Raspberry Pi Users Unite: What are you using your Raspberry Pi Devices For?

[crw030]

@Frankenscript , @bp2008

Sure, hopefully this helps. Refer to: ESP8266 Publishing DHT Readings Raspberry Pi | Random Nerd Tutorials for a basic idea that I started from. My end point was a little different.

1. ESP8266 running "ESP Easy Mega" firmware.
   • This firmware sure beats trying to write your own program for the ESP8266, and has built in web server for configuration.
   • I originally bought from a guy on Tindie that has been great to work with, and even helped me troubleshoot because it came as a "kit" in a 3D printed case for WAF. BK Hobby on Tindie
   • this kit has an OLED display and a DHT22 temperature & humidity sensor that has been reasonably accurate. "ESP Easy" allows you to set offsets for humidity and temperature if you have a good reference to calibrate from.
   • ESP8266 only connects via wifi, but it's just sending little text messages (basically) to the MQTT server (every minute). I have it auto-connect to the IOT wifi network on my Ubiquity network.
   • "ESP Easy" firmware provides support for formatting and sending MQTT to an "Open HAB MQTT" (controller they call it), and you can configure the format (which is important later when breaking it down and inserting it in node-red).
   • Each Temperature sensor sends the temperature and humidity every 60 seconds (possibly overkill), this can be configured right in ESP Easy.
   • A firewall rule so the IOT devices can send MQTT messages only to the Raspberry Pi (via port config).
2. Raspberry PI 3B+ (because that's what was available at the time)
   • Running basic Raspian because I don't know any different
   • running node-red. Currently node-red just grabs the incoming MQTT, builds a SQL INSERT statement and fires it off to the MS-SQL server for storage.
   • running Mosquitto MQTT server
   • A custom firewall rule so the Raspberry Pi (on the IOT subnet) can talk to the MS-SQL machine on a different (video) subnet.
3. Blue Iris machine (always on), running Microsoft SQL Server Express
   • Because it was always on anyhow.
   • Running Microsoft SQL Express because it was free and I happen to know my way around that database, MySQL would have been fine as well
   • I probably need to lower the frequency I send the temperature readings or summarize the historical data. I currently have 330 MB SQL file for past 1.5 years (4,464,923 data points).
4. Tableau (or Grafana if going the free route, with a little Python)
   • Because I have it, and I just haven't found the time to get Grafana working for visualization on Raspberry Pi. Obviously, this would be overkill for a purely DIY option, Grafana is probably the best documented option.

Here's the rudimentary box & whisker plots for a couple of the sensors for 4 months. Each bar represents a single day (~1400 data points), the plots shows the grouping of temperatures that are more common (middle/box) and the extreme high & low values that occurred at some point in the day. I have selected the Garage and a Guest Bedroom, because with all sensors the chart is crazy.

 

[samplenhold]

OK @crw030 I think I have found the R-Pi project to work on with my grandson! Thanks for this. Now once I get the last five or six cams installed and set up the LPR, this will be my next project. Just hope this whole COVID Crap is done enough that he can come up and work on it with me.

You know, the first sensor could go in the LPR cam box in the front yard. I am really worried about the temps getting high in it.

 

[Frankenscript]

Wow @crw030 you really kicked a$$ on the description of what you are doing. This looks awesome.

I may wind up using node red on a Windows box because I have a small one just sitting here unused, and I don't have a Pi at the moment. It's been a while since I've dusted off my SQL code by I can probably figure out SQL SE. But what you are doing looks really cool. Thank you very much for the detailed description!

 

[samplenhold]

ESP8266 running "ESP Easy Mega" firmware

I've read through all of this and have one big question: how do you power the ESP8266? A battery or a wall wort?

 

[crw030]

@samplenhold the Raspberry Pi isn’t absolutely required. Unless your grandson hates electronics, assembling the ESP8266, with sensors and soldering is more hands on. However, if he’s interested in computers, this might spur something because it’s more Involved than typical Windows Setup.exe experience. Node-red is super cool because it’s like basic programming (not too complicated), but with lots of little widgets to accomplish stuff that might otherwise slow a beginner down. It’s perfect for this type of little communication/interface project

@Frankenscript that should work as well, node-red requires very little in terms of resources (hence running on a Pi), I haven’t looked into the Windows version, but I certainly wouldn’t buy a Raspberry Pi to dedicate to the purpose if I hadn’t already bought one to play around with. By the time you buy the Pi, power supply, case, POE Hat (after the PS, doh), SSD retrofit kit etc you’re definitely approaching the price of a used, small computer anyway.

 

[crw030]

I've read through all of this and have one big question: how do you power the ESP8266? A battery or a wall wort?

The kit came with the little 5V USB wall plugs and a little cable to run to the ESP8266 to power it off 5V. The network being wireless-only means install anywhere there is an outlet. I hope someday to expand my understanding, because the ESP8266 can be put into a deep sleep (somehow) so it could run for months on 4x1.5V battery pack. But since I can plug them in anywhere, it was pretty easy to find an outlet in each room that wasn’t regularly going to be used (like in one bedroom it’s behind the door).

Nowadays you might even to get one of those outlet combo’s with the 120V outlets and a little 5V USB output as well. I don’t have any in a spot where they would get directly rained on, but that would definitely be challenging. If I did it, I’d probably put in a water-tight box and power over POE-to-5V adapter. I just used the non-destructive tape to mount to the wall, or set them on a nearby shelf or even directly on the floor below an outlet if it was out of the way.

 

[Rick daVida]

I have three Pi 3b+, all in use, and one Pi 4b waiting on stable 64 bit OS and boot via USB support.

