Post 44: New Stuff

I guess my habit is serious. I just got my second Model B, Rev 2 Raspberry Pi (so I can have a "stable" one and one to mess with).

I received the order from www.mpja.com (mentioned in the previous post). Delivery was quick and everything worked (but the default delivery by UPS Ground is pricey -- I switched to U.S. Mail).

I particularly like the tiny PIR detector -- about 1/2" across, $3.95.

Note that the connector pins point straight back. The whole thing will fit inside a 3/4" OD plastic tube. It lacks adjustment pots but works with my existing software.

Now I've ordered this breadboard and connector:

The GPIO pins are labeled. Plus 3.3v, 5v and Ground are already connected to the edge rails. And unlike other such connectors, only one row of pins are covered up. I could wish it was less than $19.95.

Things I'd like to have:

1. A selection of longer Pi camera ribbon cables. The camera works fine but the 15 cm wire is a pain. 

2. A way to get from the solderless (but easily messed up) breadboard to something secure (if not permanent). Soldering a proto-board will be a chore. Maybe there could be a breadboard that works like a zif connector -- flip the lever and the jumper wires are clamped solidly. Eh?

Interesting Pi-Related Web Retailers

http://www.mpja.com/
A site with a large variety of interesting stuff, especially sensors -- some that I haven't found anywhere else. These include devices for detecting various kinds of gas leaks. Also seemingly low prices on some items -- e.g.: PIR motion detector for $3.95. They also have a huge variety of power supplies, junction boxes, motors, etc.

http://www.cooking-hacks.com/ehealth-sensors-complete-kit-biometric-medical-arduino-raspberry-pi
As the name suggests, this is a tool for remote medical diagnosis. The site claims that up to 10 biometric sensors can be simultaneously attached. If the patient and doctor both have broadband and webcams then the patient could seemingly have an "office visit" without going to the office. The site claims that the "platform" (their term) is available for order starting 1/7/2014 for €450. Add a well-equipped Pi and the whole remote setup would be under $750. Chickenfeed next to the current market. It also occurs to me that their platform contains all the sensors that one would associate with traditional lie detectors!

. . .

Standard disclaimer: I have no financial interest in either of these outfits and I have no information on their reliability. However, I have ordered a few things from mpja and I will report back if I learn anything interesting.

My Pi-Controlled LED Strip Porch Light Project

I bought these online for about $25.

5 meter, 18 watt LED strip and 30 watt 12 volt power supply

I plan to stick the LED strip under the outer edge of the soffit. These things are surprisingly bright. And the length is just right to span my deck, the front door and the steps up on either side. I also ordered (but haven't gotten yet) a new PIR motion detector that is small enough to fit inside a 1" PVC pipe ($1!). I need to recess the PIR to limit its angle of view (otherwise it would be constantly tripped by blowing plants or varmints). The detector will be pointed so it covers someone standing in by the front door. In simplified terms my Pi program will work like this:

Only if it's dark:
  Test the PIR every 3 seconds
  If the PIR has detected motion:
    Turn on the LEDs for at least 30 seconds, continue if there is more motion
         
There is a handy soffit vent to bring out the PIR sensor and 12v for the LEDs. This vent is only about 12' from my Pi. I plan to run 5 22 gauge wires, 3 for the PIR (5v, ground and 3.3v signal) + 2 12v for the LEDs.

As an over-ride to my program sketched above, I have already programmed a web interface that will turn the lights on/off from my iPhone.

My 7-Segment Display

I ordered the device from Adafruit. The main reason was to check out getting a second I2C device to work. Here's how I wired it from the Pi:

To get that far I followed the directions at--

http://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-led-backpack/0-dot-56-seven-segment-backpack

I found soldering the 24 tiny pins to connect the display to the "backpack" a trial, but surprise, surprise -- it worked with their example 24-hour clock program first try. I had previously downloaded --

Adafruit-Raspberry-Pi-Python-Code-master/Adafruit_LEDBackpack

(Do you think they could make the directory names any longer?)

I wanted my clock to display 12-hour/AM/PM time. Here's my rework of the software:

#!/usr/bin/python

import time

import datetime

import signal

import sys

from Adafruit_7Segment import SevenSegment

def signal_handler(signal, frame): # to stop the clock

    print 'You pressed Ctrl+C!'

