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After a Long Testing Period, Moving Forward With My Temperature Sensor
A while back I came up with a battery operated temperature sensor that sent its data over my XBee network <link>. This little device has been sitting beside my bed for a long time now and works...
View ArticleI Got One of Those New Fangled Amazon Dot Things
Obviously, this is part 1.Yes, I took the plunge and bought an Amazon Dot before it was available and waited patiently for the release date for it to arrive. When it came in, I did the usual, "Alexa,...
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Amazon Dot and My Desert Home
I already warned you that this was going to get complicated and would probably drive you nuts in my first post on the Amazon Dot <link>, but you apparently didn't listen, so I'll go a bit deeper...
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Hook a Raspberry Pi to the Amazon Dot
Earlier this year Hackster.io had a contest looking for good internet of voice examples using a Raspberry Pi and an Amazon Echo <link>; one guy Nick Triantafillou entered with a simple weather...
View ArticleAmazon Dot, Sending Data From Raspberry Pi
Last post I showed you how to create a 'thing' and to get the necessary certificates and keys to enable communication from the Pi up to the Amazon AWS; now we need to look into sending some data up...
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Amazon Dot Lambda function
Well, we've created a 'thing' and managed to send data from our Raspberry Pi over the internet to it and can see it in the AWSIoT console. Now we'll build a 'Lambda' funtion to interface between the...
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Amazon Dot, Let's Connect Alexa to the Lambda Function
Last Post <link> we did one more of the seemingly interminable steps to voice control in our house, the Lambda function, but we couldn't test it because we didn't have the proper input for it....
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Amazon Dot: Let's Turn Something On
Last post <link> we got data all the way from a Raspberry Pi up to Amazon and back to the Dot and it was able to say, Â "The temperature is 79 degrees, " and we were excited. What, you got an...
View ArticleAmazon Dot: Now for the code on the Raspberry Pi
Last post <link> I stepped through creating the voice model and the Lambda function in Amazon Web Services (AWS) that got my request to manipulate the light on my East patio light out to Amazon's...
View ArticleAmazon Dot: Oops, Forgot Something
Just when I thought I could put this series of posts on the Amazon Dot and using it at my house aside for a while, I realized I forgot something last time <link>. I didn't show what a session...
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Adventures With My Freezer (the one in the house)
Over the years I've been doing modifications to the freezer in my kitchen. It all started way back in 2014Â when I decided to not only measure the power usage of this device <link>, but to also...
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More Adventures With My Freezer
Last post I described how I managed to screw up my freezer defrost controller <link>. This is the latest chapter in that escapade.I started up Eagle and created a board to hold a higher power...
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My Well, A Parody of Problems Part 1
I've mentioned a few times that I live in a desert foothill region north of Phoenix, AZ, and I have a water well. Actually, I share the well with two neighbors. Recently we had a well inspection and...
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My Well, A Parody of Problems Part 2
Part 1 to this project is here <link>In part one I talked about replacing one of my well pressure tanks and discovering that there were some other problems that needed fixing. This is the...
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My Well, A Parody of Problems Part 3 (Wiring)
Part 1 of this series is here <link>Now that I had the float setup, it was time to attack the rest of the wiring on the pump. Let's start off with a picture:The connection box A is where the...
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My Well, A Parody of Problems Part 4 (Plumbing)
Now, I'm going to talk about the plumbing on the well. Let's start off with something that was simply annoying. Every well needs a vent; you have to let some air in when you take the water out. Around...
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My Well, A Parody of Problems Part 5 (Discussion)
Part 1 of this project is here <link>.A reader asked that I put up a diagram of typical well plumbing and describe how it works. The problem is that there are a lot of ways to plumb a well, so...
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My Well, A Parody of Problems Part 6 (Disinfecting)
Remember back in part 1 <link> I mentioned that the inspection found a bad pressure tank and coliform in the well? I've fixed the pressure tank (and a whole lot of other unexpected stuff), so now...
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I FINALLY Got My 3D Printer
Many, many moons ago I decided that I couldn't afford a 3D printer since I don't want to make 3D printing a hobby, I just want to design and print things to use in my other hobbies.Things like a coffee...
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Speaking of Tractor Hydraulics ...
A while back I bought an old, big tractor. I already had a small landscape tractor, but I wanted to be able to dig in this rocky soil and the little one just wouldn't cut it <link>. This big guy...
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