My Projects

 

I have too many projects, too many hobbies, too many interests. Here is an overview of a few of the things that I have been working on that is useful for others.

Kite Aerial Photography
Taking photographs from kites. The idea is to suspend a camera from the line of a kite and take pictures some how.
In my case I am using a large "Mockform" parafoil kite (8.6 feet by 6.6 feet) designed by Don Mock of Washington State sewn by me at the 2008 Fort Worden Kitemakers Conference, a pair of Canon PowerShot A590 cameras, and a tilt/pan camera support system (by Brooks Leffler of California) controlled by a HiTec Neon SS remote control radio.
For more information about my rig.
For some pictures.Kite_Rig.htmlMy_Albums/My_Albums.htmlMy_Albums/Pages/Aerial_Photos.htmlshapeimage_1_link_0shapeimage_1_link_1

My Fuel Injection Project

Since I do embedded systems programming (writing code for the little processors inside of equipment), and I have an old British car with a carburetor, I figured it would be cool to marry the two interests by building a fuel injection system. How difficult could that possibly be? As it turns out, there are a lot of non-trivial problems that need to be taken care of before electrons can control old iron. Read on...

Introduction

Basics

System Structure

Discussion

References

Some Apple Newton Stuff

Way back in the bad old days, I got to write code for the Apple Newton. A very cool device (though slagged by the uninvolved) that is programmed in a fully buzzword compliant language called NewtonScript. Here are a couple of Newton programs that I threw together.

Source code and package file for “FastTimes.zip”, a program to set the Newton clock quickly.

A Newton Book of Tao.PKG formatted for a portrait mode 2X00.

Information about the Tektronix TWD120 Digitizer

The Tektronix TWD120 was a wonderful piece of gear. An oscilloscope without a display or front panel. It connects to a windows box with a SCSI port. Your monitor becomes the display and front panel, your mouse controls the knobs. 2 Channels of 100MHz goodness at a blow out price.

Software and documentation of SCSI driver shim

Information about Trillium 1300 trailers

Trillium is a Canadian company that made/makes little fibreglass travel trailers, much like the Boler or Casita (all derived from an old AirStream but done in fibreglass rather than aluminum). Here is a bunch of information that can help you keep your egg on the road.

Adding an electric water pump

Wiring diagram

Repairing a flakey tail light

Calibrating the Temperature on a Wolf E Series Wall Oven
Wolf doesn’t want you to mess around with the temperature calibration of your oven. They want you to call one of their service reps (who probably don’t cook, but they can follow instructions). Well, it’s the day after Christmas and the service dudes won’t be around for at least another 4 days, so let’s see how hard it can be.
The temperature calibration on a Wolf E series oven (I can’t comment on the L series, but I expect that, given my information, you can find the proper section in your manual and figure it out too) is adjustable from the front panel and is really easy to do. You just need a good thermometer and some patience.
Click here for my explanation.Wolf_Oven_Cal.htmlMy_Albums/Pages/Aerial_Photos.htmlshapeimage_2_link_0
Embedded Wednesdays for ENTS
After being on the Embedded.fm podcast, one of the people at the Edmonton New Technology Society (ENTS) shot me an email to ask if I could do something with them. We arranged to start “Embedded Wednesdays”, a workshop where I would get a bunch of their people up to speed on embedded systems programming and lead on to some sort of a project.
I decided that working with GCC, Eclipse, and openOCD on an ST Microsystems Discovery board for ARM Cortex F4 would be very doable, and Embedded Wednesdays kicked off in October 2015.
It became obvious that a webpage with my notes was needed.Wednesdays.htmlMy_Albums/Pages/Aerial_Photos.htmlshapeimage_3_link_0