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.

Ancient Backup Files Part 3

If you look back, you'll see I've mentioned some backup files that I've had laying around for a long time.  I had taken some backups of my Dos / Windows hard drives circa 1995 to tape, then DD'd the tapes to a Linux box circa 2002 and just grabbed the files.  I can't remember what software I used to create the backups, but I always assumed it was Norton Desktop.

Yesterday while I was wandering the internet I came across a mention of Central Point Backup.  I seem to recall having that at one point too so maybe that is what I used.

I did find a github project that talks about that format here https://github.com/RetroReversing/retroReversing/blob/master/tools/CentralPointBackupVisualizer.html#L31 and at some point I'll compare my notes with what that project says.  I just wanted to record it here so I wouldn't lose it :)

Someday I hope to create a program to read the files and extract the files in them to see if there is anything of importance in there (BBS System files I hope!).

Time keeps on ticking...

I think of blogs as "journals" or "diaries".  I've never been much of a write down my thoughts kind of guy.  I prefer to write code.  Which should explain why I don't update things here very often.

So, here is a quick update on what has happened over the past year or so.

Boss retired, that sucked.  One of my coworkers from the team got promoted to be my boss, that did not suck.  He is good to me and lets me do the things I like to do, I guess I trained him well ;)

SP guy retired, that REALLY sucked because that meant I had to step up and BE the SP guy.  Not something that I love to do.  Hoping we get a new SP guy soon so I can get back to focusing on the things I like to do (coding!)

"Permanent" work from home.  That's pretty good.  Save on gas, clothes, food.

Replaced a lot of the flooring, both toilets, all cabinets, kitchen / dining / front hall lights, stove, all sinks, and switched tub to just a shower. (did all that instead of buying me a new car)

Well tank "died".  Had to limp along for 6 months waiting for the well guys to get parts so they could replace the whole system.  Got a continuous pressure system.  Way better than the normal tank crap we had before.  Now we can shower and run laundry or dishes at the same time.  Replaced the whole house filters while I was at it.

Did some more landscaping.

Got a new mirrored back glass for my DW... looks pretty cool.

Got 400mb internet.

Wrote several simple JavaScript games just because I could.  Nothing that I'd publish for others to see, just for myself and a hobby coder friend of mine.

Still miss my friends.

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

Chrome in C#

Recently I got a new NAS and wanted to monitor the heath on a regular basis. So I wrote an app to log into the web admin portal and display the system status dashboard. I used the CefSharp toolkit found here: https://github.com/cefsharp/CefSharp

It was super easy to use. I just created a form then added the following code:

       
public ChromiumWebBrowser chromeBrowser;

CefSettings cefSettings = new CefSettings();
Cef.Initialize(cefSettings);

chromeBrowser = new ChromiumWebBrowser("INSERT_WEB_URL_HERE");

this.Controls.Add(chromeBrowser);

// fill the window minus the menu
chromeBrowser.Dock = DockStyle.None;
chromeBrowser.Top = menuStrip1.Height;
chromeBrowser.Height = this.ClientSize.Height - menuStrip1.Height;
chromeBrowser.Width = this.ClientSize.Width;
chromeBrowser.Anchor = AnchorStyles.Bottom | AnchorStyles.Top | AnchorStyles.Left | AnchorStyles.Right;
      
 

Then you can do things like this:

       
chromeBrowser.ExecuteScriptAsync("document.getElementById(\"ext-comp-1091\").click();"); // stats web menu item
      
 

Fun times.

Psycho Chat

Years ago, a friend wrote an automated help chat program that the users would use to solve basic computer questions. He wrote it in Pascal (circa 1985). When I was running a BBS, he thought it would be cool to use his program to answer basic BBS questions, I agreed.

So I took his program, ran it through a Pascal to C converter and 'fixed' it and made a BBS door called Psycho Chat out of it. I hooked it to the Page Sysop feature of the BBS (circa 1992 running Wildcat!) and the transcripts were hilarious.

Years later (circa 2002), just for fun, I hand converted it to Delphi (which is based on Pascal... funny how the program came full circle). It worked OK but just wasn't the same.

On and off for the past 15 years I've been thinking of making it a web page using PHP and Ajax. My friend had the same idea yesterday so I decided it was time to actually do something about it. Took me a couple hours to hand convert the Delphi program to Javascript / jQuery / PHP but now its working. Still using the response files from the BBS.

It was a fun project and I don't know why I waited so long to do it.

This version doesn't record what is being said... hmmm... maybe I should add that just for fun :)

New Travel Entertainment Pt. 3

So I mounted the TripMate and Hard Drive in a pencil box using velcro straps and it worked perfect.  One handy little box to move around.  I added vent holes to cut down on the heat.  I also added my 12000mha battery just in case.

When we got to the hotel I plugged it into their wired internet and then all my devices had internet without having to connect to their wireless.

Very happy with this setup.

