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Rocket-Boy

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Everything posted by Rocket-Boy

  1. Rocket-Boy
    I love the ritual of the mocha pot, its one of my favourite ways to make coffee, it can also be a bit of a pain though when you are making for a few people when away on holiday though.
  2. Rocket-Boy
    I agree, I have a few Bialetti's and while I love them they are just not as convenient as an Aeropress. They produce a different flavour too and I slightly prefer that of the Aeropress.
  3. Rocket-Boy
    Travel insurance is often free if you pay with a qualifying credit card so maybe check that out. Go all inclusive and leave your bike at home!! chill on the beach and do some diving, its the whole attraction of going there in the first place. The roads are a bit hectic and the drivers pretty much do what they want so its not somewhere I would be overly keen to cycle. You can also rent bikes there if you really want to ride.
  4. Rocket-Boy
    Yup, a bit of work and being careful you can get good results out of a crappy saw. That one is better than the one I have and I done segmented turnings on mine with no gaps, which is about as precision a job as you can ask from a table saw.
  5. Rocket-Boy
    random question, how are you guys handling smaller circle cutting with a router? The fence on mine has a pin for circles but it doesnt make ones that are small enough for what Im needing.
  6. Rocket-Boy
    Man that is so typical of you, take something as simple as a drill press table and turn it into a work of art!! Having a neodium magnet on the side for holding the chuck key works a charm, I have a countersink and the key on the same magnet for quick access.
  7. Rocket-Boy
    Micro-python is an interpreted language so its always going to run slightly worse on a micro controller than something like C would. I like Python but its definitely not the answer for these applications. Have you looked into the ESP32? compared to any of the Arduinos its got tons of storage capacity and faster processors. The wifi and bluetooth dont need to be used on it but its also nice to have them. Only limitation is the number of A2d and GPIO but a project seldom has all of the pins used so I have never found it to be a limitation.
  8. Rocket-Boy
    Yup Im definitely not a fan of the DHT11/22 I use BME280's for most things but the weather station Im building has a DS18B20 in addition to the BME280 because then I can expose it to ambient temp where I wouldnt want to expose the chipset of the BME280.
  9. Rocket-Boy
    Memory management is the fundamental core of C++ its definitely something you need to get comfortable to write good code. There are easier ways for people that dont want to learn coding like Tasmota and ESPHome which allow graphical configuration of a lot of simple functions, they are limited with writing more intricate automation though.
  10. Rocket-Boy
    This has been my most useful automation yet, I often have to open everything up and take a walk through to the garage to see if I actually closed the door or not. Often I forget that its open overnight which is really bad because its visible from the street and my bikes are in there. This way the icon changes depending on the position of the hall sensor and magnet on the door. I have also built an automation which tells me if the door is open past 9pm so I can close it.
  11. Rocket-Boy
    Nothing arb about that, the echo makes everything better. My garage, front gate, a lamp and one of the outside spotlights are all controllable via Alexa. My wife loves using them by yelling at Alexa. The cool thing about the gate is that the distance is over 100m to it from the house and if you press a remote from inside it doesnt reach. I have another remote in the garage which is a lot closer and a single arduino controls the gate and garage so if I ask Alexa to open then its close enough for the remote to work properly.
  12. Rocket-Boy
    Are you using a DHT11/22 on that? Automating stuff is great and all but I want to automate stuff that makes life easier for me rather than doing it for the sake of it being automated. Like for instance I have certain lamps that read the weather from yr.no and turn on at sunset, its handy because sunset is a different time every day but yr.no always knows what that time is. I also like having my outside spotlights controlled by my phone because if I hear a noise at night I cant turn them all on as a group and take a look quick. Arduinos can be a bit unreliable if they arent monitored by something which is where Home Assistant comes in, it talks constantly via MQTT so its pretty good at letting you know if something goes down.
  13. Rocket-Boy
    Im going to put together some tutorials on stuff I have done and future ones I will be doing. Most of what I have done integrates into the echo, my wife loves being able to turn on and off lamps by asking Alexa to do it. I will also list some kit that I use and some links on where to get it at reasonable prices.
