标签: vetinari

This is just a quick update with regard to my Vetinari Clock project . One rather tasty feature of the clock is an interestingly-shaped vacuum tube mounted on the top. Sitting just under this tube I have a 16-element NeoPixel Ring from Adafruit.     These things are great. Each element contains super-bright red, green, and blue LEDs, and each LED has an associated 8-bit pulse-width modulated (PWM) controller. The elements are daisy-chained together, and you can control the whole thing using a single pin from your microcotroller.   If you take a peek at this video , you'll see some of the lighting effects I've been playing with:   iframe width="400" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ls5OjYr8J-s?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen/iframe   Unfortunately, my camera really doesn’t do this justice, possibly because the LEDs are so bright. The problems with the camera give you an appreciation for the tremendous range of brightness that can be accommodated by the human eye.   We start with a simple "breathing" effect in which all of the pixels fade up and down together. I'm currently using 20 steps from fully off to fully on, and vice versa. Also I'm using linear increments between steps, with a 0.1 second pause in the middle of the cycle (fully on) and again at the end of the cycle (fully off). If I decide to use this effect, I'll time it such that it takes exactly one second to perform a complete cycle, but at the moment I'm just approximating things.   As I say, I'm currently using a linear ramp as depicted by trace (a) in the illustration below. I've been wondering if other waveform envelopes would look any better, such as the ones shown in (b) and (c) below. I'm sure a lot of research has been done in this area. If you have any thoughts on this, please share them in the comments below.   I really wish you could see this in real life. The effect with two white pixels chasing each other around on a red background (i.e., all the other pixels are red) is pretty impressive. I also tried two red pixels on a bright white (full on) background, but the red ones were washed out. However, this does look good if I dim the white background LEDs down to a dim glow.   Another effect that looks very tasty is having a bunch of four white LEDs racing round, with the lead LED being fully on and the other three of diminishing rightness fading to a dim pink background.   The way this ring is positioned, there are two LEDs either side of the 3 O'clock, 6 O'clock, 9 O'clock, and 12 O'clock positions (with 6 O'clock being the one closest to the observer at the front of the clock.   As you'll see in the video, one effect starts with two white LEDs at the 6 O'clock position, then we illuminate additional LEDs to the left and right (clockwise and anticlockwise) until we reach the 12 O'clock position, then we turn them back off again until we end up back at our 6 O'clock starting point.   I also tried stating with two LEDs lighted either side of the 3 O'clock and 9 O'clock positions, and then turning additional LEDs on until we reach the 6 O'clock and 12 O'clock positions, but we would really need more LEDs to make this look effective.   So, that's the current state of play. As I say, this looks pretty awesome in the real world; I only wish I could capture a better video. I will certainly try to do so. In the meantime, can you think of any other effects I should try?

Well, I have to admit that I have a great big Cheshire Cat-type grin plastered on my face at the moment, because the prototype for my Vetinari Clock project is now well underway.   Just to tease you, let's start with a small photo showing the current state of play, and then I'll walk you through the steps that have brought us to our present position. We'll finish with more photos and accompanying links to full-size renderings of the little beauty.     From the get-go, I knew that I was going to have a large "Hours" meter, two medium-sized "Minutes" and "Seconds" meters, and a small "Tick-Tock" metronome-like meter. One big aspect to all of this was deciding on the layout for the front panel. My graphic artist chum, Denis Crowder, suggested a symmetrical arrangement with the "Hours" meter on the top, the "Minutes" and "Seconds" meters side-by-side in the middle, and the "Tick-Tock" meter in the center at the bottom, with the switches mounted either side of the "Tick-Tock" meter. However, I decide that I preferred the asymmetrical presentation shown below ( click here to see the column containing the deliberations that led to this layout).     Another big consideration involved creating the new faceplates from the meters. As I described in this blog , graphics guru Denis created the artworks, master craftsman John Strupat machined and printed the faceplates, and analogue meter expert Jason Dueck refurbished the meters and inserted the new faceplates.     The first step with regard to creating the prototype was to mark the front panel out on a piece of 1/4" thick MDF (medium-density fibreboard).     Now, I could have cut this front panel out myself with my trusty jigsaw, but I knew that the end result would not be as tasty as I wanted it to be. Also, there's no point in knowing a master carpenter if you don’t use him, so I asked my chum Bob to take a crack at it. Since Bob has a workshop full of tools -- not to mention decades of expertise -- it didn’t take him long to whip something into shape.     