Hello, I’m Vitor Melon, author and creator of this blog and I’m going to talk a little bit about who I am and I hope to find outo something about you as well. To do so you just have to send me an e-mail (vitormelon@gmail.com) or get in touch with me through one of my social networks.
TL;DR
A Jon Shmoe who have studied some stuffs, have worked in some places and likes do do, dig and modify (or broke) things of daily use. On the whole, makes things worst then they are, but sometimes it works and he posts in this blog.
I’ll start by telling some facts that you can also read in my LinkedIn. Feel free to skip the highlighted paragraph, as it is mere formality. Things get interesting after that (or I hope so).
<formal and boring part>
Brazilian born in Maringá, interior of the state of Paraná. Analyst and software developer since 2010, I currently work as an engineering manager at a large financial market company called CERC.
I graduated in Computer Science from State University of Maringá (UEM) in 2013 and in 2018 I graduated in Business Management from Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV).
I have already participated in the creation of three Startups (which are still alive), the last one being the clothing store of my beloved wife, the Mari Melon Store. I also had the opportunity to work as a software developer and analyst in large companies in the health and insurance industry, where I was able to acquire a lot of knowledge.
</formal and boring part>
Since I was very young I “worked” with my father in his firm (I put in quotes because it was more of a school than a formal job to me). For those who do not know, in my father’s firm they fix electronic devices of brown goods (TV, sound and video equipment, videogames, microwaves, etc.), so I used to spend my afternoons with people opening and digging into those boxes, that for many was boxes, but for those people working in the firm was just shells that contained parts in known patterns.
I think this kind of contact not only helped to arouse even more my curiosity but also demystified the idea of magic boxes to me. Then creating a habit that I carry till nowadays: “What a nice thing, let’s open to see inside?”, “How will it work?”. With that, I stated to know more and more how things work.
At that time the role of my mother, an affectionate woman who teaches in elementary school, comes in. This means that she doesn’t need to have a deep knowledge in a single area, but she does need to be extremely didactic. I can assure you, if there is something that my mother has (besides her beautiful blue/green eyes) it is didactic.
In my youth, thanks to the beautiful influence of my mom, I gave many classes of (believe it or not) ballroom dancing (seriously, for almost 10 years). With that, I bought my first car still during my graduation, a Monza 87/88, in addition to meeting lots of wonderful people, one of them being the love of my life, my wife.
Later, I realized that dancing was a delightful hobby, but not something I wanted to do professionally. So I gave up dancing classes and started to dedicate myself entirely to the area of programming, doing several courses, works and experiments. It was a time when I focused on my graduation and devoted myself to learn things beyond it, trying to shape the world around me.
Finally one day I came across the lighting: (I think) I can develop a software to solve any computational problem, but if I wanted to light up a lamp… would I be able to? The answer was no, and this frustrated me. How come I have studied so much, tried so much and can’t light a simple LED using a software? I, of all people, who have done millions, if not billions, of LED lanterns that turned on and off with a switch, am I not be able to do that with a software?
I talked to a lot of people, researched some more until I was introduced to Arduino (warning of nerd content):
Arduino is na open-source hardware and software company, designed with an Atmel AVR microcontroller with built-in input / output support, a standard programming language, which originates from Wiring, and is essentially C / C ++.
Wikipédia
It was love at the sight, I could even hear the Titanic song (haha). I had de upper hand. Through this inexpensive and magical board I was able to combine what I knew and liked about electronics with programming and unlimited possibilities.
As I always had a fascination for temperature control, I did my graduation work using an Arduino to predictively and adaptively control the temperature of an aquarium, making sure that, even with great variations in the ambient temperature, the temperature of the aquarium remained extremely stable, varied less than 0.1 ° C. (Graduation work link in pt-br)
Since then I developed several projects with Arduino (and its variations), such as: control an alarm through internet, solar heater, monitoring pool temperature, controlling air conditioning via internet, notifying when a coffee is made or runs out in a company, height meter with barometer, etc…
At last, I created this blog to share and document some experiments and products I made or intend to do in the “Do It Yourself” style. Will you come with me?