They have trains in France?

Just kidding.  They also have blogs, one of which recently featured Dawson Station.

http://francis.pichon.123.fr/?p=1583

As near as I can tell, they said they found it through Carl Ardent's website and to visit if you are not too put off by English.

Wait, a blog about a blog, about a blog? That kind of recursion could bring down the inner-webs!

Un-superbowling

The WetWesties crew has an annual tradition of camping out on Superbowl weekend. This was our first time attending.

They descend on Nehalem State Park near Manzanita.  We stopped for some squeaky cheese in Tillamook on the way.

It was wet and cold, but that is the Oregon beach in February. We had a heater in the van which made it cozy.

They had a potluck dinner. It was amazing what good food people living in vans can come up with. There were so many people we had to eat in shifts!

There were at least 50 vans there of all vintages. It was fun to see the different customizations. My favorite was a paint job using ferns and blackberry leaves. You can see more pictures here.

Chief cook Annie working on breakfast.

We are now home, warm and dry, and still don't know who won the point-ball thingie.

Real-time model rocket telemetry

My latest project involves wireless transmission of data from an Arduino-compatible micro-controller called a JeeNode. My first application was transmitting acceleration and pressure data from a water-powered rocket so that I can determine altitude and speed.


The first launch, done at the minimal pressure of 40 psi went 150 feet and reached 140 mph! The second launch also transmitted flawlessly, right up until it hit the roof of the house, knocking the batteries out.

The batteries were bent, and the holder destroyed, but remarkably the electronics still work. In addition to transmitting data, I'm saving it on board using non-volatile memory so it isn't lost in such an even, but it still didn't capture the final deceleration!

Someone did all the math, which is quite a bit more involved than for a regular model rocket, and put a simulator on line. This is very similar to what I do at work, analyze simulation data! I'm amazed at the initial acceleration and speed. There is a lot of energy being transferred rather quickly (~0.3 seconds)! Now I can optimize the flight parameters (up the pressure), and see what altitudes we can reach. Well, maybe I should work on the landings first.