Cyborg #59 - Test of Strength

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Author: Commander_Z
Book: Cyborg
Arc: Machine Mayhem
Set: 96
Previously:
Victor Stone, Donna Morris and Keiji Otari worked together to create a robot called Atlas to participate in the collegiate Machine Mayhem tournament, a robot fighting competition. The humanoid robot easily crushed its competition in the first round but disappeared overnight before the second round. His three creators split up to track him down, with Keiji finding the machine in a back alley a little ways away from the stadium...
Keiji stood before the massive figure, blinking, trying to focus his mind. He had had many late nights and early mornings over the past couple weeks, so Keiji figured he was still sleeping. Or hallucinating. Or both, somehow. But, the voice rang out, its clearest yet, “No.” ‘Clear’ was a very generous and relative term, though. The noise wasn’t modulating through a speaker or a voice box, instead Atlas was making his own speaker by vibrating the motors and joints that allowed him to move.
The alley that Keiji found Atlas in was less than an ideal to make changes to a robot, but Keiji figured that Atlas would be understanding considering the circumstances. He pulled out an old bluetooth speaker out of his backpack and gestured towards Atlas with it.
“This’ll help you. No more grinding gears to talk. Just got to trust me for a few minutes, okay?”
Atlas stood still for a few moments, whether he was thinking or just unsure how to make a positive affirmation with his joints, Keiji couldn’t know. But, after awhile, he responded.
“Yes.”
Keiji set his backpack on the ground in the gross alley, making a mental note that he’d have to clean that later and got to work.
Around ten minutes later, he was done.
“Okay, Atlas. Try to use the speaker. It’s connected to RO23 on the tertiary control board.”
“...T…Te….ing…Test…Testing. Speaker operation confirmed.” Atlas spoke in a deep, synthetic voice that occasionally warped itself in tone, like how a whammy bar would add vibrato to a chord on a guitar.
“Great. So… Atlas… What's going on with you? Why’d you leave?”
“I am performing my task: defeat opponents, become the strongest. No foes in that arena were a challenge. Therefore, I left.”
Keiji raised an eyebrow. “That’s… not what we made you for. We made you to win Machine Mayhem, not to pursue strength as some sort of goal in of itself.”
“Incorrect. Nowhere in programming was “winning the Machine Mayhem tournament” a specified goal.”
“Okay, but I programmed you, and I’m telling you that was the intention.”
“Intentions are irrelevant. A teacher may shape their students’ minds, but they cannot determine what anyone does with their knowledge. That is a privilege reserved for each and every individual being. You say I was programmed to win a tournament. I say that I was programmed to make myself the strongest being. Only my interpretation is relevant.”
‘I guess that’s not an invalid interpretation of what I programmed him to do. But… that’s not exactly a sane or safe perspective on life…’
“And how are you doing that? Just fighting anyone you can see?”
“No. I have already stated that I found those machines in that arena unworthy of my efforts, in my short time in the outside world I have seen humans to be much the same. Few of you would pose any challenge.”
“Well, that’s a little more reassuring that you won’t just be fighting everyone you see. But - ”
Suddenly, a woman about Keiji’s age flew into the alleyway, riding on a metallic pink hoverboard. She wore hot pink combat boots with dark black leggings, and a matching hot pink sleeveless top with thick metallic bands around her wrists that went up to her forearms. Her eyes were obscured by a visor-like pair of glasses, tinted a reflective red to hide her identity.
And yet, Keiji knew instantly that she had to be Donna Morris. He knew that she had been working on some other project with Vic before they started Atlas, but he figured it was just for some shared class or lab work. But this… This was unexpected.
“Halt… robot! Step away from the civilian and no one needs to get hurt!”
‘Why’s she speaking so formally? Guess it’s some mindset thing.’
Neither Atlas nor Keiji reacted to what Donna was saying. Keiji knew she wasn’t talking to him, and Atlas just seemed indifferent to her presence. Finally, Atlas turned and faced her.
“You seem powerful. Show me the strength of your will and I may concede.”
“This doesn’t need to be violent. We can talk it out, here or somewhere else.”
“Actions speak louder and truer than words.” Atlas moved into a combat position, leaning forwards on his left leg, raising his fists up to his chest.
“Come.”
“Don- ”
“When I’m in the suit, it’s Black Narcissus. Some of us like to keep our identities secret, no offense to Cyborg, wherever he is.” Donna said.
“Okay, nice to meet you, Black Narcissus. Just… be careful with Atlas. He’s stronger than he looks.”
Donna smiled. “So am I. Just watch.”
Donna pressed her thumb and index finger together on both hands and a large light on the back of her hands turned gray. She pointed her hands right at Atlas, who still stood in his combat position, waiting.
A thick, gray fluid shot out of her gauntlets, ensnaring Atlas’ arms to his body and his legs to the ground.
“Gotcha! That’s industrial strength adhesive - ”
Atlas flexed his arms and the adhesive snapped with ease, then crouched his legs before springing upwards towards Black Narcissus and her hoverboard. She quickly flew out of the way but Atlas managed to barely get one hand on the board. Black Narcissus pressed her thumbs to her middle fingers, changing the cartridge in her gauntlets. The light on the back changed to purple and she fired her gauntlets again, launching a blast of energy at Atlas.
The extra energy rattled the robot’s circuits, and he released his grip on the board to escape further damage, sending him crashing back to the ground. She shot another salvo of energy blasts at the machine, keeping him stunned on the ground.
She switched her left gauntlet back to adhesive, hoping that it would be able to restrain a weakened Atlas. Before it could reach him, the robot rolled out of the way and grabbed a trash can, hurling it at Donna. She swerved out of the way again, then dodged a second trash can thrown as a follow up.
After the second can, she was on her toes, prepared for a third, but it didn’t come. She looked around, trying to find where Atlas went, but he was completely out of sight. She sensed him at the last moment, coming from the rooftop that he jumped up to. He grabbed her board and slammed it to the ground with her on it. The board shattered into a million pieces, but Donna seemed unharmed. Atlas sprung up, ready to keep fighting, and Black Narcissus rose fractions of a second after. She pressed her thumbs to her ring fingers and the light on the black glowed a dark red.
She swung a right hand punch at Atlas who caught it in his left. But the light on the back of her gauntlet started to glow brighter as she put in more effort, pushing back against his metallic muscle. Atlas pushed his legs back, trying to stabilize himself. Donna started to push him back more and Keiji could hear the motors start to strain. Atlas stopped resisting against Donna, then, before she could take advantage of it, he kicked up some of the pieces of the broken hoverboard at her. Using her momentary surprise, he punched her square in the chest, knocking the wind out of her and sending her to the ground.
“You fought well,” Atlas said, turning away from her.
“Wait,” Donna said, getting up. “I’m not done with you.”
“Yes, you are. Accept your defeat. There is no shame in losing to the strongest.”
Before Donna could protest, Atlas turned to Keiji. “Come, and bring your things. I have use for you.”
Keiji raised an eyebrow, but grabbed his backpack and started to follow Atlas further down the alley.
He turned back to Donna and mouthed “I’ll text you” to her. He hoped she got the message.
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“Stop here.”
Keiji stood behind Atlas, who was peering into an old garage a couple blocks from the alley where he fought Black Narcissus. He grabbed the padlock that was keeping the door shut and squeezed it, turning it into dust.
“You will find the tools you need in here. Repair the damage caused in the last fight, human.”
Keiji raised an eyebrow. “First off, I don’t really like being called “human”. Technically true, but feels hurtful in this context. Second, I’m a software guy. I couldn’t fix you if I wanted to. Third, being nicer to people will generally get you better results. Not really inclined to help someone who starts by insulting me.”
“Niceties are a waste of time. Fix me, or I will end you.”
Keiji shook his head. “No, you won’t. I can’t fix you, but you know my teammates can. And they’d never do that if you hurt me at all.”
Atlas punched the concrete wall in frustration, cracking it. “Very well. You are correct… I do need your help. What will they require to do so?”
“I don’t know. But come back to the arena with me. We can talk with them there and see what it takes.”
“Very well. Let your friends know that I require their assistance.”
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Atlas stood before Vic and Donna, who made it back to their workspace just before the robot did. He towered over the three humans, but if any of them were intimidated, it was hidden behind a masterful poker face.
“Y’know, I thought more people would care that we just walked in with a robot and are talking with him like he’s a person,” Donna remarked.
“People are busy and indifferent. The other competitors probably think it’s a marketing scheme or something and are just ignoring us. I wouldn’t worry about it too much,” Keiji said.
“Yeah, that. But so… Atlas has become sentient. Good for you, really. But… hooray. Another sentient robot,” Vic said.
“You see a lot of those?” Keiji asked.
“More than you’d think.”
“I am glad that you are not concerned by my presence. That saves me much effort. But the question at hand remains: I have been damaged and require repairs. Will you repair me?”
“Yes,” Vic and Donna said at the same time.
Vic looked at her, surprised. He figured she’d have some hesitancy.
“But, I’ve got a small condition for you. Should be no big deal. Win us the next round of the competition.”
“Ridiculous. You ask me to do something so trivial it is unfair, like a pro athlete competing at a preschool.”
Donna shrugged. “Yeah, it’s trivial and easy, but it helps us a lot.The club will look much better and get a lot more support for next season if we make it into the semifinals.”
“I’ll even raise the stakes. If you win the next round, we won’t make you enter the finals. Instead, I’ll give you a real challenge. You can fight me.”
“Why would I want that?”
“Because I’m the strongest one here by far. And, if that’s still not enough if you beat me, I’ll show you how to repair yourself. Then, we’ll let you go live as you want, provided you promise to only fight people who want to fight.”
