COVID-19 Lockdown, day 2

Thought I might as well try blogging through the Covid pandemic. Seems I'm not so good at doing that though. Maybe just aim for short posts, not all the words going through my head.

The hive is back in action

Checked hive 2, the brown one, yesterday and there were egg cells, so I have a functioning queen again, what a relief! Having said that I nearly stuffed it up again. I made another hive lid with a hole in it covered with some steel mesh so that there is some ventilation for the hive.
I took the old hive mat off to replace it, but something caught my eye, I thought I saw the queen. Looked all over the grass, and then checked the lid and there she was. Gently (I hope) brushed all the bees back into the hive, so will check again next weekend to make sure she is still there.
This all started last winter, I decided to keep bees so went on a bee keeping course with the Auckland Beekeeping Club.
I caught 2 swarms, one I gave to Greg, and the other I kept, and I also bought a nuc from Carol at the ABC.
The swarm I kept seemed small and after drawing out 4 frames didn't really do anything else. I was worried about this and, after advice from the bee forum, swapped the hives around and started feeding sugar syrup. The hive responded nicely and now looks quite strong.
I put both hives onto a pallet, but in doing so I think I killed the queen in the nuc hive. When I check a few days later there were queen cells in the hive so I removed all except one and then waited. And that takes me back the the start of this post.

Getting back into electronics - this time with Microcontrollers

I took a few e-books with me when we went on holiday to Rarotonga recently, and some of them were on home automation. This has rekindled my interest in electronics and left me with 2 main take-away's:

• Using microcontrollers such as are in the Arduino boards is much better than using discrete components. While there is still some electronic design involved, the function can be controlled by software and the device is better able to respond to external signals, both from sensors but also from other devices, computers or humans
• Home automation, or at least smart homes, is about making devices communicate with each other, and with having a control system driving the whole house. And the best way to do this is with radio, it is not practical to wire everything together.

So I'm on a new learning journey. I thought I would start with something relatively easy, so I am going to replace the LED dimmer controlling the LED's in the hall way. Not that there is anything really wrong with what I have, but it is a fairly simple project and now I can make the LED's TWINKLE.
One of my goals now is to improve the documentation around my projects, electronic and otherwise. The page for the new Twinkler is here.

Electronics

One of the things that I have been doing recently is hobby electronics. My first project was a dimmer circuit for some LED's that I installed into the roof of the passage. If you look closely you will see several constellations on the roof. I have developed quite an interest in LED's for lighting, and this was my first attempt, not really successful, while they are very bright individually, they didn't crate enough light in the passage really. I'm still interested and I'm sure will do more with LED's in the future.

I've started to put my projects & designs online, so at least I can go back and see what I have done, there all here: https://sites.google.com/a/west.net.nz/wiki/home/electronics

Another project was a light box for toastmasters, it worked for me but other people did not see the LED's well enough.

I built a delay timer for the windsceen wipers on my car, driving a car in Auckland without this is just dumb. Quite a project, the design was good, but, man, did I have problems in building & installing it, but it's working now.

And the current project if the lazy mans light switch, this is still a work in progress.

Generally I do it because I like making thing and solving problems, probably spend a bit too much time on it, but there are worse things to do with my spare time.

Hobbies

I went to a combined 50th party recently, me being one of the birthday people (no my birthday is later in the year, I'm still a 49 yo spring chicken). Megan put together a number of photos for the party with a bit of a theme of 'Dad's hobbies" and it made me think that I have gotten involved in a number of activities and hobbies during my life, I think I will take some time to write about them over the next days/week/months oh well some time in the future

Flying lessons - first solo

Wow, yesterday I got to do my first solo flight. What a buzz.

I was not expecting it at all, I have looked at the syllabus on Fri night and it looked like I have to do glide approach, flapless landings, going around and aborted takeoffs, so I assumed a few weekends worth.

We did a few circuits and I was goiung quite well, then one landing it all seemed a bit long, got near the end of the runway and so did not do a touch & go, the the instructor got me to look at the flaps, still up! He had pulled the circuit breaker so the flap lever did not do anything and I didn't notice, but he was pleased. Next circuit he did a simulated engine failure after take off, and then it was a glide approach, on late finals and there was an aircraft stuffing around on the end of the runway so we went around. The sweat was flowing at this point.

