A modern invention

[Technobarbarian]

Catmobile's latest thread reminds me of a very simple recent
invention that I recently figured out I had paid for.

When I got into archery I did a lot of reading to figure out what
would be the best bow for me, because I knew very little about it. I
ended up buying the least expensive compound bow Bowtech puts their name
on because it's considered a good beginner bow. Shit, it's a great
beginner bow and I don't think I'll ever outgrow it. Part of what makes
it a good bow for beginners is that it has "binary cams". Compound bows
themselves are a fairly recent invention. Binary cams are even newer and
it is about the simplest invention you can imagine. The bow string I
pull is connected directly to both cams. That's it. That is the
invention. Binary cams are all over the place now, but look what happened.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_cam#:~:text=The%20binary%20cam%20is%20a,design%20on%20December%2011%2C%202007.

"The binary cam is described as a modified twin cam setup where each cam
is slaved to the other via a loop of string connecting the two cams.
This is contrasted with a typical twin cam setup where the ends of the
bowstring are physically anchored onto each of the bow limbs.

As a twin cam system relies on each cam rotating independently, based
solely on the force of the string and the resistance of the bow limbs
being absolutely symmetrical, there is room for a twin cam system to
"lose tune" [4] through wear and tear, string stretch, or just general
age. The effect of a detuned twin cam bow is that the two cams rotate
out of sync with each other, causing the bowstring to accelerate in two
alternating directions upon release. This causes a number of adverse
consequences, the most obvious being unsteady arrow flight.

The binary cam overcomes this by 'slaving' each cam to the other; as one
cam is unable to rotate without the direct equivalent action of the
other, the two rotate in near perfect synchronization, with any possible
differences in rotation automatically correcting themselves as the shot
cycle is completed. In effect, a binary cam bow never needs cam-timing
tuning,[5] whereas a high end twin cam equivalent might need it done as
often as every few months in order to maintain critical accuracy.
Bowtech pays Rex Darlington of Darton Archery royalties for use of this
cam design."

"Types Of Compound Bows"

"Binary Cam Compound Bows
The fourth type of compound bows are binary cams and these are a further
development from hybrid cam bows. In a binary cam compound bow, there
are two active cams just like in a dual-cam setup.

The cable from the two cams go to the opposite cam. This means the cable
from the top cam gets attached to the lower cam while the cable from the
lower cam gets attached to the upper cam.

Such an arrangement makes both cams depend on the movements of each
other, producing an entirely different dynamic from the other compound bows.

Binary cam bows generate plenty of power for high-speed arrows and the
two cams regulate each other. Any imperfections in their limbs get
smoothed out for clean and accurate arrow releases.

Advantages of binary cam compound bows.

They have high power & speed. Unlike hybrid cam bows, binary bows have
two power cams which helps to produce more power and more draw weight.
This advantage means faster arrows.

They are built to have high precision. The unique cam configuration of
binary cam bows makes them self-balancing and therefore reduces any nock
travel issues.

This makes the binary cam compound bow the most precise compound bow.
The technology of bows is always getting better and this makes our sport
more exciting than ever.

Disadvantages of binary cam compound bows.

Some patent issues have halted many manufacturers from marketing their
binary cam compound bows as such.

They sell their binary bows as hybrid bows, although the technology is
actually binary, they label them as hybrid-bows to avoid legality problems.

Also their highly complex design translates to frequent maintenance and
tuning."

https://archerysupport.com/types-of-compound-bows/

With modern strings the only maintenance my bow needs is to have
new strings installed every two or three years and I put a little wax on
them every now and then. My bow is more accurate than me and probably
always will be.

(On a side note: I saw a guy out at the club with a bow that has
four cams instead of the usual two. It's a dual binary cam system. The
four strings meet in one string that the archer pulls. If you're really
good at tuning it might be slightly more accurate than a conventional
bow--maybe. The guy who was using it works for the company that makes it.)

TB

[bfh]

That's all very interesting, but at the end of the day going forward,
I allege that you're going to make a lot of people uncomfortable by
your persistent and gratuitous use of "slaved". Some influencer on
megafacebutt with 627,453 loyal followers is going to get offended,
and your sorry ass is going to become persona non grata in a wide
geoideological social venue. I mean, c'mon man - I'm not joking - when
every dumbass thing is on the table, you gotta literally be
circumspect if you expect to not be held accountable for your
inefficacious and outrageous and unacceptable insensitivity. Not only
that, but "binary" could also maybe conceivably possibly enter into
the calculus and also bite you in the ass and cause your excretion
metrics to evolve in an unanticipated and undesirable direction.

--
bill
Theory don't mean squat if it don't work.

