lwill.net - Electricity, Machinery, and plain old C.

PCB tools

Here are the scripts I use to convert PC boards from Kicad to G-code.
http://www.lwill.net/downloads/boardtools-01.tar.gz
This is the README included for information.

README 03/28/20012

Tested with LinuxCNC 2.6.0~pre and KiCad (2012-01-19 BZR3256)-stable and

pcb2gcode 1.1.4

### DISCLAIMER ###

CNC MACHINES CAN BE DANGEROUS!!!

THOROUGHLY CHECK AND TEST ANY CODE BEFORE RUNNING!!!

Files included in boardtools directory:

doall.py GUI front end for pcbbatch

pcbbatch.py Batch file to run all programs using config file

boardcfgdef.py Default config file

Etch_Z_adjust.2.2.cl.py Modified command line version

gerber2emc2cl.py Modified command line version

p2gdrillopt.py For optimizing drill files

p2gpathopt.py For optimizing paths

demo Directory with sample Kicad layout, gerbers, and

sample boardcfg.py for testing

REQUIRED:

python-argparse

pcb2gcode installed on system

EMC2/LinuxCNC 2.5+

KiCad

Optional:

opti (from Etch_Z_adjust) Untested, I have not used it, not included

-Quick and dirty:

Extract.

For GUI, from boardtools directory run:

$python doall.py

You will probably need to run doall.py at least once to verify default

file paths. Save defaults to boardcfgdef.py in installed directory.

To try demo:

Click "Load boardcfg"

Open the demo directory and choose boardcfg.py

Click "Default Paths" and set to the correct locations.

Click on "Browse" under "Board back" and reselect "demo-Back.gbl"

to make sure the path is working directory is correct.

This will automatically set the other files correctly.

Click "Run boardcfg" (it will automatically ask you to save)

Check out the generated files!

To run a config file from a project directory:

$python boardcfg.py

-The idea:

Generate ready to run g-code files from KiCad for LinuxCNC using one interface.

-The method (how I do it):

Schematic and board layout with KiCad.

I use the Comment layer for text and draw board outline using actual tool

path based on the bit I will be using so I can leave gaps to keep boards

paneled together. (there is an option to use pcb2gcode for outline instead)

Generate gerbers and drill files (4). *Back.gbl, *PCB_Edges.gbr, *Comments.gbr,

and *.drl

Use pcb2gcode to generate back and drill g-code files.

* the paths are very "stair-steppy" which I did not like

Use gerber2emc2cl to generate text and outline g-code files.

Join the paths and text together in one file.

Use p2gpathopt to reduce "stair-step", smooth paths, and reduce moves.

Due crude optimizing.

Use p2gdrillopt to due crude optimizing and optionally use only one drill bit.

Use Etch_Z_adjust (*modified) to do auto-leveling.

-The Solution:

Have a config / batch script to do all this automatically.

In reality there is a script that is placed in the drawing directory

that holds the configs (boardcfg.py) and calls another script (pcbbatch)

that does all the hard work. This way boardcfg can be run in place when

a board is modified without copying main script to each drawing directory.

All needed settings needed to run are saved in the boardcfg.py file.

A GUI to select all the various setting and generate the config file and

optionally run it.

Config file default name is boardcfg.py This can be modified by hand "at own

risk" if desired, but may break compatibility with GUI. Undocumented.

-What does the work:

pcb2gcode

Etch_Z_adjust.2.2.cl.py

Modified command line version. Added ability to re-run file without

re-probing. Modified to use a separate probe instead of tool bit, and to

set tool height automatically.(Must use EMC2/LinuxCNC 2.5+!!!!!! uses G10)

gerber2emc2cl.py

Modified command line version. Added ability to mirror and offset.

p2gdrillopt.py

For optimizing drill files. Allows using only one drill and does crude

optimizing using Morton number.

p2gpathopt.py

For optimizing paths. Smooths out pcb2gcode paths by finding the midpoint

of each stair-step, eliminates redundant points creating straight lines

within a set tolerance. (difference in slope < .001 or about .057 degrees)

Adds very slight deviations from original, but gives much smoother result.

You decide.

Also optimizes based on Morton number.

-Credit where credit is due:

While thoroughly hacked and mangled, my work is based on these previous works.

Both have no copyright/left restrictions in the files.

I likewise put no restrictions other than ask for credit if you use it.

(Please visit lwill.net)

Etch_Z_adjust from michael_m at cnczone.com

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/pcb_milling/82628-cheap_simple_height-probing-11.html#post843483

gerber2emc2 from SAMMEL Lothar on the LinuxCNC wiki

http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Converting_Tools

-Other software:

KiCad

http://kicad.sourceforge.net/wiki/Main_Page

LinuxCNC

http://www.linuxcnc.org

pcb2gcode

http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/pcb2gcode/index.php?title=Main_Page

-Why my settings / method seems weird:

I actually use a coated board and a drag bit to scribe the coating, then drill

it without removing it from the machine, then etch in FeCl. The scribe

only needs to be offset .001. The scribe and probe mount off to the side

of my spindle, that is the reason for the offsets. I also use

Etch_Z_adjust for engraving other things using a normal engraving bit and

separate probe which was the original reason for modifying it.

I used the Morton number optimizing method because it was fast and simple and

better than nothing. I may rewrite the optimizing method later.

This is my first major attempt at Python programming, so it is ugly. It

started simple, and 1100+ lines of code later.... So don't ask why I did

something the way I did, the answer you will likely get is

"Because it worked!"

More info on this and other stuff at lwill.net/blog

All comments are welcome, but I reserve the right to ignore them!

I can be contacted though lwill.net

Screen shot of GUI:

PC Boards, My Way

I have found a new way of making PC boards.
I start with a bare board.
Place a thin layer of "secret" resistant coating on it.(on a spin coater)
Use my CNC router to "engrave" it with a drag scribe.
With out moving it, drill it and route outline.
Last etch it in ferric chloride.

