Tales of a modern life

2012-11-29

NSECT Arduino Anti Aircraft

Just some notes on a possible new project.
Just collecting links and notes and testing the concept at this point.

Status:

Android based computer vision test works.
NSECT not yet recabled to be controlled by an Arduino.
NSECT foam dart gun not yet modified to add more degrees of movement.

Purpose:

Take my old N.S.E.C.T. toy and have an Arduino run it with 2 H-bridges.
Redesign the turret to turn in 2 dimensions.
Then add camera and distance meassuring and computer vision to target low flying quadcopters.

Step 1

Attach 2 H-bridges to an Arduino to control the 2 DC motors for movement.
Then also attach turrent, LED and gripper -controls.
Trying to copy the work of Jeremy Parton here.

Notes:

Jeremy unsoldered the receiver chip and connected the Arduino to the (now free) pads.
"Keep in mind I used resistors (I suspect it was 100 ohm) between the Arduino and the NSECT board.
"I also strongly support converting to an H Bridge instead of the existing relays. As far as I could tell the biggest killer of NSECTs was the start-stop motion and the motors shredding the gears. A soft start would go a long was to extending the life of the gears in the legs."

Step 2

Redesign the foam-dart turrent with 3D printed parts to move in both dimensions.

Step 3

Add an old Android phone with a camera that can speak ADK with the Arduino.
Run OpenCV or similar to detect and track flying objects with the blank sky in the background.
Tell the Arduino the heading. Have the Arduino meassure distance via ultrasound, look up the balistic curve and fire away.

The "OpenCV Sample - color-blob-detection" works well and seems to do the trick!

2012-11-28

Rant about Google Now

My comment on a posting about Google Now got somewhat lengthy, so I'm turning it into a Blog posting:

Would be more amazing if Google Now actually worked.

Completely oblivious to train schedules in my calendar.
Not offering non-local trains to reach my destinations.
Not offering bus schedules in all places I was ever at.
"Leave now" notifications not leading to the corresponding cards (but instead to Google Now in general with a completely unrelated set of cards).
Constant, annoying routes to places I've never heard about, let alone having any intent on going there and to meet people I've never gone to meet in the past (they just happen to be in a village less then 100Km away at the moment).
Oblivious to airplane reservations in calendar, email and the Lufthansa App.
It's a glorified weather app that is limited to the weather where I am instead of where I'm going.

And why is that website insisting on scaling up to be 2x2048px, 2x18" wide? I takes forever to scroll over even one of these giant, multiple screen height photos. The text is practically unreadable that way.

"Google’s going to know when my flight is, whether my package has gotten here yet and where my wife is"
It was completely oblivious of my flight even though flight number, locations and time zones on calender entries,... where there.
It never found out about any of the packages I got standardized tracking emails for. (DHL, DHL-Express, USPS, FedEx, Amazon emails with tracking numbers,... in German and in English.)
It can't even figure out where I live, where I live during weekdays and where I work (despite having Latitude active),
let along who I'm affiliated with. (Even though it probably knows about my Google Accounts and thus the Google+ circles.)

2012-11-22

Thing-o-Matic upgrade to Sailfish/Jetty Firmware

While waiting for my new extruder (because the one I printed myself physically broke before I was able to print my improved, stronger one), I'm upgrading my Thing-o-Matic to the Sailfish firmware everyone is talking about.

First step was to solder the Interface Kit that is collecting dust since at least 2 years.
I did solder some buttons 180° reversed but they work nonetheless.
Interesting fact: The display is black while USB is connected but fine without USB.

Next step: Download and unzip the software.
...takes ages on an old Atom based EeePC despite my flash disk upgrade.

After updating to "MakerBot Motherboard v2.X(Gen4) with Mega 2560" the interface reacts extremely slow and I can't connect via USB anymore. (Solved, see next issue below)
Serveral seconds to register a single key press on the interface kit.
Rebooted the PC, now I can connect but it can't find Toolhead #0 and the console is full of "timeout" messages.
Consequently I can jog but not turn the ABP gelt or move/heat the extruder.
My versions:

Thing-O-Matic with an MK6 extruder (no MK6+), ABP and Gen4 interface kit.
ReplicatorG-0040-windows-r003
"MakerBot Motherboard v2.X(Gen4) with Mega 2560"
Sailfish Firmware v4.1 (r720)
Extruder Controller v3.6, AtMega168 (was way too small to read at first.)
Update: Extruder control firmware now 3.1

Update: Forgot to open cable hell, dismount the extruder control board, so my angled USB plug would fit and upgrade the extruder firmware. The step was not mentioned in the installation manual.
Much faster now, toolhead can be manipulated.
The firmware of the stepper controller is not updated through it's connection to the main board.

New issue: Display width smaller then firmware thinks it is. Extruder and bed do not heat. (solved)
...this is going to be a loooong night.
There is also a problem with ReplicatorG that luckily is of no consequences here. The list of machine types is longer then the display and does not scroll.

Update: Found a setting "onboard prefs"->Motherboard->Misc where the display is set to "20x4" while it is "16x4"
Problem: That dialog is smaller then the screen(1024x600) but the "OK" button is outside the window (I can barely see it's upper corner) and the window cannot be expanded in height. Only in width.
Update: I was able to create a virtual display 768px high and the upper 4-5 pixel rows of the button became visible.

