wheel of misfortune

the RMLT trail goes near (but does not intersect!) the wheel of misfortune which you can see in google maps Wheel+Of+Misfortune

cacti blooms

raspberry pi wifi and hdmi ethernet channel

Ok, so I broke down and bought a raspberry PI. In an earlier post, I mentioned putting NOOB and Raspbian onto a micro SD card. Cool, now I have Linux.

Then I plugged my TV into the PI with a HDMI cable --> DISPLAY. I had problems with the edges of the display getting cut off. These I solved by using the overscreen values and exiting from the Raspbian config.

Unexpectedly WIFI came to the party for free. Must have sneaked in over the HDMI cable. The TV and the Raspberry PI supports HDMI v1.4 with an HDMI Ethernet Channel. ( hdmi_1_4 ) Not only video and audio travel over the cable, but ethernet as well. So if you have a newer smart TV with wifi or other internet connection, the PI automatically got the wlan0 interface.

Completely unexpected and nice.

irrigation relay detail

The red and orange wires are from zone one and two solenoids. The red and orange are bound by the orange cap with a black wire running to the middle relay post. The green wire is for a non-existant zone three. The black wire from the 12VAC is bound with the white common by a gray cap. The red wire from the 12VAC is bound with a black wire to the left relay post with the blue cap.

how many engineers does it take to change a lightbulb?

I bought a LIFX White 800 light bulb at my local Lowes hardware store. It was cheaper than a Philips HUE and did not require a gateway. I wanted a front door entry light -- turn on at sunset, turn off at sunrise. This might help me while I'm fumbling with my house keys at night.

The bulb gets hot, actually it's not the bulb because a LIFX has LEDs not bulbs. It's the heatsink which wicks all the heat. It's designed that way -- rated for 125°C (257°F). So be careful! Wear gloves or mittens when you handle. I found this out after I had to change the light's WIFI settings because I changed the password.

First off I had to hardware reset the bulb, by turning it on/off five times until it started blinking in odd colors. Then, using the Android LIFX app I connected to the LIFX wifi network and reset the password. To do this I had to remove the bulb from the front entry way to a more convenient inside lamp socket. Much easier. However, the bulb is hot. Glad I didn't burn my fingers.

You actually have to log onto the LIFX website with your email address in order to reset the bulb. This is probably so they can keep tabs on you, or maybe install an Orwellian monitor. A lot for changing a lightbulb.

However, now I have an IOT enabled front entryway light that does what I wanted it to do!

irrigation / home automation Arduino ino code

Here are the legacy RainBird solenoids for the front and rear of the house. The left valve controls water to the rear, while the right value the front. Next to the hole is the main shutoff valve which leads to the street main.  

Here is the new wiring connecting the new internet of things (IOT) controller to the solenoids of my previous day's post and the 12 VAC power supply. I reused the RainBird power supply.

And a closeup of the IOT controller in action. This morning was the first day. The control worked OK -- the valves turned on at sunrise and turned off fifteen minutes later. I placed the Arduino UNO INO source code licensed with the GNU GPL at GITHUB at the link https://github.com/str255/esp8266-irrigation-controller

irrigation / home automation RainBird renu

Project is to retrofit old RainBird home irrigation system with new IOT cloud based home automation system.

The old RainBird controller is on the right. It still works. The new internet of things (IOT) node is on the left. I am reusing as much of the old system as possible -- the existing wiring, the existing plumbing, valves, solenoids, irrigators. The only change is the using a new IOT node.

The IOT consists of an Arduino UNO controller coupled with a SparkFun WIFI shield. I flashed my irrigation code onto the Arduino.

Here are the old RainBird connections. I am saving them in case I have to revert back to the old control.

Here is another view of the system footprint. In my next post, I will detail the new wiring and whether the new controller works well.