Here is a pretty neat little project I just finished up that will detect if wire is stolen, and then send out email and text messages alerting a team of people of the event. It is in a remote area, so we used a cellular-based data modem to provide access to the Internet. The 2 videos below show the main components set up on my desk as I was getting it configured and programmed.
Create your own gray card by using photo editing software:
(or just print the png above or this US Letter sized PDF Gray Card)
Our Razor Dune Buggy is finished now. Here is a quick video showing it off with the new parts:
List of changed components from the original configuration:
Here is a list of parts I ordered from ElectricScooterParts.com: Continue reading
I created a new website at sparkygeek.com to serve as a landing page for my professional contacts. The graphic is of a pocket protector with a lightening bolt behind it. Pretty geeky huh?
For $40, I was able to have 3 new burners and 3 new stainless steel heat plates shipped to my door. The reason I thought this was so great is last time I bought new burners, I paid $60 for 3 of them. Love the free market and the Internet!
Charmglow 720-0036-HD-05 or 720-0036-HD
Pipe Burners are 16-13/16″ x 1″
Heat Plates are 17-1/4″ x 6-15/16″
The boys got to hang out with some friendly animals today. Aiden was pretty funny, he wasn’t too sure how to hold or touch them. Bryson took right to it.
Six months after we’ve moved in I’m finally getting to the task of setting up the playhouse we brought with us from the old house. Side note: Bryson told me this weekend he remembers going to someone’s house and taking it apart and bringing it home, then adding more to it — so it has sentimental value now! I wanted to connect the two playhouses together with some sort of bridge. I finally decided on a simple rigid bridge is what I wanted.
I’ve needed a time-average function several times, so I figure other people have also. Here is a handy AOI which makes it easy to use in a ControlLogix ladder program. (AB has the Moving Average MAVE instruction in function block and structured text environments but not ladder) I use this instruction when I’m trying to control something from a signal that jumps around too much. The instruction takes samples from the input at the interval you set it to, and outputs the average of all the samples. I’ve included the import file and screenshots of the ladder code.
AOI: TimeAve.L5X.zip
Left wing, right wing, libertarian on marriage, health care, money, taxation, and war.
If you use the defaults for Imagemagick, the output of a PDF file with text converted to PNG is unreadable. The secret is to use the density option:
$ convert -density 300 xxxxx.pdf yyyyy.png
If the original PDF has a transparent background, use the alpha option:
$ convert -density 300 xxxxx.pdf -alpha off yyyyy.png
[update 2018]
can also use
$ pdftoppm input.pdf outputname -png
