Combining my experiments with #telescopemaking and #ai, I used Claude Code to help me make a small application that can output DXF patterns for all the major flat/cut from plywood items to make a basic Dobsonian telescope. It will automatically layout finger joints for my CNC, which is kind of a pain to do by hand with OnShape or other cad tools. I haven't tested it for real yet, but I will probably use it to make the rocker box for my 6" revival project.

Some more #onshape cad, the rough model for the next few bits of a Dobsonian telescope project I'm working on. No details yet, just mucking around with how it looks. Trying to use 1/2" ply rather than 3/4" ply, and will add some gussets to reinforce bits. #telescopemaking

Cutting parts for my telescope project on my homemade CNC.

Crazy #ai programming project of the day: a prototype application (front end/back end) that allows LLMs to play the old board game Diplomacy. The python diplomacy package https://diplomacy.readthedocs.io/en/stable/ did all the heavy lifting for move generation, but each nation is represented by a large language model that also has access to a MCTS to help it plan and evaluate moves. It's by no means a great opponent, or even competent at this minute, and it runs fairly slow, but the architecture is interesting.

#3dprinting of the day: some of the old telescopes I have seem to be lacking anything to cap the focuser so that dust can't get in. In the old days, I used to use 35mm film canisters, but who has those anymore? So, I made some quick replacements. I could print four of these in 1 hour. They work well.

A strange idea I had, created using evil technology.

Tiny progress on my Monte Carlo Tree Search checkers engine which I coded with Antigravity, and some help from Claude's latest Fable engine to debug an issue.

Hey #3dprinting experts. I was making a little side bracket to hold some eyepieces for a telescope project, and it looks like it will work fine, but there was a small pair of defects in the first layers, which were highly localized, spoiling an otherwise very good first couple of layers. I've seen this a couple of times lately with both PETG and ABS prints. Anyone have any suggestions on what might be causing it?

Decidedly mixed feelings about the release of Toy Story 5. It'll be the first one where I don't appear in the credits. I was interviewing for a lead position on the film when the layoffs happened in 2024. Would have loved to have completed my own personal story arc working on all five. But congratulations to all my colleagues and friends!

I bought two of these https://www.seeedstudio.com/XIAO-ESP32S3-Sense-p-5639.html little xiao sense boards, which have an ESP32S3 and a tiny camera on board for just $14 each for a robotics project, and coded up a quick little camera streamer web server. I noted that the temperature of the board got quite toasty. They included a pair of little heatsinks, which I installed, then I wrote some code to monitor the cpu temp. At the start, it's not using the camera. I then started streaming video, first at 320x240, and then 640x480.