Chemwen0

For a while now, I have been reading a lot about two technologies, Kubernetes and Docker which I will talk about in my next post. Well, starting from a place where I had no clue of what the cloud was, you could imagine how hard it actually was trying to understand(with my very limited and probably mythical knowledge) how it was possible for this technologies to work. I will not really give a tutorial or anything of the like about the Cloud But I will try to introduce us to the cloud. About a weekend ago, I was at a Google Cloud Next event in my location(Eldoret) and a speaker mentioned that there were people who have ever asked him "What happens to the cloud when it rains?". Well, I laughed really hard not because I thought that question was stupid But because, at some point, I could have been the one asking that. So, What Is This Cloud Then? First, to all who are worried about the state of the cloud on the rainy days, Let's just all take sometime and BREATHE. The

A community is a group of people who share characteristics that are strong enough to unite them regardless of their differences. I never really knew the importance of travel and meeting people from different countries, beliefs and culture as mine till when I arrived to the summit. It was my first time sited with people from about 18+ countries from all over Africa. We come from the same continent but we are very different, we have very different cultures and It takes you being in the same room to realize that. I came to appreciate learning different languages, even though I never paid attention when learning them in school and I got really challenged to find out more about my country cause some of the questions people asked me about my country I would just look at the smiling and in my head be like "How The Hell Was I Supposed To Know That?!!!" But all in all, its good having knowledge about where you come from. I have been out of the blogging zone for quite sometime

What's one thing you may find yourself buying every year or even twice, thrice at times more and keep promising yourself: " Okay, I'll be more careful with this one?" Well, for me, its the earphones. I just never understand how they always keep spoiling.... Aand, its always on one side and then it sucks cause then its never as loud as it used to be. So I agreed with myself never to buy any anymore but instead, I will be my own handy man(or woman) and do the repair myself. That is where Soldering comes in. I am still not perfect but I thought i'd share on it and hope that you may try it too. Its a bit tricky but you'll just get a hang of it and hopefully, you won't waste your money all the time getting some new pair of earphones. Aand even get to brag on doing repairs for yourself. So my definition of soldering is " Soldering is a skill that enables you to join electronic components using some molten metal called the solder(which not only pro

So, I did a simple code that I thought would be fun to share. Its more or less like the basics of embedded systems. Inputs and Outputs. Actually, maybe its the basics of everything. So I'm Kenyan and our currency is the Shilling( Ksh ) hence any time i mention money, I will refer to it in Ksh form. You will approximately need about Ksh 800 to have this project up and running(FYI, everything you use in this project is reusable and integrate-able to other projects). Requirements: A push button An LED Two resistors( I used 220 Ohm and a 10K one) A Microcontroller (MCU) I will be using node MCU but you can do it using Arduino with exactly the same code that I made. A lot of jumper wires of course. I made a breadboard layout of how you can place your parts. I made it using Fritzing . Feel free to download and start drawing out your projects. The logic of the code is that: Before the button is pressed, the LED is off. When the button is being pressed, the

So I just finished my first draft code for the Load cell with Arduino and decided to share it. Feel free to make any modifications on it or create your own. Also, I decided to use the LCD module instead of the MCUFriend as i didn't want a lot of functionality in it. This is the code i used. It's pretty simple. /*  * Chemwen0  * By Doreen Chemweno  * Load Cell HX711 Module Interface with Arduino to measure weight in Kgs  Arduino   pin   5 -> HX711 CLK  6 -> DOUT  5V -> VCC  GND -> GND  Almost any pin on the Arduino Uno will be compatible with DOUT/CLK.  The HX711 board can be powered from 2.7V to 5V so the Arduino 5V power should be fine. */ #include "HX711.h"  //You must have this library in your arduino library folder #include <LiquidCrystal_I2C.h> #define DOUT  6 #define CLK  5 LiquidCrystal_I2C lcd(0x3F,18,2); //important for display to work. Set the LCD Address and the dimensions of your LCD in terms of Columns and L

Instead of Android Studio, I decided to use MIT App Inventor 2 which is a web based, open source application that is maintained by MIT( Massachusetts Institute of Technology ) and is used for developing simple Android Aplications.  I liked and preferred it to Android studio because of its simplicity. Anyone can use it, even those who have very little coding experience can easily understand it and within no time be able to develop their own android applications. For those who are just beginning the programmer journey in Android, you can start with App Inventor for it to aid you in understanding basic concepts on Android App development then later start using Android Studio as it is actually the recommended and official IDE for Android Development. This is part of the code from the app (LoadBlue Control) I will be using for our Weighing Scale project. MIT App Inventor is a great way to start learning how to build applications for Android. Once you get a good hold of how to c

