Elsewhere in the blog I’ve referred to Tuya-Convert – which we have been running on the Raspberry Pi. Today Antonio and I took on the MINOR task of putting Tuya-Convert, instead, on an otherwise unused Orange Pi Zero.

SO – what is Tuya-Convert? Let’s say you are working with ESP8266-based Smartlamps and you want to put Espurna, Tasmota or other non-original firmware onto them to escape cloud dependency and maybe gain some new features. And let’s say these are lamps whereby plugging in a serial FTDI lead is difficult or impossible. To the rescue comes Tuya-Convert.

We originally started with a bare-bones Raspberry Pi and a little NodeMCU ESP8266 board. Today we started with a bare-bones Orange Pi Zero and the same NodeMCU-type ESP8266 board (i.e. any old ESP-12 board).

Download and “flash” the “donor” bin file onto a NodeMCU, Wemos or similar (any ESP8266 board with 1Mb Flash would do) to be able to set up and run a “vtrust-flash” ssid network

For the RPi version, start with a Raspberry Pi (3 in our case) with a fresh install of raspbian LITE, then create an empty “ssh” file in the boot partition (the fat32 one)

Login via ssh (on, say a PC) and run “sudo raspi-config”, go to localisation, “WiFi country” and BE SURE to select your country, otherwise “tuya-convert” will fail to bring up the wlan0 (WiFi) interface – this is important…

Alternatively as we have done now, use an Orange Pi Zero (OP0). Load “Armbian Buster” and install the microSD as per instructions on the Armbian website. The only thing is that Armbian-config does not set up any WIFI country on the OP0 so we had to do that by hand.

sudo nano /etc/default/crda

The last line on a new OP0 will be “REGDOMAIN=” – that is NO GOOD for the OP0 – it MUST have a valid country – set that in the standard NANO editor to “REGDOMAIN=UK” without the quotes in the file shown above. On the Raspberry Pi an equivalent gets entered elsewhere by the initial setup when you set up the country and REGDOMAIN remains empty.

On the OP0 I installed one more program just to stop Tuya giving out a warning..

sudo apt install ufw

Downoad the latest tuya-convert and install on the OP0.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install git
git clone https://github.com/ct-Open-Source/tuya-convert
cd tuya-convert
./install_prereq.sh

Run the above lines one at a time – the first line was not needed on the OP0 – the last line takes a while on either board… be patient… the important thing here is that you can select tasmota.bin when installing – be careful if upgrading this file which sits in the tuya-convert/files folder – you MUST ensure the file you use is under 500K – once done converting you can OTA your target smart device in the normal way but this is important: if the file size is over 500KB, the conversion will fail and you may end up, as I did initially, with smartbulbs that will ONLY upgrade by opening up and getting the soldering iron out – not pleasant with only tiny test points to work with.

Start the flash process – on the OP0 as user ROOT (I arbitrarily added user Pi on initial setup of the OP0 but to avoid using SUDO, ultimately it was easier to simply use ROOT). On the RPI, user “pi” works just fine. In the tuya-convert folder you need to enter…

./start_flash.sh

and follow instructions… assuming both the PI and the ESP8266 “donor” device are turned on and reasonably close, you’ll see the blinking LED on the DONOR device (in our case the NodeMCU board) turn solid blue once it connects to the vtrust-flash ssid, then you can put the hacking device (In our case, an ESP8266-based smartbulb or an ESP8266-based smart plug) in fast flashing mode and press ENTER in the Tuya console

Once the first part of the hack is flashed, a menu will pop up, select the option with “tasmota.bin” for the stock file shipped with the tuya-convert software.

That’s it… then power cycle the device you are hacking and you are now using your device as Tasmota (or Espurna – we only tested Tasmota in this case).

Tasmota templates used for the smart switches we converted:
 https://templates.blakadder.com/blitzwolf_SHP6.html
 https://templates.blakadder.com/blitzwolf_SHP7.html
 https://templates.blakadder.com/blitzwolf_BW-SS1.html

If using Tasmota, to have Amazon Alexa support, you need to update to latest FULL tasmota.bin file from http://thehackbox.org/tasmota/

And here’s the conversion hardware described above:

Below – with a little tidying up, Tuya-Convert on an Armbian-equipped Orange Pi Zero, boxed. My Raspberry Pi version needed a separate box for the USB-connected NodeMCU board and I can think of other uses for an RPI-3 whereas the OP0 was going to waste before this.

The only down-side to using Orange Pi Zero of course is lack of RPI-Clone. The box needs a single USB 5v supply.

The post Tuya-Convert on RPi or Orange Pi Zero appeared first on Scargill's Tech Blog.

We have lots of IOT going on right now. So, firstly – in the DEV 8.2.0.4 release of Tasmota (alternative firmware for ESP8266 processors – keep up!) we noted changes not necessarily reflected in dev version changes (well, that’s why they are development versions I guess)… As of Monday April 20, 2020, there is a change to button behaviour – with the new SETOPTION73 (abbreviation available SO73) which is now the DEFAULT at least in the current DEV version.. well, check out this example:

Check out the Tasmota DOCS for more on this – the author is @effelle#0598 (Federico Leoni) on DISCORD and he’s really helpful. (If you want button operation as before – without these new features, just use setoption13 (SO13) so you only get TOGGLE – nothing else on the button. If you want to have the multipress but not triggering the relay, use setoption73, or use button2 to 4 with rules to block unwanted behavior. It did occur to me that this new behaviour might be dangerous in the extreme situation where RELAY1 is a simple light in another room and RELAY2 is an expensive heater in another room, is there a chance of wasted electricity here or am I being over-cautious? I generally prefer one button for one job.

Next on today’s list

ZemiSmart GU5.3 RGBCCW lights (I’ve always called this type of light MR16 but my MR16 ceiling casings are an impossibly tight fit for the new lamps (springs get in the way). So the new lamps – I converted one to Tasmota and hit an issue with the colour RED (only). I wondered if it was Tasmota so checked out a virgin, unaltered light. Watch this:

"Alexa set smart bulb 8 to red/green/blue"

All the colours respond perfectly except RED which prompts Alexa to ask daft questions like “You have Smart Life enabled, do you want to open it?”. “Alexa, f*** **F” is my now standard response.

Convinced Tasmota is not to blame, I’ve now Tasmotized two of the new ZemiSmart lamps and the same issue remains with red, but not always. Naming changes seem to help but why RED and why not the earlier GU10 lights? This subject will be ongoing as i get to grips with it, meanwhile…

Colour fun

I wrote separately about The Orange Pi Zero and “Tuya-Convert” and as the Armbian intro is boring, I’m playing with these oddly named programs for ASCII text and pretty colours – check them out:

cowsay
figlet
toilet
lolcat 

For example:

sudo apt-get install -y cowsay figlet toilet

On the RPi as it happens, the first two were already installed.