In the fullness of time, the real clock will be fully enclosed in a cabinet. For the purposes of this prototype, however, we've left everything open to make it easier for me to wire everything up and perform my experiments. The only part of the surrounding cabinet represented here is the small panel on the top, which will be used to hold the vacuum tube. In fact, this provides a brilliant illustration of the value of creating a prototype. I had originally thought of making the clock 8" deep (from front to back). But as soon as I saw this top panel in the context of this prototype, I realized that 8" would be too much. I'm now thinking 6" deep, which means the vacuum tube will be 1" closer to the front in the full-up version. One problem with MDF is that it soaks paint up like a sponge, so the next task was to prepare the prototype with a combined sealer and primer.     Originally, I'd considered creating a base upon which the clock would sit. My first thoughts revolved around a hand-carved piece with curved legs, but this wouldn’t have complemented the clock's Art Deco-esque style. Bob suggested creating legs using small, unobtrusive, inverted and truncated 4-sided pyramid shapes. I was starting to lean in this direction when we hit on the idea of not having any legs visible, but instead simply raising the base 3/8" in the air so the clock appears to be floating above the table. This explains the two strips of wood shown in the previous image. In the image below, we see these strips glued and clamped to the base of the cabinet.     Since it wasn't possible to clamp the middles of the strips -- at least, not with the tools available to me in my garage -- my solution was to place the assembly on two books that I'm currently reading (biographies of Mick Jagger and Bernard Shaw, if you must know) and weigh everything down with a brick. When I come to think about it, it's amazing how often bricks make an appearance when I'm constructing my hobby projects.     I also applied sealer/primer to the base of the prototype, using masking tape to protect the bottoms of the two wooden strips, thereby leaving them clear for felt to be attached later.     As you may recall, the front panel of the final clock is going to feature an amazing wood veneer with an aluminum look-and-feel. Meanwhile, the surrounding cabinet will be 0.5" thick and made of ebony (or, more likely, ebonized pear wood because that's much cheaper, or possibly even regular wood with an ebony veneer).   Of course we're not going to waste the aluminum look-and-feel veneer on a humble prototype, so I simply painted the inside area of the front panel with a blue-tinged-gray latex paint.     Observe the circle painted in the middle of the top panel. The vacuum tube is to be mounted in the center of this circle. Since I have a spare non-functioning 4.5" meter in my collection (similar to the "Hours" meter on the front panel), I've decided to mount its bezel on the top panel with the vacuum tube in the middle. You'll see what I mean in a moment. I then painted the 1/2" boarders around the front panel with black gloss paint to represent the surrounding cabinet (you can just see these boarders in the photo below). In the final clock, the ebony-looking cabinet will be solid wood that protrudes 1/4" in front of the aluminum-colored front panel.     Also, I painted the bottom black. Why bother painting the bottom of a prototype when no one is going to look? Well, I could waffle on about preventing reflections so as to increase the illusion of floating and suchlike, but the real reason is that I'm well acquainted with my little foibles -- if I left it as is, I would know it wasn't painted, and this knowledge would constantly niggle away at me.   When the paint was dry, I attached two strips of felt to the base and then added the meters and the vacuum tube. Below are a few images to show you how everything is looking thus far.           Now you can see how the clock appears to float above the surface of the table. This effect is a little more noticeable with the real thing, but it's also subtle enough that you don’t perceive it immediately. It's only after someone has been looking at the clock for a few seconds -- making high-pitched squeals of delight about the meters (and that's just the men) -- that they realize the clock doesn’t appear to be resting on anything and they excitedly exclaim "Just a moment, what's happening here?"   Also, you can now see what I mean about having the spare meter bezel mounted on the top of the cabinet framing the vacuum tube. Under the tube (which isn’t permanently attached to the prototype) is a circular slot into which I'll be inserting a 16-element NeoPixel Ring from Adafruit. In fact, this is one of the things I'll be doing this coming weekend -- in my next Vetinari Clock column I'll be showing a video of what this looks like when the vacuum tube is illuminated from below.   When I first painted the gray on the front panel, I was rather pleased with the sharpness of my edges. Sad to relate, however, when I painted the black borders with the gloss oil paint, things got a little wobblier. I've been fighting with myself over this. On the one hand I desperately want to re-paint everything; on the other hand, I know I could spend years trying to make things perfect. The bottom line is that, at the end of the day, this is only the prototype, so I've decided to grit my teeth, love what I've got, and move on with my life.   One last point (at least, for today), is related to the five switches. Did you spot the fact that the switch movements are orientated horizontally instead of vertically? Do you know, I never thought to check the switches when I created my original layout? Curse me for a fool! It was only when I was mounting the switches on the prototype that I realized they were too large to be presented vertically. "Well, take me outside and spank me now," I thought to myself (or words to that effect). Fortunately, I'm growing to like this orientation, which is lucky, because I'm short of other options (LOL).   So, what do you think? How do you like this little beauty so far?  

