#actual device now <3 but when i pull out one of the calibration pieces the GROUND PIN FALLS OFF??

[pallases]

why am i abt to run this calibration a Third time

[rje]

Building Project North Star: Day 1

What's North Star?

If you've never seen it before, North Star is an augmented reality headset originally designed by the folks at Leap Motion. Here's a short video of it in action:

Awesome, right? I've always wanted to build one, and now that the folks over at Smart Prototyping offer a kit I finally decided to give it a try. I ordered version 'A' of the kit, which includes all of the electrical and mechanical components, but leaves you to print the plastic pieces yourself.

(Also - Special thanks to Noah Zerkin for being a driving force behind these kits existing! I wouldn't be building a North Star without you making the parts so easy to come by)

Actually - Days -2 to 0...

So, for the last few days I've been 3d printing parts. A lot of parts. I suspect it'll be roughly 40 hours of printing to make all the parts, spread over 4 days. For the most part the printing has been pretty straightforward, although in retrospect I could have found better orientations for some of the pieces to cut down on the necessary support structures. There's been a lot of non-ideal cleaning.

Ok now really Day 1

Today I had enough parts to actually start assembling the headset and made pretty good progress! Here's a list of all the things that I did today, and I'll talk a bit about each in more detail below:

Placed all heat set inserts

Assembled the electronics tray and mounted the driver board

Attached the electronics tray to the optics assembly

Prepared the displays

Attached the displays to trays and mounted in the optics assembly

Connected the displays to the driver board and did an initial test

Mounted the Leap Motion Controller on the optics assembly

Added the structure core mount to the optics assembly

Built the slide mounts and attached them to the optics assembly

For instructions I'm not really following any particular guide, but rather looking at the v3 assembly drawing on github https://github.com/leapmotion/ProjectNorthStar/blob/master/Mechanical/Assm%20Drawing%20North%20Star%20Release%203.pdf.

Heat Set Inserts

This was one of two parts that were anxiety inducing, simply because I had never used them before and I was worried about screwing something up. Happily though these turned out to be fairly easy to use. I used a small vise to hold the parts that I was adding the inserts to, and then used a soldering iron to get them up to temperature while pushing the inserts into place.

For pieces where the hole for the insert went all the way through the plastic, I used a small piece of wood as a 'backstop' to prevent myself from pushing too far, which seemed to work well. The only other thing I did was use a small pair of needle nose pliers to hold the piece in place while removing the soldering iron, just in case it got stuck and tried to pull back out. I don't think I actually had that happen at all though.

Electronics Tray Assembly

This was pretty straight forward, it's just two plastic parts held together with a pair of screws. The driver board is then mounted with another 3 screws and you're done! Was nice to have an 'easy' piece to get started with.

Display Preparation

This was the most anxiety inducing step of the entire build so far, because it required peeling the display ribbon cables off the back of the displays so I can route them to the correct location on the driver board. It ended up going smoothly, I just very carefully peeled a small bit at a time, and eventually got to the point where I was pulling the cable and adhesive from the back of the display, instead of the cable from the adhesive.

Mounting Displays

Now that the displays were prepared, I mounted each of them to a display tray. There are two types of trays - one angled for 75cm focus, and one angled for 25cm. Since I'm most interested in working with stuff close up I opted for the 25cm trays. I placed the heat set inserts in, and then slid a display into each of the 25cm trays. I then carefully mounted each display tray to the optics assembly, making sure that the ribbon cables were roughly where they needed to be. It took a few attempts to find a good setup where I felt like the ribbon cables wouldn't get crushed, but eventually I got it sorted.

Display Test

With the displays in and the driver board in ... I had to see if it'd all light up. So I connected the ribbon cables to the driver board as well as USB power and the mini DP cable for a signal and wired it all up to my PC. And sure enough, we have video! Probably the highlight of Day 1.

Routing the cables is going to be a major challenge, when it's all done I'll have 3x USB cables and 1x DP cables coming off the front of the headset, but that will have to wait until we're closer to completion.

Mounting the Leap Motion

This was literally dropping the Leap Motion into a predefined hole on the optics assembly. Done! I decided to use the shorter included USB cable, assuming I'll need to run a 3m extension off the back like I am for all the other parts of the setup.

