My Robot broke down

My robot that I am working on, broke down today.

How come ? The story started with the FYP student that wanted his joystick become a plug and play application. Meaning, whenever the joystick is plugged to the robot, the joystick will be ready for use without running any interface program. So, I suggested to download his program inside the controller's EEPROM, using the analogy of other microcontroller that stores the program inside the EEPROM. That's how microcontroller work independently from workstation, that's the EEPROM storage.Well, we then tried to burn the program inside the robot's motion controller's EEPROM. Referring to the controller's manual, the function is "BN". It works !! Without running any interface program, the joystick is ready for use !Then, the problem came when corrections were to be made to the EEPROM. Again, using the microcontroller's principle, I thought the EEPROM could just be overwritten with a new program. But, it didn't work ! The new program was kept downloaded to the EEPROM, but again and again, still the old one was there.Hmm.. wondering why... my analogy was wrong this time... hehe...After a while looking up the manual, I found a command "Master Reset Controller". Ahha.... may be we can use this one !!The function spec is to "reset the controller to factory's default setting"."Ok, why not ?? Just try then !", I suggested the student. Tarra... executed, and tried. Well, it worked ! The old program was removed !I then walked around the room, leaving the student with his work. He did the trial with the controller's driver interface to manually command the controller, and "BUMM !!" A bumping sound suddenly surprised me. "Hey, what's that sound ?", I asked. Still haven't realized what's been going on. And once again, "BUMM !!!" hahaha.... the robot hit the most end of its axis.Oh well, there must be a certain damping parameter that has been deleted from the EEPROM during the master reset. Seems like the robot moved without any damping that hit its axis end.O well, not sure how to deal with it yet. Just wait my project officer to fix everything then, hehehe.... :S

Boat Quay - a romantic place in Singapore

If you ask me where's my favourite place in Singapore. I'll say, "It's Boat Quay". I like the place because of its romantic scenery !

It reminds me of the view along the rivers in European countries *as if I've ever been there :p*
I enjoyed visiting Boat Quay especially in the evening. I always enjoy the dim colourful lights of the tent coffee shops along the river, the classic view of Fullerton Hotel, the sights of boats cruising the river, and the cool breeze of the wind blowing my hair. Another view of tall office towers on one side has complemented the classic view of the river side. *Classic vs Modern -> romantic ??* There are benches arround where we can sit and enjoy all these view.

The place will always be my favourite stopping station whenever I go back too late from office. If I predicted that I won't be able to catch Maghrib or any other prayer at home, I'll stop by Boat Quay to pray in Maulana Mohamed Ali mosque. It's very convenient for me as the mosque is quite near to Raffles MRT station. The mosque is situated underground, also by the side of the river.

I could always refresh my mind everytime I visited the place. It doesn't have to be expensive or glamorous place that could give enjoyment, but a place that comforts our feeling.

Involved in Taxi accident

Today, I went to NNI by taxi on a ride by an FYP student working on the same project as me. On the way, there was an accident happened that it had created a traffic jam around there. Seems that every driver, and the passenger, slowed down their vehicle to see what’s been going on. Our taxi slowed down as well, and I felt a sudden braking of the taxi. Not long after that, a bumping sound was heard, and a shocking force was felt. Well, our taxi was hit by a car behind. Okay, another accident, luckily not severe.

No more temperature screening in TTSH

Today the temperature screening for TTSH visitor was removed. Not sure why they did so, my guess was that they run out of temperature sticker ;)