Sustainable SW Blogs

Fought with this all day and finally figured out (I think...) how to get it to cooperate with the micro controller and software.  Pretty frustrating when you try sample code exactly - and things don't work.  Tomorrow I try to get a second motor running off the same controller and coordinate their movement.  47,54,33,0,B 

You can buy one here.53,61,22,0,B

They sure grow fast!  The brother (or sister) that came to visit is just a month older than the new baby.  45,54,38,0,W

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  Proverbs 4:26  

Ponder the path of thy feet 

and let all thy ways be established.

Coming soon to Kickstarter...55,65,33,0,B

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Sucess at programming and firing up this little self-setting digital date and time clock using an ESP8266 Node MCU with an SSD1306 OLED display module.  Once plugged into 5VDC, this wifi enabled microcontroller goes online automatically and gets the correct time and date from a network time protocol (NTP) server.  I had to change a few lines of code from a sample I downloaded in order to get it to work. 58,67,27,0,C

Light fixture I built 25 years ago from parts I found in a great junk yard in Connecticut.  Back in my "arty-farty days" in NYC, I must have ventured there about 10 times.  Plugged it in and it still works.  After all these years I'm going to repurpose this for a clock project I have in mind.  53,65,40,0,W

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Spotted some new action in the nest at 4 AM yesterday. The momma dug it up and was in there for a while. After she came out, she spent a lot of time grooming herself "down there". She came back this morning for what I assume is the first feeding. It will be about 2 weeks before whatever is in the nest is big enough to be spotted on camera. Wondering if there is more than just one in this litter. 65,76,47,0,B

Mark 7:15  There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.  

I have always considered computer programming to be way out of my wheelhouse.  I seem to have quite a blind spot when it comes to any kind of programming language.  A while back I ordered some inexpensive microcontrollers to try with my rover project but found I didn't need them right away.  I thought I had lost them when I cleaned up a couple of weeks ago but now they are found.  While doing what seems to be my daily clock search on the internet, I came across a lot of digital clock tutorials and have been binge watching them for 2 weeks.  This morning I tried my hand at the Arduino IDE [Integrated Development Environment - software for building applications that combines common developer tools into a single graphical user interface (GUI)] and was magically able to get an ESP8266 Node MCU to run a sample "blink led" program and after I made some changes to the code - it ran that too.  What I have discovered is that it may actually be doable for me to make some interesting things with these as there is so much info available online...especially YouTube.  Now that I got my feet wet, I ordered some more controllers, OLED displays, and stepper motors to experiment with for some new clock projects.  To get an idea what I mean by inexpensive - that order (5 controllers, 5 screens, 5 stepper motors) was $46 on Amazon.  If I didn't mind waiting a month, I could have ordered them all from China for about 25 bucks.  For scale, the board I fired up is about 1" x 2" - the boards and OLEDs I just ordered are about 1.25" x 1.25" and the stepper motors are 1" in diameter.  67,75,30,0,C

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Very nice animated digital clock screensaver available by download for $9.99. This gives me some ideas for another clock build. Thinking about collecting parts for such an elaborate project, I really miss the Canal Street of the 80's in NYC - especially Canal Surplus, Canal Metals, and Canal Plastics. Back then I could source all kinds of obscure sculptural elements from there and I used to venture down to lower Manhattan every Saturday just for inspiration. You can get this screensaver here.72,80,37,0,B

Simple way to stop water from shooting out of a tank while replacing a faulty valve. A "ball" of plastic bags blocks the outlet as the water pressure presses against it. When the old valve is removed, the remaining water in the outlet pipe pours out and is replaced with air. You can hear that air bubble up in the tank and see the stick move when I place the new valve in the outlet pipe. 74,80,34,0,C

This little rabbit has more than tripled in size in just 2 weeks and is certainly living a life of privilege - born in the greenhouse completely protected from any predators and in a burrow made out of food. Spoiled by living in a literal "all you can eat and drink buffet", it should be noted that in the wild desert cottontails rarely drink, and free water does not appear to be a requirement for either their survival or reproduction. They are drawn to moist areas because of succulent vegetation and morning dew, but in the desert without any rain for months at a time (or a provided water bowl), they are sustained simply by whatever moisture content is in the vegetation they eat. 69,78,37,0,B

Romans 14:12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. 13 Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.  

As of today, I have 17,625 gallons on tap.66,74,36,0,B