The provided cable is a pretty snug fit, so I might have to shave things down a bit, or see if I can find an alternate cable to use to route through the headset.

Structure Core Mount

The Structure Core will go above the Leap Motion, and provide world localization (and meshing)? There's another mount that can use a pair of Intel Realsense cameras for the same effect, but it's nice that the Core manages it all in a single device.

The mounting for this was just 4 screws into the optics assembly. Note that you don't need the standard halo piece if you're using the alternate mount! It takes a good while to print so skip it if you know you aren't using it.

(You can see the SC mount in the previous image above the Leap Motion controller)

Building Slide Mounts

The Smart Prototyping kit came with pre-tapped aluminum pieces, so this was just screwing a few parts together, and then attaching them to the optics assembly. I don't know if it was worth attaching these now, but if nothing else they're useful as a kickstand right now.

What's Next?

That was a busy day 1! If the parts are ready tomorrow I'll try to build the headgear assembly that makes the device wearable. If I can get that all put together that will be the vast bulk of the construction phase of this project. I also still need to print out the calibration stand parts and get it ready for device calibration once construction is complete. But that'll happen after all the headgear pieces are finished.

[antiquesounds]

What I learned when I stumbled upon some amazing history of Concert A440 and the  Treaty of Versailles.

How did I get here?

I had an amazing journey I wanted to share if only because it showed me why I live to learn and discover and uncover -- just for the fun and inspiration. I will die if I lose the curiosity that allows this sort of adventure. It took me weeks to share this, but I just wanted to because it was so much fun to learn this. I could have gone to Wikipedia and gotten a partial summation of this information, but as usual, if you look yourself, you get a whole bunch more context and in this case can see there is much more about the topic than just ‘the answer’.

Several weeks ago, I watched a You Tube video produced great educator and who goes by the handle of 12Tone. I love music history and theory videos. His friendly videos are usually really interesting.  The topic of this video was right up my alley and exposed me to what I eventually discovered is a partial myth that seems to continue to be perpetuated, But it seems not to finish the story. What’s even more amazing is what I learned after the initial digging. I ended up learning all sorts of new things about imperialist politics, poison, antique automobiles, and more. I will post on these discoveries later. But this first post is about The Treaty of Versailles and its relation to Diapason Normal.

Diapason Normal

It started with this video https://youtu.be/BzznBt8tVnI from 12Tone. In the video he describes how the diapason normal was placed into the Treaty of Versaille (ratified 1919) which amazed him and certainly raised my scepticism. 

As a very short background as to what Diapason normal is, you can watch the video or I will summarize it very simply here. When groups of instruments are about to play together there needs to be some way for the musicians to establish agreed pitch. If I was singing and you came along and started to sing with me without listening or trying to match the same note pitches, it would sound awful. This is what they call tone-deaf singing (which usually also accompanies relative tone deafness, too).  So when a group gets together, the instruments set a pitch synchronicity. Usually this pitch is based upon a single note shared and adjusted to match that baseline to with all other notes will be played (relative to that note). Picture the pitch pipe being pulled out just before singers are going to sing together. 

When you think about it, that single pitch (note) that is used to synchronize  everyone can be anything, The perfect analogy is that it is like when folks synchronize watches. It almost doesn't matter what the first watch is as long as all the watches synchronize to it.  Diapason normal was/is an attempt to formally standardize what ALL musicians will use as the baseline. Think of it like Greenwich Mean time based upon Big Ben (not really, though) or U.S. clocks standardizing on the Colorado atomic clock. We all use a reference clock to synchronize time. Diapason normal standard for musical tuning would be like the atomic clock standard for time.  

The Treaty

If you followed the 12Tone video and/or if you do any rudimentary search on Diapason Normal (or even just ‘A 400 why?’) you quickly get to the point where everyone say the answer is in the Treaty of Versaille. Even I knew what the Treaty of Versaille is. But like most folks, I assumed it was simply the WWI armistice treaty and that it represented war ending types of things like who gets what, who concedes what, etc. 

