RocketSparrow

Amazon Kindle Fire Update: Ice Cream Sandwich

2012-02-02T07:33:00.002-05:00

It didn't take long. In fact it didn't take as long as between the last post on this and this post for it to happen, but the good fellows over at XDA have been cranking away on a good version of Android ICS for the Kindle Fire. It isn't complete, but it sure is good. I've been using it as my "daily driver" for a while now and it is a huge improvement over the original or even the chopped together approach I was taking before.

Yeah, I should have taken that shot with a better camera, but that's the ICS battery monitor showing over 5 days of run time (and plenty to go). They still don't think it's using the battery efficiently.

It has become my note taker, my task calendar (ICS's new Calendar application is really really good), my music remote (Via foobar2000 controller), and of course various readers (Currents, Kindle Reader, Email, etc, etc).

Mike used his to replace his aging CarPC.

Night through morning...

2012-02-02T07:19:00.002-05:00

Either the first night was the coldest by a good margin or I got a little more comfortable with the weather as things went on. Either way I'd say the 30 degree Lufama sleeping bag did not keep me warm. I ended up wearing every item of clothing I had taken with me except my shoes and I still had a miserable night. Admittedly it was probably low 20s, but it shouldn't have been so bad.

I woke up in the morning feeling less than refreshed, but after bit basking on the rocks and taking in the view I got some heat back in me and was ready to do some climbing. The view, by the way, was gorgeous:

It was time to set up and climb. After scouting around for route ideas we started to set up. I present to you a mountaintop film crew, complete with cranes and dollies:

Night Two: On The Peak

2011-12-17T12:01:00.000-05:00

Let's hit on which gear en used so far and what was good and bad about it.

First my backpack: this was the wrong thing. It stores a lot and is quite comfy, but in expanded mode it puts a lot of weight at a good fulcrum from your body. This isn't a good way to carry a lot and so my strength was my strength. Better choices, by far, for the volumes we were toting would have been things like the Osprey Mike had or the Gregory Marcus had. They distribute the load over a frame and run it vertically to minimize the cantilevered load.

The tarptent sublite: excellent. Effortless setup, very light, very compact, and very space conscious. Plenty of space inside too.

Hammock tent: Mike's setup was a little heavier but he said it was the most comfortable he has been for being on a frozen peak.

Arc'teryx cap and fleece: yes. Long underwear. Two pairs of socks. This tropical native was doing OK at least until nightfall.

Now back to story time. After the sun had given us a sufficient show I figured it was time to test out the astro rig. I packed a case, climbed and started to set up. A freezing mist blew over constantly while I did my best in the dark. Aimed at the north Star and clicked on the first shot

What?? Flashlight on. The entire rig and camera, lens included, covered in dew and frost. I tried to clean it off and give a few more tries but it was useless. I was shivering and there was no hope of a payout. I packed up and hiked back down to the camp.

Altitude Slickness

2011-12-16T10:14:00.000-05:00

Mike hadn't fallen far behind, so when he rejoined us we took a few moments to giggle about the situation (both of us had shelter: me with my sublite and him with a camping hammock). Marcus 'decided' to cowboy camp it, meaning sleeping bag only. We knew we had at least a couple of days of good weather once the mist around us boiled off. After scouting around the three of us discovered there were some great spots between the boulders a few hundred feet down the southern face. A particularly nice spot had boulders on three sides and trees on the fourth perfect for hammocking.

(this was scouting, and getting distracted by the nice climbing things around us)

We set up in our spot and after a rest, dinner, and general shenanigans the sun crept down to the cloud line below us. We were treated to an amazing view:

All three made the trek back to the peak to get an open view of the colorful wonder of the glowing clouds below us rolling over the hilltops

Side Topic: Kindle Fire

2011-12-15T13:17:00.001-05:00

I got one of these. Being that I'm an old codger who is content in his ways I'm also the last person in a first world country to buy a tablet of some kind. Not that I haven't tried out other tablets (ipad included), but I just never found something I had a need for.

The Fire? OK, I didn't need it either but it sure is cool. I read. A lot. E-reader seems like a good thing. It isn't too big, the battery lasts forever and the screen is a pleasure to look at.

This is where amazon went right: on the hardware. They also went right on the choice of operating systems... And then proceed to muck it up like so many others by messing with the amazing thing known as Android.

No worries though: this thing seems to be getting a heck of a following. It is being compared poorly to an ipad, which is unfortunate for the ipad which costs somewhere between double and triple the price. That means hackers and modders the world round are busy putting android back on in full.

