Assorted projects and pontifications.
One of the most fun projects that I’ve gotten to work on recently was the SolarSurfer project. A unique aspect of that project which I hadn’t done before was remote control via a satellite connection. The project is extensively documented on Hackaday; check out the logs on satellite comm overview, real-time tracking, and mission simulation. Here is a short summary of the different project aspects: Developed telemetry protocol for bandwidth-constrained…
I recently created a little Django app that controls can control multiple GoPros simultaneously. It makes use of the GoProController Python class which does the leg work of actually taking to the camera over a wifi adapter on Linux. Links GoProApp GoProController
In the last two years at SpaceX, I have worked on a number of quick turn around web applications. Every time I start a new app, it takes me at least a day or two just to get the essentials in place, even with a framework like Django. In order to aid myself and others in future projects, I’ve taken advantage of Django’s template option to create the django-quick-start-project template…
In an effort to demonstrate a new django-quick-start package I’m making at work (similar in purpose to pinax, but with some SpaceX-specific packages), I decided to create an Arduino data logger that is viewable through Django. The data from a couple different sensors is first collected with an Arduino. A Python daemon polls the Arduino periodically and asks for new data. The daemon saves this data to the Django database.…
Today I transferred a lot of content to a new WordPress site (which you are reading now.) This is the fourth version of my website and marks the departure from the custom content management system I started in high school. There is still a lot more content to move, but hopefully this will be a much better website going forward since I can spend more time adding content and less…
Dug up some thumbnails of all of the websites I did in high school and in college. Thought I put them up here at least to aid my own memory.
Today is my last day at Illumin – the online magazine of the Viterbi School of Engineering. I held the position of webmaster for four years, and I like to think that I had a positive effect on the magazine. My biggest achievements during my time at Illumin was rewriting the entire content management system from scratch as well as revamping the site styling. The new content management system helps Illumin staff…
There comes a time in each man’s life where he must grow up, and become a man. Often times, in modern society, this means moving out of his parent’s house and finding a place of his own. While I haven’t found a place of my own yet, it has come time for me to move out of my parent’s house. Besides packing up essential belongings and moving them to my…
Introducing BenBeitzel.com, the latest creation from JAVConcepts. BenBeitzel.com is the “officially rad website for Benjamin R. Beitzel,” a musician, actor, DJ, and a recent graduate of the University of Pittsburgh. One of my favorite parts about this new website is the videos page. Ben has produced a number of short videos with himself, and with his band Lovenotes. Ben’s videos are creative and innovative, and are certainly a joy a…
Hello everyone! I have just secured a new job for myself for the next school year. The job is with Illumin Magazine, an online magazine put out by the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California. The goal of Illumin is to illustrate the many ways engineering benefits and impacts our daily lives. Illumin articles are created by students of the University of Southern California, and are…