Sunday, December 13, 2009

dlab xmas party

The group, the cap of the bottle of champain popped just when the picture was taken :)
that s why we all look in random directions



the Gang of the 3 :



Sally proud of her special hangman quizz :)



Sunday, December 06, 2009

Chamrousse, first day opened!







some specific acobatic positions ;)


tired?


and the video of the day with some experts in surf and ski and also butt-ing-down ;)


Sunday, November 22, 2009

a fox !!

i was randomly watching though the window on this rainy day of november when i saw this...



I would be happy to feel as confortable walking on the edge of the wall like the fox does :) but unlike the animal, i would put my family jewels in danger ... :S


bye bye

Friday, November 20, 2009

crystallography resolution (in Angstroems)

Some rules of thumb for 'outsiders'

Resolution Meaning:
>4.0 Coordinates meaningless
3.0 - 4.0 Fold possibly correct, but errors are
very likely. Many sidechains placed
with wrong rotamer.
2.5 - 3.0 Fold likely correct except that some surface
loops might be mismodelled. Several long, thin
sidechains (lys, glu, gln, etc) and small
sidechains (ser, val, thr, etc) likely to
have wrong rotamers.
2.0 - 2.5 As 2.5 - 3.0, but number of sidechains in
wrong rotamer is considerably less. Many
small errors can normally be detected.
Fold normally correct and number of errors
in surface loops is small.
1.5 - 2.0 Few residues have wrong rotamer. Many
small errors can normally be detected.
Fold always correct, also in surface loops.
0.5 - 1.5 One must be a determined idiot to screw
things up at this resolution, but don't
be fooled, even at this resolution can
we find threonines with the wrong chrirality
on the C-beta. But in general, structures
have only some small errors at this
resolution.


i can see that my 0.9A structure contrains me to be as awaken as possible to avoid to get the "determined idiot"
nickname ....


Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Elmo's seat - or the torture seat of elmo aaaaahhhhh



Test of the sinusoidal signal generated with LABVIEW for the K8055 and servo adapter (see older post). the motions of both the servo follows the signal to 7-8 sinus cycles by second, beyond that frequency, the servos are attenuating the amplitude of the signal because it is not fast enough. (HITEC cheap servos tested here). the card actually follows the computer signal +/- untill approx. 20-25Hz as observed by the flashes of the output leds.




for later:
control of the k8055 card and of the seat by simulator game ( xsim ).

Sunday, November 01, 2009

another of these things that should never break: the cover of the car's fuel tank pipe

all cracked and broken cover:

shiny & fixed cover! amazing what you can fix with a warm iron!

Note i would not be too worried about it unless it would not have been a problem in case it closes badly and forbids the proper locking of the muscle car :D

Saturday, October 24, 2009

kit velleman k8055 (or vm110) - coupling with rc servo

step 1:
K8055 velleman card working! :)
using K8055_full_demo_app-1.2.0.1



step 2:
control rc servos through the k8055 using the following 0-5vdc to 1-2 ms pulse over 16 ms cycles. (ideally 19ms but hey nothing s perfect)


sheme:
components calculated from:
http://www.daycounter.com/Calculators/NE555-Calculator.phtml

note a red Led has been inserted to visualise power in serie with a 390 ohm resistor; final dual circuit impedance is close to 420 ohm due to the 2x 1Kohm variable resistors etc..., I also added an electrolytic condenser of 470 µF for power filtering.

Dual 0-5 vdc to RC servo signal converter

in bi-servo configuration: with a 1A 5vdc alimentation not delivering enough power, peak power consumtion by 1 servo induces the move of the other servo (the well known low battery power effect). Using a battery with its RC regulator showed much decreased interferences. Hence it would be good to have an alimentation of 5vdc 5A minimum (stable alimentation can be achieved easily using several parallel power regulators 7805 with a common cooler).

(adaptation from http://www.epanorama.net/circuits/servo10v.html)

edit as asked on comment:
top view (from component parts)

little help for those that want to build the circuit on a pre-drilled plastic support. don t forget to connect legs 4 and 8 of the 555.
watch out, all crossings should not be connected, check on the sheme above to make sure. The connection to the servo is depending on your device's plug, it needs signal, +5vdc and gnd.
good luck

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

how to fix a Krups balance that has a broken screen?

What, no numbers printed on the screen of the balance!!! oooooooooooppps let s fix it!

What i did: re-melt the connections of that little µprocessor (a lot!!) being carefull not to make shortcuts with some Sn-Pb melted metal. in fact i had discovered that pushing it made the creen parts work again erratically, that was a bit clue!

Still a few problems... lets melt the other side of the µprocessor too

It works!


the cause of the problem : the pad pushing on the µcontroller that got misconnected due to stress. i removed a bit of plastic... problem solved.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Radiation risk OR Max danger in the office!

small do-it-yourself for office use:


a rough copy of ILL Neutron shutter danger panels.
Orange: Risk of irradiation, Max is relax, but ready to bug;
Red: danger of irradiation or Do not bug Max now.






Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Salon eurobio 2009

just a bit of material to bring to Lille...



The representation of our companies with high standing actors.








the small problem that was slightly &^ù*$^-'{[|\&& during the trip, and its solution :)


trip to the belgian coast





the stuck mobile home...

hummm.... what was the problem again? haaa maybe the next time it will be better to set the battery charger to charge mode ;)


Saturday, September 12, 2009

Mazan avec pat & lp 4-8 sept 09

Ma petite soeur m'a invité à passer quelques jours en coup de vent dans la villa avec piscine qu'elle et son époux ont loué cet été à Mazan (près de Carpentras).

C'était l'occasion de se dégourdir les jambes et de défier mon beau-frère dans une large gamme de disciplines comme nous avons l'habitude de le faire :)



Roussillon, les ocres (minerai à base de silice et d'oxyde de fer, utilisé dans le temps pour fabriquer la peinture "ocre")
en sortant du sentier des ocres, LP voulait se moucher quand tout d'un coup son mouchoir lui a échappé des mains et a atterri juste sur mon pied alors que j'étais bien loin derrière! à bientôt la revanche pour ce coup tordu!









Les visites, Le sentier de l'ocre de Roussillon, la piscine!, le camembert frit (miam!)


les deux vins differents qui affichent la même médaille de la même année.. curieux hein?




hé zut il faut travailler de nouveau....