Grow Bucket Update with a quick walk through the patch

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Just a update walk through Clip....


& an update on the Bucket experiment... (lazy I know....)



Shall do a proper post soon on whats been going on in the patch later this week...

Have a great one all!!!

: )»
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Summer Babies!

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Well, Im finally getting around to posting these pics.  The summer kids arrived a few weeks ago.  All three are adorable as can be and that mischievous goat spirit runs through them all as we watch them run, jump, twist, play, and investigate this new world of theirs.


Maydaisy, our old timer, has had three sets of triplets in the past and this year gave birth to one enormous girl who we named Violet.  Willow, Maydaisys daughter from last year, had twins Hemlock (boy) and Rue (girl).


My do they hey grow up fast!  They are already nibbling alfalfa and vegis along the Mamas.  The kids have had a great start getting 100% access to their Mommas milk for the first few weeks.  Its time to start the regular nightly separation and morning goat milking routine. 
 
 
Babies always add a special feeling of warmth to the farm.  Its great to have them back again!

 

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Wicking Barrel construction

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Made up the Passion Fruit Wicking Barrel today & a bit of a video...

More info can be found on this blog HERE, which includes an alternate way of installing the outlet pipe, & HERE which is an entry on how we made our second bed...

A few sites that got me started on the Wicking systems are Easy grow Vegetables.com & Scarecrows Garden Blog... Both were great sources of information & even got the idea for the Shade structure from the Easy Grow site...
Hope that helps any interested persons...
 Have a great one all.....
: )»
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The Morgellons Umbrella What it is or isnt

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First off, I am NOT a doctor, or a nurse.  I do not have any degrees from medical schools or universities.  I worked as a medic in SE Asia, and in the Canadian Military (for a very short time- I got out of there FAST!), and have been using essential oils, herbs and natural clays and essences to heal and treat infections etc... for over 20 years.  I have been researching these things for over two decades and constantly updating my personal database of knowledge on a daily basis.  What I am writing here is my personal experiences, and my own theories and perspectives, based on those experiences. That is all.  I will openly share my ideas and treatments that I have been using, effectively for years, with everyone.

Here is my theory on Morgellons:  it is a diversion. Not the Symptoms, but the actual NAME. They have created an umbrella term to describe all these symptoms- much like "Autism" was created as an umbrella term to describe a wide variety of symptoms.  "Morgellons" is a catchall phrase that I believe has been used to distract, by placing all these symptoms under one name- when in fact I think we are dealing with several DIFFERENT things/issues.

Ive been treating these infections for several years now, and some of them are vastly different- which is why I believe that we need to move away from the catch all phrase "Morgellons" and come up with more specific diagnoses.  I would like to share my observations about the different types of  skin infections that I have been treating and studying.


First type of infections and lesions. 


This infection presents very much like Staph, and I actually believe that it is a mutated staph that is triggered by other factors.  The staph like infections appear as a pustule- usually start off looking like a simple "pimple" or "ingrown hair".  These infections are very staph like in that the "core" is a soft, mucousy- almost gel-like centre, but is deeply seated in the tissues and if they are squeezed or picked at, the infection is usually driven downward, deeper in the tissue.  These infections are well treated with hot salt water packs and Kaolin clay packs and Cabbage packs (instructions below)  to draw out the infections to the surface. If you attempt to pull the gel -like core out and its not ready to release from tissue, it is extremely painful.  This is why it is important to draw the core up and out of the tissues, so that it naturally releases its root. Inside these pussy cores can be found the typical black fibers seen in "morgellons" photos.   The trick is to insure that once the infection has been drawn out, that no remaining pieces of the "core" are left, because if the skin heals over and there is a piece left, it will fester for months until it works its way through the scar tissue to the surface- and will usually be much harder clear the second time around.   These "staph-like" infections can leave huge gaping scars that look like gun shot wounds. Reminiscent of Strep skin infection scars.

Second type of skin infection and lesions.


