New Song: Cinder
November 4th, 2015
That distored guitar didn't come out exactly how I wanted but recording on this new equipment is still a work in progress. Anyways, as always, you can stream and download all my music at http://dougtafoya.bandcamp.com/ as well as on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Amazon and TIDAL if you prefer any of those.
Arduinos and the Heat
October 11th, 2015
In my never-ending quest to:
a. Find a use for my Arduino
and
b. Combat the scourge that is all temperatures above 70 degrees
I've created a way of monitoring heat levels while I'm gone. This was, again, mainly to put my Arduino to some sort of use beyond blinking LEDs (it's like Cirque du Goddamn Soleil in here when I fire that thing up though (see: no it's not)) but also it was a good learning experience. Using a thermistor and a 10k resistor you can read the temperature using an Arduino and then using a simple Win32 console app you can connect to it and read the values over the serial connection. I used this set up to connect the thermistor to the Arduino:
(Ground) ---- (10k-Resistor) -------|------- (Thermistor) ---- (+5v)
|
Arduino analog pin 0
This uses the 10k resistor as a voltage divider so you can read the resistance of the thermistor. Once you have the voltage, you use the Steinhart–Hart equation to calculate the temperature. Don't worry, I don't really understand that one very well either but it's a well known equation for computing the resistance of a semiconductor at different temperatures. The simple version of the Arduino program would look something like this:
#include <math.h>
double getTemp(int rawV)
{
double Temp;
Temp = log(10000.0*((1024.0/rawV-1)));
//Steinhart–Hart coefficients are taken from an average 10k resistor.
Temp = 1 / (0.001129148 + (0.000234125 + (0.0000000876741 * Temp * Temp ))* Temp );
Temp = Temp - 273.15; // Convert Kelvin to Celsius
Temp = (Temp * 9.0)/ 5.0 + 32.0; // Convert Celsius to Fahrenheit
return Temp;
}
void setup()
{
Serial.begin(9600);
int temp = int(getTemp(analogRead(0))); //loss of precision, but I'm just looking for the whole number
Serial.print(String(temp));
}
void loop()
{
int temp = int(getTemp(analogRead(0)));
Serial.print(String(temp));
delay(750);
}
There are much more complicated versions that give you greater control and more accurate readings but I tested this against a proper thermostat and the readings were more or less the same. Connecting to the Arduino to work with and display the temperatures can be done easily with a Win32 console application connecting to the proper COM port. You can get all the code here if you are interested. It's a very simple debug first draft. After running for a day the values ranged from an ideal 68 degrees fahrenheit to somewhere near the center of the Sun at 97 degrees fahrenheit.
Now Available
September 29th, 2015
Some of my music is now available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Amazon and TIDAL if you're into any of those. You abolutely should not buy it from any of those that are paid seeing as it's completely free on my bandcamp but still kind of cool to see it there. Just use the links or search Doug Tafoya on any of those!
Stuff in progress
June 16th, 2015
I made the mistake of getting a new amp, new guitar, new recording interface, new recording software, and a new mic all around the same time. It's been slow but I think we're getting somewhere. Here's an unmixed sample of something new.
New Song: Deluge
May 2nd, 2015
I posted a new song to my Soundcloud and on Bandcamp, you can stream it here and you can download all my music from my Bandcamp,http://dougtafoya.bandcamp.com/
New Song: Vereor
April 14th, 2015
I posted a new song. This one's kind of weird but I like it. Give it a listen! As always you can hear all my songs at http://dougtafoya.bandcamp.com/
G'bye Wordpress
December 12th, 2014
BIIIIIYEEE Wordpress. BUH BYE. GOOOOOOOD BY-This layout I've made isn't particularly exciting but at least I have full control over it and it isn't a nightmare to work with. I will be posting music and maybe some tech stuff here.