Now this may seem odd at first. Why not just route the board with the CNC?
Let me try to explain. I have always used the photo resist method with laser transparencies and pre-sensitized boards, etched then drilled. When all goes well, the results are great. The biggest problem has always been getting a good 1 to 1 print from the laser printer. Next problem is lining the board up to drill it, which gets worse if the print was not square or to scale to begin with.
Now, my main reason is I am sorta cheep. I have never bought the right bits to do direct PCB routing. My router does pretty good, but I am just not sure how it would do, and hate to spend money just to break bits. I like the photo method, but bare boards are cheaper. There is also the fact I already have a bubble tank of etchant.
When I first started experimenting with my method I used an old photo board I had. It was a bit old, so I just tossed it in developer with out exposing it to fix the resist first. This worked, but still expensive board and the coating is very fragile and gets scratched during drilling. More on the coating later.
Next I made a drag engraving point out of an old carbide bit. I tried various angles and about 90 deg. works well. I mounted the point in a solid tool holder off to the side of my spindle, which is just a Rotozip, and while still fairly tight, does have a bit of play. Since I would be dragging and not spinning the bit I saw no reason to put the strain on the bearings or risk unnecessary flexing error. The bit holder is also longer than the spindle so I can leave my drill bit in and install and remove the holder between steps. (I have the offset set in EMC2)
I mount the board on a piece of "foam core" sign board with double face tape like used on window film. It is very thin and very sticky. This is then stuck to my table. This gives me a well supported board with the foam core having just a bit of give and acts as a waste board underneath for drilling.
I then run my code for the trace outlines. I use Kicad with pcb2gcode, but have came up with some scripts I will get into in another post* for generating my files and getting good results. I also incorporate a modified version of Etch_Z_Adjust to keep my depth consistent. I replace my scribe with a touch probe made from a micro switch and probe the surface first. I then replace the scribe and use a depth of .0015" which scores though my coating and leaves a fine line in the copper.
Now I remove the scribe and reset for drilling. Since nothing has been moved, everything is already lined up.
Last I do any cutout routing I want for the board shape.
Once finished on the CNC it is into the ferric chloride . Here one of the complaints often heard about FeCl is actually put to use. The scribe lines are very fine, but since I lightly scored the copper, a small amount of undercutting occurs, widening the lines slightly.
Does it save me any time? Well, I have ran 1.5" X 6" boards with 162 holes that take less than 10 minutes to engrave at 20 in/min. Compare with 8~12 min. exposure time and then developing, that is not bad when I do not have to realign for drilling. Etching is also quicker since I am not removing as much copper. Doing multiple boards takes longer of course, but if I make a mistake, only one gets screwed up and not a whole panel. I can also run different boards at the same time without having to make new films.

Once I was able to get good results, I wanted to stop using pre-sensitized boards and started looking for a coating that would work. I also needed a way to apply it consistently. I tried spray paint. Worked, but not consistent and had to be removed at the end. Tried various clear coats, polyurethane, stains, and wax with mixed results. One big problem was even coating without bubbles or dust. (like most people, I don't work in a "clean" room!)

The "secret" coating I found: Future vinyl floor finish! (now sold under the Pledge with Future name)
Apparently, model builders have been using it for years to coat windshields and protect decals. It is tough! Dries FAST. Nontoxic. And last, CHEEP! I add a little food coloring to make it easier to see, and a bit of alcohol to thin it just a bit. Oh, and you can easily clean it up with an ammonia based window cleaner!
Now to get it on the board. I built a spin coater. A motor and a spinning disk. My first small attempts I used a muffin fan with a pot to control the speed and got good results. I up sized and can now handle a 6" X 9" board inside a bucket to contain the mess. I control the speed using EMC2 and a spare high current output on my CNC's BOB. I came up with some custom M codes and a HAL file that let me control it like a spindle using PCM and can set the acceleration. I can now write a program to start slow while I apply the coating, spin up gently to throw off the excess, slow down to let it level and start to set, then spin the hell out of it and hit it with a heat gun to dry. The process is very quick and in less that 5 minutes I have a dry board ready to go, hardly enough time for dust to even settle on it if it could.
Added benefit, when the board is done, the coating is so thin it can be soldered though without removing it first and it protects the rest of the traces from corrosion.

*I will be doing another post on the scripts I use once I clean them up a bit.
*I will also be adding pictures the next time I run boards. I wanted to get this written up while I had a chance.

Updates, updates, todo

Now that I got the last post off my chest, I will finally give some updates on what I have been doing.
I will touch on a bunch of stuff here, and give more detailed posts on some later, mostly so I can use this to assemble my thoughts. I will try and be as chronological as I can remember.
-Added a page on the controller used in the rain barrel. (CRAP!!! I just found out it is missing!!! Glitch in PPLOG.* Thank goodness for Google cache.)
-Started designing guitar effects pedals with another guy and going to start selling them. http://www.tonalinsanity.com
-Did a bunch of updates to my CNC machine. Updated LinuxCNC (formerly EMC2) and added a camera.
-Repaired an OMIS II digital comparer. Sorta cool.
-Replaced CV joint and u-joints on my Explorer drive shafts and rebuilt transfer case. Still have a vibration.
-Came up with a new way to make PC boards using the CNC.
-Made a simple (CNC controlled!) spin coater. (for making the PC boards)
-Using the CNC and some neat scripts to do engraving on the effect pedal cases and PC boards.
-Found an Apple Studio Display LCD in the trash and got it working with a DIY adapter.
-Been playing with CentOS and Scientific Linux as alternatives to Fedora. Mainly for MythTV.
-Got a few used computers and did some transplanting and need to update my list of computers.
-Re-wrote the scripts I use for PCB's. Will probably get their own page soon.
-Tons of little things while trying to keep Zoe (now 2!) out of trouble all day! Part of the reason the blog is not updated very often.

Major projects I plan on doing:
-Fix wife's Saturn (broken timing chain) or her folks van (broken band in trans) she WAS driving while waiting on the Saturn.
-Restart work on the Rain Barrel before spring gets here. Want to have something complete to offer others (sell?) this year.
-Get more serious about the effect pedals.
-Improving my solar pool heater this summer.
-Keeping Zoe out of trouble!!
-*Look for a new blog program. I like PPLOG, it is simple and different, but I think I am trying to make it do to many things and starting to extend it to far and break it. (added BBcodes, CAPCHA, and other tweeks) Been so long since I messed with it I hate to dig into it again. Perl is not my first language and don't feel like relearning all over again. We'll see.

Now to see how many more post I can do and if any of the projects get done!