New Travel Entertainment Pt. 2

So, I saw a sale on the HooToo TripMate Elite ($33).  Its the same as the Nano, but with a built in battery pack!  Now my setup is even smaller because I don't need any external power at all.  I have the TripMate Elite and a hard drive and thats it!

Initial test showed that I could run it for 4 hours before needing a charge... I'm redoing the test after fully charging the TME over night.  I'm currently at 2.5 hours and still have 3/4 battery left.  So maybe I'll get 7 hours?

The range is pretty good too.  I could still play movies from 40 ft away.

Definitely recommend both of them... I'll probably sell the nano to a friend, cheap.

RPi Changes

As promised here are the changes that I made to the RPi to accommodate the physical button that allows changing of the station being played.

1) add another user that will monitor for the button (adduser radiochange)
2) make changes to the sudoers... it should now have the following lines.
radio ALL=(radio)NOPASSWD:/usr/bin/doradio,/usr/bin/mpg123 *,/usr/bin/killall mpg123, /usr/bin/amixer *

www-data ALL=(radio)NOPASSWD:/usr/bin/doradio,/usr/bin/mpg123 *,/usr/bin/killall mpg123, /usr/bin/amixer *

radiochange ALL=(radiochange)NOPASSWD:/usr/bin/radioSwitch,/usr/bin/doradio,/usr/bin/mpg123 *,/usr/bin/killall mpg123, /usr/bin/amixer *


3) Create the switch monitor program (vi /usr/bin/radioSwitch) and put the following code in it:

# python3
# Monitor button on RPI
import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
import time
import subprocess
change_channel = 1
# use BCM GPIO
GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)
# set up GPIO input pins
# (pull_up_down be PUD_OFF, PUD_UP or PUD_DOWN, default PUD_OFF)
GPIO.setup(1, GPIO.IN, pull_up_down=GPIO.PUD_UP)
# GPIO 0 & 1 have hardware pull ups fitted in the Pi so don't enable them
GPIO.setup(0, GPIO.IN, pull_up_down=GPIO.PUD_OFF)
GPIO.setup(change_channel, GPIO.IN, pull_up_down=GPIO.PUD_OFF)
print("RadioPI Monitoring for button press")
delay = range(0,5000)
dum = 0
while True:
 while GPIO.input(change_channel) != 0:
  time.sleep(0.07)
 print("Button Pressed")
 output = subprocess.Popen("/usr/bin/radioChange", shell=True)
 output.wait()
#finished a run so start again

4) Make the new program executable: chmod 755 /usr/bin/radioSwitch

5) Setup inittab to fire off the radioSwitch program, find the following line and comment it out.

#2:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty2

Add the following line

2:2345:respawn:/bin/login -f radiochange tty2 /dev/tty2 2>&1


6) Change the doRadioScript.php...   replace the line

 $inName = trim($_GET["inName"]);

with

    if ($_GET["inName"] > "")
    {
      $inName = trim($_GET["inName"]);
    } else {
      $inName = trim($radioList[$nextStation][0]);
    }

7) Change the stationCommon.php script to the following:

<?php
        {
           $radioList[] = $tempArray;
           if (trim($tempArray[0]) == $currentStation)
           {
              $currentURL = trim($tempArray[1]);
              $stationPosition = $stationCount;
           }
           $stationCount++;
        }
    }
    fclose($file);
    $nextStation = $stationPosition + 1;
    if ($nextStation >= $stationCount) $nextStation = 0;
?>

8) There is also a bug in the current sound drivers so you eed to change the doRadio script... and make it look like the following (you could probably change the 2s to something less but I didn't try it)... and the amixer line just bumps up the volume.

sudo -uradio killall  mpg123
sleep 2s
sudo -uradio /usr/bin/amixer set PCM 9
sleep 2s
sudo -uradio /usr/bin/mpg123 -@ `cat /var/www/stationURL` &

I think that's all the changes.  If I think of anymore I'll post them.

Da Cube

I started on the other board and as I was putting the pieces on, I found that I forgot to order a few parts :(

I will continue to work on the board as much as I can until the new parts arrive (2 - 3 weeks).  Ah well...  at least I found a new supplier that had less expensive parts :)  (http://www.taydaelectronics.com/)

House Stuff

To date, I have done the following things to this house (not in this order):

