went over to Home Depot to look around. I was considering (1) using a pipe flange, and (2) using a thick cardboard tube or sleeve. After talking to a great plumbing sales person there I got four 1"x6" pipes (he called them nipples) and four 1" flanges. When I got home I inserted a pipe/flange combo into each wheel. Then slide the pipe over the oak dowel and I've drilled hole in the non-flange end to bolt to the oak axle. I'll tell you more tomorrow once I've attached them to the axles.

Car Construction 4

2007-10-07T22:51:00.000-05:00

September 30: Engineering problem 1 (band slippage) I think is solved. I added a curved metal strip across all the bands.I'm in the process of solving engineering problem 2 (wheel fragility and mount) - I'm making slicks for the tires. I spent a few hours today cutting out more wheel discs and gluing them. I think I actually made the slicks too thick, but I can always cut them down making them thinner. I still have yet so solve how I'm going to attach them to the axles, but I think this is a start in the right direction.BTW, I had to get another gallon of Elmers glue. Also I've just about burned through all my cardboard making the wheel discs. Now I have a nice big pile of scrap.

Car Construction 3

2007-10-07T22:34:00.000-05:00

September 29: I completed the car's final assembly. The results of which are: Car serial number #2 rolled off the assembly line.To accomplish this I sanded down the chair back and seat with a rough circular disk to make it more comfortable.Second, I had to sand down my 1" dowels so that they would fit into the 1" inside diameter bearing. That took a while since they were oak. Next I mounted the front dowel, bearing with filler ring, bearing mounts, and rubber bands onto the chassis. I did this vertically so the bands hung down. Then I cut the "rubber band brace" down shorter so that it extended only 1/2" beyond the width of the body. Next I looped all of the bands around the runner band brace. Finally I tightened pipe clamps to each end of the runner band brace.I want to allow the wheels to be removed (possibly for transport or to access/remove the bearing or rubber bands) so I added two double-thickness cardboard tabbed flange pieces to each wheel. I used hot-melt gun to attached these tabs to the wheel. Then I used a pipe clamp to attached the tabbed wheel to the axle.So the car is done, and I tried it out... At this time I have the following "engineering problems" to solve.

The rubber bands slip on the rear axle. I'm considering (1) adding six small 1/4" diameter dowels, probably 1" long) and then looping each rubber band on one of them. However, the torque on this dowel pin might either damage the band or pop out of the axle. Another idea would be (2) six small rectangular slots in the axle, one for each band. How I'd cut these would be a puzzle (maybe with my router from each side). A 1/4" dowel would restrict the bands from pulling back through. That would definitely work, but would the axle now be too weak.
The wheels and my mounting system is a total failure. The wheels wobbed. Also the torque on the two double-thickness cardboard tabbed flange pieces caused them to rip. I think the wheels are too thin and should be made much thicker (back to the cardboard saw and the Elmers glue gallon jug). I might have to glue the wheels to the axle, but I would like to still allow them to be removed.

Car Construction 2

2007-10-07T22:27:00.000-05:00

September 23: Gluing is underway. I'm using a 2" paint brush to apply the glue liberally and then weights or clamps to hold the pieces together. I am doing all this work in my garage. I've used up 1/3 gallon of glue so far and I have yet to start the chair. All other pieces are glued together though.After completing the chair I now have only 1" remaining in the glue gallon. Whoa! The chair just ate up the glue. I got to say that gluing the 50-60 chair pieces was not a lot of fun. Now I know why I don't do a manufacturing job. The repetitive nature was getting to me during the last 8 pieces. I grabbed anything that would weigh the chair down. Since Matthew has moved in with us we have stored some of his stuff in the garage, for example, some old soccer trophies and barbells.