#garfield Logs

Apr 11 2020

07:18 AM aandrew: Tom_L: that generator looks almost identical to mine
07:23 AM aandrew: Also nice build. Lame question: what’s your prep routine for painting
11:56 AM Tom_L: aandrew, since i got the metal from the scrap i used an orbital sander to clean the rust and old paint then wiped it down with some thinner
01:34 PM zhanx: ok my sdr-rtl is up tracking planes at the local airport
02:56 PM polprog: my sdr is listening to the railway
04:14 PM zhanx: nice
04:54 PM aandrew: I have to get my GPS antenna mounted and get a few other antennas figured out and mounted
04:54 PM aandrew: I put in a nice 2" duct running from the attic to the basement (straight shot)
04:55 PM aandrew: two actually, one plastic for low voltage stuff and another galvanized steel for power since I'd like to someday put a big solar panel array on the roof, got a huge roof pointed exactly perfectly for that
04:57 PM aandrew: https://imgur.com/a/dXXEywk, the housoe and garage both have a nice southeastern facing slope
04:57 PM polprog: nice
04:58 PM aandrew: one of my current projects is to make a 433MHz low power "mail notifier" -- unfortuantely I have a stupid supermailbox (non-canadians: it's a whole street's worth of mailboxes in one location on the street) and I hate checking the mail only to find it's junk or nothing
05:00 PM aandrew: I'm about 200' away from it, I am pretty sure I can just power through the metal mailbox. basic idea is to wake up when light is detected (mailman delivering or me checking), then (rev 1) transmit a jpeg of the inside of the mailbox or (rev 2) try to detect if there's something in the box (super simple machine vision) and notify
05:00 PM Tom_L: traffic jam at quittin time at the mailbox...
05:00 PM aandrew: the other thing I can potentially do is watch the security camera for the mail van driving by and trigger a check
05:00 PM aandrew: but just looking for light would work really well and is simple
05:01 PM aandrew: I already have a laser pointed at the streetlamp in the upper corner of the driveway in that pic -- I can turn the stupid street light off when I want :-)
05:01 PM polprog: heh, thats neat
05:01 PM aandrew: I should replace it with an infrared one though, because in snow/rain it's kind of easy to see a beam coming from the corner of my house to the street light
05:02 PM polprog: IR would be way better.. maybe you could strip the frequency doubler from a green laser...
05:02 PM Tom_L: what size laser?
05:02 PM aandrew: the one I'm using now? just a cheap laser diode module, says it's class I but I don't trust that
05:02 PM aandrew: it'st he kind you get 10 for $2 from ali
05:03 PM aandrew: I have a green laser pen, I have it (and my other laser modules) locked away becuase I have two little boys who are very smart and naive
05:04 PM Tom_L: my 2 little boys are 22 and 19 :)
05:05 PM polprog: as someone who is 19, i say you should keep the lasers away from them as well
05:05 PM Tom_L: they're pretty sharp
05:05 PM aandrew: yeah my older ones are 25, 20, 18 and 16 :-)
05:12 PM aandrew: https://imgur.com/a/dhErZrh
05:12 PM aandrew: I was sure that was an LED bulb
05:12 PM aandrew: those orange "bars" I think might be fluorescent
05:13 PM aandrew: they're solid, not hollow
05:13 PM polprog: i think ive seen them
05:14 PM polprog: they are probably blue leds in series with yellow phosphor
05:14 PM aandrew: CYT1000A looks to be the driver
05:14 PM polprog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_XiunR-cAQ
05:15 PM aandrew: https://datasheetspdf.com/pdf-file/938256/JXY/CYT1000A/1
05:16 PM aandrew: yeah looked like that but not oval, spherical
05:16 PM polprog: i should get some and try to make a 7 segment display..
05:16 PM aandrew: I was also surprised that the sphere was glass, not plastic
05:16 PM aandrew: felt glass so I broke it over a garbage can and it was
05:27 PM zhanx: mailbox with a window alarm sensor to tell if it was opened and call it good
05:27 PM zhanx: KISS
05:28 PM zhanx: i should get off my butt and swap filament rolls and print more parts
07:24 PM rue_shop2: what cha printn?
07:50 PM aandrew: heh zhankx that doesn't tell me if there's mail, which is kind of the point