For example I am typing this from a blogging application I downloaded from the standard android market on a custom keyboard. I will read this post later from Google Currents (of which there is a friendly version of RocketSparrow, just search for that (no space) and select the orange rocketship). All signs point to a cyanogen mod version from ice cream sandwich coming down the tubes.

Summary: don't believe the haters. This thing is amazing and the complaints are between nitpick and disappointed that it isn't stock android. The latter can be fixed.

Oh, and if all you wanted was a very nice reader? That was top notch right out of the box. The factory keyboard software not so much. But the rest was great.

To The Top

2011-12-14T21:46:00.001-05:00

The rest of the ascent was very treacherous. The higher we climbed the more in to the clouds we found ourselves. The switchbacks got steeper and covered in damp leaves and mud. To say it was slick was an understatement. Normally I would bound up terrain like this with ease, but the weight had me stomping along, slipping every so often and relying on my reactions to keep me from needing that first aid kit. Finally we got to a point that the ground had been stripped to stone by the ice of winters past. It was damp, sure, but firm. Marcus got his second wind and he and I picked up speed to near running pace and held on to it the rest of the way to the peak. There is a shelter cabin at the peak. Marcus had insisted we had no use for tents because we would be staying there. Oops.

First Climb

2011-12-08T14:39:00.000-05:00

We popped on our shoes, set up and went for it:

From Climbing trip, Thanksgiving 2011

I was a bit taken by how much less harsh on the hands natural rock seemed to be. I had really expected the opposite. There are definitely some new sensations though, such as moisture, plant-life, and gravel to be cautious of. Also the cold weather seems to make your hands more 'sticky' than normal, which is great for climbing but could also mean more damage if you slip off the wrong way.

From Climbing trip, Thanksgiving 2011

Here you can see how bad my form is. All upper body, dangling off the rock and putting the most on my hands that I have. Things I need to learn: keep the hips in and I won't get worn out as quickly.

From Climbing trip, Thanksgiving 2011

Mike managed a small head injury- A fall? Nope. Stood up at the top and whacked himself on an overhanging tree. Oops. No serious harm though.

Up, Up, and Away

2011-12-07T14:28:00.000-05:00

This is the start of the trail; I like this silly picture a lot. The white marker ('blaze') is the standard marker for the Appalachian Trail. The sign is the marker for Blood Mountain (obviously), and the two goons in front are my co-climbers.

From Climbing trip, Thanksgiving 2011

The hike up is several miles of switchbacks, up and down rock, mud, slick leaves, and sometimes all three. It's a good place to either be sure footed or very durable. In my case, well without a pack I'm amazingly sure footed. You'd see me bouncing up the thing at a joggers pace like a graceful blonde gazelle. However, with 1/4 of my weight on my back? I'm pleased to be a barefoot runner. My ankles and bottoms of my feet are invincible. I can't tell you how many times I rolled my ankles or plodded on to a sharp rock without injury of any kind.

Partway up we found our first climbable boulder:

From Climbing trip, Thanksgiving 2011

Certainly not huge, but we were camels just out of the desert. This is the first time any of us had the opportunity to climb natural rock.

Pre Gaming: Neel's Gap

2011-12-06T14:22:00.001-05:00

The first stop was here, which is the lovely brook near Neels Gap:

From Climbing trip, Thanksgiving 2011

We decided to fill up with some local water (Katadyn filter pump) before packing up to set off on our way.

From Climbing trip, Thanksgiving 2011

It took everyone a bit to hoist up their packs and get moving. There was also a short debate about whether to bring the crash pad with us in one trip versus me having a sprint down the mountain and back up again. I trusted Marcus's expertise on the matter, and so we hoisted it above our heads and swapped carriers at intervals.

From Climbing trip, Thanksgiving 2011

Which is how you can tell I was both carrying and taking pictures on the first section. Since longer term parking is down the road from the trailhead a ways we had to hike a bit before we could hike a bit...

The First Night

2011-12-05T14:00:00.003-05:00

In order to maximize the trip and minimize the vacation use we left after work. A quick stop by Subway and we were off for a long drive through the night. And really that's all it was. A long, long drive. By the time we passed through Atlanta the roads were quiet. From there, however, the sky just kept getting less and less orange. It was still very cloudy, but at the moments the stars shone through they were crisp and bright. I was definitely more excited than the rest at this, but you know how it is being a huge nerd. I get excited at things others don't. As we picked up altitude this started to become the sign of the night:

From Climbing trip, Thanksgiving 2011

Once we got to the base of the trail it was a park and sleep. Well...for the other two. Just a park and rest for me. There simply wasn't enough time left in the night for an insomniac to actually fall asleep, but no worries. I wandered out of the car for a bit just to marvel at the darkness. The sky was a complete cloud cover, and so there was really little to no source of light. Again, something only a certain class of nerd will revel in.

