I’ve been using Raspberry Pi2 now for over a month and while VNC and winSCP are indispensible, when you’re having trouble with the Pi (WIFI?) there’s nothing like controlling it directly. I’ve been swapping monitors back and forth and finally gave the Pi a screen of it’s own. I took…
ESP8266 SDK 1.11
Just a short one for those of you who’ve not tried the new Espressif SDK update yet (SDK 1.11). I noted a pair of commands “system_param_load” and “system_param_save_with_protect” which appear to replace the need for the load and save functions that TuanPM uses in his code in /mqtt/config.c – so…
ESP8266 Guesswork
My thanks to Richard Burton for some updates. This entry which started out as guesswork (but with a practical aim) turns out to have been not that far off – I’ve amended the text and it’s now hopefully a decent guide to memory use in the ESP8266 etc… (bear in…
The Best Laid Schemes
“The best laid schemes of mice and men”… well, there’s a lesson here. I left Spain a few weeks ago with a Raspberry Pi running the watering system and more – I had a hard drive to ensure the MYSQL database would not screw up the SD, I had checks…
Espressif 1.10 SDK Experience
Update 04/June/2015 I must say I cannot really gripe about support from Espressif……. I received an email this morning to ask me to use another FLASH tool – that failed – same result – code compiled under the old 1.01 SDK worked – code compiled under 1.10 SDK failed. Eventually,…
ESP8266 SDK 1.10 Different
Something odd here. So I’ve downloaded the latest ESP8266 SDK version 1.10 and while one of my bigger projects is ok, another fails miserably. If you look at some of the items below… PIN_PULLDWN_DIS for example – that is most definitely in EAGLE_SOC.H in the previous version – yet…
Apologies
Apologies to anyone who tried to register yesterday or this morning. In an attempt to reduce false registration I added a plug in to include captcha – well that worked a treat except in the process it altered the responses to new uses so that they didn’t get a password…
Raspberry Pi 2 Logging
Here’s a thing… if you’re using a Raspberry Pi as some kind of central controller for long-term home control or other data logging application you will no doubt be aware of the potential issues with FLASH memory. The Pi will let you use Linux and log stuff and shove information…
ESP8266 FLASH– Something to Ponder
Update: You’ll see from the original article before the break, I was having serious problems with ESP-01 versus ESP-12 etc where code running in the 12 would simply not work on the ESP-01. Well, it turns out none of this was helped by the MAKEFILE.. You’ll often see references to…
ESP8266 Progress
There can be no doubt that I still have some way to go in terms of reliability with my test rig in Spain before putting this stuff in charge of the heating back home in the UK: Raspberry Pi 2 is on an un-interruptible supply but does not 100% recover…
Moisture Sensing Conundrums
I’ve been playing (as you’ll know if you’ve read previous blogs here) with moisture sensing. It’s easy really to do this – you just put a low voltage through a couple of bits of metal and sense the current going through. All things being equal, the more current, the wetter…
Deployment Beckons
I’m now getting dangerously near the point where I have to DO something with all of this ESP8266 control stuff. We’re at the cave and I’ve a watering system to sort – a simple example – so one of the ESP012 boards has a relay on it and another has…
ESP-12E with Extra Pins!
Here’s the picture. £2.25 including post – what more could you want! So this is like an ESP-12 – already the best of the bunch – but with more IO – specifically 6 more IO lines… this just keeps on getting better – whatever next, built in Bluetooth?? Well that’s…
Raspberry Pi I2C and the Real Time Clock
I’ve been wondering how to detect an I2c device attached to pins SDA0 and SCL0 on the Pi – now I know – easy.. https://learn.adafruit.com/adding-a-real-time-clock-to-raspberry-pi/wiring-the-rtc
The Worlds first $9 Computer
Oh yes, I like this.. By the look of it not available until next year – a tiny board with the power perhaps of something like a Raspberry Pi but tiny and lower cost (well, that’s IF the postage doesn’t kill it). I’ll be keeping an eye on this one..…
DIL Adaptor for ESP07 and ESP12
So what started me off on this journey which led to a kluge fix for the ESP SDK 1.01 (YES!!) was a parcel which appeared yesterday from Baoshi (which in Chinese means “gem stone”) containing 2 of his ESP-07 ESP-2 adaptor boards which he very kindly sent me. The boards…
ESP8266 FLASH SIZES and SDK issues
Below you will see the MAKE file used in Windows for compiling ESP8266 code for, for example TUANPMs MQTT software which I often use as a base with the Eclipse programming environment. My code is routinely compiled and run on ESP-12 boards and some time ago when I upgraded…
Using Skype
For those used to seeing me rant about micro-controllers this may seem a little odd, but I thought I’d drop this in here as a diversion to give others the benefit of my experience as IT Chairman of a fairly large national organisation. About 14 years ago the organisation decided…
Using GroveStreams
No sooner did I finish the blog on my new GroveStreams Node than I was faced with the question “how do I use GroveStreams?” Well, that’s generally up to you – but I will start you off on how I use GroveStreams – and the ridiculously simple setup (once you…
A GroveStreams Node Red Node
One of the more obvious things to do with a home control system is to capture information like temperature and humidity – and to graph it. For example I spent part of my time in the UK and part of it in Spain. When I’m not in Spain it is…