Raspberry pi 2 projects

DopeTech

Buying a rpi2 in the next few days. Just wondering other than the usual kodi installs. What are the good people of boards using them for?

the_syco

Make a list of 5 things you'd want to automate in your house.

Whilst looking for a simple OS for a Pi, I have come across planting watering systems and motion detectors (to ensure old people are still moving around the house), etc. Thus, think of what you'd like to automate, and then see is it possible.

wikily

Have a think about placing the Pi in your attic.

this keeps wiring etc away from sight.

You can work it headless with putty.

In the attic, one interesting project is logging rom temperatures with the Dallas 1wire sensor.

They are a couple of euros each, and can piggybank off the same 3 core cable, so you only ned to drill a small hole into each room, and one 3 wire cable back to the PI. I used telephone cable.

Logging to a SQL database means you can check out the information in a couple of years if you have made energy improvements in your house... you will have a benchmark. Benchmark only useful though if you have an outside temperature probe, and this has been tricky keeping it watertight. On the Database, I was logging all to the Pi, but now I oly keep 3 days info, and run a cleanup program for the rest. I also send the data to a more powerful server, that can deal with loads of data. This keps the Pi clean from building up too much data.

Another advantage of the attic is that you can easily wire out to the eaves, and have a streaming usb webcam, or timelapse camera. Again, make sure it's watertight.

This year, I ill probably try a bit of Hydroponics, ebb and flow, so will automate with a Pi. To improve reliability, I will probably run off a Battery ( Aldi/Lidl powerpack ), instead of having to run High Voltage to the greenhouse.

Hope this helps.

oscarBravo

I'm working on a RPi-based home automation project.

The first part of the project involves controlling lights. A couple of years ago, I went abroad for a few weeks, and set up some timers to turn on and off lamps at about the time I normally would if I was home. When I got home, I realised that the timers were actually quite convenient, and just left them running. The problem is that I have to keep changing the time settings as the days get longer and shorter.

So I got a hold of a couple of these. I didn't even bother trying out the cloud-based solution they're designed to work with - they use an ESP8266 internally, so I soldered in some pin headers, hooked them up to my FTDI adapter and flashed NodeMCU onto them. After a bit of experimentation, I found that GPIO 6 controls the relay.

So I'm running Node Red and Mosquitto on my server for the moment, but I will be setting them up on a dedicated RPi sometime next week. Node Red handles the application logic, while Mosquitto sends the commands to the wireless switches.

So far, I have two lights being controlled. The first is on the landing. It comes on at sunset, and goes off around midnight. Simples.

The second is more interesting: it's a floor lamp behind the TV, and we always turn it on when we're watching TV. My Chromecast is powered from the TV, and I've configured it to have a static address, so Node Red has a node that pings the Chromecast every few seconds. If it answers, the TV is on: turn on the lamp. If not, the TV is off: turn off the lamp.

I have more switches on order, and I'm planning some more interesting logic to control them. I've also wired reed switches into my mailbox (which is at the end of the driveway), so I can get notifications if the postman delivers mail. This will be handy in rough weather - save me running out to check!

Speaking of weather, I'm also working on a home-made weather station.

ozmo

FrostyJim wrote: »

Buying a rpi2 in the next few days. Just wondering other than the usual kodi installs. What are the good people of boards using them for?

And this site is very good for ideas - lots of them.

http://www.instructables.com/contest/raspberrypi2016/