For another example – I simply installed below on the Orange Pi Zero as root but on the RPi I did the install as user “pi” and I added “sudo” where necessary (as you see below):

sudo apt install ruby
wget https://github.com/busyloop/lolcat/archive/master.zip
unzip master.zip
cd lolcat-master/bin
sudo gem install lolcat
cd
lolcat -h

I know, utterly poinless but hey, I like colour. More as I get to grips. I found this link… https://www.linux.com/training-tutorials/linux-tips-fun-figlet-and-toilet-commands/

You can probably tell it is getting late at night.. try this in a terminal:

watch -n1 "date '+%D%n%T'|figlet -k" | lolcat

The post More Tasmota, ZemiSmart and some Colour Fun appeared first on Scargill's Tech Blog.

A new lock-down gadget to play with! The Vecta Personal Safe is designed in the UK, manufactured in China and mine came direct from Vecta Safes (UK) Ltd. The safe is suitable for storing money, keys, passports, keys etc and despite it’s small size is rock solid. For sizes, see the link below.

The safe is shown here in the substancial packing box in which it arrived. It comes complete with six substancial metal mounting fixings (supplied) and requires a user-programmable 4-digit passcode to open (there is a master and a user code, both of which are programmable. The unit also comes complete with 2 emergency keys which should be stored separately for emergency use.

There is a nicely-readable blue display and the unit has a removeable tray and a removeable keyrack (not fitted in the photo above). I could see the tray coming in handy for coins, watches, memory sticks and more. Yep – that door really is metal(as is the whole unit) and solid-looking.

The company states that the safe is police-approved. Apparently, the Personal Safe is the only product in its class to achieve the Secured by Design and Sold Secure attack test ratings awarded by the UK Police and Master Locksmiths Association.

I can see this being mounted on a stone wall in the near future and by the look of the fittings, it won’t come off in a hurry. Rather than reel off specs and sizes, you’ll find all of that information on the Vecta website. When I say “rock solid”, the unit is very heavy and is unlikely to be easily damaged.

I’ll come back to this once the safe is mounted and in use. Right now the unit is in stock, is discounted at £129.00 and comes with a free Vecta Signal-blocking pouch.

The post Safekeeping appeared first on Scargill's Tech Blog.

I LOVE getting new toys. This one was sent to me in January 2020 by Banggood and it turned up in the UK in February. The battery-powered, USB-charged Zajia clips straight into the tap in the kitchen or bathroom to provide proximity-controlled water. If you are on a water meter or just environmentally-conscious – this device might just be for you.

As you can probably tell in this article generally, back in February the health positive implications of this device had not really occurred to me – but in May 2020 in the middle of the pandemic, it seems absolutely sensible, even essential, on returning home after shopping, NOT to touch ANYTHING in the house BEFORE washing hands. All I need now is an automatic soap dispenser to go with the Zajia which, incidentally is STILL on it’s first charge.

The Xiaomi Zajia comes with a range of (plastic so no rusting) tap adaptors and takes seconds to slip onto the bottom of any mixer tap. I don’t bother to turn off the tap as the device has zero leaks, instead, I just leave the tap mixer set to the kind of temperature I usually need for handwashing etc.

The Zajia has proximity sensing on the underside for a short burst of water as required and another on the back (or front as you prefer) for constant ON or OFF. Just put your hand, toothbrush, razor or whatever underneath the Zajia and out comes the water. It’s all very intuitive – so that I could not tell you if it came with instructions or not – certainly didn’t need any.

When the device arrived last week I lifted the grey flap and plugged in a USB supply to give it an hour’s charge – and that’s it, the device has been in constant use ever since. Now that I’m used to it, I hate using taps that don’t have similar devices. I fitted this in the kitchen to test initially and then into the smaller of our two bathrooms – the only thing wrong is that I now need two more for life to be complete again. The Zajia doesn’t seem to get in the way and doesn’t get dirty as of course you don’t actually touch it. Needless to say it is waterproof.

If I were to improve the device I’d add a temperature sensor and third proximity sensor to somehow detect how hot or cold I wanted the water to be – but I guess that’s stretching things a little.

The post Xiaomi ZAJIA Auto-sense IR Induction Water Saver appeared first on Scargill's Tech Blog.

Despite abysmal weather here in lockdown Northeast of England, I’m having a good afternoon. One of my biggest daily challenges when running the blog is effortlessly, wirelessly transferring image from my Android phone to my PC fo r inclusion in the blog or elsewhere.

As many of you will know, the above is do-able with wires but for quick blog updating, I’ve gone to tremendous lengths to make image editing and transfer as painless as possible so I can concentrate on the actual writing. To that extent I’ve settled in recent times on Snapseed on the phone to easily crop, straighten and brighten up images – an Microsoft’s Your Phone to transfer them to my PC. Add Greenshot screen grabber into the mix and I can have an image ready in seconds to drop into WordPress for the blog.

That is, until “Your Phone” decides not to work, or restrict the number of files – or some other petty limitation – all of which can get annoying REAL fast. So imagine my delight when I discovered the Dell Mobile Connect App for PC and phone – only to have the wind blown out of my sails when I discovered it is only good for new (2018+) Dell machines. Well, never one to give up easily – I found a way around it.

And armed with THAT good start to the afternoon I’ve just received a couple of bits and pieces from blog subscriber Ian Sexton…

I have no idea what the software is on that particular ESP01 – I do know it’s a 1 MEG board, not the old-fahioned an utterly usless 512K version. I also know it has a sketch on it that supports OTA and that it has an ID of ESP01_OTA, as it appears on my mobile phone as an access point – and there the mystery deepens – it’s not ESP-GO or Tasmota or Espurna…

A quick visit to the phone browser and a check the web page that appeared at 192.168.4.1 produced a reference to the sketch ESP01_OTA_LED_PIEZO.ino – and given that there are only a couple of usable pins on the ESP01 I guessed that meant piezo sensor and a lamp… other than that I had no clue. I do know that if I put Tasmota on it I can in addition make use of the serial pins (that’s a good thing). Between the ESP01 and Ian’s back-board which allows the board to use a standard USB connector for power, this looks like a useful improvement over the original ESP01.

At this point, Ian wrote back to me to confirm that the software was nothing more than a blank canvas – problem solved. Ian also reminded me that thiis device wiith the right software will run Ii2c – and I have the very thing -Tasmota will do that. Out with the FTDI.

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The important bit here is 65W PD – model RP-PC133. The new charger from Ravpower has both USB C and USB3 outputs and is able to deliver up to 3.25A at a range of voltages suitable for high speed charging phones and tablets. The first photo depicts the USA version, mine is the UK version as you will see further down.

This is a solid looking supply. I also have the previous (600w) model. As you can see in the photo below, the unit outputs up to 3.25A. I’ve been using it to charge my Xiaomi Note 8 Pro phone and it is working very quickly. For more specifications take a look here.

