My $35 Cannondale is secured INSIDE an outbuilding that can only be reached by going through the dogs... So are some of the more costly other stuff that needs long term storage.
Gunner
"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.
Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner
Years ago, when I was tech services manager for Cincinnatti Time, I checked a company car out of the pool, and headed to Fresno for a sales call. Getting it all done, I discovered I needed gas, so pulled into a gas station. Locking gas cap, no key. $#@!
A 12 yr old black kid (rough neighborhood..Belmont and Olive) volunteered to open the gas cap for $10.
He did..inside of about 10 seconds, with a short piece of bicyckle spoke. I paid him.
I was talking to a cop buddy of mine and he commented that the Club was worthless..when I asked..he said the kids were carrying hacksaws, and simply cutting the steering wheel next to the Club, spreading it apart and removing the Club. Took em about 1.5 minutes. No muss no fuss.
Gunner
"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.
Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner
Since we do not seem to have a theft problem, I simply do not secure anything. I have guns and carry them at various moments, so people should not take it as an invitation to visit me without an appointment.
There is also very little stuff that can be stolen from me that can be resold for much money.
It's all about how you look when you're doing it. If you look like you're supposed to be where you are, doing what you're doing, you can get away with an awful lot. If you look like you're not supposed to be up to what you're doing, it's pretty obvious.
"Yes, thanks for stopping by when you saw someone going through this gate, officer. It's good to know you guys are watching out for me so well. It's my property; would you like to see my ID?" Of course, some people have a problem with that sort of thing, but that's an attitude problem rather than a real problem.
Years ago, before 9/11, I did lots of work at small airports. Invariably, you'd have the "Authorized vehicles only beyond this point" sign on the road we needed to take to get to the planes we'd be working on. This road was never guarded, and the sign (and sometimes even a gate) were the security. Theory being, as usual, it keeps the casual troublemakers out; the determined ones won't be stopped anyway.
For some reason , nobody bothers my stuff any more . Maybe because the whole neighborhood knows that I carry a gun *all* the time . The Harleys and assorted characters riding them that stop by on occasion probably don't hurt either ... and y'all'r welcome to stop by any time , just don't raise your voice or act aggressive . The dog doesn't like that ...
I followed your progress with the tig machine with special interest , as I set my Lincoln Weldpack 100 up with gas near the same time . I can see why mig is so popular with neophytes , it's easy (relatively , comparing my experience with stick) to get a nice looking bead with a little practice . I did have some problems with penetration early on , but think I got it figgered out now . At least , stuff breaks next to the weld now instead of the weld giving .
Actually..I dont have a theft problem either. Locals know this place is Bad Juju..and that I do indeed have acess to a backhoe and 2500 squre miles of desert. And the will to use both. And if some of the rumors are true (they are not), have already done so....
I seldom lock even the doors in the house.
Gunner
"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.
Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner
To learn C, go get PCLint. It's a checker _way_ beyond _any_ compiler flags go. You can learn a veryvery lot by checking your programs and reading the notes for each and every warning/error you get. Do that!
Stay away from C++. It's the worst language ever invented. If you need OO, learn Eiffel. :-)))
What uC do you use? Hope you are using assembler.
"You know you are getting old when you can't learn to program uCs"
The company I used to work for had to use "standby" portable generators every once-in-a-while during power outages to supply power to cableTV power supplies. Had a small job stolen once and the "boss" went out and bought this mongo chain and lock. "This ought to secure it" says he. Says I, " Fifteen seconds with a hacksaw and the emt tubing framework on the generator will be cut, spread apart, chain slipped out and you will be left with your new chain and lock around the pole, just like you left them, but the generator will be gone". "Only you could have shot this idea down so fast" says he. Ken.
I'll be using some PIC's, probably more Atmel AVR's. PIC's I use will be low-end, using only assembler. Example: a 10F20x part in SOT23-6 (0.110" x 0.116") for LED flashlight control logic -- switching, brightness control, etc.
I'll want C for things that require math computations. I'll use the AVR's for those apps.
Hell, I already knew that -- but I think I can still learn to use uC's. We'll see.
Nice concept and well done. Martin - owner of one of those do all almost - kits because I needed it.
Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH, NRA Life NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder
Can somebody explain the method for using ln2 to freeze and break a lock? Aside from plastic, food and pennies, I've not found any metal that completely fails when cooled to those temps.
Yeah, I suppose that assembler is ok for the 10F20x series because you really can't write enough code to be a documentation problem and you can't afford the inefficiency of a compiler. Anything bigger and I would go to C even if it meant writing the odd subroutine or macro in assembler to make the compiled output more efficient.
This is based on several months of grief some years ago trying to re-write one of my early projects for a 16C73 (4k instructions, 192 bytes ram, both nearly all used) and discovering that it would have been far simpler to throw everything away, go back to the original spec and re-write from scratch. That exercise was so unpleasant for both me and the chap that was desperate for the code that it put me off uC coding for fun and profit and I will only go back to it when I need to do toys for me.
It does not take ln2. Just one of those cans used to freeze electronics while testing for intermittants. My son saw it done on 5th ave in Manhatten and was curious enough to pick up the empty can to see what was used.
Many steels have lose their impact strength when chilled. So you chill the steel and then hit it with a BFH. The steel shatters.
My current plan is to use AVR's for anything that would require C because the AVR was designed with C in mind. I may change my mind about that, but that's how I'm going to start. If I have to buy a C compiler for PIC, the guy I got the AVR compiler from also offers a PIC compiler so I won't have to relearn much -- this is not an accident. The one I'm going with is from
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For those who will have a better idea, save your typing; I've picked me pony and I'm gonna ride it at least until it stumbles. This guy seems to be thought highly of by several on the elex design NG and I've found him to be very responsive as well.
Sounds like you got jerked around by the moving target syndrome -- "it's only software", right? WRONG. Good robust embedded control software is designed from the ground up, not tinkered into existance. Bandaids and patches are very bad juju. OK for MicroSoft, maybe, but not for something controlling big motors. things that fly or other things where a "bug" (read defect) can be hugely expensive or worse.
I'm obviously no software weenie but I've led teams with some that were very damned good. My role as team leader wasn't to tell them what to do or how to do it, more to run interference with the customer and management so they could do their jobs to the best of their ability -- which was awesome.
They didn't need motivation, just needed the resources and the insulation from bureaucratic bullshit to do their part of the team's job. Those small teams were fun. We all learned a lot from each other and had a hell of a good time at work. I came to the job knowing a bit about belonging to, building and leading strongly goal-oriented small teams -- not a skill learned in corporate America!
Rule 1: don't even start work until a detailed spec has been agreed upon. Rule 2: when they wanna change it, renegotiate both cost and schedule as necessary. That's what successful building contractors do. "I want to add a bay window on my new house". "OK, no problem. Here's the cost and schedule impact." They're more subtle than that, but that's how it works.
I wrote a couple of programs of 1K to 2K in assy for the 6502 a millenium ago. I found documentation to be no problem with liberal use of comments that really convey some information about what a bit of code is doing and how it's doing it. I'm sure I could still read those programs today.
I don't do anything anymore for anyone that is desperate for it. If they've dicked around long enough to be desperate, I won't touch it unless they want to pay so much I can't pass it up. That's extremely unlikely with microcontroller software because there are a bazillion guys that are good at it and would want the job. About any EE under 40, maybe 50, can write code for microcontrollers.
I'm doing this to make toys for me and my friends, the more frivolous the bettter.
I know I'll make some wrong steps here, already have. Can't get unlost being still in a hide, gotta keep moving to gain new intel. Not Intel!
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