EMC2 and Kite Supplies

I had a chance to use EMC2 to cut parts on my mill. Aside from still having problems getting the idea of touching off vs. homing through my thick skull, it was a good session. After a fair bit of experimentation, I get the idea of touching off vs. homing, I got semi-automatic toolchanges working with my CAD/CAM software (Vector CAD/CAM), and I even made some parts while I was at it (motor mount blocks for a friend's autonomous quadracopter). It was a good evening.

Tonight I've got a list of "wannas" loaded onto the flash drive I'm using to move files on and off of the mill computer. It's a shame, really, that I have to go that route. EMC2 runs on Ubuntu Linux, which is fully networked. But I can't get a cable out to my shop, and I can't afford wireless hardware at this point. Ah well. At some point it'll happen.

It's odd, along with all the items on my list like "install a spindle encoder so I can do CNC threading" and "finish designing and building the touch probe" I have one overwhelmingly important item: Lights! I have no lights in my shop anywhere near my mill. This is extremely hard on the eyes, and at times I've resorted to using flashlights. I need a lamp on my mill. BAD. Maybe I'll pick one up tonight when I swing by the hardware store.

In the meanwhile, the supplies for my rokkaku kite came in! I'm planning to build it using Gary Engval's plans. I ordered fiberglass spars rather than carbon fiber, more for economic reasons than anything else. But I can always replace them with carbon fiber spars at a later date. The sail will be bright green ripstop with matching green Dacron for the reinforcement patches. The webbing will all be black (I'm a traditionalist, and the spars are black anyway). I can't wait.

There are a number of flying spots on the Big Island I really haven't been able to fly with my Flowforms. Most of the spots on the Kona side are because of wind availability (little of it, and usually of the thermal variety). Most of the spots on the Hamakua side are because there are so many darned trees! Don't get me wrong. I love the trees here. But when you're flying on a beach with only thirty feet of sand between the water and the trees, and the trees are eighty feet tall, that's really not much space. The Flowforms have about a 35-55 degree flight angle, making narrow launch spot flying tough. The okkaku will have roughly a 75-85 degree flight angle, making such flying much much easier.

Another added benefit is that with higher line angle, you can lift the same weight with less line pull. Look at it this way: At a 30 degree line angle, you need four pounds of line pull to lift two pounds of payload (sin 30 = 0.500). At 90 degrees, two pounds of line pull will lift the same two pounds of payload. Not that you get kites flying 90 degrees straight up like an elevator, but kites like the rokkaku and delta get angles that are pretty darned close!

The disadvantage is that a rokkaku has a frame. Flowforms don't. I can stick two Flowforms, two line spools, a KAP rig, camera, transmitter, gloves, spare batteries, etc. into a backpack. The shortest spar on the rokkaku will be three feet long. It's not a backpack kind of kite. But that's ok! With a 32" kite bag and a spare hand, it gives me flight characteristics I haven't had before, and a big pretty green kite to go play with.

Hmmm... Since I've got lots of black Delrin in the shop these days, that might be a fun test for the EMC2 controlled mill: Chuck the Delrin in a drill chuck, use the lathe toolbar on the mill, and have it make nice, semi-spherical end caps for the spars!

Maybe these hobbies play better together than I thought...

Tom