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Showing posts from July, 2022

RS-232 with displays & AV equipment

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The use case for this post is that a got a request from a customer where a commercial displays brightness, used for digital signage , should be put at a minimum when there is no people in the surroundings. After some checking I found that on most displays, even on our own TV set, there is a  connector for the  RS - 232 protocol  that accepts commands similar to the commands sent by the remote control. A nice explanation on how it works is found here .
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Davis PWS linked to pwsweather.com

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If you are using Davis Personal/Professional weather stations (PWS) you will get a nice dashboard when you link your PWS to the Davis weatherlink (WL) site. What you probably really miss is a forecast displayed together with your PWS data. The picture is showing a part of the dashboard at pwsweather.com (PW) after you have linked your PWS to the site. An add on is that you via API:s can get both the current weather, forecast and other data free of charge, via the aerisweather.com (AW) site. This post will handle the setup and also a Node-Red dashboard interfacing the aeris API.
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Node-Red multiple instances, RPi

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Updated 2022-07-04 ! O n the same server/hardware you can have a test environment for Node-Red(NR), separated from production separated instances for different applications Setup will follow for a Raspberry Pi(RPi) including how to  auto start at power on. A post for NR quick install .
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Popular posts, last 30 days

iCloud drive sync, or mount, with a Linux, Ubuntu, device

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Updated 2025-01-23 ! With my project to keep a MacBook Air 2011(MBA) alive , Ubuntu installed, i searched for a solution where my iCloud drive(iCD) was  continuous synced with my MBA. This must work both ways so even a file change made on MBA should be replicated to iCD. rclone now, 2025-01, works with iCloud !! Setup below !! Before "rclone" was working with iCloud I solved my sync between iCD and MBA with Syncthing (ST). Check below. ST doesn't sync with iCloud so the work around here was to use my MacMini, Mac OS, as the "Middle man". It's always on and synced with iCD.
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Raspberry Pi OS Lite with GUI, RDP, VNC, Chromium

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Updated 2025-10-02 ! I like the Raspberry Pi(RPi), with Raspberry Pi OS Lite (no Desktop is included), headless operation, and then adding the software You need. Until now I haven't had a use case where I needed a Desktop but now was time.  Why don't use the Raspberry Pi OS with Desktop ?? In that package there is a lot of software I don't need and I really want to optimize the RPi. I think that the less software You install the happier RPi will be... 😉
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Installing Ubuntu 24.04 or 24.10/25.04 on an old MacBook Air(2011)

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Updated 2025-05-20 ! I have done several posts Blogging about how to keep an old MacBook Air(MBA), mid 2011(A1369), with SSD disk "alive". I have used the fantastic software package OpenCore Legacy patcher to upgrade the Mac to the latest Mac OS.  A while ago i tested Mac OS  Sequoia (15.3), on the mentioned Mac, but I had to admit that it was to much for the 14 year old companion. I really like the Mac and everything works, after a battery change , so it ended up with installing  Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS  or if you want the latest scroll down and get Ubuntu 24.10/25.04. Ubuntu on  Mac Mini (2018) and MacBookAir (2010)  ?
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Home Assistant with VirtualBox or Proxmox or Linux KVM ???

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After testing Home Assistant (HA) for a while, I’ve realised it could improve my home automation, despite that I'm using Apple HomeKit. When I tested HA with Node-RED and some other "Add-ons", on a Raspberry Pi 3 (RPi), I found that its resources wasn’t enough. The following setup could be any computer but I recently bought an Apple Mac Mini M4, replacing my 2018 (M18) model, so the M18 was really a great candidate for my HA setup. The preferred method running HA is through the  HA Operating System (HAOS), which makes your "life" easier. 😉
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Waveshare CAN hat with Signal K & OpenPlotter

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Updated 2024-07-08 To get information from the NMEA 2000(N2K) network, to the RPi, I have been using  Actisense NGT-1 , for a long time,  and later also the  Yacht Devices YDWG 02  but now it was time for a Raspberry Pi(RPi) CAN hat(CH) from Waveshare(WS). WS have 3 different models but I picked the 2 channel isolated one . It's recommended to use an isolated one which also is demanded for those interfaces which can be approved by the N2K group.
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Clone the Raspberry boot disk

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Updated 2024-02-20 ! A very nice way to fix a backup is to make a copy, bootable, of the actual SD card You are using on the Raspberry Pi(RPi). This will be done even when the RPi is up and running ! This application can also be used to make a bootable SSD or USB drive !! You clone from the command line so You don't need the standard GUI, Pixel, and the " SD card copier "  function. It is also possible to set up a a scheduled job, cronjob explained later, which for example makes a clone every night at 1 o'clock.
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Raspberry Pi 2, 3, 4, 5 USB SSD or USB drive boot

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Updated 2024-06-06 ! After having tested several methods creating a bootable USB SSD, or other USB drive, for Raspberry Pi(RPi) 3 4 and 5, I finished with this simple method Create the setup you want on a ordinary SD card(Or use existing) Make a bootable backup/clone of the SD card saving it to the USB SSD Remove the SD card and boot from the USB SSD Having a RPi 4, 5 ? Use this post on how to write the OS direct to the SSD.  
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IVT, Bosch heat pump easy integration, Home Assistant

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Updated 2025-10-16 ! In search of the optimal solution on how to interface our IVT Heat pump,   first try here , I stumbled over   a nice integration   for Home Assistant(HA). A first quick setup is shown at the right. The first obstacle was that it was HA which I knew about but never used.  So it was "back too school" and doing  a blog post  about a HA Core install.
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IKEA Bäve dimmer hack II

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Updated 2025-01-10 ! Dimming not dimmable LED, IKEA Bäve, produced before 2019-11 and a new idea for later products ! In former post I used a  Fibaro Z-Wave RGBW controller  but in this post I will use an IKEA original or an external dimmer ?!
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SeaTalk1 to NMEA 0183 converter, DIY

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Updated 2024-08-30 !  !! Another SW solution is available for RPi 5 here !  using the same HW. Thanks to Thomas, (the guy with the nice marine interface board ) ,  it's now possible  to decode, one way, the SeaTalk1(ST1) sentences in a pretty simple way. You just  use OpenPlotter(OP) and/or SignalK(SK) and an  Optocoupler . The thing that made it, is that Thomas   has released a "how to" and  Python source code , that will read the data from a GPIO pin on the Raspberry Pi, (RPi), and format it so the standard parser in SignalK can translate it to SignalK delta format. It is then  available as NMEA 0183. It's even possible to send the data in to a NMEA 2000 network, with a proper hardware interface.
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