Ken's fiddles at home

Ken
Posts: 159
Joined: Sat Feb 08, 2020 9:38 am
Location: Adelaide

Ken's fiddles at home

Post by Ken »

Everyone having a great Easter at home?

My big electronics project is a fizzer so far. :(
Sent my battery monitoring circuit off with Pete to take to his 'shack' at Morgan, after working on it and the software til 2.30am Fri morn.
(Fortunately he didn't get arrested or fined for actually going somewhere with his partner for Easter.)
He connected it up. It sent one set of readings to the cloud (my server), then died. Bugger.
Will have to see if I can find its problem when he returns it, or just put a new one together.

The idea is that the circuit monitors stuff like battery voltages, air temperature, battery temperature, and sends the values to my server every 10 minutes. Then Pete can see whats been happening with his solar-charged batteries from anywhere, viewing web pages I wrote. And if he deems it useful, the server can email him if a voltage goes too low. The circuit is powered by one of the batteries it's monitoring.
-Worked alright on my desk. Dunno why it failed in the field.

That was an Arduino board which can send & receive WiFi. Last night I had a very quick play with a bit more expensive board which can do both WiFi and Bluetooth. A very small sample program allowed me to pair my phone with it, and send text to and fro, typing on the attached computer, and the phone. Not sure what I can use the Bluetooth feature for, but nice to know I can do it.

3D printing:
We have a suspicious hole in the backyard behind a moss rock. To try to figure out what made it, I wanted to put some bait in front (nuts), and leave the Gopro camera videoing it. (There is a resident rat I'm trying to eliminate, could be him.)
Got out a little tripod. Kit of Gopro bits doesn't include a tripod mount.
So I looked up 'Gopro' on thingiverse.com, found a design. 3D printed it on my cheap small 3D printer.
Works a treat.
The camera videoed until the battery went flat. The only thing eating the nuts was ants. :|
Other possibilities for the hole-digging culprit are a blue tongue lizard or a snake. Either maybe wanting to hibernate.

So that's the sort of stuff that amuses me. And at the moment I have plenty of time to do it, with Ulysses duties and riding totally suspended for a while.
Anyone else like to tell us what they've been up to while secluded at home?
-Its not totally isolated here. Yesterday we had a neighbour over for a drink. Her at one end of the patio table, Michele & I at the other. ;)
Ken Wagnitz #21315
Yankee in Oz
Posts: 59
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2020 2:44 am

Re: Ken's fiddles at home

Post by Yankee in Oz »

It occurs to me that: If it is a big rat you are after but a snake in the hole, that could be a big snake. If the snake is that big and comes out of the hole, it might decide to eat your GoPro. :D :lol: :oops:
Cster
Posts: 119
Joined: Fri Mar 20, 2020 7:44 pm

Re: Ken's fiddles at home

Post by Cster »

Would it be possible for the Arduino board to send via Bluetooth a short message to the mans phone if any parameters are breached whilst he is working around the home. If it can connect via Bluetooth then it has his attention immediately, otherwise he needs to see the downloaded data sent to the cloud. At least it could prompt him to check some anomaly if one arose.
Ken
Posts: 159
Joined: Sat Feb 08, 2020 9:38 am
Location: Adelaide

Re: Ken's fiddles at home

Post by Ken »

Cster wrote: Sat May 30, 2020 7:19 am Would it be possible for the Arduino board to send via Bluetooth a short message to the mans phone if any parameters are breached whilst he is working around the home. If it can connect via Bluetooth then it has his attention immediately, otherwise he needs to see the downloaded data sent to the cloud. At least it could prompt him to check some anomaly if one arose.
Probably could do that, Keith. But its beyond me. Bluetooth has pretty short range.
Easier to send an email. Do you receive emails on your phone?

(I have sent text to my phone from an Arduino ESP32 module via Bluetooth, but I had to have an app running to receive it.)
Ken Wagnitz #21315
Cster
Posts: 119
Joined: Fri Mar 20, 2020 7:44 pm

Re: Ken's fiddles at home

Post by Cster »

Hi Ken, No mate I don't do much with my phone at all. It would accept one if I was inclined to link it. So that is a useful tool for him. I wonder what actually failed on the one he is using.
Ken
Posts: 159
Joined: Sat Feb 08, 2020 9:38 am
Location: Adelaide

Re: Ken's fiddles at home

Post by Ken »

One of my fiddles is this website and forum. Just upgraded the forum to the latest version. Still seems to work, so that's good!
(Consider this post a test.)

I got Pete's battery monitoring system working again. Has been running for some time now, quite reliably.
A software issue was the problem. I suspect my host changed their interface a bit to 'improve' security. So now the battery monitor is reduced to sending HTTP instead of HTTPS. -I doubt the Chinese or anyone else will benefit from intercepting the voltages and temperatures in Pete's shed.
Now I just need to improve my software that displays graphs of the results. It works, but not really well.

Another small successful print from my 3D printer, -clips for the window blinds in my AVan. -After I'd bought some for $1+ each. Should have looked online for a design first. (I can print stuff already designed, but I'm not much chop at designing stuff myself.)
And now the van is sporting a Flying Spaghetti Monster logo on the back, in fluorescent yellow. I 3D printed it as large as the printer would do.
(Looks like the Christian fish symbol, but bony, with an eye-patch.)
Ken Wagnitz #21315
olfrt
Posts: 83
Joined: Sun Feb 09, 2020 3:50 pm
Location: Rochester Vic

Re: Ken's fiddles at home

Post by olfrt »

I'm in awe of your computer skills Ken. I'm always scared of losing or buggering up any programs, so I (usually) leave things alone.
Paul Butler #17758
Ken
Posts: 159
Joined: Sat Feb 08, 2020 9:38 am
Location: Adelaide

Re: Ken's fiddles at home

Post by Ken »

I'm not that skilled, Paul. My software is mostly cobbling together stuff others have written, to get it to do what I want.
My Arduino code is definitely in that category. The Arduino is pretty easy to work with because there are libraries of code to handle most pieces of hardware, like temperature sensors (Dallas one wire bus).
Without the Internet to find out how to do things, I'd be stuffed. Life was much harder when all we had was books to tell us how to do things. It was either buy expensive programming books, or haunt good libraries, or both. I've put a few bulky books in the recycling, made obsolete by software advancements and the ease of looking up things on the net instead of in a book.
I have data books for various chips I have, but its quicker to pull down a datasheet from the net, than go find the relevant book then look up the chip!
Ken Wagnitz #21315
Ken
Posts: 159
Joined: Sat Feb 08, 2020 9:38 am
Location: Adelaide

Stirling "engine"

Post by Ken »

A new shiny thing to look at. :)
Works a treat. A cup of hot coffee under it, and it's off.
CoffeeTopper600.jpg
CoffeeTopper600.jpg (57.44 KiB) Viewed 5000 times
Ken Wagnitz #21315
olfrt
Posts: 83
Joined: Sun Feb 09, 2020 3:50 pm
Location: Rochester Vic

Re: Ken's fiddles at home

Post by olfrt »

You'll probably drink more coffee now, lol.
Paul Butler #17758
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