First graph images coming in this week.  I’ll be posting more about how this is being done as time allows.   Otherwise, it should be pretty self explanatory.  maybe.

So, I came across the Texas Instrument device DRV102T, which was not difficult because it’s called a solenoid driver.   It works rather nicely at sending enough initial current to the solenoid relay to engage it, then cuts the current down to maintain it.  Nothing gets hot.

So far, it’s tested out just fine and I’ve used pretty much the same components as the following test video, with the exception of a much smaller capacitor that changes to the duty current much sooner:

Here is the schematic:

And finally an image of the pc board layout.   I have one more component that should show up anytime now.  It’s a 4 pole terminal strip.  After many evolutions of this layout, providing the full option of connecting to all the pins seemed prudent, even though at this point, I’m not using the the #1 pin, but simply controlling it by turning the Vs to pin #5 on or off.  I do expect to eventually incorporate the flag option into the system.  The relay board being used with this has several inputs, and it could be real handy to know if/when these overheat.  But the way it setup now, they hardly heat up at all, and I’ve done some serious overkill with both a good size heat sink for the TO-220 package, and the relatively large ground pad in the design of the pc board.

We inherited a Dell 4100 from kT’s dad, which is plenty of power for this system.  Installed is Ubuntu 10.04 the desktop version.  If I had it to do over again (which is very likely to happen soon, with another promised inheritance from my father!), I’d install the server version and then download just the bare desktop (I’m still tied to gui for the time being).

Using the latest SVN version of misterhouse per these directions

And followed most of these instructions to configure for ubuntu

One major exception was the startup script.  I bypassed the author’s idea of the second script (mh.sh) and used this instead for the /etc/init.d/mh script:

#/etc/init.d/mh# Starts and stops misterhouse # Misterhouse automatically generates a PID file here:PID=/opt/mh/data/mh.pid
# Use this command to start the proxy# this just calls another script that does the real workDAEMON=/opt/mh/bin/mh # Start mhstart(){ echo “Starting Misterhouse” export mh_parms=/opt/mh/mh.private.ini start-stop-daemon –start –background –quiet –chuid mh –exec $DAEMON echo “”

} # Stop mhstop(){ echo “Stopping Misterhouse” start-stop-daemon –stop –quiet –pidfile $PID}  case “$1″ instart) start;;stop) stop;;restart) stop sleep 5 start;;*) # Display a usage option. echo “Usage: /etc/init.d/mh {start|stop|restart}” exit 1;;esac

exit 0

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I once again employed the Xampp setup (next install I’ll try to build my own Lampp), and added a file named “lampp” to the /etc/init.d folder with the following contents:

#!/bin/bash

/opt/lampp/lampp start

more to come….

Download and installed:

Cygwin

ActivePerl 5.8.9.827

Digitemp

1-wire drivers

misterhouse_src_2105.zip

xampp

jpgraph

Now that I’m linked to our main site, I suppose that I should be blogging.  After instigating others that blog so well, I feel literically challenged (and can prove it!)
Most of what I’ll post here, will be technical stuff.  That should chase a good part of the crowd away!
To start with, I’ll share my latest find.   Ever wonder you to get an avatar on our blog?  I’m sure you’re dieing to know!
It’s pretty simple, free, and once you’ve done it, your avatar will show up on a variety of places, including pretty much any WordPress blog.
Just go here: Gravatar and follow the simple instructions.

Now the dog story…. of course I’ve been up all night again (blame it on Julie’s banana cake!) have gone down to get a couple beers in the process and the doggies were nowhere to be seen.. but before long, they came in…. didn’t have to see them…. didn’t have to hear them (though I did)… but could identify them cuz they were out playing with their friend the skunk. pepe’ living up to his name!