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    <title>Richard's Blog</title>
    <link>https://richard.familie-zink.org/blog</link>
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    <description>Project documentation &amp; technical blog by Richard Zink</description>
    <language>en</language>
    <lastBuildDate>Thu, 10 Sep 2026 07:25:48 GMT</lastBuildDate>
    <item>
      <title>Inside this blog: a share-notes engine with a themable frontend</title>
      <link>https://richard.familie-zink.org/blog/inside-this-blog-a-share-notes-engine-with-a-themable-frontend</link>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 08 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>How this blog runs on Trilium's public share: a custom EJS template, five note-based theme families with matching palettes, and the same colors for the Trilium app and Gitea - all in two repos.</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>FAST-LIO with loop closing on IGNIS-8</title>
      <link>https://richard.familie-zink.org/blog/ignis8-fast-lio-loop-closing</link>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 02 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>A code-level tour of IGNIS-8's LiDAR-inertial odometry: a FAST-LIO-style error-state Kalman filter fusing the L1 PM's 250 Hz IMU with its 20 Hz point cloud into a 6-DOF pose, plus a keyframe-based loop closer that detects revisits, confirms them by scan match and rebuilds the four-level voxel map without drift.</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Arming the drive: a fail-safe by default</title>
      <link>https://richard.familie-zink.org/blog/ignis8-drive-arm-gate</link>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 30 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>Why IGNIS-8's drive starts disarmed like a drone: a fail-safe-by-default arm gate that only lets the vehicle move after the operator deliberately enables it, and that re-disarms automatically on every watchdog timeout or emergency stop.</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Emergency stop: a latch that never releases itself</title>
      <link>https://richard.familie-zink.org/blog/ignis8-emergency-stop</link>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 29 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>Why IGNIS-8's emergency stop is a latched, multi-source system that never resets itself: two independent latches, battery and operator triggers, a manual-only release, and a stop that is selective — the drives release while the camera gimbal and sensors stay live.</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Cutting the thermal stream and SLAM load on IGNIS-8</title>
      <link>https://richard.familie-zink.org/blog/cutting-thermal-stream-and-slam-load</link>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>Why my reconnaissance UGV kept throwing OVERLOAD, and how a lookup-table palette, a frame-rate cap and an offscreen raster blit took the thermal stream and the SLAM map from a saturated CPU to a smooth ride.</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Battery rethink: prismatic PHEV1 vs cylindrical M50L</title>
      <link>https://richard.familie-zink.org/blog/ignis8-battery-phev1-m50l</link>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>Comparing the Samsung PHEV1 prismatic 6S2P pack against a 6S21P LG INR21700M50L cylindrical candidate for IGNIS-8: OCV and power-limit curves, weight and space, and how both cell models are selectable in the VCU config.</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The technical hurdles between the drawing board and the first drive</title>
      <link>https://richard.familie-zink.org/blog/ignis8-technical-hurdles</link>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 16 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>The problems between the drawing board and a working vehicle: a browser-fed watchdog that flipped the OVERLOAD badge, a palette filter that ate nine cores, a camera that refused to follow orders, and a map that stalled the handheld.</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Project start</title>
      <link>https://richard.familie-zink.org/blog/ignis8-project-start</link>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>How IGNIS-8 came to be: a swollen cell on a battery production floor, a phone call, and the idea of a remotely operated platform that could look at it from a safe distance.</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Leather Notebook Cover</title>
      <link>https://richard.familie-zink.org/blog/leather-notebook-cover</link>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 21 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>Hand sewn notebook cover made from goat skin leather</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>!NEC MPi400 Namechange</title>
      <link>https://richard.familie-zink.org/blog/nec-mpi400-namechange</link>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 28 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>To directly go out of harms way with legal problems, I changed the name of the project.</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>!NEC MPi400: Reverse Engineering the Keyboard Matrix</title>
      <link>https://richard.familie-zink.org/blog/nec-mpi400-reverse-engineering-the-keyboard-matrix</link>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 25 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>Create PCB; Do measurements; Use QMK; Have Keyboard! 😎</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>!NEC MPi400: Disassembly</title>
      <link>https://richard.familie-zink.org/blog/nec-mpi400-project-start</link>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 16 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>Complete disassembly of the MobilePro 900</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>SoC/OCV Calculation</title>
      <link>https://richard.familie-zink.org/blog/soc-ocv-calculation</link>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 07 Jul 2024 07:01:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>C source for SoC calculation based on open circuit voltage</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>DLG INR18650-320 cell data</title>
      <link>https://richard.familie-zink.org/blog/dlg-inr18650-320</link>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 25 Feb 2024 08:31:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>SoC/OCV liion cell data</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Open Strainwave Mount (OSWM) planning</title>
      <link>https://richard.familie-zink.org/blog/oswm-planning</link>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 02 Dec 2023 08:51:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>Planning a mount with strainwave gears for use with OnStep</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>NGC 281: Pacman Nebula</title>
      <link>https://richard.familie-zink.org/blog/ngc-281-pacman-nebula</link>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 23 Mar 2023 07:43:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>Image of Pacman Nebula taken with Star Adventurer</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Revisiting old astrophotographies</title>
      <link>https://richard.familie-zink.org/blog/revisiting-astrophotographies</link>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 22 Jun 2022 11:28:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>Revisiting old photographies of M31 and M42 with a refreshed software process</description>
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