Pyssel

In an other post  I explained how to access and edit the data on an USB attached drive with the Linux " standard"  ext4  filesystem.  In this post I will explain how to read, write or add files using Windows, File explorer, or Mac, Finder,  without third party software ! You "just" need a Linux machine, but since you want to access an ext4 filesystem there probably are a machine in the surroundings ? In this post I will use a "simple" Raspberry Pi(RPi) and the ext4 media attached to one of the USB ports.

Updated 2022-03-03 ! I'm having an old MacBook Air 4.2, (mid 2011, SSD, 4 Gb memory), which have been running Catalina for quite some time despite that the  max OS is  High Sierra. I have been using the great work by dosedudes1 and his Catalina patcher . Unfortunately he didn't continue with patches for newer OS:s but have helped with a new patcher . This patcher  even handles Macs with graphic cards from 2008 - 2011. Using the patcher i got the mentioned Mac up and running with Big Sur after just over an hour.   New post !! Upgrade to Monterey .

Updated 2022-01-11 ! During my  update of the cables going from the batteries, to the distribution panel and engines, I stumbled over the Victron SmartShunt (VSS). We had a 15 year old Mastervolt battery monitor but it didn't feel "true" and it wasn't at the right place in the boat.  So instead of moving the old shunt we bought a VSS. 

The actual use case was that I have a Raspberry Pi(RPi) sourcing Vesselfinder with AIS data from nearby. I wanted to change/test a new configuration but on the other hand I didn't want to take the RPi down, during a longer period, since it's an online service. So the solution was to make a bootable clone of the actual application and test with a second RPi. The major obstacle was that I then would have 2 hosts, with the same hostname, which will mess up the local network. So how to change the host name on the cloned SD card before I'm using it in the second RPi ? Another post on how to read and write Linux drives with Windows/MacOS

Updated 2021-12-05 ! In the harbour we are using a Davis weather station , Vantage Pro2, as our PWS(Private Weather Station). If you like to display the data, online on the web , you can use the Davis service,  Weatherlink (WL) where you register an account.  Another way is to retrieve the weather data as XML or JSON, from the Weatherlink web-site, and use it in your own application  (open source!). Another approach with NodeRed could be find here .

Using a Raspberry Pi Zero (RPi), with wifi, I sometimes have problem that the WiFi connection is lost . This is due to that, at our boat, we are using the Teltonika RUT 240 router. The router just have one receiver/transmitter,  LAN  and  WAN WiFi are shared, and in some use cases the WiFi will temporarily be disconnected. To restart the WiFi quick the following solution is used. This post will cover a solution, a bash script, with inspiration from this blogpost , but with some fine tuning. 😉   Another way could be using the watchdog function,  described here , with reboot.

I'm involved in several projects where you, as quick as possible, want to get an alert if anything fails. After a lot of Googling I found SIGNL4 . They have several ways to create an alert , can involve a team, have a nice app and is free, up to 5 users, if you use the "STARTER" option . In this post, as an example , I will show how I detect if my AIS receiver/dispatcher stops receiving AIS targets, sent to Vesselfinder , and how an alert is forwarded to the SIGNL4 app. I'm using NodeRed on a Raspberry Pi to realize the function

The electrical install instructions for the Ring Doorbell maybe could be a little easier to find  ?  So will give some links where you are connecting to Internal doorbells No internal doorbell but charging the battery External relay, triggering "anything" Wireless relay Ring Device manuals are found here .

Updated 2021-08-08 ! I have written several post about the HomeKit Bridge, Homebridge (HB), but if You want another simple way, with GUI, to handle the server and plugins the guys at HOOBS  have done a nice software package. I personally prefer the Homebridge  "native" install , which seems to be updated more frequently.