Friday June 12, 2009

This was a busy week. The last 2 days were especially tiring. But that was my doing.

I was determined to get the balloonsat software organized and done 2 days ago. Wednesday night, I decided to come back to the lab to work more on it. The next thing I knew it was 2 AM. But I said let's do a little bit more. Long story short, I left the lab at 5:30 am and got 2 hours of sleep.

I was a walking zombie at times Thursday. I did better than I thought I would, but I was determined to go to bed early . After the ham radio class last night, I checked my voicemail. My son called and wanted to look over some dynamics problems before his final.

Ok, my son and I will talk over several problems over the phone, then I can go to bed. It did not work out that way. Instead, we went over many problems over several phone calls for the whole night. Two consecutive nights with barely 2 hours of sleep?

Needless to say, I really feel the effects of little sleep today. I upped my caffeine intake by 3. I will definitely get to sleep by midnight tonight.

Overall, the day did go quite well. The instrumentation amplifier circuit was built and tested with a bit of troubleshooting. The lecture on batteries was good, but I did fight hard to stay focused. The students I believe want to do well, but I know the focus is not always as sharp as it should be. I am glad Greg keeps us on notice. I think the message comes across better through him. If I can stay away from the lab at 3 am, I might be able give the same message.

We will all know and feel the effects of crunch time in the coming weeks.

June 11, 2009 5:25 AM

The flight computer program works. I cannot believe I spent the last 2 hours to find one small problem that kept the program from writing onto the eeprom correctly. On the basic stamp 1, you can use a for next loop with a step -1 to decrement a loop. However, on the basic stamp 2, the decrement is implied if the counter is from a higher to lower number. It did not say; however, that the looping would not take place if I included the step -1 portion.

I am very tired and will pay for this today. Don't get mad if I come in late or snore throughout the day. I am getting 2 hours of sleep.

73

I see I need to tighten up my act and stay on top of the guys more. We need to execute as a team better.

June 4, 2009 1:00 AM

Ok, I just finished spending too much time on the skeetersat temperature calibration. I say that because a lot of time was spent looking for fundamental frequencies of the skeetersat response at various temperatures. I was trying to make (force) a one to one correspondence with the temperature vs frequency. A vague recall of the 555 timer formula finally told me the relation ship would be nonlinear.

I found the formula on the internet and did a quick and dirty plot on excel. I do not know if I could have posted the graph on this blog or not. It is definitely nonlinear. The graph looks like y = 1/x^2 for x>0. The effect may not really be that pronounced, but it is a good enough answer for me today.

I wanted to finish the second half of the balloonsat tonight, but I am starting to get tired. I am pleased with the reponse of my team up to this point. All of them are rising to the challenge. Cayla came back this evening and finished the balloonsat. I hope it all works for her. She may very well become the clutch member of our team.

The lecture tonight was a good one for me. I wish I knew more about astronomy - but the adventure of conducting a mission in Antartica excites me. However, I am not sure if I am hearty enough to brave the cold or poop over a snow hole. I am out.

Ham Radio Class

I am very excited about what I can learn in the ham radio class. The introduction tonight was not new to me, but the delivery really caught my attention. I received my license several years ago and have done very little with it. I did play with APRS a bit last summer.

The hands-on activities of this class will give me what I did not have before, the exposure and confidence to actually use ham radio outside of APRS. I am really looking forward to fox hunting and trying out QSO.

When this is over, I think I will get involved with Skywarn.

skeetersat

This was a very good day for hands on activities. We had the opportunity to learn how to solder, get reasonably good at it, and use our new skill to build a neat circuit; the skeetersat.

I have soldered many times before, but I have not used it consistently enough to maintain a good technique. I hope I can keep what I learned today a little longer.

My skeetersat worked well after carefully and slowly building it. I spent most of my break before ham radio class finishing it.

After the ham radio class, I went back to the lab to help out Ashle' Easley and D'Lonzo Taylor with their skeetersat. Both of the students did not trust their testing measurements. Ashle' and D'Lonzo reversed polarity on the electrolytic capacitor. Ashle' s circuit worked before she left for dinner. D'Lonzo's circuit still had problems. I offered to look at it while he left with Ashle'.

It took a while, but I found what I hope is his only problem. Both transistors were installed backwards. Dr. Sinha suggested I allow D'Lonzo to correct the problem. I guess he will be up later tonight after he and Ashle' returns from dinner.

It has been a good first day. The students spent time this evening reviewing their assignments. I think they will be more prepared on Tuesday.