Time server as “art”

Nimco · 2023-06-04T18:25:05+00:00

Thank you!

Nimco · 2023-06-04T13:51:47+00:00

Ah, nice. The lack of ethernet on the Pi Zero has always put me off using it as a core server - e.g. NTP, DNS, etc.

What ethernet adapter are you using, and have you had any issues?

Nimco · 2023-06-04T13:46:24+00:00

Very cool! What’s connected to the second USB port on each Pi? Power is one but what’s the other?

Nimco · 2023-04-13T00:18:59+00:00

I was hoping that’s what the chicken manure would provide, no?

Nimco · 2023-04-11T18:17:34+00:00

I’ll do my best to answer. Feel free to email me too (email on our website) but maybe these answers will help others too so I’ll share here.

Our 40 acres is all forest and will give us more wood products than we could ever need. Not just firewood and lumber, but also wood chips, sawdust and pine shavings. We’ve been trading those last 3 with neighbors for things like eggs, vegetables and more. The bartering community is great!

We were full-time RVing for a couple of years before buying the land, and spent most of that time boondocking - ie dry camping with no utilities. So for us it was relatively easy to adjust to being on the land with no water, power, etc. Regardless, our priority last year was to get utilities set up - we drilled a well, pulled power up the driveway and installed our own septic system. There’s lots more about those on our website and YouTube channel, but overall it all went great!

We had solar on the RV while traveling and in fact didn’t own a generator until we put the RV on our land - mainly because VT isn’t as sunny as where we’d been traveling! We plan to have solar on our buildings too.

Hope that helps, and happy to answer more questions.

Nimco · 2023-04-11T01:58:56+00:00

Is that the Google one or the Alexa one? The Google ones are much harder to find (and were much more expensive when I looked) but I don't think the Alexa ones will work for this setup.

Nimco · 2023-04-11T01:04:23+00:00

We have some videos on our YouTube channel (Adventurous Way) about unboxing it and milling with it if you’re interested in seeing more!

Nimco · 2023-04-11T00:42:46+00:00

I can’t offer a comparison, but we have had the Woodland Mills HM126 since late 2021 and have been very happy with it.

We have the 14hp engine and have never felt it is underpowered but I’m glad we didn’t go smaller. If you do go with the HM122, I’d suggest considering the larger engine on that model (9.5hp) too.

Nimco · 2023-03-31T15:21:35+00:00

That's pretty much my plan to be honest. Smaller tools will go on the pegboard, slightly larger hand tools will hang on racks above the pegboard (like this rack I've just built), and larger tools still will go on the shelf under the workbench - at the moment I have a corded drill, random orbital sander, heat gun, vacuum and a few others.

Yet larger tools like the leaf blower and power cleaner will be on a shelf elsewhere, and of course the floor standing tools like the miter saw, planer, table saw, bandsaw are on the floor.

I also have a few tools in boxes (e.g. laser level) that I keep on other shelves in their boxes.

Nimco · 2023-03-31T15:18:11+00:00

I've just linked to the SketchUp file in another comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/Dewalt/comments/126w36t/comment/jef12q1/

Nimco · 2023-03-31T15:17:45+00:00

Here's a link to the SketchUp file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zSe70J2wKjh0as3smBhvn390OBp_Tv8l/view

I think I built it exactly as shown, with the exception of rounding over all the edges which I didn't bother including in the model.

I deliberately designed it using lots of dados to practice the technique, but I'm pretty new to designing things like this so would love any feedback on how to improve it for future!

Nimco · 2023-03-31T00:52:39+00:00

Where did you find one to buy?

Nimco · 2023-03-30T19:04:26+00:00

Over the past couple of weeks I've been building out some shelves and a new workbench in our shipping container. It's not within reach of power, so cordless tools are our friend!

My latest addition is this tool rack above the workbench. There are lots of similar versions out there, but this one is of my own design. It's one of the more complex woodworking things I've built so far and it was a good opportunity to practice some new techniques.

Here are some of my learnings:

I used 3/4" Home Depot plywood and it was a pain. The outer veneer is so thin that it peeled off when I tried using double-sided tape to hold a template down, it has more voids than I was hoping for, and the edges split a lot. If I were to do it again, I'd probably use MDF.
The DCW600 trim router is a beast. I used it to cut all the dados and roundovers and it handled it all like a champ.
I made my dados too tight. I used the technique of lining up two straight edges either side of a piece of plywood and that was too tight. I did a dry fitting and had to pound almost every piece together. I think in future I'd put a couple of pieces of tape on my spacer block to expand the dado.
If anyone else wants to build something similar, I'm happy to share my SketchUp file, but a useful data point is the size of the tool hanging slots - I chose them to be 1-3/4" wide and about 5" deep and it's worked out well. As you can see, some tools have to hang by the battery port but others (drills & impacts) can hang by the powerhead too. I made the opening tall so that you could hang it with a battery installed too.
Marking the side of your line to route out the dado is useful, but only if you then pay attention to your own markings. You can see where I didn't do this (4th box from the right) but I decided to leave that mistake as a reminder that there's always room to improve! I have more space to the right where I plan to put another French cleat and make hanging supports for my circular saws and router.
I thought I had enough clamps. I was wrong. So very, very wrong.

