Yesterday I referred to using DELAY in Node-Red to slow down one of the Blynk controls. To backtrack a little… We’re talking here about controlling devices such as ESP8266 boards using MQTTT – which I maintain is the best way to have a boatload of devices around the place and…
Month: October 2015
A Better Day
A better day today. After switching my WIFI to a separate access point, up to now the WIFI is holding – I’m not convinced but for now all seems well. That has allowed me to spend a little more time with Blynk – and after chatting to the Node-Red node…
WIFI Congestion?–Help Requested?
Update: See bottom I have a problem – and I’m going to shamelessly use this blog to see if someone can help. In the midst of my home control nirvana – I’m having some WIFI issues that I simply don’t understand. So – my setup: Broadband coming in is maybe…
Orange Pi, BAIDU and foreigners
Updated: Do they just have it in for me or is this typical? I’ve been trying to get an account with Baidu for some time as some of the Chinese suppliers often put firmware up there. So, armed with Google translate, I went off to get an account, filled in…
The new ESP
In case you missed it – extracts from forum conversation with Swee Ann Teo, CEO of Espressif about the new chip – which I understand will have Bluetooth as well as WIFI and be a lot more powerful. Also in that discussion is a promise to support the existing chip…
Blynk App
I’ve re-written this blog today – as the people at Blynk have been quite useful – promising to fix some items I’ve griped about/commented on. I hope they don’t mind me pinching some of their imagery. One of the problems with home control – is making a nice web interface…
Pion One
No, I’d not heard of it either but I recently received a parcel in the post with a new ESP8266-based board – and a bunch of modules. The description on the box says “Iot, CLoud Supported, Plug & Play Modules, Android App, No Hardware Programming Requirement, API supported”. And with…
Blog Improvements
A little update for you…. I’ve added something new to the blog – user profiles – and I’ve taken something away. Lots of you have taken the time to register for the blog – but lots of folk visit and don’t bother to log in – I figure something for…
Nextion Talking Thermostat
Yes, I changed the title. As often happens with these things, I got carried away. The Nextion display is a touch-sensitive intelligent display. Essentially, you buy the display and you program it with a free editor serially – which lets you easily place icons, buttons, images, text, gauges and more…
Raspberry Pi Serial and Node-Red issues
SOLVED: Node-Red serial I/O Looks simple doesn’t it – tie RX and TX together on your Raspberry Pi and press the button – text comes out of the other end – except that it doesn’t. More likely the Pi will CRASH (not something you see every day). Serial out seems…
Talking Raspberry
Updated 21/DEC/2015 This entry is now DEAD. Google have changed the goalposts and removed the API access for their language translation and text to speech system so that the base program behind this work – a program called Normit – is no dead in the water. I’m doing an update…
Orange Pi PC
This blog item last update May 2016 – and it is all thanks in large part to you, the readers. Thank you. Well, let’s see shall we… The Orange Pi PC (note, specifically the PC version, I’ll make no comment about others – this is the CHEAP one – cost me…
Node-Red Madness
As of right now – this is page one of my node-red setup – today I managed to get text to speech running on the Raspberry Pi (not on the Orange Pi as that’s not having sound at all) and note at the bottom right – my latest additions ready…
Raspberry Pi Monster Script Part 3
I’ve updated the script – gotten rid of MYSQL – too many questions about SD life – and I have to say, SQLITE3 – though slightly different takes mininal modification of SQL assuming you’re doing things like logging of data and relatively straight-forward queries – it really is worthwhile. Apart…
You Big Jessie
While waiting for inspiration as to why the new ESP8266-based controller OTA coding is crashing the boards, I thought I’d have another go at rescuing my ill-fated Orange Pi. After much time spend putting operating systems onto microSD and failing to get ANYWHERE, I gave up. Having short of SDs…