I started my quest to actually SEE the reference of D.N. in the Treaty of Versaille, Yes, in fact there is a reference to diapason normal in the treaty. But, the most interesting fact is that it is not directly there. Almost all of the simple Googly research keeps just saying the it’s in the treaty. All common references do actually specifically refer to Section 2-  Article 282 (22) which does in fact directly mention the establishment of concert pitch. 

and later down the line (22)...

And, since common use in my lifetime means that this is A400 (as all my piano tuning forks attest) is the definition so defined in this proclamation, This is where everything I saw on the subject leaves this. 

But, if you are interested in the actual problem being addressed by this little sentence and if you understand that that half of the standards battle was about WHAT the value would be for diapason normal, you’d not be satisfied that this was what was meant in this sentence. “...establishment of a concert pitch” would definitely mean A440 as many folks presume online today. Or it could mean something else like A335, A445, or any value, actually.   

Here is where the fun really began. If you look above at the text in the treaty, there are a whole bunch of other things that jump out at you; even more so if you actually skim through most of the text of the treaty (170 plus pages) PRIOR to getting to this point where an odd, tangential reference is made to a musical standard in the middle of a war treaty. Think about how funny that sounds. It turns out that section II, Article 282 is far more interesting to me than all of the rest of the treaty. As expected, the rest of the treaty is about who gets what land, and how reparations will be made, etc. But this one article has a whole bunch of stuff in it that seems totally strange. I will come back to this later. It was half of the fun; but later. 

In that sentence is refers to another document. It references the “Convention of November 16 and 19, 1885...″ This is actually where the concert pitch is defined. It is NOT in the Treaty of Versaille. 

So to look into this take a bit more foot(finger)work. It is not intuitively obvious what this convention is until you poke around in the musical history.  As many have written and as is in the 12Tone video, the argument over common concert pitch has been going on for centuries. In fact, it links into the scientific megatrend of the mid-19th century. If you follow greater history, there are times of great public interest in science and discovery. In the mid 19th century on the toes and heals of the industrial revolution there was a lot of investment and interest in standardization and mechanisms to control and measure “things” using science. Lot of stuff was being given formal standard measurement tools like weights going from a common stone to being an actual piece of man-made metal with temperature and density requirements for the manufacture of weighing devices and for many other things like length. In fact, there is reference to this in the treaty, too (See #20). In the mid 1800′s there was work done to create a tool and standard to make music (tonation) standardize. In my opinion, this was following a lot of the social trends of that era. I am not a historian, but in seeing some of similar references from a common timeframe, it seems likely that in 1880′s scientific calibration and standardization was popular. Furthermore,  the Industrial Revolution relied upon cooperative standards even if there were often conflicting ones. It is still an issue today with competing and evolving standard for many common and uncommon things.

I finally found the document, in Italian. It is called the  Triattati e Convenzioni tra il Regno D’Italia e Gli Altri Stati. 

  And then you have to skip down to November, 1885...

There is it! I didn’t even need to translate (yet). It shows reference to diapason unico with these other countries! Is that ever interesting. I researched this document and work that looks like it was ongoing for a long time in in the 1880′s.  I suspect I could have enjoyed several days of just looking into that whole document and its context. But I was at this time on a mission.  What it is that this convention approved? I needed to keep digging. 

And on page 727, here it is! 

I still didn’t need a translate except for the monito secondo where I have to assume the vernacular is half second. [Side note: for several minutes I was freaking out because I thought it said “minute second” and didn’t know what that meant. It clearly says, “minuto” - as-in small (I assume to mean half-second).]

But wait? 870/2=435. 435 Hz is NOT 440Hz. So now officially, The Treaty of Versailles DOES NOT say that diapason normal is 440, it explicitly says that the value is 435 Hz. This was good news in that I got to the basis of the Internet claims that the treaty defined the standard, but the value proclaimed in the Treaty of Versailles is 435 Hz which, frankly maps better to what my little knowledge of what Europe wanted and used in the early part of the century.

The huge issue now was, why does (nearly) everyone in Western music use A440 and not A435?  The research had to continue. 

