Raspberry PI anyone ?

[bad inferno]

I have been working on a RaspberryPI implementation to replace my current linux server which monitors my aquarium via 1wire. At $45.00 the Raspberry pi is a great platform.

The Plan

I have progressed to the point of getting the hardware connected and all components tested.

HARDWARE

Have been waiting on a breakout board to mount the connectors and components. I found a breakout board from RK Education that was perfect. Allowed me to mount two 1wire adapters and a serial MUX.

This board allows

3 x serial ports ( connection of pH, orp and FLO-30 from Atlas scientific)

2 x 1wire adapters (allows two different 1wire buses that could potentially connect 50+ 1wire devices

4 x digital output that will direct connect to a relay board by Futurelec.

OK here is a pic of the raspberry pi connected up to the breakout board. the breakout board may look complicated however its just a set of power regulators at the top portion. two 1wire adapters are on the lower RHS and a serial MUX is in the middle of the board.

SOFTWARE

I have 1wire communications established to a few temperature probes.

I have proved that I can communicate to the Ph and orp devices and they return data values. Took a while getting the Atlas Scientific devices to talk serial however all ok now.

I now have load and configure a web site and trends to show the data. This is simply from my existing site so should not be too much drama.

existing site www.rjconway.homeip.net

Rob

 

[Spyderturbo007]

How did you get one of these? I've been wanting one since they were announced to set up a media server (XBMC) on my basement TV. I haven't checked their site in awhile, but a few weeks ago they were still unavailable.

Well done on the setup. Although this isn't something I had planned on doing, I'll be watching your progress. I love when people do stuff like this!

 

[iced98lx]

Good work!

He probably got in on the kickstarter, but they are available for general order right now. they're making 4000 units a day trying to catch up on orders.

 

[disc1]

I've been dying to get my hands on one of those. Keep the updates coming.

 

[Landsailor]

What 1-Wire temperature sensors are you using?

I've been looking (well, I haven't in a LONG time) for sensors I could use to control my solar water heater with HomeSeer and a 1-Wire interface. They'd be plumbed directly into the pipes.

 

[DHyslop]

I truly admire you guys who know how to do this stuff.

 

[bad inferno]

What 1-Wire temperature sensors are you using?

They are just two ebay ones at $5.00 each. I have some others on order that have 6' calbes.

As the Raspberry PI intention was for schools and provide a cheap platform for kids to develop programming skills with there will be alot of support and articals in how to do things. A good resource for those that have little to no linux experince is the magazine. http://www.themagpi.com/


BREAKOUT BOARD
The breakout board I used has a lot of power regulators included, 3.3V, 5V and adj. I do not think I will need any of these due to the design and low power requirements for monitoring. So I plan on using a newer breakout board, half the size and only have a 3 components and the connectors, 1 x 74HC4052 (Serial MUX) and 1 x DS2482-100 (1wire drivers) and a I2C isolator (converts 3.3 to 5V).

Rob

 

[terahz]

Very nice to see this. Definitely subscribed.

I also looked at it for the exact same purpose, but at the time it wasn't available (still pretty much isn't).

Looking forward to what you make out of it.

 

[pazhope]

Have you been using those temp probes for a long time? I am concern they will get rust on the metal tips and havent been able to locate some with plastic tips for cheap...

 

[dorgan]

Subscribed: I am looking to do exactly this. Checkout https://www.atlas-scientific.com/sensors.html really nice probes.

 

[jeryl]

Subscribed: I received my PI one month ago. Am interested in controlling my top off pump as well as creating a controller for LED lighting. Has anyone experience with these two boards:

Power LED Shield from Chester's Garage
Pi To Arduino shield to hook up the PI to the Power LED Shield

 

[burnah]

subscribed, i plan to do something similar including topoff and light controlling. i have not yet looked into the PWM dimming outlet for the leds, the devices posted for measuring are a great help!

greetings martin

 

[dorky]

:deadhorse:wow that is so awesome i would like to do something like this with the touchscreen and make it work. it wouldnt work with my macbook air or with ubuntu or even linux mint

 

[rrasco]

Did you ever finish this? I've had a PI sitting on my desk at home for almost a year now. It's only the 256MB version, but meh. They were hard to get back then. I pre-ordered it pre-production. I really just wanted to run XBMC on it as well though.

 

[chealy]

Did you ever finish this? I've had a PI sitting on my desk at home for almost a year now. It's only the 256MB version, but meh. They were hard to get back then. I pre-ordered it pre-production. I really just wanted to run XBMC on it as well though.

Check out hardforums.com they have some good info for what you want to do.

 

[rrasco]

Check out hardforums.com they have some good info for what you want to do.

I'll do that. I know they have a raspbmc version out already, I kind of want the Pi with more memory though. I was running debian on the one I have and it's browsing and general speed is crappy. No hardware acceleration support for Flash either; it wasn't licensed. :/

 

[chealy]

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1736636&highlight=xbmc+raspberry

Check that thread out, its an alternative to the PI for what you want to do it may be a better option.

 

[terahz]

Raspbmc works great. Been using it for several months and plays pretty much everything except Netflix.

BTW I've also started to work on a raspberry pi controller for myself. This thing is way too cheap to ignore .

 

[rrasco]

chealy, if the files are available, maybe I'll just build my own. Not sure I'm going to sell it, but I might. It's even got a nice adafruit case.

terahz, which version of the pi do you have, 256 or 512?

 

[Pygmey]

Is anyone using these?