Tailflick Analgesic Meter

The paper we published on a homebrew tailflick analgesic meter had a bunch of supplemental information. This is the new site (blog entry) for that information.

The paper was published in the Journal of Neuroscience Education (JUNE) 2011 Volume 10 : Issue 1. Please reference us!

We have tutorial videos on building some of the electronics. The software to run the apparatus, platform design, and electronics can be found in this google drive folder.

R75 update

So, a year and a half later, I am posting updates on the R75. I reworked a lot of the electrical. I put a new ignition in, like I mentioned. The washer that I welded into the bucket worked well with the Rocky Point parts. I installed new handlebar switches and grips. I put bar-end rear-view mirrors because the threads for the original mirrors were pretty jacked up. These bar-end mirrors were super cheap on Amazon. I don't have much faith in them lasting long. Some reviews said the mirrors pop out while riding. So, the first thing after mounting that I did was to put a silicone bead around the edges. If you don't know, denatured alcohol will clean up the extra silicone. I wipe an alcohol-wetted paper towel around the bead to smooth out the bead. I did the same thing on the speedo.

I did some minor body work after sanding. I didn't take photos, unfortunately. I am clearly not good at body work. I painted the bike black and pinstriped it myself. I am also not good at painting and pinstriping. For a moment, I thought about sanding the bike down and starting over. Instead I did a lot of fine sanding to get rid of orange peel. I figured the pinstripes wouldn't be great. So, why worry so much about the paint. Everything turned out ok. It's a 20 foot paint job, as my uncle says.

Finally, the key fix. I pried the nail key out of the plastic piece that holds it. I marked a spare key using the nail portion and a Sharpie marker. Then, I ground the spare key on a grinding wheel until it fit in the plastic piece. I had to grind the faces to narrow the width of the key too. I used marine, two-part epoxy to fill the plastic where the key sticks into it. Everything seems to work well so far. I've put about 100 miles on it this summer after getting it all complete. I'm hoping to go for a ride this week. I still need to change the oil and gear oil in it after it sat for so long, and why waste a fresh oil change?

A student’s guide to searching the literature using online databases

The published article in the American Journal of Physics in 2009.
The published article in the arxiv.
Supplemental information is available here.

Bikeswipe

A colleague and I worked with some students in 2008 to develop a community bicycle checkout system for our campus. We got it working. Then, we started to port it over to Arduino control. The students had graduated, and we just lost steam. I have the code and hardware list. I'm putting some files here in case there may be some interest in someone picking this up. I have a ton more that I would have to sort through to make sense of, but let me know in the comments if you want any of the bits and pieces.

bikeswipe files

Design Plans for an Inexpensive Tail Flick Analgesia Meter

The freely available paper published in the Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education in 2011.

Some tutorial videos

Some useful files including Arduino code, a Python GUI to interface with the Arduino, a LabVIEW GUI to interface with the Arduino (alternative to python), schematics, etc. Feel free to leave a comment if you have questions.

Molecular mechanics and dynamics characterization of an in silico mutated protein: A stand-alone lab module or support activity for in vivo and in vitro analyses of targeted proteins

The publication in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education in 2013.

Some tutorial videos

Some useful files

BMW R75/5 Headlight Reworking

Recently bought a 1971 BMW R75/5.

It's in pretty good mechanical shape. Though, I haven't ridden it more than 100 miles yet. These old bikes always offer something mechanical to deal with. I am slowly working through some cosmetic stuff. The ignition had been replaced, and the headlight was electrical taped on. I wanted the vintage nail key look, not a big ugly key sticking out.

So, those are the first things I wanted to deal with before moving on to sanding, filling, and painting. I bought an ignition upgrade from Rocky Point Cycle. Once I got it I realized my headlight shell was in worse shape than I thought. It is supposed to have bendable tabs for holding the ignition up. See PenForHire's resto of a 1973 R75. He did what I want to do with a new key. I'm way too cheap to just buy a new headlight bucket ($350!)

Well, I had to create some way of holding the ignition mount up on the underside of the bucket. I decided to weld a ring into the bucket that would have holes aligned to holes I tapped into the mount. I drilled out a 3/4" hole into the center of a washer. Then, I drilled clearance holes for 8-32 screws on the washer. I know; it should be metric, but I didn't have the list of drillbits associated with metric taps. I center-punched these holes onto the ignition mount from Rocky Point. I then drilled and tapped the holes on the mount. I tack welded the washer on the underside of the bucket using a MIG setup. It was pretty ugly. So, I finished the job with JB Weld. I still need to grind down the tack welds.

It's still really ugly, but the Rocky Point mount now can be held onto the bucket. One word of caution, if you're removing your headlight bucket be sure to label every wire. I used blue painter's tape and a Sharpie to make sure I knew what connects with what. Much of my electrics had been toyed with in the past. So, the wires weren't all color coded as the originals were. I'm going to smooth the welds out tomorrow. Then, I'll sand it. I've ordered POR-15 to reline the tank before sanding and painting it. I've had good luck with the POR products on two other tanks. The bike has been repainted already as indicated by the tape pinstripes (ugh). I plan to paint and pinstripe it myself. I'll post more on the changes as they come.