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Regular readers will know about “The Script” that Aidan Ruff and I originally developed to install Node-Red and several other packages onto the Raspberry Pi for our own home control purposes. This has since been further developed with help from several people and in particular my friend Antonio “Mr Shark”. “The Script” is in widespread use and makes use of other scripts put together by countless other developers for the various programs inside.

Today the ONLY “noisy” script therein is the SQLITE section which throws up all sorts of warnings – but which works fine, non-the-less. The Node-Red installation now relies on the FIRST option in the list and relies on the install-upgrade script by the  IBM guys. Enjoy.

I’ve just (May 7, 2020) tested the script on Raspbian Buster Lite. Here is the script which is intended to help set-up certain Raspbian, Debian or similarly-based SBCs which now includes logging and handling Raspbian Buster (tested on Raspberry Pi  2, 3, 3B+, 4 with Stretch, 3B+ and 4 with Buster). As well as it’s original purpose of setting up a Raspberry Pi, the script also runs well with several other boards but testing on other boards is not as up to date as it is on the Pi.  See right hand side of this image for what the script does, given a basic operating system install.  We currently suggest NOT using this with DIET PI, original Pi or the Raspberry Pi Zero as we are no longer testing either and the latter pair are just TOO SLOW.

September 3 2019

Always use the version of the script called “the script” at BitBucket. I believe it is here (Sept 2019) 

August 20 2019

Just made some minor changes as the world never stops…

July 21 2019

Many thanks to (in particular) Mr Shark (Antonio) and others for help in bringing the script (stored on Bitbucket – the July 20 2019 version) up to date to handle Raspbian Buster and the Raspberry Pi 4.

February 18 2019

Raspbian and Pi Zero Wireless – users have reported success with latest update but we’ve not tested.

The local Blynk server is not installed in the script – see this blog entry, note that I now use all lowercase for the blynk directory name.

Still using Apache but soon will change to NGINX – also whichever web server you use – if you plan to use node-red-contrib-amazon-echo – you might want to shift the working port for Apache (or NGINX) from 80 to 86. Do this in /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf (one reference to change) or if you ARE using nginx change /etc/nginx/sites-available/default – two references to 80 change to 86 (my choice). The Amazon echo hub in NR I then set to 8980 and rebooted. The next para is taken from “A Good Day for Alexa” blog entry:

I am using port 8980 to avoid being the hated Linux ROOT user and so now, on my Raspberry Pi 3,  I moved the web server to port 86 and using “iptables” have redirected port 8980 traffic to port 80 to keep Amazon happy while continuing to use port 8980 to keep Linux happy as PI user. All of this of course only matters if you want to use that particular node in Node-Red- with generation 3 DOT and similar Alexa devices.

sudo apt-get install iptables-persistent
sudo iptables -I INPUT 1 -p tcp –dport 80 -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -A PREROUTING -t nat -i eth0 -p tcp –dport 80 -j REDIRECT –to-port 8980
sudo netfilter-persistent save
sudo netfilter-persistent reload

March 2 2019 – Just added a useful file/directory operations node to the installed Node-Red nodes along with the strangely missing node-red-contrib-influxdb node. Note that in order to use this you must have opted to install Grafana and Influxdb. Databases in Influxdb are added at the command line (I do this as user pi) simply by invoking the command “influx” and once in, using the commands “CREATE DATABASE mydatabase” followed by “exit”. All without quotes and using your choice of database name.

February 2019 – I’ve uploaded a new version with mods for Raspbian and in particular Node-Red and nodejs v10.x as currently used by the Node-Red guys on the Raspberry Pi.

Raspberry Pi users should log in a user PI and start with a clean Raspbian. Enable any hardware you want working before installing the script – like I2c.

Raspberry Pi users get the script in your /home/pi directory as below. 
Non-Raspberry Pi users start in your ROOT directory as user ROOT, initially.

Originally designed to run under Debian – reader Antonio and I have also made the script compatible with Xenial in some cases. It now handles Raspbian and the Armbian versions of Debian and Xenial (Ubuntu). Today (July 2019) it is mainly being tested with Raspbian Buster (the current official Raspberry Pi operating system).

One issue I have occasionally with new boards is lack of remote root access to install the script. For example on a Banana Pi 3 I had this.. there was PI access for the likes of WinSCP but not root access. This was easily solved as user Pi – after using “sudo passwd root” to ensure I had a known root password.

sudo sed -i ‘s/prohibit-password/yes/’ /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo systemctl restart sshd

That won’t work in all cases but I’m parking that here for reference.

The easiest way to get the pre-2019 script – as ROOT user, in your ROOT directory is:

wget –no-check-certificate  https://bitbucket.org/api/2.0/snippets/scargill/ekon6o/master/files/script.sh

This can now be run easily: bash script.sh – run as user root, it will start up, copy itself into PI user area, creating that if it does not exist then will give instructions.

Before I begin… no, we’re not a support shop – you may or may not end up having to tweak things for your system but please don’t write in to say “I tried this on a Mac and it doesn’t work”.

The level of interaction after the beginning is now almost zero thanks to a new menu-driven approach and many improvements. We continue to add/modify features as appropriate.

What is this about?

What we have here is an old explanation of how to get Xenial running in a VM – the purpose of this is merely as a base to test the script which includes installs and set-ups as below:

• Node-Red at port 1880 and lots of useful NODES
• Mosquitto (MQTT) with Websockets
• NODEJS/NPM
• Webmin at port 10000 (off by default)
• Apache at port 80
• HA-Bridge at port 82 (suitable for Amazon Alexa)
• SQLite and PHPLiteAdmin
• MC File manager and editor
• Grafana with InfluxDB (only tested on a few setups – so OFF by default)
• Lots more – see the menu screen

Typically this setup would be used as the basis of a nerve-centre to control and monitor home control gadgets such as the ESP8266 units we discuss in this blog, Sonoff controllers and much more. Armed with this software, controlling the home is easy – and more importantly can be done YOUR WAY.

The Virtual Machine (historical information)

Let’s take a look at what we did to get this running on a VM – you can of course duplicate all of this as you go along. We used the excellent VMware of VirtualBox on Windows PCs. This explanation covers VMware.

So – first things first – as I’ve done a video of the VirtualBox installation complete with sample use of Node-Red, here we’ll discuss the VMWARE version.  Both of these were done as test mechanisms before using the script on real devices such as the Orange Pi Zero, Raspberry Pi, Odroid and other devices discussed at length in the blog.

We loaded up a copy of VMware (I used VirtualBox but the procedure is similar – VMware player is free of you can use the full commercial workstation) and made sure it works. That much is up to you. There is a wizard for creating new virtual machines –  we chose a CUSTOM machine. Steps from that point on were:

NEXT – NEXT – “I will install the operating system later” – NEXT
Linux / Ubuntu 64-bit – NEXT – d:\test  – NEXT
Number of processors – 1  – number of cores – 1 – NEXT
Memory for this machine – 1024MB – NEXT
Use Bridged Connection – NEXT
I/O Controller type LSI Logic – NEXT
Disk Type SCSI – NEXT
Create a new virtual Disk – NEXT
12GB (I used 16GB – 8GB would have done) – Store virtual disk as a single file – NEXT
At this point we gave the file a name – in our case d:\test\Ubuntu 640bit.vmdk –  NEXT – FINISH

Under settings – hardware – CD/DVD we ticked “Use ISO image file” and selected the file we loaded from the Ubuntu website – “Ubuntu-16.04.1-server-amd64.iso” – OK.

