And it keeps getting funnier every single time I see it

Obviously this isn't something that I think a lot about.  I love the domain name, but still not a big fan of posting things.

Here is the update since last time:

Replaced the water heater with a side venting one so I could ditch the chimney.  Replaced the roof on the house and shed (paid someone else to do it) and got rid of the chimney at the same time.  Still need to remove the chimney from the attic to the basement but at least it doesn't poke through the roof anymore.

Replaced the siding on the house.. finally got rid of the cedar wood siding... no more woodpeckers! 

Had an issue with my breaker panel (melted the main breaker) so had to replace it.  Upgraded to 200 amp while I was at it.  Once that was completed I installed a new inverter and battery system... got 15,000 KWHs of battery power available which should last at least a day.  The furnace, fridge, freezers, water heater, well pump and a few other things run off that.  Some day I hope to install solar which will tie nicely into my new inverter.

Installed Home Assistant on a RPi, with an added Bluetooth antenna (more range) and a 433mhz receiver (also more range).  Now I can capture all the Lacrosse Temp Sensors and other Sensors I've installed around the house. Started adding Emporia power monitors and connected those into Home Assistant too.

Bought a tool chest from Menards and started organizing my shop.  It feels like I have a lot more space.  Got various other new tools (router, drill, channel locks, pry bars, router templates, dremel, amp meter, thermal camera, and other misc stuff)

Built a new pantry shelf in the basement.  Turned out really nice and holds more than the old ones did.  Organized an ancient cabinet that I think my Dad built in the 50s or 60s... I store all my electrical supplies in there (wiring, plugs, switches, etc)

Bought a new QNap NAS with 5 16TB drives and 16gb ram.  I don't remember what RAID level I built it as but there is about 43TB of usable space.  I figure at some point I'll rebuild the old one with new HDs and set it up as a security camera server.

This year I hope to replace the shed siding and add battery power & lights to it.  Want to also redo the interior of the garage and redo the insulation at the same time.

Work is still good.  Lots to do and no time to do it :)

Hopefully it won't be another 2 years before I post again.

Going well

 So far this year....

We replaced all the carpeting on the main floor (3 Bedrooms and Living room).  While we were at it we chose to paint the bedrooms, which also gave me the opportunity to finish the molding in those rooms.

Built a bed for my youngest, it opens up from the side... he loves it.  Now my wife would like me to build us a new one.  I've designed it but haven't decided what wood to use it.

Got a promotion.  That was pretty cool.  Been talking to my leader(s) for about 5 years on that.  Fortunately I've had a bunch of opportunities to shine this year and my leader's boss took notice and agreed it was time to promote me.  Nothing has really changed yet, but there are several things coming up that I will most likely have to take point on.  Should be interesting and looking forward to the challenge.

Broke my finger a few weeks ago.  That sux.  I still have about 5 more weeks to wear the splint.  Makes typing pretty difficult :) (also a reason why I haven't started building our bed)

Donated one of our cars to Rawhide.  It was pretty emotional because we had the car for 19 years and it took us a LOT of places.  My oldest had been driving it for the last several years and it was starting to become a money pit so definitely time for it to go.  But still...

Built a fire pit in the back yard.  Just got a Menards kit, but we chose to use multiple colors.  Turned out great and works really well.

Installed a hitch on our car.  The car we donated had the hitch so we had to put one on the "newer" car.  Pretty easy install.  Lower the exhaust, bolt it on.  Done.

Finished the landscaping... we now have rock all the way around the house.

Got rid of the raised planting beds.  We just hadn't been using them and they took up way too much space.

Picked up an Energy Dome.  Can't believe I waited this long to get one.  Have an interesting idea to add lights to it... might actually look into that.  I tend to wear it while working just for fun.

Celebrated 30 years... thats pretty awesome.

Really blessed with a great partner, awesome kids and a good job.

It Lives!

If you look back, you will notice that I found instructions on how to build an LED cube 9 full years ago (May 4th, 2011!).  I ordered the parts in early September of that year and started building soon after.  I finished the boards sometime around April of 2012 but wasn't confident enough in my work to try and turn it on.  For the last 8 years it has been sitting on & under my desk.

This past week I decided it was time to actually try to make it work.  I reviewed the boards and found a couple of broken wires to fix, found 2 solder traces that were wrong but over all everything looked good.

I hooked it up to the USBTiny programmer which was hooked to a Raspberry Pi (wanted Linux), sent the 'test' program to it and PRESTO it worked.  I was floored.  I did find a couple of columns didn't light appropriately which turned up a couple broken solder joints that I didn't notice.  Got those fixed and it works perfect.

Next up is to get the main program working correctly... I suspect I have a solder trace wrong somewhere but not sure yet, haven't dug into it that much yet.

Here is a short video of the test program running.

https://vimeo.com/419409567

Stuff

So I had a good friend of mine fix my RPi SD slot (he has a good desoldering station) and it works great.

I added some LEDs to the Saucers in my RFM... I don't like the Green, RED is OK going to try Blue.  Also got a saucer for the SOL hole so that should be cool.

Not much else going on.  Just doing a bunch of coding @ werk, a little playing with some toys.  PC puked so I had to get a new one.  Not fun.

Other than that, things are good.

Parts arrived

Ordered tons of different parts.  Working on a mod for my RFM... will try to finish that up tomorrow so I can make a vid for my pal...

Need to figure out a better parts storage :)

More Parts

Just ordered some more parts.

A couple different SD Card slots so I can fix one of my Raspberry PIs.  Got more than one because I wanted a backup solution... especially in case another one breaks.

Bought the PI NOIR camera just for fun.

Bought some connectors to finish customizing my DWP.

Should be fun.

Whoo hoo

So, I got this Star Wars themed Laser Tag set from a rummage sale awhile back. One of the guns, didn't make a sound regularly when fired. You could score hits, but no sound. Kind of annoying.

About a month ago, I took it apart but couldn't figure out what was wrong with it, so I left it apart on my desk.

Today, I decided to glance at it again. While looking at it, I noticed an old speaker I had saved from some other device stuck to a metal bar on my desk. I thought, what the heck, lets hook it up and see if the speaker is bad. So I hooked it up temporarily and sure enough, it made a nice sound when fired. Rip out the old speaker, put in the 'new' and presto! A working gun once again.

YAY!