Internet Of Things Blog

Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer     Of all the things we do at Raspberry Pi, driving down the cost of computer hardware remains one of the most important. Even in the developed world, a programmable computer is a luxury item for a lot of people, and every extra dollar that we ask someone to spend decreases the chance that they’ll choose to get involved. The original Raspberry Pi Model B and its successors put a programmable computer within reach of anyone with $20-35 to spend. Since 2012, millions of people have used a Raspberry Pi to get their first experience of programming, but we still meet people for whom cost remains a barrier to entry. At the start of this year, we began work on an even cheaper Raspberry Pi to help these people take the plunge. Today, I’m pleased to be able to announce the immediate availability of Raspberry Pi Zero, made in Wales and priced at just $5 . Zero is a full-fledged member of the R...

Here is a demo video:   This project was build based on idea on how to make a simple and cheap online surveillance camera robot that everyone can build. Not only that the robot also have to be easy to use and maintain. Using the raspberry pi, few cheap components, a robot chassis/RC car, and webiopi tutorial on the MagPi magazine this project was successfully build. For launching this robot to be accessible online, ngrok service from www.ngrok.com is used. Without any hectic and difficult port forwarding configuration this robot now can be controlled from anyone in the world by just using firefox or chrome browser.   No soldering is required to build this robot because I use jumper wire to connect all necessary connection between the GPIO to the L298n motor driver module, and then i connect the two dc motor to the mounting hole on the L298n module. Read More

Key Features (At a Glance) - A.I Home Automation - Energy Savings Efficiency - Voice Recognition and Speech Synthesis - Enhanced Security and Safety - Entire House Wide Virtual Assistant - Sleep Pattern Tracking - World Wide Web Enabled Home Automation - Custom Android Application and Computer Software - Low Cost (Under $200) - Research Report Compilation, Question Answering (Including mathematical equations) - Any hacked appliance or device can work with this system Jarvis In-Depth Intelligent Automation Jarvis is the name of Iron Man's computer system which manages his home, hence the name of this project. The main aspect of Project Jarvis is to help save electricity in your home which then helps save the Earth and of course, helps save a bit more money each month. The electricity usage is logged per room into an SD card on an open source micro controller such as an Arduino or Raspberry Pi, I chose Arduino. The code on the MCU then interacts with a larger...

This “Gamegirl” 3D printed Gameboy replica by Adafruit features some seriously upgraded hardware to mark the original’s 25th anniversary. The Raspberry Pi processor allows it to run Gameboy, or even MAME ROMs, and the color touchscreen allows for much better graphics than the original’s grayscale display. Adding to these significant upgrades, the built-in rechargeable battery is a welcome addition. Those that had these devices likely remember buying battery after battery to keep playing Tetris or SolarStriker. The case is 3D printed, and aside from the varied colors, it could be mistaken for an original Gameboy; at least it appears that way from the video. Aside from the printed parts, the gamepad buttons are recycled from a Super Nintendo controller, so there is some disassembly and cutting involved. Quite a few more components are also needed from Adafruit, but the instructions seem to lay everything out nicely. If “merely” playing ROMs isn’t good enough for you...

HAB (High Altitude Ballooning) is a growing hobby where enthusiasts use standard weather balloons to put small payloads typically 100g-1kg into “near space” at altitudes of around 30km or so, carrying a tracking device (so the balloon position is known throughout the flight) and usually some sensors (temperature, pressure etc) and often a video or stills camera storing to an SD card for later retrieval. The job of the tracker is to read the location from the GPS receiver, possibly also read some sensors, and then format and send a telemetry sentence to the ground over a low power radio link. Flights only happen once the predicted path is known to be safe (avoiding airports and densely populated areas for example) and permission has been gained from (in the UK) the CAA. Here the tracking system uses the 70cm radio band (around 434MHz) using RTTY to send the telemetry down to a number of ground stations run by other enthusiasts. Telemetry from all receivers is sent to a ce...

Dave Hunt ‘s been at it again. Here’s his latest: a home-made smartphone based around a Raspberry Pi. It’s smaller than many of the phones I’ve owned, and it’s cheaper than the phone that’s currently in my pocket, with a parts list coming in at only $158. The PiPhone is built entirely from off-the-shelf kit, so there’s no soldering required, and no fiddly electronics work. I’ll let Dave introduce it to you. PiPhone: A DIY Raspberry Pi Cellphone

The Internet of Things  makes it easy for us to monitor our homes. Today I’m taking that concept one step further—getting our homes to report back to us.  In early March, I wrote about  using Raspberry Pi to quantify my fish tank —in short, I taught the $35 single-board computer to monitor the temperature of my home aquarium no matter where I was in the apartment. Of course, the limitations of this project were clear: I could only keep tabs on the tank while on my home network. What if I want my fish to text me when it needs my assistance?  The problem, until now, was that getting the Raspberry Pi to initiate communication was hard. I experimented with a  Node.js receiving application, and contemplated buying a server from which to run it (since my Bluehost server space doesn’t support a Node installation). The other way to get the Raspberry Pi to talk to me was to teach it to text my phone. There are also  many ways to achieve SMS support ...