New issue: Display blank when USB plugged it while switching on ToM. Can I move the extruder stepper forward/backward, Belt and jogging controls on the PC now failing.(mostly solved)
Jogging works find on the interface kit, without the PC.
Control Panel in replicatorG suddenly also stopped to display the target temperatures in the graph. Only the current+past temperatures are graphed.
I can move all axes and heat up via the interface kit but not move the extruder stepper forward/reverse.
power-cycled the ToM. Display now stayed on while USB but the offset display ha returned! (Aren't onboard preferenced saved in flash?) ReplicatorG hangs when trying to disconnect to connect anew.
Set display size again, rebooted the ToM. Now all except the extruder forward/revers is working. Why?
After trying to extrude with 1,89 RPM jogging is failing again.
Then jogging resumed, and failed again. It looks like axis-jogging is disabled while it thinks it is moving the extruder (wich is not moving at all).

Last issue: Extruder stepper not moving.
One of the extruder cables had come loose while checking the print on the ATMega168 (to make sure it's not a 368). No changes. Extruder stepper still unresponsive.
Flashing the extruder firmware 3.1 again. Failed. Powering down. Unplugging USB. Trying again. Flashind succeeded.
Issue persists. Extruder stepper does not move and machine has forgotten it's onboard preferences yet again.
Checked the extruder cables. Everything connected correctly.
Tried to uncheck "volumetric 5D extruder" but it did not help.
The DIR LED is glowing but the STEP LED on the extruder controller is constantly off. So this may be a software issue.The fan of the extruder is also off.
I can hear a very faind "thud" noise when pressing "stop" after forward or reverse. So something is happening.
I found this but there is no "extruder hold" in the "misc" tab. for "ThingOMatic w/ABP and Extruder MK6 (Accelerated)".
With "ThingOMatic w/HBP and Steptruder MK7 (Sailfish)" I can disable "extruder hold" and get at least a high pitched sound when the extruder stepper is supposed to be running. However still no movement.
I mistook the heater cables for the extruder stepper cables.
Will test extruder stepper cables and switch axis A=extruder with X and jog on Monday.
If that works, it's clearly a software fault. Question is...what to do if it is?
Solved! It turned out to be a hardware issue.

....(still updating this blog post)

Google+ posting
Software Download
Firmware installation guide
Host software setup guide
Firmware support group

2012-11-21

A fast and foldable 3D printer

Idea

A fast 3d printer that can be folded up for transport.

fast -> don't move the object, move the head
fast -> no bowden extruder (stop/reversal issues)
transport -> include 1 roll of filament inside the case

Brainstorming

Based on the Type A Machines "Series 1" design.
Better to base directly off the ToM to Series upgrade.

The glass plate could get a joint to fold up, flat onto the Z rods.
Use a reprap heated bed instead of the glass plate.

The top XY-assembly be taken off and attached to the backside including the Z rods, now vertical glass plate and the 2 electronics boxes.

The front would become either

just 3 L shaped pylons to support the front of the XY-stage or
a cover for the front that would in transport cover the open XY-stage

Get away with the bottom entirely. One of the electronics boxes would need a hole

for the hot end poking out of the XY-stage.

Since your XY-stage is so thick, the space could be enough to transport a spindle

of filament right inside the case.

(What good is a printer without filament.)

* Blog posting will be constantly updated as this idea matures.*

Upgrade path

Start with the Thing-O-Matic electronics, Z stepper+spindle, small X+Y steppers.
Upgrade later with a reprap sized heated conveyor belt (running left to right) instead of the glass plate/heated bed.

Timeline

DONE:

21.11.2012 - idea formulated, asked Type A about the license of their laser cut files, searching for people willing to help

TODO:

get my Thing-o-Matic extruder working again first.
Start by creating parts in Alibre Design for the X/Y-stage and an assembly from the Series 1 drawings.
give proper named/part numbers to all existing and new parts to efficiently discuss changes.
(planned) 23.11.2012 - design the new laser cut parts needed during a train ride

build tray with joint to folt it 90° up.
detachable top
new front side to act as a cover for the top
right electronics box with hole for the extruder
shorter bottom plate
Makerbot compatible extruder+hot end mount to reuse them until an upgrade to the Series 1 extruder is feasable

(planned) ??? - CNC mill the plywood parts (instead of laser cutting)

Update: I'll postpone this project and do the "regular" ToM to Series1 upgrade first to determine the mechanical load the moving toolhead imposes at high speeds.

2012-11-20

Type A 3d printers as an upgrade path for the ToM

Found an interesting upgrade path from my Thing-O-Matic to a Type A 3d printer.
I planned to sell by ToM and get an Ultimaker. But now the quote from Jetguy made me think about it's bowden concept:
"I've had the vision of creating a fast bot. I've gone the bowden route
in a real Ultimaker frame. The results were less than stellar and
there is a reason why I've abandoned it. It frequently jams or chews
the filament. It is was very dificult to tune any kind of anti-ooze or
stringing and never met my expectations."
While of cause the major plus for a bowden design is the limited mass to be moved and thus the speeds and mechanical stress.

