LONG STRETCH

It’s been a long time since I’ve added a new post.  We’ve finally made it through two kids’ basketball seasons.  We also got the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby completed.  So now onto some new projects, and maybe I can finish up some old ones, too.

We’re starting 4H now.  Of primary interest to me is model rocketry and radio control airplanes.  I have some experience with the model rockets since we did those in Cub Scouts already.  The kids always enjoy launching them.  We’ve already started building the r/c airplane.  That should be fun for the boys and me.  Fortunately, the kit is easy to build since I’m no master of model construction.  Maybe in the future I can incorporate some kind of ham radio aspect to the plane just for fun.

Another project I planning to start is to create a timing system for the Pinewood Derby track.  Our present system only shows finishing order.  This means you have to do a lot of run-offs since there’s no elapsed time to go by.  My plans are to use an Arduino Mega board and random IR sensors and LEDs.  It should be a challenging project.  Maybe I can develop some of programming skills in the process.  I’d like to be able to interface it with computer software and some type of monitor or display.  So it looks like my free time is still going to be minimal for awhile to come.  At least there are some interesting projects on the table.