Thinking meat based analogue communication

So...

We used to have this bird named "Spork".

Sometimes he was named "Pogo" because he didnt have enough legs. (he always didnt have enough legs, he just wasnt always called pogo (that sounds suspiciously like something Clevinger (Catch 22) might say)) (and whats with all the nested parenthesis?)))

Anyway...

Spork lived in a sectioned off bit of the house near my desk where I spent most of the day, so we got pretty close. As close as a human that really likes magpies can get to a magpie that almost always hates humans. I say "almost", because if you turned him on his back with his one leg in the air, he would relax so much you could push him around on the floor like a kid playing with a matchbox car. If you tried that when he was upright, hed peck your eyes out in a heartbeat. One of his fast bird heartbeats as well, not some dopey slow human heartbeat. Except Shaan when she offered Spork her (maybe smurf) keyring. Sporked liked Shaan and her keyring.

Anyway... I would whistle "Doo, du do du, and he would instantly reply "Do du do, du dooo do". It was almost as if he could help himself. He had to finish the tune. (I originally taught him the entire tune, but it took the first few notes for him to realise that it was time to sing)

We had to give him up when we had to move back to the flat lands from Cudlee Creek. We also miss all the other creatures we shared our lives with (a goat, an emu, a pig, three sheep, an owl, and various chickens) all still missed terribly.

Anyway... Some nice bird rescue people took in Spork to live with all their other magpies, a magpie loving dog that protected them all from foxes, and a parrot that nobody could understand because it spoke too fast. I suggested it was horse race calling as a result of being pre-owned by a gambler with a radio, and there was a general agreement that that might just be the case.

Really odd sulphur crested cockatoo.

But... it occurred to me that Spork now lived only 30 km away as the crow flies.

Thats only 5 magpie families or so. The other night I found myself trying to teach my local magpies the first (my) half of the tune so they might in turn teach the next groups radiating out from them. I managed to add one extra note to the current call of my local group, but interestingly I managed to get a complete (my half) call from a group further in the distance.

So, so far so good. So, so. You dont see the word "so" followed by the word "so" that much.

And... once I teach the local magpies the first half of the tune and get them to teach the next closets magpies( and so on, and so on), in 5-30 years or so, I hope to hear the second half of the tune (Sporks half) in reply.

Bam!

If so, I expect a Nobel prize for developing very slow, organic, analogue communication, and creating the first "bird meat" based communication protocol that doesnt require tying things to their feet.

120 things in 20 years - So... thats where my life is at.

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Start Some Trouble

First internship.  I thought it went well.  Apparently not as well as I thought as I found out today.  Second one was a disaster.  Only one doctor on staff and our personalities clashed completely.  We knew we didnt like each other but had a very professional relationship...that is after he screamed at me.  I took his knowledge to heart and listened to him when he didnt ignore me.  Now Im on probation at school.

Now let me tell you about my second internship.  It was horrible for me.  However it was a fantastic clinic.  The doctor there was incredible.  It seemed like the staff consisted of a bunch of push overs (no offense to them.)  Very nice but didnt seem to question anything...ever.  Not even when the area was dirty.  They just kind of shrugged.  Oh well.  NO NOT FUCKING OH WELL.  THIS IS A GODDAMN HOSPITAL!  And that is probably why I didnt do so well there.  The first clinic was a Banfield.  Not sure what I did wrong there.  Maybe it was because I was a shy first term student who, in the first few days begged to do things but nobody let me so I gave up.  I feel like I came through in the end but apparently not enough.

So...to the next places.  Fuck being polite.  Dont bitch about me not doing shit if youre not gonna let me do it.  And no...I will NOT just stick your animals with controlled...or any drugs without you knowing or watching (ESPECIALLY if its controlled.)  Im a student...covering my ass NOT a new employee.

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!

