12VDC Harwin Pin Style Connector Cable

I have a Harwon type 6 pin female to female cable to connect the controller to the stepper motor.   What I am still trying to find is a cable that let's me plug into the two 12VDC pins on that cable and connect the other end to a battery source.  I will likely a 9V battery pack to see if this enough power for my application.   Is there some magic dimensions that identify it as compatible with the Harwin cable pin spacing?

Stepper Motor

I have reached the point where I am starting to fiddle with a stepper motor and controller.  The stepper motor has four inputs.  The controller has six outputs, of which two are DC- and DC+.  It appears that the four conductor cable from the motor goes on the four connectors that are not DC- or DC+.

There are 2 pin DC cables on Amazon that would be seem to fit except that I do nor think there is room to fit the 4 pin connector there as well.  There must be a six pin connector that connects the motor cable and a two pin DC connector.   Any ideas?

Climate Change

"Sun stones and the darkened sun: Neolithic miniature art from the island of Bornholm, Denmark" Antiquity 1/16/25

This article looks at the discovery of a large number of ca. 3900 BC stones with Sun representations and ties their sudden appearance and then disappeared from the record to a 3900 BC volcanic eruption that causes dramatic cooling.  No Sun  requires actions to bring it back.

Learning to Machine?

 When I received my mill, it included some "hold down" clamps.  Why would I use these when the mill came with a milling vise?  Below is an example of a workpiece that wll never fit into a milling vise that fits on the table.  It is a 6" x 6" x .5" piece of carbon fiber composite.

  The carbide endmill is cutting 1" x 1" squares, .001" per pass at 25 inches/minute.  The hold downs are clamping the workpiece to the mill's table.  You need to square the back of the workpiece to the back of the mill table to get square cuts.  This is easier than it sounds.  I can easily feel a discrepancy of .003".

G2 Code for Arcs and Circles

 I have been battling gCode's fairly complex scheme for turning arcs and cirxcles.  This bash script produces gCode to cut a circle centered in a biounding box specified byn the first four values, starting at z cutting circles at specified step size at the specified feed rate for a hole of specified size and mill diamete.  There are a lot of intermediate steps there m ostly for debugging but likely useful for understanding the process.

#!/bin/bash

# Cut an interior circle starting at xStartBB yStartBB xEndBB yEndBB zStart zStep zEnd feedRate holeDiameter endMillDiameter

# BB is short for BoundingBox

if [ "$#" -eq 0 ];

    then echo "$0 xBB yBB xEndBB yEndBB zStart stepZ endZ feedRate holeDiameter endMillDiameter"

else

xStartBB=$1

yStartBB=$2

xEndBB=$3

yEndBB=$4

startZ=$5

stepZ=$6

endZ=$7

feedRate=$8

holeDiameter=$9

endMillDiameter=${10}

millRadius=`echo "$endMillDiameter/2"|bc -l`

# Calculate starting cut points

echo $xEndBB $xStartBB $holeDiameter

center=`echo "(($xEndBB-$xStartBB)/2)"|bc -l`

offset=`echo "((($xEndBB-$xStartBB)-($holeDiameter))/2)"|bc -l`

        startXCut=`echo "$xStartBB+$offset+$millRadius"|bc -l`

startYCut=`echo "($yEndBB-$yStartBB)/2"|bc -l`

endYCut=$startYCut

endXCut=`echo "$yEndBB - $offset - $millRadius"|bc -l`

# calculate radius for i

i=`echo "($center-$startXCut)"|bc -l`

cat prolog.nc >rotate.nc

echo "g1 z1.0 f$feedRate" >>rotate.nc

echo "g1 x$startXCut y$startYCut f$feedRate" >>rotate.nc

echo "g1 z$startZ y$startYCut f$feedRate" >>rotate.nc

newstartZ=`echo "$startZ+$stepZ"|bc -l`

for curZ in `seq $newstartZ $stepZ $endZ`

do

    echo "g1 z$curZ f$feedRate" >>rotate.nc

    echo "g2 x$endXCut y$endYCut i$i j0 f$feedRate" >>rotate.nc

    echo "x$startXCut y$startYCut j0 i-$i" >>rotate.nc

done

echo "g1 z1.0 f$feedRate" >>rotate.nc

cat epilog.nc >>rotate.nc

fi

The two external files are prolog.nc

%

g17 g20 g54

and epilog.nc

 m2

%

When Insurance Companies Say Risky, Pay Attention

 1/13/25 NPR:

In recent years, insurance companies have begun using sophisticated computer modeling and artificial intelligence to calculate risk in fire-prone areas. That led several companies to stop writing new policies for homeowners and renters in places like Altadena and Pacific Palisades. Janet Ruiz, with the Insurance Information Institute, says, "They did have to restrict coverage so that when we have catastrophes such as the one in Los Angeles, they can pay claims."

Along with the destruction of lives and homes, the Los Angeles wildfires will also have a big impact on California's insurance market. Some estimates put insured losses from the fires at more than $20 billion.

California law requires insurance companies to hold reserves adequate to pay out claims even in a catastrophe such as these fires. For that reason, Dave Jones, a former California Insurance Commissioner, doesn't expect this event will push any companies into insolvency. Jones, who's now at UC Berkeley's Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, says, "It will be an earnings event for them as they say in the industry which means they won't make profits this year for sure.

But homeowners will also have to help pay for the fires.

Because insurance companies stopped writing new policies in these areas, many homeowners were forced to purchase coverage from California's FAIR plan. Often called the insurer of last resort, it's a plan created by the state and funded by the industry. Jones says so many homes in Pacific Palisades had coverage from FAIR, that it may run out of money. If that happens, the plan will impose a special assessment on home insurance policyholders across the state.

So even if you are one of the people who elect officials who understand that firefighting is an essential service, unlike DEI, you are going to get stuck with the bill for Los Angeles' incompetence.

 

Burglars Dressed As Firefighter

 1/12/25 Los Angeles Times:

Los Angeles authorities said they arrested 29 more people overnight in the fire zones, including one burglary suspect who was allegedly dressed as a firefighter.

Of the arrests, 25 people were apprehended in the Eaton fire zone, four in the Palisades fire zone, authorities said.

“We have people who will go to all ends to do what they do,” Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell said of a man dressed in a fire jacket and helmet burglarizing homes.

One man, who was driving a truck, was arrested in the Palisades area, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department and LAPD said. Other suspects were found inside the vehicle. The men pretended to be associated with a fire station but a quick check with the L.A. Fire Department proved that not to be the case, officials said.

Sheriff Robert Luna said those arrested were not from the area and that some had firearms and drugs.