These come up very similar to the first type of "staph-like" infections, and present very similar symptoms.  The difference is that the gel-like mucous core doesnt pull out as a whole, and seems to have a base that is fibrous- that looks almost like white felt.  This fibrous substance has very little feeling to it when touched even with sharp extractors and it pulls up in pieces that are rooted into the pores/hair follicles  and must be removed to get rid of the infection. This type of infection also is associated with the black fibers.  This type of infection responds well to hot salt water pack, Kaolin clay packs (instructions below), and raw cabbage packs.  Once the fibers are removed, it will heal quite quickly, but again, leaves heavy scarring if not treated through the healing process.


Third type of skin infection and lesions.


 These come up like a red bump, are itchy as all hell, and tend to be painful to the touch. the core of these infections is hard, usually granule in shape, surrounded by a softer more mucousy outer buffer layer on the surface- I believe that this secondary soft mucousy infection is a reaction by the body to the granule  "foreign object"- like a secondary infection.  These type of Granule cores are very difficult to remove and must be completely removed and all trace of infection eradicated before healing can fully happen.  These cores are often very spherical or shaped somewhat like a tear drop- very hard, sometimes almost glass-like texture, colour between white to an almost amber colour. Many times these hard cores are accompanied by long hairlike fibers- that are either white or clear and look crystalline in texture and structure.  These hair-like structures often present as hairs growing out of the skin.  It is as if the natural hair has been leached/drained of all colour and are changed structurally.  I suspect that these are actual body hairs that have become a type of antenna (for lack of a better term) for the granule core- an "antenna" or feeding tube, so to speak.  I strongly suspect that these type of cores are foreign objects- implants?-  They are not natural to the human body in any infection I have ever seen before- and I have seen a LOT of types of infections over the past 20 years.  The other interesting fact with this type of core is that there is no pain when you touch it. Grasping the core with extractors is painless (unless you grab live tissue that is surrounding the core), and when these "spheres" come free, there is literally an almost popping sensation that comes with it- almost like pulling a plug out of the tissue.   Extracting these "spheres" can be difficult as sometimes they are very deep in the tissue.  Squeezing them (as you would a pimple) rarely helps unless the core is close to the surface. Depending on where the infection is on the body, sometimes using direct pressure, pressing straight downward around the sides of the infection, will "pop" the sphere out, if its close to the surface of the skin.  Again, as with the other infections, the trick is to insure that there is no infection remaining so that the skin can heal cleanly.  The Difference with these infections is that depending on the size of the sphere that has been removed, they will heal very quickly leaving no scar at all (if treated properly), or may leave a hole, very similar to a chickenpox scar - this depends on where the infection location is- foreheads, because there is just a thin layer of epidermis with little tissue underneath for padding, tends to leave a hole. where as if the infection was located on a body part like an arm or leg, where there are layers of muscle and fat and thicker tissue dermis,  the scars are minimal if not completely invisible if treated correctly.


Forth type of Skin infection and lesions


These type of infections have very similar symptoms as type 3, but the "core" or "foreign object" inside the core, is not spherical, and has an almost sharp crystalline shape- very jagged, with no specific shape- almost like random crystals growing in a lump.  These usually have multiple Crystalline "hairs" in them. Many times they  seemingly grow in all directions through the core- again, as if its just random placement. They may also contain the black fibers and occasionally red fibers (though it is difficult to tell if the red is from blood staining within the fibers, or if the colour is inherent in the fiber itself).   These "cores are hard to remove entirely because of the nature of their shape- pieces can break off and be left behind, which will not heal.  The sores themselves are usually quite painful, but the cores are painless to the touch- which affirms to me that they are a foreign object and not part of the natural body system- and have a very "glass-like" texture.  It is very easy to tell if you havent removed the entire infection/core with this type because the skin will literally NOT heal over it.  A heavy Scab occurs but doesnt diminish with time.  If after 5-7 days of "healing time" the heavy scab is still in place, I can almost guarantee that their is still a particle inside that needs to be removed. And it will still "itch". At this point, I remove the scab tissue, and begin the hot pack process to draw out the pieces still left in the tissue.  Once all the infection is removed, this usually heals quite cleanly and quickly with the proper treatment and leaves little scarring. 

