Building a DIY ESP32-Div

I am building a ESP32-DIV to further my collection of Hacking devices.  I am building it on proto boards so I can change it later.  Why not the prebuilt models?  For one thing those short cables between the NRF24's and the antennas have a huge loss.  I want them to go directly to the antennas.

Here is my planned layout.  I am using both side of the board so the sockets are glued in place.

The instructions to upload the firmware are not very clear.  Here are screen captures of what I found and hopefully I got the correct files? This is my setup screen:

This is the instructions with my comments:

This is the text that appeared.  I do not know if it is correct!

Installing and Upgrading Solar Panels to 50 Watt panels sold on eBay

 A few years back I bought some solar panels at a Hamfest.  I was disappointed to find out that they are only 10 watts each. By todays standards that is very little power per square foot.  I also bought a solar battery charged on eBay to connect the solar panels up to a battery.

Here is what my very basic setup looks like.  I do not have any "Load" connected yet but I do have an inverter to convert 12 volts to 120 VAC.  The charger has two USB jacks to charge your cell phone.

This year I decided to update the solar panels to some higher power versions.  I bought two 50 Watt panels on eBay for under $60.  This picture is of the ad that appeared on eBay.

This is a bottom view of one of the new panels.  Note the box with a cord coming out of it.

This is a top view of one of the new panels.  The new panels are 1/2 the size of the old panels.

This is the accessories bag that came with the panels. There is a device to plug into a cigarette lighter to charge a car battery and clips to clip directly onto a battery.  Then there are four suction cups that I suppose is how you are supposed to mount the panels.

So there is no easy way to mount these panels like the old panels were mounted, and there is no easy way to hook up these panels to the battery charger controller.  They do have a "Barrel" type of power connector like what is found on many AC Adapters.

This next picture shows what happens when you try to mount the new panels to the old 3 foot by 1 foot solar panels.  The box on the back of the new panels creates a big curve that tends to pop the suction cups off.  This is not going to work!

This picture shows how two of the new 50 watt panels can fit on one of the old 10 watt panels.  That should take me from 10 Watts to 100 Watts per three square feet.  However, I would not recommend this type of mounting as the suction cups repeatedly failed when trying to take this picture.

I am thinking I will need to make a frame out of wood or metal and then mount the new panels on the frame.  Then the frame could be mounted to the roof.

I installed the new panels and after the first snow storm they stopped working!  I have yet to find out the problem as they are under the snow.  I mounted them on an angle so the snow would slide off them but it stays on top of them.  The old panels worked even when under the snow.

Chestnut Ridge Park - The Eternal Flame

A few days ago we walked to the Eternal Flame at Chestnut Ridge Park.  Here are some pictures.
This is a chipmunk that watches us on our walk.

When you get down to the creek bed this is what it looks like.  You need to climb over some logs.

This is looking back up the side of the creek bed. 

 There are lots of warning signs....

Finally we made it to the eternal flame.

Why are there two bottles when it fits in one?

Have you noticed lately that you can but two bottles of medicine and then pour the second bottle into the first with room to spare?

I see it all the time, a big deal, two jars for the price of one. They are both less than half full! Why not sell just one FULL jar for the price of one, and save on the environment?

Vtech Vreader and MobiGlo display console

Someone recently was given a Vtech Vreader and MobiGlo display console and they wanted to know if the individual parts can be removed and used.

To start with I removed the battery back.  It had 4 battery boxes of 16 "D" cells each that is a total of 64 "D" cell batteries! Then I unplugged and disconnected the stuff from below the cabinet.  The brown wires go to the speakers, the three conductor wires go to the volume control (short the right two wires together for full volume) and the multicolor ribbon cables can be just cut off.

Next was to find really small speakers to fit into the devices.  The built in battery holders were not wired up but the external power adapters were wired so I used an AC adapter to test them out.  So far everything seems to work but the software might have been modified to prevent really using these devices as they were designed to be used.  Next is to find a way to use these with smaller battery packs, perhaps 4 x AA cells?

Camping at Allegany State Park

We just got back from camping at Allegany State Park.  The blue roof on the main building was just underlayment for a slate roof.


I spotted a beautiful lady on the covered bridge.  Actually I tried to take a picture of both of us using the cameras timer but I could not get there fast enough.....

We got up early and took several pictures as the sun was just rising. 

The deer sometimes like to hang out in the middle of the road.

This is two fawns hanging out in the road.

Here is a fawn along the side of the road.

Sunset, with a canoe paddling along the center right side.

A deer stops to look at me.

Can you spot the deer in this picture?  There are four of them.  They can really blend in at times.

The stone tower.  Its really not very tall.

The view from the top of the stone tower.

Our little cabin for the weekend.

July Fourth Ultra-Light flight

Over the Fourth of July I got to go on a flight on an ultralight aircraft over Arcade NY and some surrounding towns.  The aircraft fits nicely on a Ski-Do trailer with a few modifications.

We took off in Chaffee NY and then flew south to Arcade.  The biggest landmark from the air is the Wast Management dump, we flew directly over it on the way back to the airport.

I hope to upload a video to YouTube later to show some of the flight.  It was a blast, I really enjoyed it!

Here is a link to the video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R5H0iUXLOA

Here is a picture captured from the video.  It shows Arcade valley Estates on the left and the high school on the right.  The red box at the far right is the new football field.

Expanding foam and science experiments.

The Red Green show makes a big thing about 'the handyman's secret weapon - duct tape'. Well now there is a runner up. The number two secret weapon of the handyman is.....expanding foam!

Usually there is two ways expanding foam works. It either comes out really fast and runs out before you get all of the holes filled or it comes out really slow and keeps on coming forever. You fill every hole in every house on the block and it just keeps on coming. Well recently I went to fill holes in my brothers basement and I had a third thing happen. I could not get it to start so I pushed on the nozzle so hard that it broke off. Fred said I should hit it hard and see what happens, so I hit it on a rock and it started working. The problem is that it would not stop either. So I tired to use it anyway but without the nozzle it was hard to get the foam into the holes. The results are pictured below I think more went on the ground than on the foundation. This sounds like good material for another Red green show spoof like the one I already have on YouTube under bobdavis321.

We all have a favorite science experiment we like to perform. It is called leave a cup of something sitting around and see what happens. There are three possible solutions. One is It gets consumed by the cat. Two is It gets spilled on the floor. The third is the most fun - Something grows on it. Now the best material for this kind of science experiment is coffee. We all know that the nuclear resonance of coffee is slightly elevated by the caffeine so things grow in it in hyper mode. The results can be just amazing as seen in the picture below!

Another science experiment is called the bread drawer. Yesterday I cleaned it out and found some really nice looking green bread. I am sure the added color makes the flavor interesting as well.