Once daylight cracked through the trees we climbed out and started setting up. This was "basecamp one:"

From Climbing trip, Thanksgiving 2011

"More people drop out of distance races due to stomach issues than do from injury"

2011-11-27T18:11:00.005-05:00

These words would turn out to be prophetic, but the trip actually went very well otherwise. We had about three and a half days out on the mountain, lots of climbing, a good stopover on the way home, and much much more. No major injuries (cuts, scrapes, bruises: the sort of thing you expect from a climbing adventure). Most of the gear worked out wonderfully. There is a lot of story to be told, but first I'll introduce our crew:

Mike: Brother. Filmmaker. 32lbs of gear, including a portable articulated camera crane system he made in the weeks before. Probably the most ambitious project of the trip.

Marcus: Friend, filmmaker, professional adventurer, maker of goofy faces. 31lbs of gear, not including some of his camera gear and dolly rail. I suspect closer to 40lbs.

Me: ex wildlife photographer. 30.6lbs of gear, including all camera gear and astrophotography equipment. Wearing the wrong kind of backpack, last minute change-up.

It starts now...

2011-11-22T21:49:00.001-05:00

No chance to post the gear pics, but at this moment we are embarking on the long drive. Full tank of gas, half a subway sandwich, it's dark and we are wearing sunglasses. Hit it.

Well...so here we are...

2011-11-21T07:25:00.003-05:00

This might be my last post before we dash off for this trip. Hoping to have one more showing off everyone's gear and inventions, but we shall see...

This morning was one of those silent drives in to work despite having the radio on. Something about having the air conditioning come at you full blast on an already cool morning, a bit less sleep than normal, and then climbing out of your car to put on a backpack that has both work stuff and dead weight in it while trying to avoid aggravating the cut up hand so it has time to heal that makes you think a bit. I think some get the impression that these things start at the trail-head.

I was up late last night chatting, having the best distraction I could think of, but my head is in the game this morning. Prior to that we made our last trip to Aiguille. Both Mike and I did a little hand damage which I hope will be completely healed before we hit the natural rocks.

I realize I did not get everything accomplished that I had set out to. In fact I have not even finished putting an enclosure and battery pack around my astro rig just yet, which I absolutely need to do. It would be pretty lousy to get out there and have some wire pull loose because it snagged on something during setup.

I never got to dive in to the cable dolly project. I'm hoping I still have cause and drive for this when I get back so that it can be ready long before the next trip.

Also... I'm recognizing that I'm carrying a heavy load on this trip both physically and metaphorically. I still need to do a final weight, but I think it's right around the goal 25lbs. Maybe a little over. This actually feels pretty heavy to me for whatever reason. I'm glad I set the goal there and not higher. On the metaphorical front: I have always been the caretaker of others. I may be the team medic on hand, which is ironic considering my propensity to injury. Additionally I have decided that I will be the one who doubles back alone to pick up the crash pad while the rest get settled. I'm a distance runner and the pad is only 9lbs, so I am far and away best fit for this job. Should be clocking some altitude training on this.

Every once in a while the body decides to remind me of the life I live: last week I started getting an unfortunately familiar itch on my chin. A couple days later a small piece of gravel worked its way out. I cannot specifically say which injury embedded that piece in my face.

Sharks and squids swimming around in my head...

Get Sirius...

2011-11-20T02:17:00.003-05:00

Tonight's test was all about not having to calibrate. Due to location I couldn't actually see Polaris, I just pointed north and guessed. Tracking? Leave that to the math. First shot was just to pick out the brightest thing in the sky and see how close I was. Note that these are untouched single frames, no processing at all:

(30 second exposure @ 300mm)

(Another 30 second exposure)

This image is a reminder to me about why it's important to go where there are dark skies. This is 180 seconds (to take some longer exposures and see what I could get). Perfect tracking, can even start to see some of the milky way in there. However the local light pollution is what's really limiting me from having some fun. I tried a couple of 5 and 10 minute shots just to see if I was staying accurate, but they were completely blown out with the orange glow. They still were useful though, I could tell the only error was in alignment (which was surprisingly low considering the careless approach)

Accuracy...

