ABOUT ME

I live in a camper van with a West Highland Terrier for company.
My passion is creating images but it is a work in progress.
I am always willing to share what knowledge I have and can be contacted through the comments on this post or e-mail ADRIAN
ALL IMAGES WILL ENLARGE WITH A LEFT CLICK

Friday 31 August 2012

WHAT A DAY. (31/08/12)

Yesterday was a wash out but by mid afternoon the skies had cleared and out came the BBQ. I used the oven as the wood didn’t burn down in time. Not to worry…..It was a cheerful sight and hot.

P8303360_1_2_3_4_tonemapped_edited-1   This morning was a real beauty….cold crisp and not a cloud in the sky. It didn’t last The cloud rolled in and by three it was spitting with rain.

The postman came with a parcel…………………………..

P8313395_6_7_8_9_tonemapped_edited-1     Isn’t it posh? The Arduino and lots of things they sent with it……coloured things for the most part. It also came with a perspex mounting board to keep the bread board and the microprocessor together. Took me an hour to assemble the wee spacers and the little plastic rivets…..well three out of the four. One shot on the floor and I can’t find it. Still three is enough. At first light I had moved the van so as not to trash the grass. I never noticed but the electric supply had gone off. I noticed when the computer shut down so after checking everything I came to the conclusion that we were having a power cut. That put paid to playing with the new toy.

P8313410_1_2_3_4_tonemapped_edited-1  I went a walk, warm enough for a T Shirt. Then we got waylaid by this wonderful bit of kit.

sawpan  This log is about three feet in diameter. I don’t know whether it worked. I’ll check tomorrow.

After a quick siesta I realised the power was back on so fired up the laptop and downloaded the drivers and god knows what else for the new machine. The fun then started. I had instructions from the internet…I had instructions in a wee booklet that came with the things..fat lot of help they were. Two hours later I was still dodging between the internet and control panel trying to get some joy out of the Arduino. Eventually I plugged the USB cable into the laptop and then into the Arduino. What difference that made I can’t imagine but bingo. Clever laptop! It knew I’d plugged something in. I was away or would have been if I could remember where I’d popped the downloaded drivers. I hadn’t put them anywhere they were still in Downloads……..I am a complete Muppet at times. It was the execute file I’d popped on the desktop. Just as well because I needed that next.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA The computer says yes and the Arduino says yes and all without my resorting to a bigger hammer.

It will keep me amused on wet days. I have lots of bits to play with and if it all goes tits up I can just unplug it and start again. Wonderful is old technology. It is very old it’s named after it’s inventor King Arduin of Iverea. He died in 1015!

What a day…….Have a good weekend. I’m going to need smaller fingers and stronger specs.

15 comments:

  1. what interesting images...The fourth picture is my favorite..Have a nice weekend

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  2. Fantastic that you got your Arduino. Looks like you will have some great fun, or pull out your hair. Keep us informed on it. Hope the saw mill works with that huge log.

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    1. It will be like all things new. Reasonable at first then easier then the learning curve will go exponential.

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  3. That's a cool saw! We have them here but they are band saws. They cut special order wood. They are one man operations.
    Power outages and rain make for interesting days.

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    1. We have band saws and big circular saws here. I've never seen a set up like this though.

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  4. So are you a very handy person? I wouldn't have a clue how to put all of this together!! I was lost a bit until you said "tits up" and began to laugh. Well hope it keeps you busy during those rainy days....although I'm not sure what you can cut down while it's all wet outside:)

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  5. Looks like you've got more bits to play with for the arduino than I have -- I'm feeling slightly jealous. So far it's mostly been LEDs other than the IC based logic gates.

    By the way you're not the only one who struggled to get it setup initially to talk to the computer. I had a real nightmare of a time the first time I tried it. It took for ever to get the USB connection to work (although my problem was a permissions issue under Ubuntu rather than a device driver under Windows).

    Let us know how you get on.

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    1. I got it from Oomlout in the end. £60.00p inc. VAT plus a couple of quid postage.
      I got it to blink a light eventually. Midnight when I called it a day.
      I still don't know what the problem was. I went for a quick pee and when I came back Device was showing an unknown piece of hardware. I unplugged the Arduino and it disappeared. Plugged it back in and nothing for five minutes then up it popped. I then went to Ports and nothing. It eventually turned up on Com 13. Didn't know I had that many. There must be some inside. I suspect it is just a time issue...I was too impatient. A similar thing happened when I uploaded the first code to isophase an LED. It failed to accept it, whilst popping the espresso machine on all was well when I looked again and my lamp was going on and off.
      According to Oomlout I have everything to get me up and running in minutes and their guide makes it all 'Super easy'. I did notice that their seconds are thousands so their minutes could be a Thousand x Sixty.

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  6. I have no idea what it is that you bought to play with. (I looked it up, found their home page, and I still haven't really got a clue what it is.) Well as long as it keeps you amused... Good luck to you! ;)

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  7. It does everything that your computer can do but allows me to learn what a computer can do. It has a tiny Ram but it doesn't have to run real time.
    I missed out on early computers. My son was too late. this little thing helps explain what we all rely on.

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    1. Thanks for trying, Adrian ;) I wish I didn't have to run real time either! My little brother would no doubt know what that little thing does, he was always more interested in the inside of electronic things than I was. It's usually enough for me IF it works...

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  8. The 'portable' log saw set up is fascinating.

    WARNING: Playing with your Arduino Uno is both frustrating and addictive.

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    1. How anyone could do programming as a job?....Beats me.

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