I don’t know what it is about them, but I am quite keen on using antique analogue meters as part of my hobby projects. I guess I just love the Steampunk genre, plus these meters add a certain "robustness" to one's designs.   I pick these meters up at Hamfests and electronic flea markets whilst on my travels. Until now, the largest meters I've run across have been 4.5" in diameter (that's the diameter of the external bezel). Two examples flaunting their yummy scrummy new faceplates are shown below.     On the left we have the "Magnificence Magnitude" meter for my Phrankly Phenomenal Ultra-Macho Prognostication Engine ; on the right we see the "Hours" meter for my Vetinari Clock project.   Now, it has to be said that 4.5 inches is nothing to be ashamed of on the antique analogue meter front. I would be proud to show my Magnificence Magnitude meter to anyone. On the other hand, it also cannot be denied that size does matter, and people do tend to look at you with more respect if you can show them something of a scope and grandeur they've not seen before.   Here we see a man who has not been blessed in the meter department.   A few months ago, following one of my earlier columns, a reader called Ian who hails from the Unfinished Continent (Australia) emailed me to boast that he had an exceptionally large-sized unit that he wasn't using. (This immediately brought to mind my father, who bequeathed his legendary virility to me when he found he had no further use for it, but we digress …)   As I recall, Ian actually said something like "I have a really big meter sitting on the workbench in my basement, and I'm never going to use it myself, so would you like it for one of your hobby projects?" Well, of course I could not pass on such an opportunity, so I enthusiastically acquiesced.   Unfortunately, this is a rather heavy beast, so we decided to ship it by the most cost-effective form of snail-mail (I paid for the postage, of course). I think it actually came by ship -- possibly even a canoe, based on the amount of time it took -- but I'm currently performing my Happy Dance (avert your gaze if you wish to preserve your sanity) because this beauty just rolled through the door.     In this case, on the left we see the "Hours" meter for my Vetinari Clock; on the right we have my new meter, whose 8" diameter results in a definite sense of presence. I can only imagine how impressive this will look once it's been cleaned up and equipped with a new faceplate appropriate to the task at hand, whatever that task may be.   Personally, I've never seen a meter this big. I didn’t even know they existed. Perhaps it was intended for use by short-sighted operators of nuclear power plants, or maybe its increased size results in increased accuracy (or do I mean precision? I always get those two mixed up).   I've committed to myself that I'm going to finish all of my existing projects before starting any new ones, but I can definitely see this beauty forming the centerpiece for a future "Vetinari Clock on Steroids"-type project that includes things like the solstices and the equinoxes.   How about including the current Galactic Rotation time? If we round things a bit, it takes our solar system about 220 million years to complete a single orbit around the galaxy. If we assume that our solar system has existed for 4.6 billion years, then we can easily calculate the current rotation time, and an 8" diameter meter will make it much easier to represent a full-scale deflection (FSD) corresponding to 220 million years.   Or perhaps you have a different idea as to what information we might present on this meter. If so, now would be a really good time to share your thoughts.

