Notices by James Brown (ancientjames@mastodon.social), page 2

These guys.

Dynamic balancing using a tray of marbles and iPhone slowmo.

I’ll have to rethread it and put the 14 extra around the edge.

I guessed 512 or under, annoyingly.

526. There are 526 individual strands.

Have you ever wondered how many strands are in one of these tat shop fibre optic wands?

Why did I do this?

I encapsulated the ends without breaking too many. Now I just need to pixel map them.

Nothing like Kapton tape to make you feel like you're doing Technology.

Monsters.
https://youtu.be/yIfgjr-B8xI

kind of feels like it needs monsters?

I’m now suspicious of all the PLA parts. The little pit with the Pi in it is getting very warm.

In the continuing quest for higher rpm, I've moved the controller down below the screen and across the axis of rotation. It's a lot harder to get at if I need to rewire anything, but it does improve the balance.

I mean, you should have seen it before.

It feels as though I'm endlessly rebuilding it, for diminishing improvements. But in the most recent rebuild I finally solved a mystery that has been bugging me. When the display had been running for a while, it would quite abruptly lose balance and start vibrating. After the last occurrence, it was never quite the same. On stripping it down I found this.

Pi 4 model A

That's the mount for the slip ring. A cylinder carrying a couple of copper bands fits over the pillar, and an M4 bolt goes own the middle to hold it all together. It has very clearly become bent, and without any signs of cracking. Presumably, as it spins, it heats up enough to soften the PLA, and the spring loaded brushes push it out of alignment.

I've reprinted it in ABS; going to see how well that lasts.

This feels like a good match of style and content.

I continue to fail to shoot footage of it that does it justice.

I needed some hydrogen peroxide, so I ordered some online from a place that seems *really* into hydrogen peroxide as a lifestyle choice. It came accompanied by a leaflet which uses the term "nature's own magic water".
I've decided to find it charming.