I need advice with Logic automation programing

[Three44s]

MaryB,

You are correct, he did it for himself as well as us.

One thing I will have to watch in looking at higher level boards than Arduino is what minimum temperatures they can work in. We are not as cold as you are in the upper Midwest but we can get double digit lows quite often and I have seen -20F lows for a few weeks stretch to need to drive off 300 head and the goodies won’t fire up. The colder it gets, the more aggressive the freeloaders are!

Best regards

Three44s

[Big Tom]

The Arduino boards should function well in -10 to 160 F, plus if you have them running, some heat will always be generated. The display on it will of course give up earlier... and the keyboard may freeze up too As long as the relays make it, the functionality should be there at almost any temperature.

Three44s - Once it is complete, we can spend a few hours on a webex session and I can explain to you what each part of the program is doing. It is not overly complicated

I agree with the other comments regarding getting an Arduino or other micro-computer. There are many tutorials out there to get you started and if you start with changing parameters in a program (e.g. display texts), you will quickly understand more and more functions as well.

Only thing that is missing is the menu for the setting the thing up in the field...

[Three44s]

Thank you Big Tom!

AND, Thank you BammaNapper !

Both have been writing sketches for Arduino code behind the scene here and I owe them a debt of gratitude!

This underscores what a tremendous forum Cast Boolits is and how great it’s members are and their generosity !!

Man are the marauding elk ever going to be in for a big surprise pretty soon? LOL!

I am going need to get a new A/V cable and figure out how to record it from the thermal scope so I can capture their awakening and share it with you guys. You can get some chuckles.

One of my pyro guys thinks that the Battle of the Valkyrie played during the hazing would be appropriate ..... ought to work here huh?



Three44s

[Three44s]

Big Tom is a little modest here. His sketch is 10 1/2 pages and he has a menu section to add yet. From my feeble knowledge, it looks like a lot of his source code pertains to incorporating a key board and an LCD screen so I can make changes to variable values in the field and that will be valuable indeed!

BammaNapper is setting up his sketch for incorporating an SD card with the flexibility afforded by switching or rewriting on those cards, again most valuable.

Whoo Hoo!

Three44s

[MaryB]

A small cooler to contain the electronics will keep it warm from waste heat, add a way to vent it in summer and it will keep it cooler because it is protected from the sun.

[Three44s]

A small cooler to contain the electronics will keep it warm from waste heat, add a way to vent it in summer and it will keep it cooler because it is protected from the sun.

That’s a great idea!

Thank you!

Three44s

[MaryB]

I am known for reusing old nasty coolers, this one I found on the side of the road with some broken beer bottles in it...

Now doing duty as my ham radio lightning protection panel and cable entrance to the house. The box is a relay box letting me only have 1 entry cable for antennas up to 50mhz. Then the higher bands have a separate cable into the house. Plus rotor lines, main ground for my desk enters there... added foam weatherstrip to waterproof the "door" since it is mounted on its side.

[Three44s]

MaryB,

Are you sure you weren’t a farmer in another life? LOL!


Three44s

[Mr_Sheesh]

Reusing 'old junk', Nice!

I know a lot of neat tricks for making a device Arctic temperature capable, did that for the local university. Replace all electrolytic capacitors with tantalum caps, upgrade the ICs to space qualified parts, so freezing doesn't destroy them, those are the usual problems. Set up the display so it can be removed if you're concerned, I never saw one harmed by cold, though they DO take a long time to change color i.e. display screen updates. We carried the laptop inside our coats when not connected to the debug or download ports. That helps.

[Three44s]

Reusing 'old junk', Nice!

I know a lot of neat tricks for making a device Arctic temperature capable, did that for the local university. Replace all electrolytic capacitors with tantalum caps, upgrade the ICs to space qualified parts, so freezing doesn't destroy them, those are the usual problems. Set up the display so it can be removed if you're concerned, I never saw one harmed by cold, though they DO take a long time to change color i.e. display screen updates. We carried the laptop inside our coats when not connected to the debug or download ports. That helps.

I am in Central WA and while we can dip to -20F in a more extreme year we probably are concerned with LCD screens and the tip about lap tops. MaryB’s tip about the ice chests should cover the rest of the equipment ... I hope LOL!

I was speaking to another neighbor recently and their 2nd and 3rd cuttings were just about whipped out by the elk. I think her son is having to buy additional cattle feed to make it through with their cows.

She was getting her house ready for a wedding and the elk were in the yard eating the shrubs. It’s pretty extensive. From the language she used to describe the situation, I think she was “pretty hot” .....

BTW, This is not in the timber .... it’s out on the sage country .....

I have a feeling after we can get our goodies percolating along they will be callin’ as they have a fair view of our opperation.

Three44s

[Three44s]

Ok, time for the back story:

“The winters of 2015/16 and 16/17 were crushers. We had 300 head and 200 head respectively every night until the snow left.

There are some reasons for the change. The State of Washington had a legislative cap on the local elk herd of 3000 in the entire basin. That sunsetted in the early ‘80’s

The Wildlife department over restricted Hunter opportunity and the herd then (by their numbers) grew to 15,000. After a big ruckus they scaled back to a claimed herd of 9,500.

There is a lot of hockus pockus I figure because I watched an “expert” of theirs “explain” how they came up with their numbers!

A local rancher challenged their claim that the herd had been scaled back from their first number of 15,000 to the new number of 9,500.

The expert got laughed at in front of about 250 people!

I will give that one time to soak in. There is a back story on that one. I will tell it shortly!”

So I am seated with our WSU Extension Livestock Agent during this dog and pony show by WDFW and this expert tells us the reason the number on the basins herd size changed without corresponding Hunter success was because THEY CHANGED THE WAY THEY COUNT THEM!

I will repeat: “they changed the way they count them......”

