(First, this commercial announcement, then the freeware)
This might be your lucky day. This valuable, easy to remember domain name is for sale.
It is so easy to remember -- I tell it to people just once and they know it forever.
I will continue using it until it is sold so I should be available to answer inquiries.
You may contact me via email at the webmaster address on this domain name.
(Please excuse the attempt to stop any additional commercial email from arriving by obfuscating the address.)
My asking price is $10,000.
This EASY TO REMEMBER domain name could make sales go through the roof
for your company and you can recover the purchase cost very quickly.
You got here easily, others can get here just as easily!!
I have been running my own email and web servers for many years.
Easy to do and cheaper than renting them.
Will be happy to offer any advise to the buyer.
MicraTek Software Presents...
Stuff you might like.
Click here to view my Arduino Sketches. I have been playing with this little toy for a few months and find it useful for some tasks. Experimenting with a functional web server to run on the Arduino. Many you will find won't actually function. They just return predefined page and picture. Not useful!
Click for NMEAgent Software
Remember where you installed this software. After installing it, overlay the resulting .EXE file in the install folder with the .EXE from the following link to be completely current.
Click for latest NMEAgent Software Update
Updated (October 14, 2014) and tested on Windows 7 (Win 8 status unknown)
Aug 10, 2014: View up to 50 GPS, WAAS and Glonass SVs.
Sep 14, 2014: Now GPS and Glonass simultaneously from Holux M-215+ and Canmore GT-321R. Others as I get one or data from one.
Oct 18, 2014: Updated program to better handle a problem one of my GPS units created where it put a PRN in the wrong place for a while.
Previous updates
- Click on a PRN, Az, El or SS box on the Sat
Information screen and the PRN will flash 3 times on the
Sat Positions screen.
- Added track smoothing which makes the PRN tracking form look a lot nicer. It was a pain to do but is there now.
- Also added a sort on the Satellite Information screen to allow presentation by PRN, Az, Elev or Signal Strength. Click on a row header to see that sort next update. It does not do it immediately since the data is destroyed immediately after it is presented each cycle. I have to wait for the next update then sort and present that new data.
- Still some more fine tuning to be done but I think it is just about to be functionally stabilized for a little while.
If you have having trouble with a feature, please
record a file (built into the program) and send it to me at
the email shown on this page so I can run the file and see
where the problem is. Otherwise, I will not be able to find
or fix it. Thanks.
Note:
The preceding two links download .ZIP files.
If you do not have quality ZIP/UnZIP capabilities, please
download an excellent FREE ZIP handler (and SO much more)
named jZip from www.jZip.com.
(No, I don't get any money out
of this recommendation. It is just a very good program I
use a lot.)
Here is a graph showing the tracks of GPS and
Glonass satellites over a couple of days.
In the preceding image, GPS satellites are tracked in blue
and Glonass sats are tracked in red. GPS (USA) PRNs are
32 and less. Glonass (Russia) PRNs start at 64 and go
up. The center of the plot is in Vallejo, CA, near the
cities of San Francisco and Napa near 38° 08'N / 122°
12'W. I can almost see "over the top" from here but not
quite.
You can see a couple of interesting things from this plot
from the free NMEAgent program. GPS sats have a lower
inclination than do Glonass sats. That means that
Glonass sats go closer to the north and south poles than do
GPS sats. GPS sats do not hit the same track every
time. It is general "knowledge" that GPS sats are in the
same place in the sky every day, twice a day. While that
is somewhat true, they precess across the sky and the orbit
time is about 4 minutes short of making it to the same place
every day. But Glonass sats, while about 45 minutes
short of a repeating orbit, hit orbits which precess across
the sky in about an 8 day repeating cycle. You can see
the rather regular pattern of the red traces around the
pole. These tracks were recorded across a couple of days
by NMEAgent software. The numbers on the chart are PRN
numbers. Since Glonass sats don't have well associated
PRN numbers, these are the ones assigned as of the date this
track was recorded - Sep. 2, 2014.
