My lovely horse
(My lovely horse)
Running through the field
(Running through the field)
Where are you going, with your fetlocks blowing in the wind?
(All Summer)
I want to shower you with sugar lumps
And ride you over fences
Polish your hooves every single day
And bring you to the horse dentist
(My lovely, lovely, lovely horse)
My lovely horse,
(My lovely horse)
You're a pony no more
(You're a pony no more)
Running around with a man on your back
Like a train in the night...
like a train in the night
(I Love You Anyway)
My lovely, lovely, lovely horse
One of the hardest things in Arduino-based designs is power savings, and this one is not an exception.
This design has no power saving, which means it will only last few hours tops on the batteries. This could be improved, but the current design (ESP8266 + analog IR sensor) does not really work with low power.
A good start would be to put a 2nd low-power micro on IR encoder that'd (1) count pulses (2) wake up ESP8266. This will allow one to keep complex stuff (audio out) using Arduino libraries, while small piece of hand-written code will take care low power stuff.
A more advanced design would be to get rid of ESP8266 and switch to low power MCU. If you keep audio uncompressed, a small MCU (STM8 or AVR8) is perfectly capable of playing some speech... and it will only take microamps in sleep/sense mode. You likely won't be able to use as many pre-made libraries however, so this is substantially more development time.
dTal 20 hours ago [-]
I think you can do even better and make one that draws no power when not in use - since the activation is a physical movement, you could design it in such a way that it closes a physical switch.
FionnMc 2 days ago [-]
I genuinely never thought I'd see Father Ted, let alone the lourdes tape dispenser on the front page of HN. What a great day.
mywacaday 2 days ago [-]
Sitting have a lazy late breakfast, sun is shining and this comes up, great start to the day. Showed my wife and she had the great idea that we should watch Fr. Ted from the start again. Fr. Ted first came out when I was in college in the 90s, Thursday night was the big night out for students and as new episodes of Fr Ted would air at 9pm our night out would start in a jammed pub with everyone watching it on a big screen.
On a side note, not sure if this would be a sacrilegious or an ecumenical matter but having voice options for Ted, Dougal, Fr Jack, Mrs Doyle, Bishop Brennan, Fr Noel Furlong, Fr Stone, Fr Fintan Stack, Tom, Henry Sellers. That's just off the top of my head, there are many more.It was such magnificent writing and acting that characters that only appeared in one episode would still be mentioned as a joke or reference among my generation. Fond fond memories.
esperent 2 days ago [-]
> Fr. Ted first came out when I was in college in the 90s
I was a teenager, and some of the episodes were filmed at my school. The lovely horse video is the field behind my school where we used to sneak out during break. They even stopped class one day to film a scene at the front of the school - they used the school building as the outside of the craggy island sports center.
sandworm101 2 days ago [-]
I don't believe it.
nabla9 2 days ago [-]
Talk about Baader–Meinhof phenomenon.
Just a week ago I became aware of Father Ted and watched only the show with the tape dispenser because it was recommended to me by Youtube. This article is year old, and shows up now in my feed.
stavros 2 days ago [-]
Yesterday I found out about the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon and now I see it mentioned! Must be the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon phenomenon.
gizajob 2 days ago [-]
I’ve never heard of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon so I’m now wondering what the week ahead holds for me and the gang.
dymk 2 days ago [-]
That's actually now the Baader-Metahof phenomenon
vgeek 2 days ago [-]
This seems to be an ecumenical matter.
userbinator 2 days ago [-]
The logic runs on an ESP8266 microcontroller instead of a Raspberry Pi Zero, all of which means the electronics inside can be purchased for less than €10.
This looks like the type of application which, if mass-produced, would have the electronics done on a $0.10 mask-programmed COB.
vmilner 2 days ago [-]
Did Father Ted have much impact in the US? - it always seems v British/Irish in its humour (but that’s true of Monty Python of course and that obviously made it over there)
kadoban 2 days ago [-]
It didn't have the cultural impact of many other shows, though certainly some people know of and have seen it. It's less well known/referenced than even Red Dwarf and other fairly niche shows in my experience.
I forget that shows from non-BBC channels in the Uk can get shown on BBC America.
