Raspberry Pi 2, 3, 4 USB SSD or USB drive boot

Updated 2024-02-28 !

After having tested several methods creating a bootable USB SSD, or other USB drive, for Raspberry Pi(RPi) 3 and 4, 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 ? Use this post on how to write the OS direct to the SSD.

 

AIS receiver and dispatcher ! The best ?!

Updated 2024-02-18

I found this amazing application, AIS-catcher, just scrolling around on Youtube and it includes "all" you need for an AIS receiver staying ashore or installed on a boat.

It is compatible with a wide range of Software Defined Radios (SDRs). These include RTL-SDR dongles (such as the ShipXplorer AIS dongle and RTL SDR Blog v4), AirSpy (Mini/R2/HF+), HackRF, SDRPlay, SoapySDR, and file/network input (ZMQ/RTL-TCP/SpyServer). 

Clone the Raspberry boot disk

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.

Waveshare CAN hat with Signal K & OpenPlotter

Updated 2024-02-12

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.

DMI forecast API for atmosphere, ocean and sea ice, free !

Updated 2024-02-10

DMI is the Danish Meteorological Institute and the Open Data API provides free and open access to DMI’s data.They are covering a pretty big area not just Denmark.

I'm maintaining the weather station for Domstens yacht club and have become really interested in weather "issues".

The actual use case for me is that I have to change the mooring, of our boat, if the water level exceeds 60 cm from normal. For several years I have been searching for a free forecast API so I can get an early warning when the water level rises.

Node-Red is used.

GRIB files and extracting data, Linux, Raspberry

Updated 2024-02-08

GRIB is a data format, used for meteorology, to store historical and forecast weather data. 

The use case for me was analyzing forecast data, from GRIB files, so an early warning could be rised before a high water level or coming storm appears. This could then be used at our weather site.

There are several applications, also ones that visualizes the data, but this post will handle how to extract data from files using command line.

Teltonika RUT 240 as source for Mesh Network or router

I have used the TP-link Deco M9 for quite a while and it have worked very well.

Since almost 2 years I have used mobile broadband as a source for the Mesh network, at home, via a Nokia Fastmile(NF) with no direct flaws.

Getting a very nice offer, half the monthly cost, for mobile Internet from our mobile phone operator it was time to test something new.

Since I probably will have to return the Nokia receiver quitting the old supplier I had to test the new provider with some other equipment. Running the Teltonika RUT 240(TR) in our yacht, in the summertime, it was available for testing.