Just might have some life left in this old brain

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I won't say it's working perfectly, but I did get it to operating condition. It adjusts automatically for field strength. Will it work in the field? Who knows. It works indoors, but I'm sure there will be plenty of fiddling with the firmware before I say i like it. Right now, not so much. But it's working, it's working, IT'S WORKING!!!

Yeah, heard all that many times. LOL Well, at least i got my thrill for the day. Tomorrow, who knows? Too cold to breathe today. But I like the idea of just changing the programming. I expect to be doing that til Spring. I figure once I know WTH I'm doing it will be fast and easy. Not there yet.

 

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My C language never was. I audited a class probably 1984 evenings when i was working so I put no effort into it. So there's nothing there to forget or remember. So it took me hours to figure out WTH I was doing wrong not to mention all the mistakes i was making at every step. Many repeat offenders. LOL i don't know how much more i really care to learn about it now that I got the Contraption running. I guess all will change the first time i get out and fail. For now my optimism is high again. Maybe I just better not go out. LOL

 

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I didn't mean to make it sound like i just picked up the C language on the spot. I've been studying it over the past couple of weeks and still had plenty of wrong turns and dead ends even once I thought I had everything figured out--not!!! But I got what I needed for now. Will see if that is enough. I know it's not perfect and probably never will be, but right now on close range targets it hits dead on. Maybe over the next few months I will try to get a bit more fancy with the firmware, but maybe won't need to. I was a bit concerned i might have to modify things but turned out it has all the power as before and really hits the target. So need to work with it and make sure it can pass the test of time, not just work one day and not the next. So will have plenty of that til Spring. Been burning on this project over the past few weeks day and night all i could think about and it's nice to be able to relax.

 

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Kinda didn't want to wake up from my dream so never even ran the Contraption yesterday. But this morning I fired it up and the line was on the target. I tried it without the new modifications and it wasn't as good. I don't know if it was just because I didn't give it any time to lock on or what, but it sure hits better, faster with the mods. So I have a lot of testing to do between now and Spring. And of course it's all hay-wired together right now. "Contraption Squared".

 

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I feel like I am making a little progress. I got the thing spitting out frequency adjustments faster than I can count. So that seems to smooth it out a bit, you know, like when a tire is out of balance and you get up to about 60 mph it smooths out. LOL So more testing.

 

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I ain't done fiddling with it yet. I guess I could find out how fast it is updating but whatever it is, it is plenty fast--dozens of times per second. So I have some room to play there. And i plan to.

 

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Turns out there's more room than I know what to do with right now. I take several samples and get the average. That still allows for many updates per second. I guess one day I will set up a counter and see how many per second. It's going to take some time to find my way around in there. Just getting started.

 

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Being forced to work indoors, I am beginning to see some very subtle details I had missed previously. Typically up close range it is easy to point at the target, but I've found there can be a couple of degrees discrepancy. I might have to go back and rethink some of the hardware. But at least I know what to watch out for and I would like to experiment a bit more at longer range outdoors before making any rash decisions. As for the automatic field strength adjustments, I still need to try some different software ideas before proclaiming it a complete success, but definitely there is an improvement with what I have right now. Temperatures are supposed to be up into the twenties this week so I just might try to get outside for a few minutes at a time and see what I can find out.

 

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Wrote another program for averaging and depending on what freq I use, it can put out the space alien "warble" sound you've probably heard when they shoot their phaser guns on the Sci-Fi movies. LOL Not quite that pronounced, but depending on the volume level it can be heard in the background. Anyway, I like this one so far.

The average temp for this time of year is high of 39F. Hasn't been above zero last few days. Think it got up to 10 below yesterday, 0 today. Right now wind chill -17. So sooner or later it should warm up enough to get out in the yard.

 

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Tried another version of the software and didn't like it. Sounded trashy and didn't lock on as good. So in a way that is good news that what I was using yesterday might hold up. At least I like it so in the next couple of days hope to get outdoors and see what it can do.

 

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More urgent stuff going on and never even got outside with the Contraption. But tomorrow I will find time. Been messing with the programming a bit and decided my averaging program might be a little too much. I don't really know and just decided to see if I like it a bit more volatile, more responsive. So I usually try it out for a while and see how it suites me.

 

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Got outside today for the first time since before Christmas. So this was the first long range test of the field strength compensator. There does appear to be a slight delay in target lock-on time but not an issue. So do I feel confident in it yet? No, but maybe when i get some more time on it I might. Just have to wait and see how it goes, but right now it appears to to be working. Really need some good solar magnetic activity to put it to the test, to see if it will find the target and make a good lock-on. More bad weather cold and heavy snow headed this way so nothing will be happening for a while. For now i have just left it at the medium volitility. I have some more to learn about that. But it feels good to get outside. Too bad I've spent most of the good days on car repair...and failed. Those darned leaky head gaskets are pricey. Driving around here this time of year with an overheating engine and a cabin heater on the blink is not an option. Oh well, makes me forget about the Contraption troubles. LOL