Tools Hack Daily

Friday, January 1, 2021

LimaTek Diskmaster: VCR that Plays full length films [like garbage] #piday #raspberrypi @Raspberry_Pi

LimaTek Diskmaster on Vimeo Reddit user GreedyPaint showed off their VCR that plays full length movies. There is a reason movies weren’t developed on floppy disks. If you watch the clip it makes Shrek look a little like bad claymation. But with the help of a raspberry pi it can be done.

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Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!

‘Weasley’ Location Clock With 4 Hands #piday #raspberrypi @Raspberry_Pi

via richard2000 on instructables

So, with a Raspberry Pi that had been kicking around for a while, I wanted to find a nice project that would allow me to make best use of it. I came across this great Instructable Build Your Own Weasley Location Clock by ppeters0502 and thought that it would be good to try.

The clock basically consists of a Raspberry Pi which controls servos in order to turn the hands of the clock. As in the house of the Weasley family in the Harry Potter books/films, each family member has their own hand. Each hand points to the current location of that family member. The clock achieves this by receiving messages from the mobile phones of the family whenever they enter or leave a pre-defined radius.

Radon Mitigation Monitor @Raspberry_Pi #PiDay #RaspberryPi

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Handy project and write-up from Mike520 up on Instructables.

Radon comes naturally from rocks and soil underneath our homes across the United States and the European Union. It is always around us an odorless, tasteless, and invisible radioactive gas. Radon is problematic because it leaks into our homes through cracks or gaps and builds up to higher levels. When you breathe radon gas the radioactive particles can get trapped in your lungs and cause cancer. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), radon kills more than 21,000 people in the US each year and over 20,000 per year in the EU. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), radon is the leading cause of non-smoker lung cancer. Both old and new homes can have radon problems. Many homes require active radon mitigation systems usually involving sub-slab or crawl space depressurization. This involves a low-wattage (50W) fan that operates quietly and hopefully continuously to reduce the radon levels. The fan is often hidden in an attic, basement, or even outside the house where if the quiet and out of sight fan fails, the occupants will be exposed to radioactive radon. More information is available from the CDC, EPA, state, and local governments including regional maps.

Simple Security Camera with Dropbox Integration @Raspberry_Pi #PiDay #RaspberryPi

via Raspberry Pi Maker

This is a project that started as something small but has grown over time. I wanted a simple script that would snap a picture and upload it to a ftp site once a day. With that script I could keep an eye on my yard when I was traveling. As time went on, I wanted easier access so I replaced the ftp site with DropBox. Then I wanted more images so once a day went to once and hour. As so on…

So today I still have a script but it does a few extra things. I created he gsnap script to snap a picture once a minute and store it locally or upload to DropBox. Also, there is a script that will convert the images to a time lapse movie and store it locally or upload to DropBox. Because the scripts rely on cron, I included some helper scripts to let you modify crontab and clean up old images & movies.

See more!

FeatherQuill is a Dedicated, Distraction-Free Word Processor #piday #raspberrypi @Raspberry_Pi

34+ typing hours?! Check out this Pi Zero W build from CameronCoward on Instructables:

FeatherQuill is built around a Raspberry Pi Zero W, which was chosen for its low power consumption. That is running DietPi in order to keep the OS as lightweight as possible. When turned on, it will automatically load a simple terminal-based word processor called WordGrinder. The time it takes to go from power on to typing is about 20-25 seconds.

Raspberry Pi SMS @Raspberry_Pi #PiDay #RaspberryPi

This is a project from cb77 that lets you send and receive SMS messages, as well as command Raspberry Pi to perform specific actions. Here’s more via hackster.io:

I use a modem connected to a raspberry pi 2 B, to receive the status of one system connected to the raspberry. The Raspberry read the sensors and send a SMS with the information whenever the sensor cross a defined threshold, Also I can send commands by SMS to the raspberry to do specific action like, force the reception of the status, know if the system is running or reboot the raspberry. I wrote this code in C but I also create a class in C++. The code is very simple first: I setup the modem and send the proper AT commands to setup the SMS. Then I create thread to receive the SMS and identify the commands. No all phones can send commands or ask for info, they must be in a list of authorized number, if they are not in the list, the code is rejected the SMS. Once the SMS command is accepted, you have to create a loop (i.e. while()) to process the commands received in the SMS. You can add as many commands as you want in the receiving and processCommand functions. I used pthread and wiringPi libraries so you have to compile it like this : gcc -o main main.c -lwiringPi -lpthread

See project!

Pi Dimmer @Raspberry_Pi #PiDay #RaspberryPi

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Great beginner level project from Team Grandeur up on Hackster.io.

After Pi Switch, here comes Pi Dimmer, a level up the IoT Control ladder. We are going to build an LED dimmer with Raspberry Pi and Grandeur. The Raspberry Pi will control the led based on the data we send from our web app. We will use the Grandeur platform to help us communicate data between our app and our RPi over internet.