Donna looked at Vic, concerned. “Who would want to willingly fight someone like Atlas?”
Vic sighed. “Trust me. There are plenty of weirdos in this world who just want to fight. It’s much better than me just throwing him in prison or taking him apart.”
Atlas made a noise that Vic thought was supposed to be a scoff. But maybe it was just static. The speaker wasn’t that high quality.
“You make a very strong set of promises if I win, which I will. But if by some miracle, you managed to cheat your way to victory… what happens then?”
Vic shrugged. “Pretty much the same thing. I’ll teach you how to repair yourself and let you go with the same stipulations. You just have to know that a human beat you.”
Atlas laughed. “You are a fool if you think that could ever happen. I accept your terms, human. Guide me to the arena, those boxes of scrap will be reduced to dust.”
Vic walked him over to the arena as as if he were any other competitor, but instead of waiting by the sidelines to see the results, he walked back to their workspace. He knew that Atlas would win and wanted to try and make sure that Donna and Keiji were on board with the other part of his plan.
When he got back, Donna was nervously pacing around while Keiji was scrolling through some webpage.
“So.. Vic… do you really think that this is the right idea? You’re just… unleashing him on the world. Isn't that irresponsible?” Donna asked.
“I don’t think so. Yeah he wants to fight people but he has restraint to some degree. He knows the difference being fighting every random person he sees and fighting someone who has a reasonable amount of strength. I dunno, I think him messing up and fighting… Superman or something and taking a big loss would teach him far more than we ever could or throwing him in jail for being dangerous. Is it a risk?… kinda. But so is any option.”
“So your best guess is just… let him go and figure it out?” Keiji said. “Isn’t that a bit too… hands off?”
“Got a better idea? That’s pretty much what we got to do.”
“No. I don’t. But this just feels... risky.”
“Yeah, it is. But he’s fairly reasonable after being conscious for what, 12 hours? Over time, he’ll probably mellow out and if he doesn’t, I can take care of him then. But he deserves a chance like anyone else.”
Keiji nodded. “Fine Vic. If that’s what you think the best path is… I’ll stand by you.”
“Same, Vic. I want to believe in him too.”
“Thanks guys, really. Hopefully we can all look back on this and agree this was the right path.”
A horn sounded and a voice came over the loudspeaker. “Semifinal-2 has ended! The winner is the University of Michigan’s Atlas! Please collect your robots and be ready for the finals at 1:00 PM.”
The team stood up and gave each other a round of high fives. They really had made something great. Now it was time to see just how great he really was.
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Two hours later.
The team packed up after their semifinal match, citing an unspecified emergency with the tournament staff. They weren’t happy with the anticlimactic end, but ultimately they couldn’t force the three of them to continue to compete and so they left without much hassle.
The three of them drove north until they found the first open field that Vic and Atlas could have their match in. There wasn’t anywhere that they could find in the city that wouldn’t attract too much attention or put innocent people at risk and they managed to convince Atlas of that too. The robot was in the trailer towed behind the three of them, much to his chagrin.
But after a half hour or so, they found a spot. A wide open, grassy field with no one around to interfere or get hurt. A perfect spot for them to settle things. Vic got out of the car and started to stretch, trying to limber up after the car ride while Donna and Keiji helped Atlas out of the trailer.
Atlas rotated his head, taking in the environment. “A flat, quiet field. An honorable place for battle.”
Vic let out one lat calming exhale before approaching Atlas. “Plus, no one is around to get hurt. That’s important too.”
“...Yes. That too.”
“The rules are simple. A clean match, no foul play between either of us. Whoever is left standing when the other yields or is unconscious wins.”
Atlas laughed. “I will never yield.”
“We’ll see,” Vic grinned.
“Oh, one other thing. Not really a rule per say, but a strong suggestion: Try not to seriously hurt each other. You’re not trying to kill or maim each other,” Donna said.
“Yes, yes. May we begin?”
Vic nodded, and took a step backward, creating about ten feet of space between him and Atlas. Before the dust even settled, his arms were force cannons launching pure energy right at Atlas’ chest. Vic had designed Atlas, he knew that he wouldn’t be very damaged by those. But he had underestimated just how much he would be able to tank them. The force blasts did little more than chip the paint and an exhilarated Atlas sprinted at Vic like a charging bull.
Once Atlas was a few feet away from Vic, he prepared a concussive grenade and exploded it directly against Atlas, using the force to stagger him out of the charge. Before the robot could launch another attack, Vic swung a full force punch into the robots’ chassis, crumpling it inwards slightly. Vic followed up the punch with another, but Atlas was ready for it and parried it with his left arm, then kicked Cyborg away, sending him flying backwards.
Cyborg shot his force canons at the ground to give himself some momentum in the opposite direction, slowing himself down. But Atlas had some tricks up his metaphorical sleeves too. Having realized that a direct approach was difficult, he used his powerful hands like a backhoe to scoop up a massive piece of earth and hurled it at Cyborg. Vic was unsure how to react to this, or more precisely, how he expected Atlas to follow this attack up. The boulder itself was a problem, sure, but it was just to close the gap. Atlas could be using it to block his line of sight and be jumping right behind it, or he could be using the temporary blindspot caused by the massive object to approach from either side.
Instead of guessing, Vic decided to power through the problem. Vic shot both of his force cannons at the projectile, sending bits of dirt every which way. Atlas was hiding in what was once the dirt ball’s shadow and Vic took advantage of his surprise to launch himself at the robot. Cyborg shot his force cannons behind him, propelling himself forwards rapidly in a charge mirroring Atlas’ own.
He knocked the massive machine to the ground and sat on his chest, using his arms to pin down the machine’s.
“You’re down, Atlas. Do you yield?”
“I told you. I will never yield. I am the strongest!”
Atlas began to press his weight against Vic’s strength. Vic knew he was a match for Atlas’ strength but there was one key problem: stamina. Vic’s body was, of course, cybernetic in part, but it wasn’t the same. He was still human and human beings got tired. Machines did not.
Vic could already feel his muscle starting to fatigue. The fight hadn’t been long, but any fatigue was going to be the difference. He knew he was a match for Atlas’ strength when he was at 100%, but every percent below that made it more and more likely to be Atlas’ win.
‘I need to end this fight now or the immediate future if I want to win. But my normal attacks aren’t doing anything to him. I could try a sonic attack, but I don’t think that’d really effect him. I could try targeting his joints specifically, but those were designed to take more than I can give. But I can’t just let him overpower me for the win. That’d make him overconfident and more likely to get into trouble afterwards. No… I’ve got a better idea.’
In an instant, Vic’s muscles stopped resisting. “I yield.”
Vic pushed himself off Atlas, who stood up and looked at Cyborg, confused.
“What foe yields when he has his opponent on the ground, at his mercy? I demand you continue!”
“No. This fight was never to the death, only to yielding. But frankly, you aren’t strong enough to interest me. You said it yourself, you will never yield. And pummelling you to a point where you are the equivalent of unconscious just isn’t worth my time. So I yielded. Congrats. You win.”
Atlas stood, incredulous. “No. That is not allowed. I did not win. You lost! Those are not the same!”
Vic turned to Keiji and Donna and then noticed that the fight had taken them about 30 yards from where they started. He started to walk back towards them, and Atlas followed.
“Guys, I yielded that fight. Doesn’t that mean I lost?”
Keiji raised an eyebrow. “I guess?”
“See? Congrats, you won.”
“... I do not accept this victory. This is a loss in all but name. Mark my words, Victor Stone. I will wander the globe, facing foe after foe to grow stronger. I will become the strongest being and when I do, we will have a real fight, one where you must acknowledge my strength for real.”
“Looking forwards to it. Stay out of trouble until then, understood?”
Vic held out his hand for a handshake which Atlas begrudgingly accepted.
“Understood.”
“Atlas, catch.”
Keiji tossed a small flash drive to Atlas who had to bend down to grab it.
“That has all your schematics and drawings on it, as well as all the parts we used to make you and where we sourced them from. It’s probably the best thing out there to help you repair yourself.”
“Thank you. You all have given me much to think about it. When we meet again… I will be stronger in body and mind. Farewell for now but I will return to challenge you again, Victor.”
“I’ll be waiting. And I promise to go all out next time, Atlas.”
Atlas took off to the west, heading to only he knew where.
Once he was far enough out of sight, Vic laid down on the ground, exhausted.
“Well, that’s enough bluffing for the next decade. I really underestimated him.”
Donna sat down to his left, Keiji on his right.
“Told you that you were being cocky. We all built him but he’s out of all of our leagues,” Keiji said.
“Yeah… but I really wanted to do it, y’know? Kinda humbling to be beat by your own creation.”
“If it makes you feel better, I lost to him too,” Donna said.
“Wait what? When did you fight him?”
“I’ll tell you on the way back. Not my finest moment, but I put up a good fight.”
“Proud of you. You’ve come a long way in your training. But after that fight… I’m going to need to get a lot stronger and pick my own training back up. I kinda feel like I’ve been stagnant for awhile, just sort of winning my fights through grit and will power. But if Atlas had been hostile… I don’t think I could’ve stopped him. So, I’ll need to get back to the drawing board and see what I can do to take myself to the next level.”
“And we’ll be there to help you however we can. But uh… Vic, finals are in like two weeks. Maybe focus on that first?” Keiji suggested.
“I’d rather get beat up by another robot,” Vic groaned.
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Cyborg #57 - Birth of a Titan

