Forum - Recent Threads

Many thanks

Workshopshed — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 19:21:57 GMT

A heavy box arrived from the US today.

Bumper Sticker

Workshopshed — Sun, 18 Jun 2017 16:05:32 GMT

Bumper Sticker arrived

Upcycleit Design Challenge

mcb1 — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 10:14:32 GMT

Well done to everyone that entered and saw it through to the end.

You may have noticed my absence over the last week, and this is due to other committments.

I've come back to an Inbox that has swelled and a workload that means I can't do it justice.

I have noted all the entries, but have refrained from commenting as I know what will happen.

I'm very pleased to see that those that took my advice and blogged about their issues, had some assistance from others and consequently were able to move forward.

While the Challenge may have prizes, the real prize is stretching your own boundaries and learning new stuff.

Well done to everyone that managed to meet the T&C's, and completed their project.

For some there were some personal issues, and others found out just how much time goes into these challenges.

For anyone that has just about finished, I'd say stick with it, try to add more updates just as if the challenge was extended for another 3 weeks.

If nothing else it will get you some practice for some of the longer challenges, and a goal to finish by.

I can say that this challenge for me has been very interesting.

It helped me get my Edison out and discovering there was some additional hardware to support it, and the posts you folks have provided have given me some great resources.

When I first saw the applications, I did have some favourites, some why??, and some others that I struggled to see why they needed an Edison.

Happily just about all those questions were answered (with the exception of a couple of false starters).

This challenge has also seen some of the best content presented (IMO)

It was interesting to follow, and the resources are invaluable to anyone picking up an Intel Edison for the first time.

So well done everyone that participated.

In the meantime I have a very difficult job of chosing.

I've hinted before that my taste in High Performance cars makes bribes out of reach, so it will have to be honest choices. ....

Thankfully I'm not alone in the task, so I'm sure I'll be able to sleep easier.

Cheers element14 for holding this, and to Intel for their participation.

Mark

Lego UI

Workshopshed — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 09:02:12 GMT

I spotted this link this morning. The idea is you use a block like interface to code your Lego robot's movements. https://www.slashgear.com/lego-boost-educational-coding-set-goes-up-for-preorder-01487193/

I have been thinking about doing something like this with the car project but have not quite got my head around the software. There's scratch blocks which is very similar to the Scratch Jr my daughter has already used https://scratch.mit.edu/developers

I suspect it's probably just a case of installing it and spending a few hours playing to see how it ticks.

USB Cable

Workshopshed — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 21:05:22 GMT

I just got around to unwrapping the USB cable that comes with the competitors, omg it must be about 2m long!

BlueTooth link dump

Workshopshed — Fri, 02 Jun 2017 15:13:08 GMT

I was thinking about bluetooth for communication between the two edisons using NodeJS and MQTT-SN

According to Stephanie this is quite possible, but I've not tried it myself. Edison to Edison Bluetooth | Musings from Stephanie

Given that the deadline is looming I'm dropping that and using Wifi instead. Here's my list of references that seemed relavent whilst I was researching this topic.

https://www.npmjs.com/package/bluetoothctl

https://blog.benjamin-cabe.com/2017/01/16/using-mqtt-sn-over-ble-with-the-bbc-microbit

https://www.npmjs.com/package/noble

https://github.com/eelcocramer/node-bluetooth-serial-port

https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-edison-board-getting-started-with-bluetooth

How I imagine my project might turn out

Workshopshed — Wed, 24 May 2017 15:27:43 GMT

This Ultimate Lightning McQueen robot is awesomely real

HAProxy for HTTPS and username/password

jasonwier92 — Tue, 23 May 2017 21:24:57 GMT

For those of you looking for more security, may I suggest HAProxy. You can run this on one exposed server and proxy for another service. Many benefits I have used this for most of the following.

