Personal Blogs

Personal Blogshttps://community.element14.com/members-area/personalblogs/en-USTelligent Community 12<link>https://community.element14.com/members-area/personalblogs/b/ralph-yamamoto-s-blog/posts/premature-spring-in-oregon-2026?CommentId=cb6fb759-bea5-4b9b-afa4-d0c0214d9115</link><pubDate>Sat, 28 Mar 2026 10:35:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:cb6fb759-bea5-4b9b-afa4-d0c0214d9115</guid><dc:creator>beacon_dave</dc:creator><description>I've still got Hellebores in flower at the back of the house (near to the BeeBox). The Snowdrops have been and gone, so too early for the bees but if the Winters continue to get milder, then they might become a lifeline. Earlier in the month I had some giant Crocus flowering in the front garden, this is the first year they have made it to full flower before being battered to death by the weather. Apparently Bumblebee queens sometimes take shelter overnight in the flowering cups. Currently have some Muscari in flower out front, and the new young Heathers are still in flower (have just fed them with some more sulphur chips). The red Salvia (front and back) never dropped their leaves over winter, so they may be on for an early start. (I have two already in flower indoors). I've also noticed that this year the Fuchsia have produced new growth from last year's old wood (last year they died back to ground level and started over) so they too might be on for an earlier start. It's quite hard to tell if you are observing the same Bumblebee or not. I think the exact nesting site process for Bumblebees is still a bit of a mystery even to researchers. Not sure if the one I saw on the Hellebores was just feeding up after emerging from hibernation or if it is already in the process of nest building. I assume the later, as after spending a lot of time feeding, it went up high, turned, and flew off in a straight line as opposed to working its way into the next garden. About 10 minutes later it flew back from the same direction and was back on the Hellebores again. I saw this behaviour being repeated a number of times. In contrast, the one I saw scouting around yesterday, was ignoring all the flowers and investigating any holes and gaps.</description></item><item><title /><link>https://community.element14.com/members-area/personalblogs/b/ralph-yamamoto-s-blog/posts/premature-spring-in-oregon-2026?CommentId=515859d2-e266-4701-8620-0264a56e63f6</link><pubDate>Sat, 28 Mar 2026 05:08:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:515859d2-e266-4701-8620-0264a56e63f6</guid><dc:creator>ralphjy</dc:creator><description>I think that I might have seen a queen in the backyard earlier this week. Or more correctly, I was buzzed by a VERY large bumblebee that appeared to be searching the area. The weather here has been problematic too, but luckily we are not in an area that is prone to flooding. My backyard has nothing flowering currently, all the activity has been in the front yard which is on the east side. I'm hopeful that things will improve in the next few weeks. We finally had a couple of days in a row of full sun, but the overnight temps were in the 30s (F). Sunrise to sunset is about 12 1/2 hours and daytime temps are in the 60s. My wife mentioned to me that she saw a large bumblebee this afternoon when she was cleaning out the area around the rose bushes in the backyard. Not sure if that could be the same one. I've read that the process of finding a suitable nesting site could take a few weeks?</description></item><item><title /><link>https://community.element14.com/members-area/personalblogs/b/ralph-yamamoto-s-blog/posts/premature-spring-in-oregon-2026?CommentId=d6e4f125-28cf-4377-9ff6-56aee15b9abb</link><pubDate>Fri, 27 Mar 2026 22:48:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:d6e4f125-28cf-4377-9ff6-56aee15b9abb</guid><dc:creator>beacon_dave</dc:creator><description>Spotted a queen scouting the garden today - under the shed, around the composting bins, in the wood pile, around the wheelie bins, around the garden walls, in the long grass, under the car... Unfortunately BeeBox wasn't on her flightpath so couldn't see if there was any interest. Weather is all over the place at the moment, four seasons in one day. Overnight frosts, storms, heavy rain, hail, sunny intervals... At least BeeBox didn't blow away, first real test of the wind resistance.