Iris Young (he/they/she) (PhD)
Iris Young (he/they/she) (PhD)I am delighted to report that a soldering iron with a blunt tip (I had a knife tip on hand but I think a horseshoe ought to work too) works to melt the cut ends of paracord and similar polymer cords. This is really great because I have multiple soldering irons and zero ways to generate flame at the moment.
Iris Young (he/they/she) (PhD)(This is fun. I put it off until I could clear space for it but I'm so happy I finally did.)
Iris Young (he/they/she) (PhD)Progress! Ready to consolidate (dis)assembly notes, remove the labels on the casing, and start scrubbing. When it was leaking it build up some residue on the interior of the case that I need to get rid of, and it's time for general maintenance so I'm taking the opportunity to clean EVERYTHING, and replace the consumable parts that are ready for it.
The PID I have is from Shades of Coffee (apparently the steam gauge is not) and their instructions were exceptionally good, plus the online support guy was willing to answer questions about water, so I'm going to get replacement parts preferentially from them. Debating whether to switch out the boiler for a brass one (more resistent to corrosion mainly, but also benefits temp stability) instead of replacing like-for-like if it doesn't clean up well enough. Will replace O-rings and gaskets regardless. Tempted to make a handful of other smaller part upgrades but I hope to talk myself down from some/most of them.
I do want to incorporate a scale though, which I don't have yet. Already have a PID so I don't think the #Gagguino route is a good match, but data logging would be really nice. Recs for a standalone solution for that? I know @adafruit@fosstodon.org has a guide for one option, which I could pare down to the minimalist aesthetic I prefer. Being able to grab readings from the PID would also be excellent but I don't have high hopes that's possible.
I have discovered coffee refractometers but I did successfully talk myself down from going that far. For now.
#Gaggia #GaggiaClassic #espresso #DIY #diy_electronics #repair
Iris Young (he/they/she) (PhD)Hey #espresso #makers (pun intended), I think I found the source of my leak and I need to replace a part. I don't know what it's called or where to order it. Help?
This is inside a Gaggia Classic Pro (pre enshittification, US voltage if it matters) and it's the T connector that connects to the steam wand and the pressure valve that I put in as part of a kit from Shades of Coffee. Also, what are the insulation and the heat-safe metal sticky tape called? I definitely need more of the tape. I have about 13 other types of tape on hand but not this kind.
Iris Young (he/they/she) (PhD)(This is fun. I put it off until I could clear space for it but I'm so happy I finally did.)
Iris Young (he/they/she) (PhD)Hey #espresso #makers (pun intended), I think I found the source of my leak and I need to replace a part. I don't know what it's called or where to order it. Help?
This is inside a Gaggia Classic Pro (pre enshittification, US voltage if it matters) and it's the T connector that connects to the steam wand and the pressure valve that I put in as part of a kit from Shades of Coffee. Also, what are the insulation and the heat-safe metal sticky tape called? I definitely need more of the tape. I have about 13 other types of tape on hand but not this kind.
Iris Young (he/they/she) (PhD)I guess instance migration is a good time for an #Introduction post. Hello lovely people, I'm here both as a scientific researcher and as a human being, and you can expect a range of genres of posts and interactions from me.
On the work side, I'm a computational scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the field of biological X-ray crystallography, specifically at free electron lasers. It's a glorious interdisciplinary mess, and the description I give to non-scientists is that i use my degree in chemistry to write software to do math that models the physics of experiments that we're running to learn about biology.
For fellow structural biologists: I work on crystallography data reduction software for the steps between photons hitting the detector and a merged set of structure factors. I also support XFEL experiments, both on site and remotely, and assist in post-experiment data processing as needed. My PhD focused on using simultaneous XFEL crystallography and XES spectroscopy to probe the water splitting reaction in oxygenic photosynthesis. I did a postdoc in computational methods development for cryoEM, and I'm now back to XFEL crystallography but still in methods development.
For fellow software developers: all of our work is open source and mostly under the cctbx project/repo. It's mostly python with a bunch of C++ under the hood (including some low-level stuff redundant with scipy and numpy because those weren't around yet!), plus a user-facing wxPython GUI. More recently we've done a ton of work with GPU acceleration (using Kokkos, for NVIDIA, Intel and AMD architectures) and scaling up at three different national labs' supercomputing centers in anticipation of next-gen experimental capabilities. I derive too much joy from writing bash-sed-awk monstrosities on the occasions we need them to fix an urgent problem during an experiment, and I guess I'm most proud of the fact that I somewhat understand git.
As far as hobbies, the longest-standing one is probably #coffee, followed closely by #language (s) / #languageLearning and a love of #patterns and #symmetry in various contexts. I have too many different ways of making coffee (they have overrun my coffee cupboard), but my favorite remains the classic latte, and by now I can make a better latte than I can buy. I'm trying to refresh my #Japanese and learn #Dutch and #German simultaneously/comparatively, which of course is terrible for speed of learning, but fascinating. So far I've found #ASL the most challenging but also deeply satisfying -- I only have one semester under my belt but hope to take a lot more. I studied and continue to study all the #math and #science I possibly can. Right now I seem to be pretty engrossed in #electronics, #CAD, #3DPrinting, and just generally #DIY-ing/fixing/repairing things. Other active interests include #sewing, #reading, #cooking, #bike commuting, and #publicTransit. My journeys in #aikido and #pottery are on hold but I definitely want to pick them back up when I'm not already overcommitted. I'm casually interested in #neurophilosophy, #neuropsychology, #neurodivergence and #neuroscience. I've taken one course in neurophilosophy and can read literature in the rest, with effort.
On a personal note, I'm trans and nonbinary and very open about it -- I transitioned back when I had to explain what that meant. I've retired from some forms of community engagement and support but I'm very happy to answer any questions I can about the US legal and medical landscapes, available resources, policy and terminology best practices, or whatever you know you shouldn't ask [person in your life].
Finally, I spend a lot of time with my cat Rory (pictured), who is perfect and the most affectionate creature I have ever met. I promise to share photos of him from time to time.