A Few Weeks of Wandering Around the Bay Area

Hi Putzy-People,

I am sadly lacking in machine shops out here, so I've been entertaining myself in other ways.  On my second day on the west coast I trecked from San Francisco up to Mare Island to watch the taping of the new season of Battlebots (go Charles!).  I also saw Jaguar, Jume, and other friends up there.  No pictures though, because it's all super secret and I forgot to take pictures anyway.

On my first weekend here I acquired a road bike through craigslist.  I bought it from a very friendly Google employee who went so far as to grease everything and check all the bolts with a torque wrench before parting with it.  Hopefully I won't get too attached to it and can sell it again at the end of the summer.

Went on a nice and foggy memorial day ride across the Golden Gate Bridge and around Hawk Hill.

The next Saturday I met up with Wesley in Orinda, and hiked up and down Mt. Diablo.  Wesley was kind enough to not leave me in the dust, but I was pretty wrecked by the end.

Part way up:

At the top, me looking somewhat delirious:

I've done some hanging out in Glen Canyon Park.  Pretty cool place in the middle of San Francisco:

Last Saturday I biked to Muir Woods.  

Beginning the winding descent to the entrance.  Had a minor incident on the way down involving an abrupt and very wet corner, but both my bike and myself came out relatively unscathed:

Big trees.  Too many people:

Fortunately the people were quickly escaped. 

Here's the only ben katz selfie ever taken.  You'll probably never see another one, so enjoy it.

how does this work?

Hey, it's Ames St!

Other activities of interest:

I turned 21 and went on a coffee-bar crawl with Katie, Yo, and Rodrigo.  I had 5 good espressos at 5 different coffee places around the Mission.  My mental acuity was relatively uncompromised.

Work at the moment involves 80% doing modeling and data analysis in matlab, and 20% running drive unit (what Tesla  calls the inverter, motor, gearbox, and differential assembly) tests in the dynamometer lab.  The dyno lab is a pretty cool place.  There are dozens of in-house designed 90-kW power supplies, which can source or sink the 90-kW. Most of the dynos use three of these.  There are dyno control stations with giant 4k monitors, running kind of derpy NI software.  And motors everywhere.  Sadly I don't get to touch any of the hardware, as all that work is done by full-time technicians.  

I sit right next to the motor design team and across from some motor control folks, so I get to absorb their motor-talk while I work.  I don't think I've ever heard the word "flux" with such frequency before.

Until next time!

Jennie and Weaver Lake backpacking trip

I decided to go to the mountains after a long time of not going. Jennie and Weaver Lake loop trail is east of Fresno in the Sierras bordering Sequoia National Park. It is ~15 miles long, has fairly minimal elevation gain, and features two stunning alpine lakes, making it a pretty ideal weekend adventure. In addition to being outside, this trip gave me an opportunity to test some homemade gear, which I want to use on a longer backpacking trip later this summer.

The trip had an interesting start. In a surprising turn of events, Putz's own Arka decided to join the backpacking trip after flying in from Russia or wherever the night before. Instead of heading to the trailhead early Friday, we shopped for some last minute gear and food. We didn't actually make it to the trailhead until 4:30pm - right as the rain/snow/hail/thunder storm started. After a mad scramble to put on rain gear, we hit the trail.

Here is a photo of Arka looking sad while it snows. Soon after this photo, he came to the realization that he had not packed appropriately for this trip, and decided to turn back. Don't feel too sorry for him though, he later went on to have a lovely weekend fishing at Hume lake with a friendly vacationing family.

Around 6:30, the weather started to ease up, and stunning views were available all around.

I have never seen flowers like this before. Do you know what they are?

At around 7:30, I rolled into Jennie Lake. The storm had passed, the air was calm, the water was still.

The next morning, while walking, I took a selfie.

Here is a crazy looking tree that looks like it decided after a certain height that it wanted to be many more than one tree.

with the rain/snow from the past few weeks, there was an abundance of lovely flowers like this.

The highest altitude on this loop is ~9000ft, so there actually isn't too much time above the tree line. In a few places though, there are still wonderful open views like this.

These are some crazy looking mystery plants. Do you know what they are?

I used a Sawyer Mini inline water filter, attached it to a silnylon bag I sewed, and made a gravity water filter. It is very light compared to a pump and seems to work great. Here it is in action, hanging from a tree on the left at Weaver Lake.

