Author: Peter Jones

2 more work days to go. I think I need to order stuff.
Last night I got home at 930ish while the Wif was still at clinical. Rather than vegetating, I bust out some dishes, and prepped pizza dough.
Started a list entitled shit I want. It’s a list if the things I want to do what I do better. Things like a baking stone and canning stuff.
I should add some servos to that list, or maybe just start with a cheap 3d printer kit and go from there. I like the idea of building my own from the floor up, but it might be easier to get some experience first…

So cold.
I think it’s time I take a second look at making tactical turtlenecks.
Black, stretchy, tight. Zipper, do I want to go full our just neck? Pathways in the arms for el wire and a pocket for a controller. Core and extremity temperature gauges? Chest strap channels? Wrist flap for watches? Kidney pockets?
When I Amazon some other stuff (lots of random on my list right now) I should order up some fabric as well. To a degree, I’m better off doing anything than nothing.
Especially as I’m getting killed on Worlds Collide in Eve. I always forget that the game is so not done friendly at times.

The Wif has me making chicken cordon bleu. I’m thinking I need to bucks a press next time to do the flattening. It’s be good for schnitzel and something else she said but it was some language I don’t speak. Something Mediterranean with lamb and rosemary.
I figure a foot per side, one inch retaining walls, half inch thick. Add a replaceable bottom plate, and I could build a cider press. Should make the retaining walls a bout taller, call them six inch. Have a block system for setting the height of the finished product. Probably drop back down to eight inches per side. Cherry or maple maybe?
Do I want to go with a screw or bottle jack mechanism? I’m going to say screw. I don’t need two thousand pounds of pressure, just even pressure across the meat.

So I’ve been working a lot of overtime, and I’m working on rewarding myself when I do that. And yesterday I signed up for a giveaway on Arrow.com, and I get an email for 10% off my first purchase. It looks like I’m buying:
Raspberry Pi 3
Pi Noir
Maybe another display module
Some stepper motors (for an unrelated project)

After a raft of late night bill paying, which for various and sundry trains is still a thing I do manually, I:
Ordered a SIM card from Ting. Done.
Downloaded the Eclipse IDE Linux RePhone project thing. It seems to be a more actively maintained and documented project, which should help me get going. Of course, this means I need to get used to using Eclipse.
Funny enough, the only IDE I really ever use is Arduino. Someday I should get used to how to manually program microcontrollers. You know, close my supply chain and all.

Last night I started looking at programming the RePhone modulea bit more in depth. Seeed’s documentation says Windows, and if in doubt I could use the Wif’s laptop, but I hath no doubt. I found a couple projects that are for doing what what I need, and an now poking at them. The first one (link when I remember) is for adding the RePhone to the Arduino IDE, but I’m not positive on what it’s actually doing. Rather than a board ladder like Sparkfun has for the Thing, it looks to be a complete fork of the Arduino IDE. This would be cool, but it started throwing hissies about a library when I tried uploading the barebones code. Now I’m wondering if I just need to add all the files to my existing Arduino installation?
Either way, someone else has done this, which means I’m doing it. Yeah, I’ll look at how they’re aging in the boards and poke from there.

I worked on non-building shit this weekend. Mainly, while the Wif studied, I cooked and cleaned. As a plus note, I now have easy access to our stand mixer. As a minus note, we’re probably dying of malnutrition.
I had parts show up last night, so it’s time to get phone building. Step one, build a pass thru for the RePhone. Well, really step I’ve should be offering a SIM card. Right. Step one, order a SIM card. Step two, pass thru information about signal strength and stuff. Step three send a text…
Really, there’s a lot of steps.
Get a SIM card.

So other people’s projects, that I’ve looked at so far, aren’t being a huge help. I think I’m going to have to dive a little deeper. This is fine, just unexpected.
I just need to be able to:
Transfer data
Dial an arbitrary number
Text an arbitrary number
Hang up
Receive a text

Two and four above ate the keys. Everything else is bonus.
This weekend I should get a dim card, so I can get a barebones phone going, and then worry about detaching the Xadow modules, and replacing them with my gear. That’ll work.

So I wasn’t paying attention. I’ll have parts next Monday, not this week. That’s chill. Last night I started looking up documentation on the RePhone parts. The challenge is that the documentation is iffy at times.
I do have a breakout board though, so now I just need to lookup other people’s projects and see how they integrated out into their projects. This sounds like some good research to do while the Wif is studying.
On the domestic front, I’ve volunteer myself to start making pizza once (or more) a week, so tomorrow, while the Wif is in clinical, I’ll make my dough so it can ferment in the fridge for a few days.