My LCD screen arrived! Along with the switching regulators.
Turns out the switching regulators were the wrong ones. They do perfectly fine on 3v, but not at all on 1.2v. Thankfully, futurlec sells another one by maxim which is designed for 1-cell operation. I'll include it in my next order. The alternative is to wire two solar garden lights together, and have a two cell system.
I also need to figure out the windmill, the voltage varies a huge amount, and I was thing that charging a 3v battery pack might be the go. My only concern is voltage, as the windmill can get pretty fast! Maybe I should keep an eye out for a dedicated two cell charging chip - accepting a wide range of voltages.
On the web interface, I am rather stuck. I need to make it so that I can edit configuration files from the internet. PHP doesn't have any major line editing functions, but I have figured out a few work arounds. Next time I work on it, I might get somewhere!
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
What's been happening?
Where have I been!?
I've started working on all sorts of projects lately. Largely due to the long lead times on low priority shipping from Taiwan. I've ordered a new LCD - this one is a graphics LCD! - and some switching regulators - to power these devices from 2 AA batteries.
I need to get my entire sensor net up and running. I'm considering building a USB powered device. It's easy, and has no major power design issues - unlike the solar powered version I haven't managed to get working! I'm ordering two switching regulator sets, so when those arrive I should be sorted. One is going in the garage with a 3v battery pack, and one is going to be wired to the solar garden light. This one will be fed on a 1.2v NiMh AAA battery charged by the solar panel.
On the software side. I have a fully functional, but not yet fully featured python script that runs on boot. The trick was to put the start-up scripts in the original root, not the pivot root! A hurdle I am currently experiencing is time. I need to synchronise the router with a NTP server - a server designed to update system clocks. This will give my router the correct time as it has no backup battery / capacitor. That is the easy part... That hard part is making the router use the correct timezone. I could call it a feature that it uses UTC (Universal Coordinated Time - not an acronym mistake!), but I would really prefer it used the local time. Hopefully I can change this in the python program rather than the router itself...
I have successfully made an LED that will turn on and off via an SMS sent to twitter. The direct message is read by the router, and this triggers the LED. I plan to use this for a fan I have - the type used in summer for keeping cool!
No photos as of yet. The whole device is still in the early days.
I've started working on all sorts of projects lately. Largely due to the long lead times on low priority shipping from Taiwan. I've ordered a new LCD - this one is a graphics LCD! - and some switching regulators - to power these devices from 2 AA batteries.
I need to get my entire sensor net up and running. I'm considering building a USB powered device. It's easy, and has no major power design issues - unlike the solar powered version I haven't managed to get working! I'm ordering two switching regulator sets, so when those arrive I should be sorted. One is going in the garage with a 3v battery pack, and one is going to be wired to the solar garden light. This one will be fed on a 1.2v NiMh AAA battery charged by the solar panel.
On the software side. I have a fully functional, but not yet fully featured python script that runs on boot. The trick was to put the start-up scripts in the original root, not the pivot root! A hurdle I am currently experiencing is time. I need to synchronise the router with a NTP server - a server designed to update system clocks. This will give my router the correct time as it has no backup battery / capacitor. That is the easy part... That hard part is making the router use the correct timezone. I could call it a feature that it uses UTC (Universal Coordinated Time - not an acronym mistake!), but I would really prefer it used the local time. Hopefully I can change this in the python program rather than the router itself...
I have successfully made an LED that will turn on and off via an SMS sent to twitter. The direct message is read by the router, and this triggers the LED. I plan to use this for a fan I have - the type used in summer for keeping cool!
No photos as of yet. The whole device is still in the early days.
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