In Memory

I have been putting this off for way too long, and the longer I wait, the harder it gets.
A lot of things have happened since the last entry. At the top of the list are some family issues that I have had a hard time dealing with and just not wanted to write about, but need to, to move forward.
In September my sister passed away. Two weeks latter, my mother suddenly passed away as well.
My sister had been fighting cancer for several years and was passed the point of making another come back. While there is nothing good about any of this, we had all tried to prepared for the eventual out come.
My mother as very unexpected. She had Parkinson's and other age related issues, but was still very active, not much could slow her down for long. She would take an occasional fall as I noted in an earlier post about my wedding, but most were relatively minor with some bad bruises. In fact just before my sisters funeral, she had taken a tumble and banged up her elbow pretty bad. Rather than waiting for someone else, she was trying to carry a play pen upstairs for us to use when we came home. She was then on blood thinners to prevent blood clots from the bruising. About a week and a half latter she got a bad nose bleed that would not stop, so she was taken to the hospital. They got it stopped and took her off the blood thinners while they kept her in the hospital for observation. All seemed fine when she suddenly passed away at night, officially from a heart attach, while still in the hospital. She had everything already planned, for when the day came, she wanted everything donated, then cremated, and simple memorial at the church, no flowers - but donations to cancer or Parkinson's research, or the church. Apparently, they used everything they could for transplant, even skin. Of course this has to happen quickly, and with living 300 miles away I did not have a chance to see her one last time. When we went home, my other sisters were already dealing with the few necessary arrangements that were left, so I ended up throwing myself into going through decades of photos to put together something to display at the memorial service. Being the youngest of 4, there were a lot of old pictures I had never seen, that showed me my mother as young person I never knew. It was hard, but in ways it seemed like someone else, probably the only thing that kept me from going bat shit and curling up in the corner a blubbering mess. We all were a bit worried about my dad for a while, but he seems to be doing OK, in fact he and my brother-in-law have gotten much closer supporting each other.
I am so glad Mom got to know Zoe for at least a short while, and while she may not remember her Grandma, at least Zoe will have pictures with her to look back at one day and see the joy in her face.
Since then we made it though Christmas and all trying to keep moving forward. With spring coming things all start anew and since Mom loved her flowers and garden, I will be putting more effort into finishing the rain barrel system in her memory.

Rain Barrel Controler Design

This is the (current) controller design.

It is very crude and has not been truly "engineered", but I kept adding bits and trying values until it did what I wanted. Most of the values were chosen from what I had on hand and drove the design.
The circuit accomplishes 3 main functions.
First: Charge the battery with the solar cell.
Second: Turn on the pump at night, run to a set level of water, turn off and not run again until the next night.
Third: Use a moisture probe to prevent running if the ground is wet enough.
The solar cell is used as a light sensor as well as a power source.
Power from the solar cell is fed to a LM317 in a current source mode to supply approximately 125 mA to the 9.6V 1600mAH NiMH battery pack. This provides slightly less than a 10% charge rate based on 10 hours of full sun a day. According to most sources I found, this reasonable charge rate without over charging, since it is time limited by the amount of sun each day and not constant. R19 provides power to supply the electronics while the sun is out, and D10 when dark and running solely from battery.
Power is also fed through D5 and D6 to a 2 part sensing circuit. D6 feeds one half of a LM393 comparator, U3B, to detect when the sunlight drops below a point set by D3, a 5.1V zener. U3B turns on Q2, the positive side of the output. D5 charges C2 and fed into U3A used to detect when the sun is shining, set to approximatly 5.7V (D2+D3). This helps to insure U3A (5.7V) is on only after U3B (5.1V) turns off for the day. The capacitor forms a time delay to prevent the output staying on indefinably if the level detectors fail, setting a maximum run time. This also arms the system each morning. U3A turns on the low side driver Q3 through Q4 only when Q2 is turned on (after dark) and helps to provide a high enough voltage to turn Q3 on fully.
U2A is used as an oscillator to send a signal to the moisture probe through Q1. This helps to prevent a capacitive charge from building up on the probe and limits the current draw through the probe due to it's duty cycle.
U2B is used for turning the system off, either with a level sensor or moisture probe. When activated, the output pulls the input to U3A low, discharging C2 and turning Q4/Q3 off. A level sensor simply pulls the input to ground. The moisture probe set point is set with RV1 and the osculations are smoothed out at the output using C3. The moisture probe may not turn the system off instantly, but since it is active even during the day, it prevents C2 from charging thus preventing the system from ever arming.
The water level sensors are normally open magnetic reed switches with a magnets mounted in floats to activate them. There is one used for the water level to dispense, and one to detect if the barrel is empty.
The moisture probe is two stainless steel wires about 2 inches long and 1/4-3/8 inch apart.
A note on the 9.6v NiMH battery life:
The pump runs for about 5 minutes MAX at about 2 amps. or a total draw of less than 160 mAh (.16 Ah). In reality it takes about 2 min. to move 10 gallons. The pump is rated at 1000 gph with zero head,(36 sec!!) but raising about 6 feet slows it down. The battery I am using is ratted at 1600 mAh so I only draw about 10% of it's capacity. The solar cell is rated at 1.8 W or about .15 A at 12V.(it's actual unloaded output is 18v+) Charging the battery at slightly less than the suggested 10% rate,(.16 A) it will take about 10 hours of average sunlight to fully recharge, or an average day. That still leaves enough capacity to run for a week with less than average sunlight, and a few really bright days will make up for it. If the battery should go flat, it comes with a wall charger to freshen it back up if needed. The electronics are basic very low power op-amps and efficient MOSFET drivers drawing very little additional power.

More Barrel Progress

It has been sitting for a while and seems to be happy!
Had quite a bit of rain, so the moisture probe has not gotten a real good workout yet, but seems to be working. Somebody flipped a switch and today it is near 90 with chance of rain tonight. Same for the next few days, so it may get a few good cycles. Been running on the NiMH battery as well and seems to be holding a charge.
Of course, now I need to tear it down and move it to the garden since I need to put a fence up where it is being tested at to keep the little one in. Planning on rebuilding the barrel and reservoir at the same time to be more appealing and sturdy.
Now I just need to plant the garden!

Scratch That!

As soon as I say everything is working, something blows up.
Today I hooked up a soil moisture probe to test. When I went to adjust it, I found the pump would not run. I know it ran last night because the water level went down in the barrel. (unless I have another leak.)
One of the MOSFETs's that drives the pump died. I am hoping that when the pump died it damaged it and it finally failed. Replaced it and tested and everything works. Apparently in the process it killed the battery, again. So it is getting another quick charge from the wall charger. Back to the big SLA for now, will switch back tomorrow.
The ground is nice and wet right now from the rain yesterday so it gave me a nice level to adjust to. "This wet, don't run" There is chance for rain the next two days, so it should not run until the ground drys out. Better weather later in the week so it should dry out in one or two nice days, and I can check the operation again.

Got rain!

Finally got some rain, well rain AND snow!
The good thing is the collection system seem to be working. The leak has stopped. The pump is running OK. The battery seems to be keeping a charge. Most of the major components are working.
The last thing to test is the soil moisture probe. I will need some days of alternating wet and dry to give it a test. Oh, yeah, I have to make the probe first! The circuitry is all there and should work, so I just need to finish it up and let it run for a while.
This all means that I am just about ready to start posting some plans on how it is made. Got to go back and clean up drawings and get them into a postable form and do some work on the associated web pages.
I still want to work on the look of it some and make it prettier and easier to build, but all the function is there now.
Looks like it will all be working in time for the growing season. If it ever gets here! Man, look the the size of those snow flakes!!

