Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #08759
To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: Bruce Robinson Bruce_Robinson@telus.net
Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2000 21:17:24 -0800
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: Lost: Andrew Millers Page...
Elmo wrote:
>
> Does anyone know where Andrew Millers web page has gone?
Gee, if only you'd paid attention to Bram's note about the new ISP for
his mirror site.
OK, I'll be nice. Look at the newly revised Beam Web Index at:
http://www3.telus.net/rfws/bwi/index.html
Click on Walkers, and right at the top of the 2 Motor section, you'll
find the new link (it's labelled "tutorial - Andrew Miller").
Regards,
Bruce
8760 Sat, 01 Jan 2000 21:37:19 -0800 [alt-beam] Re: OTU's beam@sgiblab.sgi.com Bruce Robinson Max Inggal wrote:
>
> In my honest opinion no one I know uses OTUs any more.
> I think cuz we're all to lazy, but if you must know
> of a source of OTUs the only place I know you can get
> them from are Oven and washing machine repair shops.
> I have like 5 of them from a Matage repair shop near me.
The term "OTU" is a little misleading. It's a very generic term that
applies to all sorts of 110/120 volt timer units. All of them have gear
trains in them, but most of them DON'T have the neat little units that
are shown in the Solarbotics tutorial.
I've taken apart about 3 dozen timers from just about every appliance
you can imagine, and I only found two of those so-called OTU's. The were
from a couple of oven timer clocks I bought surplus (for no good reason)
about 15 years ago. I've never seen them in any modern timers.
A conventional timer gear train is a series of small gears, usually
mounted in a tear-drop shaped housing with the motor coming out one
side. These are very bulky, and difficult to use. The things referred to
as OTU's are very compact, cylindrical gearboxes, and they are INSIDE
the motor housing. They can be removed as a unit and connected to a
small motor in a variety of ways. So if you take apart one of those
tear-drop shaped units, don't assume that the motor housing contains
just a motor -- follow the Solarbotics tutorial and "peek" inside the
motor housing as well.
A couple of clues to look for. The motor housings that contained the
OTUs were usually filled with oil and sealed. So look for some kind of
sealing material around the joint in the motor housing (mine was a
brittle red plastic material). If you think you've got one of these, a
couple of gentle strokes with a file on a corner (near the gear end)
will penetrate the casing. If you've struck oil, keep digging -- you've
probably got something.
Bruce
8761 Sun, 02 Jan 2000 00:59:35 -0500 [alt-beam] Re: Y3K George Rix Nah, Macs will have won by then =3D)
And I hope everyone had a nice time when the lights went out =3D)
Peace out!
Rob Rix
P.S. How disappointing, no explosions even, and with all that hype!
Don't take a walk, climb a tree =8B an ancient truism, invented last week.
> From: "Pete McCarthy"
> Reply-To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
> Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2000 17:55:05 PST
> To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
> Subject: Re: Y3K
>=20
> But the machines would be based on Windows and would have to upgrade thei=
r
> system every 3 years. They will eventually go crazy from buying 334
> upgrades every 1 thousand years and explode.
>=20
> -Pete
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