Source for these instructions: https://docs.micropython.org/en/latest/esp8266/esp8266/tutorial/intro.html

The NodeMCU line of boards represent a small embedded system with onboard wifi.  I plan to use this board to monitor the status of my sump pump and communicate with my home automation system going forward.  Before doing so, I wanted to stay with Python, so I chose to setup my board with MicroPython rather than an Arduino based approach.  The following sections and commands should be all you need to get up and running with the board.  For reference, I am using the HiLetgo 2pcs ESP8266 NodeMCU LUA CP2102 ESP-12E Internet WIFI Development Board

Flashing MicroPython Firmware

Begin by flashing the MicroPython firmware.  On a Linux system I used the esptool flasher and downloaded the firmware to the board with the following commands.

# Flashing tool used for loading firmware
pip install esptool

# Install the current firmware
# Download from: http://micropython.org/download#esp8266
esptool.py --port /dev/ttyUSB0 erase_flash

# Flash the firmware
esptool.py --port /dev/ttyUSB0 --baud 460800 write_flash --flash_size=detect 0 esp8266-20180511-v1.9.4.bin

# Using a Linux system, connect through USB and terminal.
picocom /dev/ttyUSB0 -b115200

Configure Wifi

Once flashed, you'll need to setup wifi connection to your home network to fully utilize the board.  The following commands allow you to establish a connection to your router and turn off the access point functionality.  

# Connect to the board over USB and configure wifi
# Turn off ap access if needed
# Source: https://docs.micropython.org/en/latest/esp8266/esp8266/tutorial/network_basics.html

import network
sta_if = network.WLAN(network.STA_IF)
ap_if = network.WLAN(network.AP_IF)

# Activate the Wifi connection
sta_if.active(True)

# Connect to your network
sta_if.connect("<your ESSID>", "<your password>")
    
# Check to see if you have a network connection.
sta_if.ifconfig()
    
# Deactivate the access point if needed.
ap_if.active(False)

Adding Files to your ESP 8266

Getting started with the ESP8266 can be a bit vague.  You will need to transfer your main.py script to the board as well as modify the boot.py to include your wifi connection information.  By default, WebREPL is turned off.  This caused me to stumble for a while.  To setup WebREPL, execute the following commands.

import webrepl_setup

# Follow the onscreen commands to setup WebREPL
# Select a password, 4-9 chars.

# Reboot the board.

Once rebooted, I used the CLI interface from: https://github.com/micropython/webrepl.  I can then get the file from remote, edit it, and put it back on the board.

# Command to get boot.py.
python webrepl_cli.py 192.168.0.108:boot.py boot.py

# Command to write boot.py.
python webrepl_cli.py boot.py 192.168.0.108:boot.py

Now you should be all set having a running MicroPython flashed ESP 8266 to begin development.  It will connect to your network upon boot and be available to have code pushed to it through WebREPL.  

A Simple Blinking Light Script

Getting an LED blinking is the "Hello World" of embedded systems.  The following script will blink an LED every 2 seconds provided you hook up to GPIO Pin 2, labeled as I/O pin 4 in the script.  

"""
    Script to blink an LED connected to GPIO Pin 2 of the ESP 8266 board.
"""

###########################################################################
# Setup code goes below, this is called once at the start of the program: #
###########################################################################
import machine
import time

# Counter 
i = 1
led = machine.Pin(4, machine.Pin.OUT)

while True:
    ###################################################################
    # Loop code goes inside the loop here, this is called repeatedly: #
    ###################################################################
    i += 1
    i = i % 2
    if(i % 2 == 0):
        led.on()
    else:
        led.off()
    time.sleep(2.0)  # Delay for 2 seconds.

Git repository for this post: https://github.com/jaredmoore/hyperion/

A humid basement can be a nightmare to a new homeowner.  When touring our new home we immediately noticed a musty smell in the basement and the air was quite heavy.  Being a bit of a data nut and a programmer, I knew I would have to start monitoring the temperature and humidity to assess the situation.  After looking into the various options available to me, I decided to embark on a journey of creating my own custom home monitoring solution.  

The first step was to investigate different options for monitoring temperature and humidity.  I had an old RaspberryPi from 2011 laying around to act as the base for the monitoring.  My goals for this initial system were:

1. Periodically sample temperature and humidity.
2. Record the data in a flat file.
3. Serve the data locally and plot it with D3.js or similar library.

