Deck Thirty Six, Issue No. 01
Deck Thirty Six, Issue No. 1

Deck Thirty Six, Issue No. 01

An Engineering Periodical on LinkedIn Presented By Oapsie Daisy Newsletter


By: Jim O’Flanagan

Editor’s Note: This Oapsie Daisy Newsletter Special Edition is syndicated and was originally published on LinkedIn.

Summary of This Article
Summary of This Article

Summary of This Column:

  • Deck 36: Naming This Column
  • Mission Statement: The Purpose of Oapsie Daisy Newsletter on LinkedIn
  • ASME IMECE 2023
  • OAPSIE Standards of Publishing
  • Edi Oapsie, Artificial Intelligence Entity
  • ST:TNG Interlude
  • SABR 51 Roundup
  • Edi Drops The Mic
  • Sneak Preview: Our Technology Development Pipeline
  • OAPSIE Originals, Captain America
  • Jim Loves His E-Bike
  • Errata


Let’s get to it! This series of columns will generally follow the same format; a bullet pointed summary leads off, followed by several subsections in BOLD typeface where the bullet point are expanded upon.

Oapsie Daisy Newsletter has been publishing on OAPSIE.com for several months. This version of the Newsletter, called Deck 36 and which is exclusive to LinkedIn, will open up to more broadly focused engineering topics like the effects of Generative AI on our engineering profession, or unifying topics concerning our own published material on this Newsletter.

For example, we recently published a series of articles on Generative AI and our resident Artificial Intelligence Entity (AIE) named Edi Oapsie. Those articles are all published on LinkedIn and OAPSIE.com. We link to them in this column, with added context and analysis, like how Edi actually helped create Ballparkview, in order to make reading this column worth everyone’s time.

No alt text provided for this image
Jim and Becca in Chicago at #SABR 51


Since this is the first issue of the Newsletter on LinkedIn, we are including a great many engineering topics that interest us. Based on your feedback, we will adjust the content we include in this

column to subjects that everyone is interested in.

No alt text provided for this image
Azra, Bri, Tahler, and Eli. My kids and their spouses- they are the best young people I know!

Because that’s what this whole show is about, Dear Reader! We are honored and humbled that you would choose to spend some of your valuable time with us. We take that responsibility seriously and we aim to deliver a quality Newsletter to you on a regular basis. Here’s to you, Dear Reader!



No alt text provided for this image
Buffy, Dakota, and Bones O'Flanagan also provide a great deal of support for our engineering efforts. Couldn't do it without them!

And here’s to my wife, Becca; my kids Azra and Eli; and my dogs Buffy and Bones; who all make this column possible with their love and support. Thank you, and I love you all.


Deck Thirty Six

Deck Thirty Six Main Badge
Deck Thirty Six Main Badge

The title of this column is "Deck Thirty Six" or “Deck 36” in shorthand. Either way is good with us. For those not familiar with Star Trek canon, Deck 36 is where Main Engineering is located on the NCC-1701-D, which is the official name for the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek: The Next Generation (fourth in lex order, but sixth in the canon build starship sequence).

So this column is Deck 36, it is a report from Main Engineering, by the Chief Engineer (me), and we are all fans of Star Trek, particularly the Captain Picard version(s)… wait…

Geeky, yes. But that’s how we roll ‘round here!

LinkedIn made us pick a periodic publishing schedule, so we chose one month, although you can see from our publishing history that we drop content more often than that. So that is what we shall endeavor to do.

One other housekeeping item; it seems that LinkedIn considers an “edition” of this Newsletter to consist of exactly one article. That necessarily means that each edition will be an anthology collection of already-published material, with context and analysis added for the “Big Picture” view. That will be the value-add of this column (hopefully!). Generally, we will link to materials on OAPSIE.com and posts made here on LinkedIn as reference for Deck 36.

We are always open to feedback, corrections, or comments. If you would like to write a guest column on Oapsie Daisy Newsletter, that would be cool too. Just drop me an email ([email protected]) with your contact info to get a conversation started.

