Stoplight controller details

It’s been a long time since I promised myself that I would post details of the stoplight controller. The controller is based on the Arduino Duemilanove, with a custom shield containing relays and connectors for the sensors.

The lights in the stop light itself are turned on and off by six 3A, 120V relays on the shield. The shield also has an independently controlled set of six LEDs and a few miniature buttons, mirroring the function of the main lights, switches, and sensors. The controller is housed in an 8″ plastic electrical box with a lexan cover. I have a bit of work to do yet to tidy up the wiring and strap down the transformer inside the box, but the  I cut a large hole in the side to hold the connectors for the sensors and button box, which use color-coded cat-5 ethernet cables.

The distance sensors are Maxbotix LV-EZ1, which put out an analog signal that the shield passes along to the Arduino. The distance sensors fit perfectly inside these surface mount ethernet boxes with a 1/2″ hole drilled in them. Adding keystone jacks to the boxes makes connecting cheap cat-5 cables simple and tidy. The sensors are mounted in front of each parking space. The Arduino runs a simple serial port interface program that can be used to program the controller with the threshold distances that change the light colors. The threshold distances are saved to the Arduino’s internal nonvolatile memory. The Arduino is positioned in the box such that the USB port is accessible from the outside, making updates and reprogramming simple.

The garage door open sensor is a C&K Components MPS80WGW magnetic switch. When the garage door opens, the magnet attached to the door moves away from the switch mounted by the door track, telling the controller that the garage door has opened. The controller then goes into parking mode, and changes the lights from green to yellow to red as the car pulls in.

A separate button box houses a couple great clicky arcade buttons that can make the controller perform some different light shows. The box is a simple 4″ grey plastic electrical box from the hardware store with a couple holes drilled in it, making it very durable.

2010-07-30
Christopher
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Separated only by some years

Like father, like son, right?

2010-07-23
Christopher
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American As?

Something seems out of place here.

2010-06-30
Christopher
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National Running Day

In honor of National Running Day, David and I ran around the block together this afternoon. We also took the opportunity to start off his Kids Marathon, which he will hopefully complete as part of the Indianapolis Marathon this October. He’s very excited about earning his very own real marathon medal, just like mommy and daddy’s. Over the next 4½ months, we’ll keep track of how far we run together on his Kids’ Marathon Mileage Log. After completing a total of 25 miles before the event, the kids will complete their final mile on the same course as the grownups, even using the same finish line. This looks like a great program with meaningful incentives to help get kids interested in being active.

It sounds like a lot of running, and we’re very cautious not to force David into it at such a young age, but in this case, the enthusiasm all comes from him. After last week’s two-block Rookie Run, the smile on his face all the way from the start line to the finish line was just great. He was excited about getting a medal, but just as excited about getting his own bottle of cold water. Whatever does it for him!

Today, he ran (and walked) six-tenths of a mile, alternately sprinting and dragging his feet, picking up pine cones and jumping on them to pop them. I stayed a step behind his lead, wearing the GPS, just to see the result. I had a good time looking at all the points where he got distracted and stopped to look at something. At one point, he looked back at me, veered off the sidewalk, and tripped as he got back on. He landed on his hands and knees, and decided that was enough, “but there is no blood, so it’s okay.” So we walked back home after that. After crossing the street one last time, he forgot about tripping and sprinted the final two house lengths on his way to get his ice pack out of the refrigerator.

At this rate, he’ll earn his medal in no time. We’ll see how this plays out!

In other outdoor activity news, National Trails Day is this Saturday, June 5, and National Get Outdoors Day is next Saturday, June 12. We’ll be on the Monon Trail this weekend, and possibly Ritchey Woods the next. See you outdoors!

2010-06-02
Christopher
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Sand Digger Honey Wheat

If you ever find yourself stuck with undrinkable beer, like, oh, maybe Miller Lite, after, say, a visit from your in-laws, it turns out that it can still be useful. Apparently beer makes good bait for garden slugs.