Before I go there, it is also fascinating to read the footnotes for the above. Basically in 1885, the scientists devised a formal way to make sure that a simple “tuning metal” would be used. This required semi-tight standards for manufacture of the metal and for temperature control of the standard measuring device.  This comes back to hit us on the head -- almost literally -- in a minute. 

If you break this down, you get a detailed description of who and how you get to the the device that perfectly creates a now-standardized 435 Hz pitch. It describes how the metal is made and what temperature it must be in order to produce exactly 435 Hz frequency ‘ringing’.

At this point I decided I was now waste deep in my research. But I am only half done. The standard so far is NOT 440 Hz!   So all of these references to the treaty are just the starting point. As of 1919, Diapason Normal is locked-in for the world at 435 Hz.  How did we get to 440 Hz as today’s norm? 

I did the work, and sort-of know why how 440 happened. It isn’t as simple as Wikipedia says, either. I just looked at Wiki-p and it has some of the details. I will write up the next phase in my next post. It involves a lot more than just a standards body decision. Teaser: There are some U.S. national security interest involved. Yes, seriously.    

[a-table-of-fics]

Cull to Adventure, Chapter 9, Draft 1

Marie brought a third fan, pointing it at the couch she had laid Agent 4 on. He was already getting some consistency back, but she wanted to make sure. She wasn’t worried about any mess on the couch, as the ink would soon evaporate anyway. She set it to “low,” like the others, then turned to pet the Zapfish who was powering all three. She was there for a few moments before going walking over and getting another Lamprede from the cooler she had.

“You did good out there, Agent 4,” she said, handing it to him. With a small smile, she added, “I sure know how to pick ‘em.”

Cull looked over, nodding appreciatively with a still-sloshy head.

“I didn’t think the Octoweapons would be fully operational, though,” she continued. “Gotta hand it to the Octarians; they know how to prepare.”

“So I’m gonna fight m-more ovens?” Cull groaned.

“I don’t know about that,” she replied, “But I do know we’re gonna need the big guns.”

She reached into her kimono, revealing a walkie talkie attached to a cord.

“Hello, Sheldon, can you hear me? Over.”

“Loud and clear, Mar-“ Sheldon started, before correcting himself, “erm, Agent 2. Over!”

Marie had to lean back from her device as Sheldon squealed with excitement, before clearing his throat and continuing.

“Agent 4, you’re in good hands! We at Ammo Knights have over 542 million years of trusted service, and I’m proud to say my weapons can be of help to the New Squidbeak Splatoon! What better place for a test run than the real-world conditions of saving Inkopolis, am I right? You’ll even get to use them once developed, and I think you’ll—”

“Okay,” Marie interjected. “Down, boy. I think Agent 4 gets the point.”

“Right,” Sheldon replied. “Well, come back tomorrow and I’ll get an Ammo Knights Enhancifier for you. It’ll automatically upgrade your weaponry and even make different bombs for you, if you can provide materials and enough energy from Power Eggs.”

“S-sounds good,” Cull said, finally felling solid enough to get onto his feet. “I…I think I need s-some time, anyway. It’s getting late…”

Marie nodded. The sky was already starting to fade from pink to purple, a lovely sight even in a place like Octo Canyon.

“Well, you can stay here for the night,” she said. “I mean, Agent 3 slept at an outpost like this, too, you know.”

“I… I kinda want to go home…” Cull admitted, taking a few semisolid steps to the grate to Inkopolis. “Got a few things t-to take care of…”

“You sure? You might still wanna…”

Marie paused, taking in Agent 4’s expression.

“…Suit yourself,” she finally said, “but the offer stands, okay?”

Cull looked back and gave a thumbs-up that was just a little runny, then disappeared into the grate.

Marie sighed, watching his inky footsteps disappear with mild interest before turning the fans off. Gently, she picked up the Zapfish and prepared to take it somewhere.

***

“Youuu okay?” Flage asked, in her usual sing-song voice. “I know it’s been ho-ot, but you’re not looking so great.”

“Y-yeah, I’ll… I’ll be fine,” Cull said, reflexively pulling his beanie down a little.

“Come now,” Flage said, reaching for the front of his hat, “Wearing a beanie in this he-heat? Don’t be silly!”

