Saturday I preesented "The Accidental Roboticist" at the Livermore Public Library as the final talk in the Livermore Reads Together program for 2016.

Between 80 and 100 people attended, at least 1/3 of them children. My talk was short, 15 slides in about 35 minutes (or so, I took questions as we went along) and then time for people to come up and play with ThinBot, Arthur-9 and some of my neoPixel projects. (ThinBot was filled with water only, before you ask).

Thanks to bovil who shepherded people through the ThinBot navigation while I bounced between the youngsters driving Arthur-9 with my phone and people who had questions about Arduino, wearable electronics, and various and sundry other topics. Thanks, too, to Diane O. who helped encourage the shyer kids (or parents) to have a go with A-9.

We arrived at about 12:20, the talk started at 2pm, and we were done and loaded to head home at 5pm. Andy's Photos are up on our robotics team page, Drinks Advanced Research Project Agency.
It was a long but rewarding afternoon, and I urge folks to support Friends of the Livermore Libary, who sponsor the Livermore Reads Together program.

Also, if you live in Livermore or have friends who do, they have assorted robots you can check out for a month at a time to learn to program!

Last night I got pumps 9 and 10 wired and mounted. They will cantilever off the back of ThinBot's frame to be less obtrusive.

( Photos under the cut )
I also got a 5.5V current source wired up, on the off chance I get a servo for the arm installed and working.

I'm planning to put the whole shebang together tonight to make sure it all fits :-)

Today I finished milling the new glass stand for Thinbot, and test assembled it. I still have to wire up the switch and update the code to recognize it.


( Pix under the cut. )

I probably don't have time to get it anodized before the show, but it looks pretty good in its natural silver.

Oh-- I also ran the pressure test on the heat exchanger now that it has had a chance for the sealant to cure. No drips after running it for an hour!

Yesterday I did a complete assembly of the heat exchanger. It's so shiny :-)

( Photos under the cut )

Today I try to finish the glass rest and panels for two auxiliary pumps

I've been working on a replacement chiller (heat exchanger) to replace the steel-tubes-through-cocktail-shaker assembly on the front of ThinBot. I just dropped it off at PK Selective Metal Finishing to be blue anodized.

Before I could do that, though, I had to do a test assembly to make sure it actually went together.


( Photos under the cut )

I did a compatibility test last week to make sure that neither the lime juice nor cranberry juice will react with the aluminum. Everything turned out fine.

I know there are plenty of options for your entertainment dollar this weekend, but if you like cocktails and robots, you might want to get tickets to one or both nights of BarBot 2013

http://www.robogames.net/barbot

It's at a new venue this year, SomArts (www.somarts.org), but the organizers fully expect it to sell out. Tickets are $25 in advance. Note the show was just moved up (yesterday) to 7pm-12 midnight for both Friday and Saturday

That's Friday March 1 and Saturday March 2, to be perfectly clear.

ThinBot will be there, looking quite a bit shinier than at his debut at BarBot 2012 (and there have even been upgrades since Gallifrey, if you saw him there).    

Featuring, of course, ThinBot, our perfectly ordinary robot bartender

And the day before (Friday), you can Go Underground with London in 2014 and Westercon 66, sharing hosting duties.

Same suite, 8ish.