Here is the quote from Jetguy about a possible upgrade path for me:
"
And, as far as bots go, If I had a T-O-M and was shopping for upgrades, you could get someone to cut this frame in plywood for less than $100 (1 sheet of 1/4 inch plywood), then you only need about $100 in parts (8 each LM8UUs 8*$1.75, a smooth rod kit for a mendel $30, 2 5.5kg.cm torque motors 2*$20, 2 608 skate bearings, the Cupcake Y belt, 3 Cupcake Z belts, the 5 36t Gt2 *mm bore pulleys, and finally, a Reprap heated bed. I also used a 360watt 12 volt supply but you could use a PC supply mounted on the back. I call this the ultimate T- O-M upgrade. ...
No need to spend thousands on a new bot, upgrade what you have into a new frame. There were lots of good things about the T-O-M, but now with Sailfish, you can take advantage of a larger build area and different frame for peenies on the dollar compared to buying a new machine.

I'll post every single edited DXF and part up on Thingiverse soon.
I basically gave the BOM above. If I had a T-O-M, this is going to be
a stellar upgrade for those willing to take the leap!!!!
"

Let's see...

Cut the plywood myself on my CNC
I already have LM8UUs and 608 skateboard bearings en masse
I already have a Reprap heated bed (I wanted to use it on my Repman)
get two heavy NEMA17 stepper motors
add *good* smooth rods (consistent diameter, straight)
add a Cupcake Y belt and 3 Z belts (where to source them?)
add 5 pulleys (source?)
a >=360W PC power supply should be easy.
finally: do my own Reprap-sized ABP design with leveling and tightening adjustment bolts.

Contra:

Staying on the Thing-O-Matic and just designing a better ABP is less work
Less that can go wrong.

Pro:

The larger build volume is intriguing.
I already have many of the parts
Extruder, Hotend, Firmware and host-software won't be touched.
When designing my own ABP anyway, I can build a Reprap sized heated titanium conveyor belt.
Update: I found collapsible Type A!!! (The space in the upper part could be designed to hole a spool of PLA when collapsed.)

Sounds possible.

Thinking about it....I think I can design a modified Type A case where

In the Z=max position, the Z-spindle and smooth Z rods can be collapsed into the horizontal plane.
The 4 edges can be collapsed down
The build-surface has a hole for the extruder in the back-left corner
So in the end everything can be collapsed to be as high as the height below the build surface plus the height of the Y-stage.

My Google+ posting
Mailing List Discussion
Homepage
DXF design files for the laser cut parts
COMPLETE DXF files
original design files (Creo Elements / Direct Modelling Express)
Award by Make Magazine

Improving Gaerisls Extruder

The issue

In my first 2 attempty the mounting of the ball bearing simply broke...on both sides.

The solution

I guess I'll design a stronger lever-arm before trying this extruder to replace the unreliable(at least with PLA) in my .
I should also try to print it with 80% infill instead of my usual 25%.

The original is only posted as an STL. Gaerisl didn't post his source files.
So I need to take meassurements and design mine from scratch using Alibre Design 2012. :(
Why do so few people publish their source files to be modified and why don't we still have an interoperable file format for parametric CAD?

Update: Gaerisl based his design on one by Jag and he not only published his source files but even published them as Alibre Design files!!! Life is great!

Update II My strong version is printed. First try worked but I was not perfectly satisfied. So I changed a few meassurements and printed a second time. Uploaded the final version to Thingiverse of cause.

Update III The extruder is working but I found one side of the idler-arm axis to be weak. Also a few smaller issues. Fixed them and am currently generating the G-Code to print a new body. ..it will be a pain to insert the mounting bolts yet again. :( So far the new extruder is working. Only longer prints like this extruder body will show how well it performs regarding manual tension adjustment.

Problem!!! The front part of the extruder main body, holding the axis to the idler arm, broke before I was able to print my improved version. Can't print at the moment. :(

Update IV: testing and how to mount the extruder without going crazy.

Future plans

If the NEMA17 turns out to be too weak, I can still gear it down using this. ;)
When the extruder finally becomes reliable, I can turn to making a proper (tensioned and leveled) Quick-Change ABP belt out of the Quick Change HBP.

2012-11-16

New Extruder

One of the issues I have with the Thing-o-Matic and PLA is that Makerbot Industries uses a bolt pushing a Delrin plunger onto the filament to press it against the rotating drive shaft.
There is no spring involved.
My guess is that this leads to my issues of the filament pressure requiring constant human observation and adjustment as the filament diameter never stays perfectly constant.
So here I am, trying to replace the extruder with a spring loaded design (for the second time).
I tried this once in 2011. Back then I used a geared down design and the gears as downloaded where too small by 1-2mm and would not mesh properly.
This time I'll try a more simple, direct drive design first.
This also has the benefit of not requiring me to reverse the stepper motor as there are no gears to change it's direction of rotation.

2012-11-15

Nexus 7 fails

(I'm not at all unsatisfied with the device. I'm just pointing out where it can be improved. Much needed to have a contrast to all the hype.)

I just got my Nexus 7 32GB 3G.
I wanted a Nexus10 with 3G to have the resolution for camera remote control in FullHD but such a device is not sold.

These are the first few minutes of unpacking:

No SD Slot

We knew about this missing, important feature all along.
Still a huge disapointment.
A tablet is a really nice device to show photos around.
Photos you just took.
But for that you need to get the SD card out of your camera and into the tablet.

Since there is no regular sized USB slot, I cannot attach a card reader.

Packaging

Ripped the case in tryin to open it using the obvious finger-hole.
This could have been a much smoother experience.
Have a look at the clever packaging HTC always did for their models.
(My last one was the HTC "diamond" Touch Pro.)

