Raspberry Pi

Bound to be a few IT types on here fiddling with them 🙂

Anybody any projects on the go/complete?

I have Raspbmc installed on mine which I use to watch videos off external hd/flash drives. It’s ok, bit slow but it does the job. Tbh you’er beter off just plugging a laptop into the telly though.

Halloween skull. Have been working on it an and off since before last Halloween 😳 – though it does now do the main functionality of moving the jaw with a servo in coordination with the sound output when fed with wav files (triggered by a PIR sensor). Still got to add in the flashing eyes, though that should be fairly simple and then just a random menu of phrases/sounds. Sounds simple, but quite involved to get it all coordinated along with an audio amp etc.

Advanced stuff which might yet happen is adding in an accelerometer so it can tell if it’s been picked up and which way up it is – will tell the kids to pick it up and turn it over – and an ultrasonic sensor to detect how close people are – will tell them to come closer and then scream (with the volume turned right up) when they get close enough 😈

Maybe also streaming of sounds via wifi (the jaw movement works in realtime, so I just need to work out how to stream audio) so I can sit in the house and talk to the kids via the skull (reminder to self – must get a USB soundcard so I can feed audio the other way). It’s all battery powered via a UBEC, hence can either be picked up or possibly strung up in the air with fishing line so it looks like it’s floating.

Just need to decide exactly what I’m doing with it. I suppose given I have 2 RPis ideally I’d have 2 with different functionality, one static (or maybe a normal head poking out of a grave – I think we’re planning on doing a graveyard on the front lawn), one to pick up, bit I don’t think I’ve got time to do the mechanics even if I can get 2 different SW versions going.

Mine makes a handy door wedge and coaster.

Had mine since first release but only now getting round to playing with it.

Currently making a security system to over look my bikes. It uses a PIR and the Camera Board to detect anyone messing with my bike and takes a photo which is emailed to my phone along with an instant text alert.

Also looking to play with the Pi and my dSLR to capture some nice time lapse.

I want to get another 512Mb Pi to run OpenElec to see if it can take over from my AppleTV running XBMC. I like the fact the CEC works and it reduces the remote control situation.

Mine is running rasbmc, mostly for watching iPlayer, although we had the redbull rampage on the other day. Aracer, have you considered an arduino for your project? I find they are much easier to interface with servos and sensors. I’ve done a couple of animatronic projects with them now.

Met a chap a few months back who had his running his central heating. The whole thing was controlled via Google calendar so he could adjust it from anywhere with internet

nickjb : Was that central heating project using the arduino?

I’ve got one running Rasbmc, making a dumb TV smart.

The other was earmarked for use as a home mail server, but I’ve since decided to sell myself to Google in return for using Gmail instead. It is now looking for some sort of interesting project to lend itself to.

Easyrider, it was a pi. Much easier to do the Google networking stuff and the hardware is just one relay.

I have gutted an old Sinclair Spectrum+ and am replacing the innards with a Raspberry Pi running Spectrum emulator linked to a keyboard interface chip.

Main problem is finding the keyboard edge connector sockets which don’t seem to be available anywhere

Mine’s sat about doing nothing at the moment. I figured the only advantage it had over my grunt linux PC was it was nice and small. It can act as a client to the real power but after not really needing raspbmc any more, I’m a bit stuck with it.

I’m toying with the idea of getting it to control a brewing environment, taking regular temperature readings, altering a heater/cooler but I expect there’s already kit out there that will do that.

mines currently running rbej’s openelec build, but will be doing a CCTV monitor like poonprice probably using zoneminder.

Good project aracer, any pics/vid of it in action?

@aracer

How long do you calculate the Pi will run on the batteries? what batteries?

Because of this link Gofasterstripes posted a week or so a go I have just bought a pi to stream music to an old amp. Now just waiting for the evenings to get darker to make a start.

I’m toying with the idea of getting it to control a brewing environment, taking regular temperature readings, altering a heater/cooler but I expect there’s already kit out there that will do that.

Again, Arduino is probably the best solution there too.

