Category Archives: Projects

Gone Solar

After thinking about it for two decades at various levels of seriousness, I finally started the process of putting a photovoltaic array on the house and taking control of my own power generation. I’m still grid-tied, but should be covering all my own needs for the immediate future.

Now that the year-long project is successfully completed and online, I thought I’d write up a bit about the process, the results, and things I’ve learned for anybody else thinking of doing it. Click here to read the full details.

The new array in action, looking southwest towards Pikes Peak and Cheyenne Mountain.

A WiFi-Enabled Searchlight Signal Controller

Since 2020 has been the year of “stuck at home, all day every day”, earlier this summer I finished restoring and installing my Union Switch & Signal H-2 searchlight in my back yard. I still didn’t have a good way to control it, however. When Iowa Scaled Engineering was sending off another set of circuit boards for fabrication, I decided to add a fun project to the order in addition to all the various new product ideas we were working on. What project? A WiFi-enabled searchlight signal controller, of course!

If you’ve ever wanted to control your 80+ year old railroad signals with your smartphone, have I got the project for you.