Normal circuit next time and he asks me to do a full stop landing. Bugger I thought, I'd like to get a few more in, its a fantastic day. Then he springs it on me, how about doing one on my own!

Cool I say trying to look cool and failing badly. But it all worked out well, the plane & I did a circuit and came back in one piece, a reasonably acceptable landing too.

As I said, what a buzz. The instructor & I worked it out afterward, I had 7.5 hrs dual flying before going solo which the instructor says is good, especially for an older student, apparently most people take 12 - 15 hrs.

Well I need to make sure I concentrate on the flying and not let things go to my head.

But I won't forget that flight for a long time.

Learning to fly

Its not a new years resolution, I don't do those, probably more of a bucket list thing, although I don't really have a bucket list either.

However I have wanted to learn how to fly for a very long time so I have now started.

My first lesson was 2 weeks ago now, what a great experience, I had bought the theory books when I booked so I had read the book on general aircraft stuff and so had some ideas about what was happening. My instructor, John, explained things really well and let me do almost all of the flying, the weather was tremendous and I was torn between listening to John or looking out of the window as we flew over the sea off Orewa. I got to fly the whole way back and landed the aircraft, although I'm not sure how much John 'helped' me.

I did my second lesson (Straight and level) with an older instructor Judith. Not as exciting as the first as she did a lot more of the flying, maybe I made her a bit nervous, but still very enjoyable. So far 1.3 hrs, not very much but a start.

I did a fair amount of study on the theory while we were camping, so I'm almost ready for the first exam, but I think the next thing on the agenda is to book the medical, otherwise I may just be wasting money, I'll do that as soon as I get to work.

Looking forward to my next lesson, climbing and descending, next Sunday.

Pizza oven update

I've been ignoring this blog for a while now, thats what happens when you get a job and time gets short. However the pizza oven is mostly done now, it is fully functional and we are eating pizzas on a regular basis. I have only made the oven door today so I have not attempted to do anything other than pizzas in it, but soon I hope to try a roast soon.

The pizzas have been great and we have had a number of pizza parties, so far everyone has had good things to say so we must have got something right.

What I still need to do is to is properly cover the oven with render and complete the braai that is next to it, should happen some time in the future!

Pantyhose needed for Pizza oven!!!

Yes, sounds strange I know but I need some pantyhose to do the next section of the oven. The next thing I need to do is cover the oven in a layer of vermiculite, it comes in granules which makes it hard to cover a circular surface. So the idea is to fill the legs of pantyhose with vermiculite and then wrap them around the oven before covering it all with a layer of plaster.

So are there any ladies (or wanna be ladies) in the Auckland region who can help me, I need about 10 pairs. If you can you can email me jim@west.net.nz, or leave a message on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/Jimboeri

Thanks

Jim

Pizza oven #9

The first part of the oven dome is now complete. The first couple of courses are quite easy, the bricks are split and then laid with the mud/clay/mortar mix using a piece of plywood cut in a quarter circle with a 420-mm radius as a guide. You can get about 2 courses done a day, then let the mortar cure before starting again.

Eventually the angle of the bricks is such that gravity takes over and you need something else to continue laying the bricks. A swiss ball is used for this, I thought I might need some bricks to lift it up a bit, but the ball I was using was big enough on it's own.

I still carried on at 2 courses a day, it wasn't hard work but it was a bit tricky. I gave up with using a trowel early on, I put on some thick rubber gloves and picked up the mortar with my hands and poked it where it was needed with my fingers.

Quite satisfying to have completed the dome so far.





The next bit was really easy, a layer of the mud/clay/mortar over everything for a covering of about 5cm. This links it all together, and adds more bulk to retain heat when cooking.










I understand that the most important part of getting pizzas right is getting the oven temperature right. So I have been fortunate in getting a thermocouple from my swimming friend Geoff, thanks Geoff. It's inserted in the oven wall, we'll have to see how it works when the oven gets fired up!