    SevenSegment(address=0x70) #clear display

    sys.exit(0)

signal.signal(signal.SIGINT, signal_handler)

segment = SevenSegment(address=0x70)

lastHour = -1

print "Press CTRL+C to exit"

# Continually update the time on a 4 char, 7-segment display

while(True):

  now = datetime.datetime.now() # get 24-hour time values

  hour = now.hour

  pm = False

  # Set hours

  if hour != lastHour:   # don't change display

    lastHour = hour

    if hour > 11: # change to 12 hour clock

      hour -= 12

      pm = True

      if hour == 0: # just after midnight

        hour = 12

      if int(hour / 10) == 0:  # turn off leading zero

        segment = SevenSegment(address=0x70)  # turns all digits off

    if int(hour / 10) != 0:    

      segment.writeDigit(0, int(hour / 10))     # Tens

    segment.writeDigit(1, hour % 10)          # Ones

  # Set minutes

  minute = now.minute

  segment.writeDigit(3, int(minute / 10))   # Tens

  segment.writeDigit(4, minute % 10, pm)        # Ones + PM dot

  # turn on colon

  segment.setColon(1)

  time.sleep(60)    # update in 1 minute -- may be 1 minute slow 

One of the irritations of Python is that a program like this can only be executed from the directory its local "import" file is in. There are ways around this but it's enough to make C language attractive. 

Most importantly, both of my I2C-connected devices still work. And I can add more. From two GPIO pins (3=SLA, 5=SCL), many devices!

More about my Raspberry Pi's Web Site

See

http://raspi-online.info/

It now allows someone (with the password) to operate the 8 relays connected by I2C from the Pi. At the moment the relays themselves aren't connected to anything much --  but they could be. It looks like this:

I have one 8-switch Sain relay, but I think that two 16-relay boards would work, too. I adapted code in C language that I found at--

http://www.skpang.co.uk/blog/archives/637

I would have preferred to work in Python but code I've found in that language didn't work for me and I was more interested in results than I was in discovering the problem.

The web site does not send data or commands to the Pi. Rather the Pi uploads data on a scheduled basis and checks for change requests. So whenever the relays are changed (whether directly on the Pi or requested from the web) the then-current settings are uploaded to raspi-online.info for display as above. When a change is recorded from the web form (above) a temporary file is written and then queried every 2 minutes from the Pi.

Housekeeping (Drat!)

In Linux it is seductively easy to install new software packages. Of course, it's also a great convenience. Keeping track of what you've installed (and when) is mostly up to you. I say mostly because the following shell expression is a help:

  dpkg --get-selections | grep install

Unfortunately, this gives you the list in alphabetical rather than date order and it lists all the sub-packages -- not just the ones you actually typed in. My list since June is over 1000 lines long. I mentioned June because just before that I did --

  sudo apt-get -y ??? install

And whatever that was (the "???" bit) corrupted the filesystem on my 16gb SD card ("sudo" can scribble anywhere). So I had to re-download the whole system (using my iMac) on to a spare SD card. I then tried to patch the original filesystem using the fsck command. But it didn't help. Since then I have been pretty good about backing things up (covered in earlier posts). The thing I didn't do was write down each time I did an install or update. Duh. And if you DO keep this record, don't just leave the file on the Pi where it could get lost.

More About Relays

To further test my 8-device relay I built a little LED flashlight like this:

Then I experimented with connecting the "to relay" contacts to an actual relay. Here is an enlarged view of a relay connector:

I've added text above the 3 terminals: NO = normally open, NC = normally closed. Kind of obvious from symbol on the board. So, if I wired my flashlight to COM and NC then the light is on initially (and only turned off on purpose).

But wired to NO and COM the light is off to start with and and only on when programmed (note the red lines above). Like these Python statements:

  GPIO.output(RelaySw1,GPIO.LOW) # turn SW on

and

  GPIO.output(RelaySw1,GPIO.HIGH) # turn SW off

Ok, so the LOW and HIGH still seem backwards. But I don't have to worry about the relays being all on at reboot.

My Opto-coupled Relay Board

First I did the simplest possible test -- wired as shown:

Here's my Python test program:

import time
import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
GPIO.setwarnings(False)
GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)

RelaySw1 = 8 # Pi pin 24

GPIO.setup(RelaySw1, GPIO.OUT)

for x in range(4): # tries
GPIO.output(RelaySw1,GPIO.HIGH) # SW on
time.sleep(2)
GPIO.output(RelaySw1,GPIO.LOW) # SW off
time.sleep(2)

GPIO.cleanup()

And running it makes the first relay click on and off 4 times. Big deal. Before testing the relay with house current I wanted to take advantage of the current isolation that the board provides. After a few dim attempts I finally found this at an Arduino site:

 If you want complete optical isolation, connect "Vcc" to Arduino +5 volts but do NOT connect Arduino Ground.  Remove the Vcc to JD-Vcc jumper. Connect a separate +5 supply to "JD-Vcc" and board Gnd. This will supply power to the transistor drivers and relay coils. 

