This morning I wanted to write a post, here, but I'm lacking in interesting things to talk about. Everything in my life seems to be midway, on hold, or otherwise not write-worthy material.
I haven't really had any new or interesting wines lately, so I can't write reviews. That said, want me to review a wine? Samples gratefully accepted, and shared if you're in the vicinity.
The Ardvino is waiting on more research into current devices, as well as mailing a few winemakers and viticulturalists I know to get their opinion on the utility and interest of such a device. If you're a winemaker reading this, please read this blog post and give me some feedback.
The get healthy/fit/strong/well project is waiting on time, mostly. Workouts are happening, changes aren't yet. I do need a week or so more before I write about the DOMs that was plaguing me earlier.
I could review 'Player of Games' by Ian Banks, but I'm not sure that I'm good enough to review a book like that meaningfully yet. I haven't finished reading 'Excession' either. Hell, I might do it for practice, but I'd rather have interesting material around it first. Oh, and constructive criticism welcome for my review of Max Allen's 'The Future Makers' that would be wonderful.
My ex-NaNoWriMo dungeon campaign is also currently stalled, for want of time.
Clarinet playing is waiting on me getting into a shop and buying some 1.5 reeds, as all mine have perished. Blasted organic products.
Photography is waiting on better software - I'm running CyanogenMod on my phone, and the inbuilt photo software - I can't zoom, I can't fiddle the light balance, zip. Need to find a better app.
I want to get knitting on my Lyra and my shawl again, but I need to find my bits and pieces, and again, there's a time constraint. Anyone interested in perhaps a Sunday or Saturday afternoon knit-in group? Possibly in aircon, with chill tunes. And wine.
I can't write about uni, for two reasons. Semester hasn't started yet, and when it does start, I seriously doubt there will be anything interesting to write about - 2nd year statistics and market research just don't do anything for me intellectually. Climate and weather might be interesting, but as a low-level subject, I'm not sure there will be anything particularly groundbreaking there. Perhaps I should go back over my course material, and write up some of the more interesting aspects I've found about wine production and similar and post them here. It might be pretty dry reading, though.
So, readers: suggestions for topics? Preferably something I only need to throw a couple of hours at to get traction on and write something interesting.
Meanwhile, I'll be out playing laser tag with my workmates. Pew pew!
Showing posts with label arduino. Show all posts
Showing posts with label arduino. Show all posts
Friday, 11 February 2011
Saturday, 5 February 2011
Ardvino is born!
I attended linux.conf.au last week, and it was awesome. One of the talks that got me really inspired was Sarah Sharp's Gardino talk, on implementing an automatic watering system.
It occurred to me at that point, as someone who is intensely interested in a certain plant, Vitis vinefera, which is notoriously poorly understood, that this was extremely relevant to my interests.
As a winemaker, a passing knowledge of viticulture is an important part of my knowledge base. What's also important is that whilst most viticulturists have a good grip on the macro climate of their vineyards, they generally don't have a clue about the microclimate of a given vine. Given the sorts of measurements being used in research vineyards, for instance, it's pretty obvious to me that a lot of environmental characteristics simply aren't measured, with respect to the microclimate of any given vine. There's a good reason for this - rarely are viticulturists handy with soldering irons, and the commercial solutions (even if they're available in Australia, which I'm not at all sure of) are horrifically expensive.
However, the arduino platform is relatively cheap, and I'm pretty familiar with solder. Thus, the Ardvino. I'm not entirely sure as yet which bits and pieces I'll need. At ground level (about 15cm down), moisture, temperature, acidity/pH; at canopy level/s humidity, temperature, light levels (visible and UV), gas mix (O2/CO2). I'll be checking with people more knowledgeable than I to see if I've left anything out, or if any of those isn't really relevant. Ideally, I'd like it to transmit the data over wireless, or possibly download the data from the device at regular intervals via USB/ethernet. Constant wired connection is out of the question, as quite simply it's a long way (often kilometres) from any door to any given vine, usually. I'll be using my balcony garden as a testbed initially, and if I can get support from my lecturers at USQ, at one of the research vines out in Stanthorpe later on. I don't know if it's possible to make this rugged enough for commercial use, considering it should probably be in the ground for a few years. I'm hoping I should be able to create this thing for about $300, although as yet, I don't know how realistic that is. I need to do a lot more research, and get my paws on some bits. I think I'll be spending a bit of free time at the Brisbane Hackerspace. I'm hoping also to be able to write a paper or three on various observations (and how they interact with yield, sugar/acidity levels in berries at harvest and over time, timing of veriasion, etc). There's just so much that isn't known, especially about Queensland vines.
It looks like I'll have a talk to give next year in Ballarat, at any rate.
It occurred to me at that point, as someone who is intensely interested in a certain plant, Vitis vinefera, which is notoriously poorly understood, that this was extremely relevant to my interests.
As a winemaker, a passing knowledge of viticulture is an important part of my knowledge base. What's also important is that whilst most viticulturists have a good grip on the macro climate of their vineyards, they generally don't have a clue about the microclimate of a given vine. Given the sorts of measurements being used in research vineyards, for instance, it's pretty obvious to me that a lot of environmental characteristics simply aren't measured, with respect to the microclimate of any given vine. There's a good reason for this - rarely are viticulturists handy with soldering irons, and the commercial solutions (even if they're available in Australia, which I'm not at all sure of) are horrifically expensive.
However, the arduino platform is relatively cheap, and I'm pretty familiar with solder. Thus, the Ardvino. I'm not entirely sure as yet which bits and pieces I'll need. At ground level (about 15cm down), moisture, temperature, acidity/pH; at canopy level/s humidity, temperature, light levels (visible and UV), gas mix (O2/CO2). I'll be checking with people more knowledgeable than I to see if I've left anything out, or if any of those isn't really relevant. Ideally, I'd like it to transmit the data over wireless, or possibly download the data from the device at regular intervals via USB/ethernet. Constant wired connection is out of the question, as quite simply it's a long way (often kilometres) from any door to any given vine, usually. I'll be using my balcony garden as a testbed initially, and if I can get support from my lecturers at USQ, at one of the research vines out in Stanthorpe later on. I don't know if it's possible to make this rugged enough for commercial use, considering it should probably be in the ground for a few years. I'm hoping I should be able to create this thing for about $300, although as yet, I don't know how realistic that is. I need to do a lot more research, and get my paws on some bits. I think I'll be spending a bit of free time at the Brisbane Hackerspace. I'm hoping also to be able to write a paper or three on various observations (and how they interact with yield, sugar/acidity levels in berries at harvest and over time, timing of veriasion, etc). There's just so much that isn't known, especially about Queensland vines.
It looks like I'll have a talk to give next year in Ballarat, at any rate.
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