GOD DAMNIT PEOPLE

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cocky I think so bloggy blog

I walked home slowly through the dark. I got out early that night. My Ipod died soon after class though. I saw a pit bull in the yard. She looked alert. She went into the bushes. I had to walk near them...it was the only way home. And then...she pounced. I stood still. She scared me. She came up to me. She opened her mouth...she aimed for my hand....and then...

SLIRP. Yuck. She drooled on my hand. I didnt mind though as it was freezing outside and her hot breath warmed my icicles for fingers. "Hi" I said. She was lost. Her leash was on with no ID. "Where do you live?" What a foolish question. This dog was truly lost. I think she knew what I meant...as she walked from the direction she possibly came from but ended up going in circles and tucking her tail in between her legs. I gave up. Mom surely would kill me if I took her home...even though I would very likely walk around looking for her owner...ESPECIALLY since she had a collar with leash attached.

I saw a man swiftly and anxiously walking down the street. "Did you lose a dog?" He came up to me "Yes please have you seen her?" I gave him reassurance and told him his dog took off about three seconds ago and to keep going straight.

And that is my latest vicious pit bull attack. She looked a lot like the one in the picture but very much more terrified.

Ok So I know I usually talk about my odd application experiences. Well...out of all of them I think JC Penney has been the worse. I mean I had to start over like...six times because of computer errors. One time it was simply because I couldnt change my previous payment history under my previous jobs. I mean one I put 7.50 and it insisted that I added another zero...so it was 7.500...

...

So then I entered it as 7.5 and it re-entered it as 7.500

lol

And during the survey thing...about 30 out of the 50 questions it had asked if I shopped at Jc Penney and what my favorite store to shop at is.

LAME

I mean thats as bad as Petco asking about a TV or GAP Inc (old navy) having most of their questions ask if I have ever stolen anything.

so as I was writing this blog I realized Gunther sounds like Takakura from Harvest Moon: Its a Wonderful Live Special Edition.

HAHA

Like when he says "Oooh you touch my talala" it sounds almost exactly like when Takakura says "ooooh" when you talk to him.

Anyway I just found out that when you have a daughter on Harvest Moon Wonderful Life she looks like the dad. That sucks because you need to do extra steps to have a girl...and I tried super hard to marry Nami...the redhead so I could have a redhead daughter =[

I have decided that all of my favorite trance/dance/house/techno/blah blah blah songs are all emo...except Lifestyles and pretty rave girl (Which I found out is by DJ S3rl NOT I am X-ray...please everyone make a note of it)

lyrics such as

"Heavenly, is all that, I could feel
Now your here
And left without a single feel
From this day on..."
-Markus Schulz Never be the Same Again

"Feeling sad and lonely
Cause I cant find you
Call your telephone
And theres never no answer
Said you love me
Kissed me
We were in heaven
Said Im sorry
Love you, want you forever"
-we all know that one

And I just ran into this really cool song while looking for this other song.
Beam vs Cyrus - Lifestyle (original mix)

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Wireless Communication For Microcontrollers August 7 MCU Group Meeting

Traditionally, microcontrollers (MCUs) didnt need wireless communications because they did all their interactions in a limited space. If they interacted with something a few inches or a few feet away, wires connected the interacting devices. However, in 2014 some MCU applications require wireless communication, and this post takes an initial look at the wonderful world of wireless for MCUs.

Breadboard setup for #9 video wireless communication

This posts overview of MCU wireless looks at Jeremy Blums #9 Arduino video tutorial, the wireless exercise Ed Smith developed as his alternative to using the BOM components (bill of materials) and code in Jeremys #9 video exercise, and a few recent developments and web resources for MCU wireless communication. In addition to presenting an updated look at MCU wireless, researching and writing this post is a step toward locating or developing a training exercise for Arduino wireless communication that is more up to date than Jeremys #9 video, which was published in Febrary 2011.