Pump Died

The pump did not last very long. Squealed bad then locked up. Drew lots of current and heated up the controller. Did not seem to do any damage.
The good news is this pump can be dismantled so I oiled the bearings and back in business!
The trash can was still leaking so I put a heavy duty liner in it.
Also hooked up a soaker hose to my roses so I would not have to drain the buckets each day.
Still no more rain, so still waiting on that!

Rain Barrel Progress

I have finally made some progress on the rain barrel. I thought I was going backwards for a while. I have made a new down spout diverter system and it did not seem to be working. Had rain and it was not filling. I have also been testing the new control system, and like wise, it kept failing.
The battery kept going dead and the pump not running long enough. I solved the run time problem, but was starting to think the additional circuitry was draining the battery. I went back to using a SLA that is many times bigger than what is needed and even it slowly went dead. It turns out the solar cell has lost some of its efficiency and was providing enough power for control, but not for charging. It is not designed to be "used outdoors" and I think that it has been damaged by moisture. I replaced it with a slightly better one from Menards that while still not intended for outdoor use, is much better sealed. I will see how long it lasts, I got 3 years out of the original and this one is actually cheaper.
In addition to getting the pump to run longer, I started using a slightly larger pump, also from Harbor Freight. This may be a good thing since they no longer seem to be selling the smaller one. the pump has went form 500 gph to 1000 gph and only draws slightly more current. The only problem is this one is a few years old and the bearings are squealing. Again, I will see how long it lasts. By going to the larger pump, it can fill the buckets much faster, about 2 minutes or less compared to 10+ for the smaller one since it was struggling to push the water high enough. This, in turn is a pretty good trade off on battery life - slightly higher draw, but substantially reduced run time, lowering the amp hour capacity needed. The question will be if the solar panel can make up the draw used and recharge each day.
The filling problem turned out to just be stupid bad luck! I was adding water using the garden hose to time the buckets filling all the way and heard water trickling along side the house! Turns out the barrel got a crack in it! I am not sure when, but with a little duck tape, all is now well. We had a shower last night and added about 4 inches of water in the barrel!
Now to let it run again for a few days to see if my luck holds.

Fun with LIRC

I have successfully updated my bedroom MythTV frontend part way.
I did an upgrade using YUM and now running Fedora 14. I did not update MythTV yet since the server is running v.23 and have to update it first. All went well except having to fiddle with updating the NVIDIA driver by hand.
While I was tinkering, I set up LIRC to control the TV and Cable box as well as MythTV. The TV did not have a remote with it and it turns out Olivia's codes are a bit weird. The remote that came with the Comcast STB worked, but not well. The universal remote I was using with Myth had the same issues but did not work with the STB. I wanted to have only one remote control everything, so what I did was set the universal remote to a code that nothing was using (RCA I think) and had LIRC send commands to the TV and STB using irexec and some irsend scripts. I use a home brew transmitter and old Packard Bell receiver.. I was having a lot of issues with errors that seemed to be coming from problems with the serial port. I ended up switching to the earlier mentioned test machine and that seemed to clear most of it up.
Now what I have is:
Remote
V
LIRC
V V V
MythTv - STB - TV
Ex. when I send Volume Up, LIRC receives it then sends the proper codes out to the TV.
A bit of a hassle, and a slight delay in each action, but the function is so much better with only one remote!

By the way, I was able to pull the hard drive and simply switch machines, even though one was Intel and one AMD. Ever try and do this with WinXP??????? (big pain!!)

Computers everywhere!

I am planning to do an upgrade of MythTV soon and playing with the latest Fedora 14 before I break every thing. I have a spare computer at the moment to play with, but thought I would take a moment to list the computers running around here now for reference. I will be referring to several of them in the next few posts. They aren't all that special, but I will detail the highlights.
Starting where internet comes in:

Smoothwall Box

Old Compaq DeskPro P2 POS (not "point of sale!!")
Not sure what is in it, but it keeps on working, so I don't want to touch it!
Running SmoothWall 3 with DSL modem in passive mode.

Shop Box

P4 2.66GHz Win XP (yes, I still need XP for stuff)
MB HP? salvaged from trash.

CNC Box

AMD ?? Unbuntu and EMC a few versions old.
Again, not broke, don't want to mess with it!
Also dual boots Puppy Linux 4.31
It has pull out drives, so there is also one with XP and an older demo of MACH 3

Main Box

P4 2.66GHz Fedora 11
Another dumpster find now with 160G and 500G HD's
General use machine and stores videos.

Wife's Laptop

Gatway P4HT 3.00GHz
She needs XP for shcool, but I snuck in multi-booting F12, and Puppy!

MythTV Server Box

Dell P4HT 3.00GHz
80G, 160G, and 500G Drives
GeForce 8400GS to RCA 60" DLP connected on DVI
Hauppauge 350 and 250 tuners
Fedora 12 and MythTV back end and main front end
Medion X10 RF remote and home brew serial IR blaster

Bedroom MythTV Box

Medion P4HT 3.00GHz
GeForce 4MX to Olivia 30" LCD on DVI and modulator to old TV
Home brew serial transceiver
Fedora 12 and MythTV front end

Other:

HP Celleron old main desktop XP and Puppy
HP AMD XP 3000+ current testing box
ProGear touch screen "toy" Puppy 2.14
Dell P3 laptop XP and Puppy
Stack of old P2 and P3 over my head for use in prototypes.

The funny thing is I think my Droid 2 may be more powerful than some of my computers!

Rain Barrel control

I think I now have a working control for the rain barrel, with a moisture probe. This will prevent watering if the ground is already wet. I have a new PC board made and tested and just waiting for the weather to break a bit to get the barrel hooked up to test it. If all goes well I will add the design info to the rain barrel page soon. The whole control is pretty basic with only one adjustment for the probe so it should be cheap and reliable. Just don't expect any bells and whistles.