I have come across a fifth type, but havent quite categorized this yet.


This presents as a simple pimple, with a soft, typical pimplish core, but is accompanied by the tell tale itch of the above infections.  I believe that these are new, fresh infections that havent had time to evolve into one of the above categories.  These are simply treated with hot salt water and clay packs and will heal very quickly, without scarring- much like a normal pimple.  Again though, the itch is an indicator- if the itch remains, then there is still an infection in the tissue.

This type seems to present itself in children quite often and I do not treat them invasively- using just simple topical treatments, they usually disappear on children in a matter of a couple of days, without any scarring.


The Sixth type is something I have only seen very rarely


The symptoms present very similarly to type 3 and 4 infections,  the difference is that the "object" that is removed - the "core"- is almost bug-like looking- as if some bizarre mutant parasite was crossed with some type of crystal.  Extremely ugh and disquieting to see, but treated the same way as type 3 and 4, and usually heals up cleanly once the entire infection is removed/drawn out.

The commonalities of most of the infections I have treated :


- most infections seem to revolve around a hair follicle, as if the hair itself becomes part of the infection, or becomes a shaft in which the infection uses, either as "straw/antenna" or as a food/light source.  I know that might sound a bit strange, but Ive now witnessed too many of these to not take this theory seriously.

- Ive notice that infections are sometimes triggered by weight loss.  Fat Cells are like pockets that store all kinds of things, including toxins, heavy metal residue, and even LSD!! (lol) when you suddenly loose weight, the fat cells dump those toxins back into your systems.

- Lymph nodes are also common areas for infections.


NOTE:  do NOT use medical tape or "bandaids/plasters" to cover the infected areas, most skin will react poorly to the adhesives over time and it can cause a spread of the infections.  If the infected area is extreme, cover with a sterile dressing and wrap a bandage around it to hold it in place.  Yes, this can be very awkward depending on where the infection is, but I have found that its better to have a HUGE bandage wrapped around your chest, than sticking a bandaid over it and ending up with a far worse infection.

NOTE: These infections spread very easily and you MUST keep your tools sterile AND NO double dipping!!  Only use a q-tip/cotton bud ect to dip out creams/balms/ointments, and never your fingers!



So, Now my theory on what these infections are.  I believe that these infections are multi fold, and caused by several factors.


1- heavy metals and foreign fibers- we are inundated with these things daily, some people more than others depending on their past, where they work (ie: working in metal production factory- as Nick did for years- surrounded by micro fine metal particles), vaccines, water and air born particles, and of course Chemtrails.

2- foreign fibers/implants- directly injected or self injecting, through vaccines and chemtrails

3- Heavy Toxins- absolurbed through inhalation, food intake, water, and environmental infections.

4- Bacteria aned toxins- that has been stored in fat cells, organs (especially in the lungs & mucous membranes, and the intestines, kidneys and liver), and glands, sometimes for years, if not decades.