[kmiller]

Archery has advanced a ton since I was shooting. My first compound was a
TSS Quadraflex in '89. In 1991 I bought a "Royal Hunter" from High
Country Archery in Idaho. I sold both bows and all my old archery
equipment earlier this year.

It would be fun to swap stories about archery sometime. For the 4 or 5
years I was into archery I was loosing at least a hundred arrows a day
and often more. We had a ton of fun and even did some bowfishing for
carp (not the bfh carp kind) in eastern Washington.

[bfh]

kmiller wrote:
> On 6/17/2022 1:44 PM, Technobarbarian wrote:
>>

>>  Â Â  Catmobile's latest thread reminds me of a very simple recent

>> invention that I recently figured out I had paid for.
>>

>>  Â Â Â  When I got into archery I did a lot of reading to figure out

>>  Â Â Â Â Â  With modern strings the only maintenance my bow needs is

>> to have new strings installed every two or three years and I put a
>> little wax on them every now and then. My bow is more accurate than
>> me and probably always will be.
>>

>>  Â Â Â  (On a side note: I saw a guy out at the club with a bow that

>> has four cams instead of the usual two. It's a dual binary cam
>> system. The four strings meet in one string that the archer pulls.
>> If you're really good at tuning it might be slightly more accurate
>> than a conventional bow--maybe. The guy who was using it works for
>> the company that makes it.)
>>
>> TB
>
> Archery has advanced a ton since I was shooting. My first compound was
> a TSS Quadraflex in '89. In 1991 I bought a "Royal Hunter" from High
> Country Archery in Idaho. I sold both bows and all my old archery
> equipment earlier this year.
>
> It would be fun to swap stories about archery sometime. For the 4 or 5
> years I was into archery I was loosing at least a hundred arrows a day
> and often more. We had a ton of fun and even did some bowfishing for
> carp (not the bfh carp kind) in eastern Washington.

I'll bet you cheated and took advantage of the poor disadvantaged carp
by using polarized sunglasses. And I'll allege that the poor carp was
probably under 24 years old - just a child. Was it also a mass
arrowing? Did you frighten 4 or more?

Ping ms
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18.44

[Technobarbarian]

I'm strictly a duffer. What little stories I have are about the
pleasantly odd people you meet at the club. One of the nice things about
shooting out there is that most of the time someone will eventually find
your lost arrows and toss them in the arrow bucket. Last time out I
found one in the bucket and lost one.

TB

[kmiller]

Quit fishing for compliments, you piker.

>
>  Ping ms
> 40
> Download Mbps
> 21.39
> Upload Mbps
> 18.44
>
>

Lucky basstard.

[Technobarbarian]

Yeah, I've seen some of that buzz over the years. So I got to
wondering about the possible alternatives. They stink. They're generally
ambiguous about the relationship between the various devices. I
particularly object to "follower" instead of slave, because this implies
the follower has a choice. This usually isn't the case. I certainly
don't want my cams wandering all over the place.

Personally I don't think slave is all *that* racial. The practice
has been pretty widespread. I don't think there's any race that hasn't
had some people enslaved. Americans don't seem to discriminate much in
the people they enslave. There have been times when it was somewhat
common for people to sell their children in this country. There were
still open markets for Native Americans after the Civil War.

https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/news/how-master-slave-terminology-reexamined-in-electrical-engineering/

"A Change in Terminology May Require Steep Adjustments"

So far 'binary' seems to be safe. I have met people who describe
their orientation as "non-binary", which I think is nicely
self-explanatory, without going into details you really don't need.

Don't even get me started on the use of male and female for
various connectors.

"The terms plug, pin, and prong are also often used for "male"
connectors, and receptacle, socket, and slot are used for "female"
connectors."

Oh please, these people have no appreciation for the human love of
euphemisms. The difference between prong and slot and the usual terms
escapes. If anything they could be considered a bit more crude.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_of_connectors_and_fasteners#:~:text=The%20terms%20plug%2C%20pin%2C%20and,used%20for%20%22female%22%20connectors.


Personally I don't worry much about this stuff. I figure that when
I use old terminology people will think it's because I'm old and stuck
in my ways instead of just plain rude.

TB

[Ralph E Lindberg]

On 2022-06-17 20:44:29 +0000, Technobarbarian said:

> Catmobile's latest thread reminds me of a very simple recent
> invention that I recently figured out I had paid for.
>
> When I got into archery I did a lot of reading to figure out what
> would be the best bow for me, because I knew very little about it. I
> ended up buying the least expensive compound bow Bowtech puts their
> name on because it's considered a good beginner bow. Shit, it's a great
> beginner bow and I don't think I'll ever outgrow it. Part of what makes
> it a good bow for beginners is that it has "binary cams". Compound bows
> themselves are a fairly recent invention. Binary cams are even newer
> and it is about the simplest invention you can imagine. The bow string
> I pull is connected directly to both cams. That's it. That is the
> invention. Binary cams are all over the place now, but look what
> happened.

