Sustainable SW Blogs

Had a little trouble driving the rover manually the length of the canyon. There were more than a couple of spots it just couldn't get through. 83,87,57,0,B

Decided to try another canyon flight - this time a bit lower. Last trip was back in 2017.82,89,55,0,B

Psalms 14:1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. 2 The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. 3 They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 4 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the Lord. 5 There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous. 6 Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his refuge. 7 Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad. 

One of the problems with the rover project has been the ability to easily get all the parts I need.  Seems Pixhawk accessories can be a little hard to track down.  Ended up having to cannibalize a couple of cables to get from point A to point B.  (After triple checking my work - I'm pretty sure the Pixhawk pinouts in the above diagram are opposite of the ones on my Pixhawk so I redid the connections - fingers crossed.) This is the rover part of the setup.  Tomorrow, I hope to get the ground station side operational so I can test out the new long range (40 kilometer) system.  81,88,59,0,B

Unless we get some really good rain - most of the year (and sometimes years at a time), the seeds of these flowers lay dormant in the soil and nothing sprouts. Last month there was over 2" of rain in six days so this plant has sprung back to life. I am pretty sure it is Damianita (Chrysactinia mexicana). It gives off a pungent - bittersweet aroma when crushed. Here is a drone video of the flowers from 2018. 80,88,55,0,B

new mount / new view79,87,53,0,B

Thought I would take the rover out for a spin to check the rough road and job site. I haven't been out there since I had it dozed last December. 79,85,53,0,B

Mounted the wifi booster much higher and got a lot better range. I used a 32' long aluminum awning roller tube from an RV as the mast for the antenna. Those things are a dime a dozen because folks often don't bother repairing them after they've left their awning unfurled until the wind has come along and torn the whole thing up. The combination of an external antenna on the wyze cam v3 and my wifi booster mounted really high made a huge difference in the wifi range of the camera. 81,86,59,0,B

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Psalms 37:37 Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace. 38 But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off. 39 But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord: he is their strength in the time of trouble. 40 And the Lord shall help them, and deliver them: he shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in him.  

They just keep going...and going.  Today marks 143 successful recoveries of an orbital class rocket by SpaceX and the 43rd launch of 2022 with 1353 satellites put in orbit this year.  92,97,60,0,B

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Wired in a new external antenna for the Wyze Cam V3 and tripled the Wi-Fi range - from 250 meters to 685 meters. Finally lost signal when my greenhouse was blocking my wi-fi extender at the hut. I will do another test line of sight to see how much further I can get out of it. 87,90,65,0,B

New shifter mechanism went in like a charm and solved the problem.  This YouTube video was a big help.  Total repair time was 1 1/2 hours.  (One hour to get the broken part out and a half hour to put the new one in.)  90,95,66,0,B

Added an external antenna to the Wyze Cam V3 that I use on the rover.  This should give it a little better Wi-Fi range.  Thanks to yet another YouTube turtorial... 90,96,66,0,B

This female (with 2 day old babies) is the last of the 7 javelinas that had been coming in over the years.  She just came in with them last night.  The last adult male has been gone now for about 3 weeks.  Javier disappeared about 6 months ago.  I don't hold out much hope for these new arrivals since this female had 2 previous litters and each time they only lived about a week.   91,95,68,0,B

Jeremiah 31:34  And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.  

Just figured out a convoluted way to add the Wi-Fi camera view to the HUD (heads up display) in mission planner. Getting ready to upgrade the Wyze Cam V3 with an external antenna and a new long range radio system for telemetry and RC control - so I figured I would do a quick test to see what the current range is with the stock systems I have been using. I don't expect to get a whole lot more range out of the Wi-Fi camera, but an external antenna should certainly help. I will fully attend to that issue later when I can afford the parts for a good long range FPV system. (Note: Not sure why there was such a compass variance once the rover started heading east - just another mystery to solve.) 90,98,65,0,B

Along with my bad shifter...also been noticing my truck sounding a bit more clunky on the bumpy road.  Figured as long as I was ordering parts, I should take a good look at my suspension.  Had my front end worked on just a couple of years ago and already the sway bar link bushings are gone.  89,97,62,0,B

Having a shifter issue with my Toyota Tundra. It began a couple of months ago, when I started noticing that when I would shift out of park - the lever would hit the windshield wiper lever and turn in on. Then two days ago, it wasn't going into park very easily. Found some YouTube videos that said that these issues are definitely a sign that the shifting mechanism is broken. Removed the shrouds around the steering column and sure enough the part was broken in the two spots where it usually happens - especially with Toyota trucks. Found another video that went over how simple it is to replace the mechanism (about 1 hour) so I am going to give it a shot. Found the replacement part on Amazon and also ordered some T20 and T30 torx bits for the bolts that have to be removed. I can still drive the truck, but I am going to keep that to a minimum until I attempt the repair when the parts arrive next week. 91,95,62,0,B