other things to do with a Pi besides crunching
Anonymous
1 Jan 2017 21:53:07 UTC
Topic 204249
(moderation:
Thought I might give building a Pi3 IP camera a go. Not sure of my water proofing technique but how effective it is should become apparent soon enough (don't judge the water proofing technique on this picture 
).
You can see more of the build here.
[EDIT] I just noticed a major snafu in design which renders this print useless. 13 lost hours. Happy New Year.
Due to the overwhelming
)
Due to the overwhelming interest as shown in this thread by follow-on posts I thought I would post "some more". I was able to locate a 180o USB gender bender/adapter like this:
This allowed me to "save" the 3D print with the above USB adapter in place as shown here:
The 4 wires will be soldered to a USB DIY type A Male plug connector shell
and plugged into the adapter from the right hand side in the picture below.
I can now move forward. Its nice to know that there are others looking out for others like me.
Actually, you inspired me to
)
Actually, you inspired me to go buy a Pi to interface with my model train DCC system. I had a spare small TV and a spare HDMI cable sitting around, so along with the Pi I just needed a power supply and a wireless keyboard/mouse. I managed to get Raspbian installed and updated (why do so many things need to be updated when the installer is only a few hours old?) and then JMRI. I also copied my locomotive roster from my laptop to the Pi. I haven't yet tested the USB connection to the DCC system. I'm not sure if I need to get a driver for the interface board. I'm pretty sure I do need one for the speedometer.
Why do this? Couple reasons. I thought it would be easier than holding a heavy laptop with multiple USB cables. Also, JMRI tends to make the laptop overheat and shut down. (Too many browser tabs do that too, especially if one of them is open on Facebook for more than a few minutes. So do videos.) And if I ever build a real layout, I can hide the Pi under it among all the other DCC boards. JMRI includes a web interface, so someday I could give Dr. Mike a link and he could run my trains from his office. (Don't hold your breath, Doc.)
I might get another one to take over my Broadcastify feed. Won't even need a monitor for that; I usually remote into that box anyway. I worry that crunching Seti and Einstein is going to kill it someday -- I already have it doing GPU only, no CPU.
David
Miserable old git
Patiently waiting for the asteroid with my name on it.
Great. I like to "share" my
)
Great. I like to "share" my successes and failures. Yes, failures. They give me the opportunity to locate gender benders like the one above and save my work as well as to introduce them to the community. A major part of recovering from a design screw up is to know that a unique gender benders/adapter exists. And that might save you a lot of heartache should you go down a similar road. Now I am awaiting some 3M * 100mm bolts to tie all of this together and test it. Not sure how the Pi3 internal wifi will behave inside a sealed unit. It might force the use of an external WIFI and a redesign on one of the end caps. This is what retirement is about: projects. When I get it together and testedI will post the cad files should anyone be interested.
So let me get this
)
So let me get this straight.
The Linux (whatever version/flavor) kernel contains the drivers for every one of thousands or millions of devices just in case of the mere possibility that you might decide to plug one of them into your computer?
David
Miserable old git
Patiently waiting for the asteroid with my name on it.
David S wrote:So let me get
)
No.
For example "Creative Open Source" is a website containing information on where to find Linux drivers for a variety of Creative Webcams. Also the distro you use might have advantages over another distro. For example, Fedora seems to lead the pack in the support of "new" device types but expect some setbacks because of the churn that occurs within this distro. It has been designed for this purpose. From personnel experience I had success with Fedora but got tired of the need to upgrade frequently. Also note the need to change out drivers from GPU vendors over in the "Crunchers" thread.
I have not in my experience met any hardware that did not work with Linux although that was not the case in the early years.
David S wrote:So let me get
)
I play with Ubuntu and I'm not sure all if the drivers are included or it's just better at finding a driver for a device. I plugged in an asic miner and after a reboot did a check of what was plugged into the usb ports and it was right there and ready for use, no effort on my part whatsoever, just a reboot that MAY not have been necessary but this long time Windows guys has habits you know.
I currently use Ubuntu on my
)
I currently use Ubuntu on my desktops, laptops and Pis (be sure the get the Pi version) and can't imagine changing. I initially started with Redhat, then switched to Fedora. Fedora has too much churn and constantly needs updating so I moved to Ubuntu for the LTS (long term solutions). Now they have the upgrade feature as I am sure other distros do, but I have found that a virgin install is usually the best choice. Others might have a different experience with upgrading.
I initially switched to Ubuntu because it seemed to have the best support for "laptops". Just about every laptop had different hardware components and Ubuntu seemed to be able to work with all of it. After a while I moved all nodes to Ubuntu. If your looking for a good "server" distro Centos might make a good choice. There is lots to choose from and I would say they are all pretty equal.
When I first installed JMRI,
)
When I first installed JMRI, I did not try to use it to connect to my DCC system, even though I had the interface plugged in. (This was because I had the speed test cradles set for one type of locomotive and I didn't want to change them, but all my models of that type were in their boxes and I didn't want to get them out.) Finally, I got a locomotive out and put it on the cradles, tried the DCC throttle by itself to make sure it was still working, then tried JMRI on the Pi and it worked!
Then I tried setting up the Speedo module within JMRI. It appeared to have installed correctly, but it didn't register any speed. I remembered that the CD that came with the device had drivers on it, including for Linux. I copied the driver to a flash drive and plugged that into the Pi, but I couldn't figure out what to do with it then. Finally, I wiggled the locomotive a bit and realized it just wasn't seated properly on the cradle. The unit was working fine.
So, did Raspbian already have the driver included, or did it go out and find it somewhere without even asking/telling me?
David
Miserable old git
Patiently waiting for the asteroid with my name on it.
David S wrote:So, did
)
JMRI seems to be a non-generic application and one that I am not familiar with, but my guess is that it is not part of a normal Linux distribution. I just queried my laptop for JMRI and it found nothing.
Here is a link to installing JMRI on Ubuntu Based upon this write up certain components have to be manually installed so I don't believe that it "just happened".
http://jmri.sourceforge.net/install/Linux.shtml
As for Rasparian I am not familiar with it so I cannot address what is provided as standard, but would venture a guess that there would be a need for some manual intervention.
[EDIT] I am not new to Linux but I still find myself generating a "readme"directory and creating procedural files to installing various components/drivers etc. It makes for easier upgrades etc.
Or possibly he didn't start
)
Or possibly he didn't start with NOOBS but with an OS that someone nicely put together with all the needed drivers, etc.