SparkFun Electronics Commentsurn:uuid:214d0e4e-f1b1-d287-ce26-ac5b4c9f82492024-03-28T13:00:17-06:00SparkFun ElectronicsNewlonBett on Autonomous Riding Lawnmower UpdateNewlonBetturn:uuid:1f7bf7e0-aca4-e546-ac8a-d3ad62a7d0172020-11-24T02:08:08-07:00<p>This is my dad's dream! To be honest, I didn't even look for this product, I accidentally got on the recommendations, but I'm definitely thinking now! A cool product is definitely worth your attention! Time saving 100%</p>
Customer #134773 on Autonomous Riding Lawnmower UpdateCustomer #134773urn:uuid:55296ace-e845-9d0f-9d94-b7274a7e9d722020-11-05T10:14:17-07:00<p>I have no idea how much the time would have cost. The company owned 3 VAX 11/780s at that point, so the "time-charging" was merely a tool for management. The VAX was a "CISC" (Complex Instruction Set Code) processor, just the opposite of "RISC". With that said, it's 5MHz speed was more comperable to a 15 to 20MHz RISC machine, but even so, something like a Raspberry Pi 4B would run rings around it, and I suspect that had our compiler been running on a RPi, I'd have been able to run the entire test suite every time I went for a cup of coffee. ;-) I still miss the EDT editor (under VMS)... and the "versioning" of files was quite useful and "saved my bacon" on a lot more than one occasion...</p>
jessejay on Autonomous Riding Lawnmower Updatejessejayurn:uuid:82cc58ec-0663-5e2d-4e63-60cfe58d76e52020-11-04T15:13:50-07:00<p>Thanks! :) It's funny how computers have come back around to time-sharing/cloud computing. I wonder how much 1.5m cpu seconds cost back then? :)<p>I certainly did think of the skeleton idea, and I'm going to try to make it happen next year. If it happens I'll see if Sparkfun will post the video of it or I'll add it to one of my blog posts next year. This year I just had too many things going on and there are still some (non rc) issues with the mower I'm trying to resolve.</p></p>
Customer #134773 on Autonomous Riding Lawnmower UpdateCustomer #134773urn:uuid:00904b3e-dd4d-40b5-4408-44d9523af5ca2020-11-04T12:44:51-07:00<p>"Any change to the code, even minor, should be thoroughly tested in a safe environment" -- I can sure agree with that! Back in 1983, I had the responsibility for testing a new compiler we were working on. The month of February has roughly 2.5 million seconds -- my account (on a VAX-11/780) was charged 1.5 million CPU seconds in February, 1983, nearly all of it with "nightly" testing of the compiler.<p>Thanks for sharing the update!</p><p>BTW, while watching the video, the (slightly belated for this year) thought occurred to me that putting a skeleton in the driver's seat could prove <em>very</em> entertaining on Halloween!</p></p>