Free Software, Electronics, Society and more

Affordable home automation

Thu, 12 Oct 2017 00:00:00 -0500

I wanted to monitor my chickens remotely and after some web digging found this open source software homeassistant that had allowed me to use cheap devices like RPI and some dlink/digoo cameras in order to monitor then via web.



It doesn't end there, i also bought the sonoff device and after some reflash i got it working with hass mqtt, so now i can also turn on light and fans.



There are also things like automation, so when I'm at home my bluetooth devices presence gets lights on, small details that helps to make your life easier, like turning off lights automatically.

There is probably more to do, next challenge is voice :-)

[1] http://home-assistant.io/
[2] https://github.com/arendst/Sonoff-MQTT-OTA

Piaware statics

Sun, 02 Nov 2014 00:00:00 -0500

/srv/data/paginaweb/blog/Untitled.html

Got a cheap rasberry pi recentently. Since the httpd on it was not eating lot cpu cycles decided to run something else that will give use to my rtl-sdr as well. Is called pi aware [1]. So far got interesting ADS-B statics from my place [2]. Not bad.

As a side note use rtl-power as a passive radar could be another interesting option, just for the stats ;-).


[1] http://flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/
    https://github.com/flightaware/
[2] http://flightaware.com/adsb/stats/user/kristianpaul

radio aporee

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0500

/srv/data/paul/blog/log36.html Is nice to see how the buga stream (thanks to locusonus) still mixed out there :-)

07:21 < hj4adj> > btw, i'm periodically stealing 2 minutes of live time
07:21 < hj4adj> > from some of the available micofones and smoothly insert it into
07:21 < hj4adj> > the stream at http://radio.aporee.org
07:21 < hj4adj> >
07:21 < hj4adj> > that is, buga, cologne and now london again (and also the ekström ice shelf
07:21 < hj4adj> > hydrophones in the antarctica ...)

Actually ended listening to this radio because save me time instead of tunning each stream at the time.

Congreso Itinerante by Free Software Foundation de Ecuador

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0500

/tmp/mutt-micro-1000-16715-896461972901d8d8fb0.html I'm going to give a talk about Copyleft Hardware, by April 11 at
Instituto Superior de Pedagogía, not too much info yet, just in case you
are at Ecuador at that time may be of you interest.

More info coming at http://softwarelibre.info/ (Agenda)

GPS-SDR on the Milkymist (Update 2)

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0500

~/blog/Untitled.html Has been a while since the last update in January, starting because for now
this implementation will no run in the nanonote :-) Not because it cant be do it,
just because i get more close to Milkymist platform so i feel more confident with it
(libre knowledge is my power) :-)

After read/skim some books/links [1][2] about GNSS/GPS and check Namuru proyect (thanks to Fabrizio)
i decided to port this namuru core to milkymist soc [3], this in beta stage and the current
effort is around making and tunning the correlators to get a proper signal acquisition and tracking [4],
this is a software asisted task that will be acomplished by osgps, and thanks to Artyom from gnss-sdr [5] wich
ported this project to a simplified version [6], getting started will not be hard.

Still more code in osgps that could be ported to get a fix, but for now having and stable method to get
navigation data from the GPS satellites is the priority.

Thanks for reading !
And all qi-hardware/milkymist comunity for supporting me :-)

[1] http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/GPS_Free_Stack/Books
[2] http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/GPS_Free_Stack/Web_Links
[3] https://github.com/kristianpaul/milkymist/tree/gps-sdr-testing
[4] http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/GPS_Free_Stack/Notes_About_Namuru
[5] http://gnss-sdr.ru
[6] http://code.google.com/p/gnsssdr/source/browse/#svn/trunk/OSGPS_MOD

First atempt to listen weather satellites

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0500

~/blog/log33.html Today i tried to listen a NOAA-19 weather satellite, i got a few seconds for
what sounds like its telemetry [1].

I used a uv-200 transceiver and a home made yagi-like antenna wich seems to work
if i inverted it (?) so, as no proper design was tought for it, i bet i
can be improved as soon i read more about this topic.