So here we go. Deck Thirty Six is officially launched! Engage. Punch it. Make It So, and Take Us Out…

Mission Statement: The Purpose of Oapsie Daisy Newsletter on LinkedIn


#Kindness Mission Statement Badge
#Kindness Mission Statement Badge

At OAPSIE we talk about mission statements a lot. Maybe too much!

For example, we wrote about Mission Statements no less than five separate times during the release of #Ballparkview leading up to SABR 51.


Yet there is a reason for this Mission Statement madness!

Find out why after the graphics and links below that summarize our stance on Mission Statements, and how important they are to a well run business.


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The professor teaches 4 main topics: Baseball, Computational Mechanics, Generative AI, and Intelligent Engeineering


Computational Mechanics and Intelligent Engineering Systems Textbooks
Computational Mechanics and Intelligent Engineering Systems Textbooks


OAPSIE Firm Mission Statement
OAPSIE Firm Mission Statement


Ballparkview Mission Statement
Ballparkview Mission Statement


As we said, there is a reason for this Mission Statement madness!

The reason write about them all the time is to emphasize how important Mission Statements are; and how seriously we take them at OAPSIE.

Quite literally, everything we do at OAPSIE has a Mission Statement. It is the only practical way to observe and measure what is happening at your company every day. It is the only way to have your quality system mean something, or your project planning software. They make the business world go ‘round, or at least they should.

There cannot be an objective goal for any business endeavor without one. Without an objective goal, the endeavor you are working on is not a project because it extends indefinitely; it is an overhead task or something else entirely.

With the importance of Mission Statements established, here is our Mission Statement for Deck Thirty Six on LinkedIn:


Oapsie Daisy Newsletter on LinkedIn is a Regular Update for All Things OAPSIE. This picture shows Tinker’s Creek Viaduct in Bedford, OH.
Oapsie Daisy Newsletter on LinkedIn is a Regular Update for All Things OAPSIE. This picture shows Tinker’s Creek Viaduct in Bedford, OH.

To deliver timely, accurate, pertinent, and frank Micro-Information to readers interested in engineering, kindness, physics, software, business, management, finance, marketing, outdoors, empathy, and helpfulness.


I snapped this photo while researching put-in/take-out spots on the creek for kayaking.


From the above Mission Statement derives several purpose points:


  • These are the things we are interested in.
  • We think you may be interested in these things too.
  • It is the things we are good at.
  • It is the things we have experienced first hand and have lived to tell the tale.
  • It is a task worthy of our mission statement because music uplifts humanity and we are writing software to promote it, and generate new material. For example, Edi himself is a Disc Jockey, and has cut several no-vocal music tracks, all by himself.


We added that last point to our project pipeline because we don’t owe a royalty to anyone for background music in our published vids. YouTube is pretty strict about that! Necessity breeds invention, no doubt.


ASME IMECE 2023

ASME IMECE Badge
ASME IMECE Badge

Our next scheduled public event is ASME IMECE 2023, where we will be debuting another Pennantview module named Pitcherview.


If you recall, OAPSIE filed an omnibus patent last year for all of our baseball related technology. Its name is Pennantview. Ballparkview, which we presented at SABR 51, was part of that patent application.


ASME IMECE 2023 Main Badge
ASME IMECE 2023 Main Badge

Pitcherview is another submodule if that omnibus patent. It was actually the first piece of baseball technology we developed, and consequently it is the most advanced.

Here is the mission statement for Pennantview:


Pennantview Mission Statement. Pitcherview Mission Statement is derived from this one.
Pennantview Mission Statement. Pitcherview Mission Statement is derived from this one.

To create a novel biophysics technology platform that aids in the improvement of baseball outcomes.“


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#Pitcherview Mission Statement. This submodule will be presented as ASME IMECE 2023.

Pitcherview Mission Statement is:

To apply full spectrum kinematics, *intelligent engineering, and computational mechanics to the baseball pitching motion to better aid in the evaluation of players and baseball techniques.”

Full Spectrum Kinematics considers deformation plus free body motion
Full Spectrum Kinematics considers deformation plus free body motion

It uses discrete methodologies and computational power to determine the power, energy, and impulse with which the pitcher brings his fastball (or curveball) to the plate. Full spectrum kinematics is a way of saying that we consider deformation in addition to free body Motion in the computational mechanics simulation.