Run your Node app in user space and user ports over 1024, like 3000 and use HA to Proxy it to port 80 or 443
Add SSL without adding it to your application. Yes, it works and it works nice.
Add HTTP Auth for simple user authentication. I suggest this is only done over HTTPS as it is not the most secure, but it does help.
I have not used this one, but Load Balancing

You can do several services off one HAProxy instance, so redirect IPAddressA port 8080 to Edison#1 port 3000, IPAddressA port 8081 to Edison#2 port 3000, IPAddressA port 8088 to Edison#1 port 3001, and IPAddressA port 80 to Home Assistant Server port 8123. This only exposes one host to external traffic if you want and hides the rest.

So many other uses. If you have a need, make a suggestion and lets discuss it here. Maybe we can find a solution together!

Connecting to the Edison over USB

Workshopshed — Tue, 23 May 2017 12:26:58 GMT

I've been using Wifi to connect to the Edison but I've also spotted that the Yokto distribution provides the facility to connect using Network over USB. This can be useful as I've used it on other boards such as the BeagleBone Blue.

https://software.intel.com/en-us/connecting-to-intel-edison-board-using-ethernet-over-usb

Power management

Workshopshed — Tue, 23 May 2017 07:22:01 GMT

Whilst looking at the Furby schematic, I noticed the ability to cut power to various components to increase battery life.

Has anyone looked at what can be done on the Edison?

Compass, Gyro, Accelerometer

Workshopshed — Fri, 19 May 2017 07:35:02 GMT

I was just looking at the pinouts for the mini-breakout and spotted. COMPASS_DRDY, ACCELEROMETER_INT_2, GYRO_INT etc. That's the first I've heard that the Edison has these sensors. Has anyone seen any examples of accessing those features in code?

Security

Workshopshed — Tue, 16 May 2017 18:39:49 GMT

Has anyone come across any interesting articles on securing the Edison?

Node-Red and Mini

jasonwier92 — Mon, 15 May 2017 01:17:41 GMT

Before I beat my head too much, any one have luck with Node-Red and the Mini-Board?

Just looking to do GPIO. I have Python working on the mini-board and I would guess node should work too.

Maybe I will just use Node-red for automation and have the rest be in node.

That's not a furby!

Workshopshed — Thu, 11 May 2017 16:27:49 GMT

Spotted an upcycling of quite a modern device whilst reading about Google AIY

https://www.hackster.io/bastiaan-slee/nabaztag-gets-a-new-life-with-google-aiy-e9f2c8

Android Things

Workshopshed — Thu, 11 May 2017 15:59:47 GMT

Spotted this on another part of the forum

Stranger Things are afoot with Android on Raspberry Pi - "Android Things" is available

If anyone has a spare Edison they are not using for their project you might want to have a play with Android Things. It's an O/S and SDK that:

makes developing connected embedded devices easy by providing the same Android development tools, best-in-class Android framework, and Google APIs that make developers successful on mobile.

https://developer.android.com/things/hardware/edison.html

Tag It!

Workshopshed — Mon, 08 May 2017 18:25:25 GMT

I spotted that Pauline has updated the Upcycle it Design Challenge: The Challengers page with links to our blogs which she has kindly tagged with a unique tag for each of us.

If you follow the link then you'll find out what your tag is (mine is upcycled_interactiveracecardriver) and then you can add that tag to all your draft and future posts.

Keithley DMM7510 teardown

Workshopshed — Mon, 08 May 2017 12:33:11 GMT

In case you've not already seen it, here's a teardown of the multimeter that's the first prize.

www.youtube.com/watch

Which Node.js version are you running on the Edison?

gpolder — Wed, 03 May 2017 05:50:18 GMT

I'm currently challenging some problems with Node-RED modules which possibly are related to Node.js version differences.

When installing XDK, automatically node v4.4.3 was installed:

root@edison_arduino:~# opkg list nodejs
nodejs - v4.4.3-r1.0 - Node.js is a platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily
building fast, scalable network applications. Node.js is a platform
built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable
network applications.
root@edison_arduino:~# node -v
v4.4.3
root@edison_arduino:~#

When running opkg update/upgrade no new version is installed, but https://nodejs.org/en/ shows v6.10.3 as the most recent LTS version.