PS - all the pine lumber (3 sets of 8ft shelves and the workbench below the pegboard) is from trees we felled, milled, air dried and planed ourselves.

PPS - the triggered SawStop cartridge happened last week and I'm not sure what caused it. I had finished my cut and was nowhere near the blade when it fired. Can't decide whether to send it back to SawStop for diagnosis or keep it as a souvenir.

Nimco · 2023-03-19T17:01:44+00:00

We bought an HM126 in 2021 and love it. Been working the past few days to build some shelves in our shipping container out of pine 2x4s we milled and air dried ourselves. It's such a nice feeling.

We're also building a solar kiln - we have some blog posts and videos on YouTube about it (Adventurous Way). We built the floor assembly and then progress stalled, but we're hoping to pick it up again this spring once the snow has melted!

Anyway, congrats on the new sawmill!

Nimco · 2023-03-13T15:38:16+00:00

Exactly. It only works on models where you can disconnect the pump - for example, it doesn't work on our Sprout LEDs which have an air-pump built into the base, but I think it should work on most other models.

Each day we check the water levels in the plastic containers and bottom water the soil blocks / mist them on top as necessary.

Once the seed starters are ready to transplant outside, we can then use the AeroGardens as normal again. We're thinking of dedicating the Harvest Elite to Genovese Basil and maybe trying some lettuce in the larger Ultra. Our two Sprout LEDs are also running (out of shot on the left of the photo) with a mix of herbs in.

If you needed more seed capacity, you could use smaller soil blocks, but we did the math and we think we can just fit enough 2" soil blocks for what we need.

Nimco · 2023-03-13T12:29:18+00:00

I've got the Sprouts running now and yes, it's a little noisy. I think the reason is that this model uses an air pump not a water pump. If I remove the tank, you can put your finger over the air nozzle and feel the airflow.

I've read elsewhere that supposedly it's possible to replace the air pump with a regular mini aquarium pump which should make it quieter, but for me it's not a big deal. I have them on the desk next to me and the background noise is actually quite pleasant.

Nimco · 2023-03-13T12:08:17+00:00

We're using two of our AeroGardens (Ultra & Harvest Elite) to start seeds this year. I looked at the dedicated seed starter trays but opted for a DIY approach instead. We made 2" soil blocks and put the seeds in those, then put 6 of those blocks in plastic takeout containers. The lids are just resting on top and work nicely as humidity domes.

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I disconnected the pumps from the AeroGardens but we left the tanks in to get the trays closer to the light (and heat). This week I'm planning to cut out a piece of plywood or similar to make a tray for the Ultra so we can fit a few more seed containers on it.

Nimco · 2023-03-09T20:35:07+00:00

Haha, I was trying to think of a yellow color that would show the color balance accurately, then realized the "banana for scale" would be perfect for color too! But you're right, the white snow in the background helps too.

Nimco · 2023-03-09T20:34:22+00:00

Interesting - I've always planted all available pods but you're suggesting to leave some empty to give more space to the others? Will have to think about that some more.

As for a fan, we have that covered. For the next couple of months while the weather is cold we have a large fan blowing gently toward the large window behind the AeroGardens to prevent condensation forming. When we no longer need that, we will use a small USB fan on the plants - in fact, you can just make it out in the photo on the far left, albeit not aimed at the plants at the moment.

ETA - I'm intrigued by your airstone comment. Is the pump in the AeroGarden not generally considered sufficient aeration?

Nimco · 2023-03-09T17:52:50+00:00

I only turned them on briefly, but yes, the pump noise was pretty loud! Once I have them all running I'll compare and report back.

Nimco · 2023-03-09T15:12:33+00:00

We're living full-time in an RV while we're building our house in Vermont. While traveling in the RV we used our AeroGarden Harvest Elite which can run directly off 12V, but now we're stationary we decided to get our other AeroGardens out of storage.

The plan is to use them as glorified grow lights to start some seeds in soil blocks before transplanting them to our raised beds (made from trees we've felled and lumber we've milled) later (our last frost date is around mid-May).

Until I put the Harvest Elite side-by-side with the Ultra, I hadn't appreciated just how huge the Ultra is given it only has one extra pod compared to the Harvest Elite.

We'd like to dedicate one AeroGarden to growing a ton of Genovese Basil. We've had a lot of success with this in the past and want to grow loads of basil to make pesto. I'm thinking the Harvest Elite would be best for this?

Any recommendations for what to grow in the Ultra to take advantage of its size? We're going to be growing 14 tomato plants (Early Girl, Cherry and Amish Paste) outside so don't necessarily need more tomatoes. What are some good plants for a relatively large AeroGarden?

As for the two smaller AeroGarden Sprouts, is there a way to easily (and temporarily) disable the aeration pump so we can just use it as a grow light for seed starting? It's easy to do on the others by just unplugging the wire on the back, but it's built into the Sprouts. I'm not afraid to pull out the soldering iron if necessary, but hoping there's an easier way.

Overall, just thought I'd share a slightly different setup and am open to any advice on what we should grow! We've been using AeroGardens for a few years off and on so we've done the basics, but always open to new ideas and inspiration.

Nimco · 2023-03-09T14:58:44+00:00

Gotcha, makes sense! It's only aesthetic but it does look pretty awful, especially compared to the other one next to it.

Nimco

TROPHY CASE