Doing Some Cleanup and Adding and External RPi Cluster box

 I have needed to cleanup the rack and all of the cabling around the rack for some time.  I recently purchased a RPi Cluster Box which I will integrate with the HomeLab equipment in some form.  

I discovered that Uctronics changed their placement of the captive screws so that I cannot use the removable trays from the RPi racks in the new cluster box.  Since this is the second change that I have discovered in the equipment that I have bought from them, I can no longer recommend purchasing from them if you expect any kind of consistency in product.  If your purchase is to guarantee that you will have to remove the RPi from the removable tray in order to use them, so be it.

A general cleanup of the area around my desk is definately in order. This will also give me a chance to put things away that I have out from the equipment tubs that I am no longer using, and will give me a chance to figure out how I want to proceed from here on out.

Taking a Breather from the HomeLab

I have been working on other items of late and have not been able to get back to the HomeLab.  Right now I am reviewing what should be done vs what I am envisioning should be done to the lab.  I need to get back into the swing of things so that I don't loose focus on the HomeLab as a hobby.

I am contemplating moving my Genealogy to a postgreSQL server, but that would vacate my backup strategy.  Right now I am backing up everything on a regular basis and having a portable basis.  The current version of Gramps does not seem to allow for GraphViz to work correctly; I might need to table the session and rethink what I am doing.

Update: nope, changing over Genealogy to a postgreSQL server is a terrible idea.  I am using an older version of Gramps and it is working correctly with GraphViz.

Trying to Get Back into the Groove of HomeLab

I admit it, I have been relaxed in updating this blog.  Lately it's been because of the death of an immediate member of my family and the birth of another. So, I have been experiencing the lows and highs of emotion.  However, I intend on getting back on task since I need to have a focus area.

I intend on revisiting the projects that I have not completed; dropping some, attacking the remainder, and coming up with new projects to keep the entry into HomeLab fully up to date.  I think that I will focus on three things:

• Setting up a certificate authority/creation process so that all infrastructure is encrypted
• Setting up a NAS for my HomeLab
• Setting up PiHole so that I can use its features to start removing ads

Since I have the PiHole located in the Living Room, I will start there by connecting the PiHole to the FLINT router.  I am still going to use the DHCP server on the FLINT but may cause the DNS to come from the PiHole.

Had the opportunity to introduce someone to the Raspberry Pi and Arduinos

I had the opportunity today to give a package to a friend.  He had expressed interest in getting into Arduinos and Raspberry Pis.  So I put together a package consisting of a 3D printed Arduino Raspberry Pi Mount (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1190961), an Arduino Uno, a Raspberry Pi 3, some cables, a full-up micro SD with the latest Raspbian, and some lists of information to get him started.  I will be out of town for a little while but I hope to be able to sit down with him to go over any questions that he may have.  Knowing what fun I have had with these little buggers, I feel good that he asked me about them, and I am happy to share what I know.  BTW, the information lists I provided are as follows:

Websites specific to Arduino

https://www.arduino.cc/

Tutorial Websites for Arduino

https://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/HomePage
https://www.makerspaces.com/arduino-uno-tutorial-beginners/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09zfRaLEasY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL34zDTPkcs

Reddit Groups for Arduino

https://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/
https://www.reddit.com/r/ArduinoProjects/

Books on Arduino (free)

https://www.programming-book.com/arduino/

Books on Arduino (cost)

https://makeradvisor.com/best-arduino-books/

Websites specific to Raspberry Pi

https://www.raspberrypi.org/

https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/issues/

Tutorial Websites for Raspberry Pi

https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/projects/raspberry-pi-getting-started

https://www.digikey.com/en/maker/blogs/2018/14-helpful-raspberry-pi-tutorials

https://pythonprogramming.net/introduction-raspberry-pi-tutorials/

https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/tags/raspberry-pi?page=all

Reddit Groups for Raspberry Pi

https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberrypi/

https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroPie/

https://www.reddit.com/r/RASPBERRY_PI_PROJECTS/

Books on Raspberry Pi (free)

https://www.programming-book.com/raspberry-pi/

Books on Raspberry Pi (cost)

https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-books-bookloversday/

https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi-issues/Projects_Book_v1.pdf

I've gone overboard with the SD Cards

I was sitting at my kitchen table last night getting all of my RPi SD cards organized.  I just realized that I have gone overboard - I now have a total of 70 plus cards that do various things and are in various levels of completion.  Do you think I have a case of hoarder fever?  Must needs to reuse cards that I haven't touched in a while.  I know it is that many cards since I have all of them numbered.  Good grief!!

