Tom's Life Bits

This list is an attempt to define each of the various projects underway in Tom's world.

• Burbank - An Atnega128 based growbox monitor with Zigbee wireless interface, 28 VAC relay for watering, moisture sensor and temperature sensor. One Burbank will monitor two grow boxes. The grow boxes attach via RJ45's for moisture and temperature sensors.

• Bonnard - A bridge which accepts Zigbee data from the Downing place Znet and puts it on web pages on the Downing LAN.

• Chagall - Audio recorder for PC's used to record single slide narrations for Power Point presenattions.

• DaVinci - This is an Atmega128 with an enc28j60 hooked to it. The compiler is WinAVR. This was initially started in Stoneybrook in Oct 2007 after learning WinAVR in an Atmel AVR class in Tampa.

• DEGAS - this is a web server and one wire temperature network consisting of an Atmega128 on an old hub card, an Avcom EasyLAN web server and a power regulator mounted on an old 8515 processor card. The entire hardware package is inside an aluminum chassis case. As an emergency temperature monitor, this was resurrected in June 2008 for use at Stoneybrook to monitor the HVAC system.

• Fred 6 - this was a 2003 attempt at using Orcad to send a PCB to AP circuits. The AVR was an 8515 using the IAR compiler for firmware. The device was designed to interface to a packet TNC using the KISS protocol. The system was never put into operation.

• HATTY - this is a remote temperature monitoring board using the one wire bus, a Hobby-Board temperature module and DS1820 temperature devices. There is one onboard DS1820 sensor and 2 RJ45 jacks to attach two additional sensors. The board attaches to the one wire bus using a screw terminal strip with two terminals, GND and DQ. DQ is the one wire bus.

• MARS - this an Atmega128 with dual UARTS to control a packet radio/TinyTrack 4 and to communicate with other controllers over a 485 network. The purpose is for use in the greenhouse to convey status info back via a 2 meter packet link. By using standard packet telemetry, and the standard frequency of 145.39, the data will appear on aprs.fi.

• MARS2 - The MARS packet controller modified to instead use a private radio link of 144.55

but still using the APRS format for packets. MARS2 transmits to a home base station named Phobos.

• MEISTERSINGER - this will be a Downing Place master controller with 2 uarts from a QYX card which is Atmega128 based. One UART hooks to the 485 network, the second UART attaches to the PC.

• MEISTER2 - this is the Downing Place master controller based on a Sparkfun Arduino Pro. It has a Wiznet ethernet interface, dedicated pins for One Wire and a future RS485 shield.

• Phobos - February 2011, this is an mbed CPU with USB, ethernet Magjack and two RJ45 connectors. One of the RJ45's attaches to the TinyTrak4 for serial packet processing. The purpose is to monitor MARS via 2 meter packet. Mars is at the greenhouse collecting temperature, humidity and power status. Phobos has a web interface for http display and also Parchube posting.

• Pisces - Uses an Atmega16 in a 40 pin dip to control the fish feeder. When powered up by a timer, it turns on an onboard relay for a selected period of time then goes to sleep. It uses 8 volts which is converted to 5V by an onboard regulator and contains one onboard relay.

• PiscesD - This is the Pisces fish timer repurposed to control a ventilation fan in the crawl space. The device is expected to operate 24/7 and do it's own time keeping to periodically activate the ventilation fans thus replacing a Radio Shack timer performing a 6 times per day cycle. An onboard RS485 interface will allow the device to be configured via a web to 485 gateway module.

• Pisarro - convert Tivo IR remotes to Olevia signals.

• Tracy is a hub card wired to an enc28j60. Goal was to develop an AVR based web server. The compiler used was the AVR.

• Hopper is designated to replace the Bluebird Fred monitoring system. It has an onboard DAA, a text to speech engine, an Atmega processor and a one wire LAN.

• Kahlo is the microwave controller. Atmega164 with DC-DC, One Wire, analog interface out RJ45 pins. The analog consists of an op amp and transistor for common relay driving, an OptoIsolator IL5 for driving the magnetron relay, an optoIsolator IL5 to detect door open, a buzzer, keyboard and LCD.

• Rembrandt is an embedded Linux Stamp based on the AVR32.

• Loge is an Atmega164 based card with 3 onboard 5 volt relays. A set of NO contacts from each relay is brought out to a terminal strip. Loge also contains an RS485 network for intra device communications.

Derivatives of Loge are:

1. Furnace selector
2. Fish pond water management
3. Crawl space ventilation timer with temperature and humidity sensing

• Egret is a VB program that takes a years worth of PPP blog data and compiles it into a single “txt” file, each entry is concatenated one after the other. The entries are sepataed by a date and subject line, a series of dashes and a blank line. The end of each entry has a line with a “~” in the center showing entry termination.

• Venus is an Atmega128 based card for interfacing an RS485 network with an RS232, typically attached to a packet controller and radio combo. Venus will act as an RS485 bus master, polling slaves for status. Although Venus is a standalone controller, the ultimate will be to supply a web server with status information as a GUI interface to the network.
• Venus 2 is an Atmega128 card with interfaces to RS485 for polling slaves and a Wiznet module for web serving. Possibly the other UART can hook to a Zigbee so that the card will finction as a Zignee bridge.