Well, almost. The pulse is very low, members have spread away, it’s been years without posts.
But the spirit survived:
Enjoy the time that you cannot buy.
I had to change the hosting, so this post is here just to remind us that Modprobe is a great thing.
It still allows me to load a “time.o” module, and wakes up good memories.
The former theme was a bit buggy so I updated it to this new darker version of zBench.
As an exception comments are turned on on this post. Feel free to be the troll of your dreams.
There is some other minor update :
– modprobe.ch has it’s own domain name now (not modprobe.complex.ch subdomain)
– database is clean
– It runs on VAX-11 and I rewrite the CMS in C# o_O
It’s a promise, next post will be interesting.
PS: check it on your smartphone.
David and me dropped by Darja’s place today to contemplate her work on the perfusion project.
And yeah!, they (Darja and her boyfriend) made a nice construction. It works like a charm except that the sensor is missing ! The pump is silent, and a little bit too powerful.
Well we’ve been very busy all of us theses weeks.
Dear reader, have a look at these modest pictures. That’s all we have today.
Continue reading Homesense day #5 – perfusion II the return
We decided to meet again at the lab, and this time we wanted to make it work! (sort of).
We chose to work on the project perfusion, the first project.
Project 1, Perfusion
Automatic watering for the poor plant. Maybe only mechanically.
Darja is very busy and sometimes she can’t water her plant for days. This is a project to keep the plant in a better shape.
I built a little circuit for a relay on the “high voltage” alternate power from the wall plug (230v).
The purpose of this relay is to switch on and off a pump to water the plant.
The circuit is made so that it fits the arduino shield provided with the homesense kit.
Darja can simply set the output digital pin to switch it.
For the time being, Darja will write a piece of code to turn on the pump a certain number of times everyday.
During our next session, I will build a moisture sensor that will water the plant only when it needs it.
Darja dropped by the lab this time.
I worked on the led matrix and it was almost blinking…
So we decided, all together, that it’s not a good project. And we abandoned it, at least for the moment.
The reasons are the following :
– The matrix isn’t sold anymore
– It’s a lot of code and Darja isn’t very experienced in programming
– It’s a lot of wires for a little home
– It fulfills the fourth rule of the cult of done manifesto
Last time I went to Darja’s place I lost my glasses, so reading this post requires a little indulgence.
There’s no need to write a lot, Darja already gave us an excellent post .
Continue reading Homesense day #3 – Rest In Peace (my friendly neighbor)
During our last meeting, Darja confessed that she thought more about “doing” than “doing”.
Actually, she has so many ideas that I understand how difficult it is to make a choice. I’m having the same problem.
Anyway, we took a little time to discuss what she would like to do, where we should start and which project should be first on the list.
To sort the projects by interest and feasibility, we ranked the following parameters:
time : 1 long <---> short 5
tech : 1 hard <---> easy 5
cost : 1 expensive <---> cheap 5
kit exploitation : 1 null <---> lots 5
interest : 1 null <---> lots 5
Each project’s rank is found by simply adding up the values.
Project 1, Perfusion
Automatic watering for the poor plant. Maybe only mechanically.
Darja is very busy and sometimes she can’t water her plant for days. This is a project to keep the plant in a better shape.
time : 4
tech : 4
dollars : 3
kit exploitation : 4
Darja’s interest : 3
the techies interest : 3
average interest : 3
rank : 18
Project 2, Wall projector
Detecting presence and ambiant light to turn on a wall projection
Darja cannot drill anything in her walls, so she imagined projecting pictures or abstract movements with a pico projector and an old PC.
time : 2
tech : 2
cost : 1
kit exploitation : 1
Darja’s interest : 4
the techies interest : 4
average interest : 4
rank : 10
Project 3, IN->OUT communication (broadcast my life)
Use LED panels to broadcast to the outside events triggered from the inside
Something like : “I’m back home”, “My fridge is empty”, “I’m in this room”, etc.
time : 4
tech : 5
cost : 4
kit exploitation : 5
Darja’s interest : 5
the techies interest : 4
average interest : 22.5
Project 4, yet another alarm clock
Hijack iPhone SleepCycle to turn on a light or a water spray instead of alarm sound
time : 1
tech : 2
cost : 3
kit exploitation : 1
Darja’s interest : 2
the techies interest : 2
average interest : 2
rank : 9
Project 4.5,
Same project than project 4, but detecting the sleep cycle using an arduino instead of SleepCycle application
http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/08/01/arduino-sleep-tracker-diy/
http://www.flyingpudding.com/projects/sleep_tracker/
time : 2
tech : 2
cost : 4
kit exploitation : 3
Darja’s interest : 2
the techies interest : 2
average interest : 2
rank : 13
Project 5, My brain remained in the fridge (RIP)
Detecting every single piece of food in the kitchen, and its amount to automagically suggest recipes based on this information.
time : 1
tech : 1
cost : 1
kit exploitation : 3
Darja’s interest : 3
the techies interest : 3
average interest : 3
rank : 9
Projet 6, Rest In Peace
Noise detector for neighbors,:display current noise level through a vu-meter in the room
time : 5
tech : 5
cost : 5
kit exploitation : 4
interest Darja : 4
interest technik : 4
interests average : 4
rank : 23
The current project, light manipulator
depending on the light intensity, set a servo-motor to turn off the light after a specified delay
time : 5
tech : 5
cost : 5
kit exploitation : 4
interest Darja : 4
interest technik : 4
interests average : 4
rank : 23
The higher the rank, the better the interest/feasibility ratio.
So we first finished the current project, then next time we will start project n° 6.
Tinkerlondon asked us if we would be interested in working on the homesense project.
They where looking for an expert in Geneva to help a household “play” with the homesense kit they made.
David and I accepted the challenge. We met with Darja. She has a smart and adorable household, and she has many ideas on how to transform her flat in a robotic nest. Of course, that makes her very interesting to us : )
Well, I made a replacement in aluminium for the acrylic idle wheel of my makerbot.
After breaking two acrylic wheel, I decided to change the last “weak” part (cross finger).
I don’t have easy access to a lathe or CNC (for the moment, cross finger), so I decided to re-use my punk skills on doing hardware.
Actually, it worked pretty well.
1. draw two circles that correspond to this thing on a 5mm aluminium plate
2. drill the center with the biggest drill you have (12mm in my case)
3. use a half round ring file to expend the ring to your drawing (a Dremel to speed up)
4. cut the external ring using a jigsaw, goggles and safety gloves
5. reduce the external ring using a sand paper/grinder ribbon
6. paste the ball bearing in you piece of aluminium using a good glue (loctite)
7. insert a long M8 screw in the ball bearing and make is turn on the sand paper ribbon with an angle of 45°. After few turns, the piece should be round enough and well centered.
Punk’s not dead.
