This was a busy, busy week at work, as many of the materials I had been waiting for arrived and I began composing high fidelity prototypes for all aspects of my design. I 3D printed my final prototype for the body of the thermometer and then spent nearly half a day on post processing, which included slicing away support and sanding down rough edges. Then, the metal I ordered last week arrived and I began creating the main body of the probe and the probe tip using the machines at the engineering labs at FENG (faculty of engineering building). HUGE shoutout to the technicians at the FENG labs, especially Leandro, who worked through the language barrier to help me find and use the equipment I needed. The first day was really, really rough as we spent nearly an hour trying to communicate what I needed/wanted and what he had available, but by the second day, I figured out that engineering drawings were a universal language we both spoke. I also worked on creating nylon insulation and soldering together the circuitry/wires I needed.

However, a large, frustrating part of my week was devoted to trying to figure out how to sync my computer with the device, so that I can receive and interpret temperature data for my tests. After hours of troubleshooting on 3 different computers across campus, I think I know what the problem is and how to solve. But, to do so, we’ll need to contact the microchip company to update the firmware and do some more troubleshooting once that has happened. In short, not a problem that can be easily solved in the span of a week or even two weeks.

With this limitation in mind, on Friday afternoon, I began on a separate, side project to keep me busy, modifying the CAD file of a 3D wall mount to prepare it for 3D printing. For now, I don’t know much more than that, but keep your eyes peeled for more next week.

Meanwhile, back home at the Casa, I had an interesting run in with the local wildlife. On Tuesday night, I ran up to my room as Nathalie and Latané were cooking dinner and flicked on the lights…only to let out an unholy shriek and jump backwards as a pale lizard dropped from its perch on the wall right in front of me.

I stared at him.

He stared at me.

Then, he scurried off underneath Nathalie’s bed/luggage. I immediately texted Nathalie, who sent Latané up to deal with me (this is not the first time I’ve freaked out over Brazilian wildlife, and at this point, Nathalie knows how to handle said freakouts). Latané bounds up and we spend a good 10 minutes searching for the little bugger with our phone flashlights, him on the floor and me safely on top of the bed. We quickly realized that the lizard was deathly quick, but also afraid of the light and so used our flashlights to herd him to a spot where Latané could nab him. The lizard was then safely deposited outside. Thus, the Great Lizard Escapade of 2017 ended.

Over the weekend, Nathalie and I (on her coworkers’ recommendation) traveled to Moinhos de Vento (literal translation: windmills), a cute, trendy neighborhood with a lovely park, cobbled streets, and many cafes and boutiques. We stuffed ourselves silly with good food and people watched together, a relaxing, but beautiful way to explore the city!