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Author: Commander_Z
Book: Cyborg
Arc: Machine Mayhem
Set: 94
About a month ago.
Somedays, Victor Stone felt like he knew approximately where things in his life were going to go, how everything would fit together like a messy, half finished jigsaw puzzle. It was hazy, but he could tell there was something there if he just kept doing what he was doing and worked hard. Other days, he felt like he might as well have wiped the puzzle off from the table and grabbed a new one. Today felt like one of those days.
His eyes glazed over as his thoughts demanded all of his brain’s power. Where could he even begin with a problem like this? Does he even begin, or does he just walk away and try and pick the puzzle pieces up from the floor but with the knowledge things could’ve been different? He took a deep breath.
“I… I don’t know. Let’s slow down for a minute. I don’t know anything about this, how can you expect me to take this on?”
The tension in the room was visible, but only to Vic. To Donna Morris and Keiji Otari, they were either unaware of what they were asking of Vic or had already steeled themselves to it and couldn’t be further phased. Vic wasn’t sure which. Their workspace was small, little more than a 20 foot by 20 foot space in a corner of the cavernous, pseudo-warehouse most of the student teams used for their engineering projects. The three of them stood around a small rectangular table with Donna’s laptop in the middle.
Keiji was the first to respond. “Vic, c’mon. You told me you were going to have an easy semester and you’re probably the only person on campus who could do this. It’ll be fun.”
“Fun?” Vic’s eyes grew as wide as the moon. “Look at that,” he said, gesturing to the video on Donna’s screen. “Do you have ANY idea how much work that would take? The design work, the manufacturing… I want to do something other than school, lab work and this… I’d like to have a life, y’know?”
Donna and Keiji looked at each other, confused. “Vic, we’ve known you awhile now. You don’t have a life.”
“Okay, harsh but true. But…”
“But what? You love robots; you’ve worked on them a ton with Dr. Morrow so you’ve got the skills. He’s going to be gone most of this semester on his sabbatical, so the lab won’t be busy and you’ll have way more free time. Why not take the once in a lifetime chance to do something as cool as Machine Mayhem? There’s no better robot fighting league in the world!” Donna said.
“Look, there’s clearly more going on here than you’re admitting to. Why are you just recruiting me now? You guys have been on this team for like a year and a half, right? It can’t have just been you two all along.”
Keiji nodded. “Yeah, we have some other people. But they aren’t engineers, they’re handling the finances and whatnot. The team had a lot of people graduate last year, but our lead engineer was still going to be here, then she had to take this season off for family reasons. So we’re scrambling to find anyone we can to fill her shoes. If you don’t do it… I don’t think the team will be able to compete this year. So… please?”
“Ugh… fine. I’ll do it.”
Donna and Keiji were ecstatic, all but literally jumping for joy.
Donna ran over to Vic and gave him a huge hug, which he awkwardly accepted.
“Thanks, Vic. You have no idea how much this means to me. And you won’t regret this, promise. It’ll be a blast!”
Vic smiled, but quietly scoffed. “Yeah, ask me in like a month. We’ll see if I regret it then…”
Like a month later…
Long after every other team had gone home, three people stayed in the student project team’s building. They didn’t dare glance at the corners of their screens to see what time it was; it’d only make the early morning classes they had coming up even more painful.
The three of them were sitting in a modern looking conference room that sat around 20 people, but they had conquered it completely. Scrap paper and the notebooks they came from obscured almost every flat surface in the room while the rolling whiteboards covered in doodles of schematics and snippets of code hovered around the table like a football huddle. Pizza boxes were stacked up to Vic’s waist in a corner, only matched by the large boxes of coffee they had drunk. The room looked less like a conference room and more like a bunker used by some increasingly insane last vestige of humanity that had been locked in there for months. And the three of them looked no better. Each of them hadn’t left this building since they arrived Friday afternoon and none of them had slept a minute, despite them insisting to each other that they had.
But finally, at long last, they were close. Close to finally having a completed initial design.
Vic had been working on the latest set of drawings for the arms on the robot all weekend, trying to find a way to make them physically strong and durable while still keeping their machine under the maximum weight. He tried to shift around parts, swapping materials, cutting down on noncritical features, but nothing worked. There was no trade off he could make that didn’t decimate some other part of the robot.
Then it came to him. He had been trying to keep the entire system heavily armored, but that was a mistake. Few other robots would be able to reach up to their machine’s shoulders, so it would rarely take damage anyway. He could remove some of the armor on the top third and just keep the armor where it'd better protect the machine. It was so simple but after almost 60 hours of work, his thoughts were barely coherent. But they couldn’t stop until they were done.
Vic furiously scribbled, trying to get the idea on the page before it left his mind or it was buried in doubts. But even his coffee and paranoia filled brain couldn’t find a flaw with it.
He tossed down the pen. “It’s done. Check it.”
Vic slid the drawing across the table towards no one in particular. Donna had to stand up and walk over to grab it, then started to scan over it.
“I… I think this is good. Like, really, really good. You’ve made something really special here, Vic.”
Keiji walked over to take a look and nodded. “Yeah, this is crazy stuff. With this, we’ve got a shot at being serious contenders.”
“Don’t say that yet. We’ve got the worst part to go still: actually making this thing. There’re probably like 1000 parts we’re going to have to make. And don’t even say it: I’m not doing it alone. I don’t care who we have to ask, this isn’t a job for one person.”
Keijji frowned. “Guessing it’s not one for three either?”
“No. Hope the Machine Mayhem club still has some budget since we’re going to be buying a lot of food to bribe people to work for us.”
“I’ll check. I think we should be okay… probably.”
“So you know what else we need? A name. Can’t sell people on making a big product with a name,” Keiji said.
“Pretty sure that’s not how that works,” Vic said.
“Actually, I can confirm it is. The title is like the most important thing whenever I’m starting on a project.”
“Yeah, would you work on ‘Untitled Robot Project’? No. Would you work on ‘the Creation of Machine Mike”? Of course,” Keiji taunted.
“We’re not calling the robot ‘Machine Mike’.”
“We could though.”
“We’re not. It needs a big, powerful and intimidating name to fit its body,” Donna said.
They paused for a moment, thinking of what they could name it.
“I’ve got it. His mere presence holds up our world, demanding our attention. Who better to name our robot after than Atlas?” Vic suggested.
“A little forced, but I like it,” Keiji said.
“We can advertise with a slogan like ‘Support the World - Build Atlas!’” Donna said. “Yeah, yeah. This is going to be great.”
Vic grabbed a pile of drawings and started to sort them into piles. One of them was for the rejected ideas, the ones that still had some potential, and the ones they were planning on making. Out of the last one, he grabbed a drawing of the machine’s torso and added a wrestler style belt with an ‘A’ logo for a buckle.
“Perfect. Now all we have to do is… Everything else.”
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It had been a couple weeks since the three of them decided on Atlas’ name and production was proceeding slowly but steadily. There were still more parts to be manufactured than not, but one of the subsystems with the most potential for failure, the arms, had been prioritized in order to start testing. Vic was a good engineer, but no one was good enough to design something like that correctly on the first try. Today was the fourth.
