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22 November 2014, 19:35
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#41
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Member
Country: UK - England
Town: Royal Wootton Bassett
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Video on an bank of 8 relays:
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22 November 2014, 19:49
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#42
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Member
Country: UK - England
Town: Royal Wootton Bassett
Length: 8m +
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Video showing speed of connectivity from iphone 5 using tilt function to control a radio controlled car. go straight to 1:40 ish rather than sit through the video intro...
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23 November 2014, 18:56
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#43
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Member
Country: UK - England
Length: 3m +
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 2,767
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Quote:
Originally Posted by whisper
OK, I think Biff has an iphone 4? (don't think a 4 has siri)
On Sunny he has 2 x led circuits, one is red to light the cockpit while night driving and the other is white to light the cockpit while moored up. There may be another set if he has underwater transom lights...
How it works...
Assuming the iphone can connect direct to the Pi using wifi and not the internet? (sorry i don't know how this bit works) It would need to work while walking to and from the boat.
So on the iphone there should be six commands:
White lights on
White lights off
Red lights on
Red lights off
*Blue lights on
*Blue lights off
*Assuming transom lights are fitted.
The Pi receives the signals and energises the required relay that is run in parallel to each led on/off switch.
How does that sound?? Probably completely wrong  |
So from a Pi principle this is a piece of p@@@. Easiest way is to put some form of webserver on the pi. Set its WiFi as an access point. Biff would connect to the WiFi and open browser and go to something like 192.168.1.1 and get web page with three toggle switches on it. Page needs to run a wee bit of code to switch the relay job done. Needs to be a latching relay I guess.
Now for some basic snags. Assuming you put a traditional switch in so you can do the lights with out the phone the web page doesn't know if they are on. If the are in parallel to the relay they will let you switch on from either but only off from the on that switched on. If they are in series they would need to both be on or either off. Better would be to put the switch panel as spring return switches to energise the relay.
Next - security. Need to think how you stop me finding Biffs boats and playing with his lights. But allow him to change phone, forget his phone and borrow a mates.
Next - he put the lights on to leave boat with the plan to switch off once in the car. He is out of range of WiFi so has to return to nearer the boat to switch off.
You could build in solutions for all of these I suspect. But unless he has shore power its gonna guzzle loads of juice. 800mA @5v is 4w, allowing for inefficient charger circuit probably 5w. From a 12v supply that's approaching 0.5A per hour. Or 12Ah per day. A decent size house battery on a boat will be flat in a week! The trouble is you can't make it go to sleep.
Bluetooth with Arduino type processor would be more efficient. Although range shorter.
Would be fine for an engine in function like monitoring fuel flow, fuel tank level, revs, GPS pos, coolant and oil temp, battery voltage and putting all on a SD card to take home and analyse to see what us most efficient etc.
Other advantage. Is you can reprogram easily. Not sure how much programming needed once the lights work.
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23 November 2014, 23:24
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#44
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RIBnet admin team
Country: Ireland
Length: 4m +
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 14,910
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This is all interesting stuff!
Now, I'm just gonna throw this out there - no real aim so sorry if it offends anyone...
The RIB that Poly and I had at Easdale had WiFi onboard. It connected to the NMEA2000 network. I had an App on my phone that apparently could control the Twin plotters, reproduced the engine data etc etc etc. Very cool stuff. Thing is, we never even looked at it. Too much fun pushing buttons* and driving the t1ts off the boat  I'd kinda figured Biff for a toggle switch sorta guy...??
*The other kinda buttons - no-one got upset! 
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23 November 2014, 23:57
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#45
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Member
Country: UK - England
Town: Royal Wootton Bassett
Length: 8m +
Engine: 250
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Biff's already bought a wireless remote for the lights, but hasn't fitted it as yet so it hasn't been tested for range etc.
Would he think a phone operated system was cool? Absolutely! Does he need it? No...
But you'll never get anywhere with anything if you don't have a go and a relay board costs a few quid, and a 8 relay board is a few quid more:
5V DC Eight 8 Channel Relay Module for Arduino Raspberry Pi Pic AVR | eBay
The thing is if you gave someone like Biff a phone operated 8 relay system and said run what you like off that either in the boat or the workshop, I think you would be surprised with what the outcome would be...
I really don't know anything about these boards, but I'm going to have a go 
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24 November 2014, 00:27
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#46
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Member
Country: UK - England
Town: Royal Wootton Bassett
Length: 8m +
Engine: 250
Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 8,047
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ShinyShoe
So from a Pi principle this is a piece of p@@@.
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I agree, it's mid blowing and once you have the hardware which is I think a very low cost you can do loads with it
Quote:
Originally Posted by ShinyShoe
Easiest way is to put some form of webserver on the pi. Set its WiFi as an access point. Biff would connect to the WiFi and open browser and go to something like 192.168.1.1 and get web page with three toggle switches on it. Page needs to run a wee bit of code to switch the relay job done. Needs to be a latching relay I guess.
