Unpublished Draft (4)

"Andy, when's the next blog?" - "It's been a while, I miss reading the blog" - "Dude, what gives?!"

I know, I know, I know, the suspense is killing you. I get it. I had to wait a year between each season of Emily in Paris, and it was torture. Be thankful you only had to wait a few months.

Anywho... 4 unfinished drafts, 5 months, and millions of excuses. The problem is that every time I miss a post and let another month go by, the debt of newsworthy stuff that needs to be written about increases (newsworthy is a pretty strong term to describe the chaotic and whimsical writings of the Captain's Log, but it's fine, I do what I want). Now I'm stuck here trying to write War and Peace 2: The Electric Boogaloo.

You won't know this because you're neither omniscient, nor in the cafe car of the train as I write this, but I just stopped myself side-questing a five paragraph essay style literary analysis comparing the last 6 months of my life to War and Peace - a book I've never read, that would literally kill me if I tried. It's a shame because I had a bunch of fun jokes already lined up about my old English teacher, Ms. Wag, finally being proud of me. It would've been a phenomenal bit, but not even remotely the topic of this blog. Ironically, this is exactly why Ms. Wag was so disappointed in me: my final portfolio for her lit class was so absurdly irrelevant and off topic from the assignment, she had no idea what to do and honestly I think just repressed any memory of me taking that class.

Back on topic though:

Of all the thoughts running around my head, they mostly fall into 1 of 3 buckets:

1. Stuff that has happened
2. Things that have been built
3. Reflection

Stuff That Has Happened

Probably best to catch you all up to speed - a lot has happened since I removed myself from greater society a few months back.

Last we left off, I was trying to cut threads on the CNC lathe, dark beer season was just beginning and Sergio Perez was still employed by Red Bull.

Thread Cutting

This got way more interest from folks than I expected, especially from the non-engineers of the audience, so I feel like I owe it to you to provide an update to the previous installment.

Cool, we're getting places! Let me model the actual major diameter, and use the correct Thread Depth from above. I think this will solve all my problems.

So basically 2 things happened - I selected the wrong geometry for the computer to calculate the threads for, and I choose the wrong thread depth. Because the wrong geometry was unknowingly selected, the threads were still wrong, despite having input the new correct thread depth. I sat spiraling for hours trying to figure out why on earth changing the numbers didn't change the part at all. Finally, just starting over and remodeling everything, and doing everything over, revealed the problem!

Final result was that I got a bunch of super slick 1/4-20 threads cut - both the long plastic noodle-y parts, and the super short stubby stainless steel parts! In the end, this really closes out my haphazard self-taught CNC Turning 101 course - I feel confident enough to run a new part, start to finish on the machine, and I also have a much better idea as an engineer of what is machinable/what is not, and how to design parts to make manufacturing more straightforward.

Pitch Competition Win

Back in late October, at pretty damn near rock bottom, I pitched a version of Seaport Systems at the Maine Space Conference Pitch Competition. I talked about the incredible opportunities there are, if we marry environmental data collected in the water with data collected from satellites that image the Earth every day! There are a ton of freely available satellite imagery feeds from groups like NASA and the European Space Agency, that could be made way more useful to people like aquaculturists and researchers, if combined with in-situ data points.

Having lost a pitch competition and getting rejected from 2 grants the day before, I street parked my truck at the Holiday Inn By The Bay (the only place Maine can host a conference it seems), with exactly zero hope. Looking for a 13th reason, even the slightest critical feedback would have made Casco Bay look awfully appealing.

I strongly considered no-showing as an act of self-preservation, but I'm glad I didn't - I like my idea, and thankfully so did the judges! I/Seaport Systems won 1st place in the pitch competition, along with the $10,000 top prize and a pizza party to boot! Obviously that's a pretty life changing outcome, and one that has already helped move the needle tremendously on development and my mental well-being.