Cull leaned back so quickly that he almost fell right over the bench’s armrest.

“Please don’t,” he said.

“Oh, sorryyy,” she said, scooching backwards a little. “Forgot that’s pa-art of your look.”

“Y-yeah,” Cull said, leaning back up, “Guess…guess you could say it is.”

He shook his head; he didn’t have it in him to stay mad at her. She was trying to help, after all, and it’s not like she knew of his haircut.

“A-anyway,” he asked, looking for a change in subject, “what brings you to this bus stop? I-I thought you lived in Inkopolis.”

“Oh, that I dooo,” she replied, “but I hear there’s some goooood stargazing out by Bulrush Lake!”

“Ah,” he nodded. “That sounds nice.”

“Yeah, and you know it’ll be a sight to be-holdwhile the power’s still out! Goootta count my lucky stars!”

“I… I guess…”

“Besides, I need the ref-er-ence for my next piece. My next painting will change the world of art, buh-leave you me!”

“I-I’m sure it will,” Cull said, nodding slowly. “I’d l-like to see it s-sometime, if that’s okay...”

“Of course it is!” Flage beamed. “I would looove a fellow artiste to look at my work!”

“Oh, I’m n-no a-artiste,” Cull said, laughing nervously. “I-I just l-like drawing…”

“C’mon now!” Flage said, lightly patting Cull’s arm. “I’ve seen your graffi-tee, and pop art has a place in the art world!”

Cull’s beanie was almost entirely over his eyes at this point. Enough green ink rushed to his face to make him look sick.

“Y-you saw my stuff…?”

“Pret-ty easy to recognize,” Flage beamed, adjusting her glasses. “I saw your ta-ttoo, remember? You’re always draaawing within it, and you do great stuff!”

It was a horrible time for Cull to realize he left his gloves back at the Outpost. His no-doubt melted doodles were on full display right now, and he was sure the actual tattoo wasn’t looking as clean as it should have.

“I… I think I f-forgot something,” Cull managed, standing up to leave. The Outpost wasn’t sounding so bad right now. Not even Flage’s oddly soothing melodic voice was enough to numb his panic. “I gotta… I gotta go.”

“Was it something I said?” Flage asked, looking up.

He just wished he could ask her to stop patronizing him; who just gave underserved compliments out of nowhere? As it was, though, he didn’t have the nerve, and simply shook his head before heading back to the Outpost.

Once he was a safe distance from being seen by anyone, he stopped worrying about that general shame and finally noticed that unlike last night, some of the streetlights were on. Even as he stayed in the alleyways behind Inkopolis Square, he could see light trying to reach him from the main plaza. He looked over, and could see an Inkling in a gas mask and flippers spray painting the wall of the arcade, easily seeing his duck-based piece.

Cull cringed. He recognized that style; this was the guy who was always one-upping his own pieces whenever he made something he was proud of. To be fair, Cull had taken to doing the same thing, placing his high-effort pop art next to this guy’s detailed paintings, but still.

Anyway, it was getting really late, and if he had bones, they’d be aching from the long day. He quietly continued over to the manhole, and ducked into the Outpost.

He saw Marie sleeping on the couch, humming tunelessly as she snored. Quietly, he crept forward, looking for a different place to sleep, preferably a more private one. He saw his gloves lying on that coffee table, and snatched them up quickly.

As he did so, his foot bumped against something. He looked town to find a handle to a trapdoor. Curious, he gently moved the coffee table aside and lifted the door to find at least fifty plush Zapfish staring at him. It was a bit weird, but Cull could only yawn in response, not being able to question anything anymore. He clambered in, and appreciated how soft the pile was as he slowly closed the door again, listening to Marie’s humming as he slowly drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Marie’s eyes slowly fluttered open, then squinted under the noonday sun. Slowly, she got up, and saw an orange grill-looking thing right in front of her, with Sheldon messing with some wires on a side panel. He seemed to be having some difficulty, though, as Marie could hear some violent banging, and he looked increasingly concerned, practically burying himself into unknowable machinery.

“Tech issues?” she yawned, sitting upright.