Unlike many theories that have been recently published, I believe that the reason we are seeing a radical upswing in these type of infections is because our bodies are SHEDDING  these "infections", "particles", "Implants" and forcing them out.   I think that our bodies are literally disinfecting themselves right now, and these "new" attempts to infect humanity with new chemtrail toxins are actually failing.  I am seeing and hearing about many people experiencing "infections" at the moment- but ALL of these infection have one common attribute:  they are Excretory infections.  Meaning, that they are all part of the body excreting toxins- in the form of chest infections: deep coughs with phlegm coming up, sinus infections with heavy phlegm,  intestinal issues like Diarrhea and gas, Urinary infections, along with skin infections.  All of these things tell me that the body is EXCRETING or SHEDDING and CLEANSING itself of these toxins.   The vast majority of the people Ive spoken with- especially in the past 60 days- who are experiencing these type of "infections" have no other symptoms: no fever, no escalation into a more severe form of infection..... just a continuation of the icky symptoms, (many times experiencing all of these things within a short period of time).   some people are experiencing more drastic forms of sickness- but in almost every case Ive discussed with them, the "sickness" revolves around a set of glands, ie: Tonsillitis.  Your glands work on multi levels, and one of their jobs is to fight infections in the body.  But everyone has different responses and differing levels of response.  For myself, I have hyperactive glands that seem to work very efficiently, but when they finally get "backed up" (lol) or have had enough, I will get most spectacularly sick- as a doctor I  once worked with told me, "they just finally cant keep up and dump everything (all the toxins) into your system all at once"..... This is the type of response that some people seem to be having right now.  It is as if their glandular system is doing a massive dump of toxins and the body cant keep up.  Hence reoccurring infections that cant be cured with antibiotics.  These type of toxin dumps cant be "cured"... because they body is dumping them out- they need to be cleansed and drawn out.


My prime focus for the past three years has been on clearing and drawing out the infections as they present.  As I said above, I have theories on the causes and the "whys", but they are only theories, as Im not a scientist, dont have access to a good high powered microscope,  nor do I have any ability to test out my theories other than practical application.

Treating the skin infections takes a lot of trial and error, and Im constantly upgrading my various mixes and treatments, as I gain new understanding of the symptoms and new knowledge through my research.  Below are a few of the recipes that I am currently using with a lot of success.  Now, these go through various changes as I work with them, but I will update the new changes as I make them.  I will be putting all of this information on the Blog section of Our Gaias Gardens:
www.ourgaiasgardens.com  so that anyone may follow along.  I will also be producing these products for sale on our site, for those people that do not wish to make them for themselves. Please feel free to share these recipes, but I ask that you do not start selling them for yourselves..... This is MY work that I have been doing for years, and I ask that people respect this.

I am hoping to be able to create, with other people who are also working in this field of research, a new site that will become an online repository of recipes, treatments, studies, and research on this subject.  I cannot do this by my self as Im completely swamped right now, but I am open to working with a group that can handle the daily updates/work of running a website.....

Here is my personal list of "tools" and ingredients that are invaluable to treating these type of infections:

-a set of bowls and treatments items that are glass and can be sterilized

- surgical extractor tweezers- these are very similar to regular tweezers but have needle-like points, for extracing tiny particles, slivers, etc from the skin.  They must be surgical steel and be able to be sterilized, and even sharpened when necessary (using fine graphite sand paper or glass files)

- a pocket microscope- idea for getting a good look at the core infections and particles.... if youre so morbidly inclined, lol.

- Kaolin Clay- one of the best clays for drawing out toxins and particles from the skin. and Ghassoul Clay- a volcanic clay from Morocco that is highly detoxifying.

- Cabbage- raw cabbage has an incredible ability to draw out infections from deep in the skin- use the thickest part of the leaf and slightly crush it.  place over the infected area and hold in place with a bandage.  replace every couple of hours.  This works particularly well after doign a hot pack with salt water.

- raw sea salt, and borax- put a 1/4 cup of raw sea salt and a 1/2 tsp of borax in 1-2 litres of hot water, mix till disolved, and apply with a clean cloth as a hot pack to draw out infections. make sure you always use a clean cloth of natural fibers, like cotton or wool,  these can be boiled afterwards and reused.

- Ingredients to have on hand:  Raw bees wax and honey (best bought directly from a local farm within 60 miles of your home -this is because bees wax and honey carry a homeopathic interaction that is directly interactive to your locality!), essential oils, base oil for mixing- this must be pure!!  do not use "vegitable", corn, soya,  or canola oil- even most Olive oil is fake in North America and Europe.  Stick to oils that you know are pure and untainted by GMOs, pesticides or filler/fake oils.  and pure distilled water.

* Lavender essential oil is vitally important, for treating the infections AND healing the skin aftewards- and can be applied, neat, directly to infected skin to bring almost instantaneous relief to the worst of the itching.


