Happy Birthday 2 days late Jeni!    One of the things I admire most about you is your incredible ability to make things become beautiful.  I stand in awe at the amazing things you create.  

You're wonderful and we love you.

What's In St. George?

That is the St. George Temple.  Lauren & Rylee were very excited to see the temple in St. George, what an honor.  Too bad it's almost a 5 hour drive from Ogden.

We also stopped to sink our feet into the red sands that dominate the landscape in this part of the country.  

The temperature was about 70° F, sunny skies.  But I didn't have my bike. . .

These sand dunes are perfect for digging. . . 

For rolling. . .  (and filling your shoes & pockets with sand to dump into the car)

Some believe this dirt is very good for eating . . .  (Owen)

We also went for a brief hike on a trail to "Jenny's Canyon."   Janna reunited with one of her old college roommates as we took to the trail.  Ironically enough, her moms name is Jenny, and her maiden name is Mangum.  Not sure what else to do. . . so we took a picture.

Of course, the rooms were the 2nd best part of the whole trip.  This closets doors are made of mirrors, so its visually deceptive when you first look at it.  This is Lauren, Rylee, and Bentley, and I believe little Owen is somewhere inside the closet.  The number one place to be is the pool.

It was very exciting.

Sorry Adrian, I couldn't resist.

Automated Soldering Machine

There are several reasons why I am so far behind on my blog, but one of the two major factors is this machine.  It's a machine that automates a soldering process currently done by hand at a solar company in California. It has two lasers, a robotic arm, and a vision system so the robot can "see." It also has two solder paste dispensers that extrude solder paste onto the target then the lasers heat the solder and it metalizes.  The good news. . . this machine shipped on Monday morning this week.  

Believe it or not, this little "bowtie" as we call it, is the finished product.  It's two strips of tin plated copper, .003" thick, soldered together with a tiny diode in the middle.  

  

This is "Thumper" the robot, made by Epson. He costs a cool $20K.  He earned his name because one day one of our team was working near him and tripped a sensor that set the robot into motion knocking his arm with austacious force.  Robots are extremely strong, in fact, bones will break before they stop in their path, so they demand safety and caution.

Here is a view of the "Dial Table." It's 30 inches in diameter, 3/4" thick aluminum plate that rotates 30° at a time.  Each time it rotates, it places one of the little white blocks underneath a work station where some function is performed to help solder the bowtie.  

Each of these little white blocks has a blue tube running into it that creates vacuum to hold the parts in place during soldering.  The white block is a ceramic, the brown part is made of a plastic material called Ultem.  I spent significant time designing, testing, and redesigning these two blocks until they worked just right.  There are six pins sticking up that hold the bowtie in place, the third pin back is actually spring loaded - a very cool feature that allows the bowtie to be removed from the ceramic after it's soldered.

These black trays are loaded with bowties and then fed into the system.  There are two different tracks, one is where the machine offloads finished bowties, the other is for onloading new parts that need to be soldered.  You can see the finished bowties being placed into the pins in the black trays. 

Guilty Pleasure in full carbon

It's true, I bought a new bike.  I can't allow myself to feel guilty because I have worked hard for it and saved up my money.  I had to wait until the end of the year when they were clearing out the 2008 models to get a good price break.  So far, I have put about 60 miles on it. I'm still trying to get used to the different gear configurations, but this bike begs me to go faster. The frame is full carbon fiber, the whole bike weighs in at just under 15 lb.  It's unbelievable. 

And No,  you can't ride it.