I finally got around to installing a set of fuses and a terminal strip on an old computer power supply that I had. 3.3V @ 20A, 5V @ 16A, 12V @ 16A, thus the need for fuses! I also added a small digital voltage regulator that you can see in the bottom left of the pic, so I have a variable power supply that I can step down to a specific voltage if necessary.
Thanks for viewing!
Robin

EZ-Robot Roli

I've been taking a course to learn all of the features of this EZ-Robot Roli. It has an awesome software package that enables you to perform facial recognition, voice commands, line following, etc.
I'll be teaching this course in May and am looking forward to all of the great ideas my students will come up with.
You can find out more at EZ Robot Website
Thanks for visiting!
Robin

PIC Programming with PICkit 2

Wow!, I make one post then turn around and another year has passed me by....YIKES!
What I am going to try to do is take a pic of each of the projects I'm working on and post them here. I've been busy with Raspberry Pi attendance monitors (Pi, Barcode Scanner & mariadb backend), Pi remote controls (using the above attendance monitor) and have gone back to playing with PIC micros using assembler and C compiler!

Here is a photo of my ...old... PICkit 2 connected to the microchip Low Pin Count Demo board. If you want to check out some AWESOME tutorials on programming the PIC's go to David Meiklejohn's site gooligum (cool name!)

Raspberry Pi 3 Alarm System

What is this mess, you might ask?

Well this is the final prototype for my Raspberry Pi 3 Alarm system. It uses the USB keypad in the upper left corner to input the correct code, the entry and exit delay beeper is in the lower left of the photo beside the keyboard, and the LED's showing what is going on is on the breadboard just above the keyboard. You cannot see the PIR sensors, that I have mounted on the pole of the shelf that is visible in the upper right of the picture.

The next step (today) is to mount all of the components on a board and see how everything will fit into the case!

I'll post a final pic once I have everything mounted in the case.

Thanks for viewing!
Robin

Connecting Raspberry Pi 3 and Arduino

WOW, I cannot believe that it has been over a year since my last post. Time flies when you're having fun!!!

I've decided it was time to update the last post (it's only been about 16 months!)

1. Install Jesse Raspbian with Pixel 2017-04-10
2. Go thru the configuration
1. Change the pi password
2. Change the Pi Hostname
3. Don’t automatically login to ‘pi’ user
3. Under the Interfaces Tab:
1. Camera = Disable
2. SSH = Enable
3. SPI = Enable
4. I2C = Enable
5. Serial = Disable
4. I don't change anything under the Performance Tab
5. Under the Localisation Tab:
1. Change the locale to Canada (English)
2. Set the Timezone to Canada (America) > Mountain (Edmonton)
3. I’m still having a problem with changing the keyboard layout
1. It is a noted problem on the Raspberry Pi Forum
2. Still using sudo raspi-config to config to Canada > English
6. sudo apt-get update
7. sudo apt-get upgrade
8. sudo adduser robin
9. add robin to same groups as pi user (dialout for arduino)
10. sudo apt-get install arduino
11. sudo apt-get install arduino-mk
12. Modify avrdude.conf to work with GPIO pins
1. sudo nano /etc/avrdude.conf
2. Ctrl-W to find the gpio reference, and uncomment the following lines
3. programmer
1. id = "linuxgpio";
2. desc = "Use the linux sysfs interface to bitbang GPIO lines";
3. type = "linuxgpio";
4. reset = ?;
5. sck = ?;
6. mosi = ?;
7. miso = ?;
8. ;
4. And change the ? to;
1. reset = 8 (GPIO # not Actual pin #24, CE0)
2. sck = 11 (Actual pin #23, SCLK)
3. mosi = 10 (Actual pin #19, MOSI)
4. miso = 9 (Actual pin #21, MISO)
5. Wire up the Arduino ICSP header as follows:
   (RESET is closest to IC)
   -------------------
   | MISO    +5V |
   | SCK     MOSI |
   | RESET  GND |
   -------------------
1. RESET to Raspi pin 24
2. SCK to Raspi pin 23
3. MISO to Raspi pin 21
4. +5V to Raspi pin 2
5. MOSI to Raspi pin 19
6. GND to Raspi pin 6
6. Type in sudo avrdude -v to ensure avrdude is responding
7. Type in sudo avrdude -p atmega328p -c linuxgpio -v to ensure avrdude can communicate with the arduino
8. As mentioned in my previous post, I copy my raspi-git github directory to each Raspi to make it easier to copy common files back and forth.
9. cp -r ~/raspi-git/Uno/Blink ~ (to copy the blink directory to my home directory)
10. move to the ~/Blink directory and run the following to download the software into the arduino
1. sudo avrdude -p atmega328p -c linuxgpio -v -U flash:w:./build-uno/Blink.hex:i
2. If all goes well this should upload the Blink.hex program to the arduino
11. Check the Makefile for the following lines:
1. BOARD_TAG = uno
2. ARDUINO_PORT = /dev/ttyACM0
3. ARDUINO_LIBS =
4. ARDUINO_DIR = /usr/share/arduino
5. include /usr/share/arduino/Arduino.mk
12. Check it by modifying the ~/Blink/Blink.ino file and recompiling it
1. nano ./Blink/Blink.ino
2. Change the blink rate
3. Ctrl-x to save
4. make
5. sudo avrdude -p atmega328p -c linuxgpio -v -U flash:w:./build-uno/Blink.hex:i
6. the changes should be apparent on the Arduino LED

