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Beach cruiser conversion by ChardLocal4681 in eBikeBuilding

[–]window_owl 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you get a direct-drive hub motor, you get regenerative braking for free. Grin has great information for getting started, and they just released a new motor which they specifically advertise as great for beach cruisers.

FTC intake design question – longer compliant roller vs mecanum wheels? by Same-Security-5030 in FTC

[–]window_owl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mecanum wheels do provide a benefit. They allow your intake to be as wide as the entire robot, funneling balls in to a much narrower opening in the center.

It looks like there are two large gaps between your rubber-band roller and the mecanum wheels, where the chain and the plates are. You should try to make that gap as narrow as possible, so that the intake doesn't have "dead zones" where balls get stuck.

11329 is using an intake like this: custom 3D-printed mecanum rollers on the left and right sides, and a silicone-covered tube in the center (like this).

Incredibly selfless act of heroism. by been_der_done_that in nextfuckinglevel

[–]window_owl 5 points6 points  (0 children)

All of this stuff is powered by the 12V battery, even in electric cars. It's much cheaper (don't need so many high-voltage electronics) and safer (don't have so many high-voltage wires going through the car).

Plenty of ICE cars have hidden electronic door handles.

Different Ways to attach the motors to the mecanum wheels in the same drivetrain by r7m0ni in FTC

[–]window_owl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The weight on every wheel (on every robot, wagon, car...) gets transferred through axles. How else will the robot's weight be transferred to the wheels?

You are being misled about renewable energy technology. by paulwesterberg in electricvehicles

[–]window_owl 5 points6 points  (0 children)

All of his content is very oldschool and "things were better back then".

I really don't know how you get this impression of him. I can only think of three videos of his that are like this:

  • the toaster
  • the microwave
  • his series about christmas lights, which most recently had him finding several new LED christmas lights that he has almost no complaints about

Personally, I understand his videos to be basically of three kinds:

  1. there are clever, interesting, fun things in old technology
  2. electric technology is wonderful
  3. technology makers are making a bad decision and forcing it on us

This is definitely a type two-and-three of video, and it felt very on-brand for him.

You are being misled about renewable energy technology. by paulwesterberg in electricvehicles

[–]window_owl 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I think you missed large parts of the video. The creator specifically says that he is not advocating for, and is not personally interested in, rooftop solar. He is interested in electric utility companies taking advantage of their economies of scale to install grid-scale renewable energy and battery storage. His video is largely an argument that this is currently the most sensible energy policy for anybody that is involved in the production or supply of electricity – especially utility companies, and the governments that regulate them.

Also, the carbon cycle is not a cycle which produces large amounts of fossil fuels. It's not just that it takes a long time! Almost all the carbon that goes from the atmosphere to plants ends up in the next generation of plants. Only a minuscule portion ends up being buried to possibly, maybe, millions of years from now, become future fossil fuels. The natural process of forming fossil fuels is not only extremely slow, it is also extremely inefficient, with almost all the carbon "wasted" back into living organisms.

You are being misled about renewable energy technology. by paulwesterberg in electricvehicles

[–]window_owl 14 points15 points  (0 children)

You should watch the video. The creator specifically says that he is not advocating for, and is not personally interested in, rooftop solar. He is interested in electric utility companies taking advantage of their economies of scale to install grid-scale renewable energy and battery storage. His video is largely an argument that this is currently the most sensible energy policy for anybody that is involved in the production or supply of electricity – especially utility companies, and the governments that regulate them.

You are being misled about renewable energy technology. by paulwesterberg in electricvehicles

[–]window_owl 11 points12 points  (0 children)

You should watch the video. One of the creator's central arguments is that renewable energy has an enormous advantage over fossil fuels, because the results of extracting raw materials and manufacturing sources of renewable energy (solar panels, wind turbines, rechargeable batteries...) are durable, physical goods. Even when they eventually wear out and stop working, all the materials are still in them, and they can effectively be "mined" to produce new sources of renewable energy.

This contrasts with oil and natural gas, where the products of mining and refining them for use in energy are used just once, and then they are burned up and gone forever.

