The Wiert Corner – irregular stream of stuff

Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

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Archive for the ‘Hardware Development’ Category

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Idea: managing a garage door with a modified Marantec switch, some sensors and Raspberry Pi

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/12/24

Some links to get this idea going, incomplete, as I have not yet included Domoticz or OpenHAB links:

I will likely need:

  • some optocouplers to decouple GPIO pins from the Marantec switch and sensors
  • sensors for detecting current state: open/closed/opening/closing/obstructed

Warning on selecting GPIO pins:

When the Raspberry Pi reboots GPIO pins are reset to their default state. This can cause your garage door to open without you issuing a command. Please make sure you pick the correct pins so that you don’t accidentally have your garage door opening after a power loss.

The following pins are pulled HIGH (they output a 3.3 volt signal) on reboot:

  • GPIO0/2
  • GPIO1/3
  • GPIO4
  • GPIO7
  • GPIO8

GPIO14 is configured as a Serial Transmit line, so avoid choosing that pin.

All other pins are pulled LOW (they have a 0 volt signal, same as GND).

If your relay triggers when the GPIO pin goes LOW, then pick a pin that starts out HIGH on reboot. If your relay triggers with the GPIO PIN goes HIGH then pick a GPIO pin that starts out LOW on reboot.

–jeroen

Posted in Development, Hardware Development, Hardware Interfacing, Raspberry Pi | Leave a Comment »

Node-RED

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/12/11

Node-RED is a programming tool for wiring together hardware devices, APIs and online services in new and interesting ways.It provides a browser-based editor that makes it easy to wire together flows using the wide range of nodes in the palette that can be deployed to its runtime in a single-click.

Seems one of the ways to automate our home: [WayBack] Node-RED, as it supports many input and output methods with all kinds of nodes between them:

input output
inject debug
catch
status
link link
mqtt mqtt
http http response
websocket websocket
tcp tcp
udp udp
serial serial

It is based on node.js, seems to need PM2 for running as a service, so I need to first figure out how well it runs on OpenSuSE (with more details than this gist).

After that I need to figure out how to version your configurations using git and document as it looks like the configurations sources are stored in JSON format [WayBack].

For resources:

  • StackOverflow node-red tag
  • Github node-red repositories
  • nodered documentation to:
    • get started (including Installation, Running, Adding non-stock Nodes, Upgrading, Creating your first and second flow, running on Docker / Windows)
      • running on a device (Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone Black, Android) which needs extra device specific modules to hardware inputs/outputs
      • communicating with a device (Arduino)
      • running in the cloud (IBM Bluemix, SenseTecnic FRED, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure)
    • user guide (including Configuration, Security, Logging, Command-line Admin, Writing Functions, Embedding into an existing app)
    • cookbook (with many flows covering Basics, HTTP and MQTT)
    • creating nodes (with a wall of information: Creating your first node, JavaScript File, HTML File, Storing Context, Node properties, Node credentials, Node appearance, Node status, Configuration nodes, Help style guide, Packaging, Internationalisation)
    • flows (hundreds of them)

Code is published as JSON, but I wish more examples also showed the visual representation.

Via: [WayBack] Now I can go to bed :-) Added node-red [1] to my setup and thanks to node-red-contrib-ui [2] (replaced by node-red-dashboard [3]) I can now generate ni… – Jan Wildeboer – Google+ who also provided the large screenshot below.

–jeroen

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Posted in Development, Hardware Development, IoT Internet of Things, Network-and-equipment, Power User, Raspberry Pi | Leave a Comment »

MeanWell Mini Switching Power Supplies May Be Useful for Development Boards

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/11/13

Great power supplies that provide a very stable power source and are adjustable too: [WayBack] MeanWell Mini Switching Power Supplies May Be Useful for Development Boards

Via: [WayBack] Tiny Meanwell switch mode power supplies that should provide a good (i.e. reliable) power source for development boards. https://www.cnx-software.com/2… – Jean-Luc Aufranc – Google+

–jeroen

Posted in Development, Hardware Development | 1 Comment »

Blocklist Collection ¦ Firebog

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/10/25

via gitter.im/pi-hole/pi-hole: [WayBack] Blocklist Collection ¦ Firebog

Pi-hole compatible blocklists for you to have a more enjoyable online presence

Thanks Mark Drobnak @Mcat12 for suggesting this.