Recipes


Clay Pack- for drawing out toxins and infections/particles etc...


2 heaping tablespoons of dry Kaolin Clay
1/4 tsp baking soda
mix together well

add:
15ml of peppermint water (distilled water can be subsitituted)
mix well into a smooth paste

add:
5 drops of rosemary essential oil
3 dr thyme
3 dr lavender
2 dr clove
2 dr oregano
2 dr cypress
1 dr cinnamon

Mix well and store in a sterile glass jar and seal.  This will keep for 2-3 weeks at room temperature.


Treatment oil - to treat infections:


25 ml Pure base oil (I use Argan as I KNOW its pure and highly energetic in healing)

add :
7 drops of Lavender
5 drops Rosemary essential oil
5 dr Oregano
5 dr Eucalyptus
4 dr Thyme
3 dr Cypress
3 dr Clove
2 dr cinnamon

put into a sterile jar with lid, swirl oils to mix (you should never shake oils as this can cause damage and denature certain volitile components).  This mixture will store for months as long as it remains uncorrupted.


Healing Oil- for scars and final healing of tissues


25 ml Argan oil
1 ml barbary fig oil
add:
15 drops Lavender oil
7 dr Blue Tansy/Moroccan Chamomile
7 dr neroli
5 dr cypress
5 dr cedar atlas
3 cardamon
3 dr myrtle

put into a sterile jar with lid, swirl oils to mix (you should never shake oils as this can cause damage and denature certain volitile components).  This mixture will store for months as long as it remains uncorrupted.

Healing treatment #2


This has a mild drawing and greatly soothing effect on the skin:

apply a dab or raw unpasturized honey driectly on the infected spot and leave there for at least an hour- rinse off with warm water.  This works well after a hot water and salt pack.

Bathing Treatments:


add 1/2 cup of raw sea salt and 2 tablespoons of dry borax to your bath can sometimes help with the itch AND help draw out toxins.


**For mouth, gum and throat infections, gargling with a strong solution of hot water (as hot as you can stand it) with raw sea salt and a pinch of Borax is a huge help and sooths and draws out infections.

It is important to remember that what works for one person, may not work for another person, depending on their body and the type of infection.

I will be updating this information as often as possible.


I have gone looking for pictures to post as examples of some of the particles/implants/spheres/fibers etc that I have pulled out of Nick and I over the past few years.  Interestingly enough, certain types of photos come up easily- of the black fibers etc..., but other have been very difficult to find.   I did find this site, that really interested me as I have pulled pieces from both Nick and I that look very much like the pictures found here:  http://morgellonsresearchgroup.com/the-cia-amf-and-nih-implants/

.... Since Nick and I are both former Military, and we were heavily vaccinated during our time in the Canadian Military .... I have to wonder exactly what they injected us with.

Here are a few pictures of the types infections/foreign objects that I discuss above- collected from photos online.  Unfortunately I cannot take picture of the objects weve removed from our selves and viewed under magnification with our pocket microscope.





This is the Pocket Microscope that I currently have


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Cycling is definitly over No Ammonia no nitrites And Compost Tea

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Cycling is definitely over ammonia and nitrites are undetectable.  Nitrates have been decreasing progressively. Nitrites peaked and totally disappeared very quickly. Also, the intresting thinkg is how the pH decreased until the nitrite peak was over, and then started to increase again. I think it is because there are pieces of eggshells trapped in polyester is the tower.
Last weekend, I did the first of the monthly maintenance check up. I took the system apart to rinse the pump, I removed the profiler that was in it, there was a worm cocoon and a fat worm in it, they both were returned to the tower. The water has an interesting reddish tint, but didnt have any distinctive smell to it. Not sure where that color is from, but  could be natural coloration occurring because of the vermiwash and compost tea. It also could be that the wood I leaching out something. When I built the tower, I remember that the wood was giving away some lightly coloured water. maybe the plastic wrap I have put on the walls has gaps and some of what is in the wood is leaching out. I may need to rethink the cover of the wood, maybe using a double layer of plastic wrap would be better. 