Business Cards

After officially committing to the rebranding from Fathom Fishing to Seaport Systems back in the spring, I spent most of the year without business cards. I was really hoping I could get away without them - they're annoying to carry around, they're a frivolous expense, and a waste of paper. What a weird way to start a relationship with someone:

Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy, but here's my number... written on a worn out piece of paper that I've been carrying around in my wallet for the last 6 months.

But after so many meetings and conferences, I just got too embarrassed not having business cards. Much like LinkedIn, I hate how effective they are as a tool. But alas, I'm playing the game, and finally bit the bullet. They're definitely still a work in progress, but I'm glad I've got them.

Conferences

I've been to plenty of conferences in the past, but this is the first year I've exhibited and spoken! I really would have liked to exhibit Seaport Systems at the Northeast Aquaculture Conference and Exhibition (NACE), last year, but better late than never!

In mid-October I was invited to talk on a panel at the Blue Futures Conference in Plymouth, MA! I really had no idea what to expect, from both the conference or the panel, but it was great. BFC is a new conference put on by Plymouth Foundation, looking to bolster economic development, education and opportunities in the town. Plymouth is uniquely positioned because it has a disproportionately long coastline, and is easily accessible from both Boston (lots of money, human resources connections) and Cape Cod (one of the leading hubs for oceanographic and environmental knowledge).

I spoke on a panel about the role environmental data plays on aquaculture operations. Also speaking on the panel was the Harbormaster for the Town of Plymouth, and a woman representing a company doing some interesting hydrodynamic simulations (co-founded by my old roommate from WHOI, I found out!).

After the Blue Futures Conference, which I'd classify as a solid success, I went and tabled at the Aquaculture Research Institute's Aquaculture Research and Development Summit. The event was highly attended by both aquaculturists and innovators in the state - there were a lot of really good talks and workshops, and I'm really glad I made it this year (I've been wanting to go for a couple of years now). Seaport Systems had a table at the event, and I talked with a lot of curious people - researchers studying aquaculture, aquaculturists, and other companies who have technology that could be deployed on the buoys! The big takeaway from this conference though, was that I need a kit of marketing gear - a cloth for the table, a couple of signs/posters, a dedicated set of hardware to demo, and a screen/display situation that can work without an outlet!

Contracting/Other Work

After a couple of really tight months without external work, I landed a bunch of really good contracts and jobs that were a great fit. Some have already started and finished, but some are ongoing! I learned a lot of valuable lessons bidding and taking jobs that were not good for me - either from a time/value perspective, or a skill perspective. I closed out the year working on projects that were appropriately priced, required the right amount of my time/bandwidth, and were jobs requiring skills I already had!

Things That Have Been Built

Many forces at play, not worth explaining at this juncture, have let me focus on building without worrying too much about, well, frankly everything!

Electronics

I've been thoroughly enjoying my electrical engineering era.

Three updates ago, I talked about changing strategy from making a super polished product that does one thing, to a set of modular components that can be assembled to achieve a bunch of different functions. Then, two updates ago, I talked about this a little bit - the design philosophy and the difference between cobbling together different dev boards, and having a batch of circuit boards made; and that the first batch of boards were being made.

In this update, I'll tell you the first batch of boards came in and they worked great. Then I stuck my head in the sand, revised those and designed a couple of new boards. Now I'm working on Batch 03!

When you're ordering circuit boards, you can order just the PCB, which is basically just fiberglass sandwiched between 2 layers of copper, and the copper gets milled away leaving a bunch of "tiny flat copper wires" called traces; or you can order the PCB with all your stuff on them - the integrated circuits, resistors, capacitors, etc.

For Batch 01 I just ordered the PCB, and assembled the components on to them myself. I did this for 2 reasons:

1. I thought it would help me get more familiar with my design, and what's reasonably manufacturable (how close can things be before they're difficult to assemble)
2. I thought it was wayyyyyy harder than it actually is to tell a manufacturer how to assemble your boards. It turns out this is insanely easy, and saves me a ton of time and money.