One 3b+ is running pi-hole (no surprise here), one running LibreElec feeding an old Plasma TV, and two runnig Volumio to stream music from our file server to powered speakers in various parts of the house.
Rick

 

[reflection]

I have one pi zero, two Pi 2B, four pi 3b, and two pi 4B (4GB). The 4B's are running OpenElec.

I have one 2B as my OpenHAB server. The only reason I use the Pi for this instead of a linux VM is because the Pi has GPIOs. I connect a radio transmitter to it and control my RF switches. This allows me to turn on and off my landscape lights automatically at sunset/sunrise. It also allows me to interface with Apple HomeKit so that I can send Siri commands to turn on and off switches. You can see my homemade antenna in the pic.

 

[reflection]

ESP8266 are great. I used these to make my own smart garage door opener (original version). I have since changed my smart garage door opener to a customized SONOFF running tasmota. If you want to get dirty with the ESP8266, I recommend the ESP8266-01. They are cheap. If anyone wants my garage door opener plans, I can send it to you. You will need to order some PCBs (or I can send you for free). You will need to supply your own resistors and capacitors and transistors and diodes.

 

[rmalbers]

Pi zero - Dakboard (free ver)
Pi 2 - pihole
Pi 3b+ - Mozilla MySensor Webthings gateway
another Pi 3b+ - haven't decided yet -

 

[Old Timer]

We recently built an indoor shooting range that includes 4 100 yard rifle lanes. I placed 4 50mm zoom cameras downrange focused on the targets at 100 yards. In the stalls I added small 1080p monitors to each Pi and use the Displaycameras package to show the RTSP feed of each respective camera.



This is the one that I used for my target cam Pi's
Amazon.com: LoveRPi Power-Over-Ethernet (PoE) HAT for Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+: Computers & Accessories

Have you found out you need to point the cameras into a mirror, then to the target?
We have some set up on out targets on an outside range 50, 100, 200 meter.
Most of them have steel gongs also, the shrapnel from any steel will go straight
to the camera! Even the paper target frame!
We put them behind a metal cover with small hole, then replace the mirrors as needed.
We used underground telephone wire to feed them, and send 100v DC down the cable,
regulate it at each camera with buck converters.

 

[Old Timer]

Right now, I have 3 Pi3+ running Asterisk PBX
And one running kmack pi-build. (It is a remote control setup for ham radio).
One is setup with Free NAS with 4 8T WD purple drives.
Many more at customer locations.

 

[reflection]

Here is a good instructable for setting up your Pi as an 433MHz RF transmitter.

Super Simple Raspberry Pi 433MHz Home Automation

Super Simple Raspberry Pi 433MHz Home Automation: This tutorial is one among many when it comes to using a Raspberry Pi to control wireless devices around the home. Like many others, it will show you how to use a cheap transmitter/receiver pair hooked up to your Pi to interact with devices operatin…

www.instructables.com

I didn't use this exact procedure (I've had mine for 4-5 years - that's why it's still on a 2B and I never upgraded it), but it should work. Once you have it setup, here's my script for turning it on at sunset and off at 1am.

#!/bin/bash

# By reflection@IPcamtalk

# Use your zip code in the URL below where there is an XXXXX

# Get sunrise info from timeanddate.com
sunrise=$(lynx --dump https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/@z-us-XXXXX | grep "Sunrise Today" | sed "s/   Sunrise Today: /" | sed "s/\(^.\{1,7\}\).*/\1/" )

# Get sunset info from timeanddate.com
sunset=$(lynx --dump https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/@z-us-XXXXX | grep "Sunset Today" | sed "s/   Sunset Today: /" | sed "s/\(^.\{1,7\}\).*/\1/" )

# Display sunrise and sunset values
echo "Sunrise for location $location: $sunrise"
echo "Sunset for location $location: $sunset"

#turn on outlet at sunset + 15 minutes
echo "/home/pi/rfoutlet/outlet -o 9 -p on" | at -M $sunset + 15 minutes

#turn off outlet at 1am
echo "/home/pi/rfoutlet/outlet -o 9 -p off" | at  -M 1:00

 

[crw030]

If you want to get dirty with the ESP8266, I recommend the ESP8266-01.

I also purchased a couple wESP (ESP32 boards powered by POE, wESP32 - wESP32 — Wired ESP32 with PoE), that might be a good option if you are more advanced and need more CPU power than ESP8266, or if you need more than 16 GPIO on the ESP8266. It also provides the option for wired network, which should be more secure than wifi for certain tasks. (like I personally don't want to rely on wifi for security or opening the garage door).

I simply ordered it for the "POE-powered ESP" originally without understanding it was more powerful, thinking I would program is to connect two Bosch OD850 PIR/microwave sensors for motion to Blue Iris somehow (MQTT probably). I later found out it was a local company when I contacted support! I haven't had a chance to fire one up yet. I'll probably just wire the OD850 directly to the Dahua camera alarm inputs now because the camera is nearby.

 

[VorlonFrog]

(1) Pi Zero W running as a RetroRadio
(1) Pi 3B+ as a picture frame, thanks to @Dasstrum
(2) Pi 3B+ running Volumio networked MP3 players
(3) Pi 4 running Rhasspy voice recognition for Home Assistant

 

[Shark92651]

Have you found out you need to point the cameras into a mirror, then to the target?
We have some set up on out targets on an outside range 50, 100, 200 meter.
Most of them have steel gongs also, the shrapnel from any steel will go straight
to the camera! Even the paper target frame!
We put them behind a metal cover with small hole, then replace the mirrors as needed.
We used underground telephone wire to feed them, and send 100v DC down the cable,
regulate it at each camera with buck converters.

We have a rubber trap and paper targets so there is no splatter. The cameras themselves are up above the steel baffles so not visible by the shooters (and protected from getting shot), and probably about 30 feet away from the targets.

 

[awonson]

One Raspberry 4B running OpenVPN Server and PiHole.