At this point you’ll note reference to AMD64 – that had me as well but it works a treat on INTEL hardware.

Start off the VM – you get asked which language to use (ENGLISH) and various options will come up – the first being “Install Ubuntu Server” – that’s the one.

Once again you’ll get a language question – English. Location – in my case “United Kingdom” – if you don’t fit into the rules use “Other”.

Time Zone in my case – EUROPE  and then country. Locale – in my case United Kingdom.

Hostname – we went with the default “Ubuntu” – but call it whatever you want.

At this point you get asked to create a user – it is important you make a user “pi”. Enter password also (though the new script will create user PI if it does not exist).

Home encryption – we said no. When asked if the time zone was correct we said yes.

Partitioning – “use entire disk” (remember this is a virtual disk – not your real disk). You are then asked to confirm erasing disk – go with that. You then get asked to confirm AGAIN. YES.

HTTP Proxy just leave blank – CONTINUE.

Install security updates automatically.

Add OpenSSH server and CONTINUE (important for remote access)

Install GRUB bootloader – YES.

Installation is complete – CONTINUE. Let it run.

And voilà – one working copy of Ubuntu.

When run, the script will generate a Pi user if it does not exist – will make that user part of the correct groups and will ask you to restart the script as user Pi.

The BASH Script

This part is about running the script and the easiest way is to start in a terminal as user ROOT in the root directory (in non-Raspberry Pi installations).

Do the WGET shown above and you will end up with a script file called “script.sh” in the root directory.

At this point BACK EVERYTHING UP to avoid disappointment – no, REALLY.

Execute as:

bash script.sh

The script will if necessary create the Pi user but either way will now ask you to log in as user pi and repeat the procedure in the /home/pi directory – i.e. bash script.sh.

The point of this is to avoid another way which would be to create a file, load in the script contents ensuring you’re using Linux LF only format – then run the script after setting up permissions – this way you don’t have to do any of that.

In the end you will see a menu which will vary slightly depending on which system you are using – you won’t be asked about GPIO on a Raspberry Pi for example.

For the VM we left everything as you see here and tabbed to OK.

At this point you will be asked for a USER and ADMIN names (which can be user and admin if you like) and corresponding passwords. From there on – everything should happen with no user interaction.

After maybe 15 minutes to an hour – or a LOT longer on a Raspberry Pi Zero WIFI   – you’ll see an invite to REBOOT – so REBOOT. When the board/VM boots up you will find hopefully a working system.

Assuming you’ve installed everything:

• Node-Red runs at port 1880
• Webmin at port 10000 (Webmin needs Pi or ROOT username and pass until we figure out how to add in the ADMIN user).
• Apache runs at port 80
• HA-BRIDGE will run at port 82 – It seems that Amazon Echo is quite happy with this but the Google product wants port 80!

Node-Red should include MQTT which will need admin username and password as will Node-Red itself. USER name and password is used by Node-Red Dashboard.

There is also the excellent MC – a file manager and editor.

I hope this brief introduction sets you off in the right direction and of course no doubt there will be discussing in the notes below.

Update 05 Jan 2017: At the time of writing I’m having issues with PIXEL in VirtualBox and DEBIAN on VirtualBox in terms of Apache not loading.. I’m sure we’ll sort that – meantime some useful links.   Debian may not come with SUDO depending on which installation – here’s a fix link that worked for me in my VirtualBox image.. If SSH setup won’t allow remote access using passwords, here’s a link that helped me.  Pixel of course will run in VirtualBox but by default it runs of a virtual DVD which is about as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike as nothing gets saved. Once running however it is a breeze to move over to the Virtual hard disk – you’ll find that part way down the comments in this link.  So right now I have VirtualBox running Xenial, Pixel and Debian and the only issues I have are with Pixel and Debian – Apache – watch this space.  I’ve also improved the input for user and admin.

Important: Whatever you are using should have the SUDO command built in – it may not be obvious but Debian often does NOT have this installed by default – sort this FIRST. You should also make sure you have Pi user with SUDO group privilege – PI already has this of course and you may have added a user Pi – if not..

wget https://bitbucket.org/api/2.0/snippets/scargill/E5rG7/master/files/makepi
su -c “bash makepi”

Or, Here’s a useful link – takes seconds and is easy…  basically – as root you can do – apt-get install –y sudo….. and you should make sure that your PI user is part of the sudo group.

The script works with both NanoPi NEO2 and the NanoPi M1+ and features temperature monitoring and other improvements.

If doing this as a non-Pi user – i.e. ROOT on a machine with no Pi user – follow instructions above OR a slightly easier way…

Having uploaded the script and given permissions… as ROOT

./script.sh

as before – but when it has completed and wants you to log in as PI – stay where you are and:

su – pi -c /home/pi/script.sh

That might save you a little hassle.

Update 19 Aug 2017: Script updated to handle Raspbian Stretch on Raspberry Pi – tested on RPi 3. Also added code to help with non-root access to GPIO using ONOFF library. See blog entry on GPIO.

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Having spent much of January 2020 visiting family in Chicago, USA – I came back to the UK full of enthusiasm for new product testing. Here’s a quick update on the first new toy I opened on my return to the UK (and its eventual demise).

First, the back-story: On flying out to the USA I of course had my Pocophone F1 phone all kitted out and ready for the 7+ hour flight from Edinburgh to JFK airport. I had also fully charged my beloved QCY-Q29 Bluetooth earphones which I’m almost sure I bought from Banggood (my good wishes to the folk over there during the scare with the Coronavirus).

Sadly like most earbuds they were NOT aeroplane-loo-proof as I found out to my peril as one of the earpieces went flying straight out of my ear and down the non-return aeroplane loo valve. I have to tell you I was gutted.

While in the USA I ordered a replacement (and more up to date) set of Bluetooth earbuds from AliExpress – now then, neither of the above links is a plug for the relevant company – in the case of the latter, you’ll find out why in a moment.

3 weeks later after I lost the QCY unit, my quickly-chosen replacement arrived here in the UK and I gave the new earbuds a good hammering watching the SUPERB Charlize Theron movie “Bombshell” about the Fox News culture – IMHO she’s wonderful and the anchor she played (Megan Kelly) is similarly impressive.

I really liked these new earbuds. Using MX-Player Pro on my Pocophone, these little inexpensive buds include graphic equaliser and bass boost – and sounded GREAT without the ridiculous prices I saw in Gearbest in Chicago for brand-name equivalents.

