[Closed] Introduce Yourself

I'm a retired developer in administrative SW and I've hobbied a little with electronics over the years.

Now I've seen the light in Arduino and clones like it and I want to know a lot more about that.

That's why I'm here 🙂 !

Best from

Keld Sørensen
Denmark

Brian Here.  A retired IT person now living the good life in Florida.

I have automated sections or our home here and a summer place in NC.  I wish to go even further and am looking around for like minded people to toss around ideas.  Looking forward to a lot of interesting discussions.

Hi all.

Since my school days that electronics and robotics have been a passion of mine, although not nurtured as it should have during the past years. Studied Electronics at school, but my work diverted into DataCenter and now Cloud Solutions.

But now, I've bought my first RPi and want to learn how to program, connect and make these "things" work!

Learning a lot from this YouTube channel and hope to learn even more from the forum!

Hope to talk more to all of you soon! 🙂

Nelson

I’m a retired Physical Chemistry Professor whose research included interfacing my lab equipment with an old Zenith computer. With zero computer experience, I worked by the seat of my pants but eventually got things set up. All my code was in very inefficient BASIC, but it worked.

I retired in 1997. A few years ago I bought a couple of raspberry Pi’s, just for the fun of it, and started learning Python. I bought some kits and was able to interface two temperature sensors to the Raspi’s. Last summer, again just for the fun of it, I put one on top of my outside heat exchanger and the other in one of my inside AC vents and produced a not-surprising but interesting chart.

More recently, my sons and I have become interested in wave mitigation in the Black River in South Haven, MI. We hope to monitor the swells coming in off Lake Michigan with two ultrasonic sensor HC-SR04’s each one interfaced to a Raspi 3B+. They would be held out over the water with the sensors aimed downward to monitor the distance to the water surface with time. The idea is to evaluate the extent to which devices placed in or next to the river mitigate the swells by placing one Raspi before and the other after the device.
Right now I am using small breadboards to mount the sensors and their associated wiring. I don’t know how to convert this arrangement to something more robust and could use some guidance in that direction.

Ed Meyer

@emeyeraway

You would be way better off having PCBs made to replace your breadboards and all the jumper wires.

I use KiCad to migrate my schematics to actual PCBs, but there is a steep learning curve to get started. 

Boards can be ordered from vendors like PCBWay for $2.00 for 5 boards plus DHL shipping from China for around $25.00 so your talking about just less that $6.00 per board.  Much better than relying on breadboard and jumper wires that are always coming loose when you move anything.  I have ordered boards on a Friday evening here in the States and received the boards as early as Wednesday of the next week

And for a fixed application like measuring wave height I would use a microcontroller instead of dedicating a whole RasPi to each sensor.  And how are you planning on retrieving the data?

@codecage

I'll check out KiCad.  I know using the breadboards is not the best idea, but didn't know how else to do it.

I guess using Raspi's is indeed overkill, but I have them and don't have microcontrollers at the moment.  Anyway, if I need a Raspi for another purpose, I can upgrade to a Raspi 4.

Our code writes (time, distance) data to a text file on each Raspi.

@emeyeraway

So you have to go to each Raspi and retrieve the data on a regular basis, then I guess you consolidate the data into some type analysis program.

I used an ATmega328 built onto it's own circuit board with an SD card you could write data to, then when you made your rounds of the different sensors you could just remove the SD card and replace it with another.  Then take all the collected cards back home to analyze the data.  Then format those cards and have them ready for the next go round.

Where are you getting the time?  Just setting it on the RasPi and then occasionally check the clock on each Pi.

Is there power at each of these sensor locations?

@codecage

Yes, that's what we do.  Our set-up is very portable, so it's not inconvenient.  We have tested it only with one Raspi at this point but we're ready with two.  It's kind of chilly nowadays for taking measurements!

We use the time from Raspi, and make sure it's accurate before using it.

No power on site.  Each Raspi is powered by a small portable power supply.  We control the Raspi's with a Dell laptop using Linux, and use it also as a hotspot to work wirelessly.

@emeyeraway

Sounds like you are well on your way.  I guess I was envisioning dozens of these and that is were my suggestion of a dedicated ATmega328 chip and a board that had the needed circuitry for the sensors.  With dozens I could see RasPi costs growing rapidly.

Good luck with the project.

Hi Everybody,

I found this web site and forum today and it looks like a great resource! I started tinkering with robots and Arduinos after I retired a few years ago, and I enjoy building and racing line follower robots with the UKMARS club. I'm just returning to the hobby after a couple of years break and I expect I'll have a few questions. I'll try and help out where I can too.

Chris

Howdy!  I am a retired software developer that has always wanted to get into electronics.  Started with some Arduino basics a few years ago, but could not really find the time to completely dive in.

Well, now I'm retired.  I got the ELEGOO super started kit and dove in.  I have setup up shop in the corner of our apartment until our house is ready for move in (May).  I am into RC cars and planes, 3d printing and learning about solar power and having a great time.  YouTube has crammed about a years worth of learning in about 3 months and it's ALL GOOD!

Found Dronebot workshop and saw that a forum was available.  Another excellent way to learn!

Excited about what is waiting around the corner.

I'm a high school robotics coach (FIRST Robotics Competition) and work at a major bank as a technology manager for my day job.  I've had a passion for robotics and small electronics for a while.  For FIRST Robotics, they have a standard set of electronics that we deal with.  I've wanted to branch out and create my own robots and learn more about small electronics.  

I recently purchased a Husky Variable Height Workbench.  You manually crank it up and down.  Well, I'm adding a servo motor and hopefully will automate moving it up and down.  The bench is fairly inexpensive ($230) and the parts that I purchased should be fairly inexpensive in comparison to spending $1,000 on a push-button variable height desk.

@dronebot-workshop - your videos are a treasure and have inspired me to take on several new projects.  

Derek

(MN, USA)

Hi Everyone,

First and foremost, like others here in the dronebotworkshop, I'm very excited to be a part of this Internet of Things makerspace.

For those I haven't had the pleasure to meet yet, I'm an IT professional who worked in the state government industry since 1987 where I climbed the career ladder starting as a operations specialist, systems analyst and manager of technology applications. Today I continue to work as a Project Manager of enterprise software applications tasked with increasing productivity with fewer resources. Working in IT continues to be an awesome career that has afforded me many opportunities working with lots of wonderful people throughout the globe. I can't imagine myself working in another discipline. 

The few social activities I have include gourmet food, dark beverages, and telling stories while hanging out at cafe's (before Covid). My favorite non-technical hobbies include cooking, exercising, listening to music, scuba diving and snow skiing.

Today, I spend a lot of time studying technology advancements including control systems, 3d Printers and IOT software design practices and feel as if I'm still scratching the surface of science learning how to assemble and configure controllers, motors and displays. Look forward to exploring new activities being discussed in the workshop.

Cheers,

-John

OK - not sure if I should change the Title.  My name is Jimmy, 73 years, UT Austin class of '71 electrical engineer and then masters comp sci.  Hands on building things in the physical world is a blast.  I have watched many videos and used several for projects.  Started watching the DB1 robot series and also the bench power supply from ATX computer supply.  My accomplishments so far are a couple of rudimentary object avoidance robot cars.  This is harder then it looks!

@derek

I'm looking forward to seeing your new bench in action.

Cheers!

--->Sean