So it begins, I hope!

Back in 2010 I purchased a old Jazzy Select Elite wheelchair base, in hopes of using it as a base for a robot. Using that a old Vex robot parts left over from my kids high school days, and winter. Now might be a good time to start.

Jazzy Select Elite

From what I can gather from images and PDFs online, it appears the normal chair, uses two batteries. One for each of the two powered wheels. Increasing power to one, turns the chair on opposite side, kinda like a tank. Will be fun to control with a computer. Mar Rovers use sensors to calculate the amount of turn, need to figure out how to do something in between..

So, planning now.. Will try to keep world updated.

Thoughts on Subscription Services

Everyone hates paying high cable bills, or monthly satellite service fees, cable cutters have caused a market shift. I do not feel this shift is for the better. Personally I hated paying over $100.00 a month to my cable company, so I switched to satellite, saving almost $25 a month. Now people are getting rid of both services and just using HDTV (over the air services) which in my area are VERY VERY LIMITED, or subscribing to an online service such as Sling or TubeTV. These offer many of the same nation wide services found on cable and satellite.

Hulu And Netflix enter the mix. There are times you want to watch movies or newly released shows and movies not found on the big streaming services. So you start to add on more subscription services..

There is also a HBO and CBS streaming services… And NOW there are a rash of new “+” services coming to market….

In my opinion this is just going to cause a rash of add ons and force consumers to pay even more than they would with cable, who is now raising their rates to cover the losses (smart!!?? <really>)..

UPDATE: As it stands I tried both SlingTV and TubeTV. I canceled SlingTV after a few months, it didn’t provided the channels we were looking for. TubeTV has been good, except for the rate hike of over $10 a month, but they did add channels, so it wasn’t too painful.

OH and as a, just a heads up. When after a few months, when TubeTV raised it rates we checked out SlingTV service again. And the sneaky buggers, re-subscribed us to their service. So they soaked me for a months service. So be VERY CAREFUL when reviewing their services.

Outdoor Sensor Array


How many sensors can we plug into one Arduino and setup outdoors? This is how many I was able to cram into one Project Box.

The system uses a ESP8266 Wifi / Arduino Card with a screw terminal Shield. — I attempted to run it all with two 12 volt solar panels with a solar charger. Didn’t have enough juice, so ended up just plugging into outlet located outside.

Hardware

Screenshot 2016-03-06 12.32.51

 

PlexConnect Update

Opps Sorry.

Figured this out the solution a while ago, didn’t posted as promised.

The solution to the PlexConnect, connecting to my existing Plex Server, was. Is it WOULD NOT work. Plex has to be running on the same box as PlexConnect. And you can’t run PlexConnect on a SERVER because the server already uses the ports that PlexConnect wants to use.  Solution, install both on another box, then connect the new Plex system to the existing Plex server. Yes, it is messy, but it worked.

We still have the problem when the power goes out, that someone manually has to start PlexConnect. But we still have plans to create a small LiveCode program that will handle that. So keep checking back.

~David

Franken – Wheezy

New project in the works. Push a Raspberry Pi to its breaking point.

We want to develop a mobile web server to host communications between both the PIFACE and Arduino that would grant access to users from either a closed network or the Internet. Act as a Mobile Media Server using PLEX, a Mobile WIFI hot spot, serving shared files and lastly a Mobile Web Camera using a Raspberry Pi Camera Module.

Specs so far:

  • Raspberry Pi Model B
  • 32 gb SIM for OS
  • 32 gb Thumb drive for media storage
  • PiFace control board
  • Arduino
  • WIFI
  • Camera

Planned Additions:

  • Plans to add Battery and Charger
  • Solar Battery Charger
  • LiveCode Server

Services Already working:

  • MySQL
  • Jabber – iChat
  • PHP – Web Server

20130813-195339.jpg