The first arm did nothing, the joints were too heavy and stiff to turn with a reasonable motor. The second revealed that the stress would be distributed primarily along the weak axis of the arm, causing it to crack at the first sign of resistance. The third arm fell victim to an overcorrection: the middle bars now buckled far earlier than expected and prevented the arm from moving after they deformed even the tiniest bit. The fourth? Vic was sure he’d designed a winner.
Vic and Keiji sat behind a clear acrylic barrier, watching the arm with anticipation. It was about five feet long at full extension and had a diameter the size of a dinner plate. It was resting on two small wooden pieces at each end to keep it from rolling off the table. There was only one finished arm, but each one would be 80 pounds of metallic muscle, it just needed to withstand its own power.
The arm was wired up to Keiji’s computer who was deploying one last bit of code before they tested it. They had hoped Donna would be able to be here in case they had some problems with the electronics, but she had another part she needed to work on, so the two of them were on their own.
“And… we’re good.”
Vic held an off brand video game controller in his hands anxiously. “Hit the X button and let’s see this thing move.”
The tension in the air was almost as thick and strong as they hoped their machine would be. His heart raced as he went to press the button, not sure if he had a fifth revision in him, let alone in their material budget.
But he pressed it all the same.
The arm slowly moved, going from its outstretched position into a curl at its elbow. After 30 seconds, it reached its maximum rotation, about 30 degrees from being perfectly folded in on itself.
“Yes! One test down!”
Keiji and Vic slammed their hands together in a thunderous high five.
“Next up are rotations, right?”
“Yeah. Hit ‘Y’ when you’re ready.”
The tension returned to the two men. If the arm passed this, it’d be the most successful one yet.
Vic gently tapped the button and the arm began to rotate slowly about the first axis, then the second and then third.They’d done it.
Keiji and Vic turned to each other for a high five, but Vic pulled him in for a hug instead, which Keiji graciously accepted.
After a few moments, they broke off and Vic said, “So what’s next? Didn’t think it’d make it this far.”
“Neither did I…” Keiji flipped through the seemingly infinite number of windows and tabs on his computer until he found the list of tests. “Ah, strength testing! Nothing major, we’re just going to hook a resistance band to it and a fixed point and make sure it can still move.”
“Gotcha, let me grab one and get it set up…” Vic ran back to the conference room to grab one of his bands from home while Keiji looked on with pride.
‘It’s amazing, really. Who would’ve guessed we could’ve pulled this off? Three juniors in college. Vic’s something else; no one else could even come close to doing this. I’ve got to live up to his work. The code’s been as bug free as you could hope, but is that enough? Not for the work he’s been doing. What could take it to the next level though…’
Keiji’s thoughts started to mull away at that until Vic returned and finished setting up the test.
“Ready?”
“Yeah. Press down the right trigger for this one.”
The anxiety had left the room like a gym after the homecoming dance after the success of the last two tests and Vic excitedly pressed the button.
The arm pulled upwards against the band, easily moving the eight or so inches that Keiji programmed it to as if the band wasn’t even there.
“Okay, call me reckless, but I think the arm’s ready for some real work. It’s doing all this without even breaking a sweat, y’know?”
Keiji grinned. “What’re you thinking?”
“This time, I’m going to try holding it down. We know it’s not going to blow up or anything… probably, so let’s get it into a more realistic scenario.”
“You sure? I don’t think it’s that dangerous, especially for a superhero but… safety standards. We gotta work up to something like that. We’ve done two calibration tests and pulled against an exercise band. Not sure it’s ready for human contact.”
Vic waved him off. “It’ll be fine. Nothing it can do to me that I haven’t taken. Did I ever tell you about my fight with Fyrewyre? Or what about when I fought Psimon in… err, ignore that. Point being, I’ve dealt with worse.”
Keiji raised an eyebrow at the second one, but decided not to push. Whatever reason Vic had for not telling him about that was his own. As for the test… He felt it was a losing battle. Vic was in another one of his stubborn moods.
“Fine. Just be smart, okay? Don’t fight it too hard.There’s no shame in losing to the man who holds up the world.”
Vic laughed. “There is when you’re just talking about an arm that we built. But point taken.”
As Vic sidestepped the acrylic safety shield, Keiji pulled out his phone and typed “91” into the dial pad. It wouldn't be bad to have help just one number away in case something did happen.
“Ready?”
“One sec…”
Keiji leaned over the table and grabbed the controller.
“Okay, on three. Just remember, safety first, okay? One… Two…Three!”
The robot arm sprung to life, trying to curl its forearm inwards. Vic hooked his right arm around it, while his left braced himself on the table. Vic’s muscles flared as sweat rolled down his forehead. He was holding on, but only barely. Then the software decided it needed more power and shifted into low gear. Vic’s eyes widened as he realized that Atlas still had more to give. But so did he.
He shifted his stance, no longer bracing himself on the table and using his left hand to hold the arm back too, relying on his legs to keep him from sliding away. Once again, Vic held. The arm tried to increase power more, doing everything it could to eke out a little bit more power to complete the command. But it had nothing else to give and began to back off to prevent motor burnout. Vic felt the force start to lower and began to relax too.
Suddenly, the arm’s motors ramped back up to full power, while simultaneously rolling itself a couple degrees in either direction. The tactic worked. Vic, not expecting the burst of movement, lost his grip and the arm slammed shut in a completed curl.
Vic took a step back, surprised. “Why’d you tell it to do that?”
Keiji was already pouring through his code and didn’t look up at Vic. “I didn’t. It shouldn’t have been able to do that at all…”
“Well, maybe leave that in there. It’d be a good move during the competition if it ever got grappled.”
“I guess… Still… where’d it know to do that from?”
Vic shrugged. “You’re up to what, like a trillion lines of code at this point? No one can understand anymore.”
“It’s only a couple hundred thousand… But point taken. I’ll have to go over it again before we do more testing.”
“Sounds like a plan. I think the next component to test will be the legs, but compared to the arm, it’ll be a breeze."
Keiji nodded, eager for a simpler task. Vic pulled out his phone and read a message.
"I’ve got to go talk to Matt, they’ve got some questions on one of the drawings they're fabricating. But take some time to relax, yeah? We’ve made great progress.”
“Yeah, yeah. Say hi to them for me,” Keiji said, waiving him off.
Vic headed off deeper into the building, leaving Keiji to his devices.
Keiji continued to scroll through his code, looking for any indication of what could’ve caused what he and Vic just saw it do. But there was nothing. It shouldn’t have even been able to rotate while in that test mode, let alone do it by itself. But yet… it did.
‘Well… whatever’s causing this has to be in here somewhere and I’m guessing I’d find it eventually… But do I want to? We want this robot to be the best it can be, and this is clearly making it better. Maybe I just lean into it. Perilandria was having that same issue with things going off the rails(See Cyborg 48!), never really figured that out either… But it made it smarter, more adaptable… Why not add that logic here too?’
Keiji shrugged and copied some of the code that powered Perilandria’s NPCs over to a new file in the project. Might as well.
He was about to start integrating it into the codebase but he felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning around, he saw Donna standing over him.
“Hey. I wanted the team to meet to discuss the next phase of the project. Meet in the conference room in five.”
“Sounds good, see you there. Just gotta wrap up a couple things first.”
Donna nodded and went off to grab the rest of the team. Keiji quickly skimmed through the code one last time, as if he expected the reason it was acting strangely to just appear out of nowhere. When it didn’t, he opened up yet another window to leave some notes to himself as a reminder of what he was doing. Then, closing his laptop, he headed over to the conference room. Always more work to be done.
<< < >