In Batch 02, I had 4 different circuit boards made:

• Logicboard - this holds both the brains of the buoy as well as the cellular modem to be able to stream data back.
• Powerboard - this has a few different circuits on it that takes power from either solar, or some other power source, uses that to charge the battery, then distributes power from the battery to any other boards I want to connect it to.
• Attitudeboard - this contains all circuits needed for the buoy to know its orientation, a GPS to know where it is, an inertial measurement unit (IMU) to know which direction it's facing and how fast it's rocking with the waves, and a barometer to know it's altitude
• Sensorboard - this is the first of many Sensorboard flavors, and connects to a bunch of Atlas Scientific sensors so the buoys can collect a variety of water quality measurements

Batch 02 I had assembled by the factory in China (although I'm excited to make a batch with a new assembler in the US!). I was really worried a component would be misplaced, or facing the wrong way and the boards would show up dead on arrival without any indication of why they didn't work. But I trusted the process and it all went great!

Now I'm working on some revisions and a couple new boards for Batch 03! So stay tuned.

LEGO!

Thank you, Will for the Christmas LEGO and Jessie for the Valentine's Day LEGO!

Support Tooling

When you've got all sorts of parts and circuit boards flying around in various states of (dis)assembly, custom tools, fixtures and trinkets can really make life easier. When you're way behind on deadlines and deliverables, it can be really hard to set aside some time for these continuous improvements, but they absolutely pay off. For example, the circuit boards are all the same shape and I don't have anything to hold them, while I'm working on them or debugging them. For something like this, it makes sense to spend 20 minutes designing and printing a custom little stand so that they're not just strewn about my desk.

In much the same vein, I designed and fabricated my own little soldering station. I was gonna buy a set, as a little treat yo' self moment, but then I saw they cost an insane amount for what they were. I could build that in a couple of hours and $20 in materials. When I say something like "I can build that in {x} number of hours for {y} number of dollars" I'm usually delusional and about to absolutely derail my life. It's exactly this kind of thinking that led me to founding this company! But this time, it actually went great. I bought a piece of steel and a few magnets from Home Depot. Then I painted the steel white, and 3D printed a bunch of magnetic standoffs that I can arrange to hold any circuit board I want while I solder them. I saved myself a few bucks, and have what I genuinely feel is a superior product. Woohoo.

Reflection

2024 was probably the worst year of my life, for so many reasons personally, professionally and spiritually (whatever that means). The glass half full way of looking at this is that I learned a lot this year. My friend Will would more eloquently refer to this as the "Find Out" portion of "Fuck Around and Find Out". Regardless of your preferred phrasing, WE ARE SO BACK. Life is good, and I feel like a human being again.

There's a lot of reflection I've done this year, but in the spirit of actually posting this blog today, I'm going to let it simmer and share this new wisdom over future installments. In fact, because I didn't have enough to do, and hadn't made my life complicated enough, I'm even considering a Captain's Log spinoff.

The Captain's Log is really 2 blogs in one. First, it's marketing/propaganda - by writing about my personal experience developing these products, I hope to humanize this corporate entity, and get people excited about giving me money in exchange for goods and services. Second, it's a personal journal. An account of what I do day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month. It's a record of all the stuff I've done, built and designed over the years. Someday it'll be really cool or important to be able to see what I did on March 17th, 2023.

There becomes a point though, where the personal journal and corporate dev log are at odds. I think I really need to write in 3 places:

1. The Captian's Log - a more refined version of what you have today, less personal stuff, more technical details, more focus on Seaport Systems and its customers
2. Andy's Blog - a personal blog of my day-to-day running the company, building stuff and the never ending quest for the perfect []
3. Andy's Blog (After Hours) - for all of the "Andy, that's a [concerning, confusing, silly] amount of thoughts to have about something so [mundane, useless, horrifying]" type of thoughts - probably published anonymously, for everyone's sake

Let's Bring It All Home

This is probably one of the longest Captain's Logs, and there's still plenty of tea steeping, but that'll be for another time. I'll leave you with a Train Track of the Day and save the small talk for next time. Thanks for reading, glad to be back, here's to a terrific 2025!

Train Track of the Day

Sixteen Stone - Bush (Apple Music | Spotify)