Category Archives: Software

Air Quality Sensor

Posted on July 18, 2019 by jimhannon

An air quality sensor (dust sensor) has been on my todo list for a while. There are a number of sensor modules on the market for the DIYer but all that I had seen seemed to not be suited for … Continue reading →

Posted in Amateur Science, citizen science, Electronics, environmental monotoring, Imbedded Software, Nature, Software | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Soil Temperature Probe

Posted on April 13, 2019 by jimhannon

A soil temperature probe has been on my todo list for a while. So I decided to build one now along with a number of other improvements, and repairs to my weather station. The soil temperature at four inch depth … Continue reading →

Posted in Electronics, environmental monotoring, Imbedded Software, Software | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Rain Sensor

Posted on January 1, 2019 by jimhannon

I thought it would be interesting to add a rain sensor to my tipping bucket rain gauge. Because it take time for the bucket to fill and does not always tip right when it stops raining a sensor that detects … Continue reading →

Posted in Amateur Science, Astronomy, DIY, Electronics, environmental monotoring, Imbedded Software, Nature, Software | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Barn Door Star Tracker

Posted on October 21, 2018 by jimhannon

I wanted to take some star pictures with my DSLR and decided a barn door style star tracker would be a fun project to build. Early versions were nothing more than two boards connected by a hinge with a screw … Continue reading →

Posted in Amateur Science, Astronomy, DIY, Electronics, Imbedded Software, Photography, Software | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

IoT Rain Gauge

Posted on February 2, 2018 by jimhannon

On thing that is missing from my weather station is automatic reporting of rain fall. I have a manually read CoCoRaHS rain gauge which is more accurate than say a tipping bucket gauge but I thought it would be nice … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternate Energy, Amateur Science, Electronics, environmental monotoring, Nature, Software | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

CNC Laser Cutter / Engraver Build

Posted on January 10, 2017 by jimhannon

I see a number of articles on the WEB about using a blue laser around 2 watts for cutting and engraving. A lot of times the laser is attached to a 3D printer. Now I have a 3D printer but … Continue reading →

Posted in 3D printing, CAD, CNC, Crafts, DIY, Electronics, Machine Shop, Software | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

3D CAD

Posted on February 25, 2016 by jimhannon

Around about the time I got my 3D printer working I saw that the University of Iowa was offering a Senior College course “Designing and Manufacturing with Computer Modeling and 3D Printing”. That sounded useful so I signed up for … Continue reading →

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Sky Temperature Sensor

Posted on December 15, 2013 by jimhannon

The first sensor to go on my instrument platform may be an infrared sky temperature sensor. The sky temperature can be used to determine if the sky is clear or cloudy and when the sky is clear the temperature is … Continue reading →

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Imbedded Software Development

Posted on December 15, 2012 by jimhannon

A while back I decided to pick a processor and development environment to use for making a number of sensors I want to build. Each sensor requires requires some processing to read or digitize the sensor output and either log … Continue reading →

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