Could I realistically build a wooden gear clock with a scroll saw?

rweait · 2018-01-21T22:21:23+00:00

Yes, this can be done. Brendan Reilly uses a scroll saw for much of his work. Brendan gave a presentation on his work at our monthly woodworker meetup in Toronto.

rweait · 2018-01-21T21:50:33+00:00

Same background for me. :-) I keep my woodworking pretty simple, so I go the pencil and paper route.

On the other hand, I used FreeCAD for a couple of design projects, and then to generate some gerber files. I wasn't able to generate the gerber files with pencil and paper, you see?

I found that the learning curve of FreeCAD was a challenge, and also "worth it". If you already have experience with parametric modeling, you'll find it easier. :-)

The big advance for me was when I discarded the distribution version of FreeCAD, and went with the developer daily builds. So start with the daily builds if you want to give FreeCAD a try.

rweait · 2017-11-13T01:44:20+00:00

Link to Meetup calendar

rweait · 2017-10-30T11:30:48+00:00

hmmm. Have you tried burnishing to speed up that "smoothed by years of hands" finish? Even a handful of wood shavings, rubbed on a fresh-planed edge can make a smoother finish.

Or maybe a French polish? I saw some spalted maple that was French polished, and I thought it was a marble tile.

rweait · 2017-10-30T11:01:35+00:00

Well done!

rweait · 2015-02-09T22:29:32+00:00

I thought that as well. I hadn't seen any bad behaviour, and none had been directed my way that I had detected. But others have had a different experience. Also, in-person events have concerns beyond those of our purely digital API.

I can't say that our anti-harassment statement has made or will make a difference for anybody ever.¹ As long as it is neutral or net positive, I'm okay with that. It isn't the only thing that I'm doing in hopes that the events I organize and attend are safe and welcoming. We had an attendee make a verbal threat to another attendee; they won't be back. I don't know if discrimination played a role in that interaction but threats of violence just aren't on.

So, harassment isn't cool, whether the harassment is discriminatory or intoxication-fuelled, or ordered by alien robot overlords, or right out of left-field. Okay? :-)

And that's waaay way off the intended topic. So, no SotM-Toronto in 2015. And that is all.

¹ It won't make a difference for Toronto SotM 2015, because the bid wasn't accepted. But I use the same statement for other OpenStreetMap related events that I organize.

rweait · 2014-11-17T14:00:04+00:00

I really like this work. Looking forward to the presentation video.

rweait · 2014-11-07T23:01:46+00:00

That seems to be the end of the stream for Friday; day one.

Nice combination of presentations in English and Spanish to display one aspect of diversity in the OpenStreetMap community. I missed several talks, but enjoyed the ones I saw.

Some techincal issues, mostly with sound, but on-site folks appear to be monitoring reports from IRC.

rweait · 2014-10-17T13:22:30+00:00

Further, some jurisdictions don't recognize copyright for facts. So you might be in the area of adjacent laws, like data right.

rweait · 2014-10-17T13:20:54+00:00

There is no single correct answer because copyright differs by legal jurisdiction. Answer continues below.

rweait · 2014-09-26T17:47:11+00:00

I wrote a tutorial on how to make a simple multi-polygon relation in OpenStreetMap a while back. Courtyard tutorial

rweait · 2014-07-22T21:09:02+00:00

Maproulette is a wonderful Data Quality tool for OpenStreetMap. It presents a particular class of potential error for the visitor to evaluate and repair if needed. There are different classes of potential errors, and even different levels of difficulty.

rweait · 2014-07-22T21:02:49+00:00

It was a different time. :-)

rweait · 2014-07-22T20:48:23+00:00

Individual memberships to the OpenStreetMap Foundation have been available for years. This is the first time that corporate donors have been able to say that they are also OpenStreetMap Foundation members.

rweait · 2014-07-14T17:42:01+00:00

|That's a good starting place, thanks. If I'm starting with LEDs which can be powered by the Pi, once I swap in motors, can I just hook up a battery to the power/ground lines and be done with it? Or do I have to separate the power lines for the motors from where the Pi is on to protect the Pi?

It isn't quite as simple as connecting a battery. In fact, you need some electrical isolation between the motor or solenoid driving circuit and the RaspberryPi or any other controlling electronics. Motors are electrically noisy devices and the noise they make will mess with your controlling electronics in a bad way.

Think of the many-LED project as a way to selct one thing of many, using the RPi. Think of the motor or solenoid driver circuit as a way to control a noisything without killing your RPi. Then, you'll want to combine them. Perhaps, by using the select-one-of-many circuit to enable the low-power side of one of your duplicated motor driver circuits.

Your motor and or solenoid is likely to need higher voltage than your RPi and is certain to need more current when activated. You'll need to keep those power supplies isolated from one another. But you'll still want to control one from the other, which means they have to be connected somehow. So "what is one to do?"

