The Geeky Nerdy Project Page

[Sophie 22,991]

2 minutes ago, Xanthous Gaze said:

This is my favorite programming meme. Writing Computer and Robot programs are something I have NEVER enjoyed doing, because I'm always at my very wits end up to my deadlines struggling just to get something that works. 😬 If you have ever written code and you have experienced the insanity inducing frustration, that is programming. I'm sure you will appreciate this to. 

 

or we fixed it... and we don't know how!

[Euro 310]

15 minutes ago, Xanthous Gaze said:

This is my favorite programming meme. Writing Computer and Robot programs are something I have NEVER enjoyed doing, because I'm always at my very wits end up to my deadlines struggling just to get something that works. 😬 If you have ever written code and you have experienced the insanity inducing frustration, that is programming. I'm sure you will appreciate this to. 

 

This is not just about Programming, This is human culture IE We are, sadly, as humans, disinclined towards working together unless there is a common interest ( or common failure? )

Having said that, It's good that we can laugh about it...? Well mostly... ish

[likesToLick 9,716]

Here is one of my nerdy projects - a vintage one from 1977, when I was a teenager doing a computer science degree at university.  I was just getting into the concept of building my own personal computer,  in the days before anyone had ever heard of Apple or Microsoft,  and one of the tools I needed was a logic probe. 

After paying the rent on my shared flat,  the utility bills, bus fares and groceries,  I didn't have much budget left for education.  I couldn't possibly buy electronic test equipment, so I made this one from a circuit design published in a magazine.

Apart from the two chips, the LEDs and the transistors, everything in it was scrounged.  The resistors and capacitors are from broken radios and scrapped mainframe computers. The base is a piece of old veroboard, and the probe tip was made from a darning needle,  strapped to the board with single strand copper wire and soldered in place.

It works with TTL voltage levels,  lighting the red led for a logic zero,  and the green for a logic one.   The amber led is a pulse catcher,  which will light for half a second if the probe is in contact with a pulse of 1 microsecond or more.

I'm pleased to report that after 45 years,  it still works,  and I never did need to buy a commercial one. 😃

[likesToLick 9,716]

On 3/4/2023 at 11:43 AM, Xanthous Gaze said:

If you have ever written code and you have experienced the insanity inducing frustration, that is programming. I'm sure you will appreciate this to. 

The Programmer's Lament

I've had it with this damned machine.

I wish that they would sell it.

It never does quite what I want,

But only what I tell it !

[Sophie 22,991]

I coded a little thing for funsies.

It calculates the gear ratios of my daughters bike (or any bike with a little tweaking), and then spits out the ratio for each chairing/sprocket combination, along with the speed she would be doing if she pedals at X rpm (default is 90 if no cadence is entered) For example, if she becomes super human and spins the cranks at 1000 RPM she would do anywhere between 65 and 230 MPH!!

#! /usr/bin/python3
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import argparse

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="Gear Ratio Calculator")
parser.add_argument("cadence", nargs="?", type=int, help="Speed", default=90)
args = parser.parse_args()
cadence = args.cadence


def calculate_ratios(cadence):
    chainrings = [24, 34, 42]
    cogs = [28, 24, 21, 18, 16, 14]
    ratios = []

    for ring in chainrings:
        print("")
        for cog in cogs:
            ratio = round(ring / cog, 2)
            ratios.append(ratio)
            rpm = round(ratio * cadence * 60, 2)
            distance = 2.050 * rpm
            speed = round(distance / 1609, 2)
            print(f"{ring}-{cog} {ratio:.2f}   {speed:>5.2f} MPH") 

   

    print("")


calculate_ratios(cadence)

Quote

24-28 0.86    5.92 MPH
24-24 1.00    6.88 MPH
24-21 1.14    7.84 MPH
24-18 1.33    9.15 MPH
24-16 1.50   10.32 MPH
24-14 1.71   11.76 MPH

34-28 1.21    8.32 MPH
34-24 1.42    9.77 MPH
34-21 1.62   11.15 MPH
34-18 1.89   13.00 MPH
34-16 2.12   14.59 MPH
34-14 2.43   16.72 MPH

42-28 1.50   10.32 MPH
42-24 1.75   12.04 MPH
42-21 2.00   13.76 MPH
42-18 2.33   16.03 MPH
42-16 2.62   18.03 MPH
42-14 3.00   20.64 MPH

 

[Scot_Lover 1,777]

This is my nerdy place , M is rarely seen in here, lol.

