Blog
Rewriting the Ping River Monitor, Bit for Bit
We moved water.buildfor.life from a multi-process Python service to one Rust program that reproduces every forecast bit for bit, found a forecast bug on the way, and replaced the dashboard with a console that answers "is Chiang Mai flooding?" first.
From Audio File to Record: The Vinyl Plant, and What Our Job Is
We are helping plan a vinyl record plant in northern Thailand that does the whole chain under one roof. What it will do, what our job is, and an interactive look at the plant.
We Are Moving to CMU STeP
buildfor.life has been given an office at the Science and Technology Park of Chiang Mai University, and we are preparing the move.
Simona and Alex at Making Vinyl Europe in Haarlem
Simona and Alex spent three days at Making Vinyl Europe in Haarlem: new faces, many impressions, and long evenings of talk about where the vinyl world is going.
Teaching a Model to See the Ping River Rise 13 Hours Early
After the 2024 flood put our lab under half a meter of water, we built an open-source river monitor for Chiang Mai. It now forecasts the Ping River 24 hours ahead, and gives 13 hours of warning on the flood that started it all.
Fill Resistance: Seeing Where the Copper Actually Gets Hot
A KiCad plugin that computes DC resistance, current density, and via ampacity across copper pours, so we stop guessing where a board runs hot.
LVSolarBuck Milestone: Full Power at 97.36% Efficiency
The solar input module hit its designed maximum power and worst-case efficiency point for the first time: 97.36% at 45 A out, 48 V out, 120 V in.
Visiting CMU STeP at the Regional Science Park
Ice, Auu, and Alex visited the Science and Technology Park at Chiang Mai University to discuss a potential collaboration, and possibly a new home for our office.
The Evolution of Our Smart LED Lamp
From green round PCB to square aluminum heatsink: a look at the design iterations behind our long-life smart LED lamp.
Infineon and Arrow Thailand Visit Our R&D Lab
We welcomed representatives from Infineon and Arrow Thailand to our Chiang Mai R&D lab to discuss our GaN-based 48V MPPT converter design.
Reverse-Engineering Our Spectrophotometer with Claude
We used Claude to sniff and decode the USB protocol of our HPCS 6500 integrating sphere, replacing the vendor software with an open-source Python driver.
How We Track 290,000 Components with InvenTree
Our inventory system uses InvenTree, barcode scanning, and automated part import to track 833 unique parts and 290K total components.
Our Automated Test Bench is Live
We built an automated efficiency test system for our LVSolarBuck MPPT charger using open-source SCPI drivers and Claude.
Meeting with German Honorary Consul Sebastian-Justus Schmidt
We hosted Sebastian-Justus Schmidt, German Honorary Consul of Chiang Mai and founder of Enapter AG, at our R&D facility.
When the Ping River Came to Our Lab
The October 2024 Chiang Mai flood hit our interim lab with 50cm of standing water. Here's what happened, what we learned, and why vendor lock-in is dangerous.