IG Box

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IG Box

89,97,64,0,B

Bright eyes...

Rigged the new talking head so the eyes light up when the LEDs on my Echo Dot are activated - using an LDR (light dependent resistor) that "sees" when the Dot LEDs are on.  88.93,71,0,B

Iron Giant

84,97,73, .15",B

unjust man?

Psalms 43

1 Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver (our constitutional democracy) from this deceitful and unjust man.

2 For thou art the God of my strength: why dost thou cast me off? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

3 O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.

4 Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God.

5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

Lab Saturday

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A TFL off-grid rule...

Always have a spare pump on hand for the swamp cooler...

My Pepino pump failed last night and luckily, 

I remembered where I put the spare.

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BW

First time I have seen one of these at TFL.  According to Wikipedia, their range doesn't normally extend this far west.  He was alone and only here for 2 days.  97,93,71,0,B

Storm Data

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Waiting for Harold...

All stocked up from a major supply run to Alpine yesterday...

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off he goes...

His (her) big brother (sister) left the nest 3 days ago.

87,96,71,0,B

weakness and stength...

2 Corinthians 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.  

one spare sound board for the next project...

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more jawduino boards

Prepping new sound boards.  I have more mouths to move...

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I'm Just Dewey

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code flop...

Ever since I successfully fired up the eye mechanism, the only thing that annoyed me was that the up/down control of the eyeballs was reversed on the joystick - pushing up made the eyes look down and pushing down made them look up.  Decided to dig into the code and fix that.  Through a little trial and error, I was finally able to figure out which numbers to switch so the joystick would work correctly.  Note: In the Arduino IDE (where the program is edited) - adding two forward slashes ( // ) in front of a line of code or comment keeps it visible but deactivates it from being uploaded.  97,104,70,0,B

nesting...

These two will be ready to leave the nest in about a week. They've endured some really hot days. The previous hatchlings 6 weeks ago didn't make it due to the extreme heat. 93,98,76,0,B

From a previous life...

Revisited a 27-year-old animatronics project from my prop building days in NYC.  I originally built this using an old manakin head I found in a dumpster and a gimmicky singing Christmas tree that had just come to market in 1996.  I created a hinged jaw then removed the mechanism from the fake tree and stuffed in inside the head to line up with the eyes and mouth.  It worked quite well for a long time and then got "put away" for over two decades until a couple of days ago.  I tried firing it up after all those years, but the motors and audio only partially worked.  So, I gutted the head by removing the old mechanism (except for the speaker) and installed a 9g micro servo to be run by one of my "jawduino" controllers - with audio from an Echo Dot Alexa device for a quick test.  Total project time was 40 minutes.  More to come on this... 94,99,71,0,B

put'n'take

Ecclesiastes 3:14  I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.  

automata...

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2D

they have so much to talk about...

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Look me in the eye...

...what my dad would always say when giving me a stern lecture...

Surprised again that this fired up just like it was supposed to after connecting everything and loading the code.  I am using this info just for the eye movements.  I played around a bit with an old B&W TV and got the wave form pattern to work but I think I am going to stick with a "Jawduino" moving jaw for the mouth.  Instead of and Echo Dot for the voice - I will instead be using audio from an AI chatbot.  

96,109,75, .58",B

early morning...

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water...

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A palo verde story...

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the whole matter...

Ecclesiastes 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.   

Dewey 2.0

Beginning another Dewey by redesigning the main base for a second eyeball mechanism.  Going through some boxes in storage tomorrow to hunt down a 5" B&W TV for his next iteration.  101,108,75,0,B

TCR at TFL

Had a visit today from my friend Dan Stricklin Jr. He is a producer and principal photographer for Phillips Productions - makers of the long running hit program Texas Country Reporter. I showed him Dewey describing TCR and he asked me to post a video of it for him. (Got the date wrong in the title sequence - it should be 8/4/23.) 98,103,74,0,B

nosecam...

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RC

Organized Dewey's "brains" and extended the wiring for his 

eye movement controller - for some upcoming performances. 

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Rain in the area...

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