–jeroen

Posted in LifeHacker, Power User, Raspberry Pi | Leave a Comment »

Fastener Reference Cheat Sheets, by @pighixxx | #ManufacturingMonday

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/10/04

[WayBack] Fastener Reference Cheat Sheets, by @pighixxx | #ManufacturingMonday

From pan flange to button washer, from socket cap to trim screw heads, not to mention threading types and drive head options, every workbench and workshop should have this fastener reference guide …

via:

–jeroen

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Posted in Development, Hardware Development, LifeHacker, Power User | Leave a Comment »

Skin effect – Wikipedia

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/09/23

Skin effect – Wikipedia:

Skin effect is the tendency of an alternating electric current (AC) to become distributed within a conductorsuch that the current density is largest near the surface of the conductor, and decreases with greater depths in the conductor. …

At high frequencies the skin depth becomes much smaller. … Because the interior of a large conductor carries so little of the current, tubular conductors such as pipe can be used to save weight and cost.

Via [WayBack] Odd: “copper” central lead of antenna cable attracted by magnetic screwdriver tip. – Jeroen Wiert Pluimers – Google+

–jeroen

 

Posted in Development, Hardware Development, LifeHacker, Power User | Leave a Comment »

LED Voltage Drops

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/09/19

[WayBack] Dangerous Prototypes: Basic Light Emitting Diode guide – Voltage drop or forward voltage has a nice table of common LED types:

You can also measure them yourself using most multi-meters have setting for that as described in [WayBack] Easy way to figure out a LED’s Vf in order to pick an appropriate resistor – Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange

You can also measure yourself, but my Proster VC99 multi-meter (cheap, but functions well, see for instance the review in [WayBack] MagPi issue 43) can measure voltage drop, so I’ve measured some LEDs from old PC cases:

  • Red: 1.8 V
  • Yellow: 1.8 V
  • Green: 1.8 V
  • Blue: does not measure

Given that they all have the same voltage drop, I made the below table with some resistor values to get the same current through them on various voltages (3.3V, 5V and 12V) based on Standard resistor values.

Note anything less than 20mA of current usually is OK (though 20mA often is on the bright side).

LED Colour Voltage drop (Vf) Total Voltage Remaining Voltage Resistance Ω Current mA Power mW
Any 1.8 5 3.2 220 14.55 46.55
Any 1.8 12 10.2 680 15.00 153.00
Any 1.8 3.3 1.5 100 15.00 22.50
Any 1.8 5 3.2 330 9.70 31.03
Any 1.8 12 10.2 1000 10.20 104.04
Any 1.8 3.3 1.5 150 10.00 15.00
Any 1.8 5 3.2 470 6.81 21.79
Any 1.8 12 10.2 1500 6.80 69.36
Any 1.8 3.3 1.5 220 6.82 10.23

Background for doing these calculations:

–jeroen

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Posted in Development, Hardware Development | Leave a Comment »

(53) Introducing the “Lab in a Box” Concept – Patrick Titiano & Kevin Hilman, BayLibre – YouTube

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/08/13

Related: Introducing The “Lab in a Box” Concept (ELC-E-2017-Prague).pdf

Via:

–jeroen

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Posted in Development, Hardware, Hardware Development, Hardware Interfacing, Power User, Raspberry Pi, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

Cable salad is of all times: 1964 analog computers; Moog syntesizers

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/08/01

This picture on Flickr of Engineer Karen Leadlay in an analog computer lab at General Dynamics, January 1964 shows that cable salad is of all times.

Atlas Collection Image

Via:

The above threads have really nice comments, including pointers to for instance the [WayBack] Moog synthesizer – Wikipedia  (lots of you remember the songs by Keith Emerson).

–jeroen

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Posted in Development, Fun, Hardware Development | Leave a Comment »

Sonoff Wireless Switch Family Gets a $3 IP66 Waterproof Enclosure

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/07/15

Interesting stuff from a while back that I will be using soon: [WayBack] Sonoff Wireless Switch Family Gets a $3 IP66 Waterproof Enclosure.

Pictures via CNX Software; originally found via [WayBack] $2.90 waterproof case for +ITEAD Studio Sonoff switches… – Jean-Luc Aufranc – Google+

–jeroen

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Posted in Development, ESP8266, Hardware Development, IoT Internet of Things, Network-and-equipment, Power User | Leave a Comment »

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