• Checked out and tested Ingest Manager, EdgeUtils2 and AccountManager on my mac to see difference:
  • Needed to remove duplicate dependencies
  • Definitely needed to change flex-maven_plugin to version 3.8
  • file .flexconfig.xml was generated by maven on Dong’s mac. This file was NOT generated on mine.
  • The -locale flag in Compiler settings needed to be empty in Flash Builder/Eclipse on my Mac because it threw the same errors that were occurring on my Windows machine yesterday.
• 2 issues remain:
  • Ingest Manager: could not install application via Maven Assist. It led to to OutOfMemory: Java Heap error. I set MAVEN_OPTS in the terminal. Still failed to install application in Maven Assist, but could successfully install the application via the terminal window.
  • EdgeUtils: Continue to get a problem associated with the compiler settings. By default (after checking out the project) the additional compiler settings had “-include-sources:C:Phil…..EdgeUtilssrcmainflex”. I removed this setting completely, only to receive another error “nothing was specified to be included in the library” (this same error was generated if I added in the -locale argument). Finally, I took original argument, but changed it to point to my EdgeUtilssrcmainflex directory, only to be told that “could not find resource bundle in logging, messaging, rpc, SharedResources, validators”. Need to find out from Dong what his compiler argument is set to — hopefully that will resolve the issue on my mac.

• Spent time with Dong to go over the errors I was receiving with Ingest Manager. Turns out that flexmojos-maven-plugin 3.8 doesn’t allow for duplicate dependency statements in the POM file where v.3.2 did. This is also why Maven Assist would crash when trying to set the POM file. Once duplicates were removed Maven Assist was able to successfully set the POM.
• Checking out a few other older projects – EdgeUtils and Account Manager. EdgeUtils had a clean POM, but Account Manager ended up throwing the same error. Turns out it too had duplicate dependencies written into its POM file. Once removed, that error disappeared.
• Discovered a few other gotchas that Dong outlines in his post:
  • Maven generating different Flex project settings for Mac and Windows? –> I will be testing this on my Mac to see if I generate the same project settings as Dong.
  • -locale flag in Compiler settings needs to be empty to compile in Flash Builder/Eclipse? It works fine on Mac, but Windows complains. –> Again, going to check this setting on my Mac to see if true.

Repairing the hand:

• The top of the thumb, bottom of index, top of the pinky and bottom forward back rotation need repairs.
• Attached new strain gauges to all but the bottom index.  This one will have to wait for the glue to dry on top.
• left/right rotation, middle, and ring finger all work with good sensitivity.

Had to leave to get a check book from my house.  Will continue working on the articulated hand at home and call about the voice coil actuators.

Repairing the hand:

• Bondable terminals came in today
• Glued them on to the area next to the strain gauges
• They seem pretty solid but I am going to wait for the glue to dry completely before wiring.
• Hopefully these work as a good anchor point for the wiring.
• Started repairing the connection wire

Learning OpenGL:

• Got the solar system working today
• I know how to do things but why they work I will have to look into.  The documentation for the functions shows how it affects the matrix but I haven’t really looked into this yet.

glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION);
glLoadIdentity();

gluPerspective(60, (GLfloat)800 / (GLfloat)800, 1.0, 100.0);

glClearColor(0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0);
glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT|GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT);
glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW);

• The bold code above needed to be added in order to get the lighting to work.  I assume this is because lighting projects and is part of the projection matrix but I have no idea.
• Translating before scaling allows you to make items smaller without affecting their position.
• Pushing saves the current matrix and popping restores the current matrix.  After pushing the matrix, any actions before you pop the matrix will be isolated to only the object you are drawing within.

