Sorta-OT: Movies and Electronic Design

[Artemus]

Never heard of a repeater, huh? ;-) It took me a while to figure out
why my cell phone's GPS worked so well at work (it's a metal building,
after all). It suddenly dawned on me that there are people designing
the stuff. Of *course* there's a repeater. *D'oh*

Why wouldn't every GPS device receiving a signal from a repeater show
the location of the repeaters GPS antenna? Or something totally BS?
Oh, wait. We're talking movies here not reality.
Art

 

[[email protected]]

Never heard of a repeater, huh? ;-) It took me a while to figure out
why my cell phone's GPS worked so well at work (it's a metal building,
after all). It suddenly dawned on me that there are people designing
the stuff. Of *course* there's a repeater. *D'oh*

At least the GPS will show that you are deeper under ground than in
reality, due to the feeder cable velocity factor and how the cable is
routed. Also the propagation delay in leaky feeder within the tunnel,
will cause up to hundreds of meters of positional errors, since all
the four satellite signals required for a fix are delayed by the same
amount.

 

[Jasen Betts]

At least the GPS will show that you are deeper under ground than in
reality, due to the feeder cable velocity factor and how the cable is
routed.

nah, the GPS only sees the time between of the signals from the
different satellites and that isn't changed by the repeater

 

[Uwe Hercksen]

At least the GPS will show that you are deeper under ground than in
reality, due to the feeder cable velocity factor and how the cable is
routed. Also the propagation delay in leaky feeder within the tunnel,
will cause up to hundreds of meters of positional errors, since all
the four satellite signals required for a fix are delayed by the same
amount.

Hello,

no that is wrong. The GPS will show the position of the receive antenna
of the repeater. The delay of the cable will add to all received GPS
satellites signals and produce no shift of position.

Bye

 

[JW]

How about racks of Tek TM5000s on Battle Star Galactica(?).

I never noticed that. Was that the original or the newer one?

 

[John Miles, KE5FX]

Interesting, what with the Oscars and all, I've been asked to review a
screenplay that has some (somewhat far-fetched) technical content so
the movie maker can avoid any really bad eye-rolling technical
goof-ups.

What's the worst error(s) you've seen or heard in a movie? You know,
the kind where it's just impossible to suspend disbelief and enjoy the
show..

I think the worst I've ever seen was in No Country For Old Men, where
Chigurh blew up a car with the old stuff-a-rage-in-the-gas-filler
schtick. I expect that sort of lameness from everybody in Hollywood
*but* the Coen Bros.

-- john, KE5FX

 

[[email protected]]

Why wouldn't every GPS device receiving a signal from a repeater show
the location of the repeaters GPS antenna?

Don't care if it tells me the location of the building I'm in or which
stall I used. It works and is cheaper than providing a GPS simulator
for every engineer.

Or something totally BS?
Oh, wait. We're talking movies here not reality.

<boggle>

 

[Artemus]

Don't care if it tells me the location of the building I'm in or which
stall I used. It works and is cheaper than providing a GPS simulator
for every engineer.

You didn't (can't?) answer the question, so you provide an example where
it works in one application as a diversion. You must be a Democrat.
Art

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

What is also interesting is that communicaton links break down at critical moments,
in space, and then _snow_ interrupts the TV screen with the upper commandef.
Clearly no digital TV yet in the future.

Watched just such a movie a few days ago, German made, those guys worked 15 years on it it seems...
"Nydenion Krieg der Kolonien", think it is one better than starwars:
http://www.nydenion.com/
but then in the end he goes to all that special effects crap that the last starwars had too much of.

I always wonder how all those things can just float in space...

Funny, most of the things that bother us are in production, not the
writing. Maybe they'd best retain a good consultant through the
process.


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

 

[Charlie E.]

Enhancing crappy surveillance camera images from Kilopixels to Gigapixels.
Cell phones, GPS devices, etc working far underground.
Car tires squealing on dirt roads.
Lissajous figures on o'scopes.
The list is always growing with each new movie/episode.
Art

That was one of my pet peeves back when I was working in video. I
actually had a manager tell me that I should be able to just enhance
that picture of a group or cars, and read all their license plates
individually. He said he had seen it demonstrated by some defense
company. I actually assumed they had edited it together in a
demonstration video. His eyes glazed over as I tried to explain why
that was actually impossible.

No, you can't take a picture and enhance it much beyond the original
resolution, unless you have several serial shots to work with, and
very sophisticated models of the optics of the individual cameras
being used...

 

[Martin Brown]

Interesting, what with the Oscars and all, I've been asked to review a
screenplay that has some (somewhat far-fetched) technical content so
the movie maker can avoid any really bad eye-rolling technical
goof-ups.

What's the worst error(s) you've seen or heard in a movie? You know,
the kind where it's just impossible to suspend disbelief and enjoy the
show..

