A journal of hobbies
I’ve never owned a proper set of helping hands for soldering, so I can’t tell you how good they are. I've tried using metal spring clams, but that didn't work well. For the last few years I've been using blu tack the Julien Illet way. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZygyqx6AOY It works well, but sometimes I just need to... Continue Reading →
I've made a few power supplies over the years. The first one was in 1978 or 79 when I was about 13 or 14, At that time what is now TAFE NSW (Technical and Further Education) in Australia ran short night courses for hobbyists. My mother went to quite a few including sewing, upholstery, carpentry... Continue Reading →
I have had one of those cheap ISD1820 audio recorder and player modules sitting around for a long time. I thought it may make a fun message recorder to leave on the kitchen counter and see how it gets used. I was thinking it may be used as an alternative to leaving written messages, but... Continue Reading →
We have one of those kits that converts a manual garage roller door into an electric remote control roller door. It’s been mostly fine, if you don’t mind doing a little dance in the house doorway to get it to open as it's at the limit of its range. Over time the rubber over the... Continue Reading →
I found this external computer power switch on AliExpress. It is designed to connect to the power button headers and power LED headers on a PC motherboard allowing the computer to be turned on from a more convenient location that having to reach down under a desk. I thought I would give it a go.... Continue Reading →
The ESP32 can be set to wake up from sleep due to one of several pins going high. Which pin caused it to wake up? This has been causing me a few headaches with my combined mailbox and driveway monitor because sometimes multiple pins can be high at once. While researching this I also discovered... 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 →
Back in the late 80's I built a kit that is a reminder for taking out the garbage. It was an interesting project that I originally built as a reminder to take tablets, although since then it has been mostly used as a garbage reminder. This a picture of it in the original plans. While... Continue Reading →
My main Arduino project for the last few months is trying to design and build a monitor that wirelessly sends an alert to the house when mail has been delivered in the mailbox or a vehicle goes through the front gate. I wanted the sender unit to be solar powered and use an ESP32. Reed... 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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