The creativity of 3D printing!

raspberry pi camera mount

One of the things I love about 3D printing is the creativity of it. I didn’t want to print any supports, so by putting a flat spot on one side I could print it with no cleanup needed.

Needed and adapter to connect my vacuum to my belt sander. Tada.

One the disappointing aspects of doing your own CNC conversion is that you are the manufacturer. Need to know the limits of your machine? Go ahead and start running tests until something breaks. Rinse and repeat.

I recently picked up a Black and Decker Portable AC https://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-Portable-Conditioner-Display/dp/B01DLPUWG2 and wanted to port over a Blynk project I had created. I couldn’t find anything online about what the infrared protocol is for the remote. So here you go:

Protocol  : TCL112ACCode      : 0x23CB26010024030D00000000C009 (112 Bits)Mesg Desc.: Power: On, Mode: 3 (Cool), Temp: 18C, Fan: 0 (Auto), Econo: Off, HealProtocol  : TCL112AC
Code      : 0x23CB26010024030D00000000C009 (112 Bits)
Mesg Desc.: Power: On, Mode: 3 (Cool), Temp: 18C, Fan: 0 (Auto), Econo: Off, Health: Off, Light: On, Turbo: Off, Swing(H): Off, Swing(V): Off
uint16_t rawData[227] = {3134, 1586,  496, 1174,  504, 1166,  502, 334,  494, 366,  474, 362,  476, 1166,  502, 332,  496, 340,  498, 1170,  498, 1172,  496, 366,  474, 1194,  474, 336,  502, 358,  470, 1174,  506, 1164,  504, 332,  496, 1174,  494, 1176,  504, 358,  472, 336,  502, 1166,  502, 334,  494, 340,  500, 1168,  500, 336,  504, 358,  472, 336,  502, 358,  470, 364,  476, 332,  496, 364,  474, 360,  468, 366,  472, 362,  478, 358,  472, 334,  504, 356,  472, 362,  476, 358,  470, 364,  474, 360,  470, 1172,  496, 366,  474, 334,  494, 1174,  504, 330,  498, 336,  502, 1166,  502, 1168,  500, 334,  496, 340,  498, 362,  476, 332,  498, 336,  502, 332,  496, 1172,  496, 338,  502, 1168,  500, 1170,  498, 336,  504, 358,  470, 364,  474, 360,  470, 364,  474, 362,  468, 340,  498, 360,  468, 366,  472, 362,  476, 332,  496, 364,  476, 332,  496, 366,  476, 332,  496, 338,  500, 360,  468, 366,  472, 336,  504, 356,  472, 364,  476, 358,  470, 364,  476, 358,  470, 364,  474, 360,  468, 366,  474, 360,  468, 340,  500, 362,  468, 366,  472, 362,  476, 358,  470, 364,  474, 332,  498, 364,  476, 332,  496, 366,  474, 360,  468, 366,  472, 362,  476, 330,  498, 1198,  472, 1172,  496, 1174,  496, 338,  500, 362,  478, 1164,  504, 330,  498, 364,  476, 360,  468, 366,  474};  // TCL112AC
uint8_t state[14] = {0x23, 0xCB, 0x26, 0x01, 0x00, 0x24, 0x03, 0x0D, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0xC0, 0x09};
th: Off, Light: On, Turbo: Off, Swing(H): Off, Swing(V): Offuint16_t rawData[227] = {3134, 1586,  496, 1174,  504, 1166,  502, 334,  494, 366,  474, 362,  476, 1166,  502, 332,  496, 340,  498, 1170,  498, 1172,  496, 366,  474, 1194,  474, 336,  502, 358,  470, 1174,  506, 1164,  504, 332,  496, 1174,  494, 1176,  504, 358,  472, 336,  502, 1166,  502, 334,  494, 340,  500, 1168,  500, 336,  504, 358,  472, 336,  502, 358,  470, 364,  476, 332,  496, 364,  474, 360,  468, 366,  472, 362,  478, 358,  472, 334,  504, 356,  472, 362,  476, 358,  470, 364,  474, 360,  470, 1172,  496, 366,  474, 334,  494, 1174,  504, 330,  498, 336,  502, 1166,  502, 1168,  500, 334,  496, 340,  498, 362,  476, 332,  498, 336,  502, 332,  496, 1172,  496, 338,  502, 1168,  500, 1170,  498, 336,  504, 358,  470, 364,  474, 360,  470, 364,  474, 362,  468, 340,  498, 360,  468, 366,  472, 362,  476, 332,  496, 364,  476, 332,  496, 366,  476, 332,  496, 338,  500, 360,  468, 366,  472, 336,  504, 356,  472, 364,  476, 358,  470, 364,  476, 358,  470, 364,  474, 360,  468, 366,  474, 360,  468, 340,  500, 362,  468, 366,  472, 362,  476, 358,  470, 364,  474, 332,  498, 364,  476, 332,  496, 366,  474, 360,  468, 366,  472, 362,  476, 330,  498, 1198,  472, 1172,  496, 1174,  496, 338,  500, 362,  478, 1164,  504, 330,  498, 364,  476, 360,  468, 366,  474};  // TCL112ACuint8_t state[14] = {0x23, 0xCB, 0x26, 0x01, 0x00, 0x24, 0x03, 0x0D, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0xC0, 0x09};
  
