Finished_Projects--;

The microscale may be dead. I think the bearing is sticking (for the second time). There can only be one solution to a mechanical problem... software! I tried to work around it in some interesting ways.

• Adjust the indicator flag to be more like the original article
• Adjust the flag most of the way to normal
• Attempt to calculate the mass as a function of both the current force and the current error
• Adjust the gain so that it moves faster
• Adjust the gain so it moves more slowly
• Adjust the gain so it moves WAY more slowly
• Put the gain back where it was
• Add 2 to the gain instead of 1
• Undo
• Stop averaging the last two error readings
• Undo
• On Even seconds, reduce the force by 5mg to break the friction
  
• 10mg?
• 15mg?
• Undo back to 10mg
• When seconds MOD 4 == 0, reduce the force, ==1 and ==2 go back to the regular force, ==3 actually try to balance
• Same, but with MOD 5
• Same, but break the 5 second cycle into 1,2,2 instead of 1,3,1 (Fake, recover, balance)
• reduce the force by 20mg

So, after all that (half of which is in the SVN), It is repeatable to within +/- 0.3 mg (when it stabilizes), or it will flail around wildly +/- 70mg. The only difference between the two states is when you put the sample on the scale.

Possible "improvements"/Next Steps(that don't involve the 2kW heaters from the last UW project, just to see if they still can melt aluminum in 10 minutes)

• replace the galvanometer
• add springs to support the flag (stabilize)
• make the moving parts lighter (reduces accuracy - HA!)
• Realize that Erica can manually take the data faster than I can fix the scale
• Offer to set up webcam and OCR the regular scale into data
• Offer to write AHK script that will show pictures from the Nikon of the regular scale, so data entry is faster

Sigh...

(for those keeping track, Finished_Projects is now back to nil,m not counting FIRST)