"Sim Ejection Device"

supplied SIM ejection device....
Looks like a paper clip to me.

Micro SIM fuckup!!!

Dear Google, what about telling me before that this giant tablet needs a fucking *MICRO SIM CARD*????
Inside a slot large enough to fit a regular Mini SIM card and artificially made smaller by an inserted plastic tray.

Personalised

Just a second.... WHY DOES MY TABLET *ASK FOR THE PASSWORD* TO MY GOOGLE ACCOUNT *BEFORE I TELL IT* WHAT MY ACCOUNT IS?
As a company this much under scrunity for having access to way too much data, this leaves a very bad taste.
Of cause it's nice that the device is already personalised to the account that purchased it but this would be much nicer to be in the form of a question asked uppon purchas and/or a personalised engraved name in the case like with the Nexus One.

Wrong translation of the question below "Sie sind nicht *me*?" = "You are not me"?

No Telephony/SMS

There is no telephony app (headset or bluetooth car set) nor an SMS app.

Keys

It takes some getting used to, that the keys now change orientation too and are no longer hardware keys at the left side, where the hand is in landscape.

Free books

It's nice of Google to give me some books for free....but *why are they all in english*? This is a German device with a German power plug shipped to Germany and aparently already customized with a German account.
So why would you gift me books in English?

Missing updates

Google took the time to customize this device with my account...but I still *have to install updates* to the supplied, basic Google apps 24h after it was shipped?
And not "install all updates now" but I have to *open and install each single update* with multiple taps!
Google? These are YOUR apps!

Also: The *update button jumps* as soon as the icon next to it finishes loading.
One more example of how *Google consistently fails to test in slow, unreliable, real world networks* all the time.

There is also a *system update* waiting while it's still busy updating and intalling all the apps.
Why wasn't this shipped with Android 4.2 right away if the software was already customised to my account uppon purchase?

Sound

At maximum the speaker is not very lound.
Barely enough for a movie in a quiet room. Certainly not enough for a room that is not quiet.

Notifications

It's very strange to not get the notifications when pulling down at the top-center like you are used to on a phone. Instead you have to pull down at the top, left edge.

Firefox

Firefox has one major issue. Every time I close a tab or navigate "back", the browser closes. (And the tab stays open)
Seems to be Androiud 4.2 or tablet -specific.

Keyboard

The swiping is nice...but worthless without a good dictionary.
I want my device in German but I type in German and English and sometimes (e.g. quoting or translating or simply using english technical jargon) both.
"Language&Input" has an obvious way to select your second and third language.
(A typical american oversight, one meight say.)
It's hidden in the settings of the specific keyboard even though these dictionaries affect all keyboards.
After installing british and american english, the space bar still the current language but doesn't react to any long press, flinging, dragging or similar to change it. (missing hint)
You have to search the internet to find that after already selecting the additional languages in the settings, you still need to long-press the & key to get a menu, there disable "system language" and select the languages you want to actually use.
(I don't know why you would install keyboard languages you don't want to actually use.)
It also still doesn't support multiple languages at the same time. Bigger issue then a native english speaker may think it is.

Play Store/Android Market

No longer has a menu entry "my apps". (I'm looking for an app I once had installed but that didn't fit onto the phone anymore.)
Screen jitters and freezes during an ap update.
Does not show the app description in widescreen, only in portrait when an update is offered.

Developer options

The developer menu is well hidden now. You need to tap the build-number 7 times to get it to show.
The crash log menu can be activated then to show under "battery status" of all places.

The USB-driver for ADB is the one of the Nexus Galaxy. But that driver doesn't know the USB device ID of the Nexus 7 and has not been updated. So you need to manually select that driver (after becoming or calling an administrator) and ignore the warning that the driver is not compatible with this device.
Who would think of using a Samsung driver for an Asus device?

2012-11-13

workshop vacuum cleaner attachment for CNC - v1.6

I still did not find the time to test the Sailfish firmware for the Thing-O-Matic by Jetty.
Simply because I have to assemble the Interface Kit first and that requires a ton of soldering.

So here I am with the original firmware and all the issues I've come to known, printing my latest version of the workshop vacuum clean attachment.
The last version I tested was V1.3 and I found a number of mistakes in my meassurements.
So I made a number of changes:
The top half is still split into 2 parts, small enough to fit into the tiny Thing-O-Matic build volume.
Left and right half are however now not (only) glued together but also attached using 2 M3 grub screws and have a more complex divider that aligns and interlocks them.
Additional camfers and roundings make the part stronger at little expense in terms of plastic.
I did not change the lower half yet but instead want to fit the upper half first.
Only if it fits well will I 3d print the lower half.
By then I may have found a source for bristles to attach to help in getting all that suction down to the milled part and brush over the blank to dislodge more shavings to be sucked off.

Update: V1.5 of top-left is a bit thin walled and the overhang is quite steep. I should design an easier to print V1.6 .
Update 2: printed. LOTS of issues with the MK6 extruder on the Thing-O-Matic. As usual serveral hours of very careful hand holding was required to keep the filament pressure and still there are major defects.

2012-11-10

CNC lessons learned

Having a great time with the CNC milling machine.
Getting that huge 6x10mm flat end cutter reduced the time from a day's work to a few hours.
Removing 2x2x4 times as much material in the same time.

