Alt-BEAM Archive

Message #08235



To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: Bruce Robinson Bruce_Robinson@telus.net
Date: Sun, 12 Dec 1999 21:53:24 -0800
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: I should know this...


> Richard Caudle wrote:
>
> When attempting to identify transistors, if you attach the + lead of
> the doide checker to the base and the - lead to either the emitter or
> collector and get an indication this means that the transistor is NPN,
> right?

SOUNDS right.

Using my ohmmeter, a clearly marked LED to confirm polarity, and a
PN2222 (NPN) transistor ...

Yes, that's what I get.

Bruce



8236 Tue, 14 Dec 1999 06:35:39 +1300 [alt-beam] Re: BEAMjet beam@corp.sgi.com Justin [Quoting from different posts]

>It's a curious thing to note however, that the BEAMERs on this list
>have already come up with a fair amount of stuff. The whole blimp idea isn't
>exactly new.

I didn't mean vague concepts of means and motion, unformed ideas (eg
blimps, jets) etc, but the more detailed description of mounting an SE
on an arm, making that arm into a mobile, putting a propellor on the SE
such that it imitates flight when triggered, and dressing the whole
thing up as a Fokker . That's specific enough to be a
reasonably distinctive description. If he was talking about dressing it
up as a bird that flaps its wings when triggered, despite being almost
the same idea, it wouldn't be construed as the source of my design. But
yes - that someone thought of something so similar indicates it may be a
more obvious concept than I took it for. Either that or BEAM attracts
people who think very much like me. Me for example... :-)

>Ideas are good. Ideas start the process. But, a finished, beautiful
>prototype is the real meat and potatoes.

I agree. Ideas are almost worthless when you always have at least ten
great ideas in the space of time it takes to bring just one of them into
the world. For this reason, there is little incentive to act on someone
else's ideas while your own accumulate dust. Thus continuously acting
only on other peoples ideas is often symptomatic of either lack of
creativity or low self esteem (or that you're employed :). So when I
post to say "yeah - I also thought of that", I'm not saying "Heap glory
upon my manly form for my ideas are as gifts from god", I'm checking
possible misrepresentation of how I usually build things. It's not a big
thing, but it's nicer to have it correct rather than mistaken :-)



8237 Mon, 13 Dec 1999 12:34:23 -0600 [alt-beam] Batteries "Beam@Sgiblab. Sgi. Com" "Phillip A. Ryals"
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I wanted to poll everyone and see what you use when you need batteries in an
application. I've grown quite tired of AA's because of their size, but I
can't seem to find any that last as long and are as cheap to replace.

I've been looking at the smaller Lithium photo cells, but they're too
expensive to not be rechargeable. And I *would* use a normal 9V, but that's
overkill on the voltage side of things. I'm looking for a small but
long-lasting 6V source.

Any ideas?


have fun,

phillip



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>
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have =

fun,


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class=3D770402218-13121999>phillip


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