Avrdude 6.1

I just installed the latest version of Raspbian Jessie 2015-11-21 for my Pi 2's. I found that now when I installed the arduino package, it comes with avrdude 6.1. So I don't need to link to the adafruit repository anymore. Here is a list of the steps I take to install Jessie, Arduino, Arduino-mk, and check that I can communicate between the Arduino & Raspberry Pi 2 via Serial. You'll note that I clone my git repository where I keep all of my files as I'm working on them. I find this extremely useful since I'm working on the files on my Pi2 or Gertduino/PiB at home, or the same setup that I have at work:

1. Install Jesse 2015-11-21
2. Go thru the configuration
   (Menu > Preferences > Raspberry Pi Configuration)
1. Under the System Tab:
1. Expand the filesystem
2. Change the pi password
3. Change the Pi Hostname
4. Don’t automatically login to ‘pi’ user
2. Under the Interfaces Tab:
1. Camera = Disable
2. SSH = Enable
3. SPI = Enable
4. I2C = Enable
5. Serial = Disable
3. I don’t change anything under the Performance Tab
4. Under the Localisation Tab:
1. Change the locale to Canada (English)
2. Set the Timezone to Canada (America) > Mountain (Edmonton)
3. I’m still having a problem with changing the keyboard layout
1. It is a noted problem on the Raspberry Pi Forum
2. Still using sudo raspi-config to config to Canada > English
3. sudo apt-get update
4. sudo apt-get upgrade
5. sudo adduser robin
6. sudo visudo to give robin the same rights as pi user
7. sudo apt-get install arduino-mk
8. sudo apt-get install arduino (add robin to dialout group)
9. Make a link to the Arduino.mk file:
   ln -s /usr/share/arduino/Arduino.mk ~/Arduino.mk
10. Copy the original avrdude.conf file into my home directory
1. cp /etc/avrdude.conf ~/avrdude_gpio.conf
11. Modify it to work with the GPIO pins
1. nano ~/avrdude_gpio.conf
12. Aff the following lines at the end of the file:
1. # Linux GPIO configuration for avrdude
2. # Change the lines below to the GPIO pins connected to the AVR
3. programmer
4.  id = "pi_1";
5.  desc = "Use the Linux sysfs interface to bitbang GPIO lines";
6.  type = "linuxgpio";
7.  reset = 12;
8.  sck = 24;
9.  mosi = 23;
10.  miso = 18;
11. ;
13. With the Arduino connected to the Raspberry Pi, run the following line to make sure the Raspi can see the arduino:
    sudo avrdude -p atmega328p -C ~/avrdude_gpio.conf -c pi_1 -v
14. git clone https://github.com/robingreig/raspi-git
15. cp -r ~/raspi-git/Python ~ (to copy the Python directory to my home)
16. cp -r ~/raspi-git/Uno ~ (to copy the Uno directory to my home)
17. Goto the .hex file @ ~/Uno/Serial/Voltages/build-uno/Voltages.hex & run:
    sudo avrdude -p atmega328p -C ~/avrdude_gpio.conf -c pi_1 -v -U flash:w:Voltages.hex:i
    
18. If you overwrite the bootloader, reload it by going to:
    cd /usr/share/arduino/hardware/arduino/bootloaders/optiboot/
    and running the avrdude line with the optiboot_atmega328.hex file

Raspberry Pi takes over the world

OK, if not the world, then 1 outlet at a time!!!
This is a pic of a single relay that is controlled by my Raspberry Pi.
Red = 5VDC, Black = Ground, White = Pin23 (active high)
And an old pc power cord split in 1/2 and a female end installed.
The Ground and Neutral leads feed straight through from the input to the output
The relay switches the hot lead and runs a battery charger drawing 5 Amps AC.
The relay is rated for 10A @ 277V
The Raspberry Pi runs off of my solar array at home and because I have so many items tied to them:
     3 Raspberry Pi's
     1 x 12V HP switch
     1 x Kenwood HF Amateur Radio
     1 x LDG Antenna Tuner
     1 x Radio Shack HTX-242 VHF Amateur Radio

Most days I have enough solar energy to power all my devices.
However if I get several cloudy days together, the voltage can drop and my charge controllers shut down.
Then my Raspberry Pi's shut down...... And that makes me cranky.....

So I have an Arduino monitoring the battery voltage and sends that data via serial to the Raspi
If the battery voltage drops down too much due to lack of sunlight, the charger is turned on for a charge cycle (typically 6-8 hours), and then shuts off.

I plan on making quite a few of these for the many different 120VAC loads that I want to control from my Raspi.
Thanks for viewing;
Robin