As of 4/4/20, we are busy 3d printing our rigid shield design, efficiently hacked into its current form by Bret here at D&M. click here to visit or download the Fusion files!

The flat, snap-fit nature of this design can easily be lasercut as well- the varied depths of the printed model are just an effort to minimize excess plastic and print time.

More to come on the laser side of things- in addition to the massive time savings- like <20 seconds vs. >3 hours per shield- we can use far cheaper and varied materials with the addition of our sterilizable and durable UV resins and coatings. Similarly, lasercut stock + resin offers the possibility quick adaptation and derivative design, such as [flexible](https://a360.co/2UFKRHM) UV cured forms.

Quickly & forcefully manage extra JDKs in base R
Simplify rJava woes

# get this script:
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Jesssullivan/rJDKmanager/master/JDKmanager.R

rJava is depended upon by lots of libraries- XLConnect, OpenStreetMap, many db connectors and is often needed while scripting with GDAL.

library(XLConnect)   # YMMV

Errors while importing a library with depending on a JDK are many, but can (usually) be resolved by reconfiguring the version listed somewhere in the error.

On mac OSX (on Mojave at least), check what you have installed here- (as admin, this is a system path) :

sudo ls  "/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/ 

I seem to usually have at least half a dozen or more versions in there, between Oracle and openJDK. Being Java, these are basically sandboxed as JVMs and are will not get in each others way.

However…

Unlike JDK configuration for just about everything else, aliasing or exporting a specific release to $PATH will not cut it in R. The shell command to reconfigure for R-

sudo R CMD javareconf

…seems to always choose the wrong JDK. Renaming, hiding, otherwise trying to explain to R the one I want (lib XLConnect currently wants none other than Oracle 11.0.1) is futile.
The end-all solution for me is usually to temporarily move other JDKs elsewhere.
This is not difficult to do now and again, but keeping a CLI totally in R for moving / replacing JDKs makes for organized scripting.

 JDKmanager help: 
 (args are not case sensitive) 
 (usage: `sudo rscript JDKmanager.R help`) 

 list    :: prints contents of default JDK path and removed JDK path 
 reset   :: move all JDKs in removed JDK path back to default JDK path 
 config ::  configure rJava.  equivalent to `R CMD javareconf` in shell 

 specific JDK, such as 11.0.1, 1.8,openjdk-12.0.2, etc: 
    searches through both default and removed pathes for the specific JDK.  
    if found in the default path, any other JDKs will be moved to the `removed JDKs` directory. 
    the specified JDK will be configured for rJava.

Updated 11/6/19

Continue reading

Visit the me here on Github
Added parabolic musings 10/16/19, see below

…On using motioneye video clients on Pi Zeros & Raspbian over a BATMAN-adv Ad-Hoc network

link: motioneyeos
link: motioneye Daemon
link: Pi Zero W Tx/Rx data sheet:
link: BATMAN Open Mesh

This implementation of motioneye is running on Raspbian Buster (opposed to motioneyeos).

Calculating Mesh Effectiveness w/ Python:
Please take a look at dBmLoss.py- the idea here is one should be able to estimate the maximum plausible distance between mesh nodes before setting anything up. It can be run with no arguments-

python3 dBmLoss.py

…with no arguments, it should use default values (Tx = 20 dBm, Rx = |-40| dBm) to print this:

you can add (default) Rx Tx arguments using the following syntax:
                 python3 dBmLoss.py 20 40
                 python3 dBmLoss.py <Rx> <Tx>                 

 57.74559999999994 ft = max. mesh node spacing, @
 Rx = 40
 Tx = 20

Regarding the Pi:
The Pi Zero uses an onboard BCM43143 wifi module. See above for the data sheet. We can expect around a ~19 dBm Tx signal from a BCM43143 if we are optimistic. Unfortunately, "usable" Rx gain is unclear in the context of the Pi.

