Win a Nexus 10 Tablet - Tell us your greatest backyard win!

RE: Win a Nexus 10 Tablet - Tell us your greatest backyard win!

Stuartsjones — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 09:21:53 GMT

Hi all and thanks for entering your backyard projects.

It was a pretty tough choice, but we have decided that Nico teWinkel was the winner with this entry. I'm sure you will all join me in congratulating Nico and thanks once again for sharing your own projects with the community!

Stuart

RE: Win a Nexus 10 Tablet - Tell us your greatest backyard win!

matfur92 — Sat, 06 Sep 2014 22:41:24 GMT

A fantastic morning until the ladybugs were busy with the continuity of the species I decided to install the roof ...

[View:/resized-image/__size/620x465/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/4278.contentimage_5F00_177070.jpg:620:465][View:/resized-image/__size/384x384/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/1134.contentimage_5F00_177071.jpg:384:384]

Luckily I finished before this "wonderful" storm

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RE: Win a Nexus 10 Tablet - Tell us your greatest backyard win!

lahcen005 — Sat, 06 Sep 2014 22:33:05 GMT

I am working on a project for my backyard where I make a weather station with various sensors such as humidity, temperature and light / dark sensor. The goal of this project is to automatic controle via IoT to give the plants water, to control shading screens in backyard and turn the light on or off when I'm not present at home.

Kind regards,

Lahcen

RE: Win a Nexus 10 Tablet - Tell us your greatest backyard win!

justiciero24 — Sat, 06 Sep 2014 18:14:42 GMT

I don't have backyard win right now, but I am working on it. So let me tell you what I am gonna do. [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/4721.contentimage_5F00_930.png:16:16]

I love animals, especially reptiles and fishes, so I decide to build a pond in my backyard. But having a pond implies too much work because you need filter the water, maintain the water warm, change the water every week, feed the turtles, or in a few words check than everything is ok from anywhere using the internet.

Thinking a little bit I figured out that I can automate almost everything necessary to have a healthy pond with turtles and fishes. So I am planning to use a Raspberry Pi connected to the internet, the Raspberry will control all the pond system like the filter, the heater, a ph sensor, some electro valves and pumps to replace the water and refill the water when necessary, water level sensor, opacity sensor (to check how clear is the water), a camera to watch the pond remotely, and a fish/ turtle feeder.

Here is the schematic of I want to make:

[View:/resized-image/__size/584x486/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/2211.contentimage_5F00_177065.jpg:584:486]

And here is the space where I am going to build the pond:

[View:/resized-image/__size/351x263/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/0167.contentimage_5F00_177066.jpg:351:263]

And I hope to obtain something like this:

[View:/resized-image/__size/365x246/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/7024.contentimage_5F00_177067.jpg:365:246]

And hope you enjoy my future backyard win, my turtles will be so happy [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/2047.contentimage_5F00_1.png:16:16]

[View:/resized-image/__size/427x320/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/5861.contentimage_5F00_177068.jpg:427:320]

And when I finish, I will have a BBQ on my DIY wheel griller [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/1464.contentimage_5F00_3.png:16:16]

[View:/resized-image/__size/431x323/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/2727.contentimage_5F00_177069.jpg:431:323]

Best regards,

Daniel.

RE: Win a Nexus 10 Tablet - Tell us your greatest backyard win!

ntewinkel — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 04:44:45 GMT

My biggest Backyard Win is the backyard itself!

We cleared the lot and built the house, leaving what was pretty much a gravel pit as a yard. We then got something like 30-40 dump trucks full of "free fill" to level things up a bit. This is what that looked like, aka "before"...

[View:/resized-image/__size/282x213/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/contentimage_5F00_177052.jpg:282:213][View:/resized-image/__size/282x213/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/contentimage_5F00_177053.jpg:282:213][View:/resized-image/__size/281x212/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/contentimage_5F00_177054.jpg:281:212]

After we rented a machine to level it all out, raked for several days, added maybe 15 dump trucks of topsoil, and raked some (a lot) more it looked like this...

[View:/resized-image/__size/283x213/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/contentimage_5F00_177055.jpg:283:213][View:/resized-image/__size/281x212/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/contentimage_5F00_177056.jpg:281:212]

And as it all came together and the grass had some time to grow it finally started to look civilized:

[View:/resized-image/__size/285x215/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/contentimage_5F00_177057.jpg:285:215][View:/resized-image/__size/319x214/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/contentimage_5F00_177058.jpg:319:214]

[View:/resized-image/__size/323x214/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/contentimage_5F00_177059.jpg:323:214][View:/resized-image/__size/320x215/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/contentimage_5F00_177060.jpg:320:215]

The fence was also a very painful part of that, and I lost 10 pounds building it (don't worry, I've since found them back [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/contentimage_5F00_3.png:16:16])

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All in all, the landscaping took us pretty much 3 years straight, nearly every weekend and after work hours spent doing what we now look back on as "Extreme Gardening". The only breaks we got were when it snowed for a few days here and there [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/4087.contentimage_5F00_1.png:16:16]

Oh and we did also build a deck as part of the whole thing. My wife had a beautiful design she wanted so I used some Home Depot software to draw it out and viola! - rejected by the building inspectors! So I had figure out how to build a deck to code - turns out San Diego has that info available online, and it's pretty much the same as our Canadian rules. Lots of beams, lots of huge concrete footings. Now if there's an earthquake, under the deck will be the safest place to hide [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/contentimage_5F00_3.png:16:16]

[View:/resized-image/__size/358x269/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/contentimage_5F00_177062.jpg:358:269]

Worth the effort though:

[View:/resized-image/__size/361x272/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/contentimage_5F00_177063.jpg:361:272]

We later added a hottub. Should've had that during all the work to soothe our aching muscles!

