Oldtimers need help

:slight_smile:
We are two "old" gentlemen (we think) Flemming 67yrs and me PEER 76 yrs. We started to look at the project described below, and have so far had some fun, but most challenges >:(, So we stretch our hands into the air ans ask for help!! We shall naturally be willing to compensate for your help :slight_smile:
We are seeking a solution to the following application, which we are working on. It shall end up being a kind of basic building block, which can be applied to several different surveillance applications of for example a house heating system we are using here in North Europe, flood alarms, places where an alarm can be helpful for being notified something has happened

Can you provide more detail as to where you're stuck?

What are the specs of those devices that you want to connect?

@winzy99

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As a 78 year old, I take issue with this "old timer" label. We had the good fortune of being there when the transistor was invented and truly marveling at being able to possess a small radio that was portable, and could run on just a flashlight battery or two (way before the CR2032). I was lucky enough to be awestruck by the first computer I ever saw, in 1962, which would fill up the average kitchen, and read punched cards and spit out massive sheets of paper from a big clanky printer about the size of a Volkswagen. I was amazed when it solved a set of 20 simultaneous linear equations in just one minute. And I was lucky enough to watch the whole evolution of programming, from Fortran to Basic to Pascal to ... all the way to Python.

My career was very exciting, because as a mathematician I had at my disposal computational power never available before my time, and living the technical life was like being accelerated from 0 to 60 in three seconds. I had so much fun that I couldn't give it up when I retired, so by now I have been programming for 59 years, and designing circuits for 40 years. Give up that "old timer" label and call yourselves pioneers.

Glad to see that I am not the oldest here...

Peer- describe your project in more detail. Many of us here use Arduino technology to bring our homes into the world of IOT, so don't reinvent the wheel.

That is an interesting concept, in that the "block" needs to have some common components - generally a sensor (or set of sensors), a control system, power supply and an alarm; however there are also many differences.

Will the alarm be local (ie a warning light, siren or sounder etc) or remote - involving a transmission system.

Will the sensors be local or distant? How will they be powered?

With all these differences it seems to me that the only really "common" block is the control system - ie an arduino.

Perhaps the code could also be modular.

To give advice on any project, the forum probably needs a description of the actual project, remember that the forum does not know your project.

For example you probably know what 'being notified' means, but that could vary between a flashing light or bell to 'being notified' when your in a desert a long way from mobile phone reception or power supplies.

jrdoner:
As a 78 year old, I take issue with this "old timer" label. We had the good fortune of being there when the transistor was invented and truly marveling at being able to possess a small radio that was portable, and could run on just a flashlight battery or two (way before the CR2032). I was lucky enough to be awestruck by the first computer I ever saw, in 1962, which would fill up the average kitchen, and read punched cards and spit out massive sheets of paper from a big clanky printer about the size of a Volkswagen. I was amazed when it solved a set of 20 simultaneous linear equations in just one minute. And I was lucky enough to watch the whole evolution of programming, from Fortran to Basic to Pascal to ... all the way to Python.

My career was very exciting, because as a mathematician I had at my disposal computational power never available before my time, and living the technical life was like being accelerated from 0 to 60 in three seconds. I had so much fun that I couldn't give it up when I retired, so by now I have been programming for 59 years, and designing circuits for 40 years. Give up that "old timer" label and call yourselves pioneers.

At 81, I also take exception to the "old timer" label. I also can attest to one single time when a gamma ray changed one bit in an IBM 360 Mod 40 logic unit. The nightly bank processing was out of balance. All files saved and rerun showed all was really in balance. With lots of help we traced the error to one transaction for one account and down to one single bit changed. The computer logic always parity checked all incoming and outgoing bytes. Never happened before or after. So strange things do happen.
Paul

jrdoner:
As a 78 year old

Paul_KD7HB:
At 81

I turned 63 today; my goodness, I feel so young :smiley:

sterretje:
I turned 63 today; my goodness, I feel so young :smiley:

Smart aleck kids! Happy birthday!
Paul

sterretje:
I turned 63 today; my goodness, I feel so young :smiley:

I'm a few years over that. Is this the general genre of the "helpers" here? Certainly experience is a critical factor.

Where are all the millennials or near-millennials that are so much vaunted? Are they too busy working (Hey, I still work full-time plus when I am not here :sunglasses: )?

Paul__B:
Where are all the millennials or near-millennials that are so much vaunted? Are they too busy working (Hey, I still work full-time plus when I am not here :sunglasses: )?

They can only communicate via pictures and videos, check YouTube and Instagram. ::slight_smile:

sterretje:
I turned 63 today; my goodness, I feel so young :smiley:

Congratulations youngster !


“ We are two "old" gentlemen . . . “

Why do these newbies that come here keep making fun of us oldsters ? :sob:

Speaking of one bit changed. Such things should be impossible now, but apparently not. I took a look online at my IRA balance a few days back, and my money had doubled! Exactly. But on a refresh, it dropped instantly by 50%.

jrdoner:
Speaking of one bit changed. Such things should be impossible now, but apparently not. I took a look online at my IRA balance a few days back, and my money had doubled! Exactly. But on a refresh, it dropped instantly by 50%.

Did you get a penalty for the sudden withdrawal? The only free money I ever got was at an ATM in a grocery story on an early Sunday morning. There was a bunch of $20 bills stuck in the output roller of the machine and no one around. I pulled the bills out and asked a store employee what the procedure was to report the error. He didn't know and didn't care as the store had no association with the machine. I kept the $ and withdrew what I needed. Auditing would have shown I was the next user after the error, but never heard from anyone.
Your error used to be rather common when something happened and the update program was run a second time, And then a third time to correct the first and second!
Paul

No way I'm the youngest at 54.

My first experience with a computer was an IBM1620 with a massive 64k core store, programming in Fortran 2 on punch cards.

And in 1976 started working with microprocessors - initially the MEK6800D2 writing programs in machine code.

They were good times.

Kinda giving my age away.

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