 
The tee, with old socks to filter particles
After cleaning up the pump, I also decided to mess with the water pipe. It is a flexible poly tubing, and was pinched at the level of the tower. Also, the green onion getting soft may be due to over-watering, so I needed to reduce the flow from the pump. I had a couple of tees and a small valve. I used one of the tee and the valve to divert some of the flow from the pump and return it to the reservoir, the other one to play the role of an elbow and avoid the pipe to kink. I covered the ends with nylon sock to play a filters role, and added a short length of tubing on the "top end" to avoid splashing things around. In the process I kind of messed up the 3 pepper seedlings. It seem that maybe one will survive, the other will definitely not.

Compost tea version 2.0
After that, I added 2 cups of compost tea, brewed for 24h. Oxygenated using the aquarium pump. The tea was "brewed" using worm casting (1.5 teaspoon), seaweed (1/8 teaspoon) and same of brown sugar. After 24h there was no foam on the top (Internet tends to say there should be a lot). I filtered the "tea" measure the nitrate and ammonia (traces) and sprayed some on the leaves (according to compost tea aficionados it is great to fight diseases and so-on), and dumped the rest in the reservoir. I also added 2mL of this house plant fertilizer that we have laying around. I keep checking ammonia and nitrate on a daily basis and the compost tea does not seem to change much of these. There seem to have a slight increase of ammonia, but the plant fertilizer contains both ammonia and nitrate (ammonium nitrate and other nitrate source). I kept adding 2 ml of fertilizer everyday since. I decided that I will add much more  of all the ingredients and get molasses ( instead of brown sugar) the next batch, which I prepared yesterday: 1 hipping table spoon of worm compost, one teaspoon of seaweed, and one teaspoon of molasses.  This version has some foam on the top, indicating that there is life in it. Last night I added another teaspoon of molasses, as tonight the foaming has greatly reduced. It "brewed" for 48h, the colour is yellow-brown, its smells good (like the molasses, with some earthy smell mixed to it) has a little bit of foam on the top, but does not have a significant amount of ammonia or nitrates. I also sprayed some on the leaves and dumped the remaining in the tank. To avoid risk of overflow, I removed about 2 cups from the reservoir. The water is still brown-redish, and still does not have any particular smell to it.

The "growlight"
 I also made a "growlight" out of a power strip, a couple on plug-light-bulb-sockets and 2 23W CFL (5000k "bright daylight"), since the days are seriously shortening. On Tuesday night however, some of the parley looked strange : a few leaves were wilted, and theses leaves, where the closest to the lights. I decided to use only one light, and to put it on the timer with the pump. The wilted leaves did not recover, but no more of these appeared.
some wilted leaves on the lower parley plant.




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Worm challenge update 1

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The bedding has compacted
Its the end of the first week of the worm challenge, so I couldnt help myself that opening the container, spread things around and look for the worms to see if they survived there first few days.
 And the answer is : (drum roll) 

Yes! I could find easily the on that was already bigger, and I think it looks bigger now, but I dont think it has become fully mature - but it will be soon, it seems that the clitellum is appearing.  The other one is still smaller.
The black particle you see are not worm castings - it is the used coffee grounds I added while setting up.
Some one asked on google plus how I would be managing the "gene pool" as a population developing from 2worms will obviously be heavily inbred. My first answer was that I would return these worms to the "General population" at some point. But I might be interesting to remove a juvenile every once in a while and replace by one coming from my worm crate. Another interesting thing could be to keep them totally isolated and see if the population collapses at some point... In which case, given that most hobby vermi composters start with half a pound or a pound of worms - which is a limited population too - and coming from a worm farm that may have also started from a relatively small population-  that would mean that exchanging worms between vermicomposters may be a necessity to avoid "genetic driven" collapse. Thaugh the genetic diversity between ~ 200 worms may be enough to avoid inbreeding.
I think I might give an update every other week for the future - unless next time I check both worms have clitellums - in which case that will be the real "start " of the experiment.








