tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80649140431958331162012-02-07T12:08:44.858-08:00Matt Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11878876811474476496noreply@blogger.comBlogger121100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8064914043195833116.post-60949627050058080182012-01-23T07:41:00.001-08:002012-02-07T12:08:45.078-08:00

Well, I saw this guy build an RC plane from foam board and off the shelf parts:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wC6-ljrSpgAso i figured I shoudl probably give it a shot. it's all together, but I haven't had a good day to try to get it into the air yet. I have a couple different motor, battery, and prop combinations to test out as well...http://s102.photobucket.com/albums/m112/shinymax/?action=

Matt Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11878876811474476496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8064914043195833116.post-6439320047555110982011-09-20T08:09:00.000-07:002011-09-20T08:13:57.783-07:00

So, a while ago, i built a circuit to shut off our aquarium water filter when the bucket gets full (http://mhkaufman.blogspot.com/2010/01/rodi-auto-shutoff.html). About a month ago, my room mate managed to break it. So rather than going through the "hassle" of rebuilding it, I decided to take the easy way out and replace the whole thing with an arduino. All it does it does is open a solenoid

Matt Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11878876811474476496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8064914043195833116.post-19943272214578626962011-05-11T05:57:00.000-07:002011-05-11T06:48:51.101-07:00

On the back of my boat, there's a wake plate. In stock form, it acts sort of like one big trim tab right in the middle of the boat. It has manual, turnbuckle-like adjusters, and no hinge. Hop in the water (or behind the trailer), tighten the adjusters, and the plate bends up. Loosen them and it bends down. you can sort of see it in this picture (it's edge-on, parallel to the bottom of the

Matt Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11878876811474476496noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8064914043195833116.post-2364974329870618302010-11-18T13:54:00.001-08:002010-11-18T13:54:49.746-08:00

a kid is watching tv and sees a man being sentenced to 20 years hard labor on some beautiful pacific island."dad", he says, "what'd that guy do to spend so much time in jail?""Well son," says the man, "it all started out like this.That man is Dr Franklin, a world renown genetic engineer. He has a lab out in the pacific, on some crazy little island country where they don't give him trouble about

Matt Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11878876811474476496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8064914043195833116.post-89684403048421218332010-10-28T10:26:00.000-07:002010-10-28T10:31:18.811-07:00

this is a test. here's the temperature in amsterdampngzoomablecreateViz(3043,0,800,400,"FF0066");

Matt Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11878876811474476496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8064914043195833116.post-80978201704004612452010-01-28T11:39:00.000-08:002012-01-23T07:38:30.026-08:00

So, one of the biggest hassles in day to day reef tank maintenance is dosing of alkalinity and calcium solutions. In any tank with a relatively high load of stony corals, you need to add these supplements to keep the water chemistry in line. Our current tank requires something on the order of 20ml of each per day. Missing a few days here and there isn't a HUGE problem, but in general, it's a

Matt Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11878876811474476496noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8064914043195833116.post-10649644643868016062010-01-11T06:08:00.001-08:002012-01-23T07:38:56.660-08:00

So, the RODI (reverse osmosis deionization) water filter we have set up in the basement to make nice clean water for the fish tanks has a simple but significant drawback. It runs VERY slowly (making 5 gallons of water takes from 4 to more than 10 hours, depending on input pressure). So, you generally have to turn it on, then come back later and shut it off. But you have no real idea WHEN to

Matt Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11878876811474476496noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8064914043195833116.post-25981756236729817452009-11-12T18:04:00.000-08:002012-01-23T07:37:29.480-08:00

Pictures of the new fishtank! Apparently blogspot wants to butcher the preview images, so, just click on em to actually see them!

Matt Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11878876811474476496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8064914043195833116.post-41976360911230708692009-11-04T17:00:00.000-08:002009-11-30T06:30:37.337-08:00

this is VERY MUCH a work in progress! if you have any tips/clever ideas, please let me know!!!more pics to be added shortly.these temp sensors are usually fed with 2.5v, but they seem to work with the 3.3v as well (future plans include correcting this mismatch). I have to calibrate them and see how linear they are with the higher voltage, but for now it's working.they've got 3 wires, red, black

Matt Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11878876811474476496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8064914043195833116.post-53544854758113259772009-11-04T10:53:00.000-08:002011-11-23T14:01:53.912-08:00

I know this isn't the newest idea on the block (heck, Alton Brown made one of these things), but I thought I'd post a writeup of my home-made electric smoker with PID temperature control, because it's slightly different from the standard version.WARNINGS:Before I get started, I'd like to offer a couple of warnings.This project requires messing around with 115v mains current.This project involves

Matt Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11878876811474476496noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8064914043195833116.post-731200303530439702009-11-04T06:18:00.000-08:002009-11-04T06:28:19.598-08:00

Well, I figured I should post at least some sort of a baseline for how the tanks are looking at the moment. Pardon the cellphone pics, I'll get some better ones soon.Josh's "old" reef tank (39 gal):Looking pretty decent. Needs a bit of a cleaning, and we think the bulb in the light is going, because some of the hard corals that need more intense light aren't doing so well at the moment.The new

Matt Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11878876811474476496noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8064914043195833116.post-88466069987253341632009-11-04T06:14:00.000-08:002009-11-04T06:16:02.688-08:00

picture!

Matt Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11878876811474476496noreply@blogger.com0