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.
This is a blog mostly about techie things, what I am doing to my apartment network on the cheap, IOT, 3D Printing, Raspberry Pis, Arduinos, ESP32, ESP8266, Home Automation, Personal Weather Stations, Things That Go Bump in the Night, and some side issues that need discussing. Remember, sometimes the journey to an end is as much fun as the goal achieved!
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Thursday, June 26, 2014
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.
(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.
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