Author Archives: Jim

Time lapse of tree cleanup

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Jim

We had some impressive tree limbs ripped off in the storm 6/21.  Some were too big to even drag to the parkway.  I’m really hoping the city will come by and cope with them. Since there wasn’t much going on … Continue reading →

Posted in Time-lapse photography | 2 Comments

First cupric chloride board etch

Posted on June 21, 2011 by Jim

I finally etched my first board in cupric chloride (with no extra oxidizer).  It was a little slow, but came out fine.  I heated the etchant some, but not as much as I typically heated ammonium persulfate, for fear of … Continue reading →

Posted in Cupric Chloride Etchant | Leave a comment

Workshop 88 door lock

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Jim

As part of upgrading the W88 infrastructure, we’d like better records of who’s in the space and when.  The new lock on the W88 front door only allows 2 combinations, and so isn’t very helpful in logging who’s there. This … Continue reading →

Posted in Workshop 88 Stuff | Leave a comment

LED replacement bulb

Posted on June 7, 2011 by Jim

My friend Ed had a burned out bulb in the climate control panel of his Chrysler van.  The rather unusual bulb is not available by itself – only by buying the complete $400 control panel.  Thanks, Chrysler. After slipping off … Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous | Leave a comment

Time-lapse of driveway repair

Posted on May 30, 2011 by Jim

I’ve been tempted to do a little time-lapse photography for years.  My office window looked out over a view that I think would have made a great quick video covering maybe a whole year.  With a pic at a given … Continue reading →

Posted in Li-ion camera battery, Time-lapse photography | 1 Comment

House monitor on Linux!

Posted on May 18, 2011 by Jim

I’ve been trying to migrate the main server program for the home automation system off the main PC for a couple of years.  It’s a hassle to shut everything down gracefully when Microsoft pushes down yet another must-reboot update, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Home Automation | 11 Comments

Electronics workbench revamp

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Jim

Background My electronics workbench is in awful shape.  It hasn’t been cleaned up in several years, and has such a terrible pileup of debris and leftovers from previous or in-progress projects that I can’t free up more than 10 or … Continue reading →

Posted in Electronics workbench revamp | Leave a comment

Router resetter works!

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Jim

The router resetter seems to have caught an outage this morning, power cycled the router and modem, and gotten things working again – all without my even knowing there had been a problem – just like it’s supposed to! The … Continue reading →

Posted in Home Automation | Leave a comment

Design notes on Educube

Posted on April 30, 2011 by Jim

The inner workings and state changes in the Educubes are (duh!) getting more complex.  I can barely keep them straight during one coding session, and by the next day I have only a clue about how they work.  This post … Continue reading →

Posted in W88 Educubes | 1 Comment

Router Resetter

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Jim

I’ve had trouble for a long time with my router (or occasionally my DSL modem) getting confused and breaking my lifeblood Internet connection.  It can go months without happening, then happen multiple times in a day.  If I’m home, it’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Home Automation | 2 Comments