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Arduinos and Motors Part 1

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So tonight I took my first look at Arduinos and motors, watching a couple videos and reading a few webpages that talk about this topic.

Im spending time on how DC (direct current) motors interact with Arduinos because this weeks Humboldt Microcontrollers (MCUs) Group meeting will be at least partly focused on motors and MCUs. When the group is discussing this topic, it would be nice if I have at least a general understanding of what theyre talking about, even if some or a lot of what they say is over my head, both knowledge and experience-wise.

I started out by watching the Jeremy Blum Arduino Basics #5 video tutorial, which addresses motors and transistors. I didnt try to do the exercises in the video while I watched it today because figuring out the exercises, wiring up the breadboard, writing the code and figuring out what I did wrong will take a couple hours, based on my experience with the earlier Blum video tutorials. Tonights video viewing was just to find out what components were used in the exercises and to get an overview of what Jeremy is trying to teach in the video. At right is the DC motor that came with the official Arduino Starter Kit. I need to figure out whether that motor will work with the exercise Jeremy presents, because he doesnt always use parts from the starter kit that I have.

After watching the video, I did some online reading, starting out with the Adafruit Arduino Lesson 13: DC Motors. I wanted to read this over to compare Adafruits intro to Arduino and Motors to what Jeremy discussed in his video. Next I read a blog entry titled, Using motors with an Arduino. The post author said, "Motor control turned out to be trickier than I expected, and I dont see a lot of "Arduino motor control for dummies" pages on the web, so Im writing one." The blog post had some good tips about the authors experiences controlling motors with an Arduino. Something the post author did was buy a Freeduino motor shield kit (shown at left) and solder it together. That might be a fun, interesting and useful way for me to improve my soldering skills!

The post talks about controlling motors with an MCU using Arduino shields for motors, using a motor driver carrier PCB, using electronic speed controllers (ESCs) and using H-bridges. One of the authors goals was to find an inexpensive Arduino motor control method because they were shopping for parts to teach a summer camp class in robotics. After the post was written, someone suggested the author use a transistor as a very inexpensive way to run small motors and protect the Arduino from a high current load. The tutorial linked by the author for the transistor method shows pretty much the same concept as Jeremy explained in the #5 video.

One last webpage I read about motors and MCUs was on a Wikispaces wiki called Arduino-Info. This page had some info not covered on the other online places I visited today. It talked about two ways to totally protect the Arduino from the motors high voltage or high current. (I dont know if you need to protect it from one or the other or both. Something else to try and figure out before this Thursday evenings meeting.) The two complete isolation methods are to use an opto-isolator (as shown to the right above) or use a mechanical relay.

Tomorrows goal for my "Arduinos and Motors, Part 2" post will be to start figuring out how to breadboard the first exercise in Jeremys video. He uses a breadboard that has three terminal posts hooked up for the exercise, and I dont have posts on my breadboard. So Ill need to figure out if those posts are essential, or if theyre just a convenience that I can work around on my breadboard.

The Blum videos are Arduino basics tutorials, but someone as inexperienced with electronics as I am needs to spend a fair amount of time researching and talking to people to figure out how to hook up the different circuits shown in the videos. Thats mostly a good thing because figuring that stuff out, rather than just blindly following each step, helps me to better understand and remember the concepts presented in the videos.

However, when someone new to microcontrollers comes to the Humboldt Microcontrollers Group to learn how to use MCUs, we need to be aware of that persons potential frustrations when they dont have a clue about how to hook up some of the circuits in the Blum videos.

Reminder! This Thursday, June 12, from 6 to 8 PM is the third meeting of the Humboldt Microcontrollers Group at 1385 8th Street, Arcata, California, USA. To make sure no one gets locked out of the building (which happened two weeks ago), well start out the night by meeting at the big table right by the front door. Well also have a sign on the door with a cell phone number of someone whos in the meeting so if were not by the door later in the evening, people who are inadvertently locked outside can call for someone to come open the door.

**********
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