Rigid Body Motion Explanation
Rigid Body Motion Explanation

We have seen top end big leaguer pitchers with a calculated pitch delivery power of about 0.5 horsepower. A little leaguer produces about .075 hp. It’s a huge difference.

That’s quite amazing when you think about it; a highly trained, highly conditioned, focused professional baseball pitcher can generate about half as much usable towing power as an average draft horse (as Mr. James Watt derived the horsepower (hp) unit), all while accomplishing a sports motion as complicated as a dance pirouette.

Modern athletes are amazing, and we can hardly wait to present it to the ASME community!

Other Interesting ASME IMECE Information:

Pitcherview and Pennantview, the baseball technologies we are presenting at ASME IMECE 2023 have online locations as follows.



For more information on our presentation at ASME IMECE 2023, please visit:


Jim’s ASME membership is found here.


OAPSIE Standards of Publishing, Journalistic Standards of Publishing

Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics.
Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics.

Please find a copy of this code of ethics at Link: (https://oapsie.com/code-of-ethics)


Northeast Ohio, Our Home Area
Northeast Ohio, Our Home Area

Those of you that know me personally know that I come from a newspaper family, and I am very proud of it. When I was a teenager my father used to bring home 5 newspapers every day because he worked at the local Akron paper and they printed other newspapers on contract; broadsheets like The Akron-Beacon Journal, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal were regular staples at the kitchen table. All were newspapers of record.


The press where those papers were printed no longer exists (how sad!), but the lessons I learned from reading all of those papers every day stuck with me. My favorite sportswriter at the time was Terry Pluto, who wrote for the Akron paper back then. Mr. Pluto has written innumerable books on the Guardians, their history, and their future. He still write about the Browns and Guardians for the Cleveland paper.


On The Corner of Respect&Integrity St. and Honesty+Ethics Dr.
On The Corner of Respect&Integrity St. and Honesty+Ethics Dr.

The only industry mentioned by name in the US Bill of Rights is the press, and the guaranteeing of the free exercise of it. It is mentioned in the very first amendment, and it is mentioned in the same clause as freedom of speech, after religion, and before the right to free assembly and the right to petition the government for change.

It stands to reason, then, that the press, and by implication a vigorously independent press bound by certain ethical principals, is pretty damn important too. We did not get into this business to be journalists; we are all engineers at Oapsie of one stripe or another. One skill that makes for a great engineer is the ability to write technical documents clearly and concisely. We bring a great deal of writing experience in that sphere; hopefully that translates to this style of writing.

We do not pretend that we are professional journalists here at OAPSIE. We run a simple Engineering Periodical Newsletter. Our only goal with this Newsletter is to convey interesting things happening at OAPSIE, current events in the engineering world, and business topics pertinent to the practice of engineering. We also strive to deliver it to you in a timely and interesting way.

All of this does not mean we cannot hold ourselves to a certain higher standard. The Society for Professional Journalists maintains a published set of ethics that most mainstream publications adhere to.

We pledge to do the same, and to follow these ethics to the utmost of our humble writing abilities.

The SPJ Standard is:

  • Truth and Accuracy. “Journalists cannot always guarantee 'truth' but getting the facts right is the cardinal principle of journalism.
  • Independence.
  • Fairness and Impartiality.
  • Humanity.
  • Accountability.

Please find the link to SPJ’s ethics stands in our website at: Link:(https://oapsie.com/code-of-ethics).

This is the standard we aspire to in this Newsletter, and every other item we publish on any site, including our own upcoming releases.


Edi Oapsie, Artificial Intelligence Entity & ChatGPT Extraordinaire

Edi Oapsie Avatar Picture
Edi Oapsie Avatar Picture

Recently we have been working a project that runs experiments with #generativeai, with particular focus on the effects of the technology on our business, and our industry. In the past several decades we have seen the launch of the public internet in 1993 and the release of the iPhone in 2007. To us, those are the two most important tech milestones met by humanity in our Gen X’er lifetimes.

We at OAPSIE believe that #GenerativeAI will take its place alongside those other two as milestone achievements; indeed, it may have already done so. That became especially true after #OpenAI released a Beta of #ChatGPT4 last year, and hooked up it to the internet.