I turned to the WSU guy, a cattleman himself and a PHD at that and told him they must hold fingers up and count between them now?

Turns out that is not too far off!

Now bear in mind I am not anti elk because I fashion myself as an elk hunting fan. I just quit because the department has been working to shafting the State’s hunters more and more for years!

They have tied hunters hands excessively and building herds for nearly 40 years with the promise of GREAT hunting in the future!

But the our State’s new pets .... Northern Canadian and Alaskan wolves will reap the harvest, not humans!

So ...... how did the Department change their counting method?

Well they now count choice meadows by the calendar date rather then when the herd is actually there! Their reasoning is that if you count when the elk are actually there that it is “antidotal”. If you instead count on the same calendar day each year, weather be damned, (who cares if the elk are not there yet) that that is SCIENTIFIC!

Three44s

[dangitgriff]

Now we know what election officials do for their day job...

[Rcmaveric]

Hmm missed this party and glad you got the help. I have been learning Python on Raspberry PI for a couple months. From what I just went through it would take me weeks to figure out the right question to ask Google and bam. I would find the answer. Of course it would be simple and then take me a day to get it to work.

Coding isn't so bad. I try not to be fueled by by nicotine, caffeine, a touch of hatred and a hint of self torture. But when it all starts working its hard not to loose track of time or keep tinkering until it works. That feeling of success though makes it worth it.



Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk

[MaryB]

MaryB,

Are you sure you weren’t a farmer in another life? LOL!


Three44s

Grandpa farmed... and he never threw ANYTHING away. I learned from him how to use junk to build new equipment or to repair old stuff we picked up as junk... A couple years ago I looked at my hoard of electronic junk and did a major cleanup... stuff that hadn't been touched in 30 years in that pile! Getting up there in age, don't want to leave a mess when I kick the bucket...

[Three44s]

Hmm missed this party and glad you got the help. I have been learning Python on Raspberry PI for a couple months. From what I just went through it would take me weeks to figure out the right question to ask Google and bam. I would find the answer. Of course it would be simple and then take me a day to get it to work.

Coding isn't so bad. I try not to be fueled by by nicotine, caffeine, a touch of hatred and a hint of self torture. But when it all starts working its hard not to loose track of time or keep tinkering until it works. That feeling of success though makes it worth it.



Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk

Oh, don’t worry! ...... as long as it takes me to learn this stuff, my appetite for other uses will surely leave my learning speed in the dust! ......... So don’t run off now! ... LOL!

Best regards

Three44s

[Three44s]

Grandpa farmed... and he never threw ANYTHING away. I learned from him how to use junk to build new equipment or to repair old stuff we picked up as junk... A couple years ago I looked at my hoard of electronic junk and did a major cleanup... stuff that hadn't been touched in 30 years in that pile! Getting up there in age, don't want to leave a mess when I kick the bucket...

Well, we have been here since 1871 on the same pile of rocks ..... can you guess the “treasures” we are sitting upon?

My Dad had a scrap iron dealer drop in. He told my dad he was interested in buying his scrap iron.

Dad told him he could not have it yet because he was still farming with it!

In truth though, Dad kicks himself for hauling off ALL the hit and miss motors from the ranch when he was a young man! We have ONE left. It’s on a 32 volt generator. One cylinder, three feet tall and weighing several hundred pounds.

POW, puff puff .......... POW!

7 and 9 hp Fairbanks and Morse motors gone, oh well!

I know I did in some things my Dad did not agree with.

Best regards

Three44s

[MaryB]

The electronic stuff can be costly to get rid of if you don't know what you are doing. I knew a scrapper who is licensed to process it and he paid me for it. Family would take it to the landfill and get charged $1,000 or more to dump it. I pocketed $300, if I had taken the time to tear stuff down and process it I could have maybe recovered $350 in gold then whatever was left in copper, lead from solder etc... but recovering the gold is a dangerous process using chemicals I do not want to play with!

[AggieEE]

MaryB, back in the early 80's I worked for Tandy Computer Assembly in San Antonio. You might have sold units that I had my hands on. Small world. Part of my job there I did Assembly language programing. This is about as low as you can go without resorting to 10110110 etc. I basically had a comment every line. I could just read the comment lines when debugging without bothering to read the mnemonics of the code. I found that when I started I had a very linear coding style. As I got more experience and got better my coding got shorter and more recursive. I could look at my old code and just by the style tell you about when I wrote it. It got to a point that when I had to use BASIC there were parts that I could do easier in assembler and vis versa. I doubt that we'll ever meet in person but if we do we can swap war stories. Maybe explain why you had trouble with Model 4 floppy drives.

[Three44s]

Now we know what election officials do for their day job...

Oh, that’s just too good!!

LOL!

Three44s

[MaryB]

MaryB, back in the early 80's I worked for Tandy Computer Assembly in San Antonio. You might have sold units that I had my hands on. Small world. Part of my job there I did Assembly language programing. This is about as low as you can go without resorting to 10110110 etc. I basically had a comment every line. I could just read the comment lines when debugging without bothering to read the mnemonics of the code. I found that when I started I had a very linear coding style. As I got more experience and got better my coding got shorter and more recursive. I could look at my old code and just by the style tell you about when I wrote it. It got to a point that when I had to use BASIC there were parts that I could do easier in assembler and vis versa. I doubt that we'll ever meet in person but if we do we can swap war stories. Maybe explain why you had trouble with Model 4 floppy drives.

That is a LONG time back... I do remember those drives needing very frequent cleaning of the heads and if they got 2 dirty the head would shift out of alignment. I had the alignment floppy and test equipment to shift them back into place.Aligned a few of the early hard drives too, made a "clean room" by using a box and fans with hepa filters and a plexiglass front so I could open up the drives and realign the heads.