I then worked for the Lithgow State Mine Railway as an admin officer, Rail Safety Officer, and IT&T Manager, and took the role of Secretary of the fledgling Lithgow and District Model Railway Club, taking them from zero to running trains on a bare layout in less than a year. After stepping down from LSMR, I pursued work with the NSW State Emergency Service as a radio technician and operator, being highly regarded and valued in those roles. To this day, I have a standing invitation to join the Sydney Pathfinders as a radio technician and operator in service of public safety during orienteering events held in the Australian bush.
After leaving the SES, I worked in embedded computers, namely the Arduino platform, which in 2009 was becoming quite popular. In 2012, I started working with 3D printers, and other personal robotics. In late 2015/ early 2016, I released my first models via Shapeways, the Australian BRM and VL class diesel locomotives, as 3D printed bodyshell kits. Also in early 2016, I started work on my own 7.25" railway, which was to be tested at the Casino Miniature Railway trackage, and is meant to be a complete, bespoke solution, from locomotives, to rollingstock, to traction supply, to signalling.
In summary - I'm a train and open source technology junkie, and I like to do it for the lowest cost possible, while maintaining quality. I like to recycle various things that come into my possession, and I'm forever tinkering with the guts of some widget, while supervising my team in helping me design model trains and robotics systems. I like to be as green as possible in my intentions, and lower my carbon footprint. Of course, I'm not the best, but I understand far more about the environment and renewables situation due to my contact with well educated nuclear physicists, and ardent environmental activists who have a voice of reason at the top levels of government, who are also self confessed technology junkies. I've also been involved with various renewable energy and environmental monitoring projects under the auspices of the government, as well as a CubeSat development project under the auspices of a team of a Sydney and a Newcastle university. Phew!
What I hope to achieve with this blog is to create a few projects, and document them so you at home can follow along. One of my first projects is a ESP8266 wifi RFID reader, which will place the data from RFID reads into an Excel spreadsheet, as well as actuate a door strike when a valid card is scanned. Another of my projects is a vacuum cleaner robot for my caravan, using an ESP8266 module, while integrating iBeacons so the robot can triangulate itself inside the van. I believe electronics can do pretty much anything we need or desire now, and hope to show you at home how you can go about making such internet connected intelligent systems for yourself.
On the horizon is the possibility of a home brew Tesla Powerwall killer - quite frankly, I don't have the money for a Powerwall, don't want to go into debt, but I do want to reap the benefits and lower my carbon footprint. I already have the designs, I'm just going to be documenting a few other jobs first to work up to the Powerwall killer.
