Find People Smarter Than You

Been up at the school today trying to plan and get the room ready for the the youngsters.  At noon, I shot over to the Chattanooga Public Library's 4th Floor to check out the Maker Party.  I enjoyed sitting down and learning a few things about TinkerCAD, which is used to design stuff for 3-D printers.  I think it might be a good program for the kids in my Energy Systems class to do some project designs, particularly some that will have some overlap with our Wireless Earth Watchdogs.

I had a pocket flip pad and pen to kiss butt and take names, particularly those who might be interested in dropping by the WEW and helping the kids with a particular skill.  I had some skills in mind, and found a couple of prospects.

It's good to Find People Smarter Than You and get them to lend a helping hand.  For example, We're thinking about using an Ethernet Shield to get some of our data online in real time.


I looked at some of the code for a sample chat program:

Chat  Server
 
 A simple server that distributes any incoming messages to all
 connected clients.  To use telnet to  your device's IP address and type.
 You can see the client's input in the serial monitor as well.
 Using an Arduino Wiznet Ethernet shield. 
 
 Circuit:
 * Ethernet shield attached to pins 10, 11, 12, 13
 * Analog inputs attached to pins A0 through A5 (optional)
 
 created 18 Dec 2009
 by David A. Mellis
 modified 9 Apr 2012
 by Tom Igoe
 
 */

#include <SPI.h>
#include <Ethernet.h>

// Enter a MAC address and IP address for your controller below.
// The IP address will be dependent on your local network.
// gateway and subnet are optional:
byte mac[] = { 
  0xDE, 0xAD, 0xBE, 0xEF, 0xFE, 0xED };
IPAddress ip(192,168,1, 177);
IPAddress gateway(192,168,1, 1);
IPAddress subnet(255, 255, 0, 0);




Well, I don't know rip about the stuff with IP addresses.  I research further and find that the communication is often done by a Telnet, which is pretty much the Internet circa 1970.  This got me thinking that maybe this is an opportunity to get a little tech history in, and some deeper concepts about how the internet works at a core level, with the addresses asking for permission to send and receive and all that. Nothing big, just a brief "pop up" while we're going over this part of the project.  I pitched this mouthful to some folks and I got a contact for someone who might be good for this skill/concept.

Don't be afraid to network.