Now I should look for 3mm flat cutters with rounded edges to replace the not really flat cutter that came with the #YOOCNC #CNC6040.
Currently my surface quality is just up to what my 3D printers produce while it could be so much better.

The biggest problem seems to be silently loosing some steps every now and then.
I should make it a habit to use that cheap mechanical edge finder when switching tools between roughing and details anyway.

The laptop is also too far away from the machine. I want to replace it with a touchscreen based machine mounted to the CNC on an articulated arm.

Attaching the shop vacuum cleaner was a great idea. Next up are an enclosure and bellows to protect the axes from dirt and dust. I'm also looking for a micrometer.

2012-11-09

Selling my Thing-o-Matic

I'm selling my (heavily upgraded) Thing-o-Matic.
Anyone interested?
Interface kit, additional fans against the PTFE tube heating up,
Unicorn pen plotter, PCB milling vice,
automated build platform, Plastruder, ...

2012-11-07

Alternative Thing-O-Matic firmware

After a rant on Google+ Craig Trader pointed out the Sailfish firmware to me.
It seems that a user named Jetty has created an alternative firmware for Thing-O-Matic, Replicator 1 and even the old Cupcake printers that Makerbot seems to have abandoned.
By his account it took 10 month and the prints he shows shure are impressive both in detail and speed.
With my 16-32mm/s his 120mm/s sound just crazy fast!
It also has that pause feature I loved on the RepMan (I started writing it for the ToM firmware but never got to use it there,)

Gnucash Andoid app

Status: Brainstorming

Idea:
An Android companion app to

enter expenses as they happen
expenses are stored templates involving multiple accounts and currencies
the actual values for each split are either to be enterd or a fixed percentage of an already entered value (e.g. 19% sales tax of a petrol purchase for the company car go to a different account)
look up existing transactions and invoices

Prerequisite:

Gnucash (zipped XML) file is stored on a Dropbox or other network storage accessible from the phone
After my first feature request for an official XML Schema was declined, wait for my second one to be accepted.

Possible Solutions:

jGnucash requires JWSDP. No idea on how to port that part of my code Android yet.
OFX import - does not allow split transactions at all
CSV import - does not allow split transactions at all
Gnucash API - C and desktop only. I don't do C anymore and idealy there is no desktop involved.Also: "Unfortunatly there doesn't exist any up-to-date coherent set of documentation."
Gnucash Android app (Sources) doesn't read or write Gnucash files. It only exports OFX.
Wait for the Gnucash team to come up with a network protocol or similar

2012-11-03

Gnucash: "Provide an official XML schema" DECLINED

votes

declined

+1 vote

Provide an official XML schema

(No Status) → Declined

There is an informative RELAX NG schema that describes the current xml file format, which you can use to learn about the xml file format.

It is however impossible to code various accounting constraints in such an xml schema (eg to enforce each transaction has a zero balance). For this reason it is formally strongly discouraged to use any external tool to modify the xml data, unless it does so via the GnuCash api.

So there is no incentive for the GnuCash developers to spend more effort on a more elaborate xml schema.

Geert Janssens: Admin, GnuCash; Yea...right....as if that API even existed for other languages (Java) or for platforms like Android or iOS.; I no longer have the time to maintain my unofficial XML schema that is the basis for a number of automated accounting tools.

Since I can no longer maintain the XML schema, I fear my automatic PDF-invoice-parsing from IMAP-emails, HBCI/Paypal/Wirecard/CSV transaction syncronisation and the unfinished Android+iOS tools based on my jGnucashLib will vanish. :(

2012-10-28

English tv show in German Google Play

Google Play (formerly Android Market) finally started to offer movies in Germany.
BUT only lip synced with German voices.
NO tv shows, only movies.
Certainly no famous, foreign tv shows.

In cones my experiment with MythBusters.

When I was in the US recently, I was offered #usonly tv shows.
I tried to purchase one but my only payment via credit card was possible and all of my existing credit cards where greyed out.

It took me ages but I found a gift credit card to take away at a shop instead of having it shipped.
I had to activate it online and enter an address.
Here I entered my hotel address in the US.

I WAS ABLE TO MAKE THE PURCHASE.

Playing in browser and Android worked while still in the US.

When I returned, I found the browser to no longer work.
I freed up as much space as humanly possible on my phone.
It downloads, it plays!
Very inconvenient because the phone can only hold a single episode at once and only when I have hardly any data on it (no sd card slot to upgrade memory anymore).

One test missing :
Will the next episodes appear and play.
I purchased the entire season and only 3 od the episodes are aired yet.
I ought to get the remaining ones as they are aired.

2012-10-20

Vising San Francisco for Google Mentors Summit

As a mentor in the Google Summer of Code I'm currently visiting San Francisco (Mountain View/Sunnyvale/San Jose) on an invitation from Google.

I'm mostly posting on Google+ up to now, so I'll link the biggest postings here and make this into a proper blog entry later. So keep looking at this posting to see what happens in the next 7 days.

Google+ "twitter like" postings as things happen:

Otterbox reacted to my Google+ posting about a small issue on the train to the airport.
Discovered I can now access a small number of the many us-residents-only Google services.
First day (Arrival, pool party)

posting being updated as things happen

Preparations

Currency: Ordered some cash from my bank. Informed my credit card company that I'll be travelling and that suddenly using the card in the US is not unexpected behavior leading to the card being locked up in automatic fraud detection.

