Some time ago, I wrote about the FriendlyArm NanoPi M1, a simple, low cost board which seems to hold it’s own against the Raspberry Pi2 in all but GPIO control – that’s not to say there is anything wrong with the GPIO but you have to write your own stuff…
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Arduino 16 bit PWM Revelation
Here is a piece of code I found – quite old now. As most Arduino users will know, the PWM on the 328 chip is a bit… naff at only 8 bits. When attached to LEDS, at the low end, each step is painfully obvious – even value 1 is…
NanoPi M2
More from FriendlyArm – this time the NanoPi M2. I’ve had this board running both Debian and Android – but first – a little about the boards. Like the M1 these are small – around 65mm by 60mm so much smaller than Raspberry Pi. They are also cheaper than the…
Coming up..
Coming up in the next couple of weeks – the FriendlyArm M2 – how does it compare with the M1? ESP8285 – first look…. and the new Itead plug-in-the-wall WIFI switch. Meanwhile I’ve decided that if I keep trying to figure out why my FTDI won’t work properly in a…
Anonymous
Just a quick note folks for anyone new looking in. I’ve had some emails in recently which were generally just links with no explanation – and usually the word anonymous or similar was in the email address. For the sake of clarity, I have to approve all new incoming emails…
Basic for Arduino
I just had this pointed out to me – https://www.b4x.com/b4r.html – it looks like it is free for the full version!! Anyone tried this? Any thoughts?
Raspberry Pi Backups
Backups the easy way One of my biggest issues with the Pi has always been – backups. Using a PC to backup a 16GB SD is a pain and of course necessitates turning the Pi off to remove the SD. Well, now there’s a better way. A slightly less painful…
Special UK quality
Is it just me or do others find this kind of thing annoying? I thought it might be a good idea to get a PCF8574T I2C I/O expander as a little add-on to the home control system, so you could plug it into, say GPIO4 and GPIO5, losing 2 outputs…
PWM Woes
Just in case anyone is having issues with the ESP8266 SDK and PWM. Problem now “solved” but you might find this interesting. For many months now I’ve been using the PWM on the ESP8266 successfully, so much so that I’ve not tested it and just recently I’ve noticed it…
Installing the Works – The Script
This is the original blog entry on the home control script – now replaced… https://tech.scargill.net/a-christmas-script/ Please ONLY use the script referred to in the new blog entry!
PHPSYSINFO on Raspberry Pi
Just to save anyone getting caught out with out of date information, if you want to install phpsysinfo on your Raspberry Pi 2 or 3 running Jessie… the picture below is self-explanatory – simple to install and some worthwhile info. RPI-Monitor is another useful monitoring tool. sudo apt-get update &&…
KILLER KILLER
As someone has put up an article entitled “ESP8266 Killer?” I thought I’d better step in.. There are two boards to look out for on Ebay – the EMW3165 – http://goo.gl/ccWgtT and the NL6621-Y1 – http://goo.gl/qdMhtm I noted one article suggested the EMW3165 was “just a dollar more than the…
Life
I was just getting settled into my new office when BANG – a flood –not the global warming type but the crappy plumber type. So – right now the place is a bombsite and we’re sleeping elsewhere at least for tonight – indeed could be longer if they can’t get…
Node-Red Thermostatic function
So – I was asked recently if I would go into detail about the Node-Red thermostat node I wrote some time ago.. I was at pains to point out that I’ve not developed this further because I’m finding FUNCTIONS to be more useful. With the latter it is easier to…
Updates
Just some minor updates… If you’re using Blynk server locally for your IOT there is a new update – a fix for crashing with Raspberry Pi 3 and some other fixes by the look of it – link is here. Incidentally I just rename the server file to server.jar and…
The Saturday Update
For those interested – I’ve been quiet the last couple of days as we’re ploughing ahead getting the new office up and running – got walls up and ceiling almost done – got power and Ethernet in last last night and today we’re off to get wall sockets and worktops.…
Nextion Progress
Things have come quite a way since my first stab at using the Itead Nextion displays with an ESP8266. I now have a fully working thermostat display running on MQTT – but I’m beginning to wonder if 56KBaud is pushing it a bit for the software UART. Now that I’m…
SUDO without Password
Sometime I wonder… So we have the SUDO command to keep everyone happy in Linux (Debian in this case) by not using ROOT – and on the Raspberry Pi that’s just fine – but every other board I’ve tested you seem to spend more time putting in the password. Then…
Coding the Nextion
At the risk of repeating myself (apologies to regular readers for this first para) the Nextion display is in fact a range of touch-LCD displays from small to large. The thing they all have in common is a a complete programming environment where, by downloading a desktop graphical tool, you…
Free Dials and Buttons
I wonder if we can all do each other favour here. Every time I go looking for buttons, slide switches, gauges etc for my projects – like the Nextion – at least 90% of the so called FREE ICONs and PNGs – by the time you get to it –…