iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 17h

Race volunteering again this weekend. What I have learnt from doing this a fair bit is that the tiniest villages have the largest village halls. I don’t know what to do with this information, but it is apparently true.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

@alifeee Given the state of my last sewing project, that is a *bold* statement.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 14/09/2026

I’d like to commission someone to make a silly tea based logo for some stickers for my team for an all-hands meeting. Budget is out of my pocket (so not a lot!), but I’d like to pay a real person for it if I can afford it. The alternative is I try to do Drawing, and no one wants to see that […]

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 09/09/2026

They still have it. They have now 3 times asked for an invoice number, that I don't have.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 08/09/2026

Spent all evening chasing why 3 boards that I built up don’t work, when the first one I built last week is fine. Very strange boot loop behaviour when connected to USB. Many hours debugging and checking crystal timing. Capacitor C9 should be C9, not resistor R9. Swap them over and off we go… […]

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 06/09/2026

@philpem and make sure you’re not accidentally producing chlorine. Lasers are fun, and unlock a fun tree of possibilities 😀

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 03/09/2026

@rc2014 I got a bit over enthusiastic fixing a soldering mistake on my Pageable EEPROM board and might’ve killed it. Going to sit with the schematic and see if I can fix it, but just in case, do you have a restock of those board planned? (Enhanced Bus)

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 01/09/2026

Fedex want to charge me a 'dispursement fee' of about 50% on an order. It's not a small order either, over £100, so it's not like it's a flat rate. What the heck.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 31/08/2026

(Known) Screw Up Count so far = 1

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 30/08/2026

Empty (currently) hackspace, Dua Lipa at the Albert Hall on good headphones, and a bunch of soldering to do. I may be dancing. I may not be. You can't prove anything.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 30/08/2026

Finally got some time to start assembling my #rc2014 kit I bought at EMF. Lets see if I can get this to work.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 21/08/2026

I now own an electric spinning wheel. Anyone know a good place to source sheep fleece?

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 15/08/2026

Stuck some parts out of the drawer together and made a GPS clock as an exercise in learning some embedded rust. As is the way of these things, I now have no idea how accurate it is because every single clock in my office is showing a slightly different time.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 11/08/2026

Spent lunch time debugging a PCB. Turns out it helps if your inductor inducts, rather than capacs. Best update that BOM then.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 08/08/2026

I keep writing code that eventually reasons out into being a (bad) state machine. Anyone got any good recommendations for reading/books on SM theory and implementation so I can actually get better at this?

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 07/08/2026

I’m watching the AoE 2 final with live commentary. I didn’t know this was a thing, but it’s Red Bull sponsored and the commentators just got excited about a siege workshop. Absolutely fascinated.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 06/08/2026

@doug.winter.cx A very good question, which might be 'no' it looks like.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 06/08/2026

Anyone got a source / recommendations for a relatively pixel dense 2.25-3” rectangular *black and white / greyscale* LCD or equivalent display? Need it for the ~aesthetics~ on a microcontroller project, but can’t find anything that’s not epaper.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 02/08/2026

@tom @alifeee which, given that I’m an SRE and my job is literally to ensure it works all of the time, I find extra ironic.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 02/08/2026

@alifeee B&H Photos website famously doesn’t work on Saturdays, due to it being the Shabbat. I’m really coming round to the idea of intermittent computing (solar powered, etc).

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 02/08/2026

When I made up my latest investment flask with plaster (second time ever), I thought the bottom looked a bit shallow. Cast it today and the plaster has blown out and now I have a vacuum chamber full of lead free pewter and no metal in the flask. Oopsie.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 31/07/2026

@asj This is probably a me problem, rather than a you problem, but I can't persuade miniflux to add your RSS feed. For some reason it complains the format is invalid, even though it appears to not be. I will probably solve this by moving to a different RSS reader, but just letting you know!

