Turkey Trot 2010
In advance repentance for a delicious Thanksgiving dinner prepared by Grandma, we spent the morning participating in Austin’s annual Turkey Trot. Thanks to the generosity of Grandma and Papa’s neighbors, we were able to borrow a jogging stroller so David could come on the 1-mile walk after his Kids’ K.
David had been talking up how he was looking forward to his race, so I was also looking forward to running along by his side. Not too much of a surprise, however, he decided part-way through after starting to drag his feet a bit that he’d rather ride on my shoulders. We passed under a train, which he found quite impressive. We turned around at the half-way point, and I warned him that he would soon be his turn again. He ran the last third flat-out, and I had trouble keeping up with him at times. When he decides that he is into it, there is no stopping him. So much so, in fact, that I had some difficulty getting his attention so that he would cross the finish line on the right half of the barricade in order to get his finisher’s wrist band! Papa was toward the side near the finish, and I did not even see him while trying to keep David aimed at the finish line amid all the fun and chaos.
The grownups’ race started shortly afterward. This year featured a new course, presumably to accommodate the record 15,000 participant turnout. The previous course, starting at Waterloo Park and winding around the UT campus area was pretty nice, but I think the new course nicely features some different areas of town. Using the Long Center for the start and finish area offered a lot more room. Due to some sort of last-minute mix-up, the course was a half-mile shorter than the advertised five. I’m not complaining, since I found it to be quite hot and humid compared to Indy’s recent weather. Later that day, keeping the shortened course in mind made resisting that fourth slice of pie a little less difficult!
Indianapolis Half Marathon 2010
The Indianapolis Marathon deserves its reputation as a well-respected race. We found it to be well organized, and several nice touches showed attention to detail on the part of those who ran it.
We had a minor hitch getting to the expo and packet pickup due to construction confusion at the YMCA, but it was smooth after that. We arrived just in time too, since we observed that the parking lot seemed completely full when we left a short time later. The entry area to the expo was lined with mums and heaters, a nice but unnecessary touch, as the weather was mild that day. The expo itself was on the small side. We had no trouble walking right up and getting our packets and t-shirts from the friendly and helpful volunteers. The relatively small number of other vendors was no problem for us — less to traffic to dodge on the way out!
We owe a big thank you to the Zembrodts for watching David on race morning. We could not have both participated had it not been for their help. I’m glad that David got to play with his friends Jake and Toby on a Saturday morning, too.
After dropping off David on race morning, we were prepared for heavy traffic on 56th Street. By the time we crossed I-465, traffic was flowing smoothly. The kids directing traffic in the VA parking lots could have coordinated better and filled more spaces, but we didn’t have a problem. People arriving later might have had some difficulty finding parking spots, however. We stayed in the warm car, and Emily did some grading while we passed some time before braving the cold morning. Perhaps we should have left the car a few minutes sooner so that we could have made one last pit stop before the start. The lines were very long!
As the race started, the temperature was quite cool. No complaints though, as the sun felt glorious between the trees. The quiet environment while running in the state park was enjoyable, just the sound of footsteps and concentration. After a while, the park became more challenging for me. First, the hills were more than I am accustomed to, particularly the one at mile 10.5. Second, the design of the course led to some doubling-back even on the half-marathon course, which tends to sap my motivation. Still, the scenery was undeniably beautiful.
The food in the finishing area was a pleasant surprise. Both Emily and I thought that we had to have bought an additional ticket to enter, but we were wrong. All participants were allowed to have a hamburger or bratwurst lunch. Cool, how nice! And a well-earned brat it was. That’s why we run.
Prius nomogram
After finding a nomogram of how the Prius’s continuously variable transmission (or Power Split Device, in Toyota-speak) works, I thought it would be a fun exercise to use PyNomo to create my own Prius PSD nomogram.
The PSD is a planetary gearset, with the sun gear attached to Motor-Generator 1 (MG1), the planet carrier attached to the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), and the ring gear attached to Motor-Generator 2 (MG2). MG2 drives the front wheels directly.
In the nomogram, the car is travelling 65 mph. Because this is a continuously variable transmission, there are infinite ways of achieving this road speed. MG2 must turn at about 3850 RPM because it drives the front wheels directly. However, the engine can be running at anywhere between idle speed and flat-out. MG1 will then turn at a corresponding speed according to the relationship shown in the nomogram.
The nomogram also illustrates how the Prius can run in “EV mode,” where the car drives under electric power alone. With the ICE off, MG1 rotates backwards and MG2 rotates forward. As the car speeds up and slows down in EV mode, the isopleth line see-saws up and down the MG1 and MG2 scales, anchored at the ICE’s 0 RPM point.
Part of the elegance of the PSD is that there is no reverse gear. MG2 simply rotates backwards with the engine off. Cool!
There is an interactive Flash-based version on eahart.com.