</description></item><item><title /><link>https://community.element14.com/members-area/personalblogs/b/gough-lui-s-blog/posts/open-surgery-on-a-keysight-u1461a-insulation-resistance-tester?CommentId=e778a35f-7a2f-40ef-bde1-0c0daa764d20</link><pubDate>Sun, 22 Mar 2026 19:39:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:e778a35f-7a2f-40ef-bde1-0c0daa764d20</guid><dc:creator>three-phase</dc:creator><description>Did you get a resolution to this? The screen on mine started failing about 6 months ago, the same manner as the one in Gough's blog. There is now a seller on Aliexpress offering a drop in white OLED screen. It comes with the board on the back with the correct connector for the meter as well as a ribbon cable. I just left the ribbon cable unused taped up to the PCB as it arrived. It plugs straight in and bolts in place and works fine. The only thing is that the screen brightness cannot be adjusted.</description></item><item><title /><link>https://community.element14.com/members-area/personalblogs/b/ralph-yamamoto-s-blog/posts/premature-spring-in-oregon-2026?CommentId=79478bae-5268-41ce-ad83-8ec27322fea9</link><pubDate>Wed, 18 Mar 2026 03:40:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:79478bae-5268-41ce-ad83-8ec27322fea9</guid><dc:creator>ralphjy</dc:creator><description /></item><item><title /><link>https://community.element14.com/members-area/personalblogs/b/ralph-yamamoto-s-blog/posts/premature-spring-in-oregon-2026?CommentId=7a394a6b-7576-4a5c-ac9d-865335918561</link><pubDate>Tue, 17 Mar 2026 22:29:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:7a394a6b-7576-4a5c-ac9d-865335918561</guid><dc:creator>beacon_dave</dc:creator><description>Ready and waiting... Having some doubts whether or not the queen I saw can actually fit through the hole.</description></item><item><title /><link>https://community.element14.com/members-area/personalblogs/b/ralph-yamamoto-s-blog/posts/premature-spring-in-oregon-2026?CommentId=9773ae0e-82c9-4241-9508-7f8ccb2d821a</link><pubDate>Tue, 17 Mar 2026 22:11:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:9773ae0e-82c9-4241-9508-7f8ccb2d821a</guid><dc:creator>ralphjy</dc:creator><description>Any BeeBox activity?</description></item><item><title /><link>https://community.element14.com/members-area/personalblogs/b/ralph-yamamoto-s-blog/posts/premature-spring-in-oregon-2026?CommentId=d265d87a-7c9c-4db4-96c4-939d452e0fe4</link><pubDate>Tue, 17 Mar 2026 20:58:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:d265d87a-7c9c-4db4-96c4-939d452e0fe4</guid><dc:creator>beacon_dave</dc:creator><description>First bumblebee sightings of the year here today. One at work and another hard at work on the Hellebores in the back garden.</description></item><item><title /><link>https://community.element14.com/members-area/personalblogs/b/nexgen-flight-simuator/posts/nexgen-component-documentation-navigation-display-unit-asn-1252-asn-128?CommentId=42e7d030-b19a-4562-9319-754f8a0ef7ae</link><pubDate>Thu, 05 Mar 2026 18:12:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:42e7d030-b19a-4562-9319-754f8a0ef7ae</guid><dc:creator>phoenixcomm</dc:creator><description>I have changed my approach. To the design of how it's design to get this beast to function, this will be accomplished by using 2 Ardunio. Vegas one just to run the display since there's as i have a mix of alpha & 7 seg displays, I have to use 16 bit gpio and run the. statically. The second cpu handles quite alt A. Transmitting am receiving messages from the cam bus B. keeping track of which display it needs to us B. Encoding the keyboard and 4 other switched. D.. TALKING the other cpu two items 1 1. The ascii letter /number 2. Which display Oh yes you need to run incandescent things at 4 volts to boot .so currently that's 3 boxes CP-1252 the computer display. And keyboards and switches. There will be an i interface box which cxu termination between echo boxes last there is the.LRU which talks to the can . And the Sim itself.