I wanted the ability to use a TV Remote to turn on and dim lights, change the thermostat for heating and cooling, even lock/unlock a door. Of course, everything looks like an Arduino project for me, so I scavenged the IR Sensor out of an old VCR, grabbed a TV remote, and went to work. I found some code on the internet I could modify for my purposes, and started logging what codes came across my serial monitor when pushing button. Then I created case statements that activate relays (or SSR’s) when a button is pushed. I’m sure you can come up with even more ways to use this. Code and schematics at:
There are times when a feedback loop is helpful to prevent overshoot or wild oscillations of a process, whether temperature, motion, or other type of system. A common solution is a proportional–integral–derivative controller (PID controller).
With this Arduino solution, you tell the PID what to measure (the “Input”,) Where you want that measurement to be (the “Setpoint”,) and the variable to adjust that can make that happen (the “Output”.) The PID then adjusts the output trying to make the input equal the setpoint.
This is a much smoother solution than a simple “read, activate, correct” process.
One of our interests is weather monitoring. It seems like a natural thing for a ham radio operator to be interested in, so we applied our micro-controller expertise and came up with the following project. In it’s current version, it tracks humidity and temperature, but we have plans for adding barometric pressure (we blew up our first baro chip), wind speed & direction, a rain gauge, and solar intensity. It can also be used as a thermostat / climate control system.
We used a Sensiron SHT-21 Temp/humidity module, a Arduino Uno, and a 4 line white on blue LCD. If you have problems finding the SHT-21, I’ve been told the DHT-11 is a good (much cheaper) substitute, but I’m sure there will be code differences. Here is how we built ours:
Of course this post is for the DIYer community, if you are a typical Low Information Voter ‘LIV’, this is not for you, move along to that free energy page, maybe order a Hojo Generator, invest in that big air funnel that Tod shared with us just the other day.
As we watch the future unfold, I think there’s some ‘petri dishes’ we might keep an eye on.
Honolulu might be one of the better places to watch, it’s being attacked via the CAT and the CWA in which you can find reason to levy any kind of fine or penalty.
As we watch Honolulu, will hale and native-born regret the ties to the mainland? The Island depends on expensive energy and of course it arrives via the maritime fleet.
Honolulu has it’s share of retired folks, many watching the buying power of their pensions and savings dwindle, many of them have worked a lifetime to afford their little piece of paradise, a small home on a small lot on a small island. Be careful what you wish for, be careful who you envy.
The EPA recently used the Clean Air Act to enforce rules that ships will switch to far more expensive fuels when they get within 200 miles of Hawaii. Of course, the rules say nothing about wind direction, trade winds, direction of travel or more, and we all know it makes a difference. The rule basically raises the cost of all goods delivered to Hawaii as if it weren’t already expensive to live there.
But now we have Mayors making deals, and of course they know what way the wind blows. The need to stay in good favor with the Low Information Voter has been key in acheiving their political ambitions, and that often means making deals with the Devil.
We need ask, will a Mayor take even a moment to divide four and one half billion dollars spent on sewer improvements by the number of citizens on the sewer line to know their burden for years to come? Will he care if he forces half the population out of their homes because they now choose between paying their utilities or buying food for the table?
Here’s your chance to study it where it happens first, the impact on the citizens in Honolulu has a multiplying effect because of the high cost of energy, and the many laws and rules imposed on the people there. The Jones act, the CAT, the CWA, and so much more.
Has the LIV already driven a stake thru the heart of the Hawaiian Economy? The result of increased expenses for Honolulu residents may empty rental houses, create more home loan defaults, and leave even less people to pay for a sewer system mandated by the EPA than no one can afford.
I want you to know about Prof Panos who watches this Honolulu petri dish, and the recent ferment. Do not assume the Professor holds any of my views, but do know that he is a Technician, and I find him a highly ethical and moral man. Why would I say more about this situation in Hawaii when I can simply share the good Professor’s blog? Will you make changes in your habits, or where you live BEFORE the hammer comes down?
Some might look at that home just over the hill from them, out of the city limits, off the sewer, and where LIVs don’t want to live.
I ponder the Question, how could an ethical man with the facts on his side of the argument ever win a political contest in a Liberal stronghold like Honolulu? I’m no Magus and I don’t have a clue how that’s accomplished. It’s the promise of magic that wins elections both here and in the Isles.
Our Patty Murray does well promising the impossible dream, in her case; I know she has no idea that the printing press will fail us soon enough. As the Elites demonize any PhD that finds fault with the liberal agenda, they praise the brilliance of Senator Murray who has a degree in physical education.