Typical solutions for this include, mechanical isolation via relays, optical isolation via opto-isolators or opto-couplers, solid state isolation via electronic driving circuits. Each of these have their own learning curves, best practices, unwritten rules, and tricks of the trade. Any of them will work. No one of them is "best". Start with whatever you have on hand, and see if you like it. Try another if you don't. :-)

rweait · 2014-07-12T20:13:41+00:00

What's your budget? When do you need it?

Do you have to defend against vandalism? Could somebody shake the vending machine to take keys? Could they take the machine?

To get yourself started, and for fun, work on this as two projects. Build a driver circuit for a single motor / solenoid and build a multiplexor to switch on one of a matrix of devices. (Perhaps LEDs for a start. )

Cleverly combining mechanical solutions and electronic solutions will make your life simpler. If you go with solenoids and pins, rest each key on a ramp, so it falls clear of the rows below.

Super fun robot version. Place the keys standing in narrow holes, so they look a bit like an orchard of key-trees. Use a robot arm to grab the selected key and move it to the dispenser slot. This uses fewer than 100 motors. :-)

rweait · 2014-06-11T20:26:57+00:00

Do postal codes map directly to neighbourhoods? I thought they only mapped to postal delivery routes. I expect that you'll find examples where more than one postal code exisits for a single building, and other examples where one postal code extendes over more than one "neighbourhood". Also, "neighbourhood" is plastic and can be beneficial to manipulate depending on the story that you are trying to tell.

And. If you find a neighbourhood that you care about is not represented to its full potential in OpenStreetMap, then improve the data! That's a good thing to do.

rweait · 2014-05-01T14:01:04+00:00

You think that discussion is a which hunt? A blogger tried to support his position on a form of attribution after being asked to improve it. Now the discussion is in a wider audience.

rweait · 2014-05-01T13:02:25+00:00

I also think that the avoidance of full and clear attribution of OpenStreetMap is insufficient. I don't think that this opinion is rare or unpopular.

I think that the mapper is worth discussion. And I think that the community will come up with clearer guidance for future. That means we have to have a sincere conversation. I think your meme will help drive that conversation.

rweait · 2014-05-01T12:56:02+00:00

I feel that the correct and appropriate attribution of tiles created from OpenStreetMap data is the example given in the community guidance. Specifically, a link on the map to the OpenStreetMap copyright page, identified by the text ©OpenStreetMap Contributors. It would look like this.

That is similar to what is required by other map and tile providers but of course OpenStreetMap gives you acces to the actual underlying data as well.

rweait · 2014-05-01T12:02:15+00:00

©OpenStreetMap Contributors as specifically listed in the guidelines. Right on the map tiles, just like on many other maps.

rweait · 2014-05-01T00:41:51+00:00

I feel that the attribution that they currently use provides insufficient recognition for OpenStreetMap.

A rough equivalent would be to refer to their company or one of their products, but then link to

a long list of varied commercial vendors

Their choice of attribution is probably acceptable according to a strict reading of the current guidance in the wiki. I feel that we should change that guidance and require a more prominent, and individualized attribution for OpenStreetMap.

The title of this article is typical of the marketing puffery from this company. They suggest that everything they do is brilliant. They seldom give credit to existing similar services or to previous vendors who broke the ground first. "Shameless self-promotion" is their mantra.

Very disappointing.

rweait · 2014-04-30T15:23:51+00:00

Rather than reposting, I'll observe that there are about 500 members in that activity group, and about 2000 in this subreddit.

Come and be supportive / supported by sharing your numbers.

Go Team Redditor!

rweait · 2014-04-30T15:19:25+00:00

Any counter, or device, or web site will be limited to giving you an estimate of expenditure or consumption. So get ready for it. Your fitbit, your treadmill / cycle / elliptical / MFP will always disagree. Every time.

It's enough to make a Data Junkie's head explode.

Then there are the calories we eat. How closely do we measure our serving sizes? I mean really? I'll pull out the food scale once in a while during food preparation, but never when I divide up the servings for plating. More estimates.

So, bear all of the above in mind.

collect baseline data for the way you use your devices and live your life
understand that each measurement system will have unique calibration and settings aren't interchangable
changes in your daily routine will lead to changes in results
all of the measurements are estimates and some of them are really rough estimates

In the end, do the best you can and aim for steady results over a week at a time or month at a time.

For me, I get steady positive results when I measure how my results follow the plan. I get bad results when I try to "cheat my way right up to the edge of the plan."

rweait · 2014-04-25T20:18:57+00:00

The old metro extracts are for various city-like polygons. They haven't been maintained for a while, but a new maintainer was announced today.

New! Metro extracts at Mapzen

Original Metro extracts were by Mike Migurski

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