Internet: As a T-Mobile Germany customer roaming in T-Mobile US is surprisingly expensive. So I originally planned to have a T-mobil prepaid SIM-card shipped to the hotel. This would have worked online if it didn't turn out that they would not accept my credit card. Probably because I the billing address is different. Impossible to enter a non-US billing address. One of the other mentors got me a card in a shop and handed it to me on the pool party after arriving. Thanks for that!

Transportation: Originaly planned for public transport with an online-ordered week pass. Ordered a super shuttle to share with 2 other mentors instead.

Power: Checked all gear to work on 110V AC. Only the electric toothbrush doesn't. One Schuko adapter plug and a smaller one that doesn't carry safety ground.

First day

Otterbox: Took a serveral hour train ride to Frankfurt(M) airport. On the train ride the lid on my extremely heavyly used and extremely sturdy Otterbox Defender broke. I posted a short paragraph about it on Google+. Guess what comment I found after arriving and having hotel internet later?
"Otterbox: We might be able to send one of our local reps to bring you some replacement belt clips."
Now that is customer service! Go Otterbox!

Got a tourist guide at the airport. Forgot a tiny, chinese leatherman style tool in my laptop bag. It was supposed to be in the checked in luggage. Had to have the tool thrown into the trash.
Not because of the very tiny knife...but because it had pliers!!!

Met an three other mentor at the airport, taking the same flight. No chance to get to them during the actual flight.

Plane: was cramped. Lots of being buckled in due to turbulences. Having a seat at the window provided for a great view and some photos. I didn't think about the windows being incredibly dirty and having little opportunity to leave my seat because 2 other people would have to wind themself out of their small seats for that.

Immigration: Arriving in the US the waiting line for non-residents for the first of 3 security checkpoints took ages.
I crossed dozens of borders in my live any never had such a bad experience with customs and border control. 3 people handling 4 fully seated panes. A dozen additional stations unmanned.

Hotel: looks nice and small. Pool and fitness room but no saune as you'd expect in a european hotel.
Minor issues with the room (can't figure out how to get the shower to anything but hot+off or cold+on).

Pool party: When I arrived there was a pool party with free food (very spicy), beer and wine. One US made "German style" beer wasn't half bad. Tons of other mentors to talk to but jet lag is a bitch. Got my SIM card.

Summit Day One

Jet lag: It's early in the morning but I can't sleep anymore. Writing this blog post, shower, then maybe I'll try the fitness room...
Finally figured out the shower. You have to turn that thing past cold to reach hot. Simply can't adjust the pressure at all. Very unintuitive. The pool outside is heatet. Had a nice chat with 2 German and one Croatian mentor while swiming off the jet lag. Waiting for breakfast at Google HQ.

Intenet: Tried the new SIM card. Works. 2G is terribly slow. Switched to $3/day for 200MB 4G/3G online. Had to pay $5 for today instead of just the $1 difference. Still unsure about the different understanding that 2G=GSM/GPRS, 3G=UMTS/HSDPA+HSUPA and 4G=LTE in Europe, something else here.
Google Maps on Android switched to miles without asking. Can't make sense of walking distances anymore. Issue is known. There is no way to switch it to metric units. FUCK!!!

TV: looking around the TV channels. I never thought it could be hard to get international news. Except for one documentary everything is so US centric (more so then even expected). Aparently it is considered news that "more and more customers are international..and they use social media".
Less spam about election here and election there in the TV then what I am bombarded with online all the time. (Would they just shut up, elect a president and tell us who it is. DONE. Just like every other country on this planet.)
I am under the impression that being forced to think international in the European Union was the best thing that could happen to us at home. Since you have to support other countries, languages and currencies (pre-Euro and now still the UK-Pound) anyway it makes no sense to exclude the rest of the world in anything for us. Here it's like the rest of the planet doesn't even exist. Adresses are assumed to contain a state as a mandatory field. Credit cards assumed to have US residential addesses. Adresses have no country field. Phone numbers only one format and no international prefix ever.
Being locked into their own ~~bullshit~~ imperial metrics, AM/PM times and strange date formats (day/month/year) doesn't help.

Swimming: Excersized a bit with a Romanian, then swam and talked with 2 Germans. We are the only people with compatible jet lag to do such a thing at that hour.

Shuttle: to breakfast at the Google Campus was late. There where supposed to be shuttles every 15 minutes starting at 8:00. First shuttle came at 8:45. It was something that could happen only at Google.
The shuttle had Google colored interior lighting and ...Wifi. ...and power sockets. ...and wide tables for laptops. ...and a restroom.

Google Campus: Tons of very creative food. Especially in the BBQ later. Finding the rooms for the sessions took security a lot of extra work because they had to make sure us mentors never wandered into any region of the building where where not supposed to be in.

Visited the Google store but didn't find anything. Usefull things where very expensive. Nice things where Google labeled instead of Android (Sorry, I don't wear company names.), for women or again too expensive.

A great deal of talking with a great deal of very interesting people.
They had some strange birds that took the role of the pesting sparrows, sea gulls or pigeons we have at one. Made some photos but it was difficult to get them in the sunlight to see the shimmering green feathers. They prefered to stay in the shadows.
Didn't get to see much of the campus as where where not supposed to wander around.