Recently, quite a few people have been inquiring about the state of play with regard to my Vetinari Clock project, so I thought this would be a good time to bring everyone up to date.   I did run into a slight problem when I discovered that one of my prize analogue meters intended for use in my Ultra-Macho Prognostication Engine had shrugged off this mortal coil. For a time, I feared that I was going to have to repurpose the main meter from the collection I'd earmarked for the Vetinari Clock. Happily, my chum Rick Curl and one of his colleagues resurrected the meter in question, thereby saving the day.   Another aspect to all of this is the fact that I'm going to need new faceplates for my meters reflecting the data they are intended to represent. In the case of the Vetinari Clock, for example, I intend to have a large meter displaying the hours from 1 to 12, two medium-sized meters displaying the minutes and seconds from 1 to 60, and a small meter oscillating back and forth like a miniature metronome keeping time with the tick-tock sounds we will be generating.     I've been pondering a variety of ways to create new faceplates. The image below is of an AC meter that cannot be used for any of my projects. I discovered that I can capture an accurately-sized representation of the faceplate on my scanner, and then convert this to a vector representation.     I received an email from EETimes community member John Strupat in Canada. John is the president of an engineering company that specializes in creating prototypes and one-off custom projects for its customers. One of the services it offers is the restoration of older equipment. The main points as far as we're concerned are (a) John has access to all sorts of useful equipment and (b) after reading my blogs, he's become interested in creating a Vetinari Clock of his very own.   In his email to me, John said: I have an idea I'd like to try out if you have a spare meter faceplate and a graphics file to send me. The graphics file should show the mounting screw holes to locate everything correctly. The process I have in mind involves matt polyester film, as the inks used here cannot be printed directly onto aluminum or other metals. I'm confident that the film can be trimmed easily to align with the complex shapes of those old meter faces and to give an impressive result. All color combinations of background and text/graphics are available, including the vintage light yellow/brown aged paint look.   Well, I already had a scan of the faceplate from my AC meter as shown below.     I immediately sucked this image into Visio, generated a vector version of the outline and mounting holes, and threw a test face together that displays things in terms of "Grokles" (whatever they may be). I also added some color, just to see what would happen.     I emailed this graphic up to John. I also dropped the faceplate in the post to him. Sad to relate, the faceplate disappeared into the nether regions of the postal service. Eventually, after more than ten days had gone by, John grew tired of waiting, and simply fabricated a couple of dummy faceplates out of thin aluminum sheet. Yesterday as I pen these words, John emailed me the following image.     According to John: One part has a powder-coated gloss-white background, while the other has a "yellowed" background using the laminate process. These parts are fabricated by printing on either film laminated to a substrate or directly onto a powder-coated substrate. The printer inks penetrate into the material giving a high-contrast durable result. A more rugged result with UV resistance can be accomplished with a clear spray overcoat or with a protective polycarbonate film.   John went on to say: In the case of an analogue meter scale, we can work with the original faceplate or create a new part from the outline from a hi-res scan. In either case we need the graphic file to print the new image. There are no restrictions on colors for graphical elements or for the background. We are now testing laminated assemblies printed on transparent substrate for backlit meter scales, windowed areas, and even capacitive touch panels.   John also tells me that his company is now considering offering this capability as a service to other makers. The idea is that folks could email in their desired graphics for the new faceplate. If they also send in existing faceplates, John's company could print on those. Alternatively, it could fabricate a new faceplate from the ground up. John is interested in knowing your thoughts about this -- is this a service you think the maker community would welcome?   As an aside, while I was chatting to John on the phone a few minutes ago, I asked how far away he was from Ohio. He immediately replied, "Six hours to Dayton, Ohio." So I asked if he'd heard of Hamvention, and he responded that he goes every year, so we're planning on meeting up there. (It really is a small world when you come to think about it.)   But we digress … My chum Denis is a Web guru and a graphics expert. Denis's company, CroDesign , specializes in creating mobile-ready responsive websites and apps. When last we spoke, Denis said he will create the graphics for the new faceplates, but that first he needs to know more about the way in which the meters are going to be presented -- not just their relative positioning, as shown below, but also the materials used to create the enclosure.     Well, another one of my friends is a master carpenter called Bob. (I tell you, the old saying "It's not what you know, it's who you know," is so true!) A few weeks ago, I was waffling on to Bob about my Vetinari Clock, and he told me that he wants to make the box for it. At that time, Bob mentioned that he had some wood veneer that looked like brushed aluminum with a wood grain. Apparently he had used this some time ago on a dashboard for a sports car for one of his clients, and he still has a bit left over.   To be honest, at that time I wasn’t so sure, but I was passing by Bob's shop yesterday, so I stuck my nose in to say "Hi," and he rooted out a sample of this veneer. OMG -- it looks incredible, as you can see in the image below.     Now, this will just be on the front panel -- the rest of the box will be some other color (maybe dark cherry or something). I'm thinking the clock will look amazing with an Art Deco look and feel.   I just sent a bunch of images of this veneer over to Denis in Hawaii. I'll be scanning the faceplates for the meters over the weekend and will get those to him as soon as possible. I cannot wait to see what he comes up with. When he has created his masterpieces, I will share these graphics with you in a future column. Until then, we'll all just have to wait on Denis in dread anticipation. In the meantime, what do you think about the way things are going with regard to this project, such as the choice of veneer?

