Your Raspberry Pi Projects

Also, if you're on Android, check out RasPi Check

Simple app for checking the status of your Raspberry Pi.
RasPi Check shows you overclocking information (frequency, temperature, volts) and more system information (free memory, runtime, disk status). You can also restart or halt your raspberry pi and send custom commands!
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So, they planned/hoped/dreamed to move around ten thousand or so of these li'l beasties, and have since blown through the two million mark. And now they're looking to upset the applecart in a different way, with the compute module (and thereby single-handedly save the DDR2 SODIMM form-factor from obsolescence with it!)

Meanwhile, imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, there's now/soon to be some BananaPi action too.

comper.jpg
 
bdt said:
So, they planned/hoped/dreamed to move around ten thousand or so of these li'l beasties, and have since blown through the two million mark. And now they're looking to upset the applecart in a different way, with the compute module (and thereby single-handedly save the DDR2 SODIMM form-factor from obsolescence with it!)

Meanwhile, imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, there's now/soon to be some BananaPi action too.

View attachment 116016
Click to expand...

Price comparison would be welcome for us lazy folks :)
 
gertvanjoe said:
Gonna build me some home automation
Click to expand...

Have an old book on arduino projects which includes home automation if u interested. "Programming your home - automate with arduino ..." PM me and please start a thread on your project.
 
i started learning a little linux and python last year december. and now in between fiddling with stepper motors, leds and sonic sensors i'm trying to learn more python with the help of the "learning python with the raspberry pi" book. so far it's been fun, but it's difficult to make time for everything. and work takes up all my free time during the day. :S

i have no clear goals or ideas yet, but i am quite keen to make a laser engraver as seen on the raspberry pi website. i'm currently waiting for some components to arrive, so i'm watching youtube videos and reading online in the hope of learning about the components i'll be using. no point in making the engraver if i don't understand what the heck is going on, then i might as well buy all the parts and get someone to build it for me. or even just buy a completed one.

i'm currently working in the time&attendance industry, so i'm quite keen to see if i can build my own time&attendance reader. it's not for commercial use, just for showing people how cool i am. and ladies dig developers.

hmm... looks like i do have some projects then:

laser engraver: this is mostly a hardware thing.
time&attendance reader: this will pretty much be software after figuring out how to wire up and communicate with a card scanner.
 
I'd love a laser engraver to shut my neighbours dogs up from my bedroom window when they wake me up at 2am with incessant barking.
 
Easter Bunny said:
i'm currently working in the time&attendance industry, so i'm quite keen to see if i can build my own time&attendance reader. it's not for commercial use, just for showing people how cool i am. and ladies dig developers.

hmm... looks like i do have some projects then:

laser engraver: this is mostly a hardware thing.
time&attendance reader: this will pretty much be software after figuring out how to wire up and communicate with a card scanner.
Click to expand...

Been meaning to do something along those lines as well. Except with a webcam / PiCam in place to verify the scoundrels... Sadly my initial impressions with the webcam is the latency (shutter speed) is poor, maybe I can get them to pose nicely, store the image and run (or serve the image to another machine) OpenCV and bypass the need for a card scanner.
 
i was thinking about a prox reader while driving today and suddenly i realised that when you swipe a card, you're not reading squiggles and odd characters from the device, it's sending you a series of highs and lows to make up a 24/26/32/etc bit "string". you then have to refer to the datasheet to see which set of bits are for what data.

am i right? please tell me i'm right. i'll feel so smart. :)

i haven't even gone further than stepper motors, leds and a sonic distance thingamabob and i'm already thinking about 232 chips (mmmm... chips...) and prox readers and threads on the pi listening for clockings and processing hours and a web interface...
 
Vis1/0N said:
Been meaning to do something along those lines as well. Except with a webcam / PiCam in place to verify the scoundrels... Sadly my initial impressions with the webcam is the latency (shutter speed) is poor, maybe I can get them to pose nicely, store the image and run (or serve the image to another machine) OpenCV and bypass the need for a card scanner.
Click to expand...

that seems rather intense. i don't know if i'll get to play with a camera anytime soon. so far i've only managed to convince myself R10 - R30 ebay purchases are ok (the process is: "wow! that's cheap! i totally need this!"). in my book however, there is a section on opencv. should be interesting when i get there oneday...
 
@Easter Bunny:
Most card readers can be programmed and communicated with over a serial interface. Using a MAX232 (like you mentioned) you can connect to any RS-232 compliant UART connection such as that on the Pi and serial connectors on older PCs. It's easiest to first use an application like Hyperterminal on a PC with a serial port so you can learn how it works before implementing it on the Pi. That way you only need to learn one thing at a time.

The reason you need the MAX232 is that the signals from the reader will be TTL level 0/5V whereas RS-232 is -9/9V for its logic highs and lows. Thus if you connected them without the chip they wouldn't understand each other.

With reference to your highs and lows question, yes it is sending bits that was (that's how all digital devices communicate, digital being made up of logic highs and lows). Your reader is almost certainly 8 bits though.
 
thanks Pseudonym. :) makes it actually seem quite simple.

i scored a gsc prox reader from a customer on tuesday (left over from the previous company's clocking system). i downloaded the datasheet for it and i found the following:

RS232 Output modes:
There are two RS232 outputs from the reader. The RS-232 wire (purple) outputs EIA voltage levels:
-5V for a binary ‘1’ state and +5V for a binary ‘0’ state. This output is suitable to connect directly to the
serial COM port of a PC. The TX wire (white) outputs TTL levels: +5V for a binary ‘1’ state and 0V for
a binary ‘0’ state. This output is suitable to connect directly to the USART of a microprocessor.
RS232 format data is outputted from both wires when the RS232 modes are selected.
Click to expand...

the reader also has dip switches which allows you to change between 232 and wiegand. 5V is fine for arduino, but still too high for a pi, so i'll have to whip out my notebook and look at the voltage divider notes i made. but first i'll make like you said and hook it to a pc's serial port and see what i get when i read cards.

it's all starting to slowly make sense now. i realised i should have started playing with electronics many years ago.
 
Ordered my Pi from PiFactory, paid for, and waiting for it to arrive, RS Components don't have stock, till December :( . To save some money, I did not order a PSU for it, as I have a 1 amp one lying in the box of bits ... , that will work, will this support a Pi, with 2 x USB memory sticks attached - think it should. Going to play with it and make a media/player server out of it, might even see if I can get some Linux apps to compile on it and might even make a FidoNet node out of it ... , possibly add a print server later ...

PS - I see that most of the Linux apps I had in mind are already part of Raspbian, tho I have yet to find a repository list that is not sadly lacking .. :(. Will have to compile the FidoNet apps tho ...
 
Would it be possible to configure a wifi media streamer for input to the tv hdmi input port.
To act like a google chromecast tv dongle.
If so, at what price?
 
Retired Rasbmc ever since I got my Chromecast, so I needed a new use...

Running RetroPie with bluetooth and uses my both PS3 controllers.
 
Well, I want a second one for download duties ... , a darn side cheaper to run 24/7 than my i7 870 ...
 
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