What I did on my Thanksgiving vacation...

[jcarmody]

We school our kids at home so I bought a Mindstorm kit for their "education".

[LV_Pro]

That was really rubbing it in! 😉

[Darin.K]

I thought of the "this is for my daughter" line, but my wife certainly would have called my bluff, and my daughter was only two at the time.

Sorry about rubbing it in Putnam, first I stick you with my knife and instead of pulling it out I choose to twist the blade.

Now the wheels are turning, if ever two gadgets needed to be linked together it is my iPad and Mindstorm. (Evil laughter and hand wringing)

[Ray.R]

Putnam,

You should be able to declare it as a company expense..

[Ben]

I have been distracted by a project that near and dear to my heart. (Hint #1).

But rather than just come out and tell you what I have been doing, I'll present it as a techno-riddle to let Y'all guess at while I am off and wiring (virtually of course!).

Hint #2

This image shows a protype of the final results.

Hint #3

This image show me standing in front of the test rig.

I'll check back after the trip is over to see if anyone tried to guess what what this app does.

I would also like to add one restriction to the game. If you happened to be at the Pittsburgh NITS, and sat through my presentation on new features in LabVIEW, please withold your "guesses" since I featured the above image and many others as part of that presentation.

Please behave while I am away.

Ben

[paulmw]

Hint #4 - The picture file name...

[Ben]

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@paulmw wrote:

Hint #4 - The picture file name...

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Where is that embarased emoticon when I need it?

Game over.

Ben

[ShotSimon]

Ben,

To be honest I see the picture names but still don't know for sure. 

1) An advanced optical trapping system that is modeling an artifical heart

2) A 3 Demensional Light Bright in LabVIEW

3) An ultra sonic train wheel inspector.

4) A virtual Elf on the Shelf.

Happy Holidays.  -SS

[Ray.R]

I know you love trains...  From models to the real thing.

I know that you nearly got a full size metal wheel to add to your collection, so you mustg be doing work in that industry.

The filename nearly says it all.

So are you getting a real / full-size prototype wheel for your collection?  That's gatta weigh a ton.  Okay, maybe several hundred pounds, but definetly heavy.  How are you going to bring that back with you?  Shipping?  Outch!

You could always roll it over the railroad tracks...  😄

As for an artificial heart... Nope...  Not the right shape 😉

Oh You wanted us to guess what the app does..

Gee... I dunno...  Euh..  Check the material integrity of a train wheel?

[Ben]

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@Ray.R wrote:

I know you love trains...  From models to the real thing.

I know that you nearly got a full size metal wheel to add to your collection, so you mustg be doing work in that industry.

The filename nearly says it all.

So are you getting a real / full-size prototype wheel for your collection?  That's gatta weigh a ton.  Okay, maybe several hundred pounds, but definetly heavy.  How are you going to bring that back with you?  Shipping?  Outch!

You could always roll it over the railroad tracks...  😄

As for an artificial heart... Nope...  Not the right shape 😉

Oh You wanted us to guess what the app does..

Gee... I dunno...  Euh..  Check the material integrity of a train wheel?

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Well I am back and Ray is correct.

Train wheel rols in from behid where I am standing and waits its turn to be tested. When the fixute is clear hydralic kickers put it into the test fixture. once in-place it is raised on a set of rollers and the fixture tilts to kep the whell from wobbling. I start teh motr, encoder triggers CScan to be acquired from all surafeces of the wheel. I put all of the data together in 3-Space to let an operator virtually flip the whell over around and look inside.

Phase 1 complete!

Phase 2: duplicate with a babies brain but this time without the kickers.

Yes that whell is no light weight. I was given a 9 inche section of a tread and flange that weighs in at about 40 pounds.

Ben