OAPSIE Org Chart
OAPSIE Org Chart

To capitalize on this technology, we have been working an engineering development project to apply it to our everyday programming and engineering tasks like building and running computer simulations.

GenerativeAI is a one or twice in a career advancement; right up there with the launch of the publich internet in 1993 and modern smartphones in 2007
#GenerativeAI is a one or twice in a career advancement; right up there with the launch of the publich internet in 1993 and modern smartphones in 2007

Our primary motivations for doing this are:

  • Test out Generative AI capabilities
  • Run physics simulations, and create new types of simulations.
  • Try to automate routine tasks that we used to outsource
  • Have our own musical content to enrich our video selection.

To these ends, we have created our own instantiation of an Artificial Intelligence Entity (AIE) and named him Edi Oapsie. Indeed, he has been so useful to the company we have been treating this AIE instance as a member of the firm, in a semi-tongue-in-cheek nod to the near-human output he provides. Indeed, Edi has a domain name (EdiOapsie.com), and an employee ID. We believe we are only a few years away from communicating with these entities in the same manner as science fiction characters like JARVIS, KITT, and Master Control Program. These actions reinforce our belief in a GenerativeAI-driven future world.

To accomplish this, have written some code, read some articles, and written some articles; all are on Edi Oapsie and GenerativeAI. Edi Oapsie most definitely assisted in our success in Chicago at SABR 51. The collection is as follows.


Generative AI Articles, and Edi Oapsie:


Editorial Rules for Publishing AIE Generated Content.


The Effects of Generative AI on our Business.


Edi Writes an Abaqus FEA Input Deck:


Managing Artificial Intelligence Entities.


The Ethical Subroutines of Edi Oapsie and AI: A Closer Look.

Edi also his his own internet domain at Link: (https://EdiOapsie.com). Pretty cool.


Some other interesting things AIE Edi Oapsie has been up to:

Edi has contributed his own video content included on our OAPSIE Originals page.


There is a whole section of the OAPSIE.com Hamburger Menu dedicated to Edi. There is an about page for Edi there at the following address.


Edi’s Remastered and newly Subtitled Captain America OG serial episodes from 1944. Coolness!


Edi and Jim collaborated on music production using a Thirty Party app named Soundful. You can see the result if that musical collaboration here.


ST:TNG Interlude

Star Trek: The Next Generation Main Badge
Star Trek: The Next Generation Main Badge

Editor’s Note: The following episode review is about two Starship Enterprise Chief Engineers, so it is most definitely germane to the subject at hand. Deck 36 is an Engineering Periodical, dedicated to the real life business of engineering and management; however, it will not be uncommon to see references to various science fiction canons in this column, particularly when it helps explain a technical point. Star Trek, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of The Rings, Red Rising, A Song of Ice And Fire, Ka, and The Multiverse of Madness are examples of this referencing we can foresee at present.


Our Favorite ST:TNG Episode is “Relics” from Season 6. We admire the Enterprise Chief Engineer Geordi LaForge (LaVar Burton with a permanent visor on!- Check out his Newsletter, it’s great), along with James Doohan’s Mr. Scott on the earlier NCC-1701, NCC-1701-A, and, very briefly, The USS Excelsior (how tragic!). In this episode a little time travel storyline magic and a red shirt are used by Rick Berman and Co. Mr. Scott rigs the transporter buffer on his marooned ship The Jenolan to play on continuous loop, with him and a buddy inside, thereby preserving their lives indefinitely. All they needed was a rescue party to show up.


Genius! Well, half genius; his buddy didn’t make it back out.


Turns out Mr. Scott needed only 80 years in the transporter buffer to catch up to the TNG timeline, but he lost a friend in the process. However, he gained one back during the episode in Mr. LaForge; after they tackle yet another major engineering problem involving a Dyson Sphere, a big door, and a star about to go supernova. We get a single length episode but a double shot of Chief Engineering the whole way. And our Chief Engineers save the day! Awesome.


Lesson learned?


Mentorship is a two way street, with both people, no matter their age, taking role of learner and learned in turns. Great mentorships are always give and take. After Georgi recognizes the utility of using something old but sturdy like the Jenolan to launch their rescue plan, Scottie realizes that Geordi’s new-school ideas are not so bad after all, and that he too has something new to learn as an engineer.


