Two-way serial between the Raspberry Pi and a TinySensor – a NewSoftSerial patch adds the RX the tiny core never had.
Fix for TinySensor v1.3’s ISP connector
Fixing TinySensor v1.3’s broken ISP connector – a bodge wire beats pulling the ATtiny84 out of its socket every time.
Manic Miner on my Pi
Manic Miner on the Raspberry Pi via the Fuse Spectrum emulator, plugged into an old CRT TV for realism – 27 years melt away.
Interfacing RFM12B to Raspberry Pi for cheap
Interfacing the RFM12B to the Raspberry Pi for cheap – a TinySensor on the Pi’s UART relays packets onward to emonCMS.
TinySensor PCB is ready
15 TinySensor v1.3 PCBs arrived – RFM12B works, the ISP connector doesn’t (my mistake), programming on a breadboard for now.
Got my Pi today
My Raspberry Pi finally arrived – from the February 29th sellout disappointment to a pre-order that actually shipped.
Measuring the solar yield
Measuring the actual solar yield of my evacuated tube collector and comparing it against the calculated available energy in emonCMS.
Thoughts on the Solar Energy Calculator
Refining the solar energy calculator – an emonCMS input processor now derives momentary yield from the tank temperature rise.
Calculating the available solar energy and logging it to emoncms
Calculating the Sun’s position and available solar energy for my 2.088m² evacuated tube collector, logged to emonCMS as a baseline.
TinySensor’s SD card power consumption worries (and solution)
The SD card was ruining TinySensor’s coin cell battery budget – measuring the sleep current problem and the fix.
Toying with ATTiny84 and SD card in Arduino IDE
Breadboarding the TinySensor v1.1’s ATtiny84 + SD card combo in the Arduino IDE before sending the PCB off to the fab.
The Tiny Sensor gets a SD card port
The TinySensor gets an SD card port – spare PCB space plus a few days of thinking before the first batch order.
Using a cheap digital thermometer’s LCD display
Reusing a cheap digital thermometer’s LCD by mimicking its thermistor with a digital potentiometer – a free data display.
Tiny Sensor plans
TinySensor plans: the ATtiny84 remote sensor goes to a real PCB fab – CR2032 slot, a JeeLabs compatible port, 15 boards minimum.
Downloading an Arduino sketch from Internet to SD card for flashing via the SD card bootloader
Downloading Arduino firmware from the Internet straight to SD card – reset, and the SD bootloader flashes the new sketch.
Using the Sensing Shield for logging solar hot water tank temperatures to Pachube
An expandable solar hot water tank temperature logger to Pachube on the Sensing Shield – built for a forum guy new to Arduino.
Flashing Arduino from SD card
Flashing an Arduino from SD card or over TFTP – remote sketch uploading for nodes you can’t easily reach with a USB cable.
Store opened
Opening a small store on this site – starting with the Sensing Shield PCB, more of my matured projects to follow.
Single sided ATtiny84 temperature sensor PCB
A single sided ATtiny84 temperature sensor PCB after the double-sided fiasco – etches cleanly, sends every 60 seconds.
Remote sensor’s PCB is a failure :(
The home etched PCB failed, and so did the kitchen sink – ferric chloride does not forgive. Lessons from a bad etching day.
Home made PCB for the remote temperature sensor
My first home-made PCB: toner transfer and ferric chloride etching for the remote temperature sensor board – faster than any fab house.
The ATtiny84 remote sensor gets and upgrade from single analog to multiple digital temperature sensors
The TMP36 tops out at 57°C on the ATtiny84’s 1.1V reference, so the solar tank sensor moves to multiple DS18B20s on one wire.
ATtiny84 remote temperature sensor with RFM12B
An ATtiny84 remote temperature sensor with RFM12B – JeeNode Micro envy turned into my own single-chip wireless node.
Controlling 433Mhz RF power sockets with a RFM12B module
Controlling 433MHz RF power sockets straight from an RFM12B module – appliance switching without wiring a single relay.
Sensing Shield #1 in action
Sensing Shield #1 installed at the breakers box – 9V AC/AC transformer in place, logging voltage, power factor and real power usage.
Software only solution for feeding weather data to emoncms
Feeding weather data to emonCMS with software only – no hardware, an online weather source covers humidity, pressure and wind.
RFM12B and Arduino Ethernet with WizNet5100 chip
Getting the RFM12B and an Arduino Ethernet (WizNet5100) to coexist on SPI – working around the nasty W5100 bus bug.
Sensing shield PCB ready
The Sensing Shield PCB is ready and partially populated – first tests looking good.
Arduino shield for energy monitoring
My first Eagle PCB project: an Arduino shield that turns the spaghetti heat pump monitoring setup into something orderly, EmonTX based.
Monitoring of my heat pump performance
Instrumenting my home-made Daikin heat pump hack with sensors – constant logging to prove whether the conversion is actually efficient.
Hacking Daikin split type air conditioner into air-to-water type heat pump
How I converted a Daikin split air conditioner into an air-to-water heat pump for heating, cooling and hot domestic water at my house.
Custom defrost algorithm for Daikin heat pump
My Daikin heat pump defrosts on a dumb 45-minute timer, so I built a custom defrost algorithm that only runs when actually needed.