Hi all, haven't touched a tape machine for nearly 20 years but just got my hands on one of these Otari machines and the pitch dial isn't working. The high/low speed button is, however. Other than switching to Vari speed, is there anything else that needs to happen for the pitch control to work?
Thanks!

I've got 3 WS2812B WS2812 LED Chip 5050 that I'd like to create a small bright light using these 3. I have no schematic with these. I know Vi is 3-5V dc and I can just wire them in series. My only question is the data line, what do I need to supply data for a bright white light? I do not need any control over color or brightness. I just want to simplify this light as much as I can.
Thank you!

I doubt that many of these options would be particularly meta defining, and I'm not a balancing expert, but I just want more parts and variety.
If you can't be bothered to read allat stuff below... yeah fair enough lol.
​
BAWS Parts: "Inspired by the Liberator of Rubicon, BAWS accepted the RLF's request to rapidly develop and produce a new line of AC parts ready for their surge of new recruits."

• LBRT-R-300: KAI - "Handheld AC shield developed by BAWS. Incorporates materials stolen from abandoned Balam facilities to enable defiance of Arquebus."
  • Shield with high resistance to all energy weapons.
• LRBT-R-303: SARUMINO - "Bipedal leg parts built by BAWS with assistance from Elcano. Finds a comfortable balance of weight, armour, and speed by using segmented skirt armour separated from the legs.
  • Basically just another leg option for Gundam builds. Imagine the HAL or Alba leg skirts but they're long enough to reach halfway down the lower leg and go all the way around the sides and back of the waist.
  • Imagine there's a full AC parts set with a similar design philosophy.

Elcano Foundry:

• EL-HL-1: CARRERA: "Lightweight tetrapods legs designed by Elcano. The concept model was inspired by an extinct equestrian mammal once native to the Rubicon system, and the final design used schematics leaked from Allmind's servers by an anonymous corporate whistle blower"
  • Horse leg tetrapods. It'd probably be hard to design and animate these because horses are slimmer, taller, and longer than the standard tetrapod leg model used in the game, but I can dream.
  • Sort of the bridge between bipeds and tetrapods. Lowest stability and defences in their leg category, but also the fastest and lightest.
  • Since Allmind also has legs based around animals (the Mind Beta reverse joints) I thought it'd be cool if these legs were linked to those. The whistle blower is>! V.III O'Keefe!<.

​
Melinite: "Following Balam's defeat in the corporate war, Melinite has attempted to fill the power vacuum and consumer demand for their sturdier parts."

• HAYMAKER - "Heavyweight AC arms painstakingly designed by Melinite. Utilises special elbow thrusters to deliver explosive forward melee thrust, as well as thick armoured plating inspired by Dafeng products.
  • Balance-wise I'm thinking these would have the second highest melee specialisation right behind the Basho arms with better overall defences, and a higher EN load and weight. The elbow thrusters also give these arms great recoil mitigation.
  • Pretend these have a matching set too. Some legs with extra thrusters designed for kicks or something.
• LAKEMAN - "An unusual departure from Melinite's standard explosive weaponry. Designed as an alternative product to those who favour Balam's kinetic shotguns, the Lakeman features an eight-round magazine and semi-automatic firing mode".
  • A semi-auto shotgun for trigger happy folks. Think Saiga-12 or Street Sweeper. It has the lowest damage of all the shotguns, but a rapid fire rate. Is also heavier than the Zimmerman, not sure by how much but enough that you'd think twice before slapping two on a lightweight.
  • It performs more similarly to the Coquillets or Ducketts than the other shotguns. May actually underperform compared to them.
• GUNGNIR - A perfect blend of Melinite's trademark explosive specialisation and Balam's mantra of "domination through material superiority". This triple-barreled gatling gun fires small airburst shells and is designed to combat aerial targets at medium range."
  • Compared to the Hu-Ben, this has worse EN load, ammo capacity, fire rate, heat build-up and cooling, but better spin-up, weight, and range. Damage is roughly the same, but applied differently. The usual limitations of kinetic weapons at long range is circumvented by explosive rounds.
  • Nerf stagger before adding this.