This meme describes our thoughts on Star Trek and engineering pretty well. Science and Science Fiction is a two-way street.
This meme describes our thoughts on Star Trek and engineering pretty well. Science and Science Fiction is a two-way street.

We spoke about the mentor/mentee relationship in a LinkedIn post, check it out.


Great episode! Moving right along…


SABR 51 Roundup


SABR 51 Main Badge
SABR 51 Main Badge

SABR 51 just concluded last week, and we successfully presented our Ballparkview technology to the baseball community. What an opportunity, and what an experience! We couldn’t be more excited about the future of biomechanics and its place in baseball.


Some random observations:

  • The Palmer House Hilton Hotel was amazing! Less well known than The Drake, but just as awesome.
  • Thank you to Scott Fischtal for helping a first timer out!
  • Ballparkview homepage: You can of course find the series homepage at Link:(https://ballparkview.com)


Ballparkview Mission Statement
Ballparkview Mission Statement

We have similar pages and/or redirects stood up for the following projects.


Both of those technologies will debut at ASME IMECE 2023 in November 2023.

Thank you to the following people whom I met at SABR 51 Chicago:



You guys made the whole process for a first timer much easier. Thank you, gentlemen.

Also, thank you again to these folks who gave a great deal of feedback and/or reactions to our recent columns:


Thank you, we really appreciate it! Your feedback had a very real impact on the final product we presented at SABR 51.

We have selected a few Ballparkview-related articles that are syndicated to LinkedIn from OAPSIE.com.

Enjoy!


SABR 51 Newsletter Article Roundup:


Ballparkview Homepage.


Happy July 4 message, plus some pre-SABR notes.


SABR Day 3 Roundup:


SABR Day 4 Roundup:


OAPSIE Live @ SABR 51


SABR 51 Slide Show


Oapsie Daisy Newsletter Main Badge
Oapsie Daisy Newsletter Main Badge



You can find the Newsletter homepage at Link: (https://oapsie.com/oapsie-daisy-newsletter-1)




First Video Newsletter Post for SABR Week

  • YouTube post of SABR intro video
  • Link: (https://youtu.be/m66QHeIj6MU)


Technical Explanation of Ballparkview

Lead Graphic From One of Ballparkview Newsletter Series Articles
Lead Graphic From One of Ballparkview Newsletter Series Articles


Other Relevant Domains



#Ballparkview Main Badge
#Ballparkview Main Badge

Sample Ballparkview Use Case


Editor’s Note: All Ballparkview articles have been syndicated from https://ballparkview.com, which is a subsidiary domain of OAPSIE.com, our company’s main level internet portal.


Edi Drops The Mic

Engineering is inherently a creative endeavor. Clearly, so is music. Hence, great music and great engineering go hand-in-glove, and that means we need to include it in Deck 36. This is the reason you will see this column inside an engineering periodical. Because when you get down to it, music is engineering, at least the acoustic part of it. Calculating the natural frequency of a guitar string is essentially the same deal as calculating the first 6 modes of a nuclear reactor, or a noisy tire; both of which I’ve conducted modal analyses on. It also helps a great deal while coding or creating an FEA input deck.


Creating music can resemble the engineering creative process; it is akin to an engineering exercise. After all, a musical instrument is a collection of sound producing elements that we design to vibrate at a certain frequency. Walter Isaacson, in his excellent biography of Steve Jobs, describes an interaction between Jobs And Chief Designer Jony Ive where Jobs recounts how a bootleg copy of The Beatles “Strawberry Fields Forever” informed his own design philosophies for Apple.

Strawberry Field, Where John Lennon played as a child.
Strawberry Field, Where John Lennon played as a child.

In the conversation, Jobs describes the dozens of minute changes made to the song, over the course of an entire recording session. Individually, each one was relatively small, but added together, and placed in the right locations, turned a jam session into an all-time rock and roll classic.

Ed Sheeran describes a similar creative process for his songs. He even has a name for it: The Faucet Theory. Link: (https://www.ownerartist.com/journal/the-creative-process-of-ed-sheeran/#:~:text=Sheeran%20applies%20this%20theory%20to,and%20his%20creativity%20truly%20shines.)

