Making a Raspberry Pi Garage Door Opener




A few years back I built a neat project I found online. It was originally designed by Andrew Shillday. You can find the code here. I decided that a Raspberry Pi Zero was sufficient, so I had to modify the pins used, but otherwise it was a fairly easy project.
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Amazon Alexa in the car

Since Alexa for Car is becoming available on Dec. 5th, 2018, I thought I would throw some pictures up of my Alexa installation before it was productized. It was novel at the time. I used a Verizon LTE Jetpack for cellular connectivity. I simply feed the audio into the Auxillary port in the car and tether wirelessly to the LTE modem. This is far from a noteworth project, it’s just something I did for fun and proof of concept.

Perfect fit

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Upgrading Honda Insight IMA Battery

Honda Insight MIMA battery 144v DC
A few months ago while driving my commuter car - a 2000 Honda Insight, I received the dreaded IMA light. For those that don’t drive this car, the IMA light indicates that the main hybrid vehicle battery is failing at capacity. In Georgia, this light means you will not pass State emissions which is a requirement. Additionally, you lose a tremendous amount of power, which is kind of the point of the electric motor.

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DIY Homemade Bed

Yep. I made my bed. Well I make my bed every day, but over a weekend I built my master bed. It’s a very simple design.

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Building a homebrew generator

A few years ago I built my own generator. I cobbled it together with some parts I had laying around the house. I found a free lawnmower on craigslist and I used the engine from it as a power source for the generator. I coupled the engine to an automobile alternator and a power inverter. The result is a cheap AC power generator. It only produces a few hundred watts of power, but it’s enough to power lights or emergency equipment in the event of power failure. I did this project for fun, not as a replacement for a real backup power generator. Here are some pictures:
The generator

The generator

Wood coupler panel

Belt and pulleys

My Homemade Metalcasting Furnace

On this page I highlight how I built my metal casting furnace. It’s a propane furnace capable of melting metals at up to 1,300 degrees F (°F). There are 2 major assemblies: The furnace housing and the burner. The housing is composed of a combination of fireclay, sand and cement; equally mixed in thirds.

An aluminum bar turning into liquid

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