TechnologyIQ

Another great way to get started with Arduino devices! — Douglas Do You Arduino? Drop a Comment below to Share How!   The original purpose of Arduino was to act as a development board for prototyping. The idea was the it included all of the components needed for common microcontroller projects, so that you wouldn’t have to add them yourself every time. The assumption was that you’d prove your concept, and then create a permanent design with just the necessary components. Alain Mauer’s Arduino Nano QP (Quick Project) expands that system with a display and buttons. Read Arduino Nano QP Is an Expanded Dev Board with Buttons and a Display via Hackster Blog - Medium Arduino Boards and Components via Amazon Arduino Boards and Components via eBay An interesting link found among my daily reading

Technology isn ’ t just  computers, networks and phones. Technology has always been part of the human experience. All of our ancestors have looked for ways to help the survive and do less work for more gain.  Archive.org has a host of old technology books (from mid-19th to mid-20th Century) available in many formats and on a host of topics. Many of the  technologies  discussed within these books are being put to use again these days in the  “ back to the land" and  “ homesteading ”  movements. You might even find something that could address one of your own garden or farm  issues, but has been lost to time and history. Enjoy!  --Douglas Historical Technology Books: Farm buildings by Gordon-Van Tine Co. - 2 in a series How To Buy Your Farm Building THE buildings shown on tjie following pages are divided into two classes — our very superior "Gold Medal" build ings and our better than -average "Standard" buildings. Specifications for each will be found on ...

How do you use you Alexa device? Share in the comments! I am always looking for ways to integrate my Alexa devices into my life and workflow. Here are 6 ways to make Alexa more useful in your own home. — Douglas Read Top skills for Alexa: 6 tips for your Amazon Echo that will simplify your life via USA TODAY Looking for an Echo/Alexa Device? Check out these recent upgrades and additions to Amazon’s product line!   An interesting link found among my daily reading

What would the world be like if you could bring important museums — all over the world — right into your home, school or office? It would be a wonderful world, I think. Too many museum exhibits stay locked to one location or in dusty backstage storage areas where few people can enjoy and learn from them. This is just one way to help give access to anyone who desires it. — Douglas Museums hold a wealth of information, but they're not always accessible to everyone. Visiting a museum takes time, money, and opportunity. Even if you make it to a museum, most collections are so vast that only a tiny fraction of the collection is available to view. But a new initiative aims to make it easier for museums to reach schools and communities outside the exhibition gallery. Museum in a Box is essentially a mini interactive exhibit that can be sent out to schools and other organizations that serve kids. Each box comes with a Raspberry Pi computer, a speaker, an amplifier, and a near-field com...

Want to make your own robotic villain from Doctor Who? This video might just induce you to try, so be very careful. This could be a time consuming hobby! (LAUGH) — Douglas   While visiting San Diego WhoCon last weekend so my wife could present a talk, we ran into Steve Roberts from Tucson, Arizona who built this amazing functional Dalek as well as a working K9 and a robot from the Farscape TV Show. Amazing building with some off-the-shelf technology. Visit ProjectDalek.com for plans and a build community to help you on your way! Learn more about Doctor Who with these books and videos! † † * A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! † Available from the LA Public Library

A great overview of the possible parts that might make up your home automation system. Even in my small house I have 4 different control systems for lights and outlets, as well as Alexa control over all of them. It can get complicated quite quickly. — Douglas So you want a smart home. Great! But where do you start? With so many platforms, assistants, hubs and protocols out there, it can get really confusing really fast. Here's what you need to know if you're ready to dip your toe into smart home automation.  Read Smart hubs, IFTTT & Raspberry Pi: How to get started with home automation via CNET Get Raspberry Pi Boards and Components from Amazon Get Raspberry Pi Boards and Components from eBay † † † * A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! † Available from the LA Public Library An interesting link found among my daily reading

When you need an Alexa-powered device that lives up to your Rock-n-Roll lifestyle, Marshall is happy to provide! — Douglas Marshall Voice promises powerful and loud Alexa-enabled music via CNET While the Acton II Voice and the Stanmore II Voice look the part of ordinary amps from Marshall, both pack in many smart features courtesy of Amazon's assistant Alexa. The new Marshall Voice smart speakers are on display at IFA in Berlin this week. Both promise high-end sound quality, as you might expect from a company like Marshall, and help give Alexa a foothold among premium smart speakers. Thanks to Alexa, you'll be able to use the Marshall Voice speakers to control your smart home, check the weather, ask a question or give any of the other commands that Amazon's feature-rich digital assistant can understand. Read Marshall Voice promises powerful and loud Alexa-enabled music via CNET Looking for an Echo/Alexa Device? Check out these recent upgrades and additions to Ama...