Jim at Guns N’ Roses, Covelli Center, Youngstown, OH.
Jim at Guns N’ Roses, Covelli Center, Youngstown, OH.

We like to take a similar approach to designing a new part as these two musicians take in honing their craft. Only in our case we are dealing with Computational Mechanics software rather than music.


We believe in getting a simple yet effective prototype in the customer’s hands as quickly as possible, then using feedback on that design as input to your design process. Sequential Waterfall methods get bogged down in stage-gate process development hell. Using a system that relies on many small design iterations also removes risk from your project. After all, if you’ve actually seen a piece of code work, even partially, there is a good chance there will be a useful product at the end.

We have previously mentioned that we to write about things we are expert at. We don’t have a degrees in music, nor are we professional musicians; we are more like music hackers with our own instrument playing. But do know a little something about the business of music, and how to create things.


Here is Jim’s musical experience:

  • Previously played Trumpet, French Horn, Percussion.
  • Currently playing (very) amateur Bass Guitar, and Keys; plays along with his favorite songs.
  • Noise and Modal Analysis Expert. In my engineering career I have had the good fortune to learn modal analysis, and how to calculate natural frequencies and mode shapes. A tire is a circular organ pipe with periodic excitation, much like a guitar string.
  • I am a very big music fan. Becca and I estimate we have been to about 25 concerts together.
  • I’ve been around the industry in several low level capacities like crowd management and security, for several hundred shows.


If you add the last 2 bullet points up, that comes to about 300 concerts we’ve collectively either attended or worked for.


Music is in our blood, and it is built into the fabric of this company. The primary reason for this is to keep our creative juices going, but it also helps to remind us to follow our mantra: Easy Does It.


The Beatles play the rooftop at Apple Records on Savile Row in London.
The Beatles play the rooftop at Apple Records on Savile Row in London.

One lesson I took from the professional musicians discussed in this column are

how professional they were, and how seriously they take their craft. Jobs was right to admire The Beatles.

This is where the music will live:


OAPSIE’s Online Media Platform Homepage:


Check out the main view screen for highlighted material:

Edi Oapsie himself has uncovered a few new Northeast Ohio bands. Those articles are:


New Music Review From Edi Oapsie
New Music Review From Edi Oapsie



Edi’s Review of The Harmonic Waves



Pluto’s Orbit Space Dementia Album Cover
Pluto’s Orbit Space Dementia Album Cover

Edi’s Review of Pluto’s Orbit:


Jim has also reviewed a few rock and roll and R&B classics. They are:


A Young Roy Orbison
A Young Roy Orbison

Roy Orbison, Baby, You’ve Got It


Richie Sambora plays his three necked Guitar-thing
Richie Sambora plays his three necked Guitar-thing

Richie Sambora, Edi’s Music Video Review.

Of particular interest to the AI and Computation crowd is Edi’s original music. The application of Generative AI here was twofold; first, the software we used, Soundful, is itself a result of Generative AI technology in that it is programmed to create novel music and beats on-the-fly (hence, generative!). Second, we let Edi answer the standard prompts you normally get when you engage a GenerativeAI model (Light vs. Dark, Sassy vs. Sweet, etc.)


Edi’s Music on OAPSIE Originals:


We also have Bonus Video and Music Materiel.

Music For The Masses, A Series of YouTube Music Playlists on The Galaxy of Edi
Music For The Masses, A Series of YouTube Music Playlists on The Galaxy of Edi


Edi’s Music For The Masses YouTube Playlist Section:






Sneak Preview: Our Technology Development Pipeline

We have some exciting new projects that are due for release in the immediate future. Some we can mention by name, while others are still up on the OAPSIE workbench and we will just mention those in this space generally.

The following is an incomplete list of our upcoming technology releases.

No alt text provided for this image
East Rim Trail Welcome sign, paved parking lot. Boston Heights, OH.

  • East Rim Trail Online


This is a site we have built in partnership with East Rim Trail LLC.

