More adventures with Claude: I set it to work on some Arduino code I use to drive WS2811 LEDs. As it is, they just cycle through a set of a half-dozen different patterns. I’ve got ten strands of 50 LEDs apiece and need to inject power every so many strands, so in addition to a large-ish ugly length of LED bulbs, I have 5 separate power leads coming back to a 5V PSU. In short, it’s something of a pain to set up but once we cover all the ugliness up with ornaments, the effect is quite nice.

Anyway I wanted to have some more control over it, so I had the AI iterate over some wifi-enabled options but I think my wifi hat is flaky as it tends to drop its connection randomly (which I noticed awhile back when using it for some DIY weather station experiments). I dug around in the Arduino starter kit and came up with an IR sensor and remote and had Claude write code to, first, record the various codes sent by the remote and, second, add the control functions to the code. It took a little tweaking, but the end result works great and I have 2 strands wrapped around a lamp in my office running the patterns just for fun. It even showed me how to make the simple breadboard connections required to link it all together. I have to say it’s been great fun using it chase down various “hey, what if…” tech scenarios that pop into my head. It feels a bit like the first time I used the 3-D printer to make a custom part for something which otherwise would not have existed: from brain to Tinkercad to tangible object. A little magical if I’m being honest. I start looking around thinking “what else can I use this for?”

The snow days have been nice. Everyone was home yesterday and everything was cancelled today so we’ve spent Saturday lazing, reading and tinkering. Tonight: more Factorio. It’s looking like things will generally be normal on Monday; the kids who’ve gone out and about report that the streets are fine, though I guess concerns about buses on secondaries might keep the county home one more day. We’ll just have to see.

Thoroughly enjoying Little, Big. I like it’s generally cozy pacing and the writing is just gorgeous, particularly descriptions of warm outdoor spring and summer days!