Rick's b.log - 2025/02/20
It is the 22nd of February 2025 You are 3.129.72.78, pleased to meet you!

Going shopping

I actually kind of fancied a raspberry tart and the supermarket didn't have one, so I popped over to Lidl just in case they did. They did not. I'd need to go a Picard and while that is now doable (Big Town), it's far further than I have any intention of going right now.

I did get a chicken tikka sandwich, which I ate outside. It was woefully unfilled with a splat of filling in the middle and... lots of emptiness.

Why are ready made sandwiches often so depressing?

I also bought some cheddar. Well, it's what Lidl thinks is cheddar, but given that it is Trump-coloured it probably has more in common with, say, a Red Leicester than cheddar. I don't expect greatness, but it ought to suffice for making a cheese sauce for macaroni. It'll be superior to trying it with any French cheese. That's not to diss French cheeses, Comté is quite nice and could almost pass as a substitute for cheddar, but it isn't cheddar. It's like switching milk-from-a-nipple to squished-nut-juice. They're both sort of the same yet so very not the same.

You probably won't get this in a Frenchie's fridge.

Two packs of Cathedral City, a pack of Seriously Strong, a pack of what Lidl thinks is cheddar, a pack of Lidl's Mcennedy (American style) cheddar, some President thick-cut cheddar slices, and some thinner-cut slices from Lidl. We'll look at these in more detail later.

Marte's final outing?

But no. I mowed the Western Wilderness (the plan), around Anna, the southern patch, the larger area of the potager, the eastern picnic lawn, and even gave a cut to what used to be the nettle pile by the pond but since the trees have been cut down it is more exposed so hopefully will grass over...except for that stupid lump of concrete.

When I came back after all was done, I noticed some oil drips. I think the little rubber seal around the oil filler finally corroded - it wasn't in great shape and with the vibration... I pulled out the dipstick and saw there was a smidgen of oil left. Maybe less than a smidgen? What's less? A drop? Suffice to say that if I had continued much more, there was a risk of "irreparable harm" to the engine.

I think it's all coming together to tell me, Marte's time has come. I am, actually, surprised that the rattly-old rustbucket held together this long. I figured it was probably the end on on the 28^th of October, to get an extra cut in is, really, a bonus.
Unfortunately it is very early spring, so that cut will be good for a few weeks at best. Pffft. Oh, and she drank, no, guzzled some ten euros of petrol in doing that. I really hope the replacement will have a more efficient engine than the "just drown the bugger" Tecumseh.

The letter box setup

About noon I decided it was pleasant enough that I could go out front and do a rough and ready attempt at putting something into the letter box. It was basically a bit of a bodge with hot-melt glue, but hey, if it works...

Here are the two switches.

Detecting the door and the flap.

Here is a different angle.

The switches from inside.

Here is a close-up of how the flap switch is hooked up.

It's quite useful that there's this inner flap that moves the opposite way.

I drilled a small hole in the windowsill right next to where the earth wire (the other earth wire) enters to pass the cable through.

The cable run.

They are wired in series. The white/green wire (from the cable) passes by the inner switch to connect to the outer switch common. The flying green wire connects between the two switches' normally open place. The green wire (from the cable) connects to the inner switch common. They are, as I said, wired to the normally open which means the switches need to be pressed to make the circuit. If any switch is not pressed, the switch opens and the circuit is broken.
On the microcontroller side of things, the green wire is connected to ground and the white/green wire is connected to a GPIO pin that has a weak pullup. This means that as long as the circuit is made (the door and flap both closed) the GPIO pin will be grounded and will read LOW. If the door and/or flap is opened, the circuit will be broken and the weak pullup will bring the GPIO pin to be HIGH.

On the microcontroller side, it's still assembled on the breadboard. This is in case anything needs to be changed, however the way it is designed is that even if it takes a couple of seconds to synchronise the current time, it will still detect the flap being closed even if the flap is closed while the time sync is happening. What will happen in that case is that both events will get the same time, but both will be recorded.

I glued the cable to the top of the inside of the letterbox, and then down the back in order to keep it out of the way of whatever might be put into the box. Hopefully the proximity of the door switch to the hinge and the top will keep it clear of being interfered with. I will be able to tell if, say, the glue comes unstuck as the switch will read open signalling a problem.

Letterbox status page.