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Not sure about the latching relay, the one I've seen is here:
5V DC Eight 8 Channel Relay Module for Arduino Raspberry Pi Pic AVR | eBay
Quote:
Originally Posted by ShinyShoe
Now for some basic snags. Assuming you put a traditional switch in so you can do the lights with out the phone the web page doesn't know if they are on. If the are in parallel to the relay they will let you switch on from either but only off from the on that switched on. If they are in series they would need to both be on or either off. Better would be to put the switch panel as spring return switches to energise the relay.
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Yeah i did think of that... But really wanted to get the relays clicking before I looked into how it would be wired.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ShinyShoe
Next - security. Need to think how you stop me finding Biffs boats and playing with his lights. But allow him to change phone, forget his phone and borrow a mates.
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Can a password be put on the Pi's wifi to access it, like my home wifi?
Quote:
Originally Posted by ShinyShoe
Next - he put the lights on to leave boat with the plan to switch off once in the car. He is out of range of WiFi so has to return to nearer the boat to switch off.
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I would have thought in this application it would be used once off of the boat and on the pontoon.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ShinyShoe
You could build in solutions for all of these I suspect. But unless he has shore power its gonna guzzle loads of juice. 800mA @5v is 4w, allowing for inefficient charger circuit probably 5w. From a 12v supply that's approaching 0.5A per hour. Or 12Ah per day. A decent size house battery on a boat will be flat in a week! The trouble is you can't make it go to sleep.
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That's interesting Biff has two batteries, if one runs down (leisure battery) then he presses a button that switches the power over to the other battery to start the engines. It's interesting that it doesn't sleep.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ShinyShoe
Bluetooth with Arduino type processor would be more efficient. Although range shorter.
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May be, but I need to get my lad into programming rather than minecraft So I think having a go with the Pi has quite a lot of rewards other than making lights go on and off 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ShinyShoe
Would be fine for an engine in function like monitoring fuel flow, fuel tank level, revs, GPS pos, coolant and oil temp, battery voltage and putting all on a SD card to take home and analyse to see what us most efficient etc.
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Now we are getting there 1st step buy it and have a go, 2nd take over the world 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ShinyShoe
Other advantage. Is you can reprogram easily. Not sure how much programming needed once the lights work.
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Yeah, if you find another project for it then just take it out reprogram it and you're away.
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24 November 2014, 00:33
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#47
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Member
Country: UK - England
Town: Royal Wootton Bassett
Length: 8m +
Engine: 250
Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 8,047
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Here's a video on a phone operated garage door system that probably costs less than £25
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24 November 2014, 08:15
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#48
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Member
Country: UK - England
Length: 3m +
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 2,767
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£25 + the Pi? Unless you've found a cheaper source of PiS than me the Pi will cost close to £25, then you have relay board, power, break out cable, SD card USB WiFi. No case for it in a garage possibly OK, would want to protect on a boat. Even in garage I suspect leaving it in cased will affect life.
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24 November 2014, 08:17
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#49
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Administrator
Country: UK - England
Town: Brighton
Length: 3m +
Join Date: May 2000
Posts: 7,109
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Quote:
Originally Posted by whisper
May be, but I need to get my lad into programming rather than minecraft |
Why? If you really want him to be engaged with programming it's better to find stuff that he's interested in rather than what you think is cool.
You're an old fart, and don't understand the appeal of Minecraft. I don't either, but don't make the mistake of underestimating it. We may have absolutely no interest in playing it, but that doesn't make it bad. Minecraft is a fantastically wide ranging game with plenty of opportunity for problem solving and creativity. Has your son discovered command blocks and redstone yet? These are a great start to programming and logic concepts.
Then there's learntomod.com which has been set up to teach children to program by creating mods for Minecraft. It uses Blockly, which is a drag and drop interface like Scratch, and moves on to coding directly in Javascript. It's in Beta at the moment but launches properly in January.
Whatever you think of it, being able to write custom mods for Minecraft is likely to be way more exciting than turning lights on and off or opening the garage door!
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24 November 2014, 08:18
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#50
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Member
Country: UK - England
Length: 3m +
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 2,767
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Willk I completely agree. So either data capture or for something very specific that you activate while stationary or add some push buttons to do the job - fed into the Pi. Complexity increasing...
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24 November 2014, 08:24
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#51
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Member
Country: UK - England
Length: 3m +
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 2,767
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I guess the but that I struggle with is why you need remote lights! I have a car that you unlock by putting a key in the door. The interior light stays on after I leave the car and switches off after 2minutes or so. I stand and watch it switch off... Don't think that was the designer's plan!
If you were thinking data capture that might all be possible from WiFi from NMEA2000. Almost feels the Pi is not needed for that.... ... Unless there is data that isn't on NMEA2000 then the Pi comes into its own..
