The Robots Within

Robotics has always interested me. Growing up (and to this day), I'd be pulling all my gadgets apart—mechanical, electrical—I didn't discriminate. I wanted to see and learn how things worked, discover their inner workings. To this day, many items that come my way don't have a chance; I end up with a screwdriver wrenching away at them. Some survive; others... not so much.

It's this odd fascination, curiosity—mainly the journey, but the finished product is so satisfying. Because when something gets taken apart, my mind races to all the interesting projects I can conjure up with whatever is discovered within. Kids' battery-powered toys are some of the best! Some can actually be pretty freaky once the cute fur/fluff is removed, leaving an exoskeleton of animatronics.

Inside out, taking our child hood toys "apart". Seeing what is under the "skin". And, not really what you are used to seeing when taking them apart...   Jason Freeny shows us the anatomy of our favorite childhood toys/ animated figures...

That 1 is a bit too real... though, not the actual, or real composition of the inner workings. There's an online collection - many, many... where the fur has been removed, leaving us with the naked mechanisms- the robots that hide within. Large collection, with detailed portraits taken of the before and after—like I said, some can be seriously creepy! And as far as I can see, this page gets updated... there are alot more on the page than the last time I visited the site.



Do you have a favorite out of all of them? I enjoyed seeing the dancing flower.. I remember many of those in shop window when I was a kid growing up.... there are the many that are...if I was a kid and pulled the fur off to see those, no wonder some kids have more nightmares than others. Leave a comment of your favorite below. Mine is the one with the caption"

Looked cute enough, but made a very, very sad robot

Maybe you remind yourself of something that broke down, so you need to keep a component, or a daydream is trying to come to life. Most of the time, whatever was pulled apart gets broken itself, and it's hard to toss out. First, there's the guilt of breaking it, then denial, and the wild idea that, "Hey, I broke it...I can fix it...I just need another...part..."

One thing that I am exploring is using those PTZ auto-follow/track security cameras for other projects. Surprisingly, I've only seen a couple—literally two—projects where someone has taken those and created something else with them. They have wicked night vision and can track objects. I've made a few to have the externals of stuffed animals... it's actually a good use, brings them to life, as though real. As you walk past, the—what used to be your favorite teddy bear—now an animatronics experiment...its head follows you...and looks up at the sky as birds and planes pass...then following the family dog as it runs by. I'll put up details in the future of what I've done.

These little security cameras have fairly good night vision and IR—how about some night vision goggles?

Some can be accessed outside of their proprietary apps—now you have a platform already put together to transmit audio/video.

Instead of the one stepper motor controlling the pan, the other the tilt...what if one connection went to multiple motors, controlling a drive train?

The components inside are generally similar across the different models. I've purchased $20 models and $160 ones—didn't see any difference in components. In fact, the more expensive one had two antennas...one of them was fake, just plastic.

There's one thing that I've discovered these PTZ cameras do fairly well: the auto-tracking function. I'll be exploring this in more detail. I don't want to get into it just yet, but I'll be experimenting and will share down the road—this is more in line with SDR and signals rather than animating stuffed animals.

Now for the star of the show, which is the following—use it to get your robotics project to another level.

"Abstract"

We present an open-source anthropomorphic robot hand system called HRI hand. Our robot hand system was developed with a focus on the end-effector role of the collaborative robot manipulator. HRI hand is a research platform that can be built at a lower price (approximately $500, using only 3D printing) than commercial end-effectors. Moreover,


Further reading on the subject can be found here - which is the research done regarding the open source robotics project. 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468067220300092#f0010

For anyone that is interested/ is involved in/ hobbyist/ or professional, this is a fantastic wealth of knowledge to either have a good foundational start to a project, or apply to current one(s).

This guy in the video did, and look how much dexterity is present. Not only that but, from past renditions to what is being presented as the most recent product- next level. 

Next Level AI and It's Open Source, Uncensored

Exceeding many current AI benchmarks—even those of high-performing AI models—DeepSeek is uncensored, open-source, and as accessible as possible.
Given its processing capabilities, it can be run on personal setups. There are even examples of users running DeepSeek on mobile devices. Unlike systems processed on remote servers, DeepSeek runs entirely on the device itself, eliminating the need for external queries.

Several stripped-down model variants are available for lightweight setups, though performance may be limited. DeepSeek’s open-source nature ensures full transparency—no hidden layers or proprietary black boxes. It embodies what many hoped ChatGPT would become.

Numerous papers and reports benchmark DeepSeek against industry leaders, often surpassing even top-tier AI models by significant margins.