These days, there are many GNSS receivers that are without
a display. This makes them cheaper. They can be
plugged into various devices and those devices become the
display for the GNSS receivers. Google Earth will accept
NMEA input from a GNSS receiver connected to a compatible
device speaking NMEA data. That is how this display was
developed. The track was partially developed using a
GT-321R and partially from a Holux M-215+. The Holux
sees only one WAAS sat but will not track it. The
GT-321R will track either GPS+WAAS or Glonass. So a
complete picture can be developed but it needs input from
both. I am hoping to find a receiver that will display
GPS+WAAS+Glonass. There is supposed to be a uBlox based
unit which will do this as of their release 8. As of
now, these units are not widely available. I will try to
get one when they do become more generally available.
PyGPS - Python GPS
Reader (Almost complete
now. Just a few tiny things to fix up.)
See/Get the source code
here.
Here is the main screen with information about the
GPS sats and where you are. I wrote this to try to
learn Python. I wanted a full screen product running
on Raspberry Pi. This is it (for now). It is not
the best language I have ever learned but it is adequate
as long as you have access to the web for help and answers
to questions. I took a course from LinkedIn and bought
the very good intro book by Simon Monk. Those two
learning platforms and lots of years of programming got me
started. This is the product of about 3 weeks of
learning everything just before I did it. It is a
rewrite, and in some respects better, than the VB version I
did many years ago (see above). This is only for a
Linux platform for now. Maybe that will change in the
future. Or not...
And this is the SkyView screen showing where the sats are relative to you, who is at the little dot in the middle. North is up. You can see the track being left as they move. Blue is GPS, Red is GLONASS and WAAS should be green but the Holux GPS never gets a lock on it so it is always shown as disabled in gray.
The left screen grab is soon after starting a run. Then the a screen after many hours of laying down sat tracks. Also coming, menus for changing sat track size and enable/disable and anything else that's useful. There are a couple of smudges on the left screen near the 45¨ ring where WAAS sats came and went without moving.
Here is WeMoWX (pronounced Wee-Moe-Wex).
It is a Clock/Date/Day of Week (with auto-DST)/Temperature/Barometric Pressure/Relative Humidity display running on a Wemos D1 Mini with OLED 64x48 Display that also prepares and sends a web page with tabular current and historical data and a 24 hour graph of indoor and outdoor temperatures. It also keeps a history of IP address, first and last seen time and times visited. Whew! That's a lot, ma'am! See it live here.
It uses one or more of several sensors to get all of the information. One is a BMP280. I use this for Temperature and Barometric Pressure. The BME380 arrived and gives Temperature, Humidity and Pressure from one sensor. The master unit can also make use SHT30 and Dallas DS18B20 sensors if you like them. Up to you. All drivers are already included. I get the temperature from all of the inside ones and average. I so get Relative Humidity and Barometric Pressure from either inside or an outside remote sensor. It sends its data via WiFi by HTTP or UDP. Your choice. I recommend UDP. Code download below.
The date and day of week alternate on row 2. The BP and RH alternate on row 4. It is a tight fit but works. Inside and Outside temps alternate on row 3. Also, each minute, the date, time, temp, RH and BP are recorded on an SD card. The only additional wires for all of this are for the optional local sensors. If you wire a DS18B20 to the mounting place (don't forget the resistor), you can have inside temperatures from that. Else use a shield of SHT30. Better to use remote sensors, though, if you can for everything except inside temp. That's the really nice part about the Wemos D1 Mini. Just stack stuff up and run. A web page is available from the WeMos.
See my current inside and outside conditions here. It is usually up but I might be playing with it so if it fails, come back later. You can also try this address which is usually up all of the time unless I am loading it with the latest software.
See who has been around to see this information here.
Oh, I forgot to mention the little binary clock on the right in the picture, below. It uses the WeMos D1 Mini LED Backpack you can get on eBay for cheap. You don't need the mounting plate except I use it to give me some holes to hang the whole thing on. It is an interesting bit of trivia to show people this clock. It's fun to ask them what time it is and show them that display. The two clocks here are showing the same time. Both set automatically by NTP and adjust for USA DST automatically. If you live elsewhere or don't do DST, you will need to adjust or disable the DST time changing. It's easy since you will have the source!
