So – would you like to play with Node-Red for free without even running it on your own PC? Check out FRED for Node-Red on Google . You just don’t get any easier than this! Also this morning I stumbled across KODING – an online environment for HTML, PHP, PYTHON etc. …
Notepad++ for Arduino
Anyone tried the Arduino Notepad plugin yet? Essentially lets you use Notepad++ to edit your Arduino files while in the Arduino environment – with syntax highlighting etc… looks like a good idea to me.
Raspberry Pi Processor Monitoring Widget
Don’t you just love it when people produce really useful tools for free!! And so it was that I got up early this morning to get a little Arduino/ESP-01 research done and got side-tracked by Google+ And the result – this baby. This is a tiny piece of software that…
The Oak by DigiStump
One of our readers has rightly pointed me to this new Kickstarter project – The Oak by Digistump (http://digistump.com/oak/) which has a number of things going for it – potential approval, secure WIFI interfacing and programming and Arduino compatibility. Indeed it is hard to fault this device other than when…
In a Far Distance Galaxy
A long, long time ago in a far distant…well, world, when I was pretty much using Arduinos for everything, the ESP-01 came along and my friend and colleague Aidan made a little board to handle a relay, an LCD display and.. an ESP-01. At the time we had no use…
External Drive for Pi2
I’ve read many articles about serious use of the Raspberry Pi and I’m now convinced that there is very little chance of mounting a Pi in a cupboard with MSQL and other write-intense programs – and expecting it seriously to last for a year or 3 because of the limited…
Web Sockets Web Page Part 3
For this to make sense you should look at Websockets Web Page Part 1 and Websockets Web Page Part 2 first. In this final section I add styling to the page and also change the code so that you can send a partial message i.e. {“my_input”:”Hello”} without affecting other parts…
Web Sockets Web Page Part 2
For this to make sense, you really should read the original websockets item first (which has just been updated)– as this is a follow up. So now, having made my first web sockets web page I started to wonder about the mechanics of getting information out of the page –…
A Node-Red Websockets Web Page
Updated 26/04/2015 I’ve been after this ever since I discovered Node-Red.. and right up until this yesterday I was tearing my hair out – having settled for NETIO as my interface of choice and constantly being annoyed by the slow pace of progress with this interface. So what is this…
A guide to reviews
I’ve had a number of requests to do reviews on the blog recently… so if anyone is looking in with this in mind, please note I’m only happy to review items that are of interest to the readers here. A quick look around the blog should give you an idea…
The Saturday Catch
While working on my Raspberry Pi image (with everything I need stored in an image so it it all goes to hell I can recover everything) I realised something I was missing on the Pi was a package manager. A graphical APT-GET for those who are not too keen on…
The Raspberry Pi SD Wear Issue
Reading around the web it is easy to see that SD memory and lifespan are very poorly understood. There are conflicting explanations of lifespan, there are solutions which don’t work because someone didn’t actually test them before writing up … what a mess. So here’s the deal. SD memory (the…
ESP8266 Test Board
I mentioned that Espressif were kind enough to send me a test board to play with – and very nice too. Not had time yet as I’m struggling with learning how to make an installer for my Node-Red package – with some great help from the guys involved with this….…
Slimmer Raspberry Pi 2
In the process this week of producing a new new Raspberry Pi2 with just the stuff I needed on it I thought I’d have a go at removing unnecessary programs from the Pi – that is the ones that come with it – after all the Debian installation from the…
A Fresh Pi2 Start
The thing about rushing in with something new is that you tend to bring your learning mistakes with you. Firstly for new readers, why am I fascinated with the Raspberry Pi? Well I’ve been working on IOT for some time now and I’ve tried out many ideas most of which…
Presents from Espressif
Let me start by explaining that Espressif are makers of fine WIFI gadgets.. specifically they have spawned a whole new lease of life for IOT… by producing a marvellous little chip that contains a complete processor, memory and WIFI interface needing only a tiny FLASH memory chip and a couple…
Mosquitto and Web Sockets
This entry is about ThinkStudio (thingstud.io), Web Sockets and Mosquitto in my quest for ESP nirvana. So TODAY I was alerted to an early version of a new service which I think you might like… so check out http://www.thingstud.io/ Clarification: This is ALPHA software but already, provided they keep at…
The DTR Line and ESP
Hitting an issue with ECLIPSE on the PC and the TERMINAL program. So in our little board we’re using an ATTINY85 to control the programming process for the ESP12s… I have some issues.. If you’re using GPIO as an output to a relay… this whole process can cause the relay…
Node-Red Scheduler
I’m Peter Scargill and this is a scheduler for Node-Red (well, more of a timer really but someone surely has already used the term timer) for Node-Red which includes days and months, dawn and dusk with optional offsets and a time-out mode, You may notice this has improved since the…
Making ESP8266 Programming Easier
Updated 09 Apr 2015 – code fix: A little something here from my guest writer and friend Aidan who’s been working with me on the latest home control successes to follow after this blog! If you’ve successfully written and uploaded a piece of C code for the ESP8266 in any…