Wind Rose
I wanted to find a way to show which direction the wind normally comes from, but wasn’t sure of the best way to show that information. A histogram is close, but it would be nice it could be shown in a circular representation. I stumbled on exactly the type of plot I was looking for. Turns out that R has a nice package called “climatol” that has a function to show this perfectly.
Color laser printer teardown
The old color laser printer at work gave up the ghost earlier this summer, and it has been sitting in the electronic waste recycling bin because it would have cost more to fix than to replace. I had been wanting to take it apart and take a look inside, and I finally got around to asking permission to fish it out. However, Emily will be pleased to learn that I saw a teardown of the same printer model posted on the web, so now I don’t have to clutter up the garage!
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/laserjet
Aside from dozens of pictures of the inner workings of the printer, I enjoyed the insightful comment that “the first priority of every part of this printer is to sell more printer parts.” So true.
How many library books did we buy?
To keep our 4-year-old interested in his bedtime story routine, we borrow a lot of books from our local library. Our pattern for a while now has been to check out a dozen or so books every few weeks. That’s a lot of books, and being the analytical type, I started to wonder what our fair share would be — how many books represent our share of the library’s book purchases.
According to the Hamilton East Public Library’s 2009 annual report, here is where the library’s revenue comes from:
Property Tax $5,130,689 (55%) County Option Income Tax $3,469,910 (38%) Financial Institutions and Excise Tax $ 254,505 ( 3%) Fines, Fees, and Other Revenue $ 359,532 ( 4%) ------------------------------------------------- Total $9,214,636
So, property and income taxes account for 93% of the library’s revenue. I’m not sure what the “financial institutions and excise tax” item is, but I know exactly what our property and county income tax are. I will admit to paying a 25¢ fine recently for a book that was one day overdue. The librarian commented that it was the smallest fine that she had ever processed. I’ll just leave that fine out of the mix and trust that I’ll get to within 95% of the bottom line. Let’s look at how much the library gets from our property and county income taxes.
Property tax. According to the Hamilton County Auditor’s 2010 tax rate notice, Fishers residents pay 0.0615% of assessed property value into the library system. The Assessor’s office makes it easy to look up any property’s assessed value.
Income tax. The State of Indiana 2010 County Option Income Tax Distribution Report shows that Hamilton East Public Library gets $3,216,968 of the $99,862,358 tax dollars distributed, or about 3.2%. So, 3.2% of Hamilton County residents’ 1% county income tax goes to the library system.
From that, it’s very straightforward to see how much money you send to the library every year. Just check the Assessor’s website and your paystub. Multiply your assessment by 0.000615 and your county income tax by 0.032. How far does it go?
Referring again to the library’s annual report, here is where the library spends its money:
Salaries and Benefits $4,268,937 (50%) Mortgage $2,443,293 (28%) Utilities, Supplies and Other Expenses $1,195,860 (14%) Books, Materials, and Equipment $ 723,124 ( 8%) -------------------------------------------------- Total $8,631,214
Curious that the library spends just 8% of its budget on buying books. At any rate, 8% of the taxes we pay into the library goes to buying books.
In our case, that’s less than $7, or one copy of Cowboy & Octopus.
Stoplight controller details
It’s been a long time since I promised myself that I would post details of the stoplight controller. The controller is based on the Arduino Duemilanove, with a custom shield containing relays and connectors for the sensors.
- Schematic Prints (316 kB PDF)
- Bill of Materials (29 kB XLS)
- Gerber files (28 kB ZIP)
- Arduino sketch (10 kB ZIP)
The lights in the stop light itself are turned on and off by six 3A, 120V relays on the shield. The shield also has an independently controlled set of six LEDs and a few miniature buttons, mirroring the function of the main lights, switches, and sensors. The controller is housed in an 8″ plastic electrical box with a lexan cover. I have a bit of work to do yet to tidy up the wiring and strap down the transformer inside the box, but the I cut a large hole in the side to hold the connectors for the sensors and button box, which use color-coded cat-5 ethernet cables.
The distance sensors are Maxbotix LV-EZ1, which put out an analog signal that the shield passes along to the Arduino. The distance sensors fit perfectly inside these surface mount ethernet boxes with a 1/2″ hole drilled in them. Adding keystone jacks to the boxes makes connecting cheap cat-5 cables simple and tidy. The sensors are mounted in front of each parking space. The Arduino runs a simple serial port interface program that can be used to program the controller with the threshold distances that change the light colors. The threshold distances are saved to the Arduino’s internal nonvolatile memory. The Arduino is positioned in the box such that the USB port is accessible from the outside, making updates and reprogramming simple.
The garage door open sensor is a C&K Components MPS80WGW magnetic switch. When the garage door opens, the magnet attached to the door moves away from the switch mounted by the door track, telling the controller that the garage door has opened. The controller then goes into parking mode, and changes the lights from green to yellow to red as the car pulls in.
A separate button box houses a couple great clicky arcade buttons that can make the controller perform some different light shows. The box is a simple 4″ grey plastic electrical box from the hardware store with a couple holes drilled in it, making it very durable.
Separated only by some years
Like father, like son, right?
