[chbot] Robotics Group meeting, 5 Idris Rd, 6-30pm, Monday 20 Mar 2023

[Mark Atherton]

Hello everyone,

Good turnout with 28 attendees, and lots of huddles-of tech-talk. $28 + 
change (in gold, and flat-money) collected and transferred into the 
robotics loose-change jar (for later banking).

All sales from the trading table should go into the brown box on the 
wall, and are directly for the benefit of our host club, Christchurch 
Amateur Radio Club, NZART Branch 05.

Equipment donations are welcome for the trading table, but no CRT based 
product, printers, toner or items that are likely to be a disposal burden.

With thanks on behalf of the group,

Mark Atherton


Mark talked about progress on LumiClock – a rotating cylinder which has 
been coated in a long-persistence photoluminescent phosphor, and 
illuminated by 16UV LEDs. Initially, house acrylic paint was used as the 
carrier for the phosphor. This utterly failed since there is UV blocker 
in the paint. Second attempt using sodium silicate was successful.

Mark also talked about Remote Phosphors; plastic strips which have been 
treated with phosphor, and can be remotely illuminated using UV. He also 
briefly talked about repairing a half-horsepower single phase induction 
motor with a broken centrifugal switch.

David Bourke gave a presentation about his new CDC mill. Not too many 
broken milling tools so far. Amazing new machine, and plenty of things 
to learn.

Andrew E talked about his storage system based on the 3D printed 
GridFinity open source project. The project has broadened to include an 
MDF outer case, and perspex lid.

Michael talked about Battery Management Systems, and started to talk 
about the issue of repacking a large battery used in his unicycle. He 
also talked about the repair of a camcorder he borrowed to allow 
transfer of some videos to digital.

Robin talked about several (Finite) State Machines he implemented in C 
on an Arduino Nano for use as his greenhouse-controller.