This blog contains development updates for All These Worlds (ATW), a space exploration and combat computer game, and also various articles about electronics.
DIY Thermostat upgrade on an infrared heating panel
With the arrival of Winter, it’s been getting cold again. My apartment has this very specific problem that the kitchen is not covered by central heating, so it becomes a very unpleasant place to be during the cold season. Last year, I finally got around to doing something about this, and I splurged on an infrared heating panel, made by a certain Hungarian company whose name rhymes with “hydrofoil”. In general, I was quite impressed with how much of a difference could such a small 350W unit make, even though I was a little unhappy about its Internet-connected thermostat. The device itself is unfortunately a little bulky, though it helps that it’s masquerading as a picture that you can just hang on a wall. Plus, when the heating season is over, you can just put it away.
So, this year, when I was taking the heater out of storage, I accidentally dropped it on the floor, and after that it wouldn’t turn on again. Clumsiness is not covered by warranty, so that’s a loss, right? Nope! I actually managed to fix the unit myself, and I also replaced the thermostat with a much better one while I was at it! This is an account of how it went.
Continue readingATW Tech Demos Revision 10 released!
I’m pleased to announce that Revision 10 of All These Worlds Tech Demos has just been released. The 10th released version of this project coincides with 10th anniversary of ATW development and is hence titled “A decade in the making”, and contains two years worth of on-and-off development. Here’s a couple highlights of this release:
Continue readingArduinoHttpServer vs WebServer: an ESP-32 benchmark
There’s plenty of web server libraries for the ESP-32, and I am in no position to say which one is the best, since I honestly have no idea. I do know, however, that many tutorials and examples use either ArduinoHttpServer or WebServer, and I got curious if there was any significant performance difference between the two, so I decided to make a quick and dirty benchmark to compare the two. The results I got suggest that WebServer is a bit better when dealing with a large number of small requests, but due to lazy methodology, the confidence of this finding is very low.
Continue readingATW Tech Demos Revision 9 released!
Adequately titled “Years Late”, the latest release finally puts ATW development back on track. It also marks the beginning of a big “quality pass” that will transform the simple tech demos into full-blown scenarios that are actually fun to play.
Continue readingATW going forward
Hi! Long time no see. Let’s hope on to a quick update on the current status of All These Worlds game, and the path forward for the project.
Continue readingATC2 – a new game about air traffic control
I made a new game computer game that can be played in a web browser. It’s a real-time strategy game about controlling airplanes. Click here to play.
Continue readingATW News 2020-08-18
Progress is slow but steady.
A map with RTS-like controls for allied ships is the main new feature. Making sure that various things work well with map (for example the nebula from Exploration Demo) is taking more time than anticipated.
Continue readingHow I broke and fixed a Woodpecker CNC control module
“Woodpecker” is a controller circuit board for some small and cheap CNC milling machines that one can order from China. These machines can be used, among others, for making DIY printed circuit boards.
“…but then I noticed a stack of smoke coming up from behind the screen. I stood up and looked at the mill. The probe cable was melting before my eyes. I rushed screaming to the power switch…”
ATW Tech Demos revision 8 is out!
In addition to complete revamp of the sensor system, this release also comes with an experimental Mac OSX build. I literally have no way to test it, so it can be completely broken and I wouldn’t know.
Download:
All These Worlds Tech Demo collection (for Windows | for Linux | for Mac ) [~120MB]