In closing, we are DIYers, among our tribe, we find Teachers, Ranchers, Farmers, Doctors, and more. What we have in common is ‘hands on’ experience, we don’t trust others to do for us what we can do for ourselves, and that includes running a piece of chalk, we learn to do that ourselves.
The Profs name? It’s Greek, he speaks the native tongue, he studies the problems in Greece and I believe he is saddened that we Americans seem unable to learn a thing from their mistakes.
As for the Prof’s Students? What a rare gift! All too often even the hard sciences are bent in order that they align with a political objective… not in this Professor’s class, Pathological Science is left for others to teach..
This is a follow up on the post I made the other day on Tod’s Wind Funnel Fraud.
All of us encounter people that refuse to think, it is as if the lie is more important than the knowledge that would set them free of the lie. Learning how to run that piece of chalk.
Here’s a youtube video that will consume one hour of your life, but it will help you explore just how nuts your fellow man is, and what he can obsess over.
Do read the comments after you watch the video, and remember, these people vote!
Big oil is a constant theme.. they deny all of us free energy 🙂 Bwaaah!
I’d bet you know at least one of those who gave testament 🙂
Keep an open mind when I tell you this… and then conduct your own experiments as I have done for 15 years or more.
There are minds wired to associate any movement with energy potential. they …see it move, they want to harness it, we might ask ourselves, is this some sort of genetic defect in man?
The critical thinker sees the movement and asks “how much energy might be available?” “I should measure it.”
Intelligence and critical thinking skills seem unrelated! Because you have one doesn’t mean you have the other.
I feel sorry for the people that gave testimonials here. Those who know anything about energy will only be saddened that they were used by snakes selling their snake oil.
Those who give testament were hand selected to do so. Those who designed this concept and marketing approach know human behavior, and exactly what kind of bait their victims bite on.
At the heart of scams like this one are the total lack of measurements and power figures, A Banker and Telecom people who likely spent the larger part of their career working on what? A mention of a person previously working in the alternative Energy field, let me ask.. have you ever talked to salesmen in this market? Most couldn’t tell you the formula for calculating power in a DC circuit with a light bulb for a load!
But before I close, this is no more than the private sector attempting to use the same scams as our elected officials use to stay in power. The promise of the easy road (no matter how ridiculous the claims) is intoxicating.
In closing, this scam was NOT designed to attract you as an investor, but you will know a few who would invest..
George
P.S. There were not so many of these gimmicks in Montana in the early years.. they hung most of men who offered such investments.
Now days, the DOE punishes us by awarding them money from the public purse.
Sunday morning musings.. many of the past posts were all about how we might ‘devine’ the direction of the wind. We DIYers build our houses with thoughts of such things. But what follows are tools and knowledge we might add to our tool kits, and perhaps it will help make us even less dependent on utilities? Can you deploy an Arduino to manage your dump loads?
Thanks DIYer Steve Spence, finally! free tools, a free environment, and the easiest path I’ve ever seen to learning how we might leave a micro in charge of looking after our investments..
GB
I had many reasons to build my own version of a Kill-A-Watt Meter. I needed more flexibility (DC as well as AC, production and consumption), I needed higher than 15 amp load monitoring, I needed data logging, and I needed the ability to make things happen based on the data I was collecting.
I built an Arduino based power monitor, that at it’s very basic function, monitors the amps flowing between two devices, and the voltage being monitored. By multiplying these two values, I came up with the watts being produced or consumed.
Amps * Volts = Watts (DC, AC works a little differently)
Now it was time to measure the time value. I reported the time passed during the monitoring session, so I have an Hour Meter, and by multiplying that against amps and watts, I get amp hours and watt hours respectively.
Amps * Hours = Ah
Watts * Hours = Wh
I can transmit the data to a computer using serial or ethernet, make decisions (like turning loads on and off based on voltage and or current flow using SSR’s or Relays), and with a SD Card slot and a little bit of code, I can periodically log the data to the SD Card.
Future upgrades could also include frequency monitoring and power factor (with AC Watts). This design is very hackable, so make it your own by applying your own ideas and requirements.
Might I remind you? You’re a DIYer, and you’ve been doing it for a reason! You’ve learned that others normally charge you a high markup only to screw up the stuff they do for you! You can’t take out your own appendix, but there are other things you can do.. just when was it that Bernanke saw the housing bubble? I bet it was after you did, fact is, it had to slap him in the back of head to even take notice, and this same bozo is working on QE3! WE need open his head and look for the receiver! Is it China that has the remote?
As Europe entombs itself inside the latest Pyramid scheme called the EU, we essentially do the same thing! One of our strengths was the States and the independence they had to manage their own affairs. Much of this autonomy has been unwittingly surrendered by your elected state representatives! It started in earnest with the clean air act. I noticed because it was what took away our stationary engine exemptions.
