AdaFruit PiTFT 2.8 inch TouchScreen

I finally got around to getting the PiTFT up and running.  The instructions at https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-pitft-28-inch-resistive-touchscreen-display-raspberry-pi are very easy to follow, just make sure you follow them closely.  After downloading the OS patches and applying them to a fresh copy of Raspbian, I was unable to get past a problem with a missing driver.  It turns out that I didn't heed one small part of the instructions for removing something that came into the Raspbian mix after Sept 2013.  Once I had removed the directory, as instructed, everything fell into place.  Next on the list is to set up some libraries that can be used to form a menu function for executing individual script files.  A picture of the PiTFT from the AdaFruit site is shown below.  Note you can order this 2.8 inch touchscreen panel from the AdaFruit site at http://www.adafruit.com/products/1601 .

My desire is to have a screen X by Y matrix that can move between different menu levels and each one capable of executing a script file or executable.

Portable Pi Project - Part #3

Well, I attempted to put the cables together to make the portable RPi.  However, there were several issues that I had to deal with:

(1) when I applied power, it became obvious that there was not enough current going through the wires.  I did check out all of the lines and the voltage was correct.

(2) I found one of the sides of my DPDT switch was momentary.  I needed a switch that was ON-OFF-ON but I picked up one that was ON-OFF-(ON), the (ON) indicating that it was momentary - well, live and learn.

(3) I had the Adafruit 1601 2.8" touch screen on the RPi which added a 100ma load to the power supply, further dragging down the power

(4) the ethernet connection would not light off because of the low power.

So now I am back to trying out the application of power with regular power supplies to make sure that there is not something wrong with the particular RPi that I was using.

After using another, albeit more powerful power supply, I was able to get the RPi to come up and stay up, including the AdaFruit touch screen display. It would appear that I may have misjudged the amount of power needed with the switched setup that I was using earlier.

General Purpose RPi WiFi Thingy

I encountered another one of those interesting snags at work where you wished you had a device that did something out of the ordinary.  With that in mind, I want to build a general purpose WiFi-Ethernet interface using a Raspberry Pi.  I am willing to sacrifice an RPi to get what I want.  This also should serve to get me back into the experiment game.  I want the RPi to serve as a couple of different types of Router and Access Point configurations.  No fancy VLAN stuff, just the basics.  But since I occasionally need Wireshark and TOR I have some alternates.  So what I want to do is the following:

1. Router #1

  -- Ethernet -> Firewall (w/wo TOR Proxy) -> Ethernet (w/dns&dhcp)

2. Router #2

  -- Ethernet -> Firewall (w/wo TOR Proxy) -> WiFi (w/dns&dhcp)

3. Access Point #1

  -- Ethernet -> Bridge (w/wo Wireshark) -> WiFi (wo/dns&dhcp)

4. Router #3

  -- WiFi -> WiFi -> Firewall (w/wo TOR Proxy) -> Ethernet (w/dns&dhcp)

5. Router #4 (wireless hotspot)

  -- WiFi -> WiFi -> Firewall (w/wo TOR Proxy) -> WiFi (w/dns&dhcp)

6. Access Point #2 (Repeater)

  -- WiFi -> WiFi -> Bridge (w/wo Wireshark) -> WiFi (wo/dns&dhcp)

7. Client Bridge #1

  -- WiFi -> WiFi -> Bridge (w/wo Wireshark) -> Ethernet (wo/dns&dhcp)

8. Client Bridge #2 (Wireshark Passthrough)

  -- Ethernet -> Bridge (w/Wireshark) -> Ethernet (wo/dns&dhcp)

I think that I will work this up both on a Raspberry Pi and on a VM to run on my work laptop.  The front connections for WiFi (#4, 5, 6, and 7) should allow for capture pages (e.g., Panera).  The back connections for WiFi (#2 and 5) should allow for WPA/WPA2 and a known SSID.