Viking invader getting out of a long boat on the beach sword in hand and
with a Rolex watch prominently displayed on his wrist....

Best at the time they were done were the shuttle flight and docking
sequence in 2001 a space odyssey which was perfect in almost every
detail. These days it looks very dated. Although the flat screen TVs in
the astronauts quarters were astonishingly prescient. CCTV eyes were
rather larger than we already have and HAL is still to be built.

The generation of electronic designers who grew up with Star Trek have
given us the mobile phone so there is something to be said for SciFi.

 

[brent]

Interesting, what with the Oscars and all, I've been asked to review a
screenplay that has some (somewhat far-fetched) technical content so
the movie maker can avoid any really bad eye-rolling technical
goof-ups.

What's the worst error(s) you've seen or heard in a movie? You know,
the kind where it's just impossible to suspend disbelief and enjoy the
show..

Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

The invisible airplane on Wonder Woman...had my eyes
rolling...ok...actually had my eyeballs popped out of my sockets and
glued to the TV

 

[[email protected]]

You didn't (can't?) answer the question,

It was already answered, moron. Do you need it repeated many times
before it sinks in? Figures.

so you provide an example where
it works in one application as a diversion.

Idiot, one application is all that's needed. The one it's used for.
You really are stupid.

You must be a Democrat.

That's you, in spades.

 

[Frank Miles]

That is a bit like the ISS.
Such a con, 'training for living in zero gravity'. Anybody with a
functioning brain or part there of would rotate that spacecraft to get
rid of that annoying zero gravity at least in some places of the
spacecraft. NASA does acrobatics as media show and cashes in in that via
taxes.

It's a bit more complicated. Especially with the small size the
rotational speed would have to be fairly high to get much force. You end
up living in an archade ride. I had a prof with vestibular system
expertise (he had worked with the space program) claim that this cure was
worse than the disease. {turn off the waltz} Plus, of course, it would
probably make docking and observations more challenging.

 

[[email protected]]

It's a bit more complicated. Especially with the small size the
rotational speed would have to be fairly high to get much force. You end
up living in an archade ride. I had a prof with vestibular system
expertise (he had worked with the space program) claim that this cure was
worse than the disease. {turn off the waltz} Plus, of course, it would
probably make docking and observations more challenging.

The simplest case would be to use two ships with equal mass connected
to each other with a wire as in one of the Gemini flights.

Regarding docking problems, the classical 1950's von Braun space
stations with a large torus and an docking adapter in the middle
should solve the problem. Put the approaching supply module into the
same rotational speed and there is no docking problems.

 

[[email protected]]

NASA is just a media show with 'artists impressions' of alien planets,
Hollywood makes much better ones, with real aliens.

NASA is a disgrace to science and engineering,
they found life on mars with Viking, then disgraced that scientist,
and now they did it again a few month ago with an other scientist.
No life should be found they are PUSSIES afraid to travel any further than a few hundred km up,
lower earth orbit.
It is just a politically created money sinkhole sometimes called 'job creation'.

I sincerely hope the Chinese land on mars first, as that COULD be a wakeup call,
but already now the US is going the way of Somalia.
So, a congress , government that does one step to the left (moon), then 4 or 8 years later one step to the right (mars),
then .. again., going absolutely NOWHERE, every next president destroying what the other was building.
Here is a communist rule with a bunch of experts setting longtime goals perhaps
the best solution for space exploration.

IMO, the Apollo project was the first and most expensive reality TV
show in the history

Similar results (collection of lunar rocks), could have been obtained
with automatic probes.

 

[Artemus]

It was already answered, moron. Do you need it repeated many times
before it sinks in? Figures.


Idiot, one application is all that's needed. The one it's used for.
You really are stupid.


That's you, in spades.

Into the bozo bin with you. You'll be in good company.

 

[[email protected]]

Into the bozo bin with you. You'll be in good company.

It's clear you don't like the truth. So be it.

 

[[email protected]]

Hello,

no that is wrong. The GPS will show the position of the receive antenna
of the repeater. The delay of the cable will add to all received GPS
satellites signals and produce no shift of position.

Thank you for pointing out my error of thinking about three pseudo
code distances and an accurate clock, while in practice, you have four
satellites to get the pseudo code distances.

Anyway, any leaky feeder system will show the GPS stationary repeater
antenna position on any mobile antenna in the tunnel.

 

[ehsjr]

Interesting, what with the Oscars and all, I've been asked to review a
screenplay that has some (somewhat far-fetched) technical content so
the movie maker can avoid any really bad eye-rolling technical
goof-ups.

What's the worst error(s) you've seen or heard in a movie? You know,
the kind where it's just impossible to suspend disbelief and enjoy the
show..



Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

Whatever you do, don't cut the _RED_ wire.

Ed