And what can’t be tied to clean air? When a cow pisses on a flat rock, there’s ammonia made, and it will enter the atmosphere, therefore the FED can rule over cows and flat rocks on the day they see an advantage to do so.
As the individual countries in Europe willingly and unwillingly surrender their ability to rule over themselves via the EU, we do the same here. And don’t we all wonder… if Obamacare can be levied on us, what is it that can’t be placed on our backs?
And more good news! The birth rate is down! And just how will they pay out Social Security not to mention all the other entitlements they promised in exchange for a vote! Yes, you watched them steal the Social Security out of the trust fund, and they got away with it.
Children, do choose, what would you rather do? Eat Candy, or pick up your toys? that’s the question a modern politician asks. He wants to remain in power… no matter what..
These are all events that normally spawn a world War. Those who bring it on suggest they do it all to bring an end to all wars:-) As you watch it all unravel, just how much credibility do they deserve? I think it’s clear they can’t manage simple things, but never underestimate their ability to over-estimate their abilities! walk on water, cure cancer, feed the hungry, they’ll do it all.. but first.. just sign here…..
One battle you can expect to see, communists and socialists hate the ‘right to work states’. Your right to choose whether you join a union or not is not a right you should have according to them. I expect you will see this battle to play out as if it were the civil war all over again.
Many are fleeing other States to take advantage of far cheaper homes, more freedom, and jobs! They understand you don’t need the same wage when everything else is half price! these will be the better place to live.
I doubt there will ever be a review of the underground utilities in the areas most affected by the storm on the east coast, and what wasn’t properly maintained. Much of the oversee is the PUC who often have communist views, ‘the outside plant belongs to the people’. Yes, that’s their view in many states and counties, they remove any incentive for the utilitiy Company to maintain the outside plant, and of course they don’t fix stuff themselves.
Is this a good example of what Government does? They wish to dictate, they wish to control, but what responsibility do they assume? There’s a fair chance that a broken water main would have filled that vault, and a power outage arriving at the same time might have filled it to the brim! Open splices, unsealed cables entering the vault. What was found wrong and neglected? Most likely you’ll never hear.
Somewhere stuck to the back of some file cabinet are pleadings made by some outside plant engineer, things found wrong, things needing fixed, and likely management decisions about where the money needs to go. Why is it you’d maintain what you don’t own?Why would you ever upgrade it? Isn’t this at the heart of so many problems?
I ask you.. who are the real technicians when it comes to the economy? Who is it that has studied it up close and isn’t ‘dependent’ on the gifts from the public purse for their every need? Why would we listen to those who feed at that trough? won’t they only tell us to keep the slop coming?
I see the women I honor on this page as the guiding lights. I see Patty Murray as the face of Socialism that works 7/24 to undermine the foundation of freedom. Yes, Patty is not so well traveled, not so well educated, not so technical. But greatly loved for her generosity with the public purse, it’s all she knows, and it’s all she needs to know to attract a faithful following. I mention this, because her followers find Paugh and Rand lacking something, how much more ‘lacking’ than some of their leaders be?
I remember those old and sometimes cantankerous outside plant engineers. They took their jobs seriously, they knew just what could go wrong, they felt responsible, they could care less about being popular, they had a job to get done, and wanted it done right. They’d tangle with the CEO if need be, but those were the days of personal responsibility.
I see Ileana Johnson Paugh in the same light as those past Engineers who knew the job so well. She’s a Technician, having taught economics for 30 years, she knows you can NOT put people in houses they can’t afford to buy. She knows of the fallacies of sub prime loans, and far more. But the real difference between her and so many in Government? She is a true American who understands what we have and what we stand to lose, >and< she’s not willing to be silent and let it all happen on her watch without sounding the warning bell. And what do your leaders do?
Unfortunately, there are so many others who only care about their day in power, it seems that’s now the majority in Washington DC with some exceptions of course.
So read on….
I find it ironic that the two minds I most admire this year are those of women. Both of them are excellent mechanics, they are able to study a machine and make a clear diagnosis. Meanwhile, there’s a pile of men who can be lead around by the paycheck, and we see their faces on TV. They live in both houses in DC, they work in the Media, some are most careful NOT to say a thing that might jepordize their place at the hog trough.
I made the time to read every word of this recent article below, and I find several things alarming, and I think you will too.
No Need to read further, jump to the article , read on only if you want to know what I’m thinking..
First, Europe is doing what they’ve have always done! They are doing it all over again! Are we trapped inside Ground Hog Day. Will we use the knowledge of the past to help set our own compass course?
