Electronics Zero K breadboard resistor

I always try to not just "take" when it comes to learning a new thing, but this electronics caper has really been worked out already by a whole stack of really clever people.

I cant seem to come up with anything to offer the world, so I came up with this as a forlorn attempt to quench my karmic debt.

Its the zero K breadboard resistor.

Its a wire with a knot in it.

It works just like a wire, but is easier to handle.

Its all Ive got at this stage.





My karmic overdraft doesnt seem to have changed.






120 Things in 20 years says, "When thinking electronics, a zero K breadboard resistor can be simultaneously just right, and not quite enough.".

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Aquaponics Silver Perch update

I recently ran out of fish feed, so Ive been hand feeding them worms, and what ever they call fly larvae in whatever part of the world you live.  They are called "gents" here when bought as bait, or stored in a fridge shared with people who dont want maggots in their fridge. "Maggots" when found in smelly stuff.

The point is, as a result of feeding them live food like worms, gents, and caterpillars, they are venturing a bit further up the water column to the point where they are now easy to photograph.

This guy is pretty big.

And heavy looking.

It looks like this up close.

I have no idea how big or how heavy it is, but Ill try to get a photo next to a ruler.

I wont try to weigh it because I cant think of a way to do it without stressing it.

Ill weigh it if I ever eat it.



120 Things in 20 years - Sometimes your aquaponics silver perch get quite big when youre not looking.

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Electronics Infinite battery life camera

Ive had to make a few compromises with version 2.0 of the demand feeder.

One is that Ive re-written the code and made it a lot more simple than it was originally. Ive still got the old code, and Ill use it and post it when I make it a little better, but the full version resets each day at dawn as one of the overfeeding protection measures. I only have two silver perch in a 100L fish tank, with 300L of filtration media, so they can have as much feed as they like. To encourage the pressing of the button, Ive made it so that they only get a small amount of feed each time, but they have the opportunity of more feed after only eight minutes since the last feed. The point of making a simpler version of the software was so that it would keep a running total of all events like the number of times the fish have hit the feed lever when the light is lit, and the number of times when the light isnt lit.

The fish pressed the lever only once in the 24 hours since I added it to the system. This may have just been a tail swipe, but it would have delivered feed, so some reinforcement of the behaviour of getting at least near the lever has begun!

It wont take them long to get the hang of it.

I ran the camera until the batteries were dead last night, but the hit must have happened some time since dawn while the camera was on charge. To solve this two hour filming limit, I created this.

Its a camera taped to its battery charger, that is in turn taped to a tripod.

I plugged it into the earth leakage safety switch that the rest of the system is plugged into.



It blends in a bit with the actual feeder, but thats the feeder with the birds nest of wires sticking out of the back of it. The orange looking light under the camera is the LED that tells the fish feed is currently available. The red light at the top is the power on LED, and the yellow one is flashing out the number of feeds allowed in a day (even though the thing no longer resets after a day, so really it shows the number of feeds allowed ever). There are also LEDs that flash out the number of feeds so far, the feeds remaining, the number of attempts made at the lever when food isnt available. That is when the feed LED isnt lit, because they just fed recently. And one more that flashes out the size of each feed thats delivered. The size is measured by how long the motor is on for, and doesnt actually represent the amount of feed, but on average, should spill a predictable amount each time. Currently, they would get around 5-8, 3mm pellets each time they hit the lever.

Hopefully, Ill have some video soon.



120 Things in 20 years - Electronics - Infinite battery life camera - This project is far from finished.

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