VHF antenna splitter, receive

During my AIS project with SDR:s as receivers I built my own antenna for use at home, a standard DIY dipol antenna. 

I connected the dipol, to SDR antenna input, with an a female SMA extension cable which I cut it in two pieces and soldered to the dipol. 

For the boat I didn't want an extra VHF antenna so....

SignalK, measuring temperature II

An introduction to the SignalK(SK), Marine application, is given here.

A very easy way to measure temperatures with SK is to use one wire (1W) DS18B20 (DS)temperature sensors. 

In a former post the DS:s where connected direkt to the RPi GPIO:s, but in this post they are WiFi enabled via the Shelly 1(S1). Alarms are also sent when the temperature exceeds a set value.

If humidity is of interest You can use a  DHT22 sensor instead of a DS sensor.

HomeKit, Z-Wave, Telldus Live, and...

Updated 2023-10-10 !

You can use one  Raspberry Pi to

• Make Your home automation devices appear in the Apple Home App
• Being the Z-Wave controller
• HomeKit enable Your Z-Wave devices
• HomeKit enable Your devices registered at Telldus Live
• HomeKit enable IKEA Trådfri devices 
• Homekit enable temperature with sensor  DS18B20
• HomeKit enable Broadband speed

If You have other products there are more than 4200 plugins available

A new simple install  !! is found here so skip the below info if you aren't interested of the old way!

HomeKit showing Humidity & Internetspeed

From AppleWatch

Strange mixture ? Humidity & Internetspeed ? 

With HomeKit You can't show Your measured Internet speed in a proper way,  X Mbit/s. So why not show it in % ? the measured speed compared to the one You purchased from Your ISP(Internet Service Provider) ? 

So now You see the point..... Humidity is also in % and can be displayed in the Home app. The only "if" is that the speed is displayed along with a "water drop"..... but maybe You can live with that ? 

HomeKit with "ANY" temperature source

From AppleWatch

As long as it's possible to retrieve information, in some way, from a sensor OR a website/webserver, with temperature information, it's possible to show it in HomeKit with HomeBridge(HB).

In this post NodeRed(NR) is retrieving the temperature from Your selected source and is also acting as the WEB endpoint for the HB  "homebridge-http-temperature" plugin.

In my case I wanted an outside temperature so used the measurements from our Davis Weather station and their JSON REST API but it could for example be Your Raspberry CPU temp or showing the speed of Your Internet connection.

Underfloor heating hack

I have tried to find some basics how a standard underfloor control system is regulating the heating, but haven't, so started with checking up our own temperature control system from LK(TCS).

I used Node-Red, with Raspberry Pi(RPi), sensing when the TCS applied voltage to the actuator. Since the actuator is running on 24 VAC and the input on a GPIO PIN is maximum 3,3 VDC I used a optocoupler to level shift. Schematics below

Please find another post here where I realized, using Shelly 1 and NodeRed, the regulating of the underfloor !!

Raspberry LCD displays

There are many displays for Raspberry Pi and following some of the manufacturers instructions isn't always so easy.

But there are scripts available which will make it very simple.

As an example, in this post, I will install the LCD touch display from Joy-IT RB-TFT3.2-V2. The size is 3,2" with a resolution of 320 x 240, has a touch display and comes with 3 buttons.

Homebridge update installation on RPi

Updated 2023-10-27 !

! The latest information on Homebridge update is found here ! 

Start updating the Homebridge(HB) installation, after You logged on to the RPi, with;

sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade -y

If You are using HOOBS or Homebridge with UX their updates can be done via respective GUI interface. HB also have a function to update Node.js. In other words, the info below is more like "nice to know".

Battery cables for cars & boats, DIY

At higher outputs, current, from the batteries I had detected an increasing voltage drop. So I decided to change and update the supply cables from the batteries, see picture, to a more correct solution. 

The solution was

• Cable lugs on all cables
• The lug is crimped and soldered to the cable
• Heat shrink tubes, with glue, to cover the transition between the lug and cable
• Battery terminals with M10 distributer

OpenPlotter V2, NMEA or SignalK data TO file

A newer post on the same subject !!

If You want to capture Your data from a sailing trip there are several ways. Here I will check out these

• SignalK delta, via plugin signalk-data-logger 
• NMEA 0183(N1), via netcat
• NMEA 2000(N2), via actisense-serial

If you then want to use these files as input for OpenPlotter, OpenCPN or SignalK check out this post.

OpenPlotter V2, NMEA or SignalK data FROM file

A newer post on the same subject !!

The easiest way to test Your OpenPlotter, OpenCPN or SignalK(SK) applications is to use the supplied sample files in SK.

Another way is to capture Your own data from a sailing trip, which is described here. Then You can use them instead of the supplied sample files.