Cheddar

Cathedral City Cheddar

Cathedral City.

This is my favourite cheese, and is aged for 14 months for a lovely cheddar. This comes from the Leclerc in Big Town.
Using milk from the West Country (Cornwall, Devon...), the cheese is made by (or for) Dairy Crest which is trading as Saputo Dairy, whose head office is on Weybridge in Surrey. With a manufacturer code of GB NU 007, it seems as if the cheese is actually made by Saputo Dairy UK in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.

Seriously (Strong) Extra Mature Cheddar

Seriously Strong.

This is the one that I can buy from my local supermarket. Amusingly, both this and the own brand have the manufacturer code GB WD 028, which is Lactalis Mclelland in Stranraer which is a bit of Scotland south west of Glasgow that's close to Northern Ireland.
In 2017 they dropped the word "Strong" from the name, so now it's just called "Seriously". Seriously? It doesn't say on the pack how long it is aged for. The internet seems to vary between 16 and 24 months.

Milbona British Cheddar

Lidl Milbona cheddar.

This cheese, which is coloured (it specifically says it is coloured cheddar) has been aged for nine months. With a manufacturer code of UK NI 210 M, it comes from Dale Farm Ltd in County Tyrone. Like the others, it is an industrial complex, this one saying that it is the home of Dromona Cheddar (never heard of that one). Given the lesser aging, I expect that it will be less sharp and crumbly than I am used to.

Mcennedy Cheddar

Lidl Mcennedy cheddar.

This cheese, which is also orange, has slight crystals along the edges so it has been matured, but there is no indication of how long for. A manufacturer code of DE BY 70710 this cheese is made in Germany - not a big surprise given it's Lidl. It is made by Rupp Lindenberg Produktions GmbH in Lindenberg, which is close to Lichtenstein.

Milbona British Cheddar slices

Lidl Milbona cheddar slices.

This is the same cheese and manufacturer as previously mentioned, only provided in an easy-to-use sliced format.

Président Brasserie style Cheddar slices

President brasserie cheddar slices.

A "brasserie" is a relaxed style French restaurant that tends to specialise in more traditional style meals. The difference between brasserie and bistrot is that bistrots are only open during meal times while brasseries are open all day.
This is a much softer cheese given that it is aged for a mere two months. It is sliced super-thick, like twice as thick as the Milbona slices, and is pleasant on burgers and the like.
The cheese has a manufacturer code of... GB WD 028. Yup, it's made by the Seriously guys.

Slices

The two types of sliced cheese.

As you can see, the Président cheese (on the left) is very thickly sliced, compared to the Milbona cheese (on the right). You can also see the stark colour difference.

I tried a slice of the Milbona. It was... hard to believe that it has been aged for nine months. It was almost bendy, and the first feeling you get in your mouth is that it is super-smooth, almost oily. Like if Kraft slices were made of actual cheese. Eating it, I may have been able to tell you that it was a British cheese, as the hard French ones I have tried have an earthier taste with a slight tang and hint of nuttiness (you'll know what I mean if you've eaten Emmental). That being said, after chewing it up a little it because really quite creamy.

A Milbona cheese slice broken into quarters.

I make it into cheesy toasties using two slices of cheese in each because it was thin.

Milbona cheese slices in cheesy toasties.

The cheese, once you overlooked the colour, wasn't bad. It didn't have the sharpness of mature cheddar, but it was otherwise quite a suitable cheese to enjoy in this simple meal. There was a hint of stringiness as hot cheese was pulled apart, but it wasn't annoyingly mozzarella about it. Nor was it hard to bite and/or chew. It melted well and held the toast together.

Milbona cheese slices in cheesy toasties.

Your comments:

Zerosquare, 20th February 2025, 23:04

Here a few tips for your letterbox circuit:    - directly connecting GPIO pins to long cables (especially outside) isn't recommended. The cable will act as an antenna, and pulses from static discharge or nearby lightning strikes can be strong enough to damage or destroy your MCU. I'd recommend adding TVS diodes at the very least, and an opto isolator if you can. I'm pretty sure you can get the whole circuit on a small PCB on Amazon or AliExpress for a few euros.    - most switches are not guaranteed to operate reliably at the very low current that a typical GPIO pull-up can supply (it has to do with the oxidation layer on electrical contacts) ; initially they may appear to work fine, but they can get more and more erratic as they age. The minimum current depends on which metal is used for the contacts (and isn't always documented), but 2 mA is a good value to use -- so, a 1500 ohms pull-up resistor would be adequate for 3.3 V. As a bonus, it will also make the input less sensitive to electrical noise.    - you probably know this already, but you'll need a good input filtering algorithm for reliable event counting. Switches are subject to mechanical bounce, and transient electrical interference can cause false signals.