​
VCPL:

• Vvc-710VPM - "Vertical plasma missile launcher developed by VCPL. Overhead plasma explosions help to circumvent cover or similar defences. The staggered launch sequences enables heavy pressure tactics."
  • Ten-cell vertical plasma missile launcher.
  • Very slow fire rate for a missile launcher. With a single trigger pull, it fires two plasma missiles at once roughly every second.
  • Less guidance than the other plasma missiles.
• Vvc-77FL - "Plasma flare launcher designed by VCPL as a direct countermeasure to their biggest competitor in missile development, Furlong Dynamics. Short range projectiles with no lock-on and high temperature plasma burners interferes with FCS' missile lock correction and redirects incoming guided munitions.
  • Back-mounted unit. Individual launcher fires seven flares, two to right, two to the left, one directly above, and another two sort of behind and to the right/left. Longer reload time than the plasma missiles.
  • Can be countered by staggering missile launch.

​
RaD:

• HB-5050 HANABI - "An unfinished, fully-automatic flare launcher partially designed by "Honest" Brute and discovered after his death. "Cinder" Carla finished making the launcher, marking their final joint project together since Brute's betrayal. Countering the AC, "FULL COURSE" was Brute's design philosophy here."
  • Unlike the 77FL which fires one volley with a single tap, the RaD flare launcher is operated more like the gatling gun or flamethrower, giving the user more control and sustained flare support.
  • Slight delay between pulling the trigger and the flares launching, unlike the 77FL flares which are instant.
  • Flares fire directly up and slightly forward. Missiles with weird trajectories like the pincer missiles may have an easier time getting around these flares.
  • Think of the Hanabi as being similar to the Pulse Shields and the 77FL as the Coral Shield.
  • You probably won't need two of these but it'd be pretty funny to see a Soup+Aperitif boat in the pre-match screen and then show up with one hundred flares.
• GC-0800 VAULTER - "Back-mounted cable launcher for construction and maintenance in the grid. Allows even the heaviest of ACs to easily traverse vertically with minimal EN costs."
  • F-tier back unit. It a grappling hook. Same function as the Gridwalker but you're slightly faster and use significantly less EN (boosters only assist vertical movement slightly) in exchange for usage limitation based on terrain, a set travel path, and a weapon cooldown. Travel speed is affected by weight.
  • Okay so the vertical travelling is cool but the main purpose of this weapon is obviously to PULL ENEMY ACS INTO MELEE RANGE
  • PILE BUNKERR
  • Maybe if an enemy AC is significantly heavier than yours, the grappling hook snaps/disconnects and the hook is forced into overheat?
  • Enemy can also escape being tethered by having a certain amount of AB thrust and flying in roughly the opposite direction.
• CS-0777 MINTS - "Repair drones initially built from a scavenged VCPL laser drone launcher, and refined further by "Chatty" Stick. The small drones dispense nanobots to repair grid components too difficult for large ACs or fragile humans to reach, however they can also be used to support allies in combat.
  • Closely follows allies and dispenses healing nanobots in bursts slower than the fire rate of the laser drones. You can improve their performance using the repair OS tuning, but the total healing will still be worse than repair kits. I haven't thought about the exact numbers but I have a feeling these need to be weak so that healing doesn't become a major thing in PvP.
  • Mints can be charged to launch drones with more potent healing, but a lower active time.
  • In PvE you can use these to repair structures such as the RLF helicopter, RaD missiles, or the Xylem Control Tower.
• IR-MS ENERGY DRINK - Energy generator developed solely by... "Invincible" Rummy. Uses a strange concoction of chemicals not usually used for fuel to produce a surprisingly effective fuel source."
  • Rummy got high and put Mountain Dew and Monster and some rations in a San-Tai and somehow got green flames.
  • I wanted a generator with green flames. Balance matters not. This would probably be one of the worst generators and I'd still slap it on one of my builds.

​
Arquebus: "Following the discovery of Institute City, ADD was fast to begin analysing Rubicon's lost technology"

• VP-70RLH - "A fully-automatic variant of the Laser Handguns developed by Arquebus. Designed to accommodate a request from Schneider for an weapon option for evasive lightweight ACs which maximises damage output.
  • Imagining these to be this game's equivalent of an Uzi or Glock-18. Slightly less damage and stagger than the standard LHs with way worse heat build-up, accuracy, range, and EN load... but they go BRRRRT.
  • High burst damage, but still not as instantaneous as single-shot weapons.
  • I'm imagining these being worse than the LHs overall
  • I'd still use them.
• VP-90LMG - "Laser Machine Gun built by Arquebus. Based on weapons seized from PCA armouries and rebuilt for use by ACs."
  • Basically the PCA Ekdromoi Tommy Gun's.
• VE-CCC-03 - "Experimental hybrid generator developed by Arquebus ADD. Combines the circulating current technology of previous Arquebus generators with Institute coral tech to achieve a balance between EN output and capacity."
  • I didn't think about how this would perform stats-wise. I just want a generator which gives me purple flames and Core Expansions.
  • Let's say that the purple Assault Armour is affected by your enemy's energy mitigation unlike the Coral AA.
• VE-C04A - SHOOTING STAR: "Laser gatling gun developed by Arquebus ADD. Previous attempts at a laser gatling gun were ineffective due to the massive energy load, however this was circumvented by supplying the device with a mini Coral generator independent from the AC. Cooling devices must be replaced frequently for sustained use."
  • The Shooting Star has an independent energy source similarly to the energy-based melee weapons and plasma missiles. This means it isn't affected by the EN weapon specialisation.
  • Functions just about the same as the gatling gun, but you instead of an ammo counter you have a counter for cooling devices which you replace every time the Shooting Star overheats.
  • Slightly higher DPS than the gatling but with significantly less stagger and way more heat build-up.
• VE-C04B: METEOR - "The magnum opus of Arquebus ADD. Inspired by linear rifles seized from Balam-owned manufacturing and storage facilities as well as V.IV Rusty's description of RaD's Overed Rail Cannon, the Coral Railgun manipulates Coral swarm intelligence using circulating current energy to accelerate and propel a physical projectile. Charge to eliminate targets far outside of their effective range."
  • A true long range weapon. The base fire function is similar to the Curtis or Harris. It's better, but not worth the extreme weight and EN load. The charged shot on the other hand is devastating. It has enough recoil that you use your boosters and a little bit of EN to mitigate it, and even tetrapods and tanks are halted whilst firing. It's impossible to hold with Nachtreiher legs, but if you tried you'd stagger yourself (Okay don't take that part seriously).
  • Highest bullet velocity in the game.
  • Damage and impact? Yes?? hard to balance so idk.
  • Has similar ranges to missiles.
  • Somehow has a built in zoom feature ??
  • It's probably better used with manual aim than FCS lock on.
  • When it charges it sounds like Godzilla charging atomic breath or something
  • Like the Karasawa, you have to build around the Meteor.
  • You physically cannot equip two of these.
  • Probably unbalanced as fuck, but I'm at the peak of rule of cool brainstorming right now.