Very good to see that VR is making its way into practical uses, especially in education. — Douglas It's not always easy for STEM students to find enough lab time to get their work done, which is often essential for their degrees. Whether it's down to student demand, school budgets or students living far away from their university's labs, there are a range of obstacles. To that end, Google has teamed up with Labster to open more than 30 virtual reality labs in Daydream to help students get more lab time no matter where they are. Those studying for the online BS in Biological Sciences at Arizona State started working in the labs earlier this month, with full course credit available. The degree features 30 VR simulations on topics like animal physiology, ecology and molecular biology. The University of Texas at San Antonio, MIT, McMaster University and other schools in Europe and North America will also let students carry out work in VR labs soon. Read Google's Daydrea...

An interesting Arduino project has been created by Nathaniel Nifong and kindly published to Reddit, offering insight on how to create your very own DIY ceiling mounted cable robot powered by an Arduino Mega development board. More commonly associated with sporting events cable robots offer an easy way to view the action on large pitches and are normally mounted with cameras and microphones. Read DIY Ceiling Mounted Cable Robot Arduino Project via Geeky Gadgets Learn more about Arduino with these books and components Arduino Boards and Components via Amazon Arduino Boards and Components via eBay An interesting link found among my daily reading

Netgear’s Orbi line includes some of the most capable mesh routers around, and now, the line is about to get even more interesting. Its latest router, the Orbi Voice, is also a speaker with built-in microphones and Alexa. That way, you can place it in a room where you want to play music or listen to podcasts and improve the area’s Wi-Fi reception at the same time. There aren’t a lot of other products that combine a router with something else. I really can’t think of any, aside from combination routers and modems, since the two products have long had to sit side by side anyway. In most cases, it wouldn’t make a lot of sense for a router to be combined with anything else. Read Netgear combined a mesh router with an Alexa speaker via The Verge Looking for an Echo/Alexa Device? Check out these recent upgrades and additions to Amazon’s product line!     An interesting link found among my daily reading

NASA’s Curiosity rover has been a huge success, covering more distance on Mars than any other vehicle. The agency has used Curiosity as a tool to promote science and robotics in classrooms around the country, and it even built a smaller version of Curiosity called ROV-E to demonstrate some robotics concepts firsthand. After hearing from students and teachers who want to build their own version of ROV-E, engineers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have created the Open Source Rover. It’s a small Curiosity-style rover you can build yourself (even if you’re not a student). Read NASA’s Open Source Rover Is a Miniature Curiosity You Can Build Yourself via Extremetech An interesting link found among my daily reading

Technology isn ’ t just  computers, networks and phones. Technology has always been part of the human experience. All of our ancestors have looked for ways to help the survive and do less work for more gain.  Archive.org has a host of old technology books (from mid-19th to mid-20th Century) available in many formats and on a host of topics. Many of the  technologies  discussed within these books are being put to use again these days in the  “ back to the land" and  “ homesteading ”  movements. You might even find something that could address one of your own garden or farm  issues, but has been lost to time and history. Enjoy!  --Douglas Historical Technology Books: Farm mechanics by Herbert A. Shearer (1918) - 1 in a series PREFACE More mechanical knowledge is required on the farm than in any other line of business. If a farmer is not mechanically inclined, he is under the necessity of employing someone who is. Some farms are supplied with a great many handy contrivances ...

If you are a gardener, you’ll know only too well the distress of seeing your hard work turned into a free lunch for passing herbivorous wildlife. It’s something that has evidently vexed [Jim], because he’s come up with an automated Raspberry Pi-controlled turret to seek out invading deer, and in his words: “Persuade them to munch elsewhere”. Before you groan and sigh that here’s yet another pan and tilt camera, let us reassure you that this one is a little bit special. For a start, it rotates upon a set of slip rings rather than an untidy mess of twisted cables, so it can perfom 360 degree rotations at will, then it has a rather well-designed tilting cage for its payload. The write-up is rather functional but worth persevering with, and he’s posted a YouTube video that we’ve placed below the break. Read Guardin, Guarding the Garden: Turn Raspberry Pi Into a 3rd Eye via Hackaday   † † * A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs An interesting link found...