While running DeepSeek at heavy capacity incurs costs, its affordability is another standout feature—costing pennies compared to ChatGPT.

However, the free online version I’ve been using is impressive. It offers three modes:

1. Regular: Standard responses.

2. “Thinking”: Simulates human-like thought processes during responses.

3. Search: Ideal for product research or real-time data (e.g., the search feature can retrieve current information, despite the model itself being trained only up to July 2024).
   
   

Results vary, but my experience has been overwhelmingly positive. DeepSeek is a powerful, uncensored tool worth adding to your toolkit, with significant innovation potential.

Above is a GIF of my query, which was: "Top 20 fastest micro SD cards by read and write speeds listed by fastest first, and please provide the most current up-to-date purchase link for each."

I was presented with a lovely table of results and the links to match—I was pleasantly surprised by the results. Comparing them with other resources online (in attempts to validate the data) showed lots of confidence—the results were pretty much what I’d received if I’d done the research myself (except for taking much longer for me to gather).

Link: DeepSeek

Unicode, All of It

More discovering of interesting internet old/ and new. This one here is an incredible amount of work- if you ever needed anything... and I mean, anything related to Unicode, then this here web site is the OG site. Everything Unicode. 

The content is a number of years old, and there is a cautionary message welcoming visitors- letting us know that there hasn't been anything new in some time.

Caution and apology

I regret that I no longer have the time to keep this website up-to-date. The test pages include the Unicode 6.3 characters, and some of the Unicode 7.0 characters, but nothing more recent. The pages of fonts and utilities have not been updated for several years.

My question though- if you've exhausted anything and everything about a subject.. do we need updates? Maybe that's it- a final update; that there ill be no more updates(?).

Web Dings, Ding Bats, Symbols, many different(all) languages and the many styles of font. Remember the day you'd have to include a font file with your design- otherwise your site, or project may load in Explorer, but completely break in Netscape(yes..I said Netscape). Or maybe, a chance certain end users may not have a font.

The link below to Alan Wood's site- a museum of online typography really- and the many resources linked from it... just shows how intricate something most take for granted on a daily basis can be/ may have been.

Props go out to Alan Wood- the Unicode OG. https://www.alanwood.net/unicode/index.html - Make sure to check the different linked sites. Not only is it a blast from the past, but we get even more random awesome- useful, or just good timey. Explore.

IR Flame/ Fire Detector

Quick Ideas: Arduino Fire/Flame Detector Modules

A quick post for some quick ideas... I saw a video doing a "product review" of Arduino fire/flame detector modules that were purchased very cheaply.

While they are Arduino modules, an Arduino board isn't necessary. A simple circuit with a buzzer, a 3.3V battery, and a few other components will do the trick.

Now, here's the quick idea part: In the video, it was demonstrated how the buzzer was triggered by a flame. But they also pointed a remote at the IR sensor, and the buzzer buzzed in the pattern of the remote. Interesting!

This sparked some interesting use cases, including a hidden camera detector. Turn off the lights in the area you want to check. With the lights out, the idea is that if there's a hidden camera, it would switch on its IR LEDs for night vision. Your "fire detector" would also detect these IR LEDs, alerting you to the camera's presence.

This could also be good for trail camera discovery... maybe even detecting drones?

Here's the video I mentioned above  https://youtu.be/1EkY9lnUsDQ?si=RMXDv9IfWR0ZG145&t=1030

What to Log?

 Gremlins in Your PC: When Your Client's Network Acts Up

Your client's network is behaving erratically, and their personal laptop seems to have a mind of its own. There's no clear reason why—your understanding is as good as anyone else's, which is to say, nonexistent. What do you do?

Of course, set up some logs and carry on as normal. The proof will be in the... logs.

Now, which logs? What's available?

It's the small things that tickle my fancy. I don't know about you, but if you're anything like me, there are plenty of moments where one site, GitHub repository, or a chain of starred repositories and linked projects lead you down many paths. Today was no exception. And with a stellar stumble, I found a few really great resources that I'll post about... but one truly useful project—hats off to those behind it—is called "What2Log".

Essentially, it's a consolidation and collection of various (or rather, all) scripts that have some sort of logging function—and not just for Windows either; it covers numerous operating systems. On their site, they've put together tables with descriptions and checkboxes to select the desired function. Once selected, it provides all the necessary resources to run them, mainly in the form of scripts. Logging scripts For Windows (just scroll down a little bit.),. Logging scripts for Linux Ubuntu.