Windows 11 pc running FLStudio (I’ve had this forever, lifetime free upgrade is a wonderful thing) with a launchpad in performance mode. 

The other pc is FreeBSD running Audacity as a sampler. 
I can edit out bits of mp3 files and load them as samples into FL Studio, pretty much on the fly. 
 

Semi retirement is another good thing, so much free time.

 

[Sophie 22,991]

This isn't really a project but I hope it is okay to share here.

I have a SDR, or Software Defined Radio. It's essentially a USB dongle that lets me connect an antenna and listen to all sorts of different radio signals. A bit like the FM stereo you have at home, but on steroids.

Right now I am tracking a weather balloon! It has a little transmitter on it and I can pick up the signal it is transmitting, and with some nerdery and a little software I can see where it is on a map, how high it is, how cold it is etc. There are websites out there that do this, but I am doing it with my own device, no internet required. I think it's awesome!! I am more than happy to go into more detail about my setup or anything else if anyone is interested.

 

 

[DoctorDoctor 1,064]

1 hour ago, Sophie said:

This isn't really a project but I hope it is okay to share here.

I have a SDR, or Software Defined Radio. It's essentially a USB dongle that lets me connect an antenna and listen to all sorts of different radio signals. A bit like the FM stereo you have at home, but on steroids.

Right now I am tracking a weather balloon! It has a little transmitter on it and I can pick up the signal it is transmitting, and with some nerdery and a little software I can see where it is on a map, how high it is, how cold it is etc. There are websites out there that do this, but I am doing it with my own device, no internet required. I think it's awesome!! I am more than happy to go into more detail about my setup or anything else if anyone is interested.

 

 

Very cool, @Sophie.  Can I ask what kind of USB SDR you use?  Have you done any satellite work?

[Sophie 22,991]

14 hours ago, DoctorDoctor said:

Very cool, @Sophie.  Can I ask what kind of USB SDR you use?  Have you done any satellite work?

I use a RTL-SDR Blog V3 paired with a Moonraker Skyscan discone antenna in the loft. I haven't done any satellite work yet, I have managed to pick up the signal from one of the NOAA satellites but I am not set up yet to capture the APT images they transmit. I need to set up my dipole antenna in a V configuration and it needs to be outdoors. It is something I wish to do though, I have all the software ready, satellite predictions etc, I just need to be prepared and sit outside.

[DoctorDoctor 1,064]

5 hours ago, Sophie said:

I use a RTL-SDR Blog V3 paired with a Moonraker Skyscan discone antenna in the loft. I haven't done any satellite work yet, I have managed to pick up the signal from one of the NOAA satellites but I am not set up yet to capture the APT images they transmit. I need to set up my dipole antenna in a V configuration and it needs to be outdoors. It is something I wish to do though, I have all the software ready, satellite predictions etc, I just need to be prepared and sit outside.

Cool setup.  The ISS telemetry is easy to hear when it passes over your location with even a small outdoor antenna.  There is also ADS-B for aircraft and AIS for ships depending on your location to marine areas.  All fun and fairly strong signals to receive.

[Sophie 22,991]

2 hours ago, DoctorDoctor said:

Cool setup.  The ISS telemetry is easy to hear when it passes over your location with even a small outdoor antenna.  There is also ADS-B for aircraft and AIS for ships depending on your location to marine areas.  All fun and fairly strong signals to receive.

Yeah I've done ADS-B and AIS! Had more luck with the ADS-B than the other. ISS telemetry? All I've found on Google is things like SSTV and ham radio contacts. I can see telemetry?

[DoctorDoctor 1,064]

1 hour ago, Sophie said:

Yeah I've done ADS-B and AIS! Had more luck with the ADS-B than the other. ISS telemetry? All I've found on Google is things like SSTV and ham radio contacts. I can see telemetry?

Main telemetry is Ku band satellite.  It used to send data burst with GPS position every 2 seconds on 145.825 MHz when no amateur radio stuff was active.