Androids: During the lunch break there was supposed to be a group walking to the famous Androids in the garden. I looked and looked but couldn't find that group and missed it. :( Would have loved a photo of me in front of them.

chocolate: Today we're supposed to bring chocolate from all over the world.

Group photo: I was supposed to bring my camera with the super sharp Leica lens for the group photo. In the end someone else did it with a very old Canon camera. I did one with mine as well but everyone looked slightly to the left into his camera. He told me, he hopes that everything would be in focus as he used manual focus and 1/40th of a second. I used 1/640th and was further away using the extremely fast and accurate 240fps autofocus to not have this issue.

Best Buy: Went with 2 others to Best Buy. Quite small. They got themself 3 Kindles. I didn't find anything I could use. On the way back we stopped by a pharmacy bcause the spicy food of the last day had caused an allergic reaction. I noticed one thing while shopping:
At home you know the brands, the packaging and colors. So it takes you a glimps and you know what all shelves in an aisle are about.
Here you don't recognize anything. You take a single shelf at a time. The large names don't tell you anything. So you have to actually read the finer print, telling you what the purpose of a thing is of a number of items to know what to except in a shelf. One item at a time, one shelf at a time.
Finally found what we're looking for.

Home Depot: Walked 40min to and 40min back from Home Depot at 20:00. Missed the food (still hurting due to excessive eating). Got myself a very heavy set of thread cutters. 1/2"-13NC, 3/8"-16NC, 5/16"-18NC and 1/4"-20NC. Also 5/32" to 1/2" hex sockets (opposite of the hex keys I already have) and a 15 pieces, imperial, titanium drill bit set. Also 1/4-20 T-nuts (get a metal thread into a wood piece) and 2 small 1/4" threaded rods.
All the tools a metric rebel needs to sabotage imperial star destroyers.

Otterbox: No reply yet. Asked the receptin and they did not get any deliveries.

Summit Day Two

Yosemite: Have to pack everything and check out before heading for Google.

Otterbox: Got an email (on a sunday!!!) asking about where to meet to get a replacement belt clip. They are leaving it for me at the hotel reception (in person) as this is the simplest option given my travel arrangements. I've never seen such a great level of customer service. I didn't even ask for such a thing. I just mentioned the accident on G+ and they suddenly asked me.

Android: Had a few minutes for myself and finally managed to do self portraits in front of the famous Android figures. ...in 3D!

Group: Looks like we are now 5 instead of 4 people. 4 indians, 1 belgian and myself. Quite interesting to talk about bollywood movies with people from india. :) Got a slightly bigger car. Else our luggage would hardly fit.

Trip: Jet lag kicked in hard. I could only navigate using the phone but not drive. Stopped by at a Red Robert burger on the way. Ice tea was bad and the burgers took ages. On the wall they had hung up everything they could find in terms of images. Keith Herring next to Mickey Mouse next to Leonardo Da Vincy next to 1960th advertisements.

Yosemite Inn: Free Wifi and it looks like they have the same strange shower controls where you can't change the temperature and amount of water independently. Will have to get used to that.

Yosemite on Monday

Jet lag: Finally seems to get better. Was able to sleep again after waking up way too early.

Breakfast: Very basic self-service breakfast in the Inn...but they had DIY waffles!!!! :)
Thinking aout river rafting but the weather is very cool and rainy and it's quite expensive. Planning what to do all day in this weather.

Yosemite: It rained all day and the fog was obscuring the higher mountains. Still took a metric ton of 2D and 3D photos. Quite impressed that the deer are not minding the people at all. They literary graze next to you and walk past without giving so much as a glance to the noisy tourists.

Cabin: Registration desk hat free, hot chocolate!!! Splitting up into 2 cabins at different parts of the camping ground. Taking all food and food packaging out of the car (bears). Cabin is small but warm.

Fireplace: There is a central cabin with interet and a large fireplace. Very cozy. It has free wifi but someone seems to be taking up all bandwidth. Trying to split up the cost among our group. While all the others are calculating, I'm writing this blog post and comparing Mtn Dew diet vs. regular. ...tastes completely different to the one we have in Europe without the corn syrup.

Otterbox: Just got a mail that the one I ordered from Amazon (as a first reflex before blogging about it) arrived just after I had checked out. It will be returned to sender as Otterbox has offered a free replacement and just delivered it to my hotel for the nex day in person. I've never seen customer service like this.

Sweets: trying my way through the world of local sugar bars. Butterfinger gets stuck in your teeth, Hershey pretty dull. KitKat is smaller then at home. I like the larger M&M made of corn.
Lacking the time to test local beers and wine properly.

OpenStreetMap: no cellphone reception, so I collected a GPS track of the hiking trail to mirror lake. Compared it with the map later. Turned out OSM was very accurate. Will see if all tents exist in Camp Curry and if they have their number tagged as addr:housenumber.

Pizza: Later that night we had Pizza in Camp Curry. We could eat inside but you had to go outside to order. While waiting I imported the photos of the day into my laptop.... Had to free up space multiple times.

Lodge: At the lodge the lock to the communal showers was broken ans the two power sockets where so close to each other, that I could not fit adapters for German power plugs into both at once. Lots of additional blankets provided. Very cozy.
Wrote some postcards for the folks at home. Hope it's no problem that I added the Yosemite stamp on them way outside the stamp area.