Just Purchased an RPi B+

I was at the local Micro Center and just happened to see that they had a few of these in for $35.  I just did install the 6-20-2014 version of Raspbian via a Windows build.  There are a number of differences on the board that would cause havoc with some of the things I own.  For instance, since they are using a microSD card and the HDMI port is in a different location, I will not be easily able to use it with my MediaPi case; bummer.  It appears that some of the cables that I have should be able to fit onto the GPIO header, even though it has extra pins.  The I2C pins that were on the B have been moved to the GPIO header, but none of the boards that I own use this connector.  I have to be careful in the future to make sure that whatever boards I buy, that they work with the B+.  I am interested in finding out if the power supply they added is all that it is put up to be, especially on the USB ports.  I haven't heard anyone chime in about loss of Ethernet when the USB dongles draw too much power; but time will tell.  More later.


Update: it looks like the new power supply is able to deliver up to 1.2 amps to the USB hub.  That in itself is a remarkable improvement - bravo!  That means that I will not have to be saddled with an external usb hub when I do my experiments.  Looks like I will need to buy a couple more of these.

Portable Pi Project - Part #2

Well work activities, dealing with CEH training and the cert test in two weeks, and other things has prevented me from really stepping up to the plate on the RPi Portable idea.  But to get back to the overall plan on this, I have looked at the power through the system.  The portable looks like the following (not updated from last time):

I have looked at the power lead outs and it looks like a DPDT toggle switch and one 14 position terminal block (I have a 12 position which will have to do) will be able to suit my needs to power everything from either the wall wart or via the battery which is encased with the RPi Portable.  The DPDT will be able to choose the 1.0 amp or 2.1 amp lines from either the wall wart or the battery, and if it has a center off, will be able to act as an on-off switch as well.  What I will need to do is cut up some perfectly good USB cables to make this work.  The cables will end up having a USB plug on one end, and pigtail leads at the other.  I just have to make sure that the data leads are not used in the setup.  So the power circuit should look like the following diagram:

Notice that I have pulled the power out to the board sides for the wall wart. I have also included a power out to the side for charging the battery.  In addition, I have added a board (breadboard) connection so that I can do experiments with this setup as well.  All of the internal connections, except for the DPDT switch can be done with cut USB cables.  It also only requires a 12 position terminal strip.  The high side (2.1 amp connection) goes to the hub and breadboard.  The low side (1.0 amp connection) goes to the RPi and LCD screen.  All grounds are tied together.  Black lines are ground and red lines are 5 volt power lines.

I've been out of the loop over the holidays

Sorry for not posting since the end of November.  I have been busy with home life and work and have not had a chance to get back to this blog.  New posts to come shortly.

Some Thoughts on a Remote Wireless Access Device

The thought occurred to me today that I might want to set up a version of the RPi Router that would be able to be an extension of my home system.  What I want to do is take the RPi Router into my office at work, turn it on, and have it use the same SSID, but via an SSH tunnel, go into my system at home.  I would need to be able to:

1. Use dual wi-fi access, provide a connection to the work wi-fi network (with auto authentication) and provide the same SSID as my home.  Not sure if I need two USB wi-fi dongles or not.
2. The connection should use an SSH tunnel which is kept up in the background, allowing me to use any of the systems that I have in my house.
3. Somehow, this RPi Router should provide a DHCP forwarding from my house to whatever device hooks into the router.  I may be able to use my new FVS318N router to accomplish some of this, since it does provide VPN capabilities (in case I cannot get the SSH tunnel to do it).  An RPi based VPN for using the FVS318N anyone?
4. Should be plug and play, i.e. put in the SD card and plug in the RPi to get it to function.  Wishing for the moon at the same time.

This obviously is a variation on some of the 1-Port Router ideas that I have had in the past.

Portable Pi Project - Part #1

Well I now have some challenges ahead of me. I have decided that I need to make a portable RPi layout for testing. The idea is to bring it in to work to have around during lunchtime, when I get a chance to eat a bowl of soup. I figure if I put an RPi, hub, battery, various USB devices, external wifi adapters, the RPi camera, etc. on a sheet of Lexan I can make good use of it. This will allow me to code and test out some projects while being able to put the RPi into my bag in the morning.
I think that putting the equipment between two sheets of Lexan, with enough standoffs, I should be far enough along. The real problem is the orientation of the peripheral ports. I need to get to the USB, Ethernet, HDMI, SD card slot and maybe the GPIO from the side of the setup. The SD card slot is needed to change out different experiment setups. The others are self explanatory.
If I get it tied down enough with a sufficiently narrow width, it should work.
Update:  I purchased two 8x10 sheets of Lexan from my local Home Depot, along with 6 - 1" plastic standoffs, 4 rubber feet, and mounting hardware.  I wasn't able to find M3 screws or nuts but I did have some that I purchased at a different time.  It turns out that 6-32 will not fit into the mounting holes of the RPi, but M3 will.  I was able to take 1/2" standoffs and cut them in half with a PVC pipe cutter (does a really good job BTW). I mounted the RPi in one corner with the power and SD card slot about 1/4" from the edge; this has the SD card sticking out when it is mounted, but makes it easy to change out.  I wanted to be able to get to the SD card slot for changing the peripheral.  Now my issue is mounting of the other elements.  I figure that I should take apart the USB hub and that should make it easier to mount in the shell.  The current state of the configuration is shown in the following picture.

