Julia was off to get a good nights sleep, but my night was far from over.

While I knew I could rush through things with a bit of soldering and blobs of hot glue, I wanted to make a project I could be proud of, something professional worth the namesack of my shop and the tools at my disposal.

(Arduino Uno and Nano - "that's no moon..look at the size of that thing!")

My first decision was to axe the giant Arduino Uno board Julia had provided, and use a nice cute little Arduino Nano.  They are largely compatible, since they both have the same microcontroller (Atmega328), just in different form factors.  A smaller microcontroller board would be easier to mount at the bus stop and it would also be easier (and faster) to make a case for.

Which brings me to the other unnecessary "nice to have" I did - modeling and printing 3D cases for everything.  Yes, this was kiiiind of insane to start at 1 a.m., but it made me happy :P

 I'm still in my "honeymoon phase" of 3D printing, and love jumping at the opportunity to make quality cases for things. Additionally, it served some sensible benefits: mounting holes to match on-site demands, a bit of weatherproofing, durability, and easier to remove glue backing.  I also made the design specific for routing and securing wires, to avoid the pitfalls of tugging and fumbling which may lead to re-soldering needs or other major headaches.

(3D modeling the parts in Tinkercad.  A quick late night mockup with space for wire routing). 

Since Julia and I were planning to put the installation into a public bus stop, as well as showcasing it at Gray Area, I decided make tear down and build-up as easy as possible.  After all, we would only get one day, and one shot at this. So I wanted to make sure everything ran smoothly.

I designed a case that would incorporate an Arduino Nano and the ultrasonic sensor first.  This would also ease the wiring job for me, since the two devices would be in close proximity to each other.

(First print was a success on my old faithful Ender 3 Pro.  Gotta love that smooth PEI :)

Next, I modeled the FET controller.  Julia seemed to be delighted to learn about "metal oxide field effect transistors" and how they are commonly used as solid state switches.  When I talked about it, she seemed to have one of those neat 'A-Ha!' (not the band...) paradigm shift moments of what electronics are capable of!  Very cool.

I love these little NFET breakout modules for breadboards that are everywhere.  They are almost as nice as my custom boards (heh), only they are capable of switching an absurd amount of current.

(One of the better Arduino module breakout boards making the rounds of online shops.  These D4184s support a continuous output of 10A!).

(The NFET board wired into the 3D printed case)

I printed off both cases simultaneously, since I have multiple 3D printers (living the high life!)  While that was going on, I finished off the barrel jack soldering for our (deliberately annoying) anti-homeless lights.

The cases turned out quite well, with no major issues. Pretty nice for a first pass on everything in the middle of the night!

(Everything wired into the 3D cases. Just a few dabs of hot glue so wires can be tugged on without breaking).

After that, I finished printing off a couple of articles on hostile architecture as well as the SF mayor's anti-homeless antics, to add more context and visual interest to the uncomfortable half of the installation. It was about 4a.m. when I finally laid down for much-needed sleep.

(I felt like I found the perfect picture for our mayor with devil horns, heh.)

Unfortunately, I woke up about an hour later feeling really, really, bad...

I stumbled over to the bathroom and lifted the toilet seat up. I started vomiting something awful, and could feel everything in my stomach wanting to escape. Almost like it was burning.  I took many dry heaves and spent as much time as possible forcing my lunch and dinner up.

After doing that for a while, I brought a blanket to keep me warm on the tile floor, since I could tell it was going to be a long night.

The bad news was, I wasn't going to get much of any sleep. The good news was that I could get to Gray Area earlier than expected, to setup and film before 4p.m., so that Julia would have plenty of time to edit the pictures and video for our exhibit.  She was confident that she could knock out the video editing in a couple hours, which was impressive.  How many awesome skills does she have?

I called Julia in the morning, and told her I wasn't sure I was gonna make it. I thought I had food poisoning, and had barely slept at all.  I could tell she was disappointed.  After all, she flew across the country to take part in this exhibit. But then she reassured me, "it's OK, I can find someone to help.  I hope you feel better soon."

It was a small gesture, but it showed me that she was able to take a macro focus in the larger scheme of things.  I appreciated that.
This took some of the pressure off of me. Knowing that whatever I did while I was sick would be "enough" meant that I didn't have set expectations to push my body beyond it's limits.

"I'll do my best" I thought, knowing that this was far from the worst health challenge I had faced in life.  Being sick and in pain can easily knock out a nondisabled person.  But cripfam has adapted to the lifestyle, and sometimes we have tricks up our sleeve.  I grabbed a small trash bin and a bag from my apartment, so I could puke in the car or wherever I needed to.  People with disabilites can really tough it out sometimes, and I was proud of that.

[To be continued...]