My question is which version are you using?

How did you install:

XDK
opkg
make (takes 5 hours according to some information I found on internet)
other ......

Node and global vs local?

Workshopshed — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 13:41:23 GMT

Something I spotted today on booting a node script on the Edison (if not using XDK)

Run a Script on Edison Boot | Shawn Hymel

The point of interest for me is the line:

Environment="NODE_PATH=/usr/lib/node_modules/"

I'm guessing that this stores the node modules in the lib folders as previously when I've used NPM to install node packages I've spotted it has been putting them under /home.

It looks like we can set this using:

export NODE_PATH=/usr/lib/node_modules:$NODE_PATH

There also seems to be an "npm -g" option but others seem to recommend against this.

No Need for npm -g | Peter Lyons

Any thoughts or recommendations on best practice for the Edison?

Node-Red Reading output values

jasonwier92 — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 19:09:16 GMT

Okay, as I am testing, I am noticing that you cannot read the status of an output node. take the following examples: this controls the relay just fine, sometimes it is a little touchy, but for the most part it works. But then I monitor the same input triggered on rising and falling edges and I get no output. I think it is because it is already setup as an output. With Node or Python, you can see what state the output pin is in and that is what I would like to do. I could do it with an output from the WS or MQTT message or the function and even store the state and on a new connection dump out all the values. Problem is when Node-red restarts the states are un-known. The one idea I had was to store this the state in a persistent data storage, like a database. Only issue I see with that is it could get stale. Maybe I changed it via a command line. I think it is best to ask the pin what state it is in.

To the ones running Node-Red for their project, what do you all think?

CAD software

jasonwier92 — Tue, 18 Apr 2017 16:41:32 GMT

What CAD software are people using?

Tip: Link to blogs

Workshopshed — Tue, 18 Apr 2017 15:17:06 GMT

A quick tip on linking to your posts

Visit the upcycling blog page https://www.element14.com/community/community/design-challenges/upcycleit/blog/

Then you should see your name on the right:

Click that to get just your posts:

e.g.

https://www.element14.com/community/community/design-challenges/upcycleit/blog/authors/Workshopshed

Share with all your friends and interested followers.

Mounting points?

Workshopshed — Sun, 16 Apr 2017 19:43:28 GMT

I was going to enthuse over the great mounting points on the Arduino breakout board. They have space around them for screw heads and the standoffs don't clash with components. However I've just spotted that they are not in a nice rectangular matrix with one pair being slightly offset from the others.

So that's a long way of asking.

Does anyone have a drawing showing the correct positions for each of the mounting holes on the Arduino breakout?

Thoughts on I/O shortage

Workshopshed — Thu, 13 Apr 2017 09:01:15 GMT

I was summing up all the I/O I'd likely need for the car and it looks like I'm going to be a bit short, 2 for each of the main motors, 4 for the lights, 5 for the Furby's motor control (3 out, 2 in) and then perhaps some for micro-switches and light sensors.

Given that we've got two Edisons then the obvious solution is to use a second one to control my Furby driver and then use i2c, serial, wifi or Bluetooth to communicate between them.

My main concern is that the breakout board connects directly up to the Edison so I'm thinking about options to drive hardware from that. The two key issues are current and voltage. The Edison's GPIO is 1.8v and can supply about 3mA.

http://www.intel.com/content/dam/support/us/en/documents/edison/sb/edison-module_HG_331189.pdf

In the scrap box, I've got some level shifters, some ULN2003 Darlington drivers and some 4n35 opto-couplers to choose from.

Edison has landed

Workshopshed — Thu, 06 Apr 2017 19:05:23 GMT

The Edisons and all the other kit parts have arrived safely, many thanks.

My daughter helped me put the Arduino shield together and created "The Electronic light, the blue light flashes when you press the button" she said. So my plan is to write some MRAA Node.js based code so that it does just that. She can then help me test it. Hopefully have some fun results early next week.