2011-11-18T15:40:00.003-05:00

From the moment I received the celestron motor drive I was slightly disappointed. I immediately had to file out the case so that the switches could swing full from side to side, and as soon as it powered up and I realized it was a simple DC motor with a dimmer...well, I knew it would mean more field calibration. And calibration there is no way I could make perfect without spending a lot of time watching the camera drift, wasting precious battery and dark time.

I'm a motion control guy. This doesn't seem like a difficult thing. The earth turns at a very predictable rate. A sidereal year is 365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes, and 9.54 seconds (if we're being overly accurate.) That means there are 31,558,149.54 seconds a year, therefore it takes 86,164.09 seconds for the sky to come full circle once. It would be easy and cheap to use something that is positionally accurate, gear it a bit, and make a controller... -a real controller- that tracks properly and without need of calibration for my purposes.

So I broke out a classic: the arduino clone known as the boarduino, of which I don't bother with a lot of the components but make use of their lovely printed boards (Thanks Adafruit!). In total it cost me about $7 in components to build the controller. Ebay was also full of miniature geared stepper motors (85:1 gearing, 5v native, etc, etc). If you have the patience to get one from Hong Kong it will cost just a couple of dollars. If not (I'm running out of time) it will cost you $6-12.

After some creative programming I calculated the potential accuracy of my setup. The oscillator isn't perfect, and neither is my code, but in total the maximum error seems to be around the equivalent of 5.6 seconds of missing sky per hour. This would just barely show up at my longest lens if I were taking hour long exposures. I don't honestly see myself taking single frames anywhere near that kind of time. Perhaps a couple minutes per exposure at best. Chances of me hand calibrating a DC motor to this level of accuracy? Nill. If I thought it needed to be more accurate I could adjust for the oscillator and coding errors- but who cares?

Now to make a mount for it...

Update; Celestron tracking mount

2011-11-13T00:20:00.004-05:00

Bronze bearings, chromoly axle shaft, and is that a stepper motor? Now we're getting somewhere...

Shelter!

2011-11-10T16:37:00.003-05:00

Very busy, but here's the answer to a previous question: Henry Shires Tarptent Sublite. 19.5oz, plus another 5oz in poles (I don't do trekking poles). Packs down to 14x4" roll and apparently is pretty good even in heavy weather.

I also had a chance to throw most of the other stuff in the bag and get an idea of the weight involved. I'm not sure if I weighed things incorrectly at some point, forgot stuff, or what but everything I thought was on my list plus an extra lens came out to 16.2lbs. Which would be very, very nice.

Improving the Celestron CG2 tracking mount

2011-11-07T13:43:00.005-05:00

When you take something apart and put it back together a few times you start to question just why the designer did some of the things they did. There are probably good reasons (some of which would be out of the designer’s control, like price, production formats, assembly costs, etc). However when you’re not so limited by these things…some of the results really stand out. No hate on the designer, they did make a tracking mount that wasn't all bad for wonderfully cheap.

So allow me to present the problem:

If you have a looksie at this diagram you’ll see that because the main barrel of the tracking mount is cast the tolerances on certain sections are not very good. Even if they were it would still be difficult to get exactly what is needed using soft aluminum.

Rotation in direction A there is the enemy of tracking (well there are other things too, of course, but this is the one I’m poking at). The way the original mount is designed this play is controlled either by tension in direction B, or the tolerances between the axle shaft and the walls of the cast tube it resides in. Since there are no bearings B cannot be very good, and because this is cast A cannot be very good.

What really strikes me about this is that they cast this long tube, which if they had made use of could have helped this issue a great deal. My solution will add a little more weight back in to the fixture but I think it’s worth the sacrifice:

Longer shaft means play has less effect, and tighter tolerances are made by using pre-made bronze sleeve bearings on either end. As much as I’d love to put in precision tapered needle bearings? This is not the place for that. In total it will cost me $7 to change these parts out, and I will need to do a small amount of machine work. Parts are on order…

Double rainbow

2011-11-07T08:16:00.002-05:00

All the way across the sky. For rizzle. It was an intense morning.

More weight savings- the old fashioned way...

2011-11-06T16:13:00.005-05:00

Replacing gear with lighter gear is both expensive and doesn't work for everything. Especially when there is no equivalent that was ever intended to be light and packable. This is where it's nice to have a CNC machine and a lathe on hand:

I attacked my poor star tracker again; this time with the above tools. I cut sections out, lathed down the worm gear center, shaved whole sections off, and even hollowed out the heavy elevation studs. Total I managed to cut another 155 grams out of the assembly, or 0.34lbs. There will be more coming out when I change out the tracking assembly for one of my own design, but for now this is no longer the heaviest thing in my pack. That might be more of a mental win than anything. Actually it now weighs less than my sleeping bag. Oh, and it looks much cooler too:

(tracking motor not attached in this particular photo, but accounted for in weight)

Off Topic: Sleep Data

2011-11-04T09:13:00.002-04:00

Random, off topic post for a Friday; I got some results back from a sleep study and I thought I would share. Or at least share the data; I'm not sure what the data means yet.

