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deck for the Waterbot
Tuesday, August 20 2019
I brought my good camera with me to work today to maybe snap some picture in the field and forest in the back. At around noon I went back there, holding my breath (as I always do) as I walked past the fan that blows a plasticy chemical smell out of one of the workspaces. Though there are a couple picnic tables back there (one a bit too close to that exhaust fan), nobody is ever back there. Today, though, some young woman was back there, and I felt bad going back there since she probably initially feared I was a rapist. But no, I had a purpose to my walk and was carrying a camera, so how bad could I be? I did get a picture of the lush vegetation growing along the powerline which pretty well sums up late August in Upstate New York.
Click to enlarge.
On the drive home from work this afternoon, I made a rare Tuesday detour to the Tibetan Center thrift store, mostly because I thought I'd have a better chance of having Rob as my cashier, since he always gives the best deal on the crappy electronics that I tend to buy and that he seems desperate to get rid of, and he's often the only one manning the store on quiet weekdays. But the Tibetan Center was freakishly overstaffed today and Rob was outside, trying to get a handle on the sprawling piles of crap slowly rusting and dissolving into worthlessness. Though I still had a ways to go with it, I had a good feeling about my Waterbot, and I was at the thrift store because I was interested in some large-sized remote-controlled vehicles that I thought I might be able to adapt into Raspberry-Pi-controlled rovers with barely any modification of the code I would be writing to control the Waterbot. My initial plan was to maybe get a large (12 inch long) pickup truck, which had actually been labeled with a price ($5), but then I saw a much better remote-controlled "race car," which looked to be a high-end remote-controlled vehicle, the kind powered by rechargeable 7.5 volt nickel-cadmium batteries and that is controlled by a substantial (and somewhat boxy) remote. Usually the remote and, if present, battery charger, have been long-lost by the time such things arrive at the Tibetan Center, but all this stuff was together in a bag. So I went for that. I tried downplaying the value of what I'd found by saying it was "just some stuff in a bag," but the cashier was on to me. There was actually another cashier (a third, if you count Rob) inside the thrift center at the time, and the two put their heads together and came up with a price:$15. That's a lot to pay for anything there, but it was still a pretty good price even if none of this stuff actually worked. I also got a 12 volt wall wart and a cheap white extension cord, and after tax it all came to nearly $20.
While in the area, I visited the Hurley Ridge Hannaford to get some provisions: flat bread and peanut butter. While there, I also got a tray of vegan sushi, two pints of vegan mint chocolate chip cookie icecream from Ben & Jerry, and a six pack of Lagunitas Supercluster Ale. I drink a lot when Gretchen is away, and I needed more beer.
Back at the house, I used some one by six plank to build a little wooden deck to sit on the front of the plastic boat that forms the floating motorized basis for the Waterbot. I then used tiny screws to attach all the little boards and a camera pan/tilt mechanism to the deck so that they'd all be in one place and I could wire them together. I then imaged the Speakerbot's microSD card and booted the Waterbot with a copy of that. After a little wiring, I already had the Waterbot serving a camera control webpage allowing me to pan and tilt the camera. All I needed now was some controls for the boat's two motors (controlling propulsion and steering), and the only part of that which is currently missing is software.
A powerful thunderstorm came through after I'd fallen asleep, waking me up in the darkened house. There were lots of very close lightning strikes (though, oddly, few in the distance) and incredibly heavy rain, though little wind. What an odd mix of traits for a thunderstorm to have!
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