[01]StoryLong-form write-up
Glenn is a sourdough starter that has been alive since March 2025. Loaf Lab is the monitoring system Tas built to keep Glenn alive and understand why some bakes fail.
An Arduino Nano reads a DHT22 temperature/humidity sensor and an ultrasonic distance sensor (for measuring starter rise) every five minutes and pushes data to a Google Sheet via a Python bridge script. A Notion integration pulls from the sheet and displays a live chart with annotations for each feed and bake.
The surprising finding: the common room air conditioning dropping below 18°C overnight is the single biggest predictor of a flat loaf. Glenn now has a small insulated box.