Yesterday we hit the road. Based on our experience trying to get out the driveway I have a few tips for the rest of you. First, think back to Step One (Move out of your house) and make sure you got rid of absolutely everything you could have. We were loading the car up on…
Read More Step Three – Hit the roadI woke up this morning with the same thoughts I’ve had for several weeks now – “What the heck are we thinking?!!” We’ve already rented out the house and moved in with my Mother-in-Law Today we both retire from our jobs We’ve been saving for decades to get to this day, but something a friend…
Read More Step Two – Leave your jobWhen I woke up this morning, the first thought in my head was “What the heck are we thinking?!!” We’re quitting our jobs?!? We rented our house out?!? I moved in with my mother-in-law?!? Have I lost my mind…?
Read More Step One – Move out of your houseDay 0 Arrive in Lima Today was a long day. We should have known it was going to be one of unexpected events when our plane ran into problems landing in Atlanta. There was a ‘minor caution light’ that came on for the landing gear so the pilot calmly announced that we they took care…
Read More PeruSo I had a challenge that required me to keep running up and downstairs as I was troubleshooting a new project. I’m having a problem with a temperamental water heater and decided to monitor it remotely. I have a photo-resistor taped to the water heater’s status LED and I use an Arduino Nano to capture…
Read More PlatformIO for Arduino on Linux Command LineOn Raspberry PI I use the WiringPi library for both C and Python development. Below is an example of cycling through three GPIO pins to light up a set of LEDs. GPIO 17 – Pin 6 maps to the WiringPi logical pin 0 GPIO 22 – Pin 7 maps to the WiringPi logical pin 2…
Read More Raspberry PI GPIOGateway Node The weekend is here and another chance to start poking around with my new RFM69HWs. Here’s my plan. I initially want to get the gateway node connected to a Raspberry PI in my basement via I2C. (I know, there’s probably an easier way, but, hey – I’m doing this for fun and to…
Read More Wireless RFM69HW – Part IIA week ago I got a set of HopeRF Anarduino Mini RFM69HW boards in the mail. These boards are similar to an Arduino Pro Mini but have a RFM69HW wireless module mounted on them. They’re reportedly 100% Arduino IDE compatible and run at 8Mhz. The 6-pin header interconnect is an unpopulated set of six IO…
Read More Wireless RFM69HW – First Steps<strong>Friday</strong>Today we can sleep in! We had a <a href=”http://tuscany.nyporter.org/Tuscany/Friday/22679069_HWgj5R#!i=1817206194&k=B46PF8h” target=”blank”>leisurely morning</a>, followed by a pasta-making class. With some help from Romeo’s and Federica’s daughter Emily, Tim, Joe, and others made the pasta for lunch – from scratch. The process sure seemed simple; we were walked through each step by Federica and provided close supervision…
Read More Italy – Day 7 (Brunello di Montalcino)Thursday Arcidosso, the Fortress on the hill. This is a tiny village of only about 1400 people, but I managed to get some photos of a few banks whose name I recognized from my wire room days. Conner took his customary drink from the local water fountain. If he doesn’t end up with dysentery or…
Read More Italy – Day 6 (Fortress on the hill)