Hacking on Michael Doornbos

Coming along nicely

Thu, 01 Oct 2020 16:09:34 +0000

CPU clock module build

Tue, 29 Sep 2020 16:08:50 +0000

My weeknight project this week is building an 8 bit computer on a breadboard. Part one, a fully adjustable CPU clock with step through is working already.

X Carve is back online and making airplane stuff

Mon, 15 Jun 2020 08:33:28 +0000

Finally have a more permanent place for the X-Carve CNC. Time to make custom airplane parts :-)

Sun, 07 Jun 2020 08:23:11 +0000

Detecting spins in small aircraft

Sun, 12 Mar 2017 19:08:56 +0000

Here are three spins. The first I intentionally recovered poorly. The other two were more “textbook” recoveries.

This is just the graph of the slip/skid sensors.

Interesting that there is a clear pattern and threshold.

The goal here is to detect and give enough warning to a pilot to avoid and intervene on an impending unintentional spin entry.

Archived Comments

Paul T Breed (2017-03-13 00:31:45):

The traditional training spin is not what kills people… Next time you want to do spins go up and set up a fake landing pattern at altitude… Then get slow and do the base to final turn with some skid…. cross the controls and keep pulling back til it departs controlled flight… be high and be prepared as it will snap to inverted so fast you won’t know what happened….

First "REAL" 3D Maps with my 3DRobotics Solo

Thu, 10 Mar 2016 19:23:51 +0000

Switching gears lately in my other life to work with Blueridge Forestry on a mapping workflow for them. Making this map of a local closed landfill turned model airplane field really was a snap.

Docker images for Dronekit

Tue, 08 Mar 2016 20:28:30 +0000

Started on a new project this evening. Docker images for Dronekit and some tools for automating flights. Love me some Docker!

I may need to get a handle on my workspace today. Good Grief.

Fri, 26 Feb 2016 14:22:51 +0000

I've always been an instigator

Fri, 29 Jan 2016 16:23:06 +0000

In an email exchange this morning a friend of mind called me an instigator who uses “science” as an excuse for it.

Yeah, this is not a new thing. Here’s some evidence from 2011…

[youtube=://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn_AwvQ3K1Q&w=854&h=480]

I wonder how long it took them to clean up the flour…

Always buy good tools

Thu, 30 Apr 2015 19:38:04 +0000

A few minutes ago an old Navy buddy of mine sent me this picture with a message that just said “memories”.

He remembers something I’d sorta like to forget. This is a picture of my first car. I’m sure it’s not the same one, but the color and everything are the same.

One of the many lessons my father and grandfather taught me was to always invest in good tools. A crappy drill will fail you in the middle of a project and a bad screwdriver can strip the head off of a screw of a critical part in a flash.

Intel Galileo Time! Woot!

Tue, 18 Feb 2014 20:44:03 +0000

It's glass time

Mon, 17 Feb 2014 16:26:37 +0000

I’ve got Google Glass for the next couple weeks. What should I be doing with it?

Philip Zimmerman on why he wrote PGP

Sun, 01 Dec 2013 16:54:22 +0000

This is actually from 1999 (updated from 1991), but I love this part:

The right to privacy is spread implicitly throughout the Bill of Rights. But when the United States Constitution was framed, the Founding Fathers saw no need to explicitly spell out the right to a private conversation. That would have been silly. Two hundred years ago, all conversations were private. If someone else was within earshot, you could just go out behind the barn and have your conversation there. No one could listen in without your knowledge. The right to a private conversation was a natural right, not just in a philosophical sense, but in a law-of-physics sense, given the technology of the time.

This is great: Sparkfun on Demystifying Serial Communication

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 08:58:05 +0000

I love it when someone takes the time to teach a broad audience something that most people who work on computer systems should now but probably don’t understand very well. Thanks SparkFun! [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJZOTtwpAjA&w;=560&h;=315]

The new Beagleboard: BeagleBone vs Arduino size comparison

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 17:35:14 +0000

Just took my new BeagleBone out of the box. It’s even smaller than I was thinking. Would fit nicely into a 1U cubesat…

Archived Comments

Roland (2011-12-10 21:22:00):

Can’t wait to receive my BeagleBone. It’s sad all those cool new dev boards are so limited in their availability (BeagleBone, PandaBoard, …)

Smash the design button

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 20:46:56 +0000

I saw this live at TEDxNASA this year. As I’ve said before, I’ve been to both TEDxNASA events and didn’t love them. This talk however is outstanding. There are so many great concepts in this 18 mins. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE4D7OsIzuk&w=550&h=320]

Archived Comments

Chris Radcliff (2010-11-23 01:21:00):

Outstanding is right.

Jumping in with both feet: An Open Source NASA Android app

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 13:50:29 +0000

I’ve long been a lover of Open Source. Both from a philosophical point of view, and a quality of software point of view. When I got serious about Linux in the 1990’s, I spent a lot of time contributing back to the community. As time has gone by, I’ve been giving back less and less. In 2010, I’ve been working almost entirely commercially. Sure I do Evadot for free and give all of my content there away as Creative Commons, but it’s really not enough. I’ve been working on some Android apps for a while and as of today, there are few Space related apps in the Android ethos. I’ve been following the excellent work of people like Rob Schingler at NASA, and been reading the Oreilly book “Open Government”. It seems like a good fit to launch an Open Source Android project around the “new” NASA.

Hacking on Michael Doornbos

Coming along nicely

CPU clock module build

X Carve is back online and making airplane stuff

Finally have a more permanent place for the X-Carve CNC. Time to make custom airplane parts :-)

Detecting spins in small aircraft

Archived Comments

First "REAL" 3D Maps with my 3DRobotics Solo

Docker images for Dronekit

I *may* need to get a handle on my workspace today. Good Grief.

I've always been an instigator

Always buy good tools

Intel Galileo Time! Woot!

It's glass time

Philip Zimmerman on why he wrote PGP

This is great: Sparkfun on Demystifying Serial Communication

The new Beagleboard: BeagleBone vs Arduino size comparison

Archived Comments

Smash the design button

Archived Comments

Jumping in with both feet: An Open Source NASA Android app

I may need to get a handle on my workspace today. Good Grief.