Greetings List Lurkers,
Welcome to your official notice of the Barre Open Systems Institute (BOSI)
Adult Swim. The swim stars at 5:00 PM, and this after a hell of a weekend
preaching to the greater Vermont (mostly Chittendon County :^) Windows
Technocracy... Hey, Microsoft is a big cat to swing around but in all
seriousness it is nothing compared to the agony (and ecstasy) of dealing
with the all manner of technology, with a distinct emphasis on open source
stuff, particularly the Arduino.
If you want the story on Chris Yarger and my triumphant sojourn into the
World of Windows at VT Code camp, with any luck Chris will be "at liberty"
to discuss the whole deal with all of us. Next week Chris and I are dated
up to do a reprise of our presentation on Arduinos, and their applications
in temperature sensing and in robotics - particularly the by now famous
"SNOBOT", at the Maker Fair in Burlington
(http://www.champlainmakerfaire.com/) on September 29th. The temperature
sensor system is an elegant thing, and it is actually letting me know that
the water temperature out of our "hippie" water heater Chris thinks that
MRTG is too techno-retro, I disagree but he wants to play with MySQL,
Java-script and what all. Tony and Josh from VAGUE were in the house
Saturday, and Josh had a very cool camera and we expect (in classic VAGUE
time :^) to publish the VT Code Camp on site pictures of the event, the
latest incarnation of the TSP which we showed, the baby SNOBOT and the
mother bot, and all the other stuff we did (I particularly liked the Paul
Flint Saber Saw dance of death).
Despite all this foolishness I must reinforce that the pellet furnace,
and temperature monitoring projects all seem to converge around this Amtel
chip set, which we see as embodied in the Arduino.
Other projects that tend to gather dust or move in spurts include:
http://docbox.flint.com:8081/arduino - moving in the arduino groove
http://docbox.flint.com:8081/javajive - to get better at Javascript
http://docbox.flint.com:8081/tsp - Temperature Sensors Project
http://docbox.flint.com:8081/furmon - Furnace Monitoring
http://docbox.flint.com:8081/RobotsRules - Roberts Rules of order
application...
http://docbox.flint.com:8081/snowbot - The snowbot autoplow...
On the subject of the snowbot, The new batteries are working out so we got
something for the $160.00 we spent on new
batteries. The new 250 Amp half wave rectifier to fix my battery
charger ( you gotta see this thing ) is working. Predictably, the snowbot
in stock configuration needs a 26 Volt Lead Acid charger. I am likely
gonna change this into a battery switching technology with relays and the
Arduino (It needs something to do while it is resting) The very cool
but closed source quad chair controller is working and we have only broken
it several times trying to figure out the interface. We have faith we can
overcome the signal compatibility with the Arduino.
What we really need now is some technical documentation...(closed source
sucks). While I like the gang at Barre Coins and hobbies, where you can
spend money like it was water, we need a digital serial radio link that
can go farther than a blue-tooth, but is easy to interface on an existing
serial link. It is hard to believe that the model car radio controller.
Either with the 300 Amp motor controller, or hacking the existing
controllers don't support much more than multi tone.
That said, anybody got a plow?
As you you already know that A "snowbot" is a rumba with a snow plow or blower,
I am going to continue to bet on global warming for now. As mentioned here
before, after we scam a plow from somewhere we believe the linear
actuators that might do the trick for deployment during snow..
We are seriously need to go out net and find well-healed patrons to
realize the research potential of the Barre Open Systems Institute and cut
us a large check. Robots Rules has had some developments, there is a
thing like it at Evergreen college in Washington State called
"e-liberate".
Watch is space.
Otherwise Barre indeed remains a great venue for a Linux and Open Source
Software meeting. That said, continue to find ourselves desperately
trying to entertain the intelligentsia of Burlington, and the Arduino is
and clearly remains the coolest thing all year, at the meeting today, we
are ordering a Raspberry Pie, now that I have held one in my hand...
Note well that the Barre library stocks "Linux World", the DVD are available as
well. Don't reveal your source, I think I have some fines overdue...
Anyway, come and do open source stuff. For more information about the BOSI
Adult Swim meeting time and location try this:
http://www.flint.com/adult_swim_location/index_html
Show up at the the Hedding United Methodist Church Basement if you have
questions or are interested in Linux or the concept of free and open systems,
The basement of the Hedding UMC facility is actually working out pretty well.
If you wish to be included on the "Linux_adult_swim" mailing list, send a
response to this note. Note that the mailing list system is a bit peevish
right now. Let me know if you have any difficulties.
Kindest Regards,
Paul Flint
(802) 479-2360
/************************************
Based upon email reliability concerns,
please send an acknowledgment in response to this note.
Paul Flint
Barre Open Systems Institute
17 Averill Street
Barre, VT
05641
http://www.bosivt.org
http://www.flint.com/home
skype: flintinfotech
Work: (202) 537-0480
Consilium _
gratuitum .~. ASCII ribbon campaign ( )
valet /V\ against HTML e-mail X
quanti /( )\ www.asciiribbon.org / \
numerantur ^^-^^
Kindest Regards,
Paul Flint
(802) 479-2360
/************************************
Based upon email reliability concerns,
please send an acknowledgment in response to this note.
Paul Flint
Barre Open Systems Institute
17 Averill Street
Barre, VT
05641
http://www.bosivt.org
http://www.flint.com/home
skype: flintinfotech
Work: (202) 537-0480
Consilium _
gratuitum .~. ASCII ribbon campaign ( )
valet /V\ against HTML e-mail X
quanti /( )\ www.asciiribbon.org / \
numerantur ^^-^^
