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Mount Bimberi on a Scout Bushwalking Course

Julian Yates kindly ran a bushwalking course for Scouts Australia over the last five days, which covered walking in Uncontrolled Terrain (the definition in the Australian VET scheme for the most difficult bushwalking -- significant off track navigation in areas where emergency response will be hard to get). I helped with some of the instruction, but was also there working on my own bushwalking qualifications. The walk was to Mount Bimberi, which is the highest point in the ACT. We started with a short night walk into Oldfield's Hut on Friday night after a day of classroom work. The advantage of this was that we started Saturday at Oldfield's Hut, which offered morning views which did not suck. [kml: 20190524-1] On Saturday morning we walked up to Mount Bimberi via Murray's Gap. This involved following the ACT / NSW border up the hillside, which was reasonably well marked with tape and cairns. Our route on the way to Bimberi: [kml: 20190525-1] And the way back: [kml: 20190525-2] On Sunday we walked back out to the cars and did the three hour drive back to Canberra. I'll include the walk out here for completeness: [kml: 20190526-1]

Continue ReadingMount Bimberi on a Scout Bushwalking Course

A nerd snipe, in which I learn to read gerber files

So, I had the realisation last night that the biggest sunk cost with getting a PCB made in China is the shipping. The boards are about 50 cents each, and then its $25 for shipping (US dollars of course). I should therefore be packing as many boards into a single order as possible to reduce the shipping cost per board. I have a couple of boards on the trot at the moment, my RFID attendance tracker project (called GangScan), and I've just decided to actually get my numitrons working and whipped up a quick break out board for those. You'll see more about that one later I'm sure. I decided to ask my friends in Canberra if they needed any boards made, and one friend presented with a set of Gerber CAM files and nothing else. That's a pain because I need to know the dimensions of the board for the quoting system. Of course, I couldn't find a tool to do extract that for me with a couple of minutes of Googling, so... I decided to just learn to read the file format. Gerber is well specified, with a quite nice specification available online. So it wasn't too hard…

Continue ReadingA nerd snipe, in which I learn to read gerber files

Gangscan 0.6 boards

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So I've been pottering away for a while working on getting the next version of the gang scan boards working. These ones are much nicer: thicker tracks for signals, better labelling, support for a lipo battery charge circuit, a prototype audio circuit, and some LEDs to indicate status. I had them fabbed at the same place as last time, although the service was much faster this time around. I haven't got as far as assembling a board yet -- I need to get some wire thin enough for the vias before I can do that. I'll let you know how I go though.

Continue ReadingGangscan 0.6 boards

Trigs map

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A while ago I had a map of all the trig points in the ACT and links to the posts I'd written during my visits. That had atrophied over time. I've just spent some time fixing it up again, and its now at https://www.madebymikal.com/trigs_map.html -- I hope its useful to someone else.

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Trail run: Tuggeranong Stone Wall loop

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The Tuggeranong Stone wall is a 140 year old boundary between to former stations. Its also a nice downhill start to a trail run. This loop involves starting at the Hyperdome, following the wall down, and the continuing along to Pine Island before returning. Partially shaded, and with facilities at the Hyperdome and Pine Island. 6km, and 68m vertically. [kml: 20190427-1]

Continue ReadingTrail run: Tuggeranong Stone Wall loop

Trail run: Lake Tuggeranong to Kambah Pool (return)

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This wasn't the run I'd planned for this day, but here we are. This runs along the Centenary Trail between Kambah Pool and Lake Tuggeranong. Partially shaded, but also on the quite side of the ridge line where you can't tell that you're near the city. Don't take the tempting river ford, there is a bridge a little further downstream! 14.11km and 296 vertical ascent. Be careful of mountain bikers on this popular piece of single track. You're allowed to run here, but some cyclists don't leave much time to notice other track users. [kml: 20190511-1]

Continue ReadingTrail run: Lake Tuggeranong to Kambah Pool (return)

Trail run: Barnes and ridgeline

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A first attempt at running to Barnes and Brett trigs, this didn't work out quite as well as I'd expected (I ran out of time before I'd hit Brett trig). The area wasn't as steep as I'd expected, being mostly rolling grazing land with fire trails. Lots of gates and now facilities, but stunning views of southern Canberra from the ridgeline. 11.11km and 421m of vertical ascent. [kml: 20190502-1]

Continue ReadingTrail run: Barnes and ridgeline

Trail run: Pine Island South to Point Hut with a Hill

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This one is probably a little bit less useful to others, as the loop includes a bit more of the suburb than is normal. That said, you could turn this into a suburb avoiding loop quite easily. A nice 11.88km run with a hill climb at the end. A total ascent of 119 metres. There isn't much shade along the run, but there is some in patches. There are bathrooms at Point Hut and Pine Island. Be careful of mountain bikers on this popular piece of single track. You're allowed to run here, but some cyclists don't leave much time to notice other track users. [kml: 20190220-1]

Continue ReadingTrail run: Pine Island South to Point Hut with a Hill

Trail running guide: Tuggeranong

I've been running on trails more recently (I'm super bored with roads and bike paths), but running on trails makes load management harder -- often I'm looking for a run of approximately XX length with no more than YY vertical ascent. So I was thinking, maybe I should just write the runs that I do down so that over time I create a menu of options for when I need them. This page documents my Tuggeranong runs.

Continue ReadingTrail running guide: Tuggeranong

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