“Oh, don’t get me started,” Sheldon said, in a tone that made Marie wish she didn’t. “I checked everythingand there’s still that noise! The pistons are well-lubricated, the automated scan is perfectly calibrated, the motor is fresh off the assembly line—”

“Right, right,” Marie nodded, “you don’t know where it’s coming from. Anything I can do?”

“I… I don’t know,” Sheldon admitted. Marie could see in his goggles as he turned to her that he’d been at this for some time; his eyes were turning pink.

“Here, why don’t you sit down for a bit? You might need less time doing, more time thinking, y’know.”

“But what about what you said—”

“Nevermind that,” Marie said. “You gotta rest. Besides, that thing about inking and thinking…. That’s for squids of action. You don’t even ink, so don’t sweat it!”

“Um, okay,” Sheldon nodded, that spiel taking far more energy than it should have. He walked up and sat at the end of the couch, still having the diligence to close the panel beforehand. He couldn’t even flinch as the Enhancifier continued to bang and make odd wailing noises. Marie, however, wasn’t about to have it while she waited for Agent 4 to come back.

“So how do you turn this thing off?” she asked, standing up to look at the machine.

“That’s the thing,” Sheldon sighed, “it hasn’t been on for two hours! I’ve never seen something like this before, I tell ya…”

Marie hummed. A machine making those noises when off? She was no tech geek, but that sounded weird to her.

She leaned closer, listening to the noises. Now that things were a lot quieter, she realized the noises were coming from belowthe Enhancifier. With a couple of false starts and a lot of grunting, she moved it aside, and was now standing on the trapdoor Sheldon had covered.

Without the giant hunk of metal over the door, it was far easier to make out a familiar panicked voice. Marie wasted no time in stepping aside, and the door burst open. Cull popped out, gasping like his life depended on it.

“Oh Cod, I’m so sorry,” Sheldon said, running over to him. “I don’t know how I didn’t see the door there… I legitimately thought it was an issue with the Enhancifier, and…”

“I…it’s okay,” Cull said, after a moment. “I’m s-sure you didn’t h-hear me…”

“What were you even doing down there?” Marie asked, gently lifting him up onto the proper floor.

“R-ride home wasn’t working out,” Cull said, eyes glued to the floor. “I was… just gonna sleep h-here for one night, s-saw your thing of plushies, and…yeah.”

“I thought you had moved that table to give me space to work,” Sheldon said. “If I’d known he was in there, I wouldn’t have…”

“N-no, it was me. I just… I’m sorry…”

“Here,” Marie finally said, gently pulling Cull aside, “Why don’t you take a break, and then you and Sheldon can move this thing somewhere that makes sense, like… that corner over there. In the meantime, I’m getting myself something to drink. You guys want anything?”

Cull was suddenly aware of how hoarse he was, and nodded.

“C-could use some water.”

“That triage took its toll,” Sheldon admitted, “and I think I need a picker-upper. You got any Seafoam in that shed?”

“Sorry,” Marie said, silently wondering how much he had on a regular basis, “but I got a coffee maker and a few mixes.”

“That’s alright, then. I’ll get it in a bit.”

“That’s fine,” Marie nodded, “but don’t mess with it, okay? It’s Cal…”

Her face fell somewhat, before she coughed and turned to the shed.

“…It’s not mine. So don’t go tinkering with it.”

It was an awkward wait while Marie was heating up tea for herself. Cull had some ice water and had more interest in half-melted ice cubes than any Inkling Sheldon had ever seen.

After what felt like forever, Cull finally looked up, at least in Sheldon’s general direction.

“Um… you s-say this thing can upgrade my Splattershot?”

“Not just that,” Sheldon said, perking up. “It can get you the hottest new kinds of explosives, and even help you conserve your ink through a process I like to call ‘The Hibernation Effect’. Through a careful, multi-layered tubing system, we can safely extract less ink for the same shot, and even make the refilling process more comfortable than ever…”

Sheldon’s more detailed technical explanations started to go into one ear and out the other, but Cull was more interested than ever in the Enhancifier. He got up while Sheldon was still pouring an endless stream of info out of his mouth, and looked to see how this thing worked.