</description></item><item><title /><link>https://community.element14.com/members-area/personalblogs/b/ralph-yamamoto-s-blog/posts/premature-spring-in-oregon-2026?CommentId=7abb009f-8445-4120-bc21-7858f8160284</link><pubDate>Tue, 10 Feb 2026 13:35:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:7abb009f-8445-4120-bc21-7858f8160284</guid><dc:creator>scottiebabe</dc:creator><description>That is really cool, I had no idea there was skiing in Hawaii!</description></item><item><title /><link>https://community.element14.com/members-area/personalblogs/b/ralph-yamamoto-s-blog/posts/premature-spring-in-oregon-2026?CommentId=2be1813d-f5b3-4cf4-a664-6efc7282403e</link><pubDate>Mon, 09 Feb 2026 22:35:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:2be1813d-f5b3-4cf4-a664-6efc7282403e</guid><dc:creator>beacon_dave</dc:creator><description>That sounds like a really useful project for better understanding of the bee population over time. I noticed last year that there were hardly any Tree Bumblebees visiting. They appear to have been replaced by the Common Carder Bumblebee. I was reading that the milder winters here are starting to cause some bumblebees not to enter hibernation, which could be a real issue due to the general lack of food sources during the winter months. Hence why I have started planting the Hellebores and Heathers.</description></item><item><title /><link>https://community.element14.com/members-area/personalblogs/b/ralph-yamamoto-s-blog/posts/premature-spring-in-oregon-2026?CommentId=e1e50a36-1b7d-4ae0-8cee-f1ff44e3012c</link><pubDate>Mon, 09 Feb 2026 21:52:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:e1e50a36-1b7d-4ae0-8cee-f1ff44e3012c</guid><dc:creator>ralphjy</dc:creator><description>I had done a pollinator population monitor on Hackster in 3Q last year. It was basically a time lapse AI camera running FOMO to count bee types. I had some accuracy issues due to hardware limitations and also was too late in the year to acquire enough data for good model training. I was using a Xiao ESP32S3 Sense with an OV2640 camera. I now have OV3660 and OV5640 (auto-focus) cameras that I can use with the Xiao ESP32S3 Sense, so I'd like to try improving that project. Or if that doesn't work, trying a Grove Vision AI V2 that I also have. Nothing planned for summer garden improvements, but it's still early . I'd like to improve planting for the colder weather later. I've been surprised with how early in the year bees are out.</description></item><item><title /><link>https://community.element14.com/members-area/personalblogs/b/ralph-yamamoto-s-blog/posts/premature-spring-in-oregon-2026?CommentId=4dc9c6f8-e643-4c78-80fc-764431c12d65</link><pubDate>Mon, 09 Feb 2026 21:09:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:4dc9c6f8-e643-4c78-80fc-764431c12d65</guid><dc:creator>beacon_dave</dc:creator><description>Are you planning on making any improvements to the garden this year ? Any garden tech projects ? I picked up some thicker bamboo canes at the weekend to have another go at training some of the Salvia plants vertically to try and get them to knit into the bottom of the old Hawthorn hedge. They will grow to about 4 foot tall if well enough supported until established. Running out of horizontal space so need to expand vertically</description></item><item><title /><link>https://community.element14.com/members-area/personalblogs/b/ralph-yamamoto-s-blog/posts/premature-spring-in-oregon-2026?CommentId=d4977e75-4511-4712-b588-05b8a8ce5daa</link><pubDate>Sun, 08 Feb 2026 02:47:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:d4977e75-4511-4712-b588-05b8a8ce5daa</guid><dc:creator>robogary</dc:creator><description>The Shark Chase Tank swarm. Each Tank with a BLE switch to target Ducks or Deer ay my command. I'd better get busy with that object detection training.