Ethernet Shield Added

-
I've been working on my own Whereabouts clock for a while now. For the most part I've just been thinking through some things, but now I'm actually trying to make it a reality.

I got my Arduino Ethernet Shield in the mail today. I revamped the fetch locations script on the web server to update a MySQL database instead of a flat file. Now I have a table for each family member instead of a group of flat files. I also created a fetch script that's used by the Arduino to fetch the latest entry in the database. I plan to parse the results to have the Arduino move the servo motors to the correct location.

My servo motors should be on their way here, but I've still got plenty to work on until they arrive. I'll have to fill in more on this project as I have time.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

V-22 Osprey Project - Design Changes for v3

-
Image
It's been a busy end of 2021, and as we start 2022 I'm getting closer to building version 3 of the Osprey wing.  The single biggest problem I've faced is the amount of backlash in the direct spur gear drive of the tilt mechanism.  It introduces some nasty instability that, left unchecked, would likely destroy the model in flight. I've investigated other tilt mechanisms, but the one I keep coming back to is the rack and pinion design that Tom Mast uses in his model at Rotormast.  His design uses a high-torque digital servo with a small pinion gear driving a rack attached to the rotor nacelle.  The servo has been modified with an external potentiometer that's driven by a gear on the translation tube to give positional feedback to the servo.  I like this design a lot because 1) It works, and his model is proof, and 2) it requires less torque from the servo and has less backlash. I ordered the pair of modified servos, potentiometer, and rack from Tom's site and star
Read more

V-22 Osprey Project - Flight Control

-
Image
Now that I have a conceptual idea of how to build a V-22 using leftover mCPX BL parts, how do I go about controlling such an aircraft? I own a Taranis X9D+, and it can control up to 32 channels using dual receivers, so that won’t be a problem. I’m sure that I can create a mixing profile in the transmitter to handle just about anything, but I’m also sure that just like any multi-rotor “drone," this thing will need some form of automatic flight stabilization. I own a few multirotor aircraft and I’m familiar with how they function. Some research into the popular flight control software (Betaflight, iNav, Cleanflight, LIbrepilot, etc.) all came up short. No one has written code for off-the-shelf flight controllers to manage a dual-swashplate aircraft. I would have to build my own. I have not delved into writing code for flight controllers, but I have built a number of Arduino projects, and some of them utilize RC inputs to control servos and motors. It occurred to me that I
Read more

Whereabouts Clock Update

-
Image
After a few months, Life360 has gone the way of Apple and locked down the API I used to get location data from the phones.  This is disappointing, but inevitable. I found on a forum for Home Assistant that the app OwnTracks might be a suitable alternative. It's a neat little app that will trigger the phone to send its location data via MQTT to a server that you specify. I had to rework the code a bit, but the new operation is as follows: OwnTracks on the phone will push location data per its configuration to the MQTT server (Docker container) The Mosquitto (MQTT Broker) container will receive the data and forward the data to its subscribers The MQTTWarn container is a subscriber and translates the received data and adds it to the MariaDB database The Apache web server hosts a Python CGI script that is checked each minute by the Arduino microcontroller.  If the data has changed, the hands are moved to the new location. The only exposed port to the Internet is TCP 1883 for MQTT
Read more