Towering Tomatoes & Number5

Last Tomatoes Planted - Roma

Last Tomatoes Planted - Roma

I’ve been starting tomatoes in my greenhouse for several years now, but I’ve just now learned something new: If you start tomatoes too early, it seems to stunt their growth. The tomatoes above were the last that I planted, and yet they tower above the plants I started first. The unfortunate part of this lesson is that I didn’t keep track of when I planted them.

Lettuce,Tomato, Eggplant

Lettuce,Tomato, Eggplant

The tomatoes, lettuce and even eggplant are doing great. My peppers are a bit short this year, but I still have two weeks before my planting vacation. I think they will be ready by then.

Indoor Garden

Indoor Garden

The indoor test garden is doing Great ! This may drastically change the way I plant lettuce and other greens. The plants are largely protected from animals, although I did have one instance of animal damage. I left the greenhouse door open and a salad loving critter decided to enter the building for an all it could eat buffet. The plants quickly rebounded and I’ve constructed a small wall to keep animals out.

Number Five

Number Five

I’ve decided to take a break from my last robot project and work on a wheeled bot. The wheels are far easier to maneuver with, allowing me to focus more of my work towards artificial intelligence, and less effort trying to teach a robot how to walk.  “Number Five” will have 4 wheel drive, and multiple sensors which will modify his behavior. For example, the bot will drive slower at night, and fastest when in full light. I also hope to make the robot shy away from magnetic fields, and wake up when sounds or motion are noticed.

I’ve made myself a AtTiny84/85 chip programmer that attaches to my Arduino Mega board. I’ll use the programmer to transfer all of this bot’s code to three AtTiny84 chips (you can see them on the green board in the center).  The robot will then be operated  solely by these three chips.

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