Thankfully, there was already a screen ready, with icons not only representing his Splattershot and Splat Bombs, but also, as Sheldon said, his ink tank, as well as other weapons he had seen on TV sometimes. There were even some of the newer ones, like the umbrella-looking one and the Dualies.

Below each icon, he saw estimates of the materials needed – so many Power Eggs to keep the battery going, and so many kilograms of Sardinium. He’d have to ask where the stuff he found was stored once Marie came back out.

“Cool, right?” Sheldon said, stepping up next to Cull. “Here, I got a bit of Sardinium and a pack of Power Eggs for testing right here. Just pick something and we can watch the magic happen! I’ll even let you get an exclusive sneak peek of how it does it!”

“Oh, um, okay.”

He took a second to look over the choices. Another kind of bomb seemed nice – that homing one was looking tempting. Then again, the machine was promising a faster firing rate and some better accuracy if he went with the Splattershot…

“Ooh, why don’t I show ya the Hibernation Effect?” Sheldon piped up excitedly. “I bet you’ll want more ink in that tank, yeah? Even your Splat Bombs’ll take less fuel to get the same kick!”

“Um…s-sure,” Cull nodded.

It wasn’t his first choice, since he was hoping to not have to shoot as much, but maybe it would help with his no-doubt abysmal shooting. After all, if he was filling the air with ink for longer, he’d be missing less, right? And, yeah, Sheldon probably knew what he needed better than he did; why else would he be so eager to decide for Cull?

While Cull tentatively tapped that upgrade, Sheldon had, in the blink of an eye, fetched the ink tank in question. With a couple of quick taps on a side panel, the orange lid opened to reveal protective glass, allowing Cull a full view of the machinery inside. Lights came on, and some robotic arms whirred to life to wait over a moving conveyor belt. Sheldon had inserted the glass capsule into a door on the side. It was soon drawn to the middle of all the machinery, and Cull was prompted to insert the materials needed. He flinched as a slot jumped out in front of him.

Sheldon, being more ready, was quick to pour a bag of Power Eggs and a couple bricks of Sardinium into it. Power Eggs fell into miniature battery packs, while the Sardinium was melted and converted to a variety of parts. Almost immediately, the arms got to work, disconnecting the tubes and prying the lid off. Cull found it neat to watch, even if he didn’t understand any of what was going on. Sparks flew, wires were added, and even the glass was polished inside and out.

Only about a minute passed before the ink tank was rolled back out the way it came in, landing safely on a tray.

Sheldon watched in anticipation as Cull gingerly picked it up, looking at the shiny new lid and siphon hoses.

“Looks nice,” Marie said from behind, nearly making Cull drop his new tool. “Surprised you went with the ink tank, though.”

“Sh-Sheldon said to get this one…”

“The guy knows his stuff,” Marie said, “but you gotta find what works for you, okay? I know you will.”

Cull nodded.

“Anyway, get yourself suited up, and we can see how that ink-saving whatchamacallit works in action. I bet it’ll still help.”

Marie turned to Sheldon.

“We’ve been keeping the stuff Agent 4 has found in the cupboard, if you wanna go and get paid back.”

Sheldon saluted, walking in and getting the items he used before lifting the manhole cover and disappearing.

“Didn’t even get his coffee,” Marie sighed, shaking her head.

***

“Hey, wait!” Sheldon called out, taking both Marie and Cull by surprise over the radio. “You might wanna try out something different here! I can send you a Roller, and we can see if it works out better for you. Plus, you know, these weapons need a good ol’ field testing…”

“Erm,” Cull said, looking at his Splattershot, “I-I’m kinda already here…”

“Yeah, we’d have to recall Agent 4 if we wanted to—”

“No, no, I can also test my newest delivery system! For the past two years, I’ve gotten a hold of some old tech from my gramps, and found a way to get a remote drone and all its electronics through these grates, and even greatly extended the signal through careful use of the latest—”

“You think you can send it down to him?” Marie asked. “Sure; try the first tower on the left once you get to Suction-Cup lookout. You think your whatchamacallit can fly that far?”

“Well, the battery kinda had to be skimped on to get it to work, but I could drive there! Can you wait a few, Agent 4?”