Comcast, Schedules Direct, and MythTV

My MythTV is set up with 2 tuner cards, one is connected to my main cable box, and the other was connected straight to the basic cable. I have LIRC control the cable box. Not long ago, Comcast issued digital set top boxes (STB) for all its services, even basic cable. I then had to add the STB and have LIRC control it as well.
On Schedules Direct I had 2 listing, basic, and digital. Comcast has now added more channels on the STB that are above and beyond Basic (like SyFi and Sprout, but not BBC or movie channels if you have a digital package) so I wanted to be able to tune them as well on MythTV. I set both inputs to use the digital listing since Schedules Direct only lets you have each linup once, and deleted the unavailable channels from the STB input. On the next run of mythfilldatabase, the channels were added back. Since I don't want Myth to try to record on a tuner / channel that doesn't exist, I wanted a way to automaticly clear the channels. I read in a forum where somone ran a cron job to do this for over the air channels they could not receive, but I am trying something different. I found that when mythfilldatabase ran, the "finetune" field was set to "NULL" on the new channels. All I needed to do is delete any channels that matched this. In mythtv-setup there is a setting for "mythfilldatabase program" that I set to a batch file "mythfilldatabase.sh" which contains:

#!/bin/sh

mythfilldatabase

mysql -u XXXX -pXXXX -e"delete from mythconverg.channel where finetune is NULL;"

XXXX are username and password
This way every time MythTV automaticly runs the command, it will clear the new channels on it's own.
Of course, I will not have new channels that I may want added, but I can check for them on my own and run mythfilldatabase manually.

NOTE: if you use MythWeb, finetune will show as a blank (NULL) the first time making the new channels easy to find, but if you save changes, it will set it to "0"

I am going to let this run a few days and see how it goes!
One side benefit is since there is only on listing to download, mythfilldatabase runs in less time using cached data for the second tuner.

Automatic Rain Barrel

We have a small garden out by our shed. It is not very big, sort of a "Square Foot Garden". Just enough for some tomatoes, a cucumber and a few other plants. Of course one big key to a good garden is consistent watering, and of course I am a bit lazy and not very consistent. I wanted something to do it for me automatically.

The shed is about 50' from the house, not far, but far enough to have to drag out a big hose. Living in a cold climate, the obvious solution do not work well here. I could not simply bury a hose without worrying about draining it so it will not freeze. I also did not want to bury any wire for automation either. I needed something that would stand alone, self power and supply water.

I decided on a rain barrel to attach to my shed. I simply used a 50 gallon trash can. I am not using the water for direct consumption, only irrigation. The first one was a heavy duty one some one had thrown away. (You can only use 35 gallon max for garbage here, so I could not use it for that) I lined it with a heavy 55 gallon "contractors" bag to keep the water clean and so it could be replace for easy cleaning. To hook it up to the gutter on the shed I made my own diverter/screen. (More on that later) The roof is about 10'x15' and can fill the barrel with a moderate rain fall.
With the water supply solved, I looked at the automation part. Anything I built needed to be solar/battery powered do to the remoteness. The main design goal was to water each night a set amount, reset the next day, and keep itself charged. The first version was built around two items from Harbor Freight. A battery powered back pack sprayer, and a solar trickle charger. The sprayer had a 12v gel cell battery and quite heavy duty pump and was used as a 5 gallon reservoir. The charger was used to charge the battery and to trigger the system each night at dark. The sprayer had a niffy little charging circuit that sensed over charging and shut down on low battery. With a little modifying, and a latching relay, I was able to get it to sense when the sun went down and latch the relay shut turning on the pump. I reversed the pump to suck water from the rain barrel and fill the backpack. The backpack was hung about 5 feet above the garden and 2 feet about the rain barrel. This kept the barrel from siphoning, and provided some pressure to water with. I put a reed switch/magnet in a float in the backpack so when it was full, the pump shut off. The system would not run again until the next day when the solar panel would once again power the circuit. The water would then drain out the backpack to water the garden through a drip feed system. The water ran out o backpack at the same time it was filling so since the backpack held about 5 gallons and about a gallon ran out while it filled, about 6 gallons was supplied each cycle. I could adjust the amount by the position of the float switch. Last thing was another float switch in the bottom of the barrel so if it ran dry, the system would be disabled. Of course, during the day the solar panel charged the battery. Since the pump only ran for about 4 minutes, trickle charge was enough to offset the draw each day. Towards the end of the season there were a lot of overcast days and the charger finally fell behind, so I used and extension cord to use the charger that came with the sprayer to let it charge for a few hours.

The original set up worked well the first year. The tomato plants were over 6 feet tall! Went on vacation with no worries. There were a few dry spells during the summer when the barrel did not get filled, so I ran out the hose and filled it and was good for another week.
There were a few draw backs I wanted to address. Cost, overkill, and reproduce-ability. Cost: I got the sprayer on an open box sale, but it would have normally been quite expensive. Overkill: The pump was way, way bigger than was needed as well as the battery needed to drive it. Reproduce-ability: Modifying the charge circuit was not a good solution, and the normal cost of the sprayer was too high to duplicate. The way I had the whole system installed would not work for most people, the reservoir was hung inside the shed. I started looking for cheep available solutions.
Here are the main components I chose for the second version.

Pump: Small 12 volt bilge pump form Harbor Freight.

Battery: 9.6 volt NiMH battery pack and charger from Radio Shack.

Solar Cell: Same as before.

Barrel: Cheaper trash can.

Reservoir: 1 or 2, 5 gallon buckets for up to ~10 gallon capacity.

Controller: New, low power design.

Enclosure: Mount the whole works in a free standing frame.

I found the pump would run just fine on only 9.6 volts and could still pump water more than fast enough to the hight I wanted to go. The battery was chosen since it came with a charger and NiMH were slightly easier to charge than gel cell and had a lot higher capacity than NiCd. The buckets were cheep and handy. The whole works now gets mounted in a PVC pipe frame that can be enclosed.
I also wanted to upgrade the controller while still keeping it as simple as possible. I won't go into it to much here, but there were several revisions, and it is almost there. It went form a relay system to using MOSFETs for the lowest power drain. I want it to be made for discreet components so any one could perf-board it. I may eventually make a "deluxe" one using some micro-controller, but then you would need the development tools to make your own, or have to buy it form me. It would be cooler with more features, but not necessarily better. (KISS) I am still trying to add a simple soil moisture sensor to avoid unnecessary watering.
This past year the new setup was tested, but not as thoroughly as I would have liked. My new little girl took a lot of attention away from projects. The good news is it worked, mostly. I am now getting ready for my 3rd try. I have all the main parts now and just need to refine the controller, which is in the works.
My intention is to get a final design that works well, cheep, and easy to make from easily obtainable parts. I will then post all the details so some one else could copy it. (or improve upon it) I want this to be "open source" so any suggestions I get for improvement will be incorporated and you will be credited here. If you want to make your own, or ones for friends, fine, but please remember where it came from if any profit is involved and do the right thing!* If there is any interest at that time I will consider putting together some form of a "kit" for those who do not want to do all the leg work or don't have the tools.
*I have no intention of trying to patent this since I have found it to be a waste of time and money with today's patent system. Only those with enough money to out last the lawyers can win. If a big company wants it, they take it and dare you to come after them. (and their lawyers) If I had that kind of money, I would not be trying to make a few bucks like this. So again, do the right thing. Please don't just rip me off. Point people to my site or contribute yourself, and I will keep trying to make things better.

