Etch a Sketch

Here's the (revised) circuit board for the Garduino Mini.

I had considered wrapping the whole thing in a ground plane, and trying to limit the amount of etchant that is required, but since this is the first time I've done a circuit board I went simple.

Here's how it turned out:

Das Blinkenlights

After much agonizing I got the Arduino Pro Mini [Clone] programmed.  The key was to choose the correct device from the Arduino programmer.

The current prototype has a bluetooth serial to beam data back, plus collectors for temperature, air and soil humidity and ambient light.

The host server will have a PostGreSQL database that stores the data, and some sort of web interface that draws some charts.

We're be going with chart.js for the charting engine and most likely some sort of PHP -> JSON quick hack to spool out data.

Arduino for Everyone

I got a bunch of Arduino stuff from dx.com (aka dealextreme).  They will be used for a Garduino project, so that we can monitor the soil moisture, light, etc for the vegetable gardens.

Tonight I assembled a temp and light sensor on the proto board.

I need to source a 3.3V voltage regulator to drive the bluetooth module, then these can start moving outside.

Pruning the pear tree

Today I pruned the pear tree!  This is what it looked like this morning:

And now, this afternoon:

Pruning keeps the tree from growing too large, and forces it to make more fruit.  I also took off a few branches that were crossed, and some that would grow too close to the shop.

TR4 Startup 1: Before

I made a short video of the TR4 starting up.

This is a baseline "before" - mostly for the sound.  I need to have the carbs rebuilt / resleeved (note the puff from the backfire on startup), the distributor reworked, and the manifold gaskets replaced again.

I put a second mike down behind the car, which gives the car a better sound but makes me sound very tinny.

Repurposing Electrical Boxes

I picked these up for free, they were discarded from a reno.

(Side note: Old electrical equipment is terrifying.)

I considered using the breaker panel as a sub panel when wiring the shop, but Federal Pacific (aka Federal Pioneer / Stab-Lok) got a bad reputation for making circuit breakers that didn't break when the circuit overloaded.  These boxes will be gutted and used for other projects that don't need to meet any electrical safety codes.

Triumph Fenders Acquired

For reasons I cannot comprehend, a pair of TR4 fenders showed up on a local classifieds website.

 They were expensive, as used car parts go, but ridiculously cheap for a set of decent used fenders.

Looks like they were originally midnight blue.  There's a few dings and creases from age and whatnot, but no bad rust at all.  Should clean up really well.