Replace all door locks (me)
Replaced the well pump (professional plumber did it)
Replaced the well tank twice (my friend and I)
Installed Carbon and Sediment whole house filters (my friend and I)
Replaced the furnace & A/C and relocated within basement (professional installers)
Replaced the Water Heater (my friend and I)
Replaced Water Softener (my friend and I)
Replaced the roof shingles (neighbor, brother, inlaws and I)
Replaced garage side door (inlaw and I)
Replaced garage door (professional installer)
Replaced garage door opener (inlaw and I)
Changed out garage dual plugs for quad plugs (me)
Painted inside of garage (me)
Stained house twice (me)
Replaced all 4 downspouts (me)
Changed out Dishwasher (me)
Removed wall paper from Bathroom and repainted & install new molding (wife and I)
Repainted 3 Bedrooms, Living room and Computer room (wife and I)
Framed out, insulated, dry walled and wired basement (me)
Added inverter to run part of house when power goes out (friend and I)
Installed built in Desks & Shelves, replaced carpeting and rewired computer room (me)
Wired house for network (me)
Replace Fence (Friend, inlaw and I)
Remove fence around patio (me)
Install ceiling fans in 3 bedrooms and computer room (me)
Install storage shelving in basement (me)
Replaced the garbage disposal (me)
Installed RO Filter (friend and I)
Installed TV antenna (me)
Replaced several cabinet drawers (me)
Built playset (inlaw and I)
Dug Firepit (me)
Built garden boxes (me)
Cut down 6 trees (friend and I)
Cut down several bushes (me)
Plant several trees (wife and I)
Plant bushes (wife and I)

Things yet to do:

Replace all windows (professional)
Replace front door (me and someone else)
Replace kitchen cabinets (professional??? or maybe me... )

Jack of many trades... master of some...

Some Progress

I got the majority of the wires in place... have maybe 8 left then I think I have to mount a couple caps, LEDs and resistors then I can start on the other board... still have a lot of work to do but at least its moving along again.

Not much progress

Have been pretty burnt out from work so I haven't done much on the cube.  Will fix that this weekend :)

Here are a couple of pictures of the circuit board in its current state.  As you can see, I've started putting on the wires... there will be 56 of them.  Also got the solder braid and cleaned up the spots that bugged me.

If you look closely on the right of the picture you can see where I glued the circuit board.  Its holding nicely so I'm continuing on.

Talked to one of my friends today (hi Jon!) and he gave me some good ideas on the base so I will be exploring that.  He also sent some links to interesting things...  One for a power module that might actually work out for my cube so I'll probably buy a couple just for fun (http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/2110) and a couple of videos related to an astromech project that he is working on... Not sure I'm willing to take on a project like that but it sure looks cool.  Maybe next year? :)

Update:  HOLY COW the shipping is expensive on those Pololu things... $18 for 2 $15 parts... wtf

Slow Progress

It appears that the glue I used is holding so we should be good.  I'm continuing on with the board.

I forgot how much detail work there is in soldering.  Lots of tiny little solder joints not to mention tiny wires.  I have to put on 72 wires yet.  Not really looking forward to it but it has to be done or I'll never get the board done.  The board I'm working on right now is the one that connects to the LEDs and even if I was using an arduino I would have to have this board... ah well.  It is what it is.

I think I have all the parts I need, the only thing I need yet is some solder braid to wick out some mistakes... but I can probably live without it...

On a side note, I would not recommend getting the PanaVise Jr.  It does the job but just barely.  I should have sprung for the full Panavise... it was only 3x the price... :)

Disaster maybe averted

So I was pretty depressed about breaking the PCB and I went ahead and ordered a bunch more just in case but then I just let it sit for a day or so.  Went back to it yesterday and decided that I should be able to glue the board back together.  Did that and it turned out OK.  Seems to be holding and I 'think' that I can still solder properly.  Right now I need some 30ga wire so I'm going to stop by radio scrap to see if they have any.  Not sure where else might have it in town (wally world?)  Once I get that then I'll attempt to solder by the broken part and see if it works... fingers crossed.

Other than that not much progress.I am going with running wires instead of long solder traces... its just plain easier.  I have copper wire and something else (same stuff I used on the cube) so the positive and ground wires will be 2 different colors of bare wire.  Just to make it easier to tell them apart.

Think I need some solder wick too... hoping to get that tomorrow.

DISASTER!

I broke the PCB I was working on (the nice pictures you see below).  Don't think I can salvage it.  Guess I will desolder everything and start over.  Wish I hadn't cheaped out and only bought the number of PCBs I needed.  Took way too long to get these... :(

Circuit Board started...

Here are a couple of quick shots of the progress on the first circuit board:

Time for bed

p.s.  Sorry for the crappy pictures, I didn't realize the camera was doing that... they look reasonable when they are small.  The next set of pictures I take will be better.

Whats Next?

Whoo Hoo!  I've got all 8 layers soldered together.  It looks really cool and is super stable.  It was a lot of fun to build.  Here is a picture:

The rest of the parts arrived, here is a shot of them:

I also put together the USBTinyISP device.  I didn't take any pictures of it so if you want to see some just take a glance at the instructions I followed, they have tons of pictures and mine look very similar (only a little 'cleaner') ;) :  http://www.ladyada.net/make/usbtinyisp/solder.html

Next I guess I'll start working on the electronics for the cube itself.  I'll post pictures of that as I make progress.

This is the most fun I've had with electronics in a long time.

Stacking, stacking, stacking, stacking...

I'm up to 4 layers stacked together.  4 more to go...those are the spacers I'm using (took way too long to make those just the right size...

I will continue working today and see how far I get.