Author: Peter Jones

I mean that’s mind of a gimme. It should be solar; but do I want to deal with that headache. I would need a panel, easy, a battery, easy (I have a lipo that works be perfect), I should need a charging circuit, I’ve got a Thing, and well… shit. I need to get another Thing it looks like. Maybe I should do my embroidery hoop this weekend, start juicing it up, and build a booster. This sounds totes doable.
Now then, the Thing has Wifi. I should get the Wufi connecting and start thinking of what features to add off of that Wifi. Now that’d be dope, weather forecasts for the next day, and have a proximity based sounds effect (or mauve do it as a last call alarm torewind me to go to bed.

The other weekend, prior to the holiday, the Wif and I went to (Urban Craft Uprising? Something like that). Amongst our other treasures we got me a little embroidery hoop beginner project thing. It’s a girl with antlers washing hello (or goodbye) top a group of deer. So I was thinking I’d work on that while she studied this weekend, and I realized I want to go further. I’m putting on my boots imagining the same art but at night with tendrils of light falling down onto the herd. Maybe go full Lovecraft’s The Colours Out of Space. This makes me happy.

Now I know what the screen will be, now I have to get the Power, power, (power). I could get a USB battery pack that should be able to do it, from Adafruit, but then I’m looking at hack cords and shit. This isn’t a game killer, but it’s definitely not ideal. Option two would be heading a battery off of Sparkfun, which I might do, but I need to do the math on that. Last, and maybe the easy I’ll go, is buy one off of (the one place, mentioned by Afrotechmod), but dear Lord of Infernal Resistance, I hate searching that website.
More research is necessary.
I also should really get this going so I have some sense of accomplishment.

Started doing the math in my head. I’m looking at a affect ratio of 4:3 versus 8:5. I know, 8:5, really. Which poindexter figured that one sounds good. Not normal, not widescreen, all stupid.
Right, at that aspect ratio, assuming pixels of a square nature, rather than rectangular or worse, I’m looking at 5.5×4.25 versus 8×5. The 8×5 is still bookable, and quite a bit closer to the golden rectangle.
So I guess that answers that question. Of course, that today uses my HDMI port, so I’ll want to make sure I have an escape hatch for doing relatively easy switchovers.
This means though I need to look more deeply into power. Adafruit, who has the screen I’ll be using, has a USB battery pack they’re recommending for powering Raspberry Pi’s with. This puts out two chunks of 5 volts at 2 amps. That’s getting into spec sheets I don’t want to have to remember after the top of my head.

Seven inches on the diagonal. This would got in a book great, and wouldn’t have the overhead of taking the image, dumping it to HDMI, and then sending out to the screen where the process goes backwards.
On the other hand, the ten inch screen would be a bit bigger. It requires a lot more monkeying around on the power; it’s bigger; it’s jankier.
I think it comes down to size. An intimate seven inch 800×480 versus a fairly intimate 1280×800. The fight of the century.
I should really slit down with a ruler and figure these things out.

I think I need to measure some screens to figure out which size. On other notes though:
I need part boxes
I have cigar boxes
I need inserts for parts in said boxes
I could slice up a cigar box or two and make inserts
Profit

Lololol. Totally wanted to start with that for no good reason. Other than the comedy value. Still thinking about the basic motion of the gripper and the image processing. Soon…
On the other hand I almost have decided on everything for the laptop. I need to change a quantity and do some napkin math, but then I’m good to go.
The sanity these projects give me is immeasurable, unless there’s a measurement of sanity. What’s the units, sands?

Grabber
Gantry
Arm extender
Eyeballs
Book recognition

Eyes… and the software that drives them. If I can’t ID books, I’ll need to come with a different solution, and that might dictate the geometries involved. Also, book identification is kinda job numero uno, as it’ll provide the most usefulness if the project fails.
Grabber, similarly, geometry and mass are key and might fluctuate with changing methods. Also, the grabber can function stand-alone like the eyes.
Carriage (and gantry) because really, they’re attached at the (hips?). I’ll probably want to do some testing of the arm extender while I’m there.

I have four casters. These will make for some good wheels. Next. I need the carriage to be relatively narrow to ensure I can get the entire bookcase without having to overshoot the ends too far.
OCR would be dope for the spines, but I think it’d take way too much processing to get a correct read, it’d probably be better to do it as a colour map thing. This would man having to check in each book, but it’s doable.
Since I run my bookcase three rows deep, I need the grabbers to be able to go in, and grab a book at least nine inches in. If I add the functionality for heavier books, I’m looking at a couple pounds of grip. I might think about building a smart bookcase instead of modifying the bookcase I have.
Thanks Rummy!

Because I have too many pulp fiction paperback books, I have no ability to organize them, and shit like this keeps the trucks moving. Before I start doing this, I really need to bolt that bookshelf to a wall. Having a bookshelf threatening my untimely death is one thing, but when it’s threatening my life’s blood, well that’s just uncouth.
Yah! My phone knows uncouth!