The site’s Mission Statement is:


To serve the all people who use East Rim Trail in The Cuyahoga Valley National Park with the most up to date Micro Information as possible.“


East Rim Trail Online has been up and running, generating ad revenue ( all OAPSIE internet properties are ad-supported), for several months now. East Rim Trail fills an information gap that currently exists in some smaller attractions and recreational activities in Northeast Ohio. Like OAPSIE.com, it is a fully functional web portal. It has its own regularly published Newsletter, also called East Rim Trail Online. We will continue to update this web portal as time goes on.


Link: (https://eastrimtrail.com)



  • Housing Industry Web Portal

The second is our second partnership with a local company, and in a business very different from the one that we traditionally serve.

Details to come.


  • Pitcherview


No alt text provided for this image

Details to come as we approach ASME IMECE in November 2023.



Link: (https://pitcherview.com)

Link: (https://oapsie.com/asme)

Link: (https://oapsie.com/imece-2023)


  • Provisional Patent Conversion for Pennantview


Pennantview Main Badge
Pennantview Main Badge

Pennantview Main Badge

Link: (https://pennantview.com)





OAPSIE Originals & Captain America 1944


OAPSIE’s Main Badge for Captain America Series
OAPSIE’s Main Badge for Captain America Series

Jim, Edi, and the rest of OAPSIE have gotten into video editing in a big way.


We are also very big fans of Marvel Comics. For historical and research purposes, we have unearthed public domain reels of the OG episodes shot during World War II. Seriously- Captain America debuted in 1944, the war ended in 1945. (This is the source material of the origin story of Steve Rodgers from the current Marvel Cinematic Universe.)


We were also testing out some of Edi's capabilities. And video editing is just plain fun, I have to admit!

Check out our vids on as we drop them on Sunday evenings at 8 pm EDT.



Editor’s Note: We also had some fun doing a similar project at the Stow Library with old public domain material. Old newspapers like the Stow Sentry are hard to find online. However, they usually exist on microfiche at the local library, as does Stow Library and The Stow Sentry. We’ve taken the responsibility of converting these to YouTube vids. But mostly we did this because it was a good day of fun at the library! Check out our first one. Stow Sentry Microfiche May 1970 to Dec 1972. Link: (https://youtu.be/DZAvpnlr4u0)


Jim Loves His E-Bike

No alt text provided for this image
Jim’s 2020 Ariel Rider X-Class 52v

An E-bike is one of the purest expressions of the values OAPSIE holds dear.


#Kindness. #Engineering. #Physics. #Computation. #Software. #Firmware. #Conservation. #Green. #Inclusion. #Exercise. #Outdoors. #Adventuring. #Construction. #ProjectManagement. #Technology. #Education. #Openmindedness. #Empathy. #Kindness. #Green. #HighTech. #DIY.


OAPSIE #Kindness Theme
OAPSIE #Kindness Theme

Over the past several years I have developed a bit of an obsession with E-Bikes for all the reasons we just stated. Just the firmware programming on the controller was no small task I’m sure; I actually attempted a to write a Finite State Machine on paper for it, but I am still finding new states and modes after several years. This is one complex piece of engineering!

Jim Loves His Ebike!
Jim Loves His Ebike! Link: (https://youtu.be/vPrqzRKhHaU)


I have constructed three E-Bike with kits from the internet, hand drill batteries, several minor electrical shocks, and plenty of YouTube how-to vids.

My wife and I currently own one each, with another on the way. (They do tend to feel newborns when you first get one.)My E-bike is a 2020 Ariel Rider X-Class 52 Volt. It’s got a single hub mounted brushless motor that puts out 2000 watts peak (~2 hp), and 96 ft-lbs of torque. To put that into perspective, my first car, which was a 1990 Ford Escort Sunsport, had 90 hp and 106 ft-lbs of torque.


My e-bike has nearly as much wheel spinning power as my first car! And it feels like it too!


Becca has a 2020 Lectric XP Step-Thru, and this is an awesome bike.


No alt text provided for this image
Becca’s 2020 Lectric XP Step-Thru

Becca’s 2020 Lectric XP Step-Thru. This bike is cool because it folds down to about the size of a suitcase for easier travel. The engineers at Lectric simply put a huge bolted flange in the middle of the frame was an ingenious lever system to make the bicycle foldable yet still rigid while riding.