Periodically Sample Temperature and Humidity

Searching on Amazon, I found a pair of DHT22 Temperature Humidity Sensors.  Although there were only a few reviews, it seemed that they were preferable to the DHT11 sensors.  I'm not terribly concerned with accuracy as a ballpark range is fine for the application.  Hooking the sensor up to the RaspberryPi was straightforward after following the tutorial found at "Raspberry Pi: Measure Humidity and Temperature with DHT11/DHT22".  

On the software side, I used the Adafruit Python DHT Library and built a custom script to poll the sensor every ten minutes.  Setup for the code can be found in lines 27 to 43 of monitor.py.  Code for the polling is below:

print('Logging sensor measurements to {0} every {1} seconds.'.format(LOGFILE, FREQUENCY_SECONDS))
print('Press Ctrl-C to quit.')
while True:
    # Attempt to get sensor reading.
    humidity, temp = Adafruit_DHT.read(DHT_TYPE, DHT_PIN)

    # Skip to the next reading if a valid measurement couldn't be taken.
    # This might happen if the CPU is under a lot of load and the sensor
    # can't be reliably read (timing is critical to read the sensor).
    if humidity is None or temp is None:
        time.sleep(2)
        continue

    print(datetime.datetime.now(tz).strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'))
    print('Temperature: {0:0.1f} C'.format(temp))
    print('Humidity:    {0:0.1f} %'.format(humidity))

    # Append the data in the spreadsheet, including a timestamp
    with open(LOGFILE,'a') as f:
        f.write(datetime.datetime.now(tz).strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')+',')
        f.write(str(temp)+',')
        f.write(str(humidity)+"\n")

    # Wait 30 seconds before continuing
    print('Wrote a row to {0}'.format(LOGFILE))
    time.sleep(FREQUENCY_SECONDS)

Currently, the code writes to a local log file creating data for time, temperature and humidity.  The script is launched and allowed to run in the background.  In the future, I plan to add this to an automated launching script so that it starts upon rebooting the Pi.  

Serve the data locally and plot it with D3.js

My next goal was to create a simple local webserver in order to plot the data collected by the Pi.  Following the d3-flask-blog-post repository, I went about creating my flask application.

My flask server contains a single index.html page.  It serves a line plot showing the humidity, temperature, and red line at 80% humidity.  Styling will be updated in the future.

For now I have assigned the RaspberryPi a static IP on my local network and I can access it through any of my devices.  

Conclusion

So far this has been a fairly inexpensive project but it is generating the data I am interested in seeing.  Aside from a few very hot days where we also opened the windows, humidity in the basement is staying under the critical zone, although still higher than I would like.  After seeing this data, a dehumidifier will be purchased in the near future.

After my first chef's knife I knew that I would need to upgrade to a 2" x 72" grinder at some point.  Looking around on the web I came across dcknive's excellent walkthrough and set about on my own journey of building.  This project was also my first foray into the world of welding, arc welding to be specific.  Using my grandpa's old Lincoln tombstone welder was a fun experience but my welds leave something to be desired.  

As the grinder started coming together I was able to mockup the assembly and determine placing for the motor and drive wheels.  Initially I wanted the angled slot to be the tensioner and there is a spring embedded at the bottom of that slot.  However, it turned out the belt wasn't long enough to cover that span so I pivoted to the upright tensioning arm with a gas piston.  Drive wheels and pillow block were purchased from Origin Blade Maker.

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After having a go with a few skinning and paring knives I wanted to scale up to something a bit bigger.  I was using my paring knife daily, but still relying on my store bought chef's knife.  With some O1 steel laying around I drew up a rough chef's knife template and set about making my first large knife on my 2"x"42".  Somehow I managed to have a fairly adequate grind on this, although I did end up with a bit of a dig into the straight part of the edge so it doesn't quite get flush to a cutting board.  The thin steel of this knife though keeps it as a good veggie cutter even with the deficiency.

Where this knife really shined was the zebrawood handle.  It expands and contracts with the seasons but the patterning in the wood still gets my attention.  This and the "seeing red" paring knife also started to veer towards more rounded handles as I got a sense for grinding handles with the belt sander.  The limitations of the 2"x42" prevented much of a slack belt area but a light touch on the platen usually sufficed.  

After making this chef's knife, it became apparent to me though that I'd likely need to build a more solid 2"x72" grinder to get access to a wider variety of belts and have the ability to do slack belt grinding when finishing handles.

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After my first sheath went fairly well, I quickly wanted to make a sheath for my own skinner.  My cardboard and tape sheath simply wasn't going to cut it long-term.  For this sheath I bought a few cheap leather stamps and had a go at making a pattern in the edge to add some visual interest.