I am planning on mounting the USB Hub in the center of the left side in the photo (the case for the USB Hub has been removed). The battery will be mounted on the bottom.  I will also mount a USB-WiFi adapter with antenna at the top.  In addition, I will probably mount either an Arduino and/or a USB-Audio adapter on the left.  That should cover me for most applications.  I would assume that I would attach the Logitech keyboard USB dongle on the right side of the USB Hub.

Mounting for the battery and other components has been somewhat of an issue. I would like to be able to remove the battery at times since I also use it with a robot and it also acts as an emergency iPhone battery recharger. I would like to get a clamp type mechanism but I am not sure where I would find such an animal or what it even looks like. Looks like a trip to Home Depot / Loews is in order here.

The Strange Process You Go Through

It might appear to be a little weird that I have been concentrating on the hardware aspects of experiments prior to concentrating on the software aspects.  The reasoning is that:

1. I have something in mind that I want to do,
2. I visualize what it would take to do it,
3. Since I am not that familiar with the hardware devices, I order some that look interesting,
4. When I get the hardware in, I assemble it into an experiment package knowing that I will need to try out a few things prior to getting the final product,
5. Write out software for the experiments and choose the best course of action for the final product,
6. Design the software for the final product,
7. Changeout the hardware to accomodate the final product,
8. Code and test the software for the final product

I have more of an experimenter's mindset when it comes to these things.  I want to learn and the best way to learn is to try things out and come to some sort of a conclusion.  You not only get experience but it helps later when you are trying to design something else.

Updates to the RPis

So, I went to MicroCenter this afternoon and got a few items to fix up my 3 RPis.  I was a little nervous getting new SDs since I couldn't remember which type of SD worked in the RPi.  I took a chance and got four 8GB type 10 SD cards.  When I got them home I attempted to install the latest Raspbian using the instructions from http://elinux.org/RPi_Easy_SD_Card_Setup.  I was successful with the first one and now I am putting the OS on three of the cards.  The fourth card will have XBMC loaded on it.

Working and Now On To Cross Compiling

Ok, looks like I now have the Raspberry Pi up and running. I currently have had the RPi running for over two days now and everything seems to be running smoothly. As you can see in the following picture, I have it running, with the USB connections going through a powered hub. In addition, I have the ethernet plugged in and a second USB to ethernet connector plugged into the same powered usb hub. The display shows a couple of xterminal windows and the backdrop of the RPi logo. I haven't really explored all of the ins and outs yet.

I have added a VNC server so that I can pull up the screen from anywhere, including outside the house through a vpn connection. Technology is great, you get to experiment and do things when you want to do them.

I have the current SD load on a 16GB card. I felt that I needed to have something a bit bigger in case that I get really inventive and want to load a whole bunch of crap on the card. Right now the big focus is to be able to cross compile the operating system to where I want it to be. The steps are as follows:

1. install an Ubuntu VM running on Fusion under my Mac Mini
2. install the cross compiler and associated tools onto the Ubuntu VM
3. get the linux source for the operating system from the Raspberry Pi git repository
4. compile the thing
5. move the compiled load onto the Mac Mini
6. transfer the compiled load onto a new 16GB SD card

That is what I plan on doing over the next couple of days. Wish me luck.

-- LW

RPi - First Things First

I was able to get the Raspberry Pi (RPi) to boot after installing a load of Wheazy-Raspbian onto an SD card. This is a partial tale of "what the heck happened?"

Step 1 - get a copy of the RPi load off of http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads.
I decided to get the one marked 2012-10-28-wheezy-raspbian.img.zip. When I downloaded the file, Mountain Lion was quick to automatically unpack it for me.

Step 2 - put the RPi load onto an SD Card.
For a Mac this is not really an involved step but if you are not used to working on the command line it might be daunting. You first launch the terminal then put in your SD card reader followed by placing the SD card into the reader. Assuming that the SD card is formatted correctly, a "df -h" will show a list of the drives on the system. My SD card was labeled "/dev/disk3s1". That means that for purposes of this procedure I use "/dev/rdisk3" to refer to the entire SD card. The procedure can be found at http://elinux.org/RPi_Easy_SD_Card_Setup. So to install the image, I ran the following:
sudo diskutil unmount /dev/disk3s1
sudo dd bs=1m if=2012-10-28-wheezy-raspbian.img of=/dev/rdisk3
diskutil unmount /dev/disk3s1

Step 3 - put the SD card into the RPi, connect all cables, and apply power
I removed the SD card from the SD reader and put it into the RPi, I then connected the ethernet cable, and applied power to the system. Note that at first I did not have a monitor or keyboard/mouse connected. I first wanted to access it via a headless means since I do most of my work remotely

Worked just fine.

-- LW