Theodosis Log

Sunday, 1 July 2012

Just arrived at Factor e farm. It is 23:00 and I had been waiting for 9 hours at the airport before coming here It's been quite an adventure but my first impression is pretty good so I think it was worth the trouble! I decided to take a taxi and come here because I saw three kids in a white van that looked exactly like my classmates, so, since I thought they forgot me, I paid 200 hundred bucks, scratched myself really badly(I still don't know how, I realized it as soon as I got to the farm!) and after a little help by an awesome guy named Walt I arrived! Apparently, I made a mistake since my friends weren't here yet, but I heard that they were coming tomorrow so I would have spent the night at the airport If I didn't come here so, it was worth the money!

Monday, 2 July 2012

So today the rest of the team arrived at the farm after a terrible delay at the airport in Chicago. They spent the night at a hotel in the city and then took the next flight to Kansas city to come here. They left their stuff at the HabLab and we went to Marcin's hut to meet him and plan our summer. He asked a few things about us and our interests and, based on that, Gabi assigned us tasks to complete. Then we walked around the farm and found a perfect place to setup our tents. It's located in a small grove with thick shade and a lot of trees around. Then we went to buy some groceries for the next days.

First Impression: It was really good, but the facilities seem kind of disorganized. That's what the rest of us said.

To Do List: Find a job in the workshop Learn as many things as possible Meet people!

Tuesday, 3 July 2012

So today Gabi showed us around the garden and the orchards so that we know where things are for future projects. George found the weed whacker and started work right away! The rest of us worked on the garden, where we uncovered the plants and spread out the hay so that they have more sunlight but also have enough water and humidity around them. Then, I helped Gabi spread hay on a small field in front of the HabLab. I'm not sure what seeds are planted there but anyway. Finally, at noon, we watered them with Gabi. Today was not so productive meaning that I didn't do anything related to engineering and electronics down at the workshop. Everyone seems pretty busy with their own projects and I can't go and bother them with my problems, it just doesn't feel right. Eventually I will have to, but until then I should wait just in case the others make a first step...

Wednesday, 4 July 2012

Happy July 4th everyone! I finally worked at the workshop today! Me and George Ardamerinos helped Brianna wire up the welders and setup the workshop. We stripped a bunch of wires, soldered some caps on the ends and plugged them to some outlets on the other side of the building. It was quite nice and I think I learned a lot of things, for example how to stay with my head up for half an hour fixing the wires into place! That was definitely something! Later in the day, we took some drinks and hopped on the back of the truck to visit Walt (He is our wonderful neighbor who lives right next door and helped me get to the farm the other day!) because this rumor about a party at his place spread around but, unfortunately it was a bad one and nothing happened there. We drove back to the farm and started a campfire instead! We sat there until early morning discussing and singing. Well we continued our feast at our campsite but still it was really nice! I am hoping I will find more things to do down at the workshop tomorrow and maybe start a project of my own with the rest of the team...I am asking for too much, aren't I?

Thursday, 5 July 2012

OK so today things started rolling! In the morning I watched Yoonseo's tutorials on YouTube and I taught myself SolidWorks. Well, you know the basics, how to navigate construct parts, make assemblies and other things. He also answered all of my questions and I spent my whole morning working on the software. Then, I went down to the sawmill and I started measuring its dimensions. This way I will be able to make a 3D design on SolidWorks and publish it on the wiki! I am really excited with this and I hope more people will join!

Here's a link to the tutorials:

Thanks to Yoonseo for his great tutorial!

Friday, 6 July 2012

Today me and George A. went to St. Joseph with Vann. We drove there with his Maserati(YAY!) and our first stop was an AT&T store because Vann wanted to buy a new cellphone. While we were there I saw some cases for my phone and I bought one because the conditions in the farm are not ideal for a phone you don't want to get scratches on! I also met a store clerk named Morgan and we had a long discussion about many things like where we come from, what our future plans are etc. Then, we went to a subway and ate good food! Next stop was a TacoBell for Vann. Last but not least we visited a hardware store called Menards(It was massive!) to buy a steel cutter for Matt. I didn't do anything productive today considering that I wasn't at the farm but I will make it up tomorrow!

