Tony is a Geek

After owning a couple of K9 toy robot dogs for about 10 years.... and never really getting anywhere with them - okay, that's a little unfair, I did previously fit a Pi W with a MotoZero 4xDC motor controller board into one of them, but didn't progress much further.  One of them moved around onto different shelves, whereas the "more complete" and original one stayed as a shelf-ornament. That is until this week... this was the week when the stars aligned and the universe was at the point where it needed to be.  I received, in the post, the Cytron.io ROBO PICO.  I say, I received, like it was just randomly sent to me - no, it wasn't I bought & paid for it, with my own money, from ThePiHut.com The board is quite nifty & pretty much what I've been wanting for a Raspberry Pi based board since the days when I used to use Arduino boards from DFRobot.com - now, we ARE going back 8years or more and that robot still exists, currently a bit dusty, but sitting on...

I just forced myself to do an initial inventory check of the "toys" I have in my current "to hand" tech-cave.  I need to draw a picture.  and I'm going to be a rebel and NOT use UML, just cos... (it'll probably end up looking very UML-like, but shush, don't tell the rebel part of my brain that)....so, where are you draw.io (oh it has a new name now, I must remember that) Not that I use the online version, I use the installed offline version - y'know, cos I'm old-skool and (insert lots of reasons here and move on). Okay, I've gone even more old skool and used a pen & paper (I missed a few, believe it or not!), I'll do a digital version later: What am I actually "doing" with these devices? Well a variety of things... okay, nothing really all that useful.  They were purchased / used for various tasks at a specific point in time.  For instance the Pi Zero was bought when it was the latest thing and I naturally bought two, I use...

okay, so it is well known that I am basically a 50yr old child, except I have the mean to buy my own toys.  I still have that childhood curiosity, wondering how things work and how to make things work. What I am about to describe could probably be done by a 10yr old, in fact it probably has been done 1m times already by 10yr olds.  However, it is a reminder for myself on how to set this up and do this, as I'll probably get distracted and forget that I ever did this... then come back to it in 2-5yrs and do it all over again (reminder for another POST later in the week) So, what'ya doin'? Well as posted previously I now have several RPi Pico W devices, I got the soldering iron out and soldered some pin headers in place, I even soldered a Pico Lipo shim onto one of them for this very project.  As mentioned before, my missus wants a cute watering indicator for the huge aloe-vera plant w have in the kitchen.  I have the raw electronic components to hand and I have made th...