Anonymous Coward, 20th February 2025, 23:43

For variety and a reportedly healthier alternative, have you considered "fromage de chèvre"? From Wallonie if available, or from France.    You seem to like "la marque Président", and there is a "fromage de chèvre" in their product range, but is it available at stores in Brexitland?    And for something tasty, firm and nutty, there is also Mimolette (le lait de vache) which was temporarily banned for several years (2013-201?) in the USofA.

John, 21st February 2025, 10:41

My preference for switches would have been a reed switch or a mercury-tilt switch, answering /some/ of Zerosquare's reservations. But really I would prefer a "home network solution, like how my Ring doorbell interacts with my Alexas.    Anonymous Coward seems to have entirely missed that you actually live in France, and obviously has not studied your dietary preferences at all. Goat's cheese, texture! Belgium's more beer in my experience!    I have lied about my location, using my now notional (virtual) French address, like the vet in Chateau does!

Rick, 21st February 2025, 13:38

Zerosquare: I did forget to mention that there's a 1K resistor in line with the input to hopefully limit current flow. If that isn't good enough and I lightly toast my board, I have others and I'll need to look at Schottky diodes to provide additional protection over that which is already built into the chip.    The problem with opto-isolators is that the opto part requires a power source. This would mean having two USB power packs, which is getting silly, or slaving it from the main 5V supply, which risks dumping spikes into VCC and, well, that's never going to end well. Also, in order to minimise oxidation and corrosion, the switches are not switching any voltage. There's a very weak 3.3V from the pull-up resistor, but they're switching to ground. It's back to front to what might be expected, specifically to try to take current out of the loop.    Yes, I discovered the need to debounce when I tripped the switch on the test rig and it recorded about a dozen events. My current method simply sticks in a delay for about a tenth of a second after detecting a transition. There is still a bug somewhere as, in some cases, I see the LED turn on, go off, and then turn on again when I open the door. If it's not a logic whoopsie, it might just need a longer delay if the cabling is causing some sort of electrical echo effect.    John: My outdoor rain meter used a reed switch. It... didn't last long. Unless it is completely microscopically sealed, it'll corrode. Outdoors is an unforgiving environment.    You have a Ring doorbell? You have an Alexa? The only reason I have third-party cameras around here is because I needed an inexpensive solution quickly, and I have not enough clues with Linux to rig up something using a Pi and a camera. But I'm not happy with equipment that a third party has more control of than I do (not to mention needing an app to control). Far too much potential telemetry leakage. That's why this is an Alexa-free zone.    Yeah, it's not so much that I like Président as it being... well... there's a large factory not that far away so it's probably not a surprise that it's commonplace in the local supermarkets.  And, yeah, I noted the disconnect of suggesting goat cheese in a blog that spent half the time talking about cheddar. Hmmm...    Mimolette was banned because the FDA didn't like the number of cheese mites crawling around on the surface. Which, really, just gives another reason to avoid it. Ugh. Other, mostly soft and squishy ones, are banned in the US because they are made using raw milk (this is often dictated by AOC/AOP rules because "tradition" is more important than safety).    I will give the FDA some credit, though. They have banned Sardinia's Casu Marzu, as has Italy, the rest of the EU and...    As for lying about your location, your IP address says you're a BT customer. ;)

Rick, 21st February 2025, 13:41

PS: If I lived in Brexitland, I wouldn't need to be looking at weird-coloured cheddar in Lidl, now, would I?

Rob, 21st February 2025, 20:53

Since I'm providing the hosting for this, do my comments count as provider content?    I had optoisolator boards pop up in my aliexpress suggestions just now (they have been there for a while, so either ae can forsee my future reading habits, or is just a coincidence.) so I can say a two channel board is less than a pound. I can't see one adding spikes if you slave it off your existing supply. The whole point is to isolate your device from such things.  Of course, you could do away with the long signal cable and put an Esp32 right inside the mailbox and just send 5v out to it..