NOTE: Each relay draws about .08A (80 Ma) when on, so if all 8 relays are actuated the board needs about 8*80 or 640 Ma (.64 amps). In this case a separate power supply for the relay board is required. Connect as in preceeding paragraph. A 5 Volt 1 A supply such as THIS  would be good.

Here's the rewired image (that works):

Next, I tried controlling it from my 8-port I2C chip (I don't have 8 spare GPIO pins). But as soon as I plugged jumper into the inactive I2C pin, the relay closed. Oops! this board is "active low." I.e., LOW (ground) turns them ON. This is apparently not a "bug" but a "feature." Ok, I can work it backwards but I'm left with a start-up problem. Let's say my 8 relays control 8 irrigation valves. And I never want them all ON at the same time. So: my very first bit of start-up code has to set all 8 pins HIGH.

Tricky (see http://arduino-info.wikispaces.com/ArduinoPower)! 

BTW: My Python program above is all wrong. The "SW on", "SW off" comments are backwards!

I2C -- another day.

36: Capturing a Grayscale Image with the RasPi Camera

The raspistill command offers at least 30 command line options but no option to capture a grayscale image. There are considerable advantages to that mode for using a Pi as a security camera.

1. All of the BW info is contained in each single 8-bit pixel (looking at the Green value only gives you 70%).
2. The BW image takes up 1/3rd as much RAM and when you save an image to the filesystem the same JPEG quality is 1/10th the size of the RGB image.

Here's my little bw.py program (which assumes you are passing it an RGB file name):

#!/usr/bin/python
import StringIO
from PIL import Image
import sys

a = len(sys.argv)
if a != 2:
print "Usage: bw name.jpg\n"
exit(1)

im = Image.open(sys.argv[1]).convert("L")
file, ext = sys.argv[1].split('.')
im.save(file + 'BW.' + ext, "JPEG")

More about the Pi Camera and Python 

Some years ago the NY Times asked actual children to write reviews of childrens' books. The selections were assigned randomly. A 12-year-old girl got a book on snakes. Her review is reproduced here in its entirety: "That book taught me more about snakes than I ever wanted to know."

If you want to mess with image files in Python you might get to feel like the 12-year old. After getting the camera installed you then have to get PIL (as a guess, Python Image Library):

sudo apt-get install python-imaging

Then there's the documentation:

http://www.pythonware.com/media/data/pil-handbook.pdf

77 pages!

Concerning my experience with the camera:

My Python program executes the "raspistill" app to get an image. I've learned how to examine the image file. If you do this, you want to capture an uncompressed image: use the "-o bmp" format.

Anyway, I can detect motion, adjust for low light (to some extent), snap a higher-res image and email a warning to myself. However, I can't do anything practical with this because of the 6" cable on the camera module -- unless I buy a second Pi dedicated to the camera.

Above, my latest device: an 8-switch opto-isolated relay board. I haven't got anything connected yet but I had it clicking on and off within a few minutes.

Post 34: The Raspberry Pi Camera

I bought my camera from Newark/Element 14 which is the only place I found the minimum $25 price. Then I followed the installation instructions from--

http://thepihut.com/pages/how-to-install-the-raspberry-pi-camera

(others available). I also looked at--

http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=45235

Which includes Python code for comparing images -- as for a security camera. As it happens, their code resembles what I would have done if I'd had to start from scratch -- by comparing the same pixel position in successive low-res images. Since the G (green) part of RGB contains 70% of an image's grayscale information, R and B values can be ignored for a motion detection application. Thanks to the Raspi org I got my camera working with very little learning curve pain.

The way one captures an image is with the command line program "raspistill". This app has no Unix-style man page but if you know to execute--

$ raspistill -?

You'll get by.

In my little test program I wanted to learn just how how much difference to expect when there should have been no change at all. Here are the counts for 5 pair-wise comparisons of 120x90-pixel images:

0  d: 29008

1  d: 19889

2  d: 4704

3  d: 256

4  d: 71

5  d: 25

6  d: 15

7  d: 13

8  d: 8

9  d: 3

10  d: 1

11  d: 5

12  d: 1

16  d: 1

sum: 54000

What this means is that out of the total pixel count of 6 images (54,000) nearly 30k were exactly the same, 20k were off by one, etc.