A normal sleep cycle (REM -> slow wave -> REM) averages about 90 minutes. My sleep cycles are more than double that.
The majority of my REM time happens after the alarm. While it's not unusual to have some REM time in those early moments...long term waking dreams is kind of a strange thing.
REM did not transition to waking state before the gear was turned off. Which sort of makes me wonder how long after "wake-up" I'm still in a waking dream state.
Actual sleep time is way below average. Much of this has to do with very long time to fall asleep.
Proportions are pretty far off too: very little deep sleep proportional to the statistical mean.

And there you go....

2011-11-03T10:07:00.000-04:00

Total we clipped a bit less than half a pound out of the rail. Not amazing, but definitely noticeable. Also...it looks really cool.

Do unto others..

2011-11-02T09:14:00.000-04:00

Last night was about working on one of the other people's camera hardware. He purchased an aluminum linear rail system that he wants to modify to be a portable rig. Unfortunately it was made to be extremely heavy; presumably to give it some dampening power. Wonderful on a set, but a huge pain for what we have in mind.

We've started shaving some weight out of it using the CNC:

The rail is 5/16" thick for the center support. Really, really overkill, but he wants to be careful to reduce the stiffness as little as possible. My solution is to cut grid out of the areas between bolt holes. How far he wants to take it from there I'm not sure, but it's a good start:

We finished two of the sections last night, plan is to do the other two tonight. Always pleased to have the CNC fire up and do everything it's supposed to. That's one of those projects that keeps coming back to me and letting us do things we would not have considered before.

first shot at saving some weight...

2011-11-01T15:57:00.006-04:00

It seems strange to me that my tools section is more than my survival section. I'm starting there.

Tools, 1856 grams:

Gerber Multitool, 170 grams
Modified Gerber FAST pocket knife, 87 grams
Fenix E21 flashlight, 139 grams
100 Feet of ParaCord, 180 grams
Mission Workshop Rambler backpack, 1280 grams

I've had that same multitool for about 15 years; it's not heavy, but it's not light either. Plus most of what I need out of it is the pliers, and a little flexability in case something doesn't go well in the field. It actually has another knife that I don't use because, well, it isn't very good and the FAST is very good.

So Item 1: Leatherman Style PS-8. Clocking in at just 45 grams.

Second item, the FAST knife. I'm keeping this, but I might shave a little more weight out of it. Will come back to that.

Third item: flashlight. Fenix for Fenix, this is the LD01 at 28 grams including battery:

Fourth Item, paracord: I can't see myself needing more than 50 feet. Cut that weight in half.

And last, and most painfully, I love my Mission Workshop backpack. It's a fantastic bag. I can't say enough about it, except that for the volume it weighs too much. That makes it the perfect bag for everything except this. Sadly I think it will have to stay home.
GoLite Peak, 625 grams without the hip straps (which drive me crazy on every bag I've ever had with them).

Total savings? 981 grams, or 2.1lbs. I wish I could have that kind percent savings across the board, but something tells me this is the easy one...

Food and Shelter

2011-10-31T22:38:00.002-04:00

I'm struggling with choices. Conventional tent? Bivvy? Hammock? All three can provide rain shelter. The bivvy would be the most portable, and provide the most warmth. The hammock needs least consideration for ground area. The tent...well a tent is just a normal all around good idea and is least likely to have condensation issues. The hammock is also the heaviest.

It would seem that I am at an impasse. I see a spreadsheet in my future.

Foods are a little easier, and let me touch on that as a preparation item: more people drop out of distance races due to stomach issues than do from injury. That's frightening. The key? Pick out your foods well before your event, and get used to eating/drinking them, and get used to doing it at the level of activity you intend to partake in.

The only real issue is that I'm a meat and fresh fruits and vegetable kind of guy. These are not good trail foods, and the dehydrated versions of them are pretty far from the real thing. Over the next month I need to decide exactly what is best and make that a regular part of my diet, as well as pick up my endurance type things again. I was up to some regular long runs and bike rides before, but I've been slacking terribly at that for the last couple of months. Time to get back on it...