Grace, Talent, Higher Works and Humility

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Research for home shop: Iron Workers, Presses, Mills and Welders

My general list of brands of mills/presses/iron workers and research info is currently at:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WApJOZUBsJ_a8FNN6cx69BuRYD10-3Zvb_Z0Z2iWw0w/edit

I would really like to put together a nice home shop (need a little more space though). Maybe a nice enough setup to do small jobs for $. Could be a nice post retirement activity if retirement is ever possible.

Other than the space issue, it is somewhat hard to define what is the appropriate machine capacity for a home shop. This is especially true without some experience with this type of equipment and a good understanding of what types of projects I may want to tackle.

Still thinking about the types of possible projects - ranging from mundane carts/storage, large rebar type trellises all the way up to aluminum greenhouse frames, etc.

Cost is also a factor. What features on a mill would I regret not having if I either have a desire to do lots of hobby work or decide to try and make a few dollars with it? What features are easily added later? What is best purchased versus self-built? I believe I could safely construct a press but I am less sure whether I can do it cost effectively - less mechanical engineering knowledge will translate into overbuilding to stay safe. I do think it would be a fun project though.

There is also the risk with used equipment. Without a knowledgeable friend, it seems somewhat difficult to determine the state of used mills. I did see a few blog posts with some good practical advice - listen to your intuition and remember a "too good deal" is likely not a deal type things. I don't have experience tramming a mill or working with DTI equipment so I would agree with some blogs stating it would be a mistake trying to sort that out when checking out a potential mill for purchase.

An interesting reference regarding checking out a used mill.
http://www.mermac.com/freemill2.html

It may turn out to be an adventure.

The below lists are by no way complete but these are the most common sites I have looked at for much of the larger equipment I have an interest in.

Some metal working tool, equipment and accessory manufacturers:

Great resources I lurk at a lot. Internet searches on metal working and welding help end up here for me a lot.

Some sites which handle used (and new lots of the time) equipment. I have not bought anything from any of these sites but do a lot of window shopping.

Monday, March 3, 2014

Raspberry Pi bluetooth

Just noting some success with setting up a Raspberry Pi with Bluetooth support. My goal is to get it working with the Wii Remote for projects that I and my son find.

Raspberry Pi Model B
Cirago Bluetooth 3.0 High Speed & Wi-Fi combo USB mini adapter; BTA7300

Linux version 3.10.32+ (dc4@dc4-arm-01)
(gcc version 4.7.2 20120731 (prerelease) (crosstool-NG linaro-1.13.1+bzr2458 - Linaro GCC 2012.08) ) #648 PREEMPT Fri Feb 28 16:29:56 GMT 2014

Notes:

Plugged directly into PI.
Had previously used a different Wi-fi adapter but unplugged it, plugged this in and wi-fi worked (once I added the MAC to the router filter to allow access)
I keep the os/firmware updated fairly regularly – updated before these installs
Using the default available Bluez modules (4.x) instead of the 5.0 which I would have to compile. I may try to compile 5.0 at some point it appears this should work for some things. Here is what I installed.

sudo apt-get install bluez
sudo apt-get install bluez-tools
sudo apt-get install bluez-utils
sudo apt-get install bluez-firmware

I have not fully played with the Bluetooth but was able to see my cell phone and briefly had it paired (left a registration on the phone) but I couldn’t think of anything useful at the time to try other than list out some info.

bt-device --connect <mac>
bt-device --services <mac>

I have not fully decided what language to use when playing with the Bluetooth. It appears that C, Python and Java are possible. I will likely install the wrapper libs and such for Python and try that since that is likely easier for my son. The Java support appears to be via JSR-82 but it sounds like that has some shortcomings.

Python bindings
sudo apt-get install python-smbus python-cwiid python-scipy python-numpy python-pygame python-setuptools libsdl-dev

Successful testing of wii Remote!
Using the site below related to Python & Wii Remote, I was able to see the button values changing and mess with the LEDs.

Partial excerpts from the www.cl.cam.ac.uk site [mentioned below]. Pulling the example in here just to have a small but functional one in a single place. Refer to the source site referenced for more details on what the steps are doing.

sudo hciconfig hci0 piscan

python

import cwiid

# I found it most reliable to press buttons 1 & 2 just
# prior to executing the next statement interactively.

wm = cwiid.Wiimote()

import time
for i in range(16):
  wm.led = i
  time.sleep(0.5)

# Interactively, I pressed an extra return to get it running. I am
# not a Python programmer so even little things are nice to note...

Resources

I found this helpful for the Bluetooth.

http://stlinux.com/kernel/bluetooth/how-to-run-BlueZ

man –k bt was helpful in finding the related commands after installing everything.

bt-device

bt-adapter

bt-agent

bt-input

bt-monitor

bt-network

bt-obex

bt-serial

JSR 82 - Bluetooth

Some Bluetooth/Python info
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/projects/raspberrypi/tutorials/robot/downloads/

Python interacting with Wiimote
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/projects/raspberrypi/tutorials/robot/wiimote/

Another good reference & example is:
http://www.raspberrypi-spy.co.uk/2013/02/nintendo-wii-remote-python-and-the-raspberry-pi/

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

The field of Hammers

You and two friends are wandering through the countryside and run across a field of hammers. One of you says "Amazing that hammers can grow!", another says "Who put the hammers here and why? It is silly." and the last one just gives thanks for the artist even if they don't understand the creation.

Which one are you?

If you don't know the purpose of this then ask the creator. If you don't like the purpose of this then take it to the original author of the inspiration. :)

Everyone has faith; it is a matter of what or whom you have faith in.