[gldenwetgoose 20,208]

8 hours ago, Sophie said:

Yeah I've done ADS-B and AIS! Had more luck with the ADS-B than the other.

I love that ADS-B shows mil traffic as well as all those boring bus trip passenger flights.

Yes, you can track Doris heading off to Benidorm - or you can watch Typhoons (other inferior military products are also available) blatting around the skies of Europe.

[oliver2 3,896]

Just now, gldenwetgoose said:

I love that ADS-B shows mil traffic as well as all those boring bus trip passenger flights.

Yes, you can track Doris heading off to Benidorm - or you can watch Typhoons (other inferior military products are also available) blatting around the skies of Europe.

What about large waterbirds?

[gldenwetgoose 20,208]

3 hours ago, oliver2 said:

What about large waterbirds?

Well I guess so - but the Hughes Spruce Goose isn’t flying any more. 

There is the V-22 Osprey, or lots of land based bird names too. 

[Kupar 12,317]

5 hours ago, oliver2 said:

What about large waterbirds?

I guess there might be the occasional radio-tagged migrating bird: https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/cuckoo-tracking-project/tracking-technology  

[gldenwetgoose 20,208]

This is by no means a geeky project...

But I've just discovered that my Mac Mini can output sounds to two different destinations at the same time.

So I can have the headphone output plugged into my audio amp and decent speakers, to play music, Youtube, porn clips etc in glorious high quality stereo.  And at the same time my built in crappy speaker or monitor speaker can be giving me notification chimes etc.

That means when I don't have the amp switched on I don't need to mess about unplugging the audio lead.  Result.

 

[Sophie 22,991]

3 minutes ago, gldenwetgoose said:

This is by no means a geeky project...

But I've just discovered that my Mac Mini can output sounds to two different destinations at the same time.

So I can have the headphone output plugged into my audio amp and decent speakers, to play music, Youtube, porn clips etc in glorious high quality stereo.  And at the same time my built in crappy speaker or monitor speaker can be giving me notification chimes etc.

That means when I don't have the amp switched on I don't need to mess about unplugging the audio lead.  Result.

 

Can you choose what media comes through which device?

[gldenwetgoose 20,208]

Just now, Sophie said:

Can you choose what media comes through which device?

Seems like system tones - and I think the 'bleep' when you posted just then comes to the displayport monitor and any streaming audio goes to the headphone port.   So I can be watching youtube with sound on speakers and tones on the monitor.   Or external amp switched off, so no music etc but still getting tones on the monitor.

 

[Sophie 22,991]

1 minute ago, gldenwetgoose said:

Seems like system tones - and I think the 'bleep' when you posted just then comes to the displayport monitor and any streaming audio goes to the headphone port.   So I can be watching youtube with sound on speakers and tones on the monitor.   Or external amp switched off, so no music etc but still getting tones on the monitor.

 

That's awesome!

On my Linux setup I think I have it set to automatically mute the speakers and lower the headphone volume to 50% when I plug in my headphones, but I don't believe I have a way to have different things through different devices.

[gldenwetgoose 20,208]

2 minutes ago, Sophie said:

That's awesome!

On my Linux setup I think I have it set to automatically mute the speakers and lower the headphone volume to 50% when I plug in my headphones, but I don't believe I have a way to have different things through different devices.

Hmmm....   Seems on mine that Peefans tones go to the headphone output (so none when amp is off), but email alerts etc go to the 'always on' speaker.  Not a big problem I guess.

The keyboard volume controls work the headphone output level, the only way to adjust the alert volume is through the settings window.   

 

[Sophie 22,991]

I believe this counts as a geeky nerdy project? Please honk at me @gldenwetgoose if it doesn't!

I am planning on buying a mini lathe in the near future, once I have somewhere suitable to put it really, but I have already started designing parts for it! The very first thing I have designed (and likely needs some tweaking) is a tap follower. For those who do not know, one end of this device goes into the back of the lathe and the pointy bit is spring loaded and goes into the little hole at the back of a tap. This allows me to keep the tap perfectly straight while cutting threads, and the spring means I don't have to constantly wind out the tailstock with every revolution. Super handy!