NASA AMES on Tuesday

Woke up: Way early again. Shower and typing this Blog posting. Jet lag seems to be getting better. At least it's a reasonable 6am and not 2 or 4am anymore.
Weather conditions will determine what exactly we can do today regarding Yosemite and NASA.

Sorry, NASA AMES had to be canceled.

Frys: Driving incredibly slow (compared to Germany) on endless, boring, straight roads. Skipped NASA but not skipping a visit to a Fry's electronics shop.
Cool toys at reasonable prices but way too large for airport luggage. :(
They only have a few Canon and Nikon lenses. No Panasonic or Olympus lenses at all.
One interesting travel-tripod but without an equally lightweight head that's a mood point.
Most interesting stuff requires mains power (110V US-plug) or is too large or too heavy.
Nice electronics meassurement tools but too expensive and again, 110V and too large/heavy.
Got a nice leatherman-style mini-tool with integrated flahslight. Will have to create a belt-pack for it myself as none is included. I expected to find more interesting stuff. :/

Otterbox: They have outdone themself. I expected a replacement belt clip at the reception. Instead I got a whole Otterbox backpack, 2 belt clips and 2 new silicone cases as well!!! I can't believe customer service like this exists. Don't forget that I didn't even ask them but just mentioned the small mistake in a Google+ posting. ..that they replied before my plane even landed. And that I got a response from a local representative on a sunday! You Otters rock!!!

Wednesday in San Francisco

Woke up way early to get to the Golden Gate Bridge at sunrise.

Headache...I should sleep, eat and dring more. Something else then testin my way through pop tarts, softdrinks and hamburger chains could be a good idea.

Wanted to try Google Wallet payment at a Radio Shack in San Francisco but being a German I don't see the Google Wallet App in Android Market.
Google Play *does* show me the current edisode of MythBusters and has a buy-season button because I'm in the US... but it doesn't accept my German Credit Card for payment.
#USOnly sucks. Especially if you are in the US but still can't use it.

Submarine: Taking my flash to visit the submarine at pier 43. Very simple design but surprisingly comfortable. Much more so then the German submarines I've seen. Very well lit too. Flash not required at all.

Thursday in San Francisco

Cash: Out of cash in the morning. I don't have my PIN code for the Mastercard to get any. Cashback in shops requires the PIN too. Changed 10eur at a heart stopping rate of 1:1 instead of 1:1.35 at Pier39.

Aquarium at the bay: Opens too late (at 10:00). Must skip this. Should have checked this earlier. My mistake.

USS Hornet: Bus more expensive then expected. Just enough cash to make it if I take BART via Credit Card for the way back. Got a tour of the island+bridge+admirals quarters. Very simple technology but then again, this is a WWII aircraft carrier made in the US.

Noisebridge: OMG, OMG, OMG!!! I've never seen a hackerspace this large! Electronics area, kitchen area, 2 lecture rooms, sewing area, member boxes, ... . Found out that despite asking on the mailing list, German Corner was yesterday an not as advertised. By chance a number of German speakers and learners showed up anyway and we had a great night. Fixed my cach issue by buying cider with my CC and everyone paying their share to me in cash.

Google Play: Found a $25 gift Mastercard in a late night store. Finally a way to pay my Mythbusters and see if that purchase stays valid when I leave the US. Result here.

Leaving on Friday

Breakfast: Decided to spoil myself on this last day in SF. "NY style" cheese pancakes with strawberries and cream. Also gingerbread hot chocolate. ...no way to eat it all. Way too much food for a single plate.

Checkout: Took a massage chair at the hotel to loosen up my muscles as much as possible before carrying the heavy bag and sitting still for 12h. Prepared all receipts and a piece of paper with the sum in USD and EUR (using the official customs exchange rate for this month) to speed up customs when entering Germany again.

Airport: Security is very fast. Only a few seconds per person. No problems. Luggage is at 30lbs. 40 is included. No problems there too despite the heavy tools.

Internet: OMG! SFO has free Wifi and power plugs!!! Problems using it on the smartphone to download the Mythbusters videos I purchased but seems to work on the laptop. Can't free enough space on the laptop to download them. :( Precaching at least on of the 3 episodes on my laptop. Hope this works.

2012-10-02

Vespucci - Android OpenStreetMap editor version 0.8 released!!!

New version 0.8 of the vespucci OSM editor released in Android market.

* New Honeycomb style Action Bar user interface, even on pre-HC devices.
* New EasyEdit editing mode that unifies all previous editing modes (which are still available for now) into one mode.
* Support Undo/Redo.
* Show way direction.
* Support way reversal and deletion.
* Add JOSM preset support in tag editor, customisations can be added.
* When tracking position, the direction you're pointing/travelling is shown.
* Export GPS tracks as GPX files.
* Transfer/Other Location shows coordinates of last location.
* Allow installing to SD card.
* Allow nothing as a background, drop Osmarender.
* Allow downloaded data to be saved as a JOSM-compatible OSC file.
* Add support for Croatian, Danish, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Spanish, and Russian languages in addition to the existing Czech, English, French, German, Hungarian, and Italian languages.
* Add crash error reporting using ACRA.
* Support alternate OpenStreetMap API servers.
* Many other bug fixes and improvements.

Update: We had(have?) some issues with Android Market handing out the old 0.7 version instead of the new 0.8 and 0.8.1 .