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    1. phil webster

      Bowled over by all the fantastic activity. I have an 1897 steam launch which I have restored and built repro machinery, over 20yrs steaming now. I have spent a lot of time trying to make an ‘engine indicator, but realise now that I am on a hiding to nothing! The answer has to be electronic, a no go area for me. I have a large well equipped workshop, and do regular trips on the river yare. Can I interest anyone in making a steam engine ‘tuning aid’?

    2. Just a reminder everyone, its Tim’s SQL part 2 session tonight. So if you want to take part remember to bring along a laptop. Apparently we also have sofas.

      The usual making and discussion will continue in the main room.

    3. […] Keith Ellis and the guys over at Ipswich Makerspace did brilliantly well with their robot, TractorBot, at last year Pi Wars. They won Best Robot under £75 and placed very respectably in most of the challenges. (You can see the full results here). They have decided to open-source their designs and code for TractorBot, which means that other competitors this year will have a head-start on many challenges if they take the time to go through the code. Design specs will also be released so if you want a good base to start from, you could do far worse than take a look! You can read the start of their open-sourcing project here. […]

    4. Giles Gilbert

      Hi. My son came along to the raspberry jam and at the end of the day I bought for him a raspberry pi 2 and some other bits and pieces to get started. I couldn’t buy a wifi dongle there, so I bought one from Maplin. My nephew helped my son to set up the raspberry pi at home. However, he told me that the wifi dongle isn’t compatible with the raspberry pi as it only works with a Windows operating system. Is he right? I spoke to someone at Maplin on the phone but he wasn’t sure. The product is a TP-LINK Archer T”U Wireless Dual Band USB Adapter 802.11ac (AC600). Can you help at all? Do I have the right product or do I need to buy something else? I hope you can help. Best wishes, Giles Gilbert

    5. Very impressive guys. I’ve opeted for the generic SR-04 due to having no experience with any sensor like this previously. Looking forward to seeing how this performs for you.

      Must dash…off to get my robot’s claw attachment laser cut… 😉

    6. Mel

      Did you guys get along to Ipswich Art Gallery to see Oliver Postgate’s homemade animation rig in the clangers and bagpuss exhibition? Similar stuff!

    7. Aston

      Hey

      I wanted to know if there is space for me to do my own work also do you have a soldering iron, screwdrivers and other electronic equipment?

      • Steve Chalkley

        Hi,
        Yes, we have plenty of space and a good range of equipment. We also have 3d printers, a laser cutter, a CNC machine and a well equipped woodworking workshop. Feel free to drop by and have a look around.

    8. Aston

      Hey

      I’m looking for a place to do my own work like soldering, testing etc.

      Do you have any ventilated rooms that I can work on my electronics also do you have a soldering iron, a TV and a fume extractor?

    9. Julia

      Are you still running the dojo Sunday 13 in the afternoon? I can see it on EventBrite but not here on your webpage.

      Thanks,

      Julia

    10. Susannah

      Hi, I see there are two events on Sunday. For complete beginners age 7 and 10 (and their novice mum) which would be better to attend – morning or afternoon? Thank you

    11. Martin Hubert

      Hey, I didn’t star myself! I sanded the floor too! Ok, so the handle came off and the sander sodded off across the room…, but I still did some… 😂

    12. Gavin Taylor

      Really interesting to come across your hack for the boilermate 2000
      I have one of those systems and also have 5.8kw of solar which i would love to use with the electric heating element during the summer, rather than gas all the time.
      I seen that it has 2 x 4.5kw heating elements , which i could use just one or wire them in series (2.25kw) but i read in the instructions the electric element runs the hot water at a higher temperature and runs all the time. Iv designed a system to read how much solar is being produced and switch a relay on or off when gets to a certain level.
      Have you got any ideas on how the switch side of it operates ?

      • Mal Hubert

        Hey. My system has a physical switch to turn on the electric element into “Emergency HW” or “Emergency HW and Heating” mode. Covered by this:

        http://www.boilermanuals.org.uk/boilers/Gledhill/boilermate%202000.pdf Page 25

        Instead of the Glasslin “Clock” I have a Honeywell Thermostat in at the minute.

        Maybe desolder the knob and have a separate microcontroller and relays to emulate that manual switching between Normal (Gas) and Emergency HTG&HW modes when the solar is above a threshold.

        I’m not 100% sure the schematic of that XB386 PCB behind the switch, it appears to light the LEDs, and cuts off the switched live to the HTG and HW pumps depending on what mode the switch is in.

        I would be tempted to redesign that board to let it drop a PSU and ESP8266 on it.

      • Mathew howlett

        Just interested in how these clever hacks have progressed. I also have a boilermate 2000/switch electric heating element. I’m also having solar installed in the next few weeks and thought about this possibility myself.

    13. Glen

      Thanks for your write up, I found it very helpful. I have been controlling my Electromate2000 via Home Assistant / MQTT for 12 months now. I control 3 switches; [Peak/Off Peak] & [Summer/Winter] to give me 3 temperature ranges + [Enable] allows me to heat the water only when rates are low. I have a separate WIFI thermostat to control the radiator temperature. I would love to access to the actual temperature sensors data from the CPU, your analysis makes it more likely that this is possible. The GT155 board in your unit has a square LED driver IC and a debug port , I don’t suppose you have any idea what information is available via that debug connector? I was thinking of buying a spare board with that connector on the off chance that I can access the required data via this connector.

    14. Paul Stanghan

      Hi, I read your comments with interest as I have a Boilermate 2000 and have done a fair amount of reverse engineering on the system too – mainly to assist with repairing the control board where the opto-triacs used to fail at regular intervals. The temperature sensors seem to be based around the DS18B20 IC – certainly the Arduino library for that device is able to read temperature from it.
      For the domestic hot water temperature control, the motor appears to be driven by a zero voltage crossing trigger triac that is fed by a PWM signal which sends bursts of mains power to alter the average power input – hence changing the pump speed

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