A journal of hobbies
Water is precious in Australia. Much of Australia is very dry and regularly has droughts. From 2017 to 2019 we had a particularly nasty drought. Where we live, the long-term average rainfall is about 763 mm. 2017 and 2018 had lower rainfall and then in 2019 it dropped to only 314 mm. Everything dried out.... Continue Reading →
A while ago, during a visit to our local tip shop I saw this object. The moment I saw it I knew I didn't need it, but the force was strong. This could become an integral part in a jet pack. Common sense prevailed and I left it there. A week or two later, I... Continue Reading →
Over the years I’ve tinkered with a handful of those inexpensive solar garden lights. One of my earlier experiments involved swapping the standard white LED for a red one, that ended up producing a surprisingly pleasing effect. This prompted me to revisit an old challenge, getting one to run a colour changing LED without instantly... Continue Reading →
In a previous post I looked at an anemometer that I bought from AliExpress that was built around a cheap toy motor. I wasn't happy with it so decided to salvage the cups from it for use in a scratch built one using a bicycle hub. It's been an interesting project and had more challenges... Continue Reading →
I've been working on building a weather station over the last few months and while I haven't completed all the sensors, I have a few done including recently a rain gauge. The receiver is based around the "Random Nerd Tutorials ESP-NOW Web Server Sensor Dashboard" in which the data is displayed on a web page.... Continue Reading →
Sometimes I find that a project turns out to be much better and useful than I expected. Making coat racks out of railway spikes and old timber has been one of these surprises. I really like the aesthetic of these, and I find them to be quite practical. While we already had 3 sets, I... Continue Reading →
While collecting batteries to send to recycling, I found these two that I had pulled out of an old Sharp calculator. The calculator was given to me many years ago. I think it would have been made in the '70s. I had forgotten that Eveready batteries looked like this. I was surprised that one is... Continue Reading →
Mail delivery has become more important for us in recent years than it ever has been. While many communications have become electronic, more of the goods our family buy are purchased online as the option to buy locally is limited and in some cases is reducing. We are in a rural mail delivery area. There... Continue Reading →
If I said I lived in a small city you would probably have a misconception about the size of the place. While it is called a city it only has a population of around 20 000. In most places of this size it would be considered a rural town. There are some advantages and disadvantages... Continue Reading →
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