What 2 Log is 1 of what appears to be at least 3 projects by Infosec Innovations. I came across all this while researhing WiFi security tools and the Project Fantastic caught my eye- I am currently going through all the setup for it- Looks.. Fantastic! Project Fantastic on GitHub.

Get Up Get Down Get Hip With Git Markdown- GitHub Writing Format

 If you want to make sure you're rolling with the "cool kids"- you gotta get hip to the lingo- in this case it's GitHub Flavored Markdown.

GitHub Flavored Markdown

Per GitHub's docs*,

"GitHub combines a syntax for formatting text called GitHub Flavored Markdown with a few unique writing features.".

There's a 'way' to properly write when doing so on GitHub-
     Almost a right of passage for many a developer/ programmer/ Master Hacker Supreme/ computer enthusiast- you know that they are legit if you spot 'em doing it proper.
It's the secret phrase/ pass word to get into the VIP lounge- guarded by security and bouncers, the one door in the back alley that leads to where the Normies only dream of gaining access to...
...the far fetched tails told of the happenings beyond those closed doors.
To enter, a mastery in Markdown is a necessity.

Learning GitHub Markdown, Where to Start

...but not so fast, maybe try the latter if you've never before...

If you've already gotten some basics then you can start here or continue down below to really start from the beginning... do the courses! Otherwise flex what you got and carry on this next part- make sure you comer back and link your README in the comments- would love to see em.

Learn by Creating a README for your GitHub Profile

Good thing GitHub lays out the basics to the advanced in a manner that is easy to consume- even advising us how we can flex our new found knowledge by creating a 'README' for our GitHub profile- 

https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/writing-on-github/getting-started-with-writing-and-formatting-on-github/quickstart-for-writing-on-github

Basic Writing and Formatting

Or better yet- "Basic Writing and Formatting"- Start right at the beginning with text sizing/ heading size... how to bold, italic, strike through, sub/ superscript, nested- getting more into it as you scroll down with quotes, links, color variants, comments, tables dot dot dot...more...
https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/writing-on-github/getting-started-with-writing-and-formatting-on-github/basic-writing-and-formatting-syntax

The Basics but in a Course

Or even better- a quick course(less than 1 hour ) that goes through much(all ) of what is covered in the previous link, but in a course format. I find this a better way to sink in all the new found knowledge-
In the course you learn:

1. How to add headers
2. Add images
3. Add code examples
4. Make task lists
5. Merge pull requests

Take the course here(the direct link to the course is found a bit down through the following link ): https://github.com/skills/communicate-using-markdown

If You Haven't Before, Intro to GitHub - Do this First-

Before all else- do the Introduction to GitHub Course for a sturdy foundation.

As a prerequisite they (the ALL GIT, who else? ) do ask that you are familiar with pull requests as well as how to edit files in GitHub. If you aren't familiar with those, then it is recommend you take the Introduction to GitHub course, first.

I strongly suggest in doing so, since Markdown is a huge part of it. You'll use Markdown to create a short file that can be used as your profile README - the course is less than an hour- knowledge gained is invaluable.
https://github.com/skills/introduction-to-github

Just like this Emoji "cheat sheet" for future reference*

Advanced Markdown:

Having gone through the above, you've pretty much got all you need to bust into the VIP lounge- If you want to shine though... there's some more to learn.

The nity gritty- everything GitHub Markdown...I mean it, everything...

https://github.github.com/gfm/

The next link provides a very thorough resource- 

Markdown’s syntax is intended for one purpose: to be used as a format for writing for the web.

https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/

Which also gives us the online "Dingus"

https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/dingus  <- If anything, this is a great "cheat sheet" of sorts for Markdown, since it's all pretty much there above the fold.

There used to be a http://www.aaronsw.com/2002/html2text/ but, after over a decade of nothing...It appears... to be.... non existent.... unless you know better. If you do, please leave a comment below.

Now to get... "Fancy"

For the most part, just a way to fancy up your GitHub content, in another way can be an incredible asset to your projects providing updated visualizations to better interpret data and the like... and, since things like diagrams typically would be done in image editors- these would consume a great deal of time and creative energy- this can now be done automatically, matching your data/ project in real time.

Creating Diagrams-

The following is a great resource- most, if not all diagrams are image based or previously required much coding for the diagram to be dynamic. If a update happened, the image would have to be edited in its respective software. What Mermaid Diagrams provides is a way to introduce many- and I say many, maybe even all- diagrams/ a visual way to display our data, or process, or... In this case within GitHub. So, update the data in your GitHub repository and the diagram is updated. Maybe a Gannt Chart showing time line of project.. easily updated for all, automatically in parallel with updates made by all... A huge time saver.