• Met with Phil to discuss what to work on next. Decided to take on the Ingest application. Over the next few days I will be checking out the project, reviewing it and writing up my plan of attack

8:00 – 5:00 VISIBILITY

• Got a screenshot of the condition where PPM runs a dialog about saving financial data. I can’t tell what other windows are open, but from the position of the scroll bars, at least one is.
  • The dialog reads: “Data have been changed. Do you wish to save before close?”
  • According to Christie, the only way to get out of the screen is to answer “no”. Changes to the spreadsheet are not changed if she exits and reopens the spreadsheet.
• Walked Christine through work options on Vis4. She’s going to work on making a new Ingest Manager front end that customers will have more success interacting with.
• Got a good deal of work done on generic infoObject exchange.
  • Creating descriptive XML from actionscript objects that will be used on the java side to build tables
  • Working on reading and writing data to/from tables.
• Ordered some FP parts for Tom
• No ride today – *WAY* too cold.

• Updated report from Allan, looked through it and added a few things to the prototype report
• Added in some navigation code to the report window so a button in the quad chart can open sections of the report.  (scrolling to a grandchild of a component is quite the pain)
• Added collapseAll and expandAll to the report
• Checked in the rest of the debug code to svn and added the RollUpContainer to FGMUtils

• Read through Visibility 4 document. Need to talk with Phil on next steps.
• Took a look at the assets directory issue (b/c it was driving me bonkers). I think it may have something to do with how Maven and Flex interpret their directory structure.

• Dong helped me fix MavenAssist problem (due to my blindness)
• Could not reproduce Phil’s AirfileImageAppMaven error. Could be something specific to his machine. At least we know Maven and Flex can work together on Mac and Windows. Unresolved issue: Incorrect location of the assets directory. Maven places all files within Flex assets directory under target root directory. Need to look into why
• Received Phil’s Visibility 4 Initial Plan document to read through

• More hard-coding of prototype quad charts and reports:
  • Made a real looking quad chart with images, html text and fake looking links
  • Filled in the report with better formatted text and some more tables
• Sent a detailed email to Alan explaining how to upload files to the blog
• Talked to Brian more about what a quad chart is and how it should work with the reports

Strain Gauge Durability Problem:

• The optimal solution is to get more of the backed silicone strain gauges.  However these are a bit expensive ranging between $8-10 each.  If we didn’t have such excess of naked strain gauges, this might be a better option.
• Another type of strain gauge is the foil type.  This type may be worth experimenting with before the productization stage because they are much less sensitive.  With our current strain gauges, I have to turn the amplifiers almost as low as they will go in order to get a good range of force.  One potential drawback is that, although I may be able to get a better range with this type, it may come at the cost of a higher dead zone.  These are approximately $27 for 5 which is still way more expensive then using our excess supply.
• Since the main problem comes from the gold strands breaking, the most cost effective solution for more durability, is to use bondable terminal pads.  These are are essentially the same thing the backed strain gauges are attached to.  With these, I should be able to isolate the delicate parts from the strain of the heavier sensor wires, by having better anchoring points on the side of where the strain gauge is attached to the metal.  It may also be possible, to mount the gauges directly on the isolator and make a packaged gauge like the ones we have.  Doing this might also help dull the sensitivity the same way the backed ones do eliminating our potential need for foil type.
• Some documentation on these terminals can be found here: http://www.omega.com/Pressure/pdf/Bridge_Completion_Resistors_RES.pdf
• I need proper measurements to determine which ones to get. I think it should be about the same size the prepackaged ones we already have.  I don’t think having smaller spacing would be very solder friendly.

Formula for strain gauge Gauge Factor.  Just found this, might come in handy.

ΔR is the change in resistance caused by strain,

R_G is the resistance of the undeformed gauge, and

ε is strain.

Repairing the hand

• Attached strain gauges to the bottom side.  Will start wiring on Monday.

Learning Electronics:

• I am about halfway through the book now.
• Multiplexer was the word I was looking for the other day when we were talking about the i2c bus.  I was surprised that the bus did not need a multiplexer in the diagrams I saw.  I think the reason a multiplexer is not needed is because there is a small one inside the i2c slave devices controller.
• Finished chapter on numbering systems, Binary Arithematic, and Boolean algebra.  This was mostly review of things I learned in COSC 101.  There are some techniques in the boolean algebra section which you can use to simplify the amount of comparisons needed to reach a desired result.  In electronics this means getting from A to B with less transistors.  In programming this could be useful in making the program run more efficiently.