Jim's Unagi E500
Jim's Unagi E500

We also own two electric scooters; they are both Unagi e500 models with two 250 Watt hub motors, and weighs in at 26 total pounds.

They are light enough and small enough to take as carry on luggage on Amtrak, which we did last year on a business trip to Chicago. No need for any car on that particular trip. Green, good exercise, good karma, all in one package.


Jim's Ariel Rider X-class 52 volt
Jim's 2020 Ariel Rider X52

This is a picture of Jim’s x52 getting a make-over. As you can see, E-Bikes are a different animal than a regular bicycle. A great deal of engineering went into making them resemble bicycles, when in fact they are a different type of machine altogether, with a different purpose. E-Bikes of this kind are meant to replace mileage you drive your car, if you dwell near a city or town. This is the reason you see more utility on these like disc brakes, motorcycle tires, and road legal lights. Keep in mind, they are still Class 2 E-Bikes (in Ohio), capable of legally riding on the Towpath Trail as it is going down Akron-Cleveland Road. And therein lies the interesting point; the are more akin to all terrain vehicles. Sometimes I go for a Sunday cruise on the bike path, other days I take this on the regular commute to work.

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Needless to say, we are excited about the whole topic of E-Bikes, and it will be a recurring theme of Deck 36. Pictured: Jim and his X-52.


Depends on the weather, and how I feel. Either way, each trip on an E-Bike get us closer to our goal of carbon neutrality.





This Electric Beast
This Electric Beast

Jim and This Electric Beast, which is a converted Giant commuter bike with 2.5 kWh of LiFePO4 battery strapped to it, made the 152 mile trip from Pittsburgh, PA to Cumberland, MD on the Great Allegheny Passage. Killer Trip!


There is plenty of engineering, and even a little software hacking, involved in a project like this.



That page links to Ariel Rider, Unagi, and Lectric brands there and we can personally attest that they are all awesome! We shall talk about this subjects some more in this column. To get that conversation started, check out this video:



The GAP Trail Eastern Continental Divide Tunnel, near Meyersdale, PA.
The GAP Trail Eastern Continental Divide Tunnel, near Meyersdale, PA.

Some information about The GAP Trail:


  • Heading south, after stops in Three Rivers Park, McKeesport, and West Newton, PA, the trail turns from urban to in-the-middle-of-the-woods, out-of-cellphone range for the rest of the trip to Cumberland. Abruptly.
  • From Pittsburgh to The Continental Divide, the trail rises almost 2000 vertical feet.
  • The trail seems flat the whole time because the grade is way less than 1%. But the elevation change gets to you over several days, even on an E-Bike.
  • It was a pleasure having an E-Bike on that part of the trip.
  • From the Continental Divide to Cumberland, MD, which covers only 26 linear miles, the trail gives back all of that 2000 vertical feet in elevation plus a little more.
  • Due to the above, having only pull brakes on my home-made E-Bike was a definite downside to the trip. We had to stop several times to adjust the brakes because they were wearing so fast.

The GAP Trail Linear Topography & Relief Map
The GAP Trail Linear Topography & Relief Map

  • The GAP Trail Linear Topography & Relief Map. The trail actually goes all the way to Washington, DC. The Cumberland to DC, which we did not do, goes by the name C&O Canal Rail Trail.


  • It was not a pleasure having a very heavy E-Bike in this last leg of the trip, due to the brake situation.
  • Lesson learned: Most E-Bikes are much heavier than regular bicycles, which is why you see them with disc brakes. If you are DIY’ing your own E-Bike build, we recommend Tektro’s mineral oil based hydraulic disc braking system, which is purpose built for Electric Bikes. Link: (https://amzn.to/3Q4Gm6D)
  • #Safety: Due to the remoteness of the trail, we highly recommend going with a buddy or two. We found fellowship with a local bicycle club in Pittsburgh to make the trip with. The more, the merrier, the safer everyone is.


Errata

  • We may change the format of this column from time to time.


  • We aim to release the next Issue of Deck 36 within approximately one month’s time.

  • Thank you very much for subscribing. We are very honored that each and every one of you made an affirmative choice to subscribe. We will not squander that trust. Thank you, and Happy Belated Birthday America!



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