If your wife’s stained glass hobby does not leave enough broken glass around the garage on which to impale unsuspecting bare feet, then homebrewing is a decent way to add to the broken glass content of your house. This batch’s casualty: my third hydrometer. I think I’m just going to either stop measuring the gravity of my beer, or use an antifreeze tester, ha! These questionably named BrewBalls look like a nice unbreakable alternative, but they are very expensive, and imprecise, at that.

With that introduction, the latest batch from Barking Spiders Brewery is conditioning: a wheat beer, modified slightly from past years’ recipes, including local Indiana honey. Who knows where in the world the rest of the grains came from, but I can attest that the honey is the real deal, made by nice, honest folks.

We’re looking forward to sharing this batch with friends and family during our upcoming short vacations this summer. I still need to convince myself about the safety of homebrew in relation to border crossings, but maybe some creative labeling can prevent any trouble.

I’m also looking forward to entering the final three remaining bottles from a previous batch, the Big Wide Smile Bourbon Barrel Porter, into the Indiana State Fair Brewer’s Cup competition. I’m intimidated by the fact that last year’s competition drew 559 homebrew entries, but it should still be fun just to enter.

2010-05-26
Christopher
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Geist Half Marathon 2010


Sometimes the bear eats you.

The first half of this spring, the IU Mini, was rainy. The second, the 500 Festival Mini, was very windy. So, I was hoping for the third half marathon of the spring to make up for the bad weather of the other two. Unfortunately, this time around, the factor that gave me trouble was the heat. We have had such a mild spring for training that I found the heat and humidity to be especially challenging, despite having brought extra water with me. Runners were given good warnings to start off easy — good advice. Even so, I had a lot of difficulty preserving my energy.

During the first couple of miles felt so good to finally be moving that I did feel like I was restraining myself. Later, I realized that I should have tried harder to hold back, because I was going faster than my goal pace for the entire first 5k, when it is important not to waste energy. Maybe I was rushing to pass my family, who was waiting for me to pass them in front of Scotty’s Lakehouse, where they ate breakfast after I got to wave to them. I’m glad they had a chance to have a fun breakfast, but I would like to have been able to join them!

Shortly after that point, I started to go downhill. I started feeling tired, and never seemed to be able to find any energy boost. Slowing down helped, but even that can be an effort because it requires concentration. At the halfway point, which was at the southern end of the reservoir, I threw in the towel. Courageous Drive has a rather steep, long hill, and I just could not live up to the name of the street. I took the first of several walking breaks until I reached the top of the hill. And once you take the first walk break, your pride is so shot that it’s hard to keep going. After that point, it is too easy to say I can’t do any more hills, and then just walk all the rest of them. Which is pretty much what I did. Oh well. At least I finished!

I was passed by a lot of kids from Belzer Middle School. These kids show up at all the local races, and it’s really cool to see them, even when they blaze past you. Their parents wear bright T-shirts and cheer loudly for their kids. I’m proud of them too, and I always wish I had started running sooner, like them. More good programs like theirs are what Indianapolis needs to get out of the unhealthy slump we’re in. This morning’s news cited the American College of Sports Medicine’s annual list of the cities with the healthiest lifestyles, on which Indianapolis fell embarrassingly from 36th to 44th place.

While my own effort was weak, the race was well run. The medal and shirt were nice (last year’s shirt was weirdly defective, with misproportioned dimensions and unmatched sleeve lengths), the volunteers were friendly and helpful, and hey, who doesn’t like starting off a race with SpongeBob SquarePants waving at you from a boat?

2010-05-25
Christopher
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500 Festival Mini Marathon 2010

What a windy morning! I’m glad that we did not allow ourselves to look out the window when we woke up. If we had, seeing the trees bending over in the crazy gusty winds would have sent us straight back to bed. For that matter, we were lucky to wake up on time, after a three hour power outage during the night. (Pop quiz: how do you figure out what phone number to call to report a power outage if the internet is out too? Oh yeah, the phone book. So, if I program the power company’s number into my phone, can we finally get rid of the last phone book?)

The temperature was fine, just windy.

Since the 5k started before the half this year, there was some shuffling around of corrals before the half. This was not a big deal, however, the corrals close to the front filled up more slowly than usual. As runners trickled in, there was less open space, and huddling more effectively blocked the wind. Presumably because of the wind, the huge flag that was usually over the course just after the start suspended from two ladder trucks was not there. That was too bad, because I love running under it. Also due to the wind, there was no archway over the finish, so the finish line was unadorned — a bummer. We heard later that it had been set up the night before, but blew over at 2:00 AM.

Not surprisingly, the Speedway was a major swirling wind tunnel, but after that, the wind was to our backs. It’s nice to finish with a tail wind, but the tail wind certainly did not compensate for the head wind during the first half!

The t-shirts this year were upgraded to technical fabric, nice! The Geist Half last year also had an upgraded shirt. However, the Geist Half shirt I got was some sort of reject with really weird proportions. It was wider than it was tall, and one arm was shorter than the other. The Mini shirt was made right, and is usable. Bonus! I think the tradeoff for the nicer shirt was that the medals were not “interactive.” There were no moving race car bits like in years past.

I really appreciate that Rose-Hulman had a tent set up in Military Park to block the wind as I waited for Emily and Sarah to return. It was neat to watch her cross the finish line in her first half marathon, and to see that she was smiling and talking about the next one. Will she catch the bug? I hope so.

2010-05-12
Christopher
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Whose turn is it?

We’ve been working for a long time to teach our son how conversation works: we take turns talking and listening.

Similarly, the activities of said 4-year-old are represented thus:

2010-04-28
Christopher
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Uphill and into the wind

Sunday, we took a 3-hour bike trip up and down the Cardinal Greenway in Muncie. We made a round trip starting at the Depot trailhead in downtown, riding 17 miles to the Losantville trailhead for a picnic at the southern end, and returning.

Emily and I took turns towing David’s trailer. He keeps getting harder to pull. He’s up to 43 pounds, and the trailer adds 23 more. Neither of us could be sure, but it sure seemed to us that both segments of the trip were uphill. To settle my curiosity, I plotted the elevation profile of the trip, and sure enough, Emily’s half was the uphill portion, and I got the downhill. That may or may not have been lucky, since the return half was into the wind.

The net altitude gain on the first half was only 183 feet, but the entire round trip included 791 feet of climbing. “Real” cyclists will scoff, but hey, we’re from Indiana, so it’s not like we see hills very often.

David was a champ as usual, but I think he started to get a little bored toward the end. When we returned to the trailhead, David got to ride his Speed Racer bicycle for a while as I repacked the car and hitched up our bikes on the bike rack. I wish it would have been practical to let him ride more on his own. His time will come, and soon enough, we won’t be able to keep up!

2010-04-15
Christopher
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Catherine Mohr Builds Green

In her TED talk, Catherine Mohr Builds Green, Mohr articulates a suspicion I often have when trying to figure out the “right” thing to do by our planet: that there are an awful lot of people “long on moral authority and short on data trying to tell us what to do.”

While these tips may be well-intentioned, you really have to figure out for yourself what really makes a difference. Often they are trying to get you to buy a new product? Are you missing the elephant in the room? Mohr has an anecdote comparing several different ways for wiping up a spill: using a paper towel, sponge, cotton towel. Her illustration shows a funny obsessiveness with finding out the truth that I can identify with. Some of these truths can be trivial, but there’s still something interesting in the process of discovery.

Then she takes the obsessiveness to the ultimate level by making spreadsheets comparing different building methods for her new house. She writes about the process on her website, 301 Monroe. Her spreadsheet takes a little effort to pore through, but she has clearly put a lot of time into researching the relative effects of lots of different materials used in building a house. For comparison, she includes the effects of other activities that we are more familiar with, such as driving and flying.

Still, is “embodied energy” the right measure for making comparisons? Tons of CO₂? Water use? A different measure could lead to a different “right” choice. Everything we do or use involves tradeoffs, and we should take care that the tradeoffs are worth the worry, and that they make sense. Mohr gives real examples of how the answers are not always obvious!

Christopher
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