One comment Ileana makes might need some clarity, The French people allowed their vote to be split, and they allowed the smaller vote to prevail. The vast majority of French people KNOW that our Obama Care will fail, and they know that they cannot afford what they do right now, by no means did the French majority sanction the course they’re on in the last election.
Ileana could be making a lot of money if only she played by their rules, she could be one of our Czars, she could be a Senator like Patty Murray!
What Europe doesn’t fully understand yet… We Americans are busy scuttling the rescue boat that they’ve used a number of times before! And perhaps the saddest part of this play we watch unfold? We’re on that boat!
Ayn Rand and Ileana Johnson Paugh, no doubt they don’t see everything the same, but they both know that Socialism is just Communism, without the need to openly kill those who oppose your rule over them, at least they don’t do it in broad daylight, or with a bullet to the head, it’s actually a slower and more painful process of killing you they use. How did they (Ileana and Ayn) form their opinions? By studying it all up close!
Zach Says, Our Standby Generator is AOK, it ran for 50 hours last year, and now with my Sister Ava, it’s nice to know we can make a few KW to run the fan in the gas furnace, run the lights an more if we need to.
Zach-AOK
Zach’s house has a small diesel gen set that sits outside in it’s own dog house. The fuel tank is topped off so the tank can’t breathe and condense water into the fuel, the lube oil level has been checked, the start battery is fully charged, and Dad or Mom only need visit the remote start panel next to the transfer switch to make the lights come on.
As I think about preparedness, that call from rancher and friend in Montana this week rings in my head. Now is the time to think of what can go wrong and be prepared. Keith has an 85kw KatoLite PTO generator that is not making the right voltage, it dips far below ANSI standards for Voltage.
There are no non DIYer Ranchers, or at least I’ve never met one, and I never met a Rancher that woke up even one morning exclaiming he was bored or didn’t have something to do. With most Ranchers, it’s normally a list of things to do far longer than he has time to accomplish, and there are times he thinks he may have messed up on his priority list.. it’s the norm!
Keith has a Katolite 85KW PTO generator that has given him good service for a dozen years. but now, here we are at a time of year where it can get cold and dangerous in the back country of Montana, and we have this little problem.
Calling a generator man in Billings (a LONG drive) he doesn’t have a tractor there to test drive the Gen set, so Keith is considering putting the tractor and PTO on a trailer and heading off to Billings, we note, if the Gen man isn’t able to fix it pretty much on the spot, Keith may be best off spending the night there, or making a second trip with trailer to pick it up when it’s ready, and risking no coverage back at the ranch.. The cost of hours away, fuel, and inconvenience adds up.
The majority of Generator troubles look easy to fix once you find them! Learning how simple a rotating machine is, and how it works is key in fixing it in the field, and most of the time you can. Here’s some advice.
There’s generally no banging and clanging, no smoke, no smell of burnt components or plastic, and you don’t need much advice when these things happen. What frustrates a man is a problem like this one where it almost works.
What every rancher should know is how to measure the excitation power from where it’s made, where it’s rectified, and how it’s delivered to that rotating field normally found in your generator. A cheap multimeter is NEVER a good investment, you need something you trust when you have a problem. Especially when you’re measuring field resistance, and that cheap meter can’t make up it’s mind.
My advice is this, the time to negotiate for a service manual, is at the time of sale, and simply letting the salesman know that you need that in your operation, and want it to be part of the sale is a good move.
But now, there’s that one other step that so few of us take, and later we might wish we did. Go through that manual, and learn where those parts are that fail, that simple and normally inexpensive rectifier, they do fail, and you could stock a spare on site. You can learn to measure what is supposed to be on the AC side, and what it looks like on the DC side. When all is working, you get to see what the reading looks like when it is working 🙂
If it’s a brushless design, you can know about that little access door found in a lot of machines where you can check a diode, and know how to do it.
Make a decision as to what spares you will stock on site. It’s a lot harder to fix something when the lights are out, your wife is cold and impatient, and the kids are watching the snow drift across the road, erasing it’s every sign.
Ninety Five percent of what stops a generator looks like an easy and fast repair when you know your machine well and have the part to fix it. Consider learning about the field excitation, and stocking the cheaper parts involved as a first step in being prepared. It may save you a lot of time, and make you look like a hero when your family sees the lights back on so quickly..
Zach’s Sister Ava wakes from a nightmare.. the generator didn’t work!
I had many reasons to build my own version of a Kill-A-Watt Meter. I needed more flexibility (DC as well as AC, production and consumption), I needed higher than 15 amp load monitoring, I needed data logging, and I needed the ability to make things happen based on the data I was collecting.