Not only that but the internal battery in the case had USB OUT to charge other devices and of course micro-USB IN to charge the battery. I’ve now had several months of use out of the earbuds, popping them back into the charging bay when I’m done and the battery lasts for AGES – BUT – a couple of BIG problems – firstly, Bluetooth LAG which means up to half a second lag of sound behind the video which can get very annoying.

It turns out that the company used “5.0” throughout their ads and documentaion but never put that right next to the word “Bluetooth” – which just goes to show you need to be VERY careful when choosing earbuds. Actually misleading ads seems to be the norm, more and more.

Finally, after a couple of months, the hi-tech voice assistant in the buds decided to revert (in the right ear only) to Chinese… FAT load of use that is and I just could not figure out how to get it back into English. The touch interface is all very good but half the time, you dont know whether or not you have actually pressed anything – note to self – avoid touch-buttons on earbuds in future.

So May 2020 I took the plunge and went on the hunt for alternatives. People pay ridiculous sums for earbuds – but I have faith in Xiaomi thanks to owning three of their mobile phones, the Mi 4 smartband and other devices, all of which are VERY good for the price.

As I was in a rush I didn’t get the new Xiaomi Reme buds from China but instead chose Amazon which means I paid a slight overhead – I think around £26 on offer – that is still very CHEAP. I’d already done my research as there are Xiaomi Mi (as against Redme) earbuds as well and I wanted to avoid those, based on multiple recommendations.

So I had high expectations for the new buds. Bluetooth 5.0 (hence almost no LAG), real button on the back of each earbud – and beeps instead of voice – so no chance of getting landed listening to instructions in a foreign language – instead, Xiaomi included a helpful multi-language booklet with the buds.

I’ve not yet tested the battery life (the case takes a couple of hours to charge and the case can charge the earbuds 3+ times) but setup was really easy and they’ve had a good thrashing playing AC/DC on the Iron Man movie previews – and they sound GREAT. The charging case is nice and rounded, the buttons feel solid, the buds are comfortable… I’m in love, already.

All I need now is a decent 3.5mm to Bluetooth 5.0 transmitter gadget so I can blast the TV while keeping my wife happy.

The post New for 2020 – Bluetooth 5.0 Earbuds and much more appeared first on Scargill's Tech Blog.

Well, it is Sunday, after all… so, while I would never actually rely on Alexa or other personal assistant to control my home or office, precisely because of their reliance on the cloud, there is no getting away from the simple fact that they can make life easy for techies like me who are bone idle at heart.

Are you an Alexa or Google Home fan? Having installed Alexa in every room, I find it useful and even occasionally amusing to use Alexa not only to control devices around the house but also to issue directives to my equally bone-idle cat. Simba.

I’ve used Alexa and Tasmota rules and groups (as described elsewhere in this blog) to make my various lighting and enrironmental systems work together and I can now issue commands such as:

Alexa! Livingroom, ON.

This treats several standard LED lights in the living room as one for easy use, turning them on and off by voice as needed while generally following a schedule (Tasmota or Node-Red plus BigTimer) .

Alexa! Kitchen, Lime Green.

The above is rather handy for the group of six ZemiSmart GU10 RGBWW lights discussed elsewhere in the blog, selecting the desired colour, brilliance and warmth (for white) with the minimum of effort.

Alexa! My Bed, ON.

The above command turns on a bed heater (which thanks to Tasmota has a 15 minute timeout) and my bedside lamp (again thanks to Tasmota, though it could be done in Alexa itself) comes on for 30 minutes in dim orange so as not to wake up my wife.

Typically I use an Alexa command (if I come to bed at 1am) which is simply:

Alexa! Good Night.

That command turns off all the lights including my office, the kitchen, the living room and others while setting the bedroom as described above.

Meanwhile, during the day I often come into the house to find that Simba has stolen my seat.

"Alexa, Simba, Chair!

This results in Alexa issuing a verbal command in the living room only:

"Simba - get of your master's chair, you good-for-nothing cat" 
followed by a series of dog howls. 

Unfortunately to date he doesn’t take too much notice but maybe with a bit more work…

My latest gimmick is:

Alexa, Kettle, ON.

This puts the kettle power on for up to 2 minutes and before that expires, I’ve filled my cuppa with boiling water, coffee and milk, all that remains is to top up the kettle and leave it primed, ready for the next time it is needed.

The post Sunday Filler – Alexa for the Bone Idle appeared first on Scargill's Tech Blog.

What’s your favourite text editor? In a recent blog entry I updated “The Script” for IOT fans and as usual, got myself incredibly frustrated with the lacklustre “Nano” editor that comes with Raspbian on the Raspberry Pi, only to discover that my backup editor “MCEDIT” is really only marginally better – this stuff is built primarily to please Linux fanboys and IMHO is not in the same ease-of-use league as NotePad++ on the PC – granted the latter is in a Windows environment and these are command line tools – but surely there must be something better?

There IS – I just found it at the weekend. I’ve added this to “The Script” today. The line below starts off the MICRO editor with (for example) script.sh opened in the current directory for editing.

./micro script.sh

I love the editor already – and it has proper control-C and control-V for copy and paste respectively. Open a readable file to play with and dive straight in… control-E brings up help at the bottom of the screen – and if you want to set up a theme – for example:

set colorscheme simple

Note that for now the colours are a bit basic – more on that later – first – to install this little wonder of an editor… Sitting on your PC running an SSH session (I use Mobaxterm) to the Pi as user pi (if you are using a Raspberry Pi)…

curl https://getmic.ro | bash

And of course true to my claim to being bone idle, I’ve updated the /etc/bash.bashrc file to have that “./micro” reduced to “e” (“ed” has already been taken) – I’ve also added the privileged version which I’ve called “se”.

And here they are added to my list of aliases in ./etc/bash.bashrc

Having mastered control-V for INTERNAL pastes, I noted that EXTERNAL pastes from Windows did nothing so I added the following:

sudo apt install xclip

External pastes seem to take half a second to appear but no matter. Full mouse support etc.

So now I had shortcut se for using the editor as SUDO (ie privileged user) – and that’s lovely but still the editor colors were boring compared to modern Windows editors.. the solution is to add 2 environment varibles to the end of /etc/profile using the new editor shortcut – add the two lines right at the very end of the file….

se /etc/profile

export MICRO_TRUECOLOR=1
export COLORTERM=24bit

and save using control-S then F10 to exit. You should reboot the PI for ease after setting these two variables… then, again in the editor – hit control-E then for example:

set colorscheme dukedark-tc

and the result when editing my script.sh

Rather than explain more here, I will just pass you to the editor’s home page – read all about it:

https://micro-editor.github.io/

Job done. Comments below, please.

The post Not ANOTHER PI Editor? appeared first on Scargill's Tech Blog.