Protocol  : TCL112ACCode      : 0x23CB26010020030D00000000C106 (112 Bits)Mesg Desc.: Power: Off, Mode: 3 (Cool), Temp: 18C, Fan: 0 (Auto), Econo: Off, Health: Off, Light: On, Turbo: Off, Swing(H): Off, Swing(V): Offuint16_t rawData[227] = {3138, 1582,  502, 1170,  498, 1170,  498, 364,  476, 360,  468, 366,  472, 1196,  472, 364,  476, 360,  468, 1200,  478, 1166,  502, 332,  496, 1200,  468, 368,  472, 362,  476, 1192,  476, 1166,  502, 362,  478, 1192,  476, 1168,  500, 362,  478, 356,  472, 1196,  472, 364,  474, 360,  468, 1200,  478, 330,  498, 364,  476, 360,  468, 364,  474, 360,  468, 366,  472, 362,  476, 358,  470, 364,  474, 360,  468, 364,  474, 360,  468, 366,  472, 362,  476, 358,  470, 364,  474, 360,  468, 364,  474, 360,  468, 366,  472, 1194,  474, 362,  476, 358,  470, 1198,  470, 1174,  504, 358,  470, 364,  474, 360,  468, 366,  474, 362,  478, 358,  470, 1196,  472, 366,  474, 1194,  474, 1170,  498, 364,  476, 360,  468, 366,  474, 360,  468, 368,  472, 362,  476, 358,  470, 366,  474, 362,  466, 366,  474, 362,  468, 366,  472, 362,  476, 360,  470, 364,  474, 360,  468, 366,  474, 362,  478, 356,  472, 364,  476, 358,  470, 366,  474, 362,  478, 356,  472, 366,  474, 358,  470, 364,  474, 360,  468, 366,  472, 362,  478, 356,  472, 362,  476, 358,  470, 364,  474, 360,  468, 366,  474, 1196,  474, 336,  504, 358,  472, 364,  474, 360,  468, 366,  472, 1194,  474, 1170,  498, 364,  476, 1194,  474, 1170,  498, 362,  476, 360,  470, 366,  474, 362,  476, 358,  472};  // TCL112ACuint8_t state[14] = {0x23, 0xCB, 0x26, 0x01, 0x00, 0x20, 0x03, 0x0D, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0xC1, 0x06};

These tanks are awfully tippy when connected to a Little Torch. Not so much anymore.

The performance of my satellite downlink station is nowhere near as good as I would like. I been doing some various troubleshooting measures to try and figure out what is going on. In my previous post, you can see some of my explorations about antenna tuning. In this post I took my first pass at exploring the feedline situation. It’s been up for at least five years and wanted to make sure nothing untoward had happened to it.

For my satellite ground station I built an antenna from the plans by WA5VJB http://www.wa5vjb.com/references/Cheap%20Antennas-LEOs.pdf

I originally built a 7 element 70cm antenna. But then added on a two element 2m one. While I had tuned the 70cm antenna, it was tuned a little too low after the second cut to shorten the driven element. But it passed, just barely.

While attaching the new antenna to the old, I got frustrated smacking the darn thing into everything and hacked off the end, converting it to a 5 element in short order. With years of experience under my belt I have learned that anger is not a great engineering design philosophy.

I’ve been using Pi-Hole for a while and it just caused too many problems. Many shopping carts across the web would just fail. I need to run google ad campaigns and you can’t get to the admin UI. Therefore I decided to move dns resolving back to my ER-X and instead use cloudflared to resolve DNS queries so CenturyLink has a harder time selling my browsing history.

I found a great post on how to do this at: https://reichley.tech/dns-over-https-edgerouter-x/ but it doesn’t cover the v2 series of EdgeOS based on Debian 9. These are my quick notes on changes to their directions.

I’ve been slowly working towards building a satellite uplink and downlink station for years. I have finally reached a point where I finished building the station and have Receive some signals.

The performance is rather abysmal, I still have a fair amount of work to do.

Seattle is due for a big earthquake. Our wrench for our water barrel and emergency gas cutoff was always going walkabout. I whipped up this little holder so it has a home to live on the back of our front door.