Huh. Will that’s crashing pretty reliably. It doesn’t help that Ubuntu is actually on the current version. I figure out might be something I’m doing, but who knows what. I think I might just go old school designing the keyboard.
Keyboard
So my old keyboard (the one I style the switches from) had a spread of close to a waterer out looks like. I’m thinking go an eighth.
0.61″+0.125″
Next, keys need to be in rows. I want a number pad, but I don’t want the foot print (by the way, my phone just interpreted my swiping of foot print as shit urine, to clarify I also don’t want the shit urine) that entails. The pebble is I also don’t like how over purposed keypads in the jkl; region have that terrible offset. So, the easy stilton is don’t offset them or… just streaming some consciousness here, what if I still used the real estate across the side, but not the top. No, stick with the original plan, rows are on a grid.
2 position keys are:
Tab
Caps
L. Shift
L. Control
Backspace
Enter
R. Shift
R. Control
Space will be odd man out at 4 or more spaces
I never liked the Fn key on midst laptops, so I think I’ll call it Mod instead.
Laptop
Baby steps.
Went looking at laptops yesterday. I really wasn’t feeling the ones I looked at. Some were big and shiny. Some were small and gutless. Some wee ugly as sin. Some were out of the price range I felt. While I’m looking at System 76, I’m not feeling them as really fitting my needs. I’m not sure why, the build quality sounds good, the price on the one I’m looking at seems legit, just something. I think it’s the sustainability.
I want supply chains I own. I want to be able to upgrade the hardware I have. I want to own my hardware.
So in that light…
I still have the Beaglebone Black. It’s older than some of the other options that are out there, but a) I have one that I’m not using b) it’s (if I remember correctly) open source for hardware and drivers. This will already put me miles ahead of other options that I’m seeing. I’ll need to add other hardware into the mix. Wifi, video, storage, keyboard, pointer, usb hub, and battery charging for a start. I’ll start with the keyboard, pointer, and usb first. They’re all closely tied together. Or at least two of the three are closely connected. I should start by starting to do the keyboard. I’ve got the does and the switches. I think I have enough switches. I guess I’ll find out. In memory of the Compaq Aero, I’ll add a thumb stick and buttons to the right edge. So I can rock all this using a Teensy (which I have) or (a Pi Zero? I think a Pi Zero can be a hub). Pop in a Thing for…
Nope. Getting ahead of myself. Right now. Start dicking around with switches. Now.
(Slightly delayed plans as we have a new kitteh arriving tomorrow)
Now.
Surrender
I have given up on the combo of a TMP36 with that particular Thing. It isn’t meant to be. At least for now. On the other hand, it’s currently 82.03°F next to my computer, and I know this because I just looked it up. From two stories away.
The BME280 breakout is playing nice, I have the Thing serving a webpage, it’s going good. Next.
I need to get node up on my system, and push the data from the Thing. This will mean that I’ll be able to log data over time, so I can see what resistor ranges I get in a location.
I think, once I move the sensor away from the desktop itself, I’ll probably get a much wider range of temperatures. If I can get a range going a little below optimal fermentation I might be able to just add enough (thermal mass? heat sink?) that the overall temperature stays consistent over time. This might be a pipe dream though.
Had to get batteries
My multimeter had it’s batteries die. Probably because I don’t give it enough love and attention. It’s like a delicate rose. Made of abs, but delicate…
Right. I got batteries, put them in, state testing continuity. It logs like everything was good, but it was late and I was tired. I think more testing is in order. I’ll poke around some more, maybe try hooking everything up again, but with a voltage divider.
Cat cardboard bed
As a sidenote, I did this for Reese with some waste cardboard:
It worked fairly well, lots of Elmer’s glue, a couple screws, and some jute rope. She appears to like it, but as always, improvement is iterative.
First, I want to get the cardboard to a more consistent size. While variation is okay vertically, horizontal variation is a hassle when mounting. This might be my next die cutter project. Milling cardboard isn’t hard, but my workmanship left something to be desired.
Next, the final binding is pretty janky. (I just had to add janky to my phone’s dictionary.) I pre glued five rough cut pieces of cardboard together at a time then did a terrible final trim.to finish, I used more cardboard to make a wrap a couple layers thick of long strips of cardboard. These strips were glued and held in place with sewing pins. This was finished with the aforementioned screws acting as anchors for the jute to be wrapped around and tightened up. Next time, if I die cut the cardboard, with anchor holes going through ask the layers. This way I could bring it all together with the mess. I think a solid wood outer would be preferable as well.
Luckily for me the Wif liked it so much, I’ll probably get the chance to do it again.
Continuity
Maybe I should check for continuity first, before I get all it will never work. If I’m missing the connection or shorting pins, that could be the problem as well. I’m thinking this as:
1. I was rocking right about 46 out of 1023, except when physical action occurred
2. I assume that going over the 1v max should have given a measurement in the 1023 range, or if something burnt out, there should have been no variation
3. At 80 Fahrenheit, the voltage should have been 750mv (ish) which is below the 1v max
Right. That’s what I’ll check tonight. I think I need to dial back on the it will never work, and add more I’m doing this.
Closer
Headers on Thing. Check.
Connected through wifi and post data to Sparkfun for test. Check.
Hookup TMP36. Check.
Find out the Thing caps at 1v for the only analog pin. Check…
Tomorrow. Get data going in local via node.js.
Hookup (BME280?) And post data.
Profit.
Wiring
So I got home last night, and copied and pasted directly. Nope. Still crap output. Do I have the power going wrong? Switches Vin and Ground. Burned my fingers. Stitched them back. No change on crap output. Yanked all the jumpers and started fresh.
So that’s where I had gone wrong. It turns out that given three wires I still managed to hook them up wrong.
So. Step one. Start using multiple colors of wire. Jumpers to soldered in place. I need to do this.
Two. If in doubt, check the wires. Now, I just need to solder on headers to one of the Things, so I can start getting my remote temperature logging on.
Temperature
So I’ve been trying to decide if the reading I was getting with the (BME280?) was right. The temperature stays a consistent near 80f next to my computer, which while it seemed plausible, it was a little too content for my taste.
To get independent verification, I found that I had a short stack of TMP36s, looked up a data sheet and… ugggg. The reading is staying consistent. Somewhere my math is shit though. Right before I went to bed, I did look up the tutorial from Adafruit, but just looking at their math, I was doing roughly the same thing and getting crap results. I think it’ll be copy and paste from their examples tonight.