KAIST 6: DC motor encoder & Korean Military Troop

New things about that I have learned in Korea

                Two years of military service is one of the duties in the Korean constitution for all the Korean guys who passed the physical examination. I am also planning to serve the military duty after I graduate college. Unlike me most of the Korean guys tend to serve the military after they finish their freshman year in college; therefore most of my Korean friends have been discharged from military service. Seungmin is one of my friends who and he has been serving military for about one year. Because his military troop was only one hour distance from Daejeon by a bus, I decided to visit his troop on this past Saturday. While taking a bus to there I anticipated seeing the typical military scenery that I had imagined in watching Korean War movies or TV shows. When I arrived at the entrance, one of the soldiers standing with a long shotgun under his armpit came up to me and asked if I came for the visitation. I went to the front office that the soldier told and let them know that I was there to visit my friend. A few minutes after the staff announced Seungmin came to the entrance he was really tan and look so manly. He was completely different looking than the last time I saw him. However the troop doesn’t look like what I anticipated. There were many amusement facilities as well such as karaoke (called No-Lae-Bang), pool room, and PC room where many computers are set in for the purpose of playing games or Internet surfing. Taking picture in the military troop was prohibited but Seungmin secretly possessed his disposable camera in his pocket. With the help of his comrade we could take some pictures outside where no one could see us. Then we went to the café and had a long talk about the past two years we had been apart. Here are some pictures that I took after I got back my phone from the front desk. I hope that he finishes his military duty without any health and mental injuries.

Project Status

I could successfully implement the seven segment display with the encoder wheel on the last week. This week I have completed the mechanical and systematical algorithm that makes the SSD increasing/decreasing the numbers by combining the A and B signals generated by the embedded encoder in the DC motor. Below is the link to the video clip showing how the system works.

VID_20120501_164834

About myself

As people live their life, they encounter many new surroundings. People generally fray their nerves and are nervous until they get used to the new surroundings. I also encountered with the new surrounding which was the Hubo Lab in KAIST and it has been already two months since I arrived at Korea. I remind of the first few weeks when I was nervous of meeting new people and being surrounded by unfamiliar environments and try to knew them and adapt to the new surroundings. Nowadays I become intimate with all the lab members therefore I could relax and comfort myself. I think that the comfort as adapting to the new surroundings has pros and cons. For the pros we became familiar with each other therefore the invisible wall between me and others could be collapsed.  Consequently the feeling of being a stranger in the lab could be disappeared in my mind and get more involved with the people in the lab. On the other side if the comfortable life stays overly longer, it is easy to make people forget their first intention and live without a goal. I myself am an example of the case I described ahead. Even though I have so many things to learn and the materials that I would like to research while staying in Hubo lab, I recently live a lazy life not a productive life. I am needed to remind of the goals and the first intention that I had intended before leaving U.S. and I would like to live with the mind that I had on the first day in Korea until the last day before going back to U.S.

Photo of the week

My family with the whole family of my mother’s side.