Got a tomato plant and a chili plant along with the onions, lettuce and potatoes, it's the first few steps to becoming a little more green.
I need to build a mini greenhouse looking around some are pretty expensive. I think I could fabricate one cheaper, some polycarbonate and aluminum Channel should do it.
Will get thinking
As with most users of an iPhone I struggle to make it through a single day without my battery dying.
As I bought my 4s used the battery on it is now starting to show it's age, even with light to moderate use it struggles to last a day. At least I get to plug it in and charge it at work and/or in the car.
So before my holiday I picked up a morphie juice pack to make sure I didn't run out of juice abroad.
It landed through the letterbox well packed and In a neat little box, came with instructions (instantly ignored) and a USB cable.
Snapped straight onto my phone with no trouble, I was really surprised at just how well it fitted, great tolerancing between the case and the phone. The top half just pushes onto the lower half and despite looking like a weak connection never faulted in service. Another great surprise was the size and weight. Although heavier it never felt overly cumbersome to handle, I'd say it is still lighter than some of the monster smartphones kicking about these days. I actually liked the extra size feeling much nicer to hold and wrap my silly big hands round. The finish on it was a double edged sword, a very smooth nice looking plastic but at times slippery to hold due to the smooth surface.
I hooked it up and put it on charge, truly exciting stuff....and waited
It charges well, a warning if you sleep with your phone (nearby) at night. The LEDs along the bottom edge blink while charging and are really really bright. Mine gets buried under a spare pillow these days. On the up side on the bottom edge is a small button which lights up the LEDs showing how much power is in the pack, it makes a decent quick to use light.
I did notice some USB sources only charge the morphie battery and not the iPhone. Plugging into a mains works fine charging the phone then the case.
Out and about it works great, a small switch on the bottom corner toggles the battery mode on or off. When the battery runs low, Flip the switch and it puts the iPhone into charge mode. I got about 70% charge from it. Works faultlessly.
Not that the juice pack is sold as a protective cover as it covers 3/4 of my phone it must protect it. This is where it falls a little short. Although I'm not clumsy with my phone and it spends most of its life in a pocket or a carpeted office or home, it does get dropped from time to time. After only a couple of drops the case is showing some pretty deep battlescars.
I'll try not to dwell on it too much as these sort of tests are punching the product beyond its capabilities and are very subjective and difficult to quantify. The best I can do is state that compared to previous phone covers I've owned, rubber or soft plastic ones the morphie is come off worse from softer blows. As a protective case I would not recommend it unless as in my case the extra battery life is a greater priority. The painted finish has chipped away and the silver band on the outside is split which is probably the weakest part.
I'd highly recommend this case for the extra battery life but not on its durability. Really the balance must be weighed up before buying. In my case the compact case and non stop ability beat out a more rugged case and a spare battery.
“f you drink a mixture of Coca-Cola and Pepsi in the same glass, you will die”
Excerpt From: Hailwood, David. “Not a Lot of People Know That.” David Hailwood. iBooks.
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Check out this book on the iBookstore: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/not-a-lot-of-people-know-that/id444138392?mt=11
Looks like I will need to learn some python scripting.
It will hopefully be a very useful skill to have for the future, programming is becoming a bit of a dying art. I'll get up to speed with it from some online tutorials and wherever I can with arduino. It should give some very powerful functionality and open some doors for the future.
Snnnnakkkkkkeeee
I've been looking at what to do for my first arduino project. Ideally I want to create a system that's assistive and requires little setup. Ideally one which also draws no mains power would be better still.
I've settled on trying to light my bearded dragons vivarium using arduino controlled lights. I've currently got a habi stat sun switch controller to control the lights to power on and off when the sun is out. However my new viv isn't near a window and I can't run the sensor box far enough. In winter times I found the light would not power on or wouldn't be on long enough so I'll drop this system.
Looking around the Rduino can be coupled to a relay shield which allows it activate higher voltage equipment safely. The LEDs should run of the arduino main board.
I just hope I can find a relay shield which can switch a high powered basking lamp.
A simple (very poor sunday night) sketch of the system is below. I'm sure it will change
When the most accurate timescale I can give is " definitely less than the duration of reign of the dinosaurs"
You know it's late, and not in my control.
I've a few basic ideas which I will try to turn into working things all going well.
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