​
Core Expansions:

• Ghost Drive - "Temporarily turns the AC invisible, even whilst firing your weapons. Assault Boosting, receiving damage, being scanned, or exceeding the time limit with reveal the user."
  • Ghost Mechs from PvE, minus the teleporting.
    • Shit I forgot to add the laser whips to this list but my brain is fried
  • If you use this whilst being targeted, your opponent's lock will persist for one second after activation, or 1.3 seconds with hard lock.
• Coral Surge - "Supercharges the AC's generator with Coral to achieve unlimited energy until it exceeds the time limit. Generator is burnt out afterwards".
  • Think of the EN anomaly during Karman Line mission but only for like... I dunno five-ten seconds? If it's ten I can picture this being way too strong with Alula boosters.
  • After the duration ends your EN bar is instantly sent into redline.
  • Should nerf AB kicks before adding this.
• Pulse Trap - "A modified version of Pulse Protection which greatly improves the barrier's size, strength, and duration. In exchange no AC, not the user, allies nor enemies, will be able to enter or leave without destroying the barrier first.
  • Ryoiki Tenkai.
  • Only a chad running four bubble guns will be able to immediately break this thing.
  • High risk, high reward in team battles.
  • Imagine using this on an opponent and then losing the 1v1.
  • Overall, it's a meme tier expansion.

Balam:

• Sorry you get no parts y'all got mid diffed by everyone and then got booted from the story :(

Hi everyone, Hoping I can find some Otari gurus here or at least someone who can advise on this. The brake on my supply reel stopped actuating consistently this morning (and took a chunk out of a new reel of ATR mastering tape). I replicated the problem without tape on the machine and determined that the solenoid on the supply reel's brake was getting stuck in the downward (electronically actuated) position. To be clear, it was stuck mechanically not electronically. Short version: I took apart the solenoid and saw nothing at all that would cause this problem. Also, the solenoid was bone dry. Not dry lube, but never lubed dry. So I am assuming it was never a lubricated part? Because there was nothing in the reservoir, I'm unsure about lubricating it. Does anyone know if this part should be lubricated or if there's some other problem I'm missing? I would obviously use a thin (sewing machine) oil rather than grease to prevent the solenoid from sticking due to grease. Truly appreciate any help at all with this! Obviously a particularly annoying problem because it can destroy a reel of tape very easily even if it only happens 1 out of 100 times.

Boeing 747-400M KLM lighting diorama
Hello everyone. I would love to ask this community for some help designing pcb designs for a diorama project i am currently working on. I would like to create 4 different circuit board designs, that can be printed by jlc pcb. I know which modes and functions I want to create, but have no knowledge of pcb design what so ever.
I would like to create one pcb, as small as possible with smd components, that will be placed inside the plane itself. This will controll all the lighting effect in and on the plane (see excel table). I would like each stage of the flight to be represented by a lighting mode, which can be change by pressing a button. The lights I'm aiming to use are smd leds ranging from 0402 to 1206 smd's. I also already have a variety of smd resistors that can be connected to the leds depending on the needed specifications.
Connected to this board, I would like to use a battery charger and protection board, such as shown in this video https://youtu.be/7AFbrKi0t_4. I want to use this because I would like the model to be able to be displayed using battery power for 1 hour minimum. Due to the space avaliable, I was thinking a 3.7v lipo battery can be used here.
The second custom pcb would be used to display which flight mode the model is in by using 3528, 5050, or 5730 size smd leds(could also be other bigger sizes). This board will be installed on the base of the diorama. It would also use two rotational switches which would controll one group of 4 micro dc motors for the engines and one group of 5 micro dc motors for the controlling of the landing gear position. If possible I would also like to have a toggle switch with cover to turn the model on and off (something like this https://www.sparkfun.com/products/retired/11313)
The third pcb would allow me to add a charging cable (preferably USB c) to the diorama, providing pcb #2 of power. It would also provide pcb #1 with a cable to charge the battery inside the model. If possible I would like this to be a magnetic pogo pin connection, but if this would not be possible, than a as small as possible connection between pcb #3 and the charging board inside the model.
Finally I would like to create a very small pcb, seperate of this all, for inside the ground vehicles around the airplane. The will have headlights, taillights, solid (orange) lights and a strobe light (flashing light). I would like to power this with a 3.7v button cell battery. The flashing light would have 3 modes; off, pulsing in and out (as if you see it rotate), and a fast flashing mode such as on police cars or tow trucks.
I would appreciate it very much if someone could help me out with the schematics needed for ordering on jlc pcb. I would be open to suggestions or improvements of my idea/process. More detail about what I'm talking about can be found in the links below. Thank you for your time!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/p65gopwl7fr3niz/Boeing%20747%20400%20electrical%20plan_221026_015516.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qeu6zr168xjap6e/klm%20747%20400m%20lighting%20convig..xlsx?dl=0

Boeing 747-400M KLM lighting diorama
Hello everyone. I would love to ask this community for some help designing pcb designs for a diorama project i am currently working on. I would like to create 4 different circuit board designs, that can be printed by jlc pcb. I know which modes and functions I want to create, but have no knowledge of pcb design what so ever.
I would like to create one pcb, as small as possible with smd components, that will be placed inside the plane itself. This will controll all the lighting effect in and on the plane (see excel table). I would like each stage of the flight to be represented by a lighting mode, which can be change by pressing a button. The lights I'm aiming to use are smd leds ranging from 0402 to 1206 smd's. I also already have a variety of smd resistors that can be connected to the leds depending on the needed specifications.
Connected to this board, I would like to use a battery charger and protection board, such as shown in this video https://youtu.be/7AFbrKi0t_4. I want to use this because I would like the model to be able to be displayed using battery power for 1 hour minimum. Due to the space avaliable, I was thinking a 3.7v lipo battery can be used here.
The second custom pcb would be used to display which flight mode the model is in by using 3528, 5050, or 5730 size smd leds(could also be other bigger sizes). This board will be installed on the base of the diorama. It would also use two rotational switches which would controll one group of 4 micro dc motors for the engines and one group of 5 micro dc motors for the controlling of the landing gear position. If possible I would also like to have a toggle switch with cover to turn the model on and off (something like this https://www.sparkfun.com/products/retired/11313)
The third pcb would allow me to add a charging cable (preferably USB c) to the diorama, providing pcb #2 of power. It would also provide pcb #1 with a cable to charge the battery inside the model. If possible I would like this to be a magnetic pogo pin connection, but if this would not be possible, than a as small as possible connection between pcb #3 and the charging board inside the model.
Finally I would like to create a very small pcb, seperate of this all, for inside the ground vehicles around the airplane. The will have headlights, taillights, solid (orange) lights and a strobe light (flashing light). I would like to power this with a 3.7v button cell battery. The flashing light would have 3 modes; off, pulsing in and out (as if you see it rotate), and a fast flashing mode such as on police cars or tow trucks.
I would appreciate it very much if someone could help me out by providing me with the schematics needed for ordering on jlc pcb. I would be open to suggestions or improvements of my idea. I would also be willing to pay the person for this design if wanted. The design is on a bit of a time crunch, so it would be amazing if this could be made before the end of this week.
More detail about what I'm talking about can be found in the links below. Please send me a direct message if you are willing to help me out. Thank you for your time!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/p65gopwl7fr3niz/Boeing%20747%20400%20electrical%20plan_221026_015516.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qeu6zr168xjap6e/klm%20747%20400m%20lighting%20convig..xlsx?dl=0

