[TriEmbed] looking for - internet appliance - lights on internet detail

Sun Nov 11 21:55:50 CST 2018

Thanks for the input all. 

My particular application is entirely in the house, possibly via the WIFI LAN.  Each person who is participating in the TARPN system has a Raspberry PI, either a 1 B, 2 B, 3 or 3+.   The trigger which is inspected, to determine the required behavior, is in the Raspberry PI filesystem, in /usr/local/etc.  Our project is actually to build a text messaging network which does NOT use the Internet, linking our Raspberry PIs together to do anything we can come up with.  

I will create a background service on Raspbian which can inspect the file and then drive a GPIO, or to do some TCP/IP communications to the appliance.  

I was thinking of making a 20khz beeper, at the Raspberry PI itself, to alert the dog that I have mail.  So my visitors are over and the dog goes off barking up a storm.  I announce calmly, oh, I have mail.  And as soon as I pull it down using my tablet the dog gets quiet and goes and curls up on the couch.  This would have a nice bizzaro-behavior kind of feel to it that appeals to me.  
Maybe not.  Besides, I have cats, not a dog.  Next….  

I’ve been considering using a single-chip radio and sending a carrier if the alert behavior is selected.  Then I’d just need a single chip radio to detect the continuous (> 0.4seconds) of a carrier, and signal with the LED or piezo or relay.  I could build the living-room alert device with an Arduino and hat.  The Raspberry PI could easily handle programming one of the single-chip radios to send a carrier.  910-ish megahertz would be just fine.   There are a ton of those radio-hat/shield/feathers out there, but that would require more assembly than I was looking for, plus there would be a power supply for the living room portion which just looks like more wires.  Maybe the challenge would be to make it run for months or years on a battery.  Hmm…. But then I’d need to come up with a plan to mass produce them.  Well… get enough people together, take orders, kit the thing out, and have a soldering/plugging/programming session.  That could happen.  

The WIFI controlled lightbulb seemed ideal because the hardware would all be off the shelf and there isn’t even any unique or fragile connections to deal with.  I like the idea of having a blue light on next to the TV when there is mail waiting.  That will do and not drive the wife nuts.  I’m not dying for another project.  I’d rather this done short and sweet.  What I want, however, is for each and every member of the network to have this service, even if I have to buy all of it.  

I am liking the $5 AC switch item.  This would be able to light or start anything that runs on voltage, but it is really cheap and obvious.   What every other member of our little off-the-grid text messaging network does with it is up to them.  I just want to make it really easy.   I ordered one of the Sonoff WIFI switches on eBay, not noticing until later that the expected delivery date is as late as Jan 3 2019.   ha.  WE’ll see what Monday brings.  Maybe an evening meeting.    I’m really busy on Tuesday though as I’m doing a deal with the Raleigh Amateur Radio society at their meeting and I do need to make sure I prepare for that.  

You can see the project I’m working on here:  http://tarpn.net   Network map with the Network link and Builder instructions with lots and lots of details under Builder link.  

   Tadd

Tadd / KA2DEW
tadd at mac.com
Raleigh NC  FM05pv

“Packet networking over ham radio": http://tarpn.net/t/packet_radio_networking.html <http://tarpn.net/t/packet_radio_networking.html>
Local Raleigh ham radio info: http://torborg.com/a <http://torborg.com/a>

