2016 Altima SR Inside Fuse Layout

Just because this may be helpful to someone. Here's the inside fuse layout for a 2016 Altima SR 2.5L.

3D Gnuplot Gif

I needed to make a rotating graph in gnuplot. The plot itself was a 3d plot with one axis being time, one being a server name, and one being a mail count. The graph was fine and all but due to using the heat surface look, it was hard to see some things in the back of the graph. So I wanted to make a gif that simply rotated it.


I did some research and this ended up seeming nigh impossible to do within gnuplot alone. I was able to plot the graph how I wanted by controlling the viewpoint. So I figured if there is a way I can make a ton of output png files, I could use those to create a gif. Turns out this method works quite well. And the best part is that it can all be automated with a script needing no human interaction. The only downside is if you want a small gif at the end, you need to resize/resample it. The final gif I use is a rofling 30 megs. It's 360 frames at a full 1400 by 700 a frame. But on an internal network, this is perfectly fine. You can adjust resolution of the individual graphs in the gnuplot config file.




#! /bin/bash

# Script for creating a gif from the gnuplot pics.

# You need this for fonts: sudo apt-get -y install libgd2-xpm-dev build-essential

#This was for starting out without any residual files

rm /var/www/Servers/test/*.png /var/www/Servers/test/*animation*gif


# All the counters and such initiated

count=0

rotation=0

gifnum=0

gifchunk=0

fullcount=0



while [ $fullcount -lt 360 ] # Main loop; 360 degrees for a perfect spin gif

do



# 'convert' is used to make the gif and it uses globbing

# more than 10 pics at a time will mean they get out of order

while [ $count -lt 10 ]

do


# see the gnuplot config file below


# These sed statemnts are adjusting the output picture number and angle per rep through the 10 count 'while' statement

sed s/XNUMX/$count/ /var/www/Servers/test/3dgnuplot.cfg > /var/www/Servers/test/3dgnuplot.cfg.tmp

sed -i s/XVIEWX/$rotation/ /var/www/Servers/test/3dgnuplot.cfg.tmp


# mmake 1 graph

gnuplot /var/www/Servers/test/3dgnuplot.cfg.tmp



# increment the while10 count, full count (up to 360) and rotation degree (last two interchangable really)

count=$(echo $(($count + 1)))

rotation=$(echo $(($rotation + 1)))

fullcount=$(echo $(($fullcount + 1)))

done


# so after making 10 pictures, use convert to make a gif, keeping it at 10 means globbing works fine

# gifnum is just referencing the while10 gif number so I can glob those later

convert -delay 20 -loop 0 /var/www/Servers/test/*.png /var/www/Servers/test/$gifnum.animation.gif

# after making the gif, remove the png's

rm /var/www/Servers/test/*.png

# reset the while10 counter

count=0

# increment the gif counter

gifnum=$(echo $(($gifnum + 1)))



#####################################

# When you get 10 gifs that the while10 loop made, it globs them together for a larger gif

if [[ $gifnum -eq 9 ]]

then


convert -delay 20 -loop 0 /var/www/Servers/test/*animation.gif /var/www/Servers/test/animation.$gifchunk.gif

gifchunk=$(echo $(($gifchunk + 1)))

gifnum=0

rm /var/www/Servers/test/*.animation.gif

fi

#####################################


done

# After all is said and done and you get the 360 degrees (360 pics made),

# remove all gifs except your larger gif chunks you made

# then use convert to combine all your gifs together in to a mega gif

rm /var/www/Servers/test/*.animation.gif

convert -delay 10 -loop 0 /var/www/Servers/test/animation.* /var/www/Servers/test/myfinalform.gif

# myfinalform.gif is the finished product



## gnuplot config used; you can adjust these to adjust the final gnuplot form

#set term png

#set output '/var/www/Servers/test/XNUMXdgraph.png'

#set terminal png size 1400,700

#set title "Messages processed each hour"

#unset border

#unset surface

#set pm3d at bs

#set hidden3d

#set ylabel "Server"

#set xlabel "Time"

#set dgrid3d 100,100,2

#set samples 50

#set isosamples 50

#set view ,XVIEWX

#splot '/var/www/Servers/3dgnuplot.dat' using 2:1:4:xtic(2):ytic(3) title "Message Counts"







So it may seem like a lot but most of that code is purely to get globbing to work. Without it, you get a schizophrenic gif due to the normal ordering of files (1,12,2,22,3,37,etc). So here's a simple breakdown of what's going on.

Make 10 graphs at incrementing angles

Take those 10 graphs and make a gif

Rinse and repeat above

If you get 10 gifs, combine to larger gif

Once 360 pics are made in to 10-at-a-time gifs, combine all of those gifs in to the final product

Here's a trimmed down sample of it.

Ultrasonic Sensor on an Oscilloscope

So having an oscilloscope makes me always wonder how most electronics work and communicate data. I unfortunately am no expert but sometimes a scope can really help you better understand what's actually going on. In my testing of sensors for the sensor project, I was looking at the Ultrasonic sensors output. Really it's pretty straight forward.

The sensor puts out a pulse and listens back for the response. When that pulse is sent out, the output pin for the echo is set to HIGH. When the reflected ultrasonic sound comes back, the echo pin goes back down to LOW. So essentially all that an arduino does it measure the time between the high and low rise and fall, then calculate the distance based on the speed of sound.

Here was a short video of me moving back and forth in front of a sensor showing the incresing and decresing pulse length.

Zip File Header Chart

I work with looking at zip files a lot. There's a lot of very specific and useful information in a zip header that many don't realize. I frequently needed this information and it's a lot to memorize down to the specifics. So I made a somewhat useful chart. This allows me to be able to open a zip and quickly look at some of the specific hex values and know what they are referencing at a glance. My chart making skills aren't the best, but it works for me.

Wireless Arduino Sensor Unit

Here's the beginning of a project I've been meaning to do a while. Essentially, I'm aiming for this to be a portable sensor unit for arduino. Wireless with an esp8266 and loaded with some sensors that will report their data to a centralized location. Pretty much all the parts will be from eBay and I may even 3D print an enclosure.

So the main things are it needs to be USB powered. The two versions I have planned are via micro USB female and male normal USB, both with a 3.3v regulator so I have access to 5 volts and 3.3 volts without having to use the arduino as a power source (as to not blow out anything).

 


The female micro USB will be so you can plug in a standard phone charger to the unit and the male usb is so you can plug it in to a 120v to 5v USB power brick that many people have.


So as for hardware, I hope to use an arduino mini, esp8266 and a variety of sensors below. Ideally the arduino will host a web server with all of the sensor data in a JSON format. This way it can be queried by something like a program or script and have the data already in a useful format. Perhaps even give it an option to POST directly to elasticsearch.

Feature Wish List:

• Sensors
• PIR sensor
• Ultrasonic range finder
• Laser tripwire
• Temperature
• Humidity
• Light intensity
• Barometric Pressure
• Gas sensor
• LED display - button press shows current IP one digit at a time
• All-in-one package (3D printed enclosure)
• DIP switch to turn sensors on and off
• Master on/off switch
• Laser on/off switch
• Female headers for all sensors (easy to replace)
• Ideally a custom printed PCB with all mounts for best use of space

Perhaps more, perhaps less if I can't find a way to use them all. Or if I can't figure out how to do it.

My bendy desk lamp

I kept needing a lamp at work. One that was small and could be dimmable. I gathered some extra parts I had lying around and threw this thing together. Puts off some good light and has the added benefit of being bendable. 

It just uses a generic 12 volt wall wart, a cheap COB led, an eBay dimmer PWM module, and a big power resistor.