UPDATE:
Picture of updated system.

Been even longer!

I finally added some information about my rain barrel system to the main page. It is only the beginning.
Automatic Rain Barrel
Have had a lot going on. Had a big job. Installed new floor. Remodelling kitchen. Wife threw the timing chain on her car. Big snow storm. And of course, Zoe!
Big job was building enclosures for 6 large LCD projectors used in the Sachs 5th Ave. Christmas display. They sat on a 5th floor roof and projected onto the whole side of Sachs store on 5th Ave. in New York. They not only had to protect the $100,000+ each projectors, but had to keep them between 50 and 100 degrees in the middle of winter, AND fit through a 30"x30" window. Oh yeah, the 3 aluminium cases had to be done and tested in 4 weeks.
Finished installing new flooring in the kitchen to match the rest of the house before starting to replace all the cabinets. I am completely redesigning the kitchen as well.
The wife's Saturn's timing chain slipped about 6 teeth so it is torn down waiting to get the head checked and order new parts. Aside from new timing set, ($140) it will need head gasket set ($120) and new torque to yield head bolts.($80)
Then there was the great storm of 2011 with 18" of snow to bring everything to a halt. I am scared to dig out and open the Saturn's hood to see what blew in.
Zoe is doing great. Got 4 teeth and going to walk and talk any day.

Been a while...

..since I added anything here. Been busy. I am watching my baby girl, Zoe, full time now. Quite an adventure. Got another free pool that I am grafting on to the first one. Updated MythTV and it's computer. Moved my shop into my garage. Finally did some redesign on the rain barrel. Bunch of landscaping. And too many other small projects to list.
I will be expanding on these things soon in the next few posts individually.
Just thought I would let anyone who actually reads this know I am still alive!

Addition to the Family

My little baby girl, Zoe, is finally here!
I have given her her own blog to keep track of her progress.
http://zoe.lwill.net

Forklift controller

This entry should pull together all the things in my web site name.Bunch of electronics, code, and some machining to make it fit.
I have a 30+ year old fork lift at my shop that died. It was basically given to us to use for storing it by someone who got it for free.

It was broke when we got it and I got it working whit the original electronics. It has a blown transistor and huge diode that I replaced and it worked for about a year until it finally gave up. The main power section was made up of 16 large PNP transistors (they actually had International Harvester part numbers on them, didn't know they did electronics!) and all of them were dead along with the 16 low ohm high wattage resisters that tied all the sections together and acted as fuses.
Partial picture:

I started looking for replacements and found them at NTE for over $20 each and the resisters were no longer available. So rather than patching it back together for over $300, I decided to design my own.
I found a simple design at http://www.zeva.com.au/speedy/ and up-scaled and modified it for my use. This is the highest power circuit I have ever done, so it was something new for me. Also it is the first time I used an AVR. Using what I could find out about the original control, I determined I wanted about 400 amps at 36 volts. I took this from the original transistor ratings and the fact there is a 3?0 amp main fuse. (couldn't read it) It powers the drive motor as well as the hydrolics. This is probably a bit over kill, but better to be safe. This also worked out well since I spec-ed out reasonably priced FETs that are 50A each, so 8 would give me 400A and an even number to drive.
The first version was built using the heat sinks and other bits form the original control and lasted about 30 seconds.
Pilot error. Looked like mini flash bombs at a rock concert! 8 FETs later and some fine tuning and I got it working for about 6 months. It finally died so I decided to take another whack at it. In the interim I ran across this tread paul-sabrinas-cheap-144v-motor-controller which basically started out the same way I did but took it much further with a lot of community support.
I have tried to do this on the cheap using what I have available, so I started with the heat sink that was salvaged from an old forklift charger. It also worked out since 6"x9" is the largest board I can easily etch. From there I tried to correct the errors I made on the first version.
First, I totally under designed the power supply section. It got upgraded with pass transistors to give me a stable 12v gate supply. This was causing the FETs' gate siginal to be crappy and the main cause of the failures.
Second, the first design had the FETs mounted on the separate heat sinks from the original controller. This gave different gate lengths and added more noise.
Third I had some bad code. After looking at the "Cougar" design I found a few flaws I had.
I ended up with this:

I also added a serial port so I could monitor things real time.
One big difference from the "Cougar" is I am using the original current shunt to measure current. My code is not as sophisticated since I am simply sensing over current or high temp and shutting things down instead of adjusting the output. I am also controlling the reversing solenoids with the micro. I do not have such large ripple caps since I am still using the HUGE ones from the original as well as the freewheel diodes in parallel with the ones on the controller.
So far I got it running pretty smooth. Good power, no noise, staying cool.
I'll see how it goes and report back how it works out.
Here are a few more pics of the work in progress.
A few more pictures

So...I got married. And my Mom hits the floor.

Yes, it happened and the world hasn't ended yet.
There will be some pictures to follow at some point.
It was (suppose) to be a fairly small and simple affair at the court house that ended up with 20 people showing up. Thanks to all who did. The next day we had a simple reception with around 35. Thanks again. Small by most accounts, but bigger that we expected when we started planning with fairly short notice.
We have one more party to go with our friends at our home.
We didn't have a honey moon since we have been living together nearly 9 years, (and still broke) but we did spend the day in St. Louis. The following day though will make the "honey-moon" hard to forget.

My mother has Parkinson's that is slowly getting worse. She actually is very active and does quite well, with an occasional spill. We happened to be there for one. She missed a step going into the house and fell on her back on a concrete floor in the garage. We were all sitting there at the time drinking our morning coffee, when BAM. I turned around to see her laying there, not moving. Needless to say everyone freaked out. I was sitting right next to her landing spot and started trying to do all the things you should do.
She was out cold, and not breathing.
I started to remember my 20 year old CPR training class and gave breaths then checked for pulse, which I could not find or hear so I moved on to compressions. I felt her ribs go "crunch" which turned out to be cracked from the fall, but still was not a good thing feel. Still not breathing, so carefully tilted her head again since there was now some blood on the floor under her head, and more breaths and she started to breath again and come around.
I carefully held a rag under her head to stop bleeding (she is on blood thinners, so I was a bit worried) then set it down and packed towels on each side so she would not move around.
By this time my new wife Brenda was on the phone with 911 and gave it to me to fill them in and stay on the line until the ambulance got there. Living in the country can have it's disadvantages at times. Mom was becoming more alert and starting to feel the pain, so I tried to keep her calm. I told her she went to a lot of effort just to get a kiss from her son! Of course my mom is a pretty tough old bird and just before they loaded her into the ambulance she said, "All I want to say is... SHIT" which the EMT told her she could say as many times as she wants. I rode along to the hospital and more family showed up there and THEN I about threw up from coming down from all that happened.

