Nelson Hoover's Website 
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Projects
On this page I'll be posting some of the projects which currently occupy most of my "spare" time and money.

        Projects under development:
 
  Linux Cluster Computer
    This project will use several older (not too old) PCs that me and my buddy from Custom Computers have laying around. The plan is to install Linux on each of them, link them together, and run a clustering utility on each of them. Don't know how it will turn out yet, or if the performance will even be that great. So far this project is sort of on hold for now due to lack of time.

Autonomous Robot
    This project is an attempt at building a completely (or nearly so) autonomous robot with speech recognition, an arm (eventually), camera vision, and a large array of sensors of all sorts.
    The platform for this project is a modified electric wheelchair with the original control board still being used for the drive controller and battery recharging circuit.
    The main brain will be a laptop running Windows 2000 or XP with the controller software written in VB6. A variety of microprocessors will be linked to the PC to control sensor input and control output. The PC receives its power via a 120 volt inverter.
    The top of it will be a 7" LCD with eyes and a mouth on screen that move somewhat realistically. The eyes simply glance around the room randomly, and the mouth moves in sync with the text to speech. Eventually it will get a camera vision system using a webcam mounted on top and software from RoboRealm.
    Whenever the main power battery gets low the robot will cruise back to its charging station and recharge again.  


Web Server
   Another project is this very web site. It is one of the handful of sites I host for other people. The main server is a Dell PowerEdge 2650 with dual Intel Xeon hyperthreading processors at 2.8 GHz with 2 Gb of RAM and a RAID mirrored HD configuration. I also run my own mail server. The main site for this project is www.faithfulserver.net.

Alarm Clock
    This is simply a custom alarm clock that I'm building in order to have a few options not normally available in "standard" alarm clocks.  A few of the features, so far, are:
  • The numbers are big enough for me to read from bed without my glasses (ie. 6" x 4" per digit).
  • It can display inside and outside temperatures at the push of a button.
  • It will turn the lamp on my nightstand on to prevent falling back asleep after the alarm goes off.
  • It will have a separate programmable alarm time for each day of the week.
  • The alarm tone will be something a bit more pleasant than most.
    The brains will consist of a PIC 16F84 in a black enclosure which sets on the nightstand. This unit will receive input from the buttons to set the time, alarms, etc, and control the lamp. A DS1302 timekeeping chip takes care of tracking the time and date.
    The display hangs on the wall directly beside the bed and has another PIC inside. A telephone cord carrying power and serial communications, plugs into RJ-11 jacks on each unit to connect the two. The digits are controlled by the display PIC through a MAX7219 seven segment display driver. A DS1620 mounted behind the display measures indoor temperature. Another DS1620 on the end of a wire hanging out the window measures outside temperature.

Digital Combination Lock
    This is an electronic lock to allow entry simply by entering a 6 digit numeric password.
    The external part is a keypad, speaker, and bi-color LED mounted in a steel box. Behind the keypad is a PIC 16F84 which verifys the entered code and sends a command serially to the inside module. The inside module is another PIC (10F200 would work) which simply waits for a command to turn a relay on. The relay operates a 12v electric door strike which when powered, lets you push open the door.
    The reason for the serial communications stuff is so nobody gets the bright idea they can simply take the external unit apart and cross some wires to activate the lock. Doing so will accomplish nothing, because the inside module is looking for a serial code, not simply a wire going high or low.


Fuel efficiency modifications
    This is an ongoing project started by my brother and sporadically worked on by both of us. It consists of trying to modify a vehicle to make the maximum possible use from the fuel. This involves various methods, such as adding a fuel mixture controller, O2 sensor feedback controller, leaning back the fuel mixture, and eventually experimenting with completely vaporizing the fuel before it is burned. So far it has not progressed beyond a few preliminary experimentations. 


Robotic Lawn Mower
    This project currently consists of a handle-less push mower with electric wheelchair wheel & gearmotor propulsion. An alternator, driven by a belt from the gas motor turning the blades, keeps a 12v lawn mower battery charged to supply current to the drive motors. At present, it is only remote controlled. Eventually (maybe) some type of positioning system will be devised so the yard can be mowed completely automatically. The positioning system will ensure that the yard is mowed in neat rows and not randomly as other robotic mowers already on the market do.