Two of the primary driving forces behind MCU wireless communications are the internet and the increasing power of mobile or miniature computing devices. As the increasingly ubiquitous smartphone and the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) create a sharp increase in the production volume and tech innovation in MCU wireless components, the number of wireless technology solutions continues to rise and the cost to do wireless communications continues to drop. If you search online for MCU wireless projects, tutorials or components, check the dates on your search results. Information from five or even two years ago may be totally outdated.

First up -- points of discussion about Jeremys #9 video at tonights Humboldt Microcontrollers Group meeting.

Most of the participants in tonights meeting had watched all or part of the #9 video. But no one had done the exact wireless exercise that Jeremy demonstrated and explained. The primary reason no one duplicated his exercise was that the components in Jeremys exercise cost too much to buy for learning about wireless. If you already had a couple spare Arduino Unos and the XBee components sitting around idle, then Jeremys exercise would be reasonable, but it didnt make sense to anyone at the meeting to buy all the components just to do the #9 video exercise. The main value of the #9 video seemed to be that it focused everyones attention on MCU wireless communication, and even if we didnt follow Jeremys exercise exactly, a couple people in the group did develop somewhat analogous wireless systems. And there was a lot of good discussion about the various wireless options and components, probably more than if everyone had used Jeremys components.

Nordic RF module

Second topic -- Ed Smiths MCU wireless communications components, circuitry and code.

Ed put together a low-cost wireless exercise using a couple Nordic RF transceivers he had available. The parts used in Eds setup include Texas Instruments Tiva-C launchpad 296-35760-ND, Texas Instruments MSP430G2553 Launchpad 296-27570-ND, Nordic 2.4 GHz RF transceiver NRF24L01+, Pin header 952-2247-ND, Pin socket header S7031-ND, perfboard, jumper wires, solderless breadboard, TFT LCD 2.2" 240x320 and an accelerometer. The breadboarded circuit for the MSP430 and accelerometer is shown in the picture below on the right. Eds hardware sent 3-axis information from the accelerometer from the MSP430 to the Tiva-C board and displayed it on the small LCD screen. The code was written using Energia, which is designed

MSP430 with Nordic RF 

"bring the Wiring and Arduino framework to the Texas Instruments MSP430 based LaunchPad". Ed will be writing up a separate blog post about his setup and the Nordic transceivers, including code and pictures, so look for that to show up on this blog soon.

An alternative to the wireless components Jeremy used in the #9 video and the components Ed used is the JeeNode. Nick got two JeeNodes for about $22 each with 915 MHz radios and worked with MCU wireless using those boards. According to Digital Smarties, the UK fulfillment transaction processors for the boards, the JeeNode is,

"a compact wireless board with an Atmel 8-bit RISC microprocessor. JeeNodes are compatible with the Arduino platform and can be programmed under Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux using sketches created with the Arduino IDE. Each JeeNode has 4

identical “ports” for attaching analog and digital I/O logic, I2C devices, and more. The JeeLib library makes it easy to interface to these ports. The JeeNode Kit contains all the parts needed to build a JeeNode v6 – including an ATmega328p processor and an RFM12B radio module."

Modern Device does much of the manufacturing for JeeLabs and is the US distributor for JeeNodes. The JeeLabs website describes the board this way:

"The JeeNode is a wireless micro-controller board designed for a variety of Physical Computing tasks. From measuring and reporting temperature, humidity, and other environmental data to tracking and controlling energy consumption around the house. It was inspired by the Arduino Duemilanove and Uno boards, and by the “Real Bare Bones Board” (RBBB) from Modern Device."

The JeeNode component bill of materials (BOM) for learning MCU wireless would only be slightly more expensive than the Nordic RF components. Ed said for various prototypes or applications, the JeeNode would be more capable than the Nordic systems, and would be well worth the few extra dollars.

Third subject -- Worthwhile web resources for newbies to understand MCU wireless.