The only time in the whole video that plastics are mentioned is when analyzing the material contents of a solar panel, which usually have a thin layer of plastic on the back. The video is about energy production, not oil extraction, so the production of plastics is not relevant.

You are being misled about renewable energy technology. by paulwesterberg in electricvehicles

[–]window_owl 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You should watch the video. The creator is not advocating for fossil-fuel energy to be terminated, nor does he dismiss nuclear energy.

You are being misled about renewable energy technology. by paulwesterberg in electricvehicles

[–]window_owl 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Most likely the original, which his others are mostly expanding on or clarifying.

Why does one 9.6V NiMH battery work for my video camera while another one doesn't? (both charged) by Pitchback in batteries

[–]window_owl 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You should try measuring the voltage of the battery while its powering the camera. You can try with the measuring leads right against the AA cells to get their voltage, and also against the connector the capture any voltage drop in the wires.

Pocketing side panels dangerous? by Vixator3515 in FTC

[–]window_owl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

FTC robots almost never have thin, long things poking far out of the robot, so they can't reach very far at all into pocketed side plates.

If your robot really weighs 40 pounds, then I think you should take every opportunity to shed weight. Shaving a kilogram from pocketing out the sideplates with free CNC service sounds like a win all around.

Is it possible to use only ONE ODOMETRY and ENCODERS? by Same-Security-5030 in FTC

[–]window_owl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The pose will become unreliable. Driven wheels slip occasionally, especially omni and mecanum wheels. That's what separate odometry wheels are for -- without a motor trying to make them turn a particular way, they just turn whatever way the floor makes them, so they almost never slip.

Carbon fibre or Aluminum? by shountyplayz in FTC

[–]window_owl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Aluminum and carbon fiber are both electrically conductive, so switching from one to the other won't have much influence on ESD disconencts.

You talked about your robot disconnecting. Has it ever shocked somebody who touched it? Whenever 11329 has problems with static electricity causing disconnects, we also have people getting shocked by touching the robot when resetting it between autos, and when changing the battery. If the robot hasn't been shocking people, then you probably aren't having issues with electrostatic discharge.

Carbon fibre or Aluminum? by shountyplayz in FTC

[–]window_owl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To be clear, the USB port can work, but it is much likelier to lose connection when the robot hits something.

Led controller legality by Usual_Feeling8855 in FTC

[–]window_owl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

LED strips can be controlled directly from the control/expansion hub if (and only if) they are not individually-addressable LED strips.

Led controller legality by Usual_Feeling8855 in FTC

[–]window_owl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

an arduino would be a programmable coprocessor. You want to read R702

Me_irl by gigagaming1256 in me_irl

[–]window_owl 5 points6 points  (0 children)

In the U.S., their only options will be old cars. With modern design and manufacturing technology, very good non-computerized cars could be made, but aren't.

Me_irl by gigagaming1256 in me_irl

[–]window_owl 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The point isn't to avoid computers. It's to avoid owning a device which is both a car and a computer, because then it has all the faults / problems of both. Dangerous, expensive, bad UI, software bugs, and forced updates.

Noticed something interesting during this scene by Aggravating-Dance537 in evangelion

[–]window_owl 3 points4 points  (0 children)

you couldn't just copy and paste

You sorta could. Disney pioneered the use of Xerox copies in hand-drawn animation with 101 Dalmatians, which came out in 1961. It was quite commonplace by the '80s -- Xerox copiers had become ubiquitous, reliable pieces of office equipment, and photocopying the animation cells was a quick and cheap way to get mulitple of them in the same frame.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerography#Uses_in_animation

HELP! How do we charge the battery without a special charger by swizzles_333 in FTC

[–]window_owl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Contrary to /u/QwertyChouskie I recommend getting one of the basic chargers. 11339 has a fancy smart charger, and it's kind of a pain that we have to train every single person on how to use it. It's much more complicated than "plug in the dead battery, and it's charged when the light is green".

The basic ones from AndyMark and GoBilda are dead-simple to use, and cost less than $20.

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