BTW: the 15cm ribbon cable is a real pain. The only place listing longer cables seems to be--

http://www.bitwizard.nl/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=146&osCsid=m99iulac2i2ru7rmocfk8haut1

Only from the Netherlands? Give me a break!

I was wrong about a Linux "memory leak"

A few posts ago I was concerned about the apparent diminishing of available RAM as reported by checking "/proc/meminfo". But then I added this command to my midnight RAM test:

sudo /sbin/sysctl vm.drop_caches=3

Which causes the system to clear memory that is temporarily held -- just in case some data might be accessed again.

So, adding that command makes the MemFree number accurate, but probably lowers the efficiency of the OS slightly.

Duh. (but of course, the "/proc/meminfo" data is misleading)

Controlling My Pi from the Internet

Back in post 28, I described my method for getting data from my Pi to its web page. That's been working for a few weeks now.

A few days back I added a FORM SUBMIT button that can control how the Pi operates. The new feature is at the bottom of http://raspi-online.info/. The button is labeled "LED On!".

When that button is clicked PHP code in that page writes a particular value into a data file on that server.

Once per minute the Pi reads that same file -- like so:

#!/bin/bash
while true
do
  a=`curl --silent --netrc -R ftp://ftp.???.com/data/led`
  if [ "$a" = 'ON' ] ;
  then
   curl --silent --netrc -T web/null ftp://ftp.???.com/data/led
   sudo python web/flashled.py
  fi
  sleep 60
done

So IF the file named "led" has the magic value "ON" THEN that file is erased AND the associated LED is turned on for 20 seconds. 

Note that the way I did this is rather inefficient -- but it works. If I can turn an LED on then I can control anything else the Pi is connected to -- e.g.:

lights, fans, thermostat, irrigation valves, ...

Of course, I'd have add some security to the web interface.

Post 31: Expanding the number of IO ports with I2C

(added to a few hours later)

First I bought the MCP23008 8-port expansion chip from Adafuit.

Then I followed the install procedure given in:

http://www.raspberrypi-spy.co.uk/2013/07/how-to-use-a-mcp23017-i2c-port-expander-with-the-raspberry-pi-part-1/

(sorry about the line break)

Next I wired up a small breadboard as follows (nothing else on the board):

Here's the pin-out of a plain MCP23008 (there are several variants):

I have a Rev 2 Pi so I ran the following from SSH:

$ sudo i2cdetect -y 1
     0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  a  b  c  d  e  f
00:          -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 
10: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 
20: 20 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 
30: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 
40: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 
50: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 
60: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 
70: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --    

Which shows that the MCP chip is recognized and is at the expected address. Then I ran the command that set pins 0 - 6 as output:

$ sudo i2cset -y 0x20 0x00 0x80

And then I tried this--

$ sudo i2cset -y 0x20 0x14 0x01

Which should light the LED wired from GP0. But nothing happens. And no error messages.

Any comments?

LATER that same day:

I went to the site:

http://www.skpang.co.uk/blog/archives/637

And followed their procedure -- a directory of source written in C.

It didn't work either until I read the comments and made the change for my Rev. B Pi. Then the demo C program worked. However, I find the code obscure. I see how you turn an LED on but (not directly) how to turn it off. Plus, I'd much rather work in Python. Drat!

Comments?

Memory Leak?

My Pi runs with the following command in the crontab file

0 0 * * * sh memtest >>stats/memavail

Which means "check and record free RAM every midnight" and where memtest contains:

date "+%D %R"
grep MemFree </proc/meminfo

And here's the memavail data since 9/11:

MemFree:          368780 kB (after reboot)
09/11/13 00:00
MemFree:          206572 kB
09/12/13 00:00
MemFree:          199620 kB
09/13/13 00:00
MemFree:          194668 kB
09/14/13 00:00
MemFree:          191468 kB
09/15/13 00:00
MemFree:          381268 kB
09/16/13 00:00
MemFree:           82852 kB
09/17/13 00:00
MemFree:           15280 kB
09/18/13 00:00
MemFree:           15536 kB
09/19/13 00:00
MemFree:           16552 kB
09/20/13 00:00
MemFree:          368384 kB (after reboot)
09/21/13 00:00
MemFree:          182220 kB
09/22/13 00:00
MemFree:          174812 kB
09/23/13 00:00
MemFree:          170820 kB
09/24/13 00:00
MemFree:          168828 kB
09/25/13 00:00
MemFree:          167620 kB
09/26/13 00:00
MemFree:          166388 kB
09/27/13 00:00
MemFree:          164620 kB
09/28/13 00:00
MemFree:          164124 kB
09/29/13 00:00
MemFree:          163124 kB

So, does the free RAM just diminish until nothing will run? Or will there be a miracle garbage collection when things get tight? My little shell file (memtest) could also force a reboot when memfree got below an arbitrary value. But is it necessary?

