Category: hardware

Link: Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) for BeagleBone Black – a DIY Project

The following DIY manual describes an easy-to-implement battery backup module for the BeagleBone Black. This can be useful in certain applications, such as out-door usage where constant power is not present and it is not desirable to just drop power on the BBB board. It was built for a RasPBX setup with the motivation to have a safely powered BBB in all situations. The BBB is unfortunately suceptible to slowly rising supply voltage when powered on. It sometimes does not boot at all, which can be a serious problem after a power glitch. On top, voltage irregularities can cause the device to crash as well.

The battery backup can be applied to any BBB installation, running RasPBX, the original Anstrom Linux or any other distribution. However, USB devices cannot be used while running on battery, as the UPS does not power the USB host port.

Full article here:
Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) for BeagleBone Black – a DIY Project

Links: A low-cost surveillance camera using the Raspberry Pi

We have recently come across two articles on the same topic:

Although people have been toying with USB webcams on the Raspberry Pi for some time now, the release of the official camera module has reinvigorated interest in video related projects.

The official Raspberry Pi camera module is a Full HD camera that plugs into the Raspberry Pi via the Camera Serial Interface (next to the Ethernet port) on the device. The sensor on the camera is a 5MP with fixed focus lens. It can shoot still images with a maximum resolution of 2592×1944 as well as Full HD 1080p video @ 30 FPS and 720p video @ 60 FPS.

And you get all this in a module that’s only 25x20x9mm in size and weighs just 9 grams! This makes it ideal for projects that require a small steady camera, like surveillance.

Full article here:
Use the Raspberry Pi as a DIY Surveillance camera (Make Tech Easier)

This article describes how to build a surveillance cam based on a Raspberry Pi micro-computer which records HD video when something moves in the monitored area. Live picture can be viewed from any web browser, even from your mobile while you’re on the road.

What you will get:

  • See live stream in any web browser from anywhere
  • Record any motion into video file

Usually, such a cam will cost you around US$1.000, but with the result from this article, you will get such a cam for only about US$120.

Full article here:
Raspberry Pi as low-cost HD surveillance camera (CodeProject)

The only suggestion we might make as a possible addition to either project is that if you are using this to monitor an entry area (such as a front or back porch), why not include a few bright white LED’s to provide illumination at night?  Those could be turned on and off via a cron job on the Pi, or by some type if logic that detects when there’s not enough ambient light to get a decent image, and then applies power to the LEDs (which could be powered via a GPIO pin on the Raspberry Pi if they don’t draw too much current).

Links: Turn a Raspberry Pi into a Web Radio Receiver

Along with their conventional RF transmitters, nearly all major radio stations now broadcast their programs through the Internet (Streaming Media). Also, many web-radios are exclusively Internet-based.

Being cheap and small, transforming the Raspberry PI into an Internet radio player was really tempting. Adding a wireless adapter, plus a handful of cheap components, the RPI may easily be transformed into a standalone “receiver”.

Full articles from IT9XXS Blog here:
Turn a Raspberry Pi into a Web Radio Receiver (Part 1)
Turn a Raspberry Pi into a Web Radio Receiver (Part 2)

Home Heating Hacking with the Raspberry Pi (Links)

It seems that to some degree, if you can dream it, you can do it with a Raspberry Pi.  We are constantly amazed with the uses that people find for the little computers.  And we are big fans of anything that will save someone a trip outside in a bitter cold winter such as we are having this year!  Therefore, we found these articles by alaskanshade interesting:

Home Heating Hacking Part 1 or How to Measure an Oil Tank

Home Heating Hacking Part 2 or How to (Almost) Audit a Furnace

We don’t know if there will be more to come in this series, but you can always check alaskanshade’s blog to find out.  To us, this seems a bit more practical than, say, a Raspberry Pi Power Cat Feeder (yes, someone really built that).

Link: Using the Zilog PIR sensor with the Raspberry Pi

For my latest Raspberry Pi project I wanted to be able to detect when a person was in the room. I happened to have a Zilog PIR sensor from SK Pang that I’d bought, but not used. This provides details to get the PIR sensor working with the Raspberry Pi.

Full article here:
Using the Zilog PIR sensor with the Raspberry Pi (PenguinTutor)

Link: Car Mp3-Player with the Raspberry PI

Everyone likes the Raspberry PI because you can do so much interesting things with it really easy. I ever wanted a own Mp3-Player with a nice display for my car and i tought that the Raspberry would be a good solution to start with. So i bought a Raspberry PI and some other parts to start with my project. After a bit of soldering, getting into the GPIO stuff and wiring all the components together i got the first problems with my project. I overcame all issues and have Listed you a complete tutorial do make this player so if you want to copy it of make a better version of it 🙂 you wont have the same issues i had to build my geek device here.

Full article here:
Car Mp3-Player with the Raspberry PI (Sentcool`s Projects)

Link: Top 10 Things to Connect to Your Raspberry Pi

During my time with the Pi I’ve experimented with various devices and sensors. Here is my Top 10 list of devices to connect to the Raspberry Pi. In most cases they are very cheap and easy to interface and are great building blocks for more complicated future projects. I’ve included links to more detailed posts where I can and many of these include example Python scripts to help you get going.

From robot cars to security systems there are plenty of ways of combining these mini-projects into some amazing creations! If you need to buy a present for a Pi owner then these are good starting point.

Full article here:
Top 10 Things to Connect to Your Raspberry Pi (Raspberry Pi Spy)

Link: Raspberry Pi Multi-Room Audio (Mobile/Tablet/PC Controlled)

I have been lurking on Instructables for a few years but have never posted one myself. Now I have bought a home of my own it’s time to undergo some projects and share them with the community.

In my first project I’m going to show you how I setup multi-room audio that can be controlled by any device with a web browser or an app on your Android and/or iOS device.

Full article here:
Raspberry Pi Multi-Room Audio (Mobile/Tablet/PC Controlled) (Instructables)
Be sure to read the comments under the main article because they provide some additional suggestions and insights.

Link: How to Overclock Your Raspberry Pi

By default, the processor in the Raspberry Pi runs at 700MHz but it can be overclocked. Microprocessors are designed in such a way that they perform one unit of work per clock cycle. One unit of work could be adding two numbers together or fetching something from memory. The faster the clock frequency, the higher the performance. Overclocking means to increase the frequency at which the processor runs. The problem is that each model of microprocessor is designed to run at its default frequency and overclocking takes the processor outside of its nominal design limits. If overclocked too much, the CPU becomes unstable which results in crashes or even SD card corruptions. However modern manufacturing processes mean that most chips, including the Broadcom BCM2835 used in the Pi, can safely run at higher speeds.

Full article here:
How to Overclock Your Raspberry Pi (Make Tech Easier)