Get the Software here
Clock on the left (WeMoWX) Remote Temperature UDP Sender
Remote Temperature HTTP Sender Clock on the right
Right click and view image for larger view (at least in Firefox).
FFT Bars and enhanced Adafruit Demo for 0.96" OLED Display.
This code is setup to run on a standard Arduino Uno. It uses a timer specific to Atmel chips. You can modify it, of course, to use any board you like but you will have to change the timer code. This software shows how to rapidly update an OLED screen.
Dual Display Demo LED Matrix 8x8x8 from Arduino Uno, etc.
Get the software here. Zip format. Last updated 06/23/2017. Demo code and library code updated. "keywords.txt" file added with 3 color highlighting for keywords and constants.
Dual Display LED Matrix 8x8x8x2 Clock for Arduino Mega, ESP8266, WeMos and, just maybe Arduino Uno.
Get the software here. ZIP format. Last updated 07/06/2017. This uses the same library code that the demo, above, uses. keywords.txt is not updated. I will take care of that soon and re-upload. Most of the terms are there but some have been changed and are not there. The library files are in the ZIP and need not be moved into a format IDE library. Just unzip, compile change CS pin assignments and download to your device and they will be available and used. The CS in the ZIP is set for ESP8266 pins D1 and D2.
Funetic Alfabet
Click to see the most intelligent Funetic Alfabet to have ever been devised.
It will help you to clarify your traffic on noisy radio circuits or even when speaking with someone in a noisy area. Try it. You might like it! Once you see it, you will understand why it is named "Funetic Alfabet".
Words you have probably Never Heard
Click to see a list of words that you, most probably, Have Never Heard.
You should start immediately using these words before they become too popular and boring. Use them to spice up your everyday speech and make really give you more than a passing glance as you show off your oral ejaculations in everyday intercourse. Now if you think that is dirty, go look up the words.
Music You Should Hear
Click on each to have an enjoyable few minutes. If you like it, go buy the CD!
The following two are from Henry Butler a fine piano player and blues singer.
Butler's Boogie
San Francisco Blues
I took a very short piece of music and looped it many times. It puts my brain into a meditative state. It runs over 60 minutes and is, to me, very pleasant. Let me know how it hits you...
Music Box Interlude.wav
Music Box Interlude.mp3
And one for
Wayne
Ghostly
Music Box.wav
Ghostly
Music Box.mp3
Hey, where's Alice? Are you Alice? Anybody seen Alice? We need her in the restaurant!
And now some
space music. This is an album of music from the Space
Oddesy Orchestra and Choir.
You have never heard of them. This is the only album so
far. Give them a listen.
Cut 01-Space Oddesy Choir-Floating Over Saturn
Cut 02-Space Oddesy Choir-Delving into Saturn
Cut 03-Space Oddesy Orchestra-Duet at the Core of
Saturn
Cut 04-Space Oddesy Orchestra-Christmas on Mars
Cut 05-Space Oddesy Mens Chorus-Breakfast on Venus
Cut 06-Space Oddesy Choir-It's So Hot on Mercury
Cut 07-Space Oddesy Orchestra-Traveling to the Outer
Reaches
Cut 08-Space Oddesy Orchestra-And We're Gone
Pleasanton, California
Model Train Layout Pictures
Official name: Alameda County Central Railroad Society. Click here to see the official web site (but no pictures).
Here are some pictures of the Pleasanton, California Model Train Layout. They have put a LOT of work into this and it looks really good. Of course, it takes a good photographer, too, right. I hope you like the work of the layout builders and the photographer (me).
Note: About 70 more pictures were added in early October 2014.
Enjoy this in-depth look at a very nice, large model train layout.
Best Decorated House in or near Vallejo, CA
Contact me
If you have anything to offer to be included in these lists or requests for software updates,
please write. Click the Contact me, above for the email address.
And, if you are me, and I know I am, here is the HTML manual for the Sony DSC-HX100V camera.
Ah... Tha... Tha... Tha...
That's all folks.