> On Nov 11, 2018, at 9:19 PM, Mike Lisanke via TriEmbed <triembed at triembed.org> wrote:
> 
> Actually, there are many IOT devices that include Internet (wired or wireless) and a RGB LED or many ... and many of them are less than $30.
> 
> To make you app, all you need is an Internet App which pulls or gets push data and changes it's color. Cool Packages cost money But some of the Adafruit Playground have LED and Sensors and Internet and programming for non-programmers etc. 
> 
> There are also RGB LED WiFi lightbulb but you'll likely have to add an external Internet compute to drive it... I think something like IFTTT can drive it but you'll be putting your Intranet at risk dropping a light bulb on the Internet :-p
> 
> On Sun, Nov 11, 2018 at 7:48 PM Pete Soper via TriEmbed <triembed at triembed.org <mailto:triembed at triembed.org>> wrote:
> Right. You can buy a smaller number for even less. The instructable below shows how to control it with a Raspberry Pi.
> 
>   https://www.instructables.com/id/Control-Sonoff-From-Raspberry-Pi/ <https://www.instructables.com/id/Control-Sonoff-From-Raspberry-Pi/>
> 
> But you're still going to need invention, and that's the magic that bridges between what your packet program is doing on the Raspberry Pi and the actions necessary to invoke the program to turn on the Sonoff. You won't find that at Amazon Prime, but if you come to the meeting tomorrow somebody might be able to find out more about how the packet radio code works and suggest an approach. 
> 
> -Pete
> 
> On 11/11/18 7:40 PM, Tadd Torborg via TriEmbed wrote:
>> Hmm.. Very pretty.   Perhaps wishful thinking, but I was looking for something closer to $50 that didn’t require new invention.  
>> I like what you came up with.  Nice shopping list too. 
>> 
>> Have you ever seen a Sonoff WiFi Switch ?   Amazon has 6 of these for $65.  
>>   
>> 
>> Tadd / KA2DEW
>> tadd at mac.com <mailto:tadd at mac.com>
>> Raleigh NC  FM05pv
>> 
>> “Packet networking over ham radio": http://tarpn.net/t/packet_radio_networking.html <http://tarpn.net/t/packet_radio_networking.html>
>> Local Raleigh ham radio info: http://torborg.com/a <http://torborg.com/a>
>> 
>> "When you don't know what you're doing, you might as well do it quickly"   - Jase Robertson
>> 
>>> On Nov 11, 2018, at 2:52 PM, Brian Chamberlain <blchamberlain at gmail.com <mailto:blchamberlain at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hey Tadd,
>>> If you’re talking 10 years ago time frame I’m guessing you’re referring to the AmbientOrb. It was a device from an MIT group/project that signaled the state of the weather, stock markets, etc... Here’s an article about that device.
>>> 
>>> http://www.nbcnews.com/id/4758931/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/t/new-technology-relies-human-visual-system/ <http://www.nbcnews.com/id/4758931/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/t/new-technology-relies-human-visual-system/>
>>> 
>>> There have been many of these types of devices launched as products/kickstarters/DIY projects since then, in various incarnations. I’m sure you can find examples on Hackster.io <http://hackster.io/>. Here’s one I built: 
>>> https://www.hackster.io/breakpointer/ambient-web-connected-color-orb-91b9fd <https://www.hackster.io/breakpointer/ambient-web-connected-color-orb-91b9fd>
>>> 
>>> Also, here’s a more complete Rpi based tutorial: 
>>> https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/cheerlights-orb-a-node-red-tutorial/ <https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/cheerlights-orb-a-node-red-tutorial/>
>>> 
>>> The neopixel from Adafruit is great for this type of thing. 
>>> https://learn.adafruit.com/neopixels-on-raspberry-pi/overview <https://learn.adafruit.com/neopixels-on-raspberry-pi/overview>
>>> 
>>> Hope this helps.
>>> Cheers!
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Sun, Nov 11, 2018 at 9:32 AM Tadd Torborg via TriEmbed <triembed at triembed.org <mailto:triembed at triembed.org>> wrote:
>>> Once upon a time, possibly 10 years ago, I remember a device which looked like a light fixture that sat on a desk.  It lit up in color, after it found some token or cue on the Internet.  You could use it to show a weather alert, or i a certain web page did or did not responded to pings. 
>>> I never bought one.  Now I need it for a ham radio project. 
>>> 
>>> What I want to do is have a Raspberry PI that is doing ham radio stuff (TARPN network communications, in this case) and have a light, possibly a blinking LED, in the living room of my house, that would indicate a message has been received via the ham radio TARPN network.  The Raspberry PI can have a file that is present or missing, or filled with some value or another, and the blinking light needs to use FTP or Telnet via WiFi to the Raspberry PI and query the file.  Alternatively I could have the Raspberry PI issue a telnet message to turn the light on or off.  
>>> 
>>> Something like this already exists.  Does anybody know where to get one?  
>>> 
>>> Thanks!
>>>    Tadd
>>> 
>>> Tadd / KA2DEW
>>> http://tarpn.net <http://tarpn.net/>
>>> Raleigh NC
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
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>>> -- 
>>> -Brian
>> 
>> 
>> 
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> -- 
> Best regards,  Mike
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