So about a week or two ago, I attended the Application Security training in Moi university which was sponsored by IEEE , IEEE Branch Moi , and IBM . It was a really nice experience and i learnt a lot. I will just share a short piece about the training but you can always access it at  IBM Skills Academy . There is a lot you can learn and grow your tech skills with there. So, basically, IBM Application security training was majorly about making your applications secure. We were specifically trained on Web Application security; the threats that affect ours websites and how to go about them when faced with web attacks and also how to prevent these attacks from affecting our websites and web apps. We used a software provided by IBM known as  Appscan  which is used to explore, scan and help identify vulnerabilities in web and mobile applications. Just typing something in your browser and voila! you've just accessed something you were not supposed to just because someone forgot to

The Bluetooth module was quite easy to understand. Though, there were some of the things that i noted and i would like to share with you so that you will even take a shorter time when you want to use it. HC-05 has 6 header pins(the STATE, RXD, TXD, GND, VCC, EN). It can work as both master and slave. This means that it can either initiate a connection or accept a connection from another device. Activating AT mode: Ensure that pin 34 is connected to 3.3v. With all the pins connected, disconnect the HC-05 from a power source. Start pressing the button below the EN header pin and switch on the module while doing it. Notice that the LED starts blinking slowly. You are now in AT mode which allows you to view and change the Bluetooth settings e.g the name of the module, the baud rate, whether or not it operates in master of slave mode. e.t.c.

So, for the past one week, I attended an event on Business Intelligence that was sponsored by IBM and IEEE. It was fun and very productive as I got to learn a lot. And I will share that since I didn't get to share anything else this week. The BI Analyst is a path that gives one the opportunity to learn the essential reporting software's to create management reports. Majorly you will be required to have skills on reporting applications such as Data Filters and Graphics, Structured Query Language(SQL), HTML and structured and unstructured data. As a BI Analyst, you will be required to use this tools to create reports,analyze and monitor events to meet an organization's requirements. But don't let all that scare you. You can also learn as you go. Get to learn what Cognos is. Haha, that name never stops intriguing me. Its a path that is fun and it would be amazing if all of you would try it. Its  a skill that even if your goal isn't to be an Analyst, it will

For the LCD, I am using a The MCUFriend Touch Screen. It took me a little bit of time to crack this one since i hard not read about the operation of TouchScreens before. But, I will take my time and explain it a little bit and leave you with some of the reading materials that really helped me. The Libraries will always help you navigate. They always help me figure out what questions I need an answer to as there is a lot of functionality you'll discover hence a lot to learn. Always take your time. The MCUFriend is a resistive touchscreen. There are various types of touchscreens, the common ones being the capacitive and resistive ones. I say its resistive because, as you will notice, you will always be required to give a range in which you will apply pressure on to it. As you can seebelow.   The MCUFriend has a couple of pins. As shown below. LCD_RST - As the name suggests, its responsible for resetting the LCD. LCD_CS   - LCD chip select LCD_RS   - LCD regi

Finally, the Wheatstone Bridge and some few more concepts we learned in school get applied in real life!! Isn't that exciting?? The load cell, as we said earlier , is used to measure electrical signal whose magnitude is directly proportional to the force being applied on it. There are a variety of load cells among which I will be using a strain gauge. Basically, the strain gauge measures the electrical resistance (which is proportional to the strain being applied) on the device.  Each strain gauge has a different sensitivity to strain. This is known as the Strain Factor or the Gauge factor (the ratio of the relative change in electrical resistance to the mechanical strain)   So enough with the class stuff, lets get to the part we all like: I had the worst time with this thing. Rule of thumb from me: Never trust everything as said by the manufacturer. They too make mistakes. Some of which may take you days to realize. Like me and the load cell & HX711.

So, I am still working on this project, though i just thought it would be nice to share my experience and hopefully get to finish it up ASAP. For starters, Arduino is something you should really consider trying. Its so fun and you get to learn a lot and put your coding skills, research ability and technical skills to work. You need to experience it. I wil start with a basic introduction of Arduino and the modules and technologies we will be using. Well, Arduino has a variety of boards (from different manufacturers) you can choose from. Some of them include UNO(Most common), Mega, Red, LilyPad, Leonardo etc. I will be using Arduino Mega. Arduino is open source and I guess thats why I love it the more. If you don't have it installed, visit Arduino to get it. What we need for these project. 1. Arduino board and Software The Arduino software basically uses a set of c/c++ functions as its programming language (The Arduino programming language.   An understanding o