I built an Arduino based HERMS brewery controller and sous vide cooker

Then there’s stuff like KegBot.[/url]

Cheers,
Jamie

As for my Raspberry Pi, it’s used as a XBMC server at the mo. I’m planning on using it as an eithernet shield for the Arduino and serve brewery data to an Android app- bit of a long term project that one, not being a programmer type!

Cheers,
Jamie

Thanks Jamie, looks good. I’ll keep it in mind.

Aracer, have you considered an arduino for your project? I find they are much easier to interface with servos and sensors. I’ve done a couple of animatronic projects with them now.

Arduino doesn’t do audio, and if it did (maybe I’ve missed something?) I’d still need add on storage to hold all the wav files. Mark 1 was running on an AVR (arduino is for amateurs 😉 ) combined with a sound module like you get in birthday cards but that was limited to a single short sample of sound with pre-recorded jaw control rather than working in real time as this now does. Also as you mention if I want to control it via wifi a Pi is much easier – not to mention better for doing any sort of complex processing. Sure I probably could add enough stuff onto an arduino to do it, but that would involve a lot more messing with hardware when most of the stuff is built into a pi and it’s just a case of doing the software.

Oh, and of course that it’s a challenge to do stuff on a pi – though actually a lot simpler than you might think now there is a decent DMA based servo/PWM control library (admittedly I’m modifying that for my own ends – I’ll probably publish when I’m done as I think my version is slightly better), and also code available for interfacing stuff like an ADXL345. I’m not sure the ultrasonic sensor has been done well on a pi as that involves fairly precise timing, so I’m possibly at the cutting edge there – I’ve written an add on to the servo control library to time stuff via DMA which gets around the issue of not having a RTOS.

Sorry no videos as yet – I’ll do one when I’ve got the flashing eyes working some time this week.

Depends which SD card is plugged in…

1) General mucking about with Python for scientific software development.
2) Raspbmc.
3) Weather station.

Working on tying one up with an Arduino and making my own spectrophotometer.

There are more professional solutions to all of these, but the whole point (for me) is that it’s a small box for me to tinker with.

It’s ok, bit slow but it does the job. Tbh you’er beter off just plugging a laptop into the telly though.

Got two. One used to run Raspbmc but now running OpenElec (XBMC still) which seems a bit better. Tom I don’t get this statement – the Pi is just as fast as the AppleTV and as good as the laptop, are you running it wirelessly?

The other one has a camera attached and is used on and off for various things. First project was a “biscuit-thief cam” – I set it up in a kitchen cupboard running off batteries and a motion sensor app took pictures of who was nicking all the biscuits and emailed the pics to me.
Children now hate the Pi 😉

Currently wondering if I can set up a Pi to trigger a small charge (big banger) when a contact is broken – need to get rid of a mole 🙂

Currently wondering if I can set up a Pi to trigger a small charge (big banger) when a contact is broken – need to get rid of a mole

That’s kind of overkill – in more than one sense!

molgrips had a thread about using one as an internet radio. He got a bit shirty though 🙂

That’s kind of overkill

me bovvered? As long as it’s gone.

Currently wondering if I can set up a Pi to trigger a small charge (big banger) when a contact is broken – need to get rid of a mole

Is that not technically an IED?

I keep intending to build an XBMC jobbie for the lounge, but I like the idea of a google calendar/Pi driven heating system, Hmmm…

I did look briefly at the arduino with an idea of DIYing a sort of GPS Speedo/logger for the bike but decided reinventing the garmin would be a costly and pointless exercise… an probably well beyond my abilities.

I did look briefly at the arduino with an idea of DIYing a sort of GPS Speedo/logger for the bike

A friend of mine did something similar, also integrating lights – not sure what platform he used. Has now moved on to doing it all on a smartphone though http://www.iforpowell.com/cms/index.php?page=ipbike

Raspbmc , hidden up behind the TV powered by the TV’s usb port. Works a treat for streaming near enough anything off the web or off the NAS.

Thinking of trying the XMBC streaming instead of hauling out the laptop when needed. Great little device the Pi.

A slice of inspiration ( and some dodgy acronyms ) can be found here:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10/22/lohan_carpi/