Turns out, she is going to be fine. 4 cracked ribs, 9 stitches in her head, bad bruise on her arm where she landed with her ribs, and a big head ache. My niece works at the hospital in imaging so we know she was checked out good. They kept her over night and kicked her out the next day.

I sort of wanted to write this down just to get it out of my head. Didn't mean to get so serious in my blog. See, we live 4-1/2 hours away and it was "lucky" we were there when this happened. My dad would not have been able to handle it alone and I was so glad I was there when she needed me. I am still amazed I was able to react the way I did.

I think most people wonder how they will react to a situation when it arises and (mom's) SHIT hits the fan, and I guess in my case I did OK?

Now I just have to deal with being married! Oh and did I mention the kid on the way???

(Love ya, mom)

MythTV Menus Disapeared!

I have been in the process of setting up a new MythTV frone end and having lots of little issues. I go through this every time, all the little tweaks I need to work with my hardware drive me nuts! I am going to be adding important things here as they come up.
I just rebooted the system and all the menus were gone! Just a blank background. I navigated by "feel" to the settings and the screen came up. I tried changing from OpenGL to QT, changed theme, no good. Started googling, nothing looked familiar. I finally realized I had unplugged the monitor the night before. Opened nvidia-settings, rescanned monitors, saved and that fixed it.
Now a bit more explanation. I have an nvidia 8400gs card connected to a 61" RCA DLP using DVI. First time I have used this card and this type of set up. I had a small LCD monitor hoked up as well while installing since the RCA cuts off the menus, and switched when finished. I disabled the LCD and every thing was OK. Last night I unplugged the LCD from the AC since I was done with it. Today I powered down to look at mounting a new hard drive and when I powered back up, no menus on Myth. I looked in nvidia-settings and the monitor was still listed. Rescanned and still there, Completely disconnected and rescanned, GONE! Saved xorg.conf, rebooted, changed all settings back, and now it is ok.
Apparently nvidia was trying to be too smart for it's own good. I had hoped to leave the LCD enabled for future use, but I guess I will just have to reset things if I do.
Now I know, and knowing is half the battle! (To keep from pulling what hair I have left!)

Auto login Fedora 11

Another note for future installs of Fedora.
I use the auto login feature in Fedora and it wasn't working on my latest install. I have had this problem in the past and never figured out why until now.
In the KDE settings there is a "Login Manager" where you can set automatic and password-less login which I set everything and it still didn't work.
I use KDE but decided to install Gnome as well to try it a bit. I used "switchdesk kde" to change to KDE. Apparently Fedora uses GDM by default not KDM if you install Gnome. The settings only effect KDM! I normally do not even install Gnome to save space so if GDM is missing it will default to KDM. This explains why it normally works for me, but some times, like now, it does not!
The solution is to add the file (if missing) /etc/sysconfig/desktop and add/change the entry
DESKTOPMANAGER="KDE"
Reboot. Now it works.

KDE4 Super user file manager in panel

After installing Fedora 11 several times I have finally decided to document how I did this so I will stop pulling my hair out (not much left) each time I do this. I have it working on my main system but can never remember how. Since I got smart a while back and put /home in it's own partition I now don't wipe it when upgrading so I haven't had to recreate it since.
In previous versions (pre KDE4) there was a menu item for super user file manager using Konqueror. I am use to Konqueror and set it to default, but I got use to being able to get at the system files without having to switch users or use a terminal. Yes I know the dangers, It's my system and that's the way I like it. You use to be able add it to the panel and when clicked it would ask for password and run. Any configuration files would then open in kwrite in su mode as well and save properly.
The first problem I ran into was that KDE4 requires you to use kdesu instead of su if you want anything to run in X as root. Very upsetting to open a terminal, type su, pw, kwrite, and have nothing happen.
So once I got over that I went to add what I wanted to the panel, but there is no choice for application, only damn "widgets"! Since there is no widget for "file manager super user" I tried dragging /home down there and then modifying it, no joy. It is just a folder, opening with the default app. not an app. itself. I dug on my main system and recreated what I must have done.

What I ended up doing:
Right click the launcher icon, select "Menu Editor"
Created a New Item. (Where ever you like)
Set Command to "kdesu konqueror"
Set other preferences (icon, name, description.)
Save.
Drag new icon and place on panel.
TA DA!

(Edit: I just figured out how to do it in"Menu Editor" DUH!)

Wedding Info

Just to keep this on the front page:
Wedding Info
if you want to know more.

PPLOG Mods

I made a few modifications to PPLOG.
First I fixed an error that caused the time to display as "24:xx" if it was between midnight and 1 am. Since I am a night owl and do a lot of work at night I found this to be highly annoying.
Next I added an "Edited" note to the time and date posted. PPLOG has an edit option, but did not show that a post had been edited. (see the line on this post, I will edit it just as an example)
These are sort of hacks, but they work for me. If there is any interest I will post what I did. I have made several changes to PPLOG for my own use so it is not just a simple "diff/patch". I will have to pull out just the changes needed.
When I get a chance to do this, I am planing on sending a note to the author in case he wants to include the changes.

This is an edit for example.

Front yard landscaping

My front yard has been slowly sliding down hill for years. There is hardly any topsoil left, so the grass looks like crap. I have been wanting to add a small retaining wall along the front then back fill to level out the whole yard and replant new grass. After doing the pool, I had to a lot of dirt left over and figured now was a good time to do it. (hence the "free" pool just got more expensive!)

Of course, there was not quite enough dirt to fill it all the way! Now to get more dirt (or dig another hole in the back yard!) and get some grass growing. I like having nice grass in my yard, of course the best grass I had was right where the pool went!!
I could always start on the garage I wanted to build and use that dirt. Hmmm... another project, but not for a while, I need to rest up for this whole wedding thing.