Saturday, 7 July 2012

As much as I wanted to make it up for yesterday's abstinence from work we visited pony express lake! It was really hot today (the weather forecast reported a 105 temperature increase during the day. It was not that hot but it felt like it was pretty close!) so we wore our swimsuits and left the farm straight away! There, we rented a boat and I rowed all around the lake, which was fun! We also played some frisbee and I sunbathed for an hour or so! Then Chris bought us ice cream and after that we went back to the farm. Since I didn't do anything yesterday I wrote down a schedule for the next Month. It is about time I followed a strict routine and not waste any time at all!

So it looks like this:

Goals for this summer:

• Learn SolidWorks
• Learn how to program an Arduino board
• Meet as many people as possible while I'm here and do some networking
• Learn some more practical stuff like welding and torching
• And most importantly: Have FUN!

I will make something more detailed in the next days but I think this will do, at least for now.

Sunday, 8 July 2012

So today looks like a day where everyone relaxes and doesn't do anything specific. Instead, we held the weekly house meeting, where we discussed issues concerning house cleaning, safety at the workspace, storage and many others. I believe that it was really important to express all of our concerns to the rest of the team so that they know. I also watched some online tutorials on YouTube on how to learn Arduino programming. I asked Chris and he gave me his board, so I can start right away! I heard that Yoonseo is pretty good at this and by looking at his fridge thermostat I think I will ask for his help! I'll do that tomorrow though...Anyway, I think that I will take some time to relax and reflect on what I did during my stay not only in the farm but in the States in general(I've been here since the 21st of June), and plan the rest of my summer, which officially ends on the 25th of August when I leave from Germany and go back to Greece. I will make sure that I learn a lot of things during this time and make it a memorable experience!

Here's an example of the tutorials I watched today:

• Getting Acquainted with Arduino
• Buttons, PWM, and Functions
• Electrical Engineering Basics
• Analog Inputs
• Motors and Transistors
• Serial Communication and Processing
• I2C Communication and Processing
• SPI Interfaces
• Wireless Communication
• Interrupts and Hardware Debouncing
• SD Cards and Datalogging
• RFID Card Reading
• Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs)
• Holiday Lights and Sounds Spectacular!

Thanks to sciguy14 for his contribution!

Monday, 9 July 2012

Monday July 9th and my day was fantastic! I finished measuring the dimensions of the sawmill and I started assembling it on SolidWorks! I finished making the basic parts and then Yoonseo showed me how to make an assembly out of them! He also set up my account on Git Hub so that I publish my work online! That is so cool! I also told him about my goals for this summer and Arduino in particular and he offered to help. So, I was in the workshop all afternoon working on Arduino and basic circuitry! This was a dream come true. This way, I will be able to gain valuable experience and show my new skills when I go back to school. Since I am a member of the Robotics club, such a thing will be very useful for any project that we decide to start! I'm planning on buying an Arduino board myself but that will be difficult since I'm running short on cash. I also fixed a problem on my computer drivers which wouldn't allow Chris's Arduino UNO to connect, so this is out of the way. For tomorrow I plan on finishing the basic tutorials and move to something more advanced! I'm so freakin' excited!

Here's a link to my Git Hub repository: Dimensional Sawmill

Tuesday, 10 July 2012

So, as promised, I worked on small 4x4 LED grids, which didn't go that well, but helped me realize what kind of mistakes I did and what I need to work on in the future. One of them is C. I have to know this programming language before doing anything else, so I will read some e-books in my computer and see how that goes. Also, we need to buy more parts for my circuits. For example, we need more LED diodes because most of them were fried. Last but not least, I realized that I should set a time frame for teaching myself Arduino. I will also inform Yoonseo to see if he likes the idea. So I was thinking two hours every day would be more than enough to learn Arduino and SolidWorks. I think it is a great idea and in the future I will try to integrate more teaching sessions on other areas like farming with Gabi or Welding and torching with Aidan and Brianna. I will talk to the others tomorrow and bring it up on Sunday's meeting. I hope this works out!