A few weeks ago, the Mighty Hamster (a.k.a. Mike Field) graced my humble office with a visit. While he was here, Hamster noticed some of the antique analogue meters scattered around my office, and he shared an idea with me -- to build a clock using this sort of meter as the display. Hamster kindly said that I was free to run with this idea myself, so I added it to my list of hobby projects.   Most of the meters in my possession were already committed to other projects. Fortunately, at the time of Hamster's visit, the annual Huntsville Hamfest was fast approaching. It opened at 9:00 a.m., but I got there at 8:15 a.m., because I wanted to be at the front of the queue.     All I can say is that I made off like a bandit on the antique meter front. When I attended last year's event, I arrived empty handed and ended up staggering around with loads of carrier bags. I soon noticed that the more experienced attendees were sporting backpacks to stash their acquisitions. This year, I wore a backpack, but I wish I'd taken a rolling trolley, because I had to make numerous trips back and forth to my truck. The image below shows the meters I picked up, along with a few other items I couldn't resist.     Yes, I know this is a lot of meters. What can I say? I am a weak man when it comes to antique stuff in general and analogue meters in particular. All I know is that, when you can pick up meters like this for only $2 apiece, you grab them while the grabbing is good. Quite apart from anything else, I promised to pick up some meters for the Mighty Hamster. As soon as I post this column, I'll email him to ask which ones he wants.   I decided to use a large meter to display the hours and two medium-sized meters to display the minutes and seconds. I also plan on using a small meter to flip back and forth like a metronome in time with the "tick-tock" sound I intend to generate.   The image below shows a Visio drawing of my first-pass layout. The great thing about doing this sort of thing in Visio is that you can easily move the elements around to try different scenarios. I don't want to have all the meters in a straight line, because that would be boring. Once I was in Visio, I quickly gravitated to having the big meter on the left, the two medium meters on the upper right, and the small meter between and below the medium meters.     Originally, I'd vaguely thought about arranging things so that the distance from the top of the big meter to top of the two medium meters was the same as the distance from the bottom of the big meter to the bottom of the small meter, if you see what I mean. However, I quite like the arrangement shown above, in which the bottom of the two medium meters and the top of the small meter line up with the horizontal centerline of the big meter. Good grief, it's hard to explain this in words, but I'm sure my Visio drawing will help clear things up.   I have to admit that I'm fighting my natural inclination to overengineer everything. I keep on thinking about adding meters to display things like the seasons and moon phases, but if I did that, I might end up with something huge and ungainly that looks like the cockpit of a Victorian spaceship, so I'm resolved to stick with the four meters as discussed above.   In fact, I've already picked out the meters I intend to use, as shown below. (This explains why the previous image includes actual measurements.) Of course, I'll have to change the graphics and legends on the meter's faceplates, but we can discuss this in a future column.     As fate would have it, I visited my chum Bob the carpenter a few weeks ago. Bob has a workshop in downtown Huntsville, Ala., where he specializes in restoring and recreating antique furniture. I took my four meters down to show him and ask his advice. We decided that a dark walnut case would look rather tasty. I had been thinking of a dark front panel also, but Bob says he has some wood with a very interesting grain and an almost silvery hue. He says he used some of it to replace the dashboard in a sports car, and the result looked almost like aluminum with a wood grain. He says that we can give my clock a real Art Deco look and feel. Ooh, shiny.   As I mentioned earlier, my clock is definitely going to feature a robust "tick-tock" sound. I'll include a small loudspeaker and stream real-world audio recordings. As part of this, I'm also planning on including an optional Vetinari Mode based on Lord Havelock Vetinari from Terry Pratchett's Discworld book series.   Lord Vetinari, the scary dictator of the city-state of Ankh-Morpork, has a strange clock in his waiting room. It does keep completely accurate time overall, but it sometimes ticks and tocks out of sync: "tick, tock, tick, tock… tick-tock-tick… tock…" In fact, it occasionally misses a tick or tock altogether. For anyone sitting in Vetinari's waiting room, the result is somewhat discombobulating. By the time you come to your audience, your nerves are already frazzled. Hey, if it's good enough for a Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, it's certainly good enough for yours truly.   What say you? Do you like the sound of this project (no "tick-tock" pun intended)? Are there any other special modes you would include? And, if this version is successful and I eventually decide to construct a more fulsome model, what other factors -- number of days to the next full moon, for example -- could/should I present?