Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Slop, Hysteresis and Lag Time

Slop, hysteresis or lag time is the bane of all controllers.

Picture yourself driving a very old, very beat up dump-truck.  The steering gear has beau coup slop internally and the rubber bushings that it nestled snugly within are but a distant, hazy memory. 

You constantly fight to stay in your lane.  You hand-over-hand to the right until you have feedback of a correction....only to slingshot over to the other side of the lane...and beyond.  You feverishly hand-over-hand to the left and narrowly avert customizing the side of the Toyota that was blithely driving in the lane to your right.  Left side, right side, left side.  Never a moment's peace.  Never a predictable response.

So it is with life.

Iced Tea


Kubota has been a bear to get up in the morning.  He has been enjoying cold iced tea.  I mixed up a gallon and put it in the refrigerator.  Kubota got up in the middle of the night for a snack, saw the iced tea and decided to have a glass.


Mmmmm!  Good!

And another glass....and another.  Yes.  It has caffeine.

He woke me up at 5:00 this morning because he was bored and lonely.  He was watching the Simpson's TV DVD.

There was less than an inch of iced tea left in the jug.

It will be an interesting day at the Eaton Rapids Middle School.

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