I havent done an exhaustive search for web resources on MCU wireless, so please send me links to sites you feel are good on this topic, especially if you think theyre better for a particular aspect of wireless compared to the sites Ive listed. If youre new to wireless communications, you might want to read through the Wikipedia entry for Wireless Networks. If you are already have a good background on wireless networks, consider looking through the SparkFun Wireless Buying Guide. The SparkFun guide is where I read about Nordic RF modules yesterday for the first time ever. Then I found out what Ed used for his wireless exercise, and it turned out to be Nordic transceivers (or Nordic clones). The wireless section of your favorite MCU vendors website is another good place to learn about wireless, especially as it applies to the MCUs you use and understand. Atmel, Texas Instruments and Microchip main pages for wireless are listed below.

• http://www.atmel.com/products/wireless/
• http://www.ti.com/lsds/ti/wireless_connectivity/overview.page
• http://www.microchip.com/pagehandler/en-us/products/wireless/home.html

If you go through the above resources and want to know more, search for your topics of interest and youll find lots of relevant websites to sift through for more specific info thats relevant to you.

Fourth issue -- Developing an inexpensive MCU wireless educational exercise for the Humboldt Microcontrollers Group.

We decided tonight that Eds setup is about as inexpensive as youre going to be able to do a two-MCU, two-transceiver wireless exercise. Another wireless learning exercise we will probably research is one with a single MCU and a Wi-Fi system to directly connect the MCU to the Internet. Figuring that one out will wait for another day.

Along with our discussions about MCU wireless, tonights Humboldt Microcontrollers Group meeting covered a multitude of topics, including but not limited to freezing hard drives to recover data from them, buying vacuum tubes, flying quadcopters that have a mind of their own, the unpredictable adventures of buying electronic components from Chinese eBay sellers, good power supplies and power supplies to stay far away from, how to load Arch Linux on a Chromebook, repairing welders, upgrades to automated doors on chicken coops, the Humboldt Laser Harp, and what the topic of the next MCU group meeting should be. If you have suggestions for MCU meeting topics, please contact me at arcatabob (at) gmail [dott] com or contact Nick A.

If you are interested or experienced in MCU wireless, it would be great to connect with you -- email me at arcatabob (at) gmail {dott} com. Hope to see you at the next Humboldt Microcontrollers Group meeting on Thursday, August 21.

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Solar Energy And Arduino Solar Charge Controller

Theres an intriguing microcontroller (MCU) project in an August 8 article on Design News titled "Gadget Freak Case #260: Arduino Solar Charge Controller." I havet read a lot about solar energy and Arduinos, or any other MCUs, so I took a closer look at the article.

Residential active solar energy system (from Wikipedia CC)

Many Humboldt County people seem interested in solar energy, although the often-foggy or cloudy climate of Arcata, Eureka, and other coastal communities isnt as well suited to solar energy collection as the climate of New Mexico or Arizona cities. However, it is still good to be experienced with technologies used outside the North Coast, and there are plenty parts of Humboldt County not immersed in marine fog banks or redwood forest mists. For this reason it would be useful for participants in the Humboldt Microcontrollers Group to know the basics of active solar energy systems and to have experience with the electronic components and operation of those systems. The topic of the Design News article above isnt an inexpensive basic active solar energy system, but I think Ill do some research regarding different types of inexpensive systems for a future group project.

Solar charge controller schematic from CirKit.com

The solar charge controller that is the topic of this post is located between the solar energy collection device and the energy storage system, usually a battery. The controller regulates both the voltage and the current going to the energy storage system from the energy collection device. The schematic at the right from CirKit.com shows the general concept (although that schematic is not from Gadget Freak project). The Design News article describes the function of the Arduino this way:

"This gadget uses Arduino to control the whole process and takes a voltage reading from the solar panel and the battery to be charged. Then, according to voltage levels on either side, it charges the battery using PWM control signal. Energy flow is driven with MOSFET transistors that ensure low energy loss. The charging controller is equipped with basic filters on both the battery side and the solar panel side. It is also equipped with things like overcurrent, overvoltage, PV panel reverse current, auto load disconnection, and overcharge protection."

