mike’s brain dump

This post mostly brought you by AI Thing Arranger: A Tool for Aesthetic Object Placement and 3D Printing Ever had a bunch of random objects that you just couldn’t figure out how to arrange in a pleasing way? Or perhaps you wanted to create something that looked like organized chaos but didn’t want to spend hours manually placing each object in just the right spot? Enter Thing Arranger, a Python tool that arranges objects in aesthetically interesting ways, generating 3D models ready for printing....

Death to GoDaddy GoDaddy sent me a Web Hosting Deluxe Renewal reminder (very courteous of them). It was for $839.40/5yrs. I decided that was too much for a pretty much useless site. I considered downgrading to the “Standard” hosting plan for $5/mo but couldn’t justify it. The nice thing was that the old site had been up a while and I got somewhat used to the wordpress content management scheme. But its time as passed, over 12 or 13 years since the first post on that site....

Project Overview A lot of work into these roof shades… this is a many part series

We like to open and close the shades more now that we can ask Alexa to do it. THE END RESULT PARTS LIST Key bits that makes this work: The motor with a radio - Somfy Roll Up Wirefree R28 RTS Motor The motor radio to z-wave thing - Somfy ZRTSI RTS 16 Channel Z-Wave to RTS Plug-in Interface Wall Module Wink Hub - The z-wave thing to internet thing An Alexa Device - Echo Dot IFTTT There are also some other little bits that are needed, but are less exciting:...