[Pi IoT] - Smarter Spaces #2 - Remote Horse Feeder System

30 Jun 2016

The kit for the contest arrived a few days ago and am now sorting through the awesome devices to further understand how to interface with them as well as their use model. There have been plenty of pics posted of the kit, so I'll just list what was in the box I received:

- Raspberry Pi 3

- Raspberry Pi B+

- Raspberry Pi 7" Touchscreen Display

- Raspberry Pi Sense HAT (A.K.A. Astro Pi)

- PiFace Digital 2 with Relays, push buttons and such

- PiFace Control & Display 2

- Raspberry Pi NoIR Camera V2

- Raspberry Pi Camera V2

- Wi-Pi - Wireless USB Dongle

- PiFace Pi Rack

- 16GB Noobs micro SD

- EnOcean Pi Devices:

- EnOcean Pi 902 Wireless interface

- EnOcean Switch Design Kit

- ECO 200 Energy Harvester

- PTM 330 Radio Transmitter

- PTM 210 Batteryless Switch Module

- Clamp Switch 3D Printed

- PTM 210 Rockers

- ECO 200 Housing

- EnOcean Sensor Kit

- STM332/330 Temperature Sensor Module

- STM329/320 Magnet Contact Transmitter Module

- PTM210/220 Pushbutton Transmitter Switch Module

This is quite the list and I thank the good folks at Element14, Raspberry Pi Foundation, PiFace and EnOcean for providing such and awesome collection of tools to work with.

I was listening to the IoT Podcast with Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel and Stacey gave a bit of a review of the iLumi BR30 Outdoor BLE Light which was very timely since I was looking for a good outdoor LED solution for the Stall area that could be controlled remotely as well as on a timer. After listening to the show, I was at Best Buy where both the Indoor and Outdoor versions of the iLumi BR30 were on sale for $15 each so I snagged one of each. The issue I ran into was that my old 'i' devices I have can not run the Apple app and Google Play would not let me load the iLumi app on my generic Android tablet. I did not find any libraries for python or anything else for the iLumi so I proceeded to see if I could hack the access to the light and control turning it on as well as the colors with Bluez running on the RasPi. After working through a few BLE Light samples as well as poking around the device, I ended up getting the correct handles to pull off the Model and Manufacture as well as the handle to control the list itself. I'm able to initialize the light, turn it on and off as well as have some control of the color settings on the light. Its not perfect but it is a start. Also, I integrated the Bluez commands with a modified version of one of the Sense Hat examples and can control the iLumi via the Joystick on the Sense Hat. The next step is to add a sitemap, item and rules in OpenHAB to interface with the iLumi from a python script but it is a start. The end plan is to be able to control the iLumi from a EnOcean switch to add remote control to the BR30. Once issue I did run into, which Stacey mentioned as well, is that the BR30 has a very short BLE range, but I think the combo of the EnOcean switch and Pi interface will eliminate that restraint.

I have a python script that runs Bluez to grab the Mac address from a BLE device and then Initialize it as well as pull off a few bits of info from the device just to id what it is.

This is a screen shot of the end result:

i have a video showing the working Sense Hat joystick controlling the iLumi BR30 but I need to add audio and upload it so youTube I guess, but here is a screen shot of that: