General activity – Page 7 – Woody's Workshop

November 22, 2018

tado° Radio Controlled Heating System

We have a problem in the house in France relating to the fact that we live on the upstairs floor and sleep on the ground floor. It works well in this configuration but has the disadvantage that if we have the wood burner on upstairs it trips the boiler thermostat which is also upstairs. This results in the boiler going off and we end up freezing cold downstairs at bedtime.

I have been pondering this for some time and finally arrived at a solution using the Tado components. This is a 868MHz mesh network of control products consisting of a radio controlled Thermostat, radio connected RadStats and a thing called an Extension Kit which replaces an existing timer/controller.

The thermostat in France is currently in the wrong position on the first floor but the unit is hard wired back to the boiler down in the cave (cellar) so it is difficult to elegantly move. The Extension Kit picks up the controller hard wiring as was and acts as a new controller for the boiler under radio command from the Thermostat. Not only does the Thermostat set the temperature but it also allows the water heating to be controlled. You can manually command on and off or use programmable profiles.

All the above components are brought together on a smartphone App that allows you to control the heating and water from anywhere. The system also has GPS geo fencing. This is really attractive as it means we can get it to bring the heating and water on as we come off the ferry. No more sitting with our overcoats shivering when we arrive in winter.

It is a well conceived set of kit. Pairing the items to talk with each other is straightforward but for some scenarios you need to get Tado to customise the software. This is done via the internet and can take up to 48 hours to complete. That aside once this is done it works very well. I have had it running on the bench with a couple of light bulbs on the water and heating outputs to simulate operation. Installation in France will be next week.

I have no connection in any way with Tado and I am sure there are similar products out there. I just like nice kit that is well conceived and does what it says on the tin.

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November 2, 2018November 15, 2018

Clocks all Change – Reading Memorial Clock

The last weekend in October is clocks change here in the UK with a one hour shift back to GMT. For those that remember to do it, this delivers an extra hour in bed but it is a pain to change traditional clocks one hour back. This is even more so with Turret Clocks such as those on churches and ancient buildings. The easiest solution is to stop the mechanism on Sunday and come back to it on Monday one hour earlier to restart it. While this is the easiest method it does upset these ancient mechanisms that have just had 6 months of stable running. The alternative is to wind the mechanism forward 11 hours and drive those in earshot scatty with all the bell chimes one after another.

I was very fortunate to be invited by David Pawley to help him reset some of the clocks on his maintenance list and one in particular impressed me. This is the Memorial Clock at Reading University. The clock tower was built circa 1920 as a memorial clock to all those associated with Reading University that had not returned from the Great War. There are some 101 names recorded from WW1 and further names from WW2 and latterly from Afghanistan. It is a beautiful clock and a fitting memorial. The only sad aspect was that its enormous bell is muted these days so as not to disturb patients at the neighbouring Royal Berks hospital.

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September 11, 2018September 12, 2018

IMTS 2018 Manufacturing Fair in Chicago

My visit to the MHUB/NYC CNC event also allowed me to visit the IMTS 2018 manufacturing show in Chicago. My goodness what an event. Lots of walking and lots of drooling over the latest technology for wasting metal. Some of the machines were almost as large as my home in the UK. I have never seen so many cutting tools.

I did fall in love however …. with the Datron Neo milling machine. It has a small footprint but a big punch with a 40k RPM spindle, 24 position tool changer with tool checking and an astonishingly elegant software user interface. It is way out of my pocket but for a small prototyping shop or educational establishment I think it will be very attractive.

I also picked up a Centroid Acorn OEM machine controller board which looks like a panacea for Mach3/4 based systems. More will follow on this as we get to grips with it.

So a good trip all round. Two good events. Two aching feet. Some nice memories of a very beautiful city.

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September 3, 2018September 3, 2018

NYC CNC Open House in Chicago this weekend coming

My travel agent (aka my adorable wife) has got my airline tickets ready so I can attend John Saunders’ Open House bash at MHUB this Sunday coming in Chicago with 3 days afterwards at IMTS 2018.

Hopefully I will meet up with some of the friends I met at the NYC CNC training week and last year’s Open House plus all the new contacts that I have made via this blog. Also hoping to be blown away with seeing new technology (totally out of my budget) at IMTS.

Looking forward to it ! More to follow !

Woody

August 28, 2018

Wireless Tag technology for remote sensing and security

Useful Wireless Tags for Monitoring Assets

Some while ago I happened upon wireless tag net which market a range of simple to use wireless tags for temperature, humidity, movement etc. These devices use short range wireless comms to a wireless node connected to the house broadband router. Once activated the tags can be monitored and controlled via the web. There are a number of extensions to this using other technology devices which all in all make them rather attractive and useful.

I decided our house in France would benefit from the use of these devices and this would allow us to monitor the house from the UK. I bought a package of 5 temperature/humidity/movement tags and a single moisture tag for the garden.

These are really easy to set up and add to your web portal. Results are graphed for you to see trends etc. Really nice simple and useful product.

I could put lots of pictures up but the best thing is to follow the link as above and read all about it. Deliver to the UK was quick but got hit for import duty and VAT.

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