Weaver Lake was so beautiful, and I was sorry to leave it so soon.

Hopefully there is another outside adventure in the near future!

portland, maine wind turbine game

Hey second westers far and wide.  Here's the report from a southerly part of a northerly state.

Cruftbike continues to accrue miles.  Seven each way, five days a week.  and that’s just the baseline.  Every part of the bike is at least secondhand.  I respect it, its numerous ball bearings, its sinewy cables, and its clapped-out chain.  Brakes in good shape?  Tires hard?  let’s ride.  I feel a warm optimism to know that bicycles exist in great numbers, and that their parts are plentiful and interchangeable.

  

they pitch out a lot of nice food in the city of Portland.  Good thing cruftbike has hauling capabilities.

At the 9-5 I make and modify some real wonky looking hunks of metal in the machine shop.  I am working with a bunch of people to make affordable, reliable wind turbines for your back yard.

here's a picture I took of one of the turbines back in March.

that's an 80 foot tall guyed tower.  way tall!  We raise and lower it with a lever arm about a third the height of the tower, some cable, and a pickup truck in first gear.  The lever is called a gin pole. I've been told that's because you drink gin on it when the job is done.

and here are some rad chunks of junk that I have a hand in.  They are experimental turbine parts, and parts of machines that make more turbine parts.

   
I got my other bike running and legal back in Boston last weekend.  Carbs cleaned, new tires, tank de-rusted (mostly).   An inline fuel filter keeps us moving.   My first good ride after the MSF course was the trip back up to Portland.  I split it between route 1, I-295, and I-95.  We got there in one piece with no hiccups.

there’s something special about tinkering with the innards of the thing that hauls you down the freeway at speeds that walking feet can’t comprehend.   

I took this picture at a Goodwill in south Portland.  it seems that cheapos on decade old ninja 250s shop at goodwill and get 80 MPG.

Portland is pretty small compared to Boston.  It’s a short ride on either bike to get out of the city and feel like it too.

machining by day, scrounging and reading by night.  spacing and wandering on weekends.  yeah, I’d say it’s summer.

Xi'an and the Terra Cotta Army

Hi Putz!
Hello from Shanghai!  As you may know I'm interning this summer in China, but i get the weekends off (kinda) to go travel.  This past weekend I went to Xi'an to see the Terra Cotta soldiers.  There are 8,000 soldiers in total to protect the dead emperor of China who's buried in a tomb near by.  The soldiers include foot soldiers, generals, and kneeling archers.  When the soldiers were found they were in pieces because the wooden roof above them had collapsed and the 5m of dirt above them crushed the soldiers.  All of the whole soldiers today have been rebuilt.  It can take a year to rebuild a soldier.  Pictures are below.

 

Eating Pig Feet in Shanghai

 

Plague explaining how a farmer found the soldiers while digging a well in 1974 and was the first to tell the government of its existence.

 

Tomb 1 filled with soldiers, the solders in the front have been rebuilt

 

Me with the soldiers 

 

Some of the soldiers being rebuilt, notice the details on their faces

 

What the soldiers looked like when they were found

 

The special kneeling archer soldier, the profile looks like the shape of the province where they are located 

 

One of the same bronze chariot and horses, its made to look like a turtle shell and carry the wealthy

 

Temple in the middle of Xi'an City

 

A road in Xi'an city, there's a lot of people in China

The kneeling archer soldiers broke less because they are short.  The remains of the wooden housing can be seen on either side of the soldier remains.  

Have a happy summer Putz!!

Nancy: Summer 2014 Updates

Hello,
Here are some miscellaneous updates.

I went backpacking with Judy, James, and Marcela, and saw some ponies. It was a 5 day long trip, 40 miles, over the Appalachian Trail in Virginia.

Last week I went sea kayaking out to an island at night and camped there

We built adorable robots for 6.01, but they aren't going to be using them :( sorry folks, we fell prey to murphy's law

The boat was moved to the tune of a few hundred dollars. We are still trying to get it titled and registered and work on it to finish it up so we can sail to boston harbor islands this summer with friends and go camping >__<

  

I've been learning diptrace and am pretty comfortable designing and ordering printed circuit boards now. Here are some tiny stepper motors that are so small you could eat them:

Here is a sneak preview of the next product I've been working on almost 24/7 for the last month for NarwhalEdu:

That's all for now. See you all around! Excited there's so much activity on the blog lately.