“I… I guess…?”

“Great! I’ll let you know when I’m there! Try to hang on until then, okay?”

“…Sure…?”

***

The spawner was surprisingly comfortable to sit on, considering it was a large metal plate with ink swirling below glass. Still, it gave Agent 4 a nice place to relax as he looked around the smoggy area. It wasn’t much to look at, apparently being an industrial area with floating steel platforms and a greenish tint to the air. In the distance, there were hanging orange lights to punctuate the gloomy area. The air smelled of motor oil and something like ink blended with iron. Interestingly, there were some yellow traffic signs laid on the right that showed squid icons, and those looked pretty new.

He didn’t have much time to think about that, however, as a low buzzing noise turned his attention upwards. A black and yellow drone descended, carrying a large case. Cull’s gaze followed it as it lowered to eye level and started orbiting him.

“Go ahead and swap your Splattershot out for this bad boy,” Sheldon said. “See how you like it!”

Cull pulled the case off the drone and opened it, revealing an intricately folded lump of yellow plastic and steel. He yelped as, almost immediately, the contraption sprung to life, leaping out towards him as he jumped back, dropping his gun. Within half a second, the machine had stopped, revealing itself to be a massive Roller, not too different from the ones Cull saw in commercials pretty frequently.

“Real beauty, isn’t she?” Sheldon said. “Go ahead and give ‘er a whirl! But first… please put that poor Splattershot in that case. I don’t want it getting scratched…”

Cull nodded, picking his gun up and putting it back into the same case the Roller burst out of. Sending the drone on its way, he turned to his new weapon, testing the handle. Yup, the thing was almost as heavy as it looked, but he was used to paint rollers anyway; he was constantly re-painting the walls at home, after all.

He started to push his Roller forward, and he was astonished at how smoothly his ink coated the floor as he went. He was used to having a rough time, but moving forward with this monstrosity was a breeze!

Well, at least for the first fifteen or so seconds. When he was out of ink, the sheer weight of this thing slowed him to a crawl. Apparently, all that smoothness was just his ink; the mix of metal and foam was not doing his advance after the first Launchpad any favors.

“You gotta lift that up for a bit,” Marie said. “Remember, you only have so much ink, even with that enhanced tank.”

“Um… okay…”

Surprisingly, it was pretty easy to lift the Roller. The challenge was balancing with it; everything above the handle was so massive he found himself tilting every which way. He stumbled around, trying to find some kind of way to keep his weapon upright.

What was worse, he knew Agent 2 and Sheldon were watching this performance, probably snickering to themselves about it.

“Keep it close to your chest,” Marie said, without a hint of humor in her voice, somehow making it worse. “Bend your knees a lil’, keep the Roller straight up… yeah, like that!”

Cull somehow felt sillier now that he had something like the right posture, but at least he could stand, and he could feel his ink tank refilling.

“Just watch for the Rolinium around here!” Sheldon piped up. “I think this is a processing plant for the stuff…”

Up ahead, there was a giant bundle of what looked like Roller sleeves, and an Octotrooper waiting on some kind of large, automated brush. Cull was about to try to rush forward, balance be clammed, but both voices shouting for him to stop landed him right in front of the bundle.

“You can activate that Rolinium with your own,” Sheldon pointed out. “It’ll fly right ahead into the bad guys!”

“Probably a better way of getting a feel for the thing, too,” Marie added. “Don’t have to get up to that Octoslob with a weapon you’re not used to this time.”

Agent 4 nodded, shifting his grip a bit as he looked at the Rolinium. If he could launch this like Sheldon said, he’d have to time it. He was just glad the Octotrooper hadn’t noticed him; he was sure the guy would have had the same idea and just launch the Roller sleeves at him.

He had to slam his weapon down as soon as he tried to lean it forward. A violent splash of ink hit the Rolinium before he could run into it, and it immediately accelerated, barreling right into the unsuspecting Octatrian.

“Nice one!”

Cull knew he didn’t deserve that praise, so he just nodded and literally pressed forward with the Roller.

[m3n4ce2soci3ty-blog]

Unturned Single Player Cheats

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