Padriac 1 days ago [-]
We loved it in Australia.
zeristor 2 days ago [-]
They could do a Mrs Doyle on that:
“Go on, go on, go on, go on, goes on”
Or that gives you a coup of tea instead
anonzzzies 2 days ago [-]
It's a microcake! You won't feel it going in!
tempodox 2 days ago [-]
I read somewhere that the cake is a lie.
4ugSWklu 2 days ago [-]
You sir have just won the internet!
antithesizer 2 days ago [-]
I hear you're a redditor now, Father!
Ylpertnodi 2 days ago [-]
Does it have cocaine in it?
I mean 'raisins'.
I love cinnamon.
Macha 2 days ago [-]
> a coup of tea
I mean, I wouldn't put it past Mrs Doyle if some government got in the way of her serving tea, I suppose.
anonzzzies 2 days ago [-]
Father, what's it all about?
austinallegro 2 days ago [-]
That money was just resting in my account. Ask Pat Mustard.
scottlamb 2 days ago [-]
Neat project!
> Instead of a rotary encoder to measure the tape rotation, it now uses an IR led and sensor.
I don't get it; how does this work? Are there openings at certain positions in the reel that it detects the light through? Why is this better than the rotary encoder design?
stephencoyle 2 days ago [-]
Thanks!
> Are there openings at certain positions in the reel
Yes, that's exactly it! The spool has holes, and there's an IR emitter/detector on either side. You can view the STLs on the GitHub repo or Printables and see for yourself.
It's better than the rotary encoder [for this project specifically] because it's cheaper and doesn't require the sensor to be a load-bearing part.
2 days ago [-]
theoreticalmal 2 days ago [-]
Feck off!
Malic 2 days ago [-]
Dur-INK!
mikrl 2 days ago [-]
Sacrifice??
ARSE!
lproven 3 hours ago [-]
Nuns! NUNS! REVERSE REVERSE!
GJim 1 days ago [-]
More water.
tempodox 2 days ago [-]
I didn't know sticky tape usage is a blessable act. TIL!
ekaryotic 2 days ago [-]
it's not, the dispenser is a jab at the kind of trinket stalls that form around holy sites. what i don't understand is how the dispenser compensates for the changing radius of the tape roll in order to measure accurately. i suspect that it doesn't.
stephencoyle 2 days ago [-]
You're right that it doesn't consider changing diameter, though I did contemplate some approaches for doing that. But, since it only needs whole-inch resolution, using the diameter of a half-full roll of tape gets close enough for novelty purposes.
implements 2 days ago [-]
How about measuring the linear tape motion in a similar way that laser mice measure surface movement?
stephencoyle 2 days ago [-]
That's a cool idea! It's all open source, and forks/remixes are encouraged, so feel free to give that a whirl. :)
samwillis 2 days ago [-]
Two ways to make it:
- know the total length of the tape, and when it's changed, and therefore predict the current radius of the roll
- a small sprung variable resistor pressing against the under side of the role
But that could be over-engineering something that almost more perfect if it's a little imperfect.
ekaryotic 2 days ago [-]
thought of a third way:
cellophane tape does emit xrays when unrolled, so correlate the strength of the radiation with the angular velocity of the roll to more precisely calculate how much tape was removed. I suspect a second photodiode may respond to the radiation.
fecal_henge 2 days ago [-]
Id just weigh the roll.
arp242 2 days ago [-]
Divine intervention, presumably. They don't bless those tape dispensers for nothing.
tempodox 2 days ago [-]
Divine intervention sounds reasonable for an automated blessing device. Otherwise the issued blessings might be unauthorized or even in violation of copyright.
10yearsalurker 1 days ago [-]
Shoddy shoddy shoddy
8bitchemistry 2 days ago [-]
Is there a metric version?
dottjt 2 days ago [-]
Literally been watching through this series over the past week. Interesting to see it here.
card_zero 2 days ago [-]
Now that he's got the manufacturing costs down this is edging toward being the surprise breakthrough device of the 2020s. Just needs marketing, I hear that Jonathan Ive fellow is in need of something meaningful to do these days.
bookofjoe 2 days ago [-]
Hmmm... what if this IS the AI device he and Altman are talking about but it leaked a year early? Asking for a friend.
timwis 2 days ago [-]
Haven’t heard of Fathers Ted, and I assumed by the title that this was an article about passphrases
pansa2 2 days ago [-]
Yes, a Father Ted Kilnettle Shrine Tape Dispenser is an alternative to a Correct Horse Battery Staple
bryanrasmussen 2 days ago [-]
surely there is no alternative to my lovely correct horse battery staple?!