Here is my design. It's basically a hollow tube with a plunger inside, a sharp tip to go into the tap, a spring at the other end and a cap to stop everything falling out. I might make the body out of aluminium with a brass cap for style points, and I will likely make the tip out of steel just for longevity. There is a small groove cut into the tip to indicate when I have ran out of travel as a reminder to wind in the tailstock a little more. This just fits into the drill chuck (which has the benefit of being able to be used in anything with a drill chuck) but once I get more experienced I might make another with a Morse Taper 2 that fits directly into the tailstock.

If you have made it this far without falling asleep out of sheer boredom, I thank you!

[Kupar 12,317]

19 hours ago, Sophie said:

I am planning on buying a mini lathe in the near future, once I have somewhere suitable to put it really, but I have already started designing parts for it! The very first thing I have designed (and likely needs some tweaking) is a tap follower. For those who do not know, one end of this device goes into the back of the lathe and the pointy bit is spring loaded and goes into the little hole at the back of a tap. This allows me to keep the tap perfectly straight while cutting threads, and the spring means I don't have to constantly wind out the tailstock with every revolution. Super handy!

It looks lovely 🙂 Two questions though. First (and I realise I must have missed something obvious here), the tip is smooth, but doesn't the follower need to transmit torque to the tap? And second, how will you calculate the spring force required?

(That need to have a lathe is growing irresistible now isn't it?!)

Edit: I think I just realised my mistake - you're turning the tap by hand, and the lathe is just being use to keep everything straight. Doh! (And, of course, the spring force isn't particularly important as long as everything moves smoothly.) Ignore me!

Edited November 20, 2023 by Kupar
Corrected daft error!

[likesToLick 9,716]

On 11/19/2023 at 11:31 PM, Sophie said:

I am planning on buying a mini lathe in the near future, once I have somewhere suitable to put it really, but I have already started designing parts for it! The very first thing I have designed (and likely needs some tweaking) is a tap follower. For those who do not know, one end of this device goes into the back of the lathe and the pointy bit is spring loaded and goes into the little hole at the back of a tap. This allows me to keep the tap perfectly straight while cutting threads, and the spring means I don't have to constantly wind out the tailstock with every revolution. Super handy!

Hi @Sophie .  You might find this video from Blondihacks interesting.   She has some useful thoughts about the design,  including making a reversible tip that has both convex and concave centres for large and small taps respectively.

I would also suggest making a concave centre in the back of the tap follower,  as you can then drive it with a standard tailstock centre as supplied with your lathe, instead of needing the elaborate holding device that is shown in your example picture.

That's great to hear that you are planning to get a mini lathe.  If I may make a suggestion about that,  I would recommend that you buy the biggest lathe that you can fit into the space you have available.  

The reason I suggest this is that the tooling you will eventually buy to go with the lathe will cost the same regardless of the lathe being small or large,   and the tooling will cost at least twice as much as the basic lathe did,  so there will be very little difference in cost over the long term,  but,  if you have a small lathe,   you will be constantly frustrated by its limitations.

I have a 10 inch (swing diameter) Chinese engine lathe which came fully loaded with accessories, and cost less than an equivalent 3 inch Sherline lathe,  while being much more versatile.

You can make small things on a large lathe,   but you can't make large things on a small lathe.

I also have a 90 year old Webster Whitcomb watchmaker's lathe for small work.   It still works well,  but accessories are very expensive and almost impossible to find. 

Please feel free to send me a PM if you want to chat about your lathe plans,  or hear about any of the issues (and mistakes) I have had with mine.

 

[Sophie 22,991]

16 hours ago, Kupar said:

It looks lovely 🙂 Two questions though. First (and I realise I must have missed something obvious here), the tip is smooth, but doesn't the follower need to transmit torque to the tap? And second, how will you calculate the spring force required?

(That need to have a lathe is growing irresistible now isn't it?!)

Edit: I think I just realised my mistake - you're turning the tap by hand, and the lathe is just being use to keep everything straight. Doh! (And, of course, the spring force isn't particularly important as long as everything moves smoothly.) Ignore me!

You are completely correct with your edit! It's basically so I don't have to use three hands. One to turn the chuck, one to hold the tap stationary (or block it with a piece of wood or something) and another to turn the tailstock at the same time.