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Sunglasses: Have given up on brass gears for this year. They jam too easily -- too much friction, too much mass, not enough precision in the frame. Might use the brass drive gear, because that much works and I have a good way to attach it to the drive shaft. But it adds a lot of weight way out, making the frames rest on my face very poorly, and it makes the nylon gears look weird. Having trouble getting them to wear properly at all. Made nose-rests, which are comfortable enough, but the slide off quickly when moving around. Wondering if I can switch to a strap-on goggles style system in time. Haven't started cutting out the slots in the carrying case; might do so later tonight.
Laser helmet: Done! My ball-bearing tilt sensors came yesterday, but today I was picking up parts at the electronics store and noticed they had mercury switches in stock, so I used those instead. 1) Should be less jitter under minor vibrations. 2) Can now add heavy metal poisoning to the hazards list for this project! Because the sensors triggered on the horizontal, I needed four in series, each tilted about 60 degrees. I cut out a little sheet metal plus sign and zip-tied one sensor to each arm, bent them up, and bolted it to the underside of the helmet plate. The sensors can't carry much current, so this connects to a transistor which is switching the power for all the lasers. And it works! Though not quite as well as I had hoped. The lasers seem a bit dimmer, and there is still some on/off jitter during level walking, and oddest of all it doesn't always come back on cleanly when returned to horizontal, like the mercury isn't flowing back down properly. Luckily everything on this project is connected using terminal strips mounted under the plate, so bypassing this circuit on the playa will be easy enough if I so desire.
Laser helmet: Done! My ball-bearing tilt sensors came yesterday, but today I was picking up parts at the electronics store and noticed they had mercury switches in stock, so I used those instead. 1) Should be less jitter under minor vibrations. 2) Can now add heavy metal poisoning to the hazards list for this project! Because the sensors triggered on the horizontal, I needed four in series, each tilted about 60 degrees. I cut out a little sheet metal plus sign and zip-tied one sensor to each arm, bent them up, and bolted it to the underside of the helmet plate. The sensors can't carry much current, so this connects to a transistor which is switching the power for all the lasers. And it works! Though not quite as well as I had hoped. The lasers seem a bit dimmer, and there is still some on/off jitter during level walking, and oddest of all it doesn't always come back on cleanly when returned to horizontal, like the mercury isn't flowing back down properly. Luckily everything on this project is connected using terminal strips mounted under the plate, so bypassing this circuit on the playa will be easy enough if I so desire.
no subject
...except when you're talking to the TSA, I suppose.