Other Experimentation:

• Assembled another bridge to test the circuit board type strain gauges.
• Attached the second one to the test stick.  The glue we are using is made to work with this type of strain gauge and for whatever reason seemed to dry much fast while in contact with the insulator used.
• Soldering wire to the leads is a bit tricky but is a much less delicate process then trying to wrap the unpackaged strain gauges around the wire.
• Was worried that these strain gauges would be less sensitive but it seems that they are just as sensitive and that they play better with gain and offset adjustments better(more consistent results).
• Seems very durable.  I pulled on the wires harder then I would ever intentionally pull on them and they did not budge.  No need to put a think layer of epoxy on it,  only a small amount of glue would be needed to insulate the connection to prevent shorts.
• One side of the stick was already insulated the other was not.  I did not add any insulation to the side that didn’t have it and it seems fine.
• Since we don’t have many of these stain gauges,  I still plan to use the standard type for this prototype.  However, if I have to repair this one again, as well as future pr0totypes,  I would like to use these prepackaged strain gauges due to their ease of application, increased durability, and greater aesthetic value(no big glob of epoxy needed).  There are many sites that sell versions of these but the ones we have are really nice because they have big leads that are easy to solder to.  If you can remember where you got them from tell me, otherwise I will try to find something equivalent.
• This test stick will be used for experiments with the tactile/audio feedback system once I get the amplifiers and usb-i2c device sometime next week.

I think Clift forgot about me…. 😦  Hopefully he will come to the lunch Christina planned next Tuesday.  Its no big deal, gives me some time to read this book so I can ask more complicated questions.

• Continued setting up win machine
• Receiving weird error message in Eclipse: “The Maven Integration requires that Eclipse be running in a JDK, because a number of Maven core plugins are using jars from the JDK. Please make sure the -vm option in eclipse.ini is pointing to a JDK and verify that Installed JRE’s are also using JDK installs.” Then in the console window I’m told “Eclipse is running on a JRE but a JDK is required.” And I know for certain that the latest JDK is installed and set in the path.
• One solution is to add a -vm argument to the Eclipse.ini file. That didn’t make a difference.
• Another solution was to be sure Maven is not set up under C:Program Files b/c the space between ‘program’ and ‘files’ can cause an issue with Eclipse on windows. Next step is to remove all of the sw for the dev. environment from “Program Files” and place within a non-spaced directory.

Repairing the hand:

• Insulated all top-side strain gauge areas with primer and paint.
• Put down a layer of glue and let it partially dry
• Attached strain gauges to sticky surfaces and let dry a bit more.
• Added a second coat of glue on top of the strain gauges.
• Will add one more layer of glue tomorrow when current glue is completely dry.

Computer controlled amplifier:

• Found a cheaper and most likely better way to convert usb to i2c:  http://www.acroname.com/robotics/parts/R286-USB-I2C.html
• Drivers and example software can be found here: http://www.robot-electronics.co.uk/htm/usb_i2c_tech.htm
• Found out that qucs and spice are really designed to test integrated circuits you want to make.  This is why I was having trouble finding models of various ICs.  However I am pretty sure in qucs you can package modules and link them together, so it may still be possible to model macro circuits.  I will look more deeply into this tomorrow.
• Learned that an i2c bus  does not need any switches to route its message.  All message routing is dependent on the i2c slave devices hardware address set on the IC.
• I think the device above produces a strong enough signal to control multiple devices without having external power introduced to the bus.  Adding this to my questions for Clift.
• The variable amplifier has two power inputs and two grounds.  One pair is for the i2c controller the other is for the amplifier.
• The usb device outputs 5v at 70ma.  This maybe enough for the i2c controller but probably not enough for the amplifier.
• USB devices only output 100ma so anything you want to power via usb can only add up to this much. I am pretty sure the reason why a regulated power supply like the one we have can power many things at a constant voltage is because it varies the current by the resistance of the connected devices.

• Setting up development environment in Windows. Had to put a halt on the setup b/c I am having major windows issues and am looking into getting an alternate box until I can get these resolved.
• In the meantime, I am going to start looking into the creation of the Maven parser for the Visibility project