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 27/07/2026

After daily standup meeting, I make a cup of tea. I've taken to drinking my cup of tea out of the latest of the mugs I am trying to make - now that I can actually vaguely make mug shaped objects, rather than a leaky mess. This makes me happy.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 26/07/2026

Unfortunately, a lot of the discussion of sources and such are fairly useless now, as the images are long gone (2011-2015 era). But we shall see.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 26/07/2026

I think, just maybe, I have found a viable flexible LED panel for my Tron Legacy Flynn's robe recreation. Time to try and make the actual robes.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 24/07/2026

@sheddi thanks! I’m out of practice with blogging, but couldn’t find a tear down guide for this model, so I figured I’d do it!

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 24/07/2026

My coffee machine (Outin) broke while I was at #emfcamp. So I tore it down, rebuilt the battery pack, and now it works again. Fairly proud of that, made some mistakes, but fortunately none of them let the spicy fire out, and learnt about welding battery packs […]

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 21/07/2026

Somehow, I have slept worse last night at home in a comfy bed than in my van listening to the lasers.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 20/07/2026

Turns out that if you need to remove parts of your campervan because they broke, the #emfcamp field is a good place to do it. So many offers of help and tools. All good now!

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 19/07/2026

@kianryan I now own a RC2014 kit and I’d like you to know it’s your fault.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 19/07/2026

At the bar, ordering components for my Hacky Racer build. It is finally happening.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 19/07/2026

@philpem they only brought the little ones this time.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 19/07/2026

Forgot to put water in the moka pot. Need coffee before operating coffee maker. #emfcamp

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 18/07/2026

@philpem @emfSpiders just to reassure you, I had to politely ask 2 of them to leave my van last night.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 17/07/2026

Now available on 8906 (TWOM) on the EMF phone network.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 17/07/2026

I put some LEDs on my van last night. Came back and decided it was flashing a bit too much to be polite, so joined the WLED AP to adjust it. It was not _my_ WLED AP. I apologise to whoever had their LEDs do surprising things at about 22:30 last night. #emfcamp

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 04/07/2026

Just discovered the burnout cycle for my investment plaster is somehow 14 hours? That’s longer than my clay firing times!

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 04/07/2026

@philpem that’s basically my problem, the Mirra still exists, but this particular model does not. I tried a couple of places, some didn’t get back to me, at least 1 said “can’t get it”.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 03/07/2026

@philpem I have the same failure on a Mirra. Unfortunately, parts for them are now unobtainium and all the second hand ones I can find have exactly the same fault.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 30/06/2026

Experimenting with mixing underglaze into my slip before casting. I don’t think it’s a strong enough mix to be useful, but we’ll see in the morning I guess.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 29/06/2026

@tom that’s more like it. Pi Zero 2W with a CYD screen. Now I have a web interface, a way to save schedules and a much clearer indication of what it’s doing.

A hacked together kiln controller with lever connectors visible as the cover is missing. The front of the control box is a white box with a visible status screen.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 22/06/2026

Cracked another mug cast while trying to rework the bits that didn’t cast properly, got lots of bubbles in the clay. They’re gradually getting better, but my success rate is decreasing currently.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 17/06/2026

Have got sufficiently annoyed at the controller on my kiln that I now have it in pieces on my desk and am replacing most of it with a raspberry pi. Stay tuned to see whether I still in fact have a working kiln.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 14/06/2026

@tom might’ve overfired the Potters Choice glazes, or they need more of a surface to break and show the lighter colours. Will experiment with the next batch.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 14/06/2026

@tom turns out the pop was one my welds on the stand I made for the kiln. Looks like the thermal expansion of the top plate was enough to break one of the tack welds keeping the top down. All survived!

A small selection of home made mugs, espresso cups, and a butter dish tray on a wire cooling rack. The glazes are uneven and the walls are wobbly.

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Tom Wardill @tom.theclacks.cloud.ap.brid.gy · 13/06/2026

The kiln has made an ominous pop noise while it was in the final stages of glaze firing. Place your bets on how many pieces have survived. Updates tomorrow…

A small kiln with visible cups and trays ready to be fired.

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