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After dying the leather black, gluing and stitching, my knife finally had a worthy sheath.  

My second skinner was made for my uncle Ed who got me into hunting and fishing.  I made many great memories going up to his cabin in Canada and one of the ways I felt I could pay him back was to make a hunting knife for him.  I used the same pattern as for my first skinner but this time had a belt grinder and knew to stop my grind well before going beyond a full flat grind.  Although I had a belt grinder, I still finished the knife at 400 grit by hand to get a smooth satin finish with a scotchbrite pad.  

As I was doing my grinding on the weekends at my parent's house I started working on multiple knives at once.  Eventually I learned not to try gluing up two at once, but not at this point!

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I had some time before finishing this knife, but unlike my first skinner, my leatherworking skills had improved by this point.  After finishing the knife I set about taking my first attempt at a wet-formed sheath.  

Hand stitching took some work and I was pretty nervous about putting a brand new carbon steel knife into a wet sheath but ultimately the process worked.  I protected this knife with some coconut oil and then a ziplock baggie.  I really liked the ebony handle on this one although I still felt that my shaping wasn't quite there.  It fit well in the hand, but still had quite a blocky appearance.  Using the belt grinder was still nerve wracking and removing too much material was a major concern of mine.  

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My PhD Advisor was an integral part in my development as an academic.  There certainly were many drafts delivered back with plenty of red text to fix.  In that spirit, I wanted to make a suitable thank you for the years of mentoring so I chose a paring knife with african blackwood handles and carbon fiber pins with a red G10 liner along the spine.  Hopefully my later drafts were more reminiscent of this color balance.  

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I only have one photo of this knife, sent to me by the recipient.  For whatever reason I didn't take pictures during the build of this knife but it followed the process and style of my first paring knife.  Sadly the photo really doesn't do justice for the sapwood and patterning in this zircote handle.  My shaping process was still quite rough at this point so I defaulting to blocky style handles with rounded edges.  Still, it was pretty comfortable in the hand.  This knife was lost somewhere in a move a few years later.

After breaking in the 2" x 42" grinder on the package opener, I wanted a knife I'd use everyday, not just during hunting season.  With my newfound grinder, I set about working on a number of knives in parallel with one even left over from a second hand-ground knife. One of those three eventually turned into my second paring knife.  

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In the meantime, I found some basic paring knife designs that were practical everyday drivers and went for it.  Using some thinner O1 stock and ebony again for the handle I came up with what is still in 2022 my goto paring knife.  I still didn't have my handle process down completely yet so I stuck with a rather boxy and angled front design here.  Future iterations that show up in the blog will demonstrate the refinement process I've gone through over time with this design.  Still, it's comfortable in hand and very durable with the ebony handle.  

I realized pretty quickly that my knifemaking career would be pretty arduous doing the bevel grinding by hand and I managed to find a 2"x42" Craftsman knife grinder at Sears on sale for somewhere around $150.  With a slight amount of knowledge hastily gathered from YouTube and plenty of belts I nervously approached the new machine.  

The paring knife you see above was my first foray.  Grinding the bevels was a bit terrifying as the grinder really took off the metal quickly.  Over time, I kept grinding the bevels but bringing the edge too thin for heat treat, so I'd have to grind the edge up to get more thickness which inevitably ended with me thinning the edge again as I tried to refine the bevels.  Instead of taking the bevels higher, I decided to stop with it in the condition it already was.  Comical for a first attempt, but I knew the grinder was the right choice.

While the knife itself is far from pretty.  Geometry is completely out of whack, bevel lines are wavy, the bevels themselves aren't flat... I really like the handle material here.  Although I haven't gotten around to using mesquite again, it is a nice feeling wood once finished.  

Is it pretty?  Nope.  But this knife still sits on my knife block and is our goto for opening all those packages that seem to be the reality of our lives today.

Around 2014 I started seeing posts about people that had built their own knives but it always seemed to require a large amount of tooling to get started.  I came across Aaron Gough's excellent beginner knifemaker series on YouTube and realized that it would be possible.  After many hours on YouTube, reddit, and forums I started to build the jig that would be the foundation of my endeavor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9iNDRwwBQQ&ab_channel=GoughCustom)

Starting out with a flat piece of O1 tool stock, I began the process of shaping then hand grinding the knife.  Working in a slightly dark basement shop I found a pair of headphones and realized how many strokes it was going to take.  

After getting it roughed out with flies and draw ground, it was time to heat treat.  A small two brick forge and a torch were enough to get this one heat treated.  

Handle fitted out with Ebony.