Animats 2 days ago [-]
Next, the paper towel and toilet paper meters.
Malic 2 days ago [-]
Now I want a rubber frog that croaks, “The Golden Age of Ballooning” (Monty Python reference)
lproven 3 hours ago [-]
I can do you a 9front release but that's my final offer.
I don't know if this is an HN thing (as in, the software disallows it), but that title needs some punctuation. My first thought was "Who's Ted Kilnettle and what's Shrine Tape"?
jerrysievert 2 days ago [-]
at most it could use a "the" in front of the title:
The Father Ted Kilnettle Shrine Tape Dispenser
which is a reference to a show name Father Ted, in which a Kilnettle Shrine tape dispenser was sold as a souvenir at the Kilnettle Shrine, and brought on a plane by Father Ted in the show Father Ted.
My lovely horse (My lovely horse) Running through the field (Running through the field) Where are you going, with your fetlocks blowing in the wind? (All Summer)
I want to shower you with sugar lumps And ride you over fences Polish your hooves every single day And bring you to the horse dentist
(My lovely, lovely, lovely horse)
My lovely horse, (My lovely horse) You're a pony no more (You're a pony no more) Running around with a man on your back Like a train in the night... like a train in the night (I Love You Anyway) My lovely, lovely, lovely horse
This design has no power saving, which means it will only last few hours tops on the batteries. This could be improved, but the current design (ESP8266 + analog IR sensor) does not really work with low power.
A good start would be to put a 2nd low-power micro on IR encoder that'd (1) count pulses (2) wake up ESP8266. This will allow one to keep complex stuff (audio out) using Arduino libraries, while small piece of hand-written code will take care low power stuff.
A more advanced design would be to get rid of ESP8266 and switch to low power MCU. If you keep audio uncompressed, a small MCU (STM8 or AVR8) is perfectly capable of playing some speech... and it will only take microamps in sleep/sense mode. You likely won't be able to use as many pre-made libraries however, so this is substantially more development time.
I was a teenager, and some of the episodes were filmed at my school. The lovely horse video is the field behind my school where we used to sneak out during break. They even stopped class one day to film a scene at the front of the school - they used the school building as the outside of the craggy island sports center.
Just a week ago I became aware of Father Ted and watched only the show with the tape dispenser because it was recommended to me by Youtube. This article is year old, and shows up now in my feed.
This looks like the type of application which, if mass-produced, would have the electronics done on a $0.10 mask-programmed COB.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_America
“Go on, go on, go on, go on, goes on”
Or that gives you a coup of tea instead
I mean, I wouldn't put it past Mrs Doyle if some government got in the way of her serving tea, I suppose.
> Instead of a rotary encoder to measure the tape rotation, it now uses an IR led and sensor.
I don't get it; how does this work? Are there openings at certain positions in the reel that it detects the light through? Why is this better than the rotary encoder design?
> Are there openings at certain positions in the reel
Yes, that's exactly it! The spool has holes, and there's an IR emitter/detector on either side. You can view the STLs on the GitHub repo or Printables and see for yourself.
It's better than the rotary encoder [for this project specifically] because it's cheaper and doesn't require the sensor to be a load-bearing part.
ARSE!
- know the total length of the tape, and when it's changed, and therefore predict the current radius of the roll
- a small sprung variable resistor pressing against the under side of the role
But that could be over-engineering something that almost more perfect if it's a little imperfect.
cellophane tape does emit xrays when unrolled, so correlate the strength of the radiation with the angular velocity of the roll to more precisely calculate how much tape was removed. I suspect a second photodiode may respond to the radiation.
https://9front.org/releases/2022/10/31/0/
The Father Ted Kilnettle Shrine Tape Dispenser
which is a reference to a show name Father Ted, in which a Kilnettle Shrine tape dispenser was sold as a souvenir at the Kilnettle Shrine, and brought on a plane by Father Ted in the show Father Ted.