Jez Whitworth

Kestrel X is now returning data

admin — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:53:31 +0000

It has take a long long time but I am finally getting some useful data from the arduino code I am writing. Last night I had a huge breakthrough and managed to extract and interpret the following information. When my kite takes to the skies the information it’s now going to collect will be really interesting. I am very excited.

Stickers

admin — Wed, 16 May 2012 07:29:09 +0000

We are at the potty training stage and it is quickly becoming a mixture of success and failure. In an attempt to tip the scales in our favour we introduced a sticker reward chart. Charlie will now only perform if there is a reward. I tell you it’s not going to be long before it progresses to money.

I’m still doodling a diary of Charlie recording his funny little sayings but also getting practice with cartooning. Here is the latest addition.

More Bunting

admin — Mon, 14 May 2012 12:43:19 +0000

Phew, it has been a busy few days as I gear up for the Jubilee stall next month. I’ve made good progress making my packs of bunting and any nerves I had about meeting the deadline have now been replaced by excitement.

As I plan to hand out cards with my details on I hope that some of you who came to visit are reading this and other past posts to this blog. I hope our stall looked nice and that I didn’t hold you up too much by chatting to you for too long. My past self thanks you for stopping by.

Self Portrait: May 2012

admin — Fri, 11 May 2012 07:04:41 +0000

Not so much a self portrait, more a family one as we hang our new portrait above the fireplace.

GPS Testing

admin — Wed, 09 May 2012 12:41:49 +0000

I recently went on to the forums to discuss solutions to my tinkering problems and it was suggested that I try and get my Arduino speaking with my old Android phone - after all, the average phone these days is packed full of sensors. Whilst this does sound interesting indeed and will make life a great deal easier, I can’t help thinking that this is taking the easy way out of a very hard coding problem that’s been troubling me for some time.

As I’m having trouble writing data to an SD card on the Arduino board, why not sync with the phone and write data to the phone’s card instead? This would include my temperature readings and recorded alongside the GPS data would make a fine set of data indeed. I love data me.

If I am to use a phone with a microcontroller I want to see what apps are out there. I stumbled on the free and fab GPS Essentials for Android which is ideal. After a quick test it handles rather well despite taking an age to lock on to the satellites but I think that’s down to my old beat up phone I’m proposing to fly and not the app.

It even graphs the data for you.

I’m also having fun playing around with time lapse photography apps too. Now if I could tag the photographs with the temperature and GPS data, now that would be something very special indeed.

Another Artisan Market

admin — Sun, 06 May 2012 20:22:44 +0000

This morning we took a trip out to Frome to visit their Artisan Market once again and to meet up with Charlie’s God father, Ev.

Along our route down the hill as we weaved in and out of the crowd, we spotted a lovely little shop by the name of Millie Moon. Now this little store contained not only some great fabric designs but it was full of inspiration and ideas. One idea that rather took my fancy was the small bunting which I am currently trying out at the moment for my Jubilee craft stall next month. I’m using the fabric samples I bought from Millie Moon today and they already look fab.

Make It Sew

admin — Fri, 04 May 2012 11:48:51 +0000

It is the 4th of May (mention Star Wars Day and I will hit you) which means I have exactly one month until our Bags ‘n Bunting stall opens for business at Salisbury’s Jubilee Fair. Last month saw me source a variety of interesting material and cutting out a ridiculous amount of flags. This month I intend to sew them all together and have been working out the best processes to allow me to get the most out of the little time that I have. Already a few days in to this mammoth task, my little old sewing machine doesn’t know what’s hit it!

A Year’s Worth of Photographs

admin — Wed, 02 May 2012 07:33:29 +0000

This week marks a year of taking a photograph of myself every day. I think I’ll stop there. Just hit play to see me put on weight and repeatedly cut myself shaving.

The Kite Rig

admin — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 11:33:08 +0000

I am very excited by the fact that after months and months of planning, playing and building, the kite rig for this year’s project is finally ready to be made.

The photograph below shows off the new rig pictured along side the old faithful prototype made from aluminium tubing. They are designed to hang very much like a pendulum to eliminate vibrations and ensure a smoother ride as it climbs whilst attached to my kite.

The new rig will house the data relaying LEDs in the bulb at the top as well as a light to help find it should it make a break from the kite - It’s also got a GPS tracker that will send its current position to my phone to help its discovery too. The LEDs are part of my arduino temperature recorder but the rig will also contain the GPS logger and camera. With all this on board the rig hangs beautifully.

With any luck I can start testing once everything else is out of the way and improve of what I’ve managed to capture so far…

Paper Mario

admin — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 12:28:29 +0000

Stuck inside sheltering from all this rain? Why not have a go at making this fab little Paper Mario automaton.