Meet Kim: A part-time back office worker, full-time carer, and part-time husband, dad, and granddad from the UK. He has a passion for tinkering and has been working on a variety of projects, including a core-XY pen plotter and an outdoor balcony irrigation system.

My favourite thing about being a member of Ohmify are the super simple courses and examples – brilliant for beginners and tinkerers alike.

Where are you from and what do you do?

I am a male Kim, originating from the UK and currently living in Nottingham. I am close to retirement age but kept very busy juggling my schedule/struggle with my time management.

I am currently a part-time back office worker looking after the IT systems for a small letting agent. A full-time carer for an aged parent, part-time husband, dad, and granddad to my wife and our 3 adult boys & their families.

I have lived and worked in Italy for around 20 years and speak good Italian and Spanish (my wife is Colombian). I have worked in IT all my adult life, starting in computer operations and moving on to sysadmin and the natural coding progression from there.

Oh, also I’m an incorrigible tinkerer (my latest passion is 3D printing and learning CAD) and have molested endless things electronically since I was a youngster!

What was the main reason you joined Ohmify?

I joined Ohmify to gain a better understanding of *how* electronic things work. I have had a multimeter and a soldering iron since I was about 8 and have been self-taught, often fixing things by looking for and replacing obviously soot-stained components and/or testing components with my trusty ‘meter and replacing those that seemed out of spec. Not very scientific I know but I have had reasonable results over the years!

So with Arduino and Pi so cheap, I decided to do a little more “formal” training and ran into Ohmify. Great site Oyvind & Co. and your little cartoon characters in the very early lessons have really helped me to understand circuits and the way electricity flows through them.

Thank you.

Are there any projects you’ve completed since joining Ohmify that you couldn’t have completed before?

Aah this is the problem – I have n projects on the go and not one of them is finished although this isn’t Ohmify’s fault!

“Major” projects on the go at the moment include a core-xy Arduino powered pen-plotter (search AxiDraw) and a Heath Robinson air conditioning unit using 4 Peltier modules, some old PC heat sinks and radiators, an old fan, 12 feet of automotive brake pipe, 2 litres of automotive antifreeze, lots of silicone tubing to connect the bits together and a *big* power supply!!

For the aircon, I will be leveraging knowledge gained from Ohmify to build control circuitry – at the moment it is either always “on” or always “off” as are the cooling & circulation pumps, etc etc and it is *ahem* inconvenient to have to do this manually… If I dare go near this MacGyver-inspired contraption!

What is the most fun project you’ve ever worked on?

Without doubt, the core-XY pen plotter as many of the parts were 3D printed then manually tweaked/assembled and it’s controlled by Arduino!

What’s not to like?!

What is your favorite thing about being a part of Ohmify?

My favourite thing about being a member of Ohmify are the super simple courses and examples – brilliant for beginners and tinkerers alike. And the breadth and depth of the community knowledge pool and the fact that no question is considered too stupid!

What are you currently working on?

My current projects are:

• Core XY plotter
• Aircon control circuitry
• Outdoor balcony irrigation system for my chilli & tomato plants

And I’m learning:

• From Ohmify!
• Python/Micro Python
• OpenScad syntax
• KiCad
• and other random stuff!