It isn’t that often I look at Kickstarter but a few weeks ago I happened to be checking in and this travel mug came to my attention. Not that I’ll be travelling anywhere significant in the next several weeks but I am hoping for an overseas trip in the summer. So, I wrote off to Viva and the result – one Viva Recharge mug is on the kitchen right now on test with coffee in it.

Not exactly IOTbut as I’m stuck in the house drinking more coffee than ever, I thought the subject was worth covering. My wife has checked it out and it gets her seal of approval. The mug is really targetted at tea drinkers and has a filter in the bottom for said tea drinkers. I am told they also do a slightly different grade of filter for coffee – but as I am a culinary heathen I drink instant coffee most of the time.

My requirements then are that the unit keeps hot drinks hot and cold drinks cold, that it fits in the drinks holder in our Honda, works reliably and looks pretty – I’m really easily pleased.

The unit I received did not include the coffee filter so we put the Maureen’s ground coffee in the bottom anyway and it works a treat – 6 hours later the coffee was still VERY warm if not steaming hot. The filter worked just fine.

The unit will fit likely into the majority of car mug holders and is perfectly usable for cold drinks in the summer – the iced coffee test will have to wait until we’re off to Spain somewhat later than originally planned.

It is recommended by the company that the outer stainless steel tumbler part of the Recharge be hand-washed, but the filter and the lid can be washed in a dishwasher. The whole thing looks well made.

The company’s Kickstarter product page was updated yesterday if you are interested in more details. I don’t think the product is on their UK site yet but I’m sure it won’t be long. Rather than rant on in here, check out the Kickstarter link above.

Looks like my new toy has just become a household item.

The post Viva “Recharge” Kickstarter Mug appeared first on Scargill's Tech Blog.

This is the story about a tiny USB-C tester which just arrived from Banggood – the RIDEN® TC66/TC66C Type-C PD Trigger Capacity Meter.

Having recently acquired a couple of decent plug-in-the-wall Blitzwolf Type-C PD (Power Delivery) mobile phone chargers (see relevant blog entries I figured I’d better have a tester to ensure they do their job with our various phones and devices. The Riden device (RuiDeng USB Meter) plugs into the testing monitor – in this case my PC. It has USB-C in and out as well as a micro-USB connection for data.

You may be aware of other meters and testers from RIDEN (RuiDeng) – I’ve had lots of stuff from that company in the past. The TC66C unit came with barely any information but in a nice case – complete with link to their website wherein there are user manuals, PC + Android software and other information all in English. It took me all of several seconds to plug the Riden unit into my 65W PD charger and my PC and to attach my Pocophone for charging.

The result – completely automatic charging and testing at elevated PD voltages. As you can see, not your normal (old-school) 5v USB out to the phone, but 9v+ and initially the charge was more like 2.5A – by the time I got around to keying in this blog – it was down to just over 1A and the phone was nearly fully charged.

And if you think the USB software for the PC is good – the WIFI-based APP for the phone is BRILLIANT – I just got it running while leaving the PC and phone connected.

GOOD GADGET!!!! Having briefly seen the Android App in action I’m torn bwteeen the PC USB or Android WiFi versions – but as both are free – I’m keeping both of them!

The post Riden TC66C Type-C PD Trigger Capacity Meter appeared first on Scargill's Tech Blog.

This morning I received a package in the post which included a couple of Blitzwolf Smart sockets including the BW-SHP6 (2350w). You may then recall that I’d been made aware that there was a “pro” version of one of that model of smart socket – same name (exactly) but higher capacity and power monitoring – slightly different number on the case.

Well, I have one of the latter now – again simply called the BlitzWolf® BW-SHP6 Smart Socket – the Banggood link is above – but this is NOT the same as the older non-pro version as this handles up to 3450W and of course the unit has has Power Monitoring (voltage, amps, watts). There seems to be no distinction in the part name or number – just the clear printed reference to max. wattage as above.

In addition to that I now have the BlitzWolf® BW-SHP5 2.1A Dual USB Ports 16A Smart WIFI Socket and this one, as well as handling 3680w and having power monitoring, also has 2 USB sockets on the underside – 5v at 2.1A total – and all of this is controlled by the Blitzwolf APP.

Setup took seconds – I simply plugged the sockets into our 220v mains outlets one at a time and started up the APP, telling it I had new devices. Again within seconds the sockets (one at a time) were registered with the APP and once both were done I checked the USB switching on the SHP5 and the power out and power monitoring on both. As we have electric heat back in Spain these will be ideal – smaller, less powerful smart sockets simply would not handle that amount of power. I believe our heating radiators over there are no more than 3KW worst case (and these are not very inductive loads) so I don’t expect any issues. As heat is where most of our winter electricity charges come from, the extra monitoring ability will come in handy.

As most of you know I tend not to use cloud operation for essential features so despite the perfect operation you see above, I have already now converted these (using Tuya-convert) to run the Tasmota firmware – and I made use of the templates for these sockets at the Blakadder site. But that’s just me. The sockets run just fine out of the box with Alexa, power monitoring, scheduling snf more – in the case of the BW-SHP5 including separately controlled dual USB output..

The post More Blitzwolf Blitz from Banggood appeared first on Scargill's Tech Blog.

I’ve been using RAVPower battery packs for years and recently taken to their new high power PD (60w and 65w) phone chargers, so my excitement at receiving the new PD Pioneer 20000maH 65E 2-port Power House should come as no surprise.

That didn’t stop me getting excited this morning – just LOOK at this monster.

The model (RP-PB054) I received has a UK power output socket and has USB-C input and output – taking advantage of PD power delivery to quickly charge the internal battery. It also has a USB 3 connector, universal mains adaptor, tiny “thank you” note with warranty info (12 months) with US, DE and Japan phone numbers and email address. The user guide has 5 pages of English as well as German, French, Spanish and italian help.

So, I started thinking about a night in a tent – high speed charging 2 phones (one on USB-A, the other on USB-C) and enough 220v power to run a substancial LED lamp all night or even for two nights. Give me time and I’ll think of all sorts of other uses. Of course you can carry around a solar panel for all of this – but as I’m currently UK Northeast bound – forget that – there’s little chance of 2 consecutive days of decent sunshine.

The RP-PB054 also comes with a decent carry-case and the whole lot looks like it will be shower-proof..

The USB-A connector is output (andI can verify offers Quick-Charge as I just charged my Pocophone on it), USB-C is both in and out. There is a power button and 5 charge-level LEDs. If using the unit to charge something else (like a phone or tablet) – when your device is fully charged, the AC output will turn off. Not sure if I like that or not. I had thoughts of using the unit to power my tiny travel fridge on the beach this summer, but thinking about it, I’m guessing the AC power-out shut off will only happen if there is little or no load.

The unit will protect itself from excessive discharge – more than can be said of some power invertors I’ve seen elsewhere.

Chargers – not the most exciting subject but we need them constantly – may as well have the best…

The post RAVPower – something new from an old favourite appeared first on Scargill's Tech Blog.

