One of the cats understands the concept after a couple iterations, the other one may never get it.

(The smart one is also trying to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.)

#catvideofeed #lego #electronics

Oh great. I still have the #catvideofeed to finish (a part is in the mail) and the #fpga tutorials to finish (and then to actually make some "devices" on there) AND a #neuralnetwork book I ordered myself on impulse, plus obviously all my "normal" life and work stuff.

PLUS NOW I've opened a tab to research a way to make a #diy #penplotter for some reason.

Thank you, #adhd, I have plenty to do right now!

(oh, maybe that could be related to the fpga circuit...? NO! BAD BRAIN!)

Wiring up a custom #sbc motor controller hat to power the #catvideofeed. I could use a #breadboard and terminal block, but let's be professional.

That said, the next photo will undoubtedly be of this in the trash because I suck at planning (#adhd) and will surely get this very wrong.

As if to confirm, after I took this photo I had the good idea to #solder some little "flags" near the first pins on things to keep me oriented. I put one of them *on the wrong side of the board*.

Put this aside for a week while I screwed around with other things. Today 5V #wallwart and #breadboard DC barrel jack came

Not sure I dare power the #SBC from the wart (polarity if I ever swap the wart), but can use separate USB there

Plugged the wart + barrel -> VOM to check which pin was what. Yep, 5V. Unplugged....1.5V for many minutes

How large are the caps inside these things? If I unplug it and toss in a bin, is there any chance of a short causing a fire...OR WORSE?

#catvideofeed

Motivated to get this project to a stage where it doesn't have to be on my workbench--I want the #oscilloscope for the #fpga (#adhd)

End-to-end test. Video fed live to browser. Click on the #video to start the feeder rotating, which dispenses some kibbies while Big Brother watches

Next step is to put this elsewhere, which requires power solution (probs wall wart). Then test the heck out of it to find the weak points. (Gonna guess the top struts and kibbie hatch.)

#LEGO #catvideofeed

I'm frustrated. I have a pretty large #technic #LEGO collection and I had it all organized into little bins on a dedicated table for ~15 years. But the kids never used it and I needed that space for WFH.

Took it all down and used the bins for #electronics.

Two years later...I'm digging through a 20 gallon bin for each piece for the #catvideofeed mechanix. This is exactly why I organized it! Feel like a scrub.

At least I was smart enough to put the gears, axles, pins, etc in a separate bin.

At this moment, am jumping between these tasks

1. creating posters from maps
2. uploading map images to a printing service
3. #fpga tutorial video
4. #icestudio software
5. #python code for #catvideofeed
6. mechanics of #catvideofeed
7. lunch

Not sure why I didn't suspect #adhd before this...

Well damn. #LEGO is a little more effective than cardboard for building machines.

It isn't pouring yet and the structure needs some reinforcement, but this is going a lot better than it was.

#catvideofeed

@awesumsawz Right? One of mine was also to install a server room under the stairs with cable runs to all the rooms, when WiFi would probably have been fine. I'm a software engineer, not networking!

And now with the #catvideofeed project. This was an idle comment made by my wife and I've spent many an hour on it now.

But I learn a lot. And I feel ookie if I'm not accomplishing something, even if that something is "fiddling around with stuff that doesn't matter".

#adhd

Having a lot of problems with my laziness-imposed constraint of cardboard #engineering. (I have a wood/#machineshop in the barn, but do I use it? Do I hell.)

After hacking a bunch of #Lego gears/connectors to fail to get the stepper turning the barrel, I wanted to build the structure out of Lego as well. Stepper now a problem.

You have Lego motors, nitwit!

Happen to have #HBridge ICs in stock, so threw together a #circuit to drive it from the SBC. Works! Now write a driver.

#catvideofeed

The next idea is to go back to the previous idea: A rotating barrel.

Addressing the issues of the previous barrel iteration

0. Rotation: Put an axle through the barrel and fill through a side hatch.

1. Portioning: An internal baffle that puts the kibbies through a maze

2. Jamming: Fixed stirrer arms on the axle to dislodge them

Wish me luck, by god. #catvideofeed

So....two days of dicking around with that idea taught me a lot about how candy dispensers work, but didn't solve my #catvideofeed problem.

Any design that has any kind of sliding door element that can stall the motor is doomed, because a kibbie can jam it. There are ways to solve this (take a look inside a candy dispenser to learn one way), but I'm not willing to put in the effort/complexity to do that.

I thought I could get away with the above simplistic design. Now I'm going to try the real mechanisms people have come up with for dispensing small portions. still build it myself, tho, because I love a challenge.

Instead of #adhd-waiting for the 25th, I'm going to "engage my large muscle groups" Take 2

#catvideofeed

The drawing is now a reality! A failure, but a reality!

1. Drive system is too loose. Needs positive engagement with the motor and some bearings to reduce friction. Near the hairy edge of stalling.

2. Allowing kibbies to simply fall out isn't going to work without an agitator. The hole is too big already and they are stuck. I might want a screw feed mechanism instead.

3. It needs to be impossible for the kibbies to fall into the gear train, as they nearly did here.

#engineering #catvideofeed