Posted in LED Projects on Oct 31st, 2011
Last night, a heavy snowstorm mixed with strong winds hit Massachusetts. Many cities lost power, due to fallen trees and broken power lines. Snow in October? Rare and totally unexpected. When I woke up this morning, I found huge tree branches fallen everywhere. Driving through any road requires special attention. This is a picture of […]
Posted in Sprinkler Projects on Oct 29th, 2011
Matt asked about the option of having a backup battery for the OpenSprinkler, so I prepared a short blog article to show how it can be done. Basically, you just need to get a 9V battery (or any battery that can provide 6V or above voltage), connect the positive lead with a diode (such as […]
Posted in Sprinkler Projects on Oct 24th, 2011
Thanks for everyone who ordered the initial batch of the OpenSprinkler controller. A couple of issues have been reported and documented on the F.A.Q. page. If you are learning to use the controller, be sure to check that page. The most recent bug turned out to be caused by the Arduino’s shiftOut function (thanks Matt […]
Posted in Arduino, Sprinkler Projects on Oct 13th, 2011
After several months of hard work, my first ‘serious’ Arduino-based electronics project is up on the project page now. Check out the OpenSprinkler – An Open-Source Sprinkler Valve Controller. This is a collaboration between me and Chris Anderson (editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine). A video demo is included below. For details and how to order a […]
Posted in Arduino, Power switch on Oct 12th, 2011
Update: check out the RFToy — an easy-to-use standalone gadget to control remote power sockets. Also, support for remote power sockets have been added to OpenSprinkler firmware 2.1.1. For a while I’ve been looking for a way to switch household power line (110V) devices. One of the simplest options is to use a relay that […]
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