WriterOfMinds (she)

@writerofminds

Loving author of Acuitas the symbolic AI and other robots-in-progress. SFF fiction writer, video game appreciator. Day job: FPGA/radio engineer at Blue Origin. Any nonsense I say is entirely my own and does not reflect the opinions of my employer.

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WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· 3d

Looking a bit more fleshed-out ... Now, can I pull off the build? #robotics #3dPrinting

A 3D model of a robot platform. There's a pump in the middle, two fluid tanks, and a little "house" to hold battery packs. Stubs of eight legs surround the edges, sticking up from the platform.

WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· Jul 5

Hmmm ...

A 3D CAD image showing a pump, eight actuators, and a bunch of abstract rectangular solids laid out together

WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· May 16

Haha (the circle is a motion detection target).

A camera feed of a messy living room. A tuxedo cat is sprawling in the middle of the scene, surrounded by various toys. A blue circle has been drawn around the end of the cat's tail.

WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· May 2

Trying out my new I2C-equipped solenoid drivers and ADCs I got for the hydraulic robot. I am ready to control a bajillion valves ... #robotics #hydraulics

A bunch of electronics laid out on the floor of a medium-size cardboard box. There are a Raspberry Pi, there peripheral boards, three little solenoid valves, and two battery packs (one connected to the Pi and the other awkwardly alligator-clipped to some of the other boards).

WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· Apr 28

Who's moving jobs to Blue Origin and is over the moon about it? It's me! I start May 18.

A dark-blue starfield with a bit of nebula catching the light in places, and a cutout of a white feather superimposed on it.

WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· Apr 24

Looking good! The printed inlets look better since I 1) improved bed leveling, 2) randomized the Z seam, and 3) changed the model to thicken the flange and increase both the inner and outer diameter of the tube.

A black plastic water bladder swollen with water, attached by its inlet valve to a tube leading to a syringe.

WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· Apr 23

Success #2: I do seem to be able to heat-fuse 3D-printed polypropylene with my polyethylene film. Despite being technically different materials, these are a lot more willing to be friends than PLA and PE. #robotics #hydraulics

Closeup of someone's fingers flexing two flat pieces of plastic (a little square of film and the underside of a valve stem) in a way that shows they're stuck together.

A sheet of plastic film with a valve stem sticking up from a little hole cut in the center. The top surface of the film around the stem bears the scars of melting.

WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· Apr 21

First try sealing polyethylene film to a polyethylene tube, and it worked out! Besides matching materials, I needed pressure - the heat gun alone won't do it. Had to use the soldering iron behind aluminum foil. #robotics #hydraulics

The bottom of a translucent tube flared into a puddle of plastic and stuck to the underside of a piece of black plastic film.

The tube poking up through the top side of the black plastic film. The film is visibly distorted and tattered by melting.

WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· Apr 12

Read: "Beneath the Rising" (Premee Mohamed). This was fantastic. It's the first good modern treatment of cosmic horror that I've read, and definitely my favorite of the books by new-to-me authors that I picked up to try recently. #AmReading #Books

WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· Apr 11

Last one, the potash test:

WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· Apr 11

Here are the important pages. Unfortunately they're very cagey about what any of the chemicals are. It's all "Sudbury solution #4" or whatever.

WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· Apr 11

My buddy and I watching Artemis come back

A tuxedo cat sitting up on a blanket-covered couch, intently watching a laptop on a nearby coffee table which is showing the Artemis capsule with its drogue chutes out.

WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· Apr 10

Shout-out to this ancient (I think it's 50+ years old) soil test kit I inherited from my dad's junk collection. All the reagents still worked. I'm a little low on nitrogen and probably more alkaline than a lot of plants prefer, but the garden is in good shape otherwise.

A metal toolbox with a bunch of reagent bottles, funnels, test tubes, and other bits loaded into it. The paper on the inside of the lid says "The sure way to a BETTER GARDEN: Sudbury Soil Test. Tender, delicious VEGETABLES ... and more of them." Similar advertising copy is partly hidden behind an instruction booklet titled "How to increase crop yield and improve quality by soil testing."

WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· Apr 10

The year's indoor potato starts, before I put them out. I also planted some straight outdoors, so this year the two groups can race. #gardening #plants 🌱

A bunch of potatoes in those little plastic pots that new plants come in, sitting on a rug in front of a sliding glass door. There is also a sleeping tricolor tabby cat stretched out on another rug just behind them.

WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· Apr 2

I haven't seen "accidentally insulted Senator John Hickenlooper" in this gallery yet.

Screenshot of a tweet by @ilanamarnina. "a year ago today i was walking through dc and saw an older white man in a suit walking in front of me so i jokingly said to my friend “senator john hickenlooper lookin ass” and the man turned around. and it was senator john hickenlooper. will never live that moment down."
With reply by the OP, "TOO MANY COMMS STAFFERS ARE SEEING THIS. ITS GOING TO GET BACK TO HIM"

WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· Apr 2

Atronach's (second) eye, without wiring. Building up the first one gradually left me without an appreciation of how much tedious effort goes into assembling one of these. Not sure if I can really do anything about that in future iterations or not. #robotics #3dprinting

A 3d-printed "eyeball" with a camera in the center, inside a shroud in which it can rotate. The shroud is mounted inside a larger case that holds the motors and several circuit boards.

WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· Mar 29

Progress is slow, but in the background I am still gradually working on this year's robotics projects (these are ACE's gearboxes for the better motors, which I still need to buy). #robotics #3dPrinting

A bunch of black-and-white gearboxes, made from 3d-printed parts and ballpoint pens, scattered on a fuzzy blanket.

WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· Mar 22

Read: "Draw One in the Dark" (Sarah Hoyt). Kyrie is just staying in control of her "hallucinations" about turning into a panther, when she learns one of her co-workers turns into a dragon - and is in big trouble with a lot of other dragons - and might've killed someone??

Cover art for "Draw One in the Dark," by Sarah A. Hoyt. A big blue dragon with curling horns that point back from his forehead is rearing up in the center, wings outspread and mouth open. A body, partly covered in blood, lies just in front of the dragon. A cityscape can be seen in the background.

WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· Mar 15

Read: "Unexploded Remnants" (Elaine Gallagher). The last living human stumbles on a superweapon containing an uploaded sapient mind, and must run a race across the galaxy trying to "defuse" it/him before power-hungry enemies catch up. #AmReading #books

Cover art of "Unexploded Remnants" by Elaine Gallagher. A woman in a brown coat is running toward the left-hand side of the view. She is reaching into a satchel on her near hip to finger a glass cylinder with metal caps on its ends; the cylinder glows and is full of swirling blue and green colors. The background is an outdoor bazaar, roofed with fabrics and crowded with odd-looking people.

WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· Mar 13

It WORKED - for a few minutes. I had the needle oscillating around an equilibrium point and generating a PWM voltage as the phototransistor clicked on and off. I could drop a little carpet fuzz on it and see the avg voltage change. Then the op-amp mysteriously died :(

A little needle connected to an electromagnet (the movement from an analog meter) shared a plastic frame with a t-slot optical interrupter. There's a tiny paper flag on the part of the needle that passes through the interrupter's slot, so if it drops too low it'll block the light path. This assembly is connected by wires and alligator clips to a circuit on a breadboard. Capacitors, resistors, potentiometers and a couple ICs are visible.

WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· Feb 16

I haven't had the spare energy to chatter on social media much lately, but I've still got lots of projects moving ahead. Here's the mount and circuit prototype for the high-precision scale.

A breadboard with a bunch of components on it. Sitting in the background is a little plastic frame with the needle movement from an analog meter and a t-slot optical interrupter mounted in it.

WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· Jan 24

Read: "The Infinite and the Divine" (Robert Rath). My friends are making me read 40K books again, and I'm gonna be hard on this one. No disrespect to the author's skill, he did a good job writing this *thing.* But it's definitely not my thing. #AmReading #books

WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· Jan 8

Read: "Wool" (Hugh Howey). This was a re-read, and it felt just as good this time as it did many years ago. Howey builds a superb thriller out of the bizarre social dynamics of a society confined to an underground bunker.

Cover art for "Wool" by Hugh Howey. It's just splashes of red and orange texture on a black background - it looks a bit like foaming lava, through a friend of mine thought it was supposed to be the foggy glass of an environmental suit visor. Also on the cover are a few blurbs: "The Sunday Times Bestseller," "The next Hunger Games" (quote from the Sunday Times), and "If the lies don't kill you, the truth will."

WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· Nov 22

Caturday seems like a good time to introduce Gwydion, my gift from the Cat Distribution System. I took him in on Wednesday and have confirmed with the neighbors that he's a stray who gets fed at several houses. I've been rather distracted by seeing to his needs since.

Close-up of a tuxedo cat relaxing on a blanket, looking forward and showing his bright yellow-green eyes.

A tuxedo cat lies curled on a blanket underneath a ratty old orange chair.

WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· Nov 15

Christmas presents complete! This is a seven-letter build of Cees' Cryptex (www.printables.com/model/28937-...). Tougher than I expected (a little elephant foot will throw off the letter wheel/encoder tolerances), but amazing once I got it right. #3dPrinting

Photo of a cryptex - a cylindrical combination lockbox with wheels that form a password when properly rotated. This one is partly open, showing the interior tube where you can store secrets. The endcaps are matte brown with silver accents, and the letter wheels alternate in marble and ivory colors.

WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· Nov 9

I took apart an old tachometer and got the needle movement I wanted for the high-precision scale. It's a delicate little device.

The movement from inside an analog needle meter. Two wires are connected to what looks to be an electromagnet surrounded by a spinning cradle; the red needle is attached to one side of the cradle. A tiny circular spring (barely visible) is connected to the needle and holds it in the far-left position.

WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· Nov 1

Just for fun/solidarity, here's my original attempt at printing the underbody. Silk PLA, I tell ya ...

The underparts of a model car, 3d-printed in silver silk plastic, and absolutely covered with strings and globs.

WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· Nov 1

Finished early, a little Christmas gift for my adopted brother, as a tribute to one of his old cars. (He is not on this site and won't see it.) Model is "Foldable Pontiac Firebird Trans AM 1982" by GOODesign on Fab365, printed and painted by me. #3dPrinting

A 3d-printed plastic model of a Trans Am, in "milk white" with silver metallic parts and black tires, plus painted windows and details. This is a front/side view showing the working flip-up headlights.

A 3d-printed plastic model of a Trans Am, in "milk white" with silver metallic parts and black tires, plus painted windows and details. This is a rear/side view showing the rear grille insert.

WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· Oct 31

Carrot harvest round 2! I got a full five pounds this time. They couldn't get long because the bed wasn't very deep, so some of them decided to get *wide* ahahaha #gardening 🌱

A pile of carrots (with tops) laid out on a rug, with a tricolor tabby cat snooping on them in one corner.

A few really *big* carrots - one is being held in someone's hand, and the top of the carrot basically fills the palm. There is also a goofy tripod carrot with two main forks twisted around each other and a little one hugging one side.

WriterOfMinds (she)@writerofminds· Oct 30

Here's a picture a friend took of a ground squirrel on our vacation this summer. I like to see them enjoy bounty.