What are incorrectly touted as “x-ray-like” photos, the OnePlus 8 Pro supposedly has IR capability and of course. all the media can think about is that pervs will abuse this feature as it can see through certain materials – such is our sick 21st century world. But there are genuine uses for intra-red capability – including safety, scientific, testing and just good clean fun.

WELL, it turns out that the Xiaomi Pocophone X1 and Mi 8 phones have had this feature all along – I’ve had my treasured F1 for something like 18 months, installed the PIXEL and countless other cameras on it along with the best procssing tools available – and had NO IDEA that IR was possible – and it isn’t a trick – as I’ll demonstrate herein.

So, we can now add IR to the huge list of features of the Pocophone F1 phone cameras – which already include (with the right APPs) HDR, night sight, time lapse, photo sphere, slow motion video, 60 fps video and more.

The Mi8 and F1 introduced the hardware to support low-light face recognition ages ago and I knew that – but I certainly was not aware of an APP to let the end user play with IR photography until my friend just this morning Antonio pointed out a link. Here it is on the Playstore – make sure your phone oprating system is up to date.

Enough of that – here are some photos… enjoy and if you have the Xiaomi Pocophone F1 or the Mi 8 phones – grab the APP and you are good to go.

Many years ago before digital cameras I used to spend hours with IR-sensitive film taking beautiful photos in the country – and I’ve not even started on false colour yet…

The post Pocophone F12 Strikes Again appeared first on Scargill's Tech Blog.

This turned up from Banggood for me yesterday – an E27 (screw-fit) 85-265V E27 7W WiFi RGBW LED Smart Light Bulb and it works well with the recommended, free Smart Life app. These bulbs also work with Amazon Alexa and Google Home.

I really can’t complain as the lamp does what it is supposed to (and will be priced accordingly) and if that is what you need, the link is above – Banggood pricing is as always competitive – where I think I might’ve gone wrong is getting an RGBW lamp – these have only one WHITE (no warm/cool control) – so maybe in future what I need are RGBWW lamps like the GU10 Zemismart lights I recently reviewed.

Also this particular lamp is ESP8266-based (good) and hence works with Tasmota if you don’t want to use the cloud, but there is no specific template for it so with Tasmota I could not get control over the white element and ended up with a simple smart RGB lamp.

For anyone looking in and wondering what the difference between RGB, RGBW and RGBWW is – or indeed what Tasmota is, I suggest reading my other blog entries on the subject. If you want the best, you need separate white (as RGB, though technically able to make white, isn’t stunningly good at it – and the best (and most expensive) smart lamps have both WARM and COOL white LEDs as well as the RGB LEDs.

At the very bottom, RGB-ONLY lights are generally good for mood lighting but with not very good white. This particular un-branded lamp is the next step up – it has bright white basic control and the white seems pretty neutral. Most people I know want WARM white – with only one friend insisting that cold white is better.

The ZemiSmart lamps were not cheap, at £65 (UK pounds) for 6, but the whites are spot-on with full control over colour temperature.

The post Another Day, Another RGB Bulb appeared first on Scargill's Tech Blog.

This is one of those sub-£20 gadgets your spouse or partner will say you don’t really NEED but you will probably want anyway! At least the first part is what my wife has told me repeatedly until last night. “You don’t NEED one, she said – but regardless, here it is and I love it – Xiaomi Mijia LCD Writing Tablet with Pen available in 10″ and 13.5″ versions.

SO – you’ll see similar inexpensive scribbling tablets all over, but my preference is the one in the above link at Banggood – select small or large.

Update May 2020 – I wrote this in November 2019 – today it is still on the original battery.. still useful – end of update.

Read this short entry and tell me if you see my reasoning, please. When the “tablet” turned up in the post, I too started to wonder… do I really NEED this.. it took me 15 minutes of playing to realise… YES – I DO. Here’s the box, pretty average.. nothing special – but it is Xiaomi MI – not some unbranded generic. Do we care? No. Coming up – the reason I need this – in a photo. The “tablet comes with a cute magnetically side-mounted pen, is 24cm (approx) high by 17cm (approx) wide and has a 25cm diagonal working area.

And here it is…

Hopefully the picture pretty much says it all, but just in case… that photo was taken in pretty abysmal lighting, the tablet has no backlight, uses a CR2032 standard battery which lasts for aeons – used and wiped 100 times a day the battery is supposed to last for a year…. under £20 inc shipping… great Christmas gadget or what?

Here comes the stock photo…

As you can see in the stock photo, that case and magnetic pen are white – and the screen turns green where pressed- not lit up but reflective like paper – and in half decent lighting VERY CLEAR (how do they DO that). And I hear you ask, what use is it? Last thing last night I started scribbling on the tablet – aptly helped by my at first skeptical wife Maureen.

Incidentally if you’ve been living in a cave, Xiaomi” is pronounced Show-me” as in “shower”. and they also make (as well as many other things) possibly (IMHO) the best cheap sports band in the world – the Mi 4 band which, you will see elsewhere in the blog, when I’m not showing off my new Samung Galaxy watch, is always on my wrist (with a different watch face every day) – so I had high expectations of this new gadget and I’m not disappointed. But I digress…

I touched the button on the right side to protect the screen (which never “turns off”) from erasure, while letting me continue to write with the included battery-free pen. This morning, after sliding the side switch to allow erasure, I used the button near bottom centre to instantly wipe the lot but not before taking a photo with my phone at 6am again with rubbish lighting.

And so the point? This is all I could think of at the time, I’ve since thought of lots more used but here are the ones in the photo (minus the “hangman”). Messages for the postman and other deliveries (I’m thinking a couple of very THIN magnets for the door and tablet), menus, todo lists, shopping lists, reminders, appointments and for me as someone going (successfully) through the long term aftermath of a stroke (and as a computer user who is alwys running out of screen space for notes even though I have two large screens) – regular writing practice. I also have a memory like a sieve – and scribbling on my phone in the car on bumpy country roads (as a passenger) is a non-starter – every time we leave the house to go shopping, my wife tells me something I have to remember when we get back (and I rarely do).

I mean.. the uses for this at the price are just about limitless. You may notice in the photo, I griped about the pen being magnetically attached to the right side (I’m left handed) – but of course I could simply turn it upside down… nothing like a spot of lateral thinking. In future I’ll refer to the “erase” button as being on the top.

No memory but capturing complete sets of notes for posterity is why god invented mobile phone cameras

The post Xiaomi Mijia LCD Writing Tablet with Pen appeared first on Scargill's Tech Blog.

No matter where I am, it always seems to be about the same time of year that I suddenly get the urge to play with garden solar lights… and I keep discovering new varieties to keep my interest up.

This weekend I was at home in Northumberland when a package from Banggood arrived with these beauties in it.

  360° LED Solar Motion Sensor Light
  33 LED RGB Solar Power Torch Light
  5M 20LED Dandelion Ball Solar Light Lamp

The dandelions are blue and much better than the norm with a nice soft furry feel to them. The power torch – well, you will have see the normal flicker version of these before – a full RGB version of these was new to me – the left photo shows the solar torch which is constantly colour-changing.