Anyone know?

29: Perfect Hindsight

From what I know now I would have made several different hardware choices. For instance:

1. I initially blew off the Adafruit ribbon connector from the Pi's 26 pins to the breadboard. It didn't take long for things to get really messy (and it led to wiring mistakes).

2. Another way to cut the mess: lots of short wire lengths. I'm facing a big re-wire to get sane.

3. Here's a device that has caused me grief -- it won't stay connected:

This DHT22's pins are so fine that they don't make a reliable connection with female breadboard wires. I finally had to tin the pins (VERY carefully). A better choice (for a couple $ more) is the wired AM2302 version:

4. I certainly learned something, but controlling a solenoid with a transistor was a lot more trouble than using a Darlington array -- and the array will do 8 devices:

5., 6. I suppose every Pi beginner starts with buttons and LEDs. I mentioned (back many episodes) that I didn't know that polarity mattered with LEDs, but I got over that. However, the buttons I bought don't stay put on the breadboard. Half the time when I release the button it jumps out of its socket. Luckily, I've learned to control the Pi -- first from SSH and now from a Web page.

I also got some 3-wire spring connectors (hopefully to make reliable connection to stripped wires). That probably works but do they ever waste breadboard real estate.

Post 28: How I got my Pi to upload files to the Web

I first tried to "automate" FTP. But that command is oriented toward human (rather than programmed) input. That led me to CURL. I didn't bother to learn what the "c" stands for but the "url" part is obvious. So (in SSH) I typed--

  curl --help

And I got a "command not found"-type message. So then I blindly typed--

  sudo apt-get update # always a good idea

And

  sudo apt-get install curl

Ha! That worked too.

Then I set up my ".netrc" file. Which looks like this:

machine ftp.yourplace.com
login your-user-name-at-yourplace
password your-pw-there

And make it secure (from ls -l .netrc)--

-rw-r----- 1 yourpi yourpi (file length) Sep  3 16:47 .netrc

Then you can enter a curl command like this--

curl --netrc -T file-to-send ftp://ftp.yourplace.com/some-folder/

And if that works, you can make a bash command file like this--

#!/bin/bash
for i in your-list-of-files ...
do
 if [ -f $i ] ;
 then
  if [ $i -nt uploadtime ] ; # only send files that are "new"
  then
    curl --silent --netrc -T $i ftp://ftp.yourplace.com/.../
    echo $i
  fi
 fi
done
date >uploadtime # save the time stamp

Then add it to your crontab tasks (to run as often as you need). You need to know about crontab!

Anyway, that's (sort of) how my Pi's data gets to http://raspi-online.info/

Episode 27: Extending Sensors using Ethernet (CAT5) cable

I bought 4 RJ-45 breakout circuits:

So I hooked 2 of them up to my DHT22 temperature sensor with 50' of 24-gauge CAT5 cable between them:

And it worked.

The DHT takes 3 of the 8 wires, but one is ground (which could be shared).  So I could probably extend 4 devices with one pair of these interface cards. That's way better than using 3-wire electrical extension cords. My 4 plugs cost about $20 with shipping. The 50' CAT5 was $15.

There was an old lady Raspberry Pi who lived in a shoe shoebox...

undressed

covered up

My wife was tired of the messy-looking wires. So now the Pi resides in its box. From there, it updates its Web page every few minutes (see raspi-online.info). The states of the water valve and door switch are not currently being reported. The box has only raised the CPU temperature only a few degrees (I cut a dozen holes) but I'm going to add heat-sinks, anyway.

25: RaspBerry Pi — Farm Worker

Here's my current idea for the equipment layout:

The UPS will allow the Pi to ignore momentary power glitches and to shutdown gracefully if the outage lasts more than a few minutes. In case the UPS doesn't signal power failure, the photosensor shown above is a cheap solution.

Everything in the diagram adds up to no more than $300. But the trick to making it reliable will be in the software.