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24 November 2014, 09:02
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#52
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RIBnet admin team
Country: UK - Scotland
Boat name: imposter
Make: FunYak
Length: 3m +
Engine: Tohatsu 30HP
MMSI: 235089819
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 11,632
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There is a minecraft for raspberry pi download, it is a cut down version but with a python scripting language added on so he can program it. I haven't investigated it but there is potential there for a pretty good understanding of OO programming concepts with imaginable virtual objects. My gut feel is most pi programming is not by really young kids, but by teenagers doing technology projects and adults playing around. Whilst it is really easy whether you'll have time for the learning curve on top of starting a business and everything else life throws at us is debatable.
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20 February 2015, 15:47
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#53
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Administrator
Country: UK - England
Town: Brighton
Length: 3m +
Join Date: May 2000
Posts: 7,109
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Poly
There is a minecraft for raspberry pi download, it is a cut down version but with a python scripting language added on so he can program it.
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It's excellent, although it has just cost me £100 for a new HDMI monitor so I could claim the TV back 
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11 April 2016, 00:00
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#54
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Member
Country: UK - England
Town: Royal Wootton Bassett
Length: 8m +
Engine: 250
Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 8,047
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After over a year (and with the girls away for the day) yesterday we finally bought a Rasberry Pi 2 from Mapins for about £39.95...
After a short while of gathering up an old keyboard, mouse and hdmi cable we soon had it running on the TV...
It comes with minecraft and about 14 other games as well as loads of programming software such as scratch which we have used before online.
Our first project was to build a retro gaming system called Retropie, this was our first go at programming. After watching loads of YouTube videos and getting an old micro sd card from a blackberry we were soon playing Doom and other retro games...
www.customrib.co.uk
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11 April 2016, 00:37
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#55
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Member
Country: UK - England
Town: Royal Wootton Bassett
Length: 8m +
Engine: 250
Join Date: Jul 2008
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But it hasn't been an easy 24hours, we've had highs and lows as some things have worked and other things haven't. Our learning curve has been vertical and the vast amount of advice available isn't always right 
However the more you research and the more you try you just learn so much.
The Credit Card sized Raspberry Pi:
Thinking about the remote switching idea, there is an app available which I've downloaded to my phone, it's called mypi...
So hopefully in a few days we'll be retro gaming and getting some relays and wifi to start the next project 
www.customrib.co.uk
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11 April 2016, 01:22
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#56
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Member
Country: UK - England
Town: Royal Wootton Bassett
Length: 8m +
Engine: 250
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If you want to have a mess about with one of these Raspberry Pi 2's then you will need the following:
Raspberry Pi 2 from Marlins etc
Micro USB power supply (must be 2 amp, e.g. an old micro USB phone charger)
USB Keyboard
USB mouse
HDMI Cable
A TV or monitor with a HDMI input
The Pi 2 comes with the operating system on an 8gig card so you just plug it in and you're away... And add a wifi thing or plug it into your router then you'll have internet too
Loads of fun if you want to put the hours in, but be warned, it can be hard work.
To be continued....
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11 April 2016, 08:23
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#57
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RIBnet admin team
Country: UK - Scotland
Boat name: imposter
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Whisper, as you've probably discovered some of the advice is specific to certain versions of rasp pi (or raspian) but it often doesn't say so. There's also a fine line between making it too easy for people, and making it a learning experience - and then also between not helping them too much and leaving them lost in the wilderness.
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11 April 2016, 13:07
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#58
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Member
Country: UK - England
Town: Royal Wootton Bassett
Length: 8m +
Engine: 250
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Poly
Whisper, as you've probably discovered some of the advice is specific to certain versions of rasp pi (or raspian) but it often doesn't say so. There's also a fine line between making it too easy for people, and making it a learning experience - and then also between not helping them too much and leaving them lost in the wilderness.
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Yeah for sure, with the Retropie project we were able to format the micro SD card, download the operating system (Retropie) but we had trouble getting it onto the SD card as we were following out of date programming.
Cheated a bit in the end by using a program called Applepi-Baker (see photo) as we are using a Mac which can also complicate things.
This project was something we just found and wanted to have a go at so back to the original idea of using a phone to remotely control relays 
I've found this video which shows the Mypi app doing exactly what we want to do, so this is what we will be messing about with now...
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11 April 2016, 13:46
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#59
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Member
Country: UK - England
Town: Royal Wootton Bassett
Length: 8m +
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Replays and a few other bits ordered
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11 April 2016, 14:12
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#60
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Member
Country: UK - England
Town: Royal Wootton Bassett
Length: 8m +
Engine: 250
Join Date: Jul 2008
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All hardware is now ordered, prices inc p&p...
Mypi App £0.00 (free from apple store)
Pi Case £7.89
Relays (bank of 8) £7.49
Wifi £5.99
Jumpers (x 40 female to female) £2.24
Could have got this lot cheaper but didn't want to buy any poor quality items
Now this is the easy bit done... 
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