It’s been a while since I did any work on this project, but I pulled out the components the other day and started to look into the Bluetooth connection between the Raspberry Pi and the Feather 32u4 Bluefruit LE board. It turns out to be complex and on the whole not very well explained how to make these devices talk to each other. In the final analysis it’s not actually that hard – but you have to do a…
If you are thinking of buying Adafruit components like the ones I regularly use in my projects and you don’t want to pay for, or wait for shipping from the US then you are in luck! I recently discovered that you can order Adafruit components from Core Electronics in Australia. They claim to stock the entire range of Adafruit components. You can find them here: https://core-electronics.com.au/
There is one thing in life that you can count on: AI is going to be bigger and happen sooner than almost any of us expect. Autonomous cars are perhaps the most visible implementations of AI, but it’s creeping in everywhere. From personal assistants (Sirri, Cortana, Alexa etc), to administration jobs (IBM’s Watson), and now – design and engineering. Have a look at this article about a team who have applied machine learning to automotive design: http://www.drive.com.au/motor-news/how-artificial-intelligence-could-design-your-next-car-20170228-gumxy6.html From the…
I am lucky enough to have a locker at the Men’s Shed that I am a member of. However, the lockers there are all old and second hand and all missing their keys. So they aren’t really safe to store valuables in. I wanted a key for my locker, so I thought I would get one cut. Initially I just took this photo of the front of the lock to locksmiths and asked them to cut a key….
As part of my ongoing upgrade to my photographic stage I decided to add a magnifier on an arm to it. My eyesight is ok, but when you are dealing with small electronic components it’s sometimes not enough and some artificial help can make all the difference. I bought a cheap 100mm magnifying glass on a fold up stand. I also scrounged up an old broken desk lamp (think Luxor Junior). A little bit of hacking, some stainless steel,…
After nearly a month long wait my Bee Prusa 3D printer has arrived. I don’t blame The 3D Shop – who I purchased it from, as their stock was held up by customs. Just the usual trials of international freight! They did however keep me appraised of the situation, which was good. I bought two rolls of filament to go with the printer (since it has two heads) – PLA and PVA. PLA is mostly good for prototyping, or…
As part of The Midnight Clock’s development I am currently learning how to detect the position of a dial using an Arduino. It’s a relatively simple task – namely, monitor the voltage at the middle leg of a potentiometer using an analog input on the Arduino. You can see the official Arduino tutorial here: https://www.arduino.cc/en/tutorial/potentiometer What I discovered was that while the tutorial is correct, the reading from the potentiometer fluctuated (sometimes quite strongly), even when the pot wasn’t being…
I love – and hate – the idea of self driving cars. I hate it because I love driving, and I can see a time in the future where I won’t physically be allowed to drive on public roads – or at the very least won’t be able to get the insurance that allows me to self-drive. I love it because it’s going to make driving so much safer. The cost to individuals and society of car crashes is…
Intro: This comes very much in the category of something to “do” rather than make. But it may well help with the “making” in due course. If you haven’t read my posts about biphasic sleep, you can see them here and here. In short, biphasic sleep means sleeping in two blocks, with a period of low activity wakefulness in between. It is suggested by researcher Jessa Gamble that this is the sleep pattern that humans evolved with and that our brains and bodies…
I have had some further thoughts about the design for the Midnight Clock and wanted to jot them down. Functionality: Doesn’t turn on at a set time Turns on four hours after its “biphasic” button is pushed Could use two short strips of warm white LED stuck back to back which would allow it to be inserted into an existing lamp like the (decorative) salt lamp that I have Should have a second button that just turns it on and…
