OT: Science of dropping things

It was a David Brenner joke on the Johnny Carson Show one night around

It's not only a sensing problem. Our brains fill in missing data to meet our expectations. When I was a kid, I saw an arrow fly past a tree when it had actually glanced off at a 30 degree angle. Took me ages to find that arrow.

We also have an amazing ability to ignore data that doesn't fit our bias. Maybe it's due to the world's low SNR and our limited processing resources. Would AI be better if it incorporated wishful thinking? Would we just get a computer that reaches the wrong conclusions and won't accept conflicting data?

I'd be happy to study it, as long as someone else raises the funds :) Are you listening Larry? Sergey?

ChesterW

The 3W led mini-Maglite is especially suited for that - narrow beam, very bright. 0505 chip caps pop right out.

I had a seamless epoxy floor in one lab (somebody broke a mercury barometer in there so it was part of the remediation process). I asked for an eye-ease green, light gray or something similar. The "architectectural advisor" chose hospital white with sparkly multicolored confetti sprinkled on under a no-slip textured clear coat. You couldn't find anything smaller than 1/4" without a broom.

Yes, and if you did find it, how do you know that it isn't another part that disappeared to another dimension last week and just reappeared? It's usually easier to grab a new part than measure the old one.

Doesn't work well on carpeted floors. Carpeting makes things bounce a lot farther, too.

I have a Mantis at work, too, but I also have one of these. They're a great addition and much better than "OptiVisors".

Idea: Get a security camera and attach it under your workbench pointed downward. When you drop something, merely rewind the recorded video to when you dropped it, and you might be able to see where it landed. Lighting, depth of field, frame rate, and focus will need to be determined. It probably won't see chip size parts, but might work with larger objects like hardware, leaded components, BNC center pins, etc.

Carpeted areas are for administrative and sales staff and presidents and stuff.

Ummm, maybe a good addition to one of those robo-suckers...set it off & check in an hour! :-)

I think this is USA-wide, but around here in Arizona, we have highway maintenance trucks which not only sweep but have gigantic magnet systems underneath. ...Jim Thompson

When I worked in a cube farm, I brought my own (fake) Persian rug and then fashionable bean bag chair. Maintenance complained, so I brought in a vacuum cleaner. Fairly soon, all the engineers installed a carpet in their offices (and were chronically borrowing my vacuum cleaner).

After about 2 years, someone decided to carpet the engineering area (the labs remained vinyl flooring). The color and pattern were apparently selected to hide food stains and dropped components. If you dropped something, it was gone. The pile was the perfect size needed to trap small objects, dirt, dust, filth, etc. It was also NOT anti-static and would cause anyone walking into the office to throw a small lightning bolt to the doorknob, desk, file cabinet, equipment rack, etc. Equipment damage increased dramatically. I left after about 6 months of grumbling and sudden prototype failures, so I don't know what happened to the carpet. My guess(tm) is that it got ripped up and replaced with something even more disgusting and destructive.

I don't recall how mahogany row was carpeted, but I'm sure it was suitably opulent.

"a part"

--sp

Do you generally use the lamp?

--sp

...and engineering staff, even if they have to lay it over a $1M ESD floor.

Not usually. I have better lamps on my bench.

You can get copy stands for that--$25 to $300 at Amazon.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Trouble is they *are't* vacuum cleaners, they are brooms. Small objects tend to be scattered about as much as swept into the bin.

Such things exist but it's only a pretty bad 2D view (limitations on depth of view, illumination, and all). Mantii and head gear (and even illuminated magnifying glasses) allow depth perception and resolution to the limit of the eye - give or take.

Why doesn't some get an enlarger, put a camera at where the film goes and use a monitor? Result: about 10 inches of work space, HUGE part images (after appropriate adjustment).