</description></item><item><title /><link>https://community.element14.com/members-area/personalblogs/b/ralph-yamamoto-s-blog/posts/premature-spring-in-oregon-2026?CommentId=a677cf01-32e8-4d08-9f4e-97e6cd7457c6</link><pubDate>Sat, 07 Feb 2026 21:35:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:a677cf01-32e8-4d08-9f4e-97e6cd7457c6</guid><dc:creator>beacon_dave</dc:creator><description>That was quite common over here before the ski resorts got established and the tows and lifts got installed. Half the day climbing to the top and then a couple of minutes skiing back down to the bottom again. I noticed a while back that the photos from my Kodak 110 camera have started degrading. Not quite as archival quality as people made out at the time.</description></item><item><title /><link>https://community.element14.com/members-area/personalblogs/b/ralph-yamamoto-s-blog/posts/premature-spring-in-oregon-2026?CommentId=a46d4168-cd64-4644-beaf-8951405fb7c9</link><pubDate>Sat, 07 Feb 2026 21:19:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:a46d4168-cd64-4644-beaf-8951405fb7c9</guid><dc:creator>ralphjy</dc:creator><description>Funny, I just happened to be wearing my Mauna Kea sweater that my wife converted to short sleeves for me. I haven't been up there in literally ages, but back 50 years ago - if you wanted to ski, you had to walk 300-400 ft up a hill which was quite difficult at 14,000 ft. I think that I had a Kodak 110 camera back then, but I think all those pictures are long gone...</description></item><item><title /><link>https://community.element14.com/members-area/personalblogs/b/ralph-yamamoto-s-blog/posts/premature-spring-in-oregon-2026?CommentId=9e7200e3-2f68-497f-baa7-5457cbfdfb52</link><pubDate>Sat, 07 Feb 2026 19:25:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:9e7200e3-2f68-497f-baa7-5457cbfdfb52</guid><dc:creator>DAB</dc:creator><description>Nice post. Still winter where I am, but I have put in a new planting for my hydroponic garden. The Basil and Dill are both up and several other seeds look like they are beginning to sprout.</description></item><item><title /><link>https://community.element14.com/members-area/personalblogs/b/ralph-yamamoto-s-blog/posts/premature-spring-in-oregon-2026?CommentId=5debb86d-8e46-4afd-ab88-05326a90a9ef</link><pubDate>Sat, 07 Feb 2026 18:44:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:5debb86d-8e46-4afd-ab88-05326a90a9ef</guid><dc:creator>beacon_dave</dc:creator><description>Judging by the angle of the 2nd person's skis, if that tow starts up, then I think they will be in for a bit of a surprise.</description></item><item><title /><link>https://community.element14.com/members-area/personalblogs/b/ralph-yamamoto-s-blog/posts/premature-spring-in-oregon-2026?CommentId=19586056-3d88-4075-bc37-009f6ffa4d80</link><pubDate>Sat, 07 Feb 2026 17:21:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:19586056-3d88-4075-bc37-009f6ffa4d80</guid><dc:creator>kmikemoo</dc:creator><description>I can't imagine just a straight tow rope, but I have used one with hand loops in it. From looking online, the little ski area I went to has upgraded it to a tubing run. The straps now pull a person in an inner tube up the hill.</description></item><item><title /><link>https://community.element14.com/members-area/personalblogs/b/ralph-yamamoto-s-blog/posts/premature-spring-in-oregon-2026?CommentId=33b32f1a-b48d-4a9c-9c79-2a0415200ee7</link><pubDate>Sat, 07 Feb 2026 16:27:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:33b32f1a-b48d-4a9c-9c79-2a0415200ee7</guid><dc:creator>beacon_dave</dc:creator><description>Never tried a rope tow but I guess it depends on the steepness of the incline. Still a lot easier than walking I expect. On some of the T-bar and Poma button tows, it can feel more like a chairlift at times as you hit the steep bits where the snow has drifted. I wish I had body armour one year as I was hit in the head by a swinging T-bar. The person behind me on the tow, instead of letting it slow and wind up as it went around the end pylon at the top, just let go fully extended and skied off as I got clobbered with it.</description></item></channel></rss>