I’ve long followed the videos and episodes of Jonathan Oxer of SuperHouse, and decided to design my first true automation system around his design ideas. This project describes the basic setup of the automation system I setup and explored, and replaces the dabblings I’ve had with EmonCMS in the past (See the One-wire Project). Software Stack Jon is big on the use of MQTT for transport, having developed a lot of his own hardware before it was easily available (especially so in Australia where he is located) and standardizing on the protocol for its general and flexible nature.

This project is my entry into data collection at home. I learned a lot about what not to do, but I got a decent sensor network out of it, which continues to be (mostly) reliable to this day. Dallas One-Wire Sensors See the Wikipedia Article on the subject for a brief overview. I started this project with the goal of proving that my bedroom (located on the southeast corner of the house) was notably colder in the winter than other rooms.

The 2018 SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge was the final collegiate event in which I competed, as I graduated several days after returning and started working full-time. For the 2018 Challenge, Kettering brought two vehicles - one competing in the ‘Internal Combustion’ class and one in the ‘Diesel Utility’ class. The Diesel vehicle was based on an improved version of my 2017 Diesel Control Capstone using the Mercedes OM660 ‘Smart CDI’ engine, and a Ski-Doo Tundra chassis.

My 2017 student capstone was done as an indepdent study project sponsored by Dr. Greg Davis, to implement an engine control system for a Common Rail Diesel engine for the 2017 SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge. Kettering’s culminating undegratuate experience is not the capstone, but rather the undergraduate thesis. My undergraduate thesis was company sponsored and restricted due to trade secrets, but my capstone can be published here. To archive the data for future use, I have published it here.

While visiting my parents shortly before Thanksgiving weekend, the septic pump stopped working, resulting in a very slight ingress of fluid through the basement drain. My parents have an engineered septic system which unfortunately required the leach field to be located at a higher elevation than the septic tank behind the house. As we all know, shit flows down hill, and a pump is required to make it flow up hill.