[1] http://kristianpaul.org//tmp/noaa19.wav

Copyleft cartoons within Copyleft Hardware

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

~/blog/log32_.html I love Mimi & Eunice cartoons, i read it everyday, and enjoy sharing it
by irc or microblog from time to time.

But why not carry it with me?

Well it is posible and very easy, if you own a Ben nanonote!,
just copy the thumbail version from the (http://mimiandeunice.com/)
webpage. scp it to your nanonote, and using the zgv application you can
browse and check the cartoons, it fit very well and you need arrow keys
for visualizing the whole history.

Copyleft cartoons with Copyleft hardware :-)

There still missing the way to get all cartoons automatically,
lets see what can be done for that later.

Local fabbed case for the Milkymist One (Full log)

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

~/blog/log30_.html I bought a Milkymist One Early Adopter Kit byt End of decemenber of 2010, I got the board in early January,
but of course no case was avaliable for that time...

A case is very important, dust is always there, and also you want to show Milkydrop effects to your friends
from time to time :-). Actually why not make a PARTY !!

So as the mm1 case source code is avaliable [1] i decided to fab it here, why not?.
I was told for a friend who own a RepRap machine about a company called Dataprint [2], he got from then
some cutted sheets for his reprap at good prices, so i decide to give a try.

I call then by phone initially asking about data formats. so i knew it it could be a trouble,
of course they told me about propietary cad software, but as some of us already may know qcad is an alternative
to some of then and its format seems to be copatible, so i sent the .dxf file plus a picture of a mm1 already made
case. I also told then about it must be acrylic of 3mm.

Next day i got the quote, materials and cutting work, all for ~10usd (21700 COP) plus 5usd of shipping to
home. So i wow this is really cheap !!. I actually doubt it if they really knew it the real size of the sheets.

So a week later i did the money transfer to get the work started, just before that they gave me to choose,
some colors:

(green) Verde Neón
(Smoke) Humo
(Red) Rojo
(Blue) Azul
(Orange) Naranja
(Transparent) Transparente frost

I choosed Smoke, as i wanted something neutral.

Today i got the package from then, two days after payment.

I fully asembled the whole case without the board so i knew it fits okay.

So i started to assemble the case with board ,at the first try i dint noticed the top and botton sheets needed same orientation.

Also you need fit the sides at once by moving it backward and forward so it fits smothly.

The missing parts now are mainly the buttons, i also noticed spacers that came with the mm1 board are not "compatible" with
the proper height to make side connectors to fit well when you are decide to put screws or buttons.

At the end i got a working case, my board is protected now and i can carry it easy.

I may print the buttons my self or try find some from a old remote control or console gamepad.

Oh, sure there are pics here http://kristianpaul.org/gallery/mm1%20case/index.html

[1] http://projects.qi-hardware.com/index.php/p/m1/source/tree/master/cad
[2] http://dataprint.webs.com/

Hacked port of Lua for the Milkymist One

Sun, 06 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

~/blog/Untitled.html Hi again,

This is a one day project, so be aware of posible bugs, and dirty hacks in the code !!

I wanted learn lua, as i found very interesting language, lighter than python, used
from router, networks scanners (nmap) and even window managers.

So i decide start with the port, you can get it working follwing:

git clone https://github.com/kristianpaul/milkymist-lua.git
git checkout milkymist
cd milkymist-lua
cd src
make rtems
lm32-rtems4.11-objcopy -Obinary luam
~/milkymist/tools/flterm --port /dev/ttyUSB0 --kernel luam

Last two steps asume you have a MM1 Board, but you can try it on qemu as well,
http://milkymist.org/wiki/index.php?title=Using_QEMU

Still missing full integration with rtems, that will allow load lua scripts easilly.

Bees

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0500

~/blog/log29.html A year or so ago, i discovered the permaculture word, it took me some months,
readings and watching videos to understand the basis of this idea. Actually i
alredy met some its principles, but now i was seeing how it works in real life,
and that actually there are more people around it everyday.

I read today this article about the Australian Stingless Bees,
but why should i care?.

Well, people tend to forgot that we are just in the middle of a big system,
you can call is as you like, but you cant forget every little tiny life form or plant
is important, thats how it works, you should be aware of that !!

http://permaculture.org.au/2011/02/02/keeping-native-australian-stingless-bees/