I stopped shooting years ago, but I and my friends were a little more
traditonal. As in Flat, Long or Recurve with a few going as far
traditional (not modern) composite

[Technobarbarian]

I enjoy watching the competitive recurve people practicing at 60
yards and more. My wife is using a modern recurve bow. I'm more of an
instant gratification type. I got into archery from an odd angle. For
the last 15 years I was mostly working in consumer electronics. Some of
the clients were major players in the video game business. I started
playing video games so I knew what I was talking about. The gamers are
impressed when an old guy can speak their language, instead of saying
you don't play video games like it's some sort of sin. I heard *that*
frequently. My favorite was role playing games and I liked long distance
weapons. I figured that if I ended up going toe to toe with some
electronic monster I had already made a serious mistake. So I frequently
ended up with an electronic bow, or some sort of plasma weapon.

When we moved here we ended up within easy walking distance of an
excellent archery shop. Eventually I got curious and we took their basic
introductory course. When we found out about the local archery club that
sealed the deal. It's a beautiful facility and membership costs less
than what we spend on arrows.

I'm strictly a recreational archer. The only person I compete
against is myself. I thought I might want to hunt with my bow until I
found out that my Sister and her husband are willing and able to supply
me with all the elk meat we can eat, already cut and wrapped. We eat elk
like it's beef and I don't buy much beef. The club has 5 field courses
that are nicely shaded by trees that are almost 90 years old. The Oregon
fish and game commission helped pay for a cover over the shooting area
on the target course. This makes it a nice way for an old duffer to get
some exercise.

TB

[Ralph E Lindberg]

On 2022-06-25 19:22:51 +0000, Technobarbarian said:

> On 6/20/2022 7:41 AM, Ralph E Lindberg wrote:
>> On 2022-06-17 20:44:29 +0000, Technobarbarian said:
>>
>>>     Catmobile's latest thread reminds me of a very simple recent
>>> invention that I recently figured out I had paid for.
>>>
>>>      When I got into archery I did a lot of reading to figure out what
>>> would be the best bow for me, because I knew very little about it. I
>>> ended up buying the least expensive compound bow Bowtech puts their
>>> name on because it's considered a good beginner bow. Shit, it's a great
>>> beginner bow and I don't think I'll ever outgrow it. Part of what makes
>>> it a good bow for beginners is that it has "binary cams". Compound bows
>>> themselves are a fairly recent invention. Binary cams are even newer
>>> and it is about the simplest invention you can imagine. The bow string
>>> I pull is connected directly to both cams. That's it. That is the
>>> invention. Binary cams are all over the place now, but look what
>>> happened.
>>
>>
>> I stopped shooting years ago, but I and my friends were a little more
>> traditonal. As in Flat, Long or Recurve with a few going as far
>> traditional (not modern) composite
>>
>
> I enjoy watching the competitive recurve people practicing at 60
> yards and more. My wife is using a modern recurve bow. I'm more of an
> instant gratification type.

Ya the "York" round finishes at 100 yards. People that can hit that
consistently are scary.

[kmiller]

I was an avid bowhunter, back in the day, though I never really damaged
the game populations much. A friend and I used to practice archery daily
and we enjoyed going to archery shoots with 3-D targets. One shoot had a
prize wheel set up. They had a 5 foot diameter plywood wheel that
rotated. They placed straw bales in front of the target such that, from
the shooting line 35 yards away, you could only see the top half of the
wheel as it rotated.

On the wheel they had 2 inch round colored stickers with a prize written
on each sticker. The prizes were things like broadheads and bowstrings.
They also had 12 packs of beer and the top prizes were a couple of nice
Old Timer knives. They charged $3 for three chances to shoot at the
wheel. I paid my money and my last arrow was touching one of the prizes
but they wouldn't give it to me 'cause they said my arrow hadn't broken
the edge of the sticker - only bent it. I said, OK, and paid them for 3
more tries. This time I took both of the knives and one of the beer boxes.

The trick was, and I don't know if they realized it, but the wheel
rotated at a constant speed. Once you knew which stickers had which
prizes on them it was a simple matter to pick a spot just above the bale
and wait for the sticker to rotate down to it. Then, it was just a
simple matter of timing the arrow flight and hitting your spot.

I gave one of the knives to my friend and we drank the beer back at our
campsite. I still have the other knife.

[Don Lampson]

In Ye Olde Nottingham, you would have won the hand of Maid Marion, in marriage, for such marksmanship... It still was certainly a victory for archers these days...

Friar Tuck. XX