I hope this works!

I'm making a pumpkin pie.

As usual for me, making something straight forward never is.

The pie crust is a simple one that I first used a couple of years ago. It's very simple:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup shortening

1/2 cup water

Of course, I wanted to use some butter too so I added 4 Tbsp of butter as well. I've been happy with this recipe for some time.

It's simple, cut the shortening and butter into the flour:

add the water, blend together until it holds in a ball and chill.

Pumpkin Goo Recipe:

I never made a pumpkin pie before today. I don't have a favorite pumpkin goo recipe... so I made one up. It's a combination of 6 different recipes inspired by (and then bastardized) this vegan recipe, chiefly because I didn't have any cream/half-and-half/sweetend condensed milk.

1 can pumpkin

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ginger

2 large eggs

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup light corn syrup1 cup of 2% milk

Whipped it all together in a bowl, poured into my pie crust and put in a 425° oven for 15 minutes and then turned down to 350° for 45 more.

I have an idea!

Most of my sentences that start like that end up becoming long involved projects and this one is probably no different.

I need an arduino and an ethershield for this idea.
I want to make a device that I can "telnet" to from the internet log in, issue a command and start, shutdown or reboot my home pc.

I have exposed a couple of ports on my Ubuntu box to the internet. I’d like to keep it powered down unless I intend to use it.

Having a device like this would let me save energy and secure my machine just a bit better. If it's turned off, you can't hack at it.

Need a new project

I'm trying to think of a new project to do. Maybe a carboy warmer.

Pot rack

I had a 4' piece of metal and some random pipe flanges and pipe nipples laying around from previous projects and I needed a pot rack for the kitchen. So I thought... WELDING PROJECT! Impromptu welding projects are always fun. So I slapped this together.





Finished product:


I got the hooks from Ikea for something else and never used them.


Welding always makes me happy

Brewing again

I've been away from the brew kettle for 3 months now, but you'd never know from how smoothly yesterday's brew session went and how smoothly today's brew session is going.

I brewed a "Summer's End Hefeweizen" yesterday and I'm brewing "Patriot Steam Beer" today. I think it's pretty obvious I've done this a few times.

Some Photos:
The new brew setup (Nothing new, just rearranged)


Chillin


Racking to primary


The Fermentarium

Moving

Well, I've been moving into my new place for two weeks. I'm nearly done. One more week and I should be done. Then 2-3 years to unpack the boxes.

Github is pretty cool

I spent some time today playing around with Git and Github and the more I use it, the more I use it the more I like it.

Moved the kegerator controller to it's own space

Two things today:

1. Moved the kegerator controller to its own blog
   
2. Started a GitHub repository for my source code.
   

Making monsters

This morning I had the kids draw monsters for me. Then we cut them out of fabric an while they're "napping" I sewed them up.
My 3.5 yo son drew a big slug. He wanted his monster to be like Roz from Monsters Inc.
My 5 yo daughter drew something simple.

Here are some pictures of the outcome.

The Kegerator

I'm starting something mildly ambitious for my first real Arduino project. I'll be making a temperature controller for a chest freezer. The net effect will be to be able to switch the freezer on and off based on a "Set temp."

The controller will consist of the following:

• A temp probe
• An LCD to show the current and set temperatures
• Up and Down buttons to set the temp
• A massive 5vdc/400ma driven 240V/30A relay
• An Arduino boot-loaded AVR ATMega328

Eventually, I intend to add a lid switch to detect an open lid, an alarm to tell you when the temp is X degrees too high and another temp sensor in the tower to switch on a fan to keep the lines cool when the tower gets too warm.

Pictures and code can be found here:
http://kegeratorcontroller.blogspot.com/

Push on Push off

I'll test the code in the morning.

#define LED 13
#define BUTTON 7

int val = 0;
int state = 0;

void setup {
  pinMode(LED, OUTPUT)
  pinMode(BUTTON, INPUT)
}

void loop {
  val = digitalRead(BUTTON);
  
  if (val == HIGH && state == 0) {
    digitalWrite(LED, HIGH);
    pause(500);
    state = 1;
  }
  if ((val == HIGH) && (state == 1)){
    digitalWrite(LED, LOW);
    pause(500);
    state = 0;
  }
}

Pushing a button

Next up is pushing a button to turn on a light. I'm going to modify it to a push on - push off setup when I'm done.

#define LED 13

#define BUTTON 7

int val = 0;

void setup {

   pinMode(LED, OUTPUT)

   pinMode(BUTTON, INPUT)

}

void loop {

  val = digitalRead(BUTTON);

  if (val == HIGH) {

     digitalWrite(LED, HIGH);

  }else{

     digitalWrite(LED, LOW);

  }

}

Driving a servo

I jumped right into a servo driving program. All it does is send the servo all the way to one end of it's rotation, wait, send it all the way to the other end of it's rotation, wait and repeat. Not much, but it's a start.

Arduino - first sketch

Of course I started with the blink one LED on pin 13 standard.

//Example 01 : Blinking LED

#define LED 13

void setup()
{
  pinMode(LED, OUTPUT);
}

void loop()
{
  digitalWrite(LED, HIGH);
  delay(1000);
  digitalWrite(LED, LOW);
  delay(1000);
}