Hiding Secrets from GitHub (or using ConfigParser)

As I get into the habit of using git and github for versioning I need to make sure that I hide personal settings and passwords. To do this I use ConfigParser in Python. It's pretty easy. Creating the Configuration File First create a 'config.ini' file in your code directory. I generally use a text editor or … Continue reading Hiding Secrets from GitHub (or using ConfigParser) →

Face Detection with the Raspberry Pi Camera Board

I have a very basic face detection routine running with the Raspberry Pi camera board. To do this I used Robidouille's library functions (see previous post). I then modified the raspicam_cv.c example to use the face detection routine from Learning OpenCV. There were some tweaks so I will post the code below. You also need … Continue reading Face Detection with the Raspberry Pi Camera Board →

Hacker News Update: Raspicam & WeMo

A quick update on my recent discoveries. Raspicam I now have a Raspberry Pi Camera Board (Raspicam)! There is a brilliant combo deal on at the moment allowing you to buy a Raspicam, Model A + 4GB SD card for about £35 (including VAT + shipping!)! That's £35 for a device that can run OpenCV … Continue reading Hacker News Update: Raspicam & WeMo →

Magic Lights: Controlling Hue with a Raspberry Pi

This post shows you how to control the Hue light bulbs using a Raspberry Pi. In particular, it shows you how to fade up your lights half an hour before to sunset. In true Heath Robinson style the solution is rather convoluted. But hey, that's where the fun resides. Email me, Sun First, we set … Continue reading Magic Lights: Controlling Hue with a Raspberry Pi →

Doing Useful Things with WeMo Motion

Using both the WeMo Motion rules and IFTTT allows you to do certain things with this motion detector. However, to expand our possibilities it would help if we could store our motion data and make it accessible to the programs that we write. To store our motion data in a database we need a bit … Continue reading Doing Useful Things with WeMo Motion →

Accessing Our Sensor Data: PHP + SQLite + SVG

So we have our sensor(s) dutifully logging their data to an SQLite database. Now we need to process and view this data. LASP First we need to set our Raspberry Pi up as a webserver. This typically requires: Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP - a LAMP framework. There is a handy guide: here (thanks Dave!). … Continue reading Accessing Our Sensor Data: PHP + SQLite + SVG →

Databases for Sensor Data in Python

Here are some options to persistently store sensor data in a database using python. Anydbm For simple key-value pairs the anydbm module looks the best. It stores values as strings. Because of this you may need to use another module called pickle to convert non-string values into strings. For example: import anydbm, pickle from datetime … Continue reading Databases for Sensor Data in Python →

Simple Energy Monitoring on Raspberry Pi

So. Reading an LCD screen was more difficult than I first assumed. My code is still good for reading my Thermostat values. However for energy monitoring and £20 I found a better solution. Looking on the net a particular model of energy monitor was recommended for easy monitoring: the Current Cost EnviR. This monitor has … Continue reading Simple Energy Monitoring on Raspberry Pi →