The dandelion lamps are also shown still in a cluster (I wanted to get them charged) whereas the centre and right photos show the quite impressive solar motion light which, as you can see in the CENTRE photo, is BRIGHT when fully on – the unit settles to a dim white when no-one is near – hence conserving charge while still giving some illumination. All three of these units last all night with even half a day of sunshine (as against Poundland specials which are often good for a couple of hours a night then usually die forever after 3 months or so).

In the left photo, ignore the string of red lights, I’ve had those for years (220v powered).

If you want more info or you’re interested in getting hold of these, please use the links above. Assuming these stand the test of time, these will end up in Spain later in the summer – though they did quite well over the weekend considering the half-hearted UK Northeast sunshine.

The post Garden Solar Light Time appeared first on Scargill's Tech Blog.

What’s new?

Well, part of what’s new is that the May 2020 Windows upgrade is out and at least here in the UK, is available – in “Windows update” and I have just finished upgrading six PCs. Not a lot of really exciting stuff but the updates to the Windows WLS might be worth checking if you want to run Linux under Windows – personally I prefer not to – having seen just how far off the real Linux experience WSL really is. For more information on the updates check directly with Microsoft.

Next new thing? There’s a new Raspberry Pi4 (well, not actually available it would seem – but advertised anyway) – this one features 8GB RAM and some software updates (beta 64-bit Debian if you are into using beta software – oh and a new name “Raspberry Pi OS” – are you excited?). I noted “faster processor” but compared to what? That sounds like the battery adverts that claim “10x faster” without being specific – which turns out to be 10x faster than the batteries hardly anyone uses any more. I’m more intersted in the “still beta” RPi4 USB BOOT but I guess they have to keep hardware developers in a job. Be aware that the price of this upgraded RPi4 in the UK takes it well above the original throw-away price of the RPi.

At the time of writing, Pi-Hut advertise but don’t have the new 8GB Pi4, CPC have them on back-order at £69.77 no doubt plus shipping… Pimoroni are £73.50 and out of stock, OKDO have no stock either but price is £70.50 all in. The 4GB RPi4 seems to be still around £54 so unless you actually need all of that memory, there is still the 2GB version at around £34 – bearing in mind that you will need a case and power supply. RS Components don’t mention the VAT until the shopping basket and their all in price is £70.91 – but state that the product is “on back order for dispatch 26/10/2020”. 2GB and 4GB models are widely available.

With any RPi4, the old cheap plastic cases of yesteryear are really no good as you need a decent heat sink – and your power supply needs to be sufficiently beefy – so you have to ponder the total practical price of a Pi4 8GB which now approaches £100 all in (note that I never use the somewhat misleading ex-VAT prices as many hobbyists or anyone buying personally has to pay VAT so I find ex-VAT pricing a tad misleading.

Personally I’m still concerned that despite notices of beta updates and I quote the Raspberry Pi documentation web page – “USB boot is not currently supported. Once it is ready a beta release will be announced on the Raspberry Pi Forums.”

The BETA uSB boot was released on May 20, 2020 – let’s see how long it takes to go live and be supported including for existing installations – something the Pi team don’t concentrate a lot on? Pi3 users who upgraded to Pi4 may still be wondering why, a year after RPi4 release, this useful feature is still missing – it seems that this was never a priority as Raspberry Pi see their market as educational – so we should not be doing anything serious with these machines, so it appears. Right now, SD remains the weak point of serious RPi use because of limited write cycles. Hopefully that will change soon.

Personally having taken the arguably sensible approach of using a media centre as a media centre and saving money over the RPi “solution” – I have several RPi3 and RPi4 GB machines none of which are seriously stressed by my home control setup which you can read about in this blog.

So what else is new on RPI? They’ve re-named the operating system and brought out a new flasher. So what was the first thing I tried? Flash the latest (May 27, 2020) “Raspberry Pi OS” (lite 32 bit) onto a handy USB stick using their new Flasher. Nope – no chance. So I tried my old favouite – Balena Etcher – done. As you do, I added a blank file called SSH to the boot folder in Windows (after removing the USB stick and re-inserting into the Windows PC). All looking good. I plugged the USB stick into the PI and booted the Pi with no SD. Same as yesterday’s attempt – attrocious HDMI output but readable enough to see that the USB boot still doesn’t work. SO- then I tried the same Raspbian, same flashing method on an SD in a USB stick – same result.

Finally I took the new SD, put it in the normal USB connector – flashed perfectly as you’d expect. Would not operate as USB but started up perfectly in the SD socket. I left it to do it’s automatic initial resize, checking for Raspberry Pi EEPROM updates, apt update and apt upgrade (the term “apt” was used on the actual screen, not apt-get as it would have been in the past).

After 15 minutes watching the local display the PI was still doing the upgrade or crashed, not sure which. I took the self-same SD, put it in an SD adaptor and into the PC, tried the new Pi Imager and that flashed. Despite not immediately appearing on the PC after disconnecting and reconnecting, I put the SD into the Pi4. Worked fine as SD but again not as USB. I put the SD back in the PC and added the empty SSH file.

I then put the SD back in the Pi and checked, again ok as SD but not as USB, so reconnected as SD, I added the 14 boot folder files as I’d used with previous attempts but this time NOT marking the SD as BETA (which didn’t work for me anyway). I removed the CD and inserted into the USB connection. This time it worked. So – clearly wuth the latest Raspbian, USB boot IS possible – but that does not yet take me to the important upgrading of existing installations which MANY including me will want to do.

The NEXT stage was to copy this SD-base while acting as SDA, to a true USB in SDB (full clone to be safe) using RPI-clone – that WORKED. So now I had an SD-in-a-USB socket and a REAL USB both working. Add to that an external 80GB USB3 disk – cloning again worked…. I then had to copy all my working files from the second partition of a working installation to one of these fresh USB-bootable drives. Rpi-clone seemed to manage that on my first attempt with a test installation but did not work with my full Node-Red-based installation. Work in progress.

And finally

Registrations: If any of my registered blog readers finds their registration has gone awol, my apologies as I am in the process of cleaning up the database due to a shed-load of , clearly dummy domains facilitating BOTS and I really want to maintain realistic figures for blog registrations. If for any reason your account has disappeared, please re-enter your registration and regardless, users who supply their name (see ACCOUNT tab) should be ok. Be assure that your details are not used for any commercial reasons.

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May 2020 Windows upgrade is out and at least here in the UK, is available – in “Windows update” and I have just finished upgrading six PCs. Not a lot of really exciting stuff but the updates to the Windows WLS might be worth checking if you want to run Linux under Windows – personally I prefer not to – having seen just how far off the real Linux experience WLS really is. For more information on the updates check directly with Microsoft.

The post Windows Update May 2020 – a Big One appeared first on Scargill's Tech Blog.