Category: Uncategorized

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!

Thinking of how I would build one. Top and bottom rails. Two posts going top to bottom. Inbetween there’d be a carriage with camera, light, and gripper. The gripper would have five fingers. One and five would prevent neighboring books from moving. Three would be a kicker, having the top of the book and rotating it down. Two and four would grip the newly rotated book. I might have to rethink this. Either all fingers have to do all jobs, or I need to move in my books two fingers from the edge of the shelf.
Spatulas.
Spatulas with an ability to rotate a bit.

Has been made. Totally buying a screen soon(tm). Organized the Wif’s books. This inspired me, so now I’m working on mine. Of course that’s the nightmare scenario. I’ve been really antsy lately. I’ve got stuff to do. Do it. We went to Archie McPhee’s yesterday. Totally forgot that they have surplus motors and gizmos. I need to remember that the next time I need motors. Nice big motors for a ten spot. Seems legit. I also finally got a helping hand. Like the tool of magnifying glass and gator clips.
I love mania, but it concerns me whenever it pops up.
Right.
Sleep.
If tomorrow keeps an even keel, I might start doing my final list for building a laptop.

I’m going to get the commercial screen and controller from Adafruit. Not sure which one, but definitely one of them. While I could hook up a controller to the laptop screen I have, and I will for a different project I’m sure, I would be stuck with a 4 amp draw. 4 amps are going to murder any battery pack I can put together. Obviously, this was probably true of the original laptop as well, but I’m supposed to be better than that.
Future endeavours though, first I want to replace the CCFL with LEDs. This alone should probably make the numbers a lot better. Second is looking into my own driver. I just want to see where I can take it.

Last night I totally desoldered enough keys. Out got to be a hassle when the pressure I was pouring on the back of the keys started to bend the circuit board rather than wiggling off the keys. Tonight, or tomorrow, I’ll start looking at the two laptop LCDs I haven’t shattered yet :(…
I kind of wonder how hard it would be to directly drive a hard drive?