I built N4N1 to learn the details of the ardupilot sailboat firmware. I have had a few student groups building similar vessels at work, and thought it would be worthwhile to go through the exercise myself. Plus I had a boat gathering dust that needed a job. N4N1 uses the ardupilot sailboat firmware on a … Continue reading N4N1 the Autonomous Sailboat
Pet chickens like to run around and scratch up their yard during the day, but must be safely locked away at night to prevent predators from eating them. Most chicken-keepers accept the twice-daily chore of letting the hens out in the morning, and locking them up at night. This is a project to automate that … Continue reading Super Simple Automatic Chicken Coop Door
Back in 2019 I made a remote controlled lawnmower. It is not a very original design, it follows closely the mower from Make Magazine and many other youtube videos, with some modifications to suit what parts I could get. I got an electric wheelchair and an electric mower second-hand, bought a speed controller and some … Continue reading Lawnie the Remote Controlled Lawnmower
This project documents how to make a windvane to sense the wind direction. It was designed for an autonomous sailboat but could be used in other applications. The structure is mostly 3D printed and uses a gopro mount to attach to the hull. The main sensor is a magnetic encoder that outputs an analog voltage … Continue reading Electronic Windvane
This is mostly just to link the video I made. It shows how to run mission planner (ground control station) and start a simulation of an autonomous sailboat (SITL), and how to run the boat in autonomous modes, including tacking parameters and geofencing. Enjoy! https://youtu.be/kzGciG7cCBc
I have an Ultibots D300VS delta printer (sadly no longer in production) that I use a lot. It has a Duet Wifi control board, which has a great web interface that can do everything you need to do. Sometimes, however, I wanted to be able to do a task at the printer, and this required … Continue reading Duet Wifi Display
I have a G-scale train made by LGB that we get out at Christmas to run around the tree. A few years ago the controller stopped working, and it turns out they are pretty expensive to replace (here is an affiliate link for the control, there was also a power supply.) This post shows how I … Continue reading DIY G-Scale Train Controller
Monitoring the morning brew with the internet of things. Do you want to know when your coffee is done brewing but are too lazy to walk over to see for yourself? Do you need to monitor your coffee pot when you are out of town? Probably not, but here is one solution to the non-problem. … Continue reading Internet of Coffee!
I had an email request to find this project from 2010... I updated the code too! This project takes the pulse from a paddlewheel boat speed sensor and makes an NMEA output on the serial port. It should work with most through-hull speed transducers, and also with windspeed transducers too. The NMEA stream comes from the … Continue reading NMEA 0183 Speedometer
This is an update of an old project. Click the link to navigate to the Richmond Yacht Club's Wednesday night beercan starting line. It uses your phone's GPS info and system clock. To make this work: You need to browse the link below on a smart phone with a GPS. The link must be … Continue reading Start timer