Pyssel

Updated 2023-02-23 ! Installing a Z-Wave controller on Raspberry Pi is much easier than You think. The only add on You need is the Razberry Z-wave Shield and free software from the same site.

Updated 2023-01-20 ! Our boat was delivered, 2006, with just Raymarine equipment using network Seatalk 1(ST1), and some NMEA0183(N1). Updates and additional equipment will use the newer NMEA2000(N2K).  We will keep the two well functioning Raymarine 12”, E120, and the radar.  In addition, for Navigation purposes, we use the iPad app iSailor . The easy way to combine ST1 with N2K is to use the Raymarine Seatalk 1 to Seatalk NG(STNG) converter, Raymarine E22158 . STNG and N2K is the same protocol, with some dialectal differences, but have different cabling. Don't miss  this post  where I'm presenting additional solutions, including a NMEA WiFi gateway, and add ons.

  Updated 2023-01-02 ! OpenPlotter(OP), a Boat Navigation application, is really a nice and simple installation of OpenPlotter (OP) OpenCPN (OC) SignalK (SK)  and other supporting applications for Your boat. Please note that OP V2 is outdated use .......

Updated 2022-11-28 ! In a former post I showed how to download and extract data from forecast GRIB files but avoided to handle if the wind direction and speed was declared as U and V components, vectors.  In this post I will extract wind data from a GRIB forecast file and use the U V components to calculate, and display, wind speed and direction at a chosen point. The data is visualized as graphs in a NodeRed dashboard. Normally, using charts in NodeRed, the timestamp is taken from the time when the input message is created but here I will use the timestamp from the forecast, loading the whole chart in one go.

Updated 2022-11-06 ! Sometimes I'm a little confused if it's the local network that is the bottleneck or if the ISP, Internet Service Provider, is slow. In a former post I used 2 applikations to get the information, from both the local LAN and Internet, but on the other hand it maybe hade been nice with a more lightweight approach.  From  this post  I got inspiration and discovered a nice little  application " iperf3 "  which  is available for several OS .

New to Node-Red (NR) ? Maybe start with a simple application You direct can benefit 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 e-mail. Show the measured  Internet speed in Apples Home app ?

Updated 2022-09-18 ! Victron have a  state-of-the-art monitoring solution used by the GX products. It can monitor their other system components  such as inverter/chargers, solar chargers, shunts, and batteries  both local and remote all over the world. If you have a smaller Victron solution it is nice to know that the same software, Venus OS(VOS), can run on a Raspberry Pi(RPi) instead of the more expensive and versatile GX products.

Updated 2022-08-16 ! In a former post I went trough how to update an old MacBook Air 4.2, (mid 2011, SSD, 4 Gb memory) to Big Sur and in this post I will update the Mac to Monterey with the same patcher !!  This is despite that  max OS  for the Mac is  High Sierra. This is done, among other things, due to that t he patcher  handles Macs with graphic cards from 2008 - 2011 which Monterey doesn't do natively. Since my former upgrade, to Big Sur, included a format of the SSD disk I here used the  patcher to do an upgrade from Big Sur  to Monterey. Awesome !!!

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 .