* Mermaid Diagrams- 
https://github.com/mermaid-js/mermaid

https://github.com/mermaid-js/mermaid

https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/writing-on-github/working-with-advanced-formatting/creating-diagrams

 * Live Diagram Creation using Mermaid- https://mermaid.live/edit#pako:eNpVkEFrg0AQhf_KMqcW4h_wUGi0zSUlgeZU9TDo6C5xd5Z1JAT1v3eNtLRzmuF97zG8CWpuCFJoe77VGoOoS146Fee1yHQwg1gcKpUkL_OBRFl2dJ_V_unAatDsvXHd88bvV0hl03HFSIk27rpsUvbwnxzNKi-O6IV99Ve53HhWb4U56xj_X9GBouu9aDFtMakxqAxDBTuwFCyaJr4-rYYSRJOlEtK4NtTi2EsJpVsiiqPw593VkEoYaQeBx05DzOuHeI2-QaHcYBfQ_iAe3Rez_YWoMcLhY-vqUdnyDSATZqk

* Using Mermaid Chart- https://www.mermaidchart.com/play#pako:eNpVjLEOgjAURX_lpZMO_QEGEynKQqIDW-3wUottlL6mNCGG8u-CLHrXc86dmKa7YQXrXjRqizFBW908LDtKYaMbUo-DAs4PuTYJevLmnaHc1QSDpRCcf-w3v1wlEFOzagaSdf45b0h8-4s3GSrZYEgU1C9pR8pwku5ql_t_YqNZqrPssOiQa4wgMCo2fwBnHTpc

* Need some inspiration? One of many- scroll up/ down... Many examples that can be used directly in markdown- https://kroki.io/examples.html#excalidraw

* More Examples: https://mermaid.js.org/syntax/examples.html

* The below are links to videos that Mermaid Diagrams provides as resources to get familiar with its use- I apologize in advance if you get as annoyed as I did... 

* A ridiculous 'How To' for using Mermaid Diagrams in GitLab- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ9QmuTHuSI&t=438s&ab_channel=GitLabUnfiltered

* "Just Learned this 8 Hours Ago..."- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_2IroEs6Is&t=207s&ab_channel=WorldofZero

* https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/writing-on-github/getting-started-with-writing-and-formatting-on-github

I think that's plenty for now- but, if there is anything of interest others would like to share/ contribute, please do leave a comment.

Some Extras...

... because we can never get enough

Ok- maybe some more- since, while attempting to find an image for "MarkDown" there was so much on subject content that I came across-

How to build a MarkDown editor...

https://dev.to/github/how-to-build-a-markdown-editor-in-two-minutes-with-github-copilot-khb

Some tips, tricks...

https://dev.to/github/unlocking-the-power-of-github-tips-and-tricks-17le

Lastly, for real, i've spent too long now on this post- there's just so much content I'd never realized before... 

Ok, if you have a link or something you mention numerous instances, you can save time by creating a variable of sorts. At the bottom of the page make a list with the items that you'd like to have - maybe 1 of them is "my favorite color today"- because hey, you can have a favorite whenever you'd like. Now say you've written a short blurb about your favorite color... instead of having to go through and update any time you referenced it... you make a list at the bottom of the page like [favecolor] blue and then within your content just put [favecolor]. When you change the blue to say: [favecolor] red... now anywhere in your content that you reference [favecolor] will have updated from blue to red.

I'd like to hear from you

I'd like to hear from you- If this helped you in any way or gave you any further ideas- helped to get over a plateau or in this case, into the GitHub VIP exclusive MarkDown club.. Maybe you followed the courses above and created a README file- leave a comment, share your achievements!

Need Help Identifying Electrical Connectors?

 Your project has come to a stand still. Your brain has come to a dead end... you can't remember that specific connection that'd you had once seen- which would be perfect for your application... it's all you need to get to the finish line...

It's a joint where 1 side rotates and the other is the base. An electronic signal, power needs to go through there but you can't just use a cable or wires... the thing rotates 360 degrees if not till infinity. A cable/ physical wire would wind itself till it'd snap/ break/ cause a short... you've seen it before- a electronic connector that incorporates itself into the rotating section. You know what it looks like, but not the name of it.... Google searching is frivolous.

No problem! Because to your rescue, we have the amazing resource which is Connector Book found at https://connectorbook.com/

You can search by image/ photo... by identification, by brand, by logo... and every and any electronic connection is contained in this extensive resource- there are even non- electrical connectors- on the lines of different RF connections as an example.

Feel free to leave a comment with your guess or if you've located the connection type I'd described above.