  14. Rocket-Boy
    This is exactly why Im into it. It appeals to the geeky side of me. I love coding up something that does what I want it to and ends up costing me less than R100. I should be done with my parking sensor in the next day or two, that is going to be super useful.
  15. Rocket-Boy
    Yeah thats the thing, I could make something similar for around R200. The other plus is that you can then integrate it into anything or if any part stops working you can replace just that part.
  16. Rocket-Boy
    I was going to do the same for the gate and garage motors but went the full micro controller route for more options. This is getting mounted above the garage motor this evening: Its a NodeMCU ESP8266 with a 2 channel relay(1 for garage and 1 for gate) It also has a BME280 temp, barometric pressure and humidity sensor Last bit I really wanted was a hall effect sensor that reads a magnet stuck on the garage door crawler to tell me if the garage is open or closed. This is handy because I forget to close the door often, this way it sends me a message if I forget! I added an 18650 battery to it to make sure it keeps running during loadshedding. You can use a 5V relay connected to the remote which is great because then the buttons can still be used as a normal remote. The two wires going into it are just soldered to the contacts of the buttons. This is the view from inside home assistant where I can open and close the garage/gate and the temp etc in the garage:
  17. Rocket-Boy
    Yup the Sonoffs are cheap, they are just basic ESP8266 devices. They get really interesting when you replace the stock firmware with Tasmota though. That allows you to do way more with them and integrate them into a controller like Home Assistant which is free and completely awesome. I have a routine in Home Assistant that reads the current sunset time from yr.no and turns some lights on when it gets dark. Sonoffs are great if you just want to turn things on and off and pretty cheap for what they can do.
  18. Rocket-Boy
    This was one of my first automations, very simple one with a Wemos D1(ESP8266) and a dual relay board. Its connected to an outside spotlight and a lamp. The nice thing about the setup is I can control either of the lights with Alexa voice commands, via a web browser or through Home Assistant using MQTT. Try not to laugh at the plastic container it lives in
  19. Rocket-Boy
    I started with an Arduino Uno like most people do, its cheap and the Arduino IDE is great for writing start projects with a massive community and lots of example code. All of the coding is done in C++ and its generally very easy to learn at the level required to program a micro controller. The main issue creeps in when you want network connectivity to make your project something you can interact with from your phone or any web browser. To overcome the network issue you can get an ethernet shield for wired connections or connect something like an ESP8266... Going down that rabbit hole I realised the ESP8266 is generally more capable than the Uno and quite a lot cheaper too, so most of my projects are now done natively on them. Add a relay or two, a couple of sensors and you can control most electrical devices or even build yourself a weather station.
  20. Rocket-Boy
    Anyone on the forum into home automation? Projects with Arduinos or other micro controllers like the ESP8266 or ESP32? I figured a thread is needed, even if you aren't into it then you might be after seeing a few examples and how cheap and easy it is to get started. Im going to put up the first few projects I have done and expand them as I add more.
  21. Rocket-Boy
    These? https://www.bidorbuy.co.za/item/307715826/4Pcs_Angled_Leg_Mounting_Plates_Hexagon_Furniture_Attachment_Fixing_Plates_Brackets.html
  22. Rocket-Boy
    You just saved me going down the same road. I was thinking "dont need a new tv but lets look anyway"
  23. Rocket-Boy
    And please dont use spinners! those treble hooks always hurt the fish that get released and more often than not result in injuries that kill them.
  24. Rocket-Boy
    I like bass fishing on fly, way more interesting and often easier to get your lure in place. Its good fun either way though. Never really felt the need to fish from a boat but then again I dont like fishing really big dams for bass, prefer the smaller ones.
  25. Rocket-Boy
    It looks really great, the dog holes are really useful and you always need that place to clamp something in quickly. I would love to build another workbench, mine is great and Im very happy with it, I just enjoyed building it so much I wouldnt mind doing another one!
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