Aaron Parecki

Finished the picture frame that shows my upcoming travel!
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⁣It shows my current location and local time, the dates of my next trip, and my departing or arriving flight information! ⁣
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Let's call this v1 tho, because I need to get a better matte for the frame, not just the cheap cardboard that came with it that i tore while cutting it. I might spring for a bigger display next time too! ⁣
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But overall I'm pretty happy with it!

I've reached the point that a day trip to the Bay Area from Portland is effectively the same as a "long commute to work". I'm also pretty sure this is still shorter than some peoples' commutes within the Bay Area.

well that was one of the nicest sunsets I've seen from an airplane in a while!

Working on a little display that will sit in a picture frame and show my next upcoming flight!

Powered by a raspberry pi which parses the flights from the microformats on my website, and shows either the next upcoming trip, or if I'm currently away, shows the details of the flight home.

This e-paper display is really nice looking too!

I made more progress on the cat feeder tonight! ⁣
⁣I attached the motor to the back, and the shaft now goes thru and connects to the original (modified) plastic shaft from the dispenser.
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⁣The lid has an ultrasonic distance sensor pointing down at the food to be able to tell how much is left in the chute.
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⁣There's a button on top to be able to manually dispense a dose.
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⁣Lastly, I added a terminal block to connect the wires from the scale for easier mounting to the processor later.
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⁣Next up, I need to start connecting all the components to the circuitry! The load cell amplifier, stepper motor driver, and finally the esp32 controller. Then it'll be time to write some software!
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#homeautomation #esp32 #arduino #catfeeder #hackyourcat #cathacks

Adding a couple new sensors tonight. Attempting a sound level sensor (should report roughly how noisy it is inside), and a color temperature sensor, which I'm hoping can tell me how cloudy it is outside and how much sun is coming in the window.

I just installed this neat motor which can drive the chain on my blinds! Now I'm brainstorming various rules to cause the blinds to open and close. So far:

• Close the blinds once the sun is high enough to start shining into the room
• Open the blinds when the sun goes down in the evening
• Close the blinds when the TV turns on
• Close the blinds when I get in bed

Working with people in both Europe and Australia basically means there are zero hours where you don't get emails and slack messages. It's always someone's work day 24 hours around the clock.