Wednesday, 11 July 2012

OK so today I woke up quite early and I started work right away. I took the Arduino board and went down to the workshop. George A. decided to join. We watched some of the tutorials I posted previously and we set up the circuits. Then we copied the code that the guy in the tutorial showed us and we tried to interpret and understand each line. We did a pretty great job and then I wrote down all our observations to a .doc file so that I can create the guides for the Robotics Club next year. I will also talk to Yoonseo about our school project but with all these new ideas here I'm thinking of changing our approach. I will send an e-mail to Mr. Pegiopoulos for confirmation and to inform him about the progress we're making here at the farm. He's definitely gonna like it! Anyway back to our stuff. I also saved many version of the same file and I experimented with some new concepts of the C code. It was really helpful. As far as my itinerary is concerned, I talked to Yoonseo and he is willing to devote a couple hours of his time to help us learn Arduino and C. That is a good start. Tomorrow I'll talk to some more people to see if they have time. This will be so helpful to the team of Greeks and any other students that decide to visit in the future, at least that's what I think. I also jogged with George A. for about four miles or so. I also jog alone sometimes in the morning when no one is up. After I came to the States, I had some time to jog in New York, but I completely stopped working out in Indiana and Missouri, so jogging as little as four miles was awesome! I'm thinking of assigning an hour or so every day for jogging and working out because I feel so out of shape...

Thursday, 12 July 2012

Today Chris and I went to Maysville to pick up my package from the post office. Then George and I went to the workshop and worked on another video by sciguy14 on YouTube and we followed the same process as yesterday. We built the circuit, compiled the code and uploaded it on the Arduino, saw how it works and finally analyzed each line and wrote comments next to them. I also talked to more people about the itinerary and all of them offered to help us! Isn't that exciting? I asked Vann, Chris, Gabi and Aidan and all of them wanted to teach us things. For the next few days I'm planning on Skyping with Marcin because, let's face it: we're four underage boys in the middle of nowhere and we came to this farm to learn from the experts. I'm not saying that the rest of the team is not supportive but Marcin was the whole reason that we came here, right? Anyway...Today something that made me extremely happy was seeing George K. and Gabi working on land allocation and methods of cultivation! This not only shows that George K. overcame his difficulty adjusting to the place but also he found something that he is interested in here at the farm! I hope he stays until the end...

Here are the tutorials that we watched with George:

And here are the videos that Yoonseo told me to watch. He said that they will clear things up in our heads on how electricity works, and they sure did!:

Friday, 13 July 2012

Friday the 13th!!! Are you genuinely scared of this day? I'm not. This year is a special one for Friday the 13ths: There are three of them: Jan. 13, April 13 and July 13. The freaky thing? The dates fall exactly 13 weeks apart. That hasn't happened since 1984. Scary, huh? Wait until you hear that: Why does the Friday the 13th superstition stick so firmly in our minds? According to Thomas Gilovich, who chairs the department of psychology at Cornell University, our brains are almost too good at making associations. "If anything bad happens to you on Friday the 13th, the two will be forever associated in your mind, and all those uneventful days in which the 13th fell on a Friday will be ignored," Gilovich said in a statement. Anyway, back to reality. In the morning we had our first course with Marshall and he talked about his job, where he went to college, what he studied etc. Then he moved on to more technical stuff like cooling systems and how they work, storage and insulation, heating systems, building codes and many other thingss! It was a really good start and it is exactly the way I imagined it! I hope it all goes well with the rest of out tutors...Then the entire team came to the workshop and we organized the way scrum will take place and what people will do while they are here. It was really helpful and I think it will boost our progress dramatically. I'm thinking of getting involved with the torch table since it includes programming Arduinos, Torching, Welding and others areas that I'm really interested in. After that I watched the rest of the videos Yoonseo suggested.Then we went continued our Arduino programming courses and we finally learnt how to use a multimeter properly! After that I went to the HabLab to relax for a while and I finished my day with a jog around the farm. By the way, we have established this tradition where we watch a movie every night. I don't know why but this makes me feel like home...who knows, maybe its because I didn't go to sleep before watching a movie with my friends at school every night, so I guess that is why I like it so much...

Here are the videos that I watched today: