Now what?

So I finished that React Rest Framework course and booted my prototype out the door. I got my 3D printer setup and mostly calibrated (Need better bed adhesion, also probably going to get an auto bed level system, too). I've got a vast network of paths before me now, not sure what to do exactly. I think I will take the rest of this month to work on that character controller I wanted to make and maybe start on Rust or brush up on ethical hacking so I can better test my software projects. I also have some hardware projects I want to get started on, been putting em off due to lack of time.

I want to start working with these 6 and 9-dof sensors I think I will do a head tracking rig to get my feet wet, hook it up to Elite Dangerous, seems like that might be a good place to start. I want the ability to track all arm and head movements and use it to smooth OpenCV data for motion capture. I was thinking of maybe making a cheap Vtuber/MoCap rig for game devs. I also have an idea with several Raspberry Pis for the rig as well, possibly for a more advanced version.

Today I will probably rig up a temperature sensor for gecko feeding time, we only have 2 currently so I will build a prototype with either a temperture probe or a thermistor, whichever is more stable and accurate and a little blue OLED display to show the temperature. I get to stretch my legs with some C again at least.

So I guess I will get started with that. I happen to have the thermistors right here and will start with those and a good old arduino uno because the wiring will be easier for testing and I will be able to see where things fail more clearly. Then I will iterate into a smaller package, probably an ESP, if I can get it stable I could then use the network connections to fire POSTs to an API endpoint on Mantilogs like I had intended to do for a while now.

Thermistors with a voltage divider are great, far simpler and more responsive than the sensors I was using. Of course my particular thermistor was reading backwards (cold and hot were swapped) so I swapped the polarity by swapping the 5v and ground wires. It's quite accurate, even accounting for resistance in the hardware (which I assume is accounted for in the arduino itself), wires and breadboard.

Well, no use messing the with other sensors now, this will do exactly what I need. Next I need to go fetch an OLED from my component drawers. Using Fahrenheit as the reptile heating system we have is in F, so it would be confusing to see two different numbers representing the same value and I know Mew, mistakes will be made.

Man, I really need more Jumper wires for this stuff.

All wired up, tested and working. It is now able to switch on and off a heater depending on temperature and display the current temp along with whether or not it is heating or cooling.

Dark, but what do you want me to do? Turn on a light? HA! Lights are for suckers. Anyway, the important bits emit photons so that's all that matters.

Also hard to keep steady holding a webcam when your back is in so much pain from squatting to level a 3D printer bed for so damn long.

I made the code available on github. It's very simple but untested so don't go using it as the primary heating system for your habitats. I don't know how stable it will be or the longevity of the components involved yet so only use this if you know how to test it and have a backup heating system and a way to make sure the temperatures are in line with the reading it gets.

I finished that up and took a shower, now it's 4pm. I think tomorrow I will get started by soldering the DOF sensor header pins for the head tracking unit I plan to make. Then maybe start one of the two courses I am still undecided on or start on the character controller.

Also might iterate on today's project and try and make an ESP8266/32 version of it. Who can say? I am just going to keep it agile for the rest of the month and figure out my projects day to day, probably. Then next month start on the next prototype and maybe work on adding the API layer to mantilogs or something working on whichever course I ended up choosing to start next. If it does end up being Rust I will probably have some kind of learning project to get the concepts cemented in.

Anyway, gonna sign off now and rest for the remainder of today.

Cheers.