Node-Red & Mosquitto quick install

A fantastic way to distribute data between devices is using MQTT. In this post I will do a quick and simple setup with Node-Red(NR) and the Mosquitto(MQ) broker on a Raspberry Pi.

Very short, the Broker, installed on a server, handles incoming Publishing and Subscriptions from clients. Every published Message is "linked" to a Topic. All Subscribers use a Topic to "link" to the right Message.

How to install Node-Red(NR) is found here and the MQ manual here.

Homebridge, autostart made simple

There have been some questions about how to handle Homebridge, (HB), autostart at power on and restart at failure using Raspberry Pi OS systemd. 

Please note that, in the later versions, the HB installation handles this !!

I have written a post how to manually set it up but now in this post I will present a script which handles it automagically !! 

Despite this simple set up I recommend using the app " hb-service", which is installed together with "homebridge-config-ui-x"

How to install HB is found here !

HomeKit bridge with Ring

With HomeBridge installed on a Raspberry Pi, (RPi), You just install the homebridge-ring plugin and the Ring accessories will appear in Apple HomeKit

This post will cover the Ring video doorbell but is a guide for other Ring products.

Prerequisites

• Homebridge
• Ring doorbell
• Ring account

OpenPlotter, V1, quick install guide

Updated 2020-01-13 !

OpenPlotter is;

• A complete boat navigation system
• Includes OpenCPN, Chart plotter navigation
• OpenSource, so it's free !
• Running on Raspberry Pi(RPi)
• Its hardware is cheap
• Running on Unix, so its reliable

I really don't recommend this old OP 1, instead check out OP V2, stable, which works very well ! 

Razberry backup and restore

There are two ways to take a backup of Your Raspberry Pi:s, (RPi) Razberry(RZ) configuration;

• Clone the Raspberry boot disk
• Backup just the Razberry configuration

The first way is a described in this post and here we will use the built in function in the Razberry GUI

HomeKit bridge with IKEA Trådfri, Blinds

         Updated 2019-09-20 !

This Blogpost was initially made before the IKEA outlets was enabled in the Apple Home app. They could then just be reached via a Tradfri Homebridge plugin. 

Since a while blinds are supported by this plugin but not by the IKEA Gateway and app so maybe its time again to install it ?

Another post covers the installation of the Trådfri gateway with a HomeKit approach. (Without Homebridge)

Other HomeKit posts on this Blogg

HomeKit bridge with Z-Wave II

In a former post I used Homebridge on a Raspberry Pi, to make Z-wave devices appear in the Apple Home app, but there is a simpler and faster, way.

Start with the install of the Razberry card or upgrade to Z-way V3.0.0

Other HomeKit posts on this Blogg

Internet speed measure

Updated 2019-08-10 !

New to Node-Red(NR) and maybe start with a simple application You can benefit direct from ?

This application is measuring Your Internet connection at chosen intervals using Speedtest.net and showing the result in a graph. If the speed is under a set value it will send You an email.

New ! better version !

NMEA WiFi gateway II

My thoughts, about NMEA WiFi have finalized ? since my first post in the subject and the Yacht Devices YDWG-02N is now installed in my NMEA2000/ST/NMEA0183 network and works just fine. 

I'm already using Raymarine ST => ST NG converter but otherwise I had bought the YDNR-02 instead which should have done the same job.

Please find some thoughts from the installation below.

Mojave on unsupported Mac

Updated 2019-05-11 !

My old Mac Book Air, mid 2011, didn't support the latest MacOS, Mojave. So after some checking I found this brilliant fix which did the job.

This guy have really done a fantastic job with great instructions and even a Youtube video.

Weather34 & WeatherLink w/o cronjob

Running Weather 34, W34, using my setup, the program "cumulusdata.php" is fetching data from Davis Weatherlink(WL), and are writing the data to a file, type Cumulus. The old way was to fetch the data via a scheduled cronjob. 

Doing a small change to "windspeeddirection.php", "updater.php" , and using the latest version of "cumulusdata.php", will do the update with the built in W34 refresh routine instead of cron job.

Thanks to Ken who gave me the hint.

HomeKit bridge with Telldus Live

Updated 2019-03-18 !

Do You have Telldus devices up and running and want them to be visible and used in Apples Home app ?

With some software and a Raspberry Pi(RPi) they will appear in the HomeKit environment.

Other HomeKit posts on this Blogg

IKEA Bäve dimmer hack

Dimming not dimmable LED, IKEA Bäve

Inspired by LarsWH and using a Z-Wave controller I got it working with a "standard" component.

Other HomeKit posts 
     on this Blogg        

A new version !! With an IKEA controller and HomeKit enabled is available here !!

HomeKit, Trådfri and Gledopto RGB

I bought the Gledopto RGB+CCT LED controller(GO), so I could use RGB LED strips, not just the IKEA ones.

There were some IF:s, which will be scrutinized below, but it worked.

Other HomeKit posts on this Blogg