Gadget Freak #260: solar charge controller (Design News PDF)

The solar charge controller build instruction PDF is linked to in the article, and seems like a good quality document. It has pictures, circuit drawings, Arduino code, and the type of helpful tips that many project documents do not include. An example of the helpful tips is where the project creator describes how to choose MOSFETs. For people who arent already familiar with MOSFET properties and how theyre used, he says this about drain source voltages for MOSFETs:

"When the MOSFET is turned off, the whole supply voltage will be measurable across it, so this rating should be larger than your supply voltage to provide sufficient protection so that the MOSFET does not fail. The maximum voltage a MOSFET can handle varies with temperature."

He also talks about whether to use an n or p channel MOSFET, continuous drain currents, thermal loss, gate threshold voltage and more. Tips like this are especially useful to people like me who are new to microcontrollers.

In months and years to come, it is my hope that the Humboldt Microcontrollers Group will build many MCU devices and systems. Nicks automated chicken coop door is the first one, as far as I know, and the Humboldt Laser Harp is the second, I think. It would be great if we can develop and put online as much information as possible about these MCU projects, assuming theyre not going to be commercialized so they can earn us millions. Or even thousands. Anyway, part of gathering, organizing and publishing this MCU project information should be a good documentation format. There are many possible formats, but the Gadget Freak build instruction PDF used in the solar charge controller project seems like a good place to start if someone in the MCU group doesnt have a different project information format they prefer.

Gadget Freak (from Design News and Allied Electronics)

This Gadget Freak topic appears to be a regular feature of the Design News website. This solar charge controller is labelled #260. I dont know if that means there are 259 previous Gadget Freaks, but here are links to The Best of Gadget Freak Volume 1 and The Best of Gadget Freak Volume 2. Design News collaborates with Allied Electric, and they invite you to submit your electronics projects for publication. This is just one more way that people in the Humboldt MCU community can participate in the expanding world of microcontrollers and possible earn a few bucks. The Gadget Freak page on Allied Electrics site says:

"Are you a Gadget Freak? Allied Electronics and Design News would like to send you a check for $500 to spend at alliedelec.com or anywhere you please! Submit your design for a gizmo or gadget that any Gadget Freak would appreciate, and you just might win! If your project is selected, you’ll receive a $500 check from Design News and will be featured in an upcoming issue of the magazine with your invention. In addition to the $500 awarded for being selected as a Gadget Freak, all selected gadgets...will be included in the Gadget Freak of the Year contest. Starting in November, the readers of Design News will then vote on the best gadget...The winning gadget will receive an additional $6,000 with two runners-up who will receive $2,000 each."

If youve built solar energy devices or systems with MCUs, it would be great if you came to one of the every other Thursday meetings the MCU group has. The next meeting will be on Thursday, August 24. If you cant make it to the meeting but would be interested in discussing your solar energy device or system, please email me at arcatabob (at) gmail {dott} com

. It would be great to meet you for coffee and a tech discussion, or possibly youd be willing to show the MCU group your MCU in operation!

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Thinking Six degrees future communication

Those six degrees of separation are really a lot less than six when it comes to communicating with people who are, say, on the same forum as you are, live in the same street, or to people you actually know.

But even when they arent people you know, six is not so many. From now on, Im going to just rely on the few degrees of separation for all my communication needs. Booking doctors appointments, airline tickets, ordering pizza, everything.

Ive been dealing with the support desk of a net based business trying to find some information, and I think my new method might be substantially more effective than my current approach of filling out thousands of web forms.

It would certainly be more comfortable.

Because theres only a few degrees of separation between me and whoever it is a want to inform,  from now on, Ill  just chat about it casually to someone I meet in the street, and hope the query or order finds itself on the correct desk on the other side of the globe.

As a method of getting a help desk to respond, I cant see it being any worse than my recently tried methods.

I feel better already.




120 Things in 20 years - Going crazy one purchase at a time when thinking about my communication issues.

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