What first world problem did you have today?

[thestrangebrew1]

So here's an AAR of my trip to LA to the party. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The gallery we were at was the Winn Slavin in Beverly Hills: https://www.winnslavin.com/artists

The birthday girl is good friends with the artist Sir Daniel Winn. We got to meet him and looked at a bunch of his pieces. We actually got to see an unveiling of his newest piece, which according to him was inspired at least in part by their friendship. We were allowed to take pics but he asked that we not post anything because the official unveiling is next week somewhere. Never met an official knight before so that was neat. He was a very friendly guy and made sure we got enough to eat and drink.

Atmosphere was amazing and definitely posh, but her friend said her event she has to go to next week was way worse. They had servers walking around with appetizers and drinks, a violinist playing all night and there was about 150 people in total. It felt just kinda weird hanging out outside on a red carpet as people were walking by looking at us on the other side of the rope. When I first got to the bar I asked for a beer and the bartender responded "we don't serve beer" lol. Anyways, me and Mrs. Brew that night:

 

[sdifox]

Tried to hook up the onn 4k plus to my tv. Turns out it needs to be configured in US IP first... So I need to setup VPN, hotspot, just to setup the box. Why the hell did they even country lock it?

 

[Chaotic42]

Got a cut and put superglue on it to seal it. 12 hours later, it was time to use acetone to remove the glue.

The spice flowed.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Trying to figure out how to use the RPI gpio pins so I can control some relays and nothing I'm trying is working. Just trying to light up a LED for now so I can figure out how the pin numbers map but nothing is working. Yes I did put a resistor and yes it does light up fine if I connect to the 3.3v output. But can't get any of the pins to go high. What the hell? 5 year olds are suppose to be able to use these things.

It also doesn't help that they keep changing the commands/syntax so I had to try like 3 different tutorials before I found commands that were even valid.

Think I'm just going to say F it and use an arduino for this, then just give it a basic serial interface then connect it to the RPI via USB and control it with a basic C++ program. This shouldn't be so complicated.

Long term I actually want to build some controls that have built in ethernet using AVR or esp32 or whatever, but for now just trying to do something easy. Or at least it was SUPPOSE to be easy. I actually got carried away with this I was not even planning to go to bed late. I'm just annoyed that the gpio pins are that complicated to interface with.

 

[sdifox]

Trying to figure out how to use the RPI gpio pins so I can control some relays and nothing I'm trying is working. Just trying to light up a LED for now so I can figure out how the pin numbers map but nothing is working. Yes I did put a resistor and yes it does light up fine if I connect to the 3.3v output. But can't get any of the pins to go high. What the hell? 5 year olds are suppose to be able to use these things.

It also doesn't help that they keep changing the commands/syntax so I had to try like 3 different tutorials before I found commands that were even valid.

Think I'm just going to say F it and use an arduino for this, then just give it a basic serial interface then connect it to the RPI via USB and control it with a basic C++ program. This shouldn't be so complicated.

Long term I actually want to build some controls that have built in ethernet using AVR or esp32 or whatever, but for now just trying to do something easy. Or at least it was SUPPOSE to be easy. I actually got carried away with this I was not even planning to go to bed late. I'm just annoyed that the gpio pins are that complicated to interface with.

Home assistant + esp32 + relays

 

[Red Squirrel]

There's a million ways to go about it either way still have to program the esp32 or whatever chip I end up using. Eventually want to do that, just trying to do something basic for now. I'm already setup with the tool chain for AVR so will probably go that route as I already have all the chips and everything I need. Skipping HA as writing something that can interface with it is probably going to be more work than just doing my own basic web interface. End goal is to build a system that is fairly plug and play. May look at setting it up to integrate with HA eventually but not a priority.

I ended up probing pins manually and and it seems the pin numbering on RPI makes zero sense. None of the numbers within code correspond to any of the numbers on the pinout diagrams. Like, not even close. So looks like I will need to make my own pin mapping by just probing each pin one by one.

Think I'm just going to use a shift register for the relays that way I only need to find 2 pins on the RPI.

 

[Red Squirrel]

So turns out the pin-out diagram I found online was completely wrong. It's quite annoying that it shows up as the first result too. Found a different one that seems to be right and that changes everything. Got it all figured out now.

 

[sdifox]

There's a million ways to go about it either way still have to program the esp32 or whatever chip I end up using. Eventually want to do that, just trying to do something basic for now. I'm already setup with the tool chain for AVR so will probably go that route as I already have all the chips and everything I need. Skipping HA as writing something that can interface with it is probably going to be more work than just doing my own basic web interface. End goal is to build a system that is fairly plug and play. May look at setting it up to integrate with HA eventually but not a priority.

I ended up probing pins manually and and it seems the pin numbering on RPI makes zero sense. None of the numbers within code correspond to any of the numbers on the pinout diagrams. Like, not even close. So looks like I will need to make my own pin mapping by just probing each pin one by one.

Think I'm just going to use a shift register for the relays that way I only need to find 2 pins on the RPI.

It is very simple xml config. Especially if you are just assigning pins. Just setup HA as a vm. If I can do it, anyone can. You do the actual logic in HA. ESP32 configuration can be uploaded from your PC to the ESP32 by downloading the file from the browser interface.


There is no reason to reinvent the wheel. I have it controlling Aquaponics (dismantled now), pool pump, aquarium pump.

GPIO Switch

Instructions for setting up GPIO pin switches in ESPHome that control GPIO outputs.

esphome.io

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'm just doing something quick to get me by until I pick a platform and design and get PCBs made etc. Doesn't really matter what platform I go with it's still a bit more involved than just using a RPI. I may end up going with Atmel/AVR just because that's what I'm familiar with and already have the programmer but there's lot of other options. ESP32, STM32, and few others as well that I will look at. ESP32 does have lot of documentation and sample code which helps but so does AVR because that's what Arduino uses.

 

[Chaotic42]

AC blower motor is broken. It'll take a while to get here and cost about $1,000. Yay.

 

[lxskllr]

Bummer. How much ac weather is left this year? Not sure what I'd do if I had an expensive repair. Might not fix it. My ac's only on a couple weeks of summer. It's set to come on at 80°. I don't like it that hot, but I like money more than trivial comfort. Ceiling fans help a lot, and my house is well shaded.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Ouch that sucks. I guess now is better than middle of January when you need heat or middle of July when you need the AC.

When my furnace broke down a few years back it was right in middle of winter, worse part is my wood stove was all setup and everything, except for the chimney. That was a bummer lol. Glad I got that setup and over with now.