Boeing 747-400M KLM lighting diorama
Hello everyone. I would love to ask this community for some help designing pcb designs for a diorama project i am currently working on. I would like to create 4 different circuit board designs, that can be printed by jlc pcb. I know which modes and functions I want to create, but have no knowledge of pcb design what so ever.
I would like to create one pcb, as small as possible with smd components, that will be placed inside the plane itself. This will controll all the lighting effect in and on the plane (see excel table). I would like each stage of the flight to be represented by a lighting mode, which can be change by pressing a button. The lights I'm aiming to use are smd leds ranging from 0402 to 1206 smd's. I also already have a variety of smd resistors that can be connected to the leds depending on the needed specifications.
Connected to this board, I would like to use a battery charger and protection board, such as shown in this video https://youtu.be/7AFbrKi0t_4. I want to use this because I would like the model to be able to be displayed using battery power for 1 hour minimum. Due to the space avaliable, I was thinking a 3.7v lipo battery can be used here.
The second custom pcb would be used to display which flight mode the model is in by using 3528, 5050, or 5730 size smd leds(could also be other bigger sizes). This board will be installed on the base of the diorama. It would also use two rotational switches which would controll one group of 4 micro dc motors for the engines and one group of 5 micro dc motors for the controlling of the landing gear position. If possible I would also like to have a toggle switch with cover to turn the model on and off (something like this https://www.sparkfun.com/products/retired/11313)
The third pcb would allow me to add a charging cable (preferably USB c) to the diorama, providing pcb #2 of power. It would also provide pcb #1 with a cable to charge the battery inside the model. If possible I would like this to be a magnetic pogo pin connection, but if this would not be possible, than a as small as possible connection between pcb #3 and the charging board inside the model.
Finally I would like to create a very small pcb, seperate of this all, for inside the ground vehicles around the airplane. The will have headlights, taillights, solid (orange) lights and a strobe light (flashing light). I would like to power this with a 3.7v button cell battery. The flashing light would have 3 modes; off, pulsing in and out (as if you see it rotate), and a fast flashing mode such as on police cars or tow trucks.
I would appreciate it very much if someone could help me out by providing me with the schematics needed for ordering on jlc pcb. I would be open to suggestions or improvements of my idea. I would also be willing to pay the person for this design if wanted. The design is on a bit of a time crunch, so it would be amazing if this could be made before the end of this week.
More detail about what I'm talking about can be found in the links below. Please send me a direct message if you are willing to help me out. Thank you for your time!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/p65gopwl7fr3niz/Boeing%20747%20400%20electrical%20plan_221026_015516.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qeu6zr168xjap6e/klm%20747%20400m%20lighting%20convig..xlsx?dl=0

Hello,
I'm looking for some advice on two PCBs that I've designed. Any help is greatly appreciated.
These are intended to be used, interconnected in a single USB joystick device. The only reason they aren't combined into a single PCB is for assembly purposes. The layout of many of the components (push buttons, rotary switches, LEDs) are driven by the design of the joystick, rather than for efficient trace routing, so the result is a little bit of a mess, but I think should be OK (I hope).
A few things to note:

• Both PCBs are 4 layers - internal layers are power (external +5V from power supply) and GND; +5V from USB is run separately via individual traces on the front and back copper layers
• Trace and via details are:
  • 0.254 mm for signal
  • 0.508 mm for +5V and GND from USB
  • 1 mm for +5V external and GND for the short traces before the vias connecting to the planes
  • Via size is 0.6096 mm with 0.3048 mm hole for everything
• USB traces are 90 ohm controlled impedance - planning on using JLC3313 stackup with 0.20574 mm trace width and 0.127 mm gap
• Everything is controlled by a single Atmega32u4-M (seems to be easier to find compared to the -A) and it's powered by the +5V from USB (isolated from the +5V external supply powering the LEDs)
• External power and USB comes into the joystick via a separate connector (off PCB) and enters PCB1 via the JST VH (power) and JST PH (USB) connectors, respectively
• USB SL2.1a hub - for the 32u4 and a Vocore 4.3" screen (connected via JST PH)
• 82 WS2812B 5050 LEDs - driven by external +5V power supply, connected via JST VH connectors
• 4 rotary switches on PCB (more connected via JST PH connectors) - connected as resistor ladders
• 10 push button switches on PCB (more connected via JST PH connectors) - connected using shift registers (74hc165)
• There are a few headers on the top right of PCB1 which I put in to access some of the otherwise unused pins on the 32u4. They aren't connected at the moment, so just ignore them.
• Planning to use an SMT service from most of the assembly - only the rotary switches, push buttons switches, and connectors will be hand soldered

The Google Drive link below has PDFs with the schematics and layer views for each PCB as well as images of the front and back of each in 3D.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1T7jOT8j7E5piGdw5zgGv562l-1nR8SyK?usp=sharing
This is my first PCB design that wasn't just a simple breakout board for an Arduino. First time with an onboard controller, controlled impedance, planes, filled zones, 4 layer board, etc. This is also my first time using KiCAD (was using EasyEDA previously). And finally, I don't have much of an electronics background - just a few classes at university and from my own "fun" projects. So all of that to say, I have probably made some silly mistakes here and there, so please bare with me.

Hey everyone. I recently came upon a bounty of tape machines and of course want ALL OF THEM, but can only buy one at a time. I'm down to either an Otari MX-5050 BII2 or a Tascam 32. Both will be fully refurbed once I pull the trigger.
Here's the thing, I know Otari machines really well and like them. I used them for something like 20 years in a few studios I worked in (both to multitrack and mix). In fact it was the machine I had my heart set on, but the folks I'm talking to said that they have some Tascam 32's on hand that are, in their words, essentially dead mint. Oh and they are anywhere from $1k to $2k cheaper than the Otari's I'm looking at.
My goal is to improve over the existing 2 track machines I have for mixing down to. I want higher fidelity and the nice low-end coupled with the pleasing things that happen to high frequencies. My existing machines are Uher Report machines and a nice Sony TC-377.
I don't know anything about the sound of the Tascam's. All I know is that they don't have balanced connections because they were aimed at the "Prosumer" market. But that said, we all know some prosumer stuff can sound killer regardless. I also don't know anything else remarkable about these machines. Do they have a nice sweet spot when pushed?
Any words of praise or caution for these machines in particular?
I'd welcome thoughts on the Otari as well, but def need more thoughts on the Tascam.

Hello all, I’ve built up quite the analog studio in the past couple years and i think it’s time I found a good tape machine. Prior to this i’ve been recording onto 8 track and cassette, but i’d really like some fidelity to go along with the esoteric warmth that comes with physically recording onto tape.
I think i’ve pretty much settled on an Otari MX-5050 2 Track Recorder. Any other 2 track recorders that you’d recommend within that price range (2k-4k)?

I am using a blackpill microcontroller to run some LEDs, and don't want to burn anything out. Im powering a 8x8 grid of 5050 LEDs at full draw they pull around 15watts. Thats within USB-C spec, and the charger can support it. But is there any danger is pulling it off the 5v pin of the microcontroller? Based on the schematic the 5v pin connects directly to USB-C Connector, but I have no clue how wide the trace is on the board. If I run them at 100% am I gonna start a fire or should everything be fine?

Today I picked up an otari mx 5050 mkiii-8 that I purchased via an online auction. Very little details were given in the description and I was able to get it for a very low price.
This machine hasn’t been used, still in its original box and everything.
I work 90% in the box but have been interested in tape since before school. We were taught a bit about tape there but very little (how to thread, clean heads). I’d really like to get into it however I’m feeling like it may be better to sell because of the unusual condition it is in.
Any thoughts?
I work mostly with bands and singer songwriters, producing tracking and mixing. I’ve been lucky to be able to do this as a full time gig. Thanks all!