A few more pictures

New "free" pool

Earlier this spring we got a complete free pool on freecycle. It was in pretty good shape, we just had to take it down. At the time it was still cold, in fact part of the pool was buried and was frozen into the ground! The liner had a small leak in it but didn't matter since it was still frozen too and got destroyed.The reason "free" is in quotes is it still cost some money to install:
A new liner (duh)
Building permit
Electrical supplies ($45 GFCI breaker!!)
Spray paint for the uprights and rails
Renting tiller
Pavers to go around edge
New filter cartridge
Vermiculite for bottom
Misc. replacement hardware
Food to feed the friends who helped on set up day (Thanks Scott)
All in all, no where near the several thousand a new pool would have cost.
For others who might do this, we found the Vermiculite at Menards in the "insulation" department for insulating block walls, worked out to be cheaper than bags of sand and a whole lot lighter to handle!! It also gives a wonderful bottom. We installed the liner using a shop vac to suck it into place and have no wrinkles!! My family had several pools and I had been though setting them up before, and this method rocked!

Next thing will be to install the solar heater we also got on freecycle. I am not happy with it's cheesy installation though and will be looking into something better. (Oh goody, another project)
You may also notice the home made solar cover roller. It was a quick project that needs some refinement (it bows real bad) When I redo it, probably season, I will try to document it as well.

A few more pictures, during and after

Rain barrel note

You might have noticed on my main page a note about a rain barrel system. I have to go back and take pictures of each component and put it together. The problem is it is summer and all kinds of other projects have came first (see next posts), and now planning for a wedding to.Here is a quick sneak peek at it and see if you can guess what makes it special.

A few more pictures

Wedding Info

Well it looks like it is finally going to happen:
Wedding Info
if you want to know more.

Edit: Moved to own catagory

Note to self

Bridge network Fedora and VB
http://www.samlesher.com/fedora/bridge-network-interface-on-virtualbox-in-fedora

Rant No.1a

I got off track a bit in that last post. The original reason for me getting so verbose was something that annoyed me on another blog.
http://www.puppylinux.com/blog/?viewDetailed=00865
Not that post, but the one referred to in it. I don't want to give the other guy a free link! But Barry is OK in my book.
It wasn't even what he said, just something that bugged me.
Bad advice is often worse than no advice, and not thinking for your self is the worst of all.

I don't know anything about him and don't mean to say anything bad. But...
Self promotion is one thing, but.....well, enough.

Learn to learn!!!

(more to come)

Rant No. 1

Hopefully as time goes on, you will find that I have became big fan of Linux. There are some things you should be aware of.
I will never claim to be an expert, but I can proudly say that I have found my way though all of the hurdles on my own so far. Of course, this has meant a lot of time on Google and trolling forums. So in that scene I had everyone's help. I seldom jump in and give advice unless I am pretty sure I know what I am talking about, not because I am unwilling to share. There are enough people who are ready to give bad advice already. I tend to learn and do things my own way that works for me, but would get "experts" in a tissy. If some one asks me for help, I give the best help I can. If I make a mistake, I try to fix it on my own. I will never claim to know or understand some thing I don't unless I give a LARGE disclaimer of "as best that I know".
That said, I have went down more that one wrong path trying to solve problems by listening to others.
Linux for me has been a great way to keep learning and keep my mind full of new ideas.

My first passion of electronic design has gotten a bit stale with the progression of technology. Not because I don't find it cool any more, but because the cool stuff is getting out of reach. I started with boxes of parts salvaged form old TV's and started figuring out what they do. The resistor, capacitor, and diode. Then moved up to transistors and started with the basics of digital design till I started to acquire my first IC gates. I loved stacking stuff together getting more and more complicated as I went on. Some times it worked, most times it didn't. There are a lot of neat things you can do with good discreet design. I built my first oscilloscope with plans from a magazine that hooked up to a TV. Worked great for discovering simple audio and digital stuff. The problem is some of the chips I learned with are not even available now. Go on line and search for a timer circuit and I bet you will find several that use micro controllers!
This is fine, but now you need the development tools just to work with them. The other problem I see you don't need to know anything about basic electronics.

Back to my main point. Linux has opened up a whole new playground for me, and not one that I just sit in by myself. Unlike electronic design were all the basic concepts are known and most of the major developments are now on the "quantum" level, Linux keeps evolving on many levels.
There is the kernel itself, constantly changing and adding. Some times good, some times bad. As they say, NASA didn't make it to the moon with out a few scorched monkeys. It keeps getting rewritten from the ground up, refined and added to. If something is missing, it can be put in anywhere along the way. If something breaks, drop back to an older version and start over.
There are the many different languages to program in. C, C++, TCL/TK, gtk, PERL, Python, and good old BASH and BASIC just to get started. You could write a program in each one to do the same thing and find good points for each. If you don't like them, write your own! Genny/Vala are some of the newest examples. While I have only dabbled in most of these, they give me reasons to learn more.

I have found the ability to do things I always wanted to try, but didn't have the resources to do:
I now can edit video, burn custom DVD's, record and watch programs on my PC
Run a web server from my house and develop web pages (like this one)
Run as many operating systems as I want all at the same time
Write controls for my games with great sound effects and even video if I wanted and bring old hardware back to life
Have a secure network (Smooth Wall)
Use fancy databases
Develop software for those for mentioned micro processors.
More and more each day!

All with out giving one penny to a big company!!

Back to my main, main point. My growing love of Linux.
One reason for this site is I will hopefully be adding information to start to give back some of what I have gotten. Information I use, problems I've solved, ways I do things, and things NOT to do. I don't like admitting my mistakes any more than the next guy, but for most, that is how we learn. I will try to bring myself to share them with others so we can all learn together.
Hopefully some of my interest will rub off on you.

General Comments

This is a Page to leave general comments with out tying it to a post or having to E-mail me.

Feel free!

(Remember, it's my site and reserve the right to ruthlessly delete anything I like (or don't))

New Site, New Problems

So I just set up my site with a brand new domain, on a new server, and went live!
I tried to "Contact" myself from the contact page and hit my first snag -
It is currently forwarding to another email address with AT&T and they bounced it for being sent from a possible Spam server!! I just registered the domain today!!
I can email to it using the webmail client on the site just fine, but using the "sendmail" program inside the site bounces.
I have just jumped though AT&T's hoops to try to get it unblocked, checked Spamhaus(sp?), etc. where it was NOT blocked, and sent AT&T a request to fix it.
Now to sit and wait for a reply. (24-48hrs)

Any one want an Engine?

For sale:Ford 3.8L V6 for mid-90's rear wheel drive.

Been trying to sell it for a while.
Any takers?

Edit: SOLD!! Used money to landscape front yard. See latter post.

Patio Side Poject

A little side project building a patio enclosure for a friends hot tub.

Patio images

First Project entry

New project added.
Repaired a rusted out vent under the slab in my bathroom.
Under Slab vent Repair

Rain Barrel Controler Design