[View:/resized-image/__size/362x241/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/contentimage_5F00_177064.jpg:362:241]

ps, when I say "we" I mean just my wife and myself for pretty much all of it. The only exceptions are that her dad ran the backhoe to level the rough piles of dirt, and we hired a friend with a small digger to dig the ponds and river.

Cheers,

-Nico

RE: Win a Nexus 10 Tablet - Tell us your greatest backyard win!

dougw — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 01:15:06 GMT

Wow, some mighty impressive projects here. I really like the snow sculptures- well done.

My biggest backyard wins were all BC (before chips) so perhaps not contenders for this challenge, but good for something a little different. I lived "in the jungle" (it wasn't far away) with the Demerara river bordering my backyard. We had a gigantic mango tree in the back yard where we built 7 tree forts and none of them could be seen from the ground. I don't think my parents quite realized the extent of the construction. Its kinda cool to build a communal clubhouse in a tree, but it can be a little cramped, and of course as soon as one kid decides to build his own fort, then each kid has to have his own. My fort's claim to fame - it was the highest structure in the tree and quite unstable in the wind - obviously built before I became an engineer. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the tree and the forts wouldn't be visible anyway. However I do have a picture of a giant piranha I caught for dinner. (12 pounds, 6 ounces) I'm not sure if it qualifies as a world record, but it is the largest piranha I ever saw. A most memorable experience from an interesting place to grow up. That kind of life is disappearing.

[View:/resized-image/__size/620x625/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/6708.contentimage_5F00_177051.jpg:620:625]

RE: Win a Nexus 10 Tablet - Tell us your greatest backyard win!

e14 Contributor — Tue, 02 Sep 2014 09:45:26 GMT

I say the most epic thing I've created in my backyard are snow sculptures of my favorite childhood characters that incorporated my kids.

[View:/resized-image/__size/600x900/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/8308.contentimage_5F00_177047.jpg:600:900][View:/resized-image/__size/600x900/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/7713.contentimage_5F00_177048.jpg:600:900][View:/resized-image/__size/600x900/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/5658.contentimage_5F00_177049.jpg:600:900][View:/resized-image/__size/620x465/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/0882.contentimage_5F00_177050.jpg:620:465]

Miguel Valenzuela

RE: Win a Nexus 10 Tablet - Tell us your greatest backyard win!

Robert Peter Oakes — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 16:20:18 GMT

I would say my deck all built by my own bare (Well Gloved) hands, it took quite a while but I use it often to sit there with laptop, enjoying the sun and answering Community member Questions, a great place to dream up new ideas for projects, relax and answer questions on all things electronics and code, ... Perfect.

Oh, and the Fort was built by myself for the kids too as they did not want to hang out with the grownups on the deck[View:/resized-image/__size/620x465/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/3603.contentimage_5F00_177031.jpg:620:465][View:/resized-image/__size/620x465/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/2626.contentimage_5F00_177032.jpg:620:465][View:/resized-image/__size/318x261/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/3286.contentimage_5F00_177033.jpg:318:261]

RE: Win a Nexus 10 Tablet - Tell us your greatest backyard win!

e14 Contributor — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 15:38:18 GMT

My greatest backyard win was taking my daughter out side with our chalk boards painted MDF, and having her hold it up for her 1st day at school!

Its a win cause she knows what she wants! and she is only 6 years old!

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RE: Win a Nexus 10 Tablet - Tell us your greatest backyard win!

bobbydharrell — Fri, 29 Aug 2014 19:37:53 GMT

OK, my kid is my best build .. but here are a few, with images :-)

First off, had a 128gb USB drive that the case broke on, needed to protect it, so I did the best I could

Liked it so much I made 2 more :-)

The Cars still worked perfectly, and the blinking status light shows under rear wheel well.

I also made an 8' x 2' planter for my wife to grow an urban garden, then 2 smaller 2x2 ones for the kids:

I installed an android tablet as the radio in my old truck, looked better after I cleaned up, the background showed the eq for whatever was playing, played through car stereo, had cellular access, Bluetooth connectivity to phone, etc. WAS So Cool and would do it again in aheart beat, traded truck for a Motorcycle later, 1800cc vroom vroom

and Last but not least, Firelight dinner I made for me and the wifey one night over the summer, I did something right on the grill b/c she is still talking about it LOL

---Did I qualify? Win? LOL .. Now Im hungry

RE: Win a Nexus 10 Tablet - Tell us your greatest backyard win!

ipv1 — Fri, 29 Aug 2014 19:17:13 GMT

My biggest backyard win is under construction. It is a thirty foot cloth drying line which is motorized and is controlled by the cc3200 allowing it to be controlled over the internet making it the largest IOT device I know of. Photos coming soon. [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-2669a4de-094d-4e50-8e33-9c78ba5cb30f/contentimage_5F00_1.png:16:16]