Added 10/16/19:
Notes on generating an accurate parabolic antenna shape with FreeCAD’s Python CLI:

For whatever reason, (likely my own ignorance) I have been having trouble generating an accurate parabolic dish shape in Fusion 360 (AFAICT, Autodesk is literally drenching Fusion 360 in funds right now, I feel obligated to at least try). Bezier, spline, etc curves are not suitable!
If you are not familiar with FreeCAD, the general approach- geometry is formed through fully constraining sketches and objects- is quite different from Sketchup / Tinkercad / Inventor / etc, as most proprietary 3d software does the “constraining” of your drawings behind the scenes. From this perspective, you can see how the following script never actually defines or changes the curve / depth of the parabola; all we need to do is change how much curve to include. A wide, shallow dish can be made by only using the very bottom of the curve, or a deep / narrow dish by including more of the ever steepening parabolic shape.

import Part, math

# musings derived from:
# https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?t=4430

# thinking about units here:
tu = FreeCAD.Units.parseQuantity

def mm(value):
    return tu('{} mm'.format(value))

rs = mm(1.9)
thicken = -(rs / mm(15)) 

# defer to scale during fitting / fillet elsewhere 
m=App.Matrix()
m.rotateY(math.radians(-90))
# create a parabola with the symmetry axis (0,0,1)
parabola=Part.Parabola()
parabola.transform(m)

# get only the right part of the curve
edge=parabola.toShape(0,rs)
pt=parabola.value(rs)
line=Part.makeLine(pt,App.Vector(0,0,pt.z))
wire=Part.Wire([edge,line])
shell=wire.revolve(App.Vector(0,0,0),App.Vector(0,0,1),360)

# make a solid
solid=Part.Solid(shell)

# apply a thickness
thick=solid.makeThickness([solid.Faces[1]],thicken,0.001)
Part.show(thick)

Gui.SendMsgToActiveView("ViewFit")

"""
# Fill screen:
Gui.SendMsgToActiveView("ViewFit")
# Remove Part in default env:
App.getDocument("Unnamed1").removeObject("Shape")
"""

FWIW, here is my Python implimentation of a Tx/Rx "Free Space" distance calulator-
dBmLoss.py:

from math import log10
from sys import argv
'''
# estimate free space dBm attenuation:
# ...using wfi module BCM43143:

Tx = 19~20 dBm
Rx = not clear how low we can go here

d = distance Tx --> Rx
f = frequency
c = attenuation constant: meters / MHz = -27.55; see here for more info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-space_path_loss
'''

f = 2400  # MHz
c = 27.55 # RF attenuation constant (in meters / MHz)

def_Tx = 20  # expected dBm transmit
def_Rx = 40  # (absolute value) of negative dBm thesh

def logdBm(num):
    return 20 * log10(num)

def maxDist(Rx, Tx):
    dBm = 0
    d = .1  # meters!
    while dBm < Tx + Rx:
        dBm = logdBm(d) + logdBm(f) - Tx - Rx + c
        d += .1  # meters!
    return d

# Why not use this with arguments Tx + Rx from shell if we want:
def useargs():
    use = bool
    try:
        if len(argv) == 3:
            use = True
        elif len(argv) == 1:
            print('\n\nyou can add (default) Rx Tx arguments using the following syntax: \n \
                python3 dBmLoss.py 20 40 \n \
                python3 dBmLoss.py <Rx> <Tx> \
                \n')
            use = False
        else:
            print('you must use both Rx & Tx arguments or no arguments')
            raise SystemExit
    except:
        print('you must use both Rx & Tx arguments or no arguments')
        raise SystemExit
    return use

def main():

    if useargs() == True:
        arg = [int(argv[1]), int(argv[2])]
    else:
        arg = [def_Rx, def_Tx]

    print(str('\n ' + str(maxDist(arg[0], arg[1])*3.281) + \
        ' ft = max. mesh node spacing, @ \n' + \
        ' Rx = ' + str(arg[0]) + '\n' + \
        ' Tx = ' + str(arg[1])))

main()