Home automation, Photography, Programming

Smart gates identify cars and open up accordingly using a Raspberry Pi

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Evghenii has developed a system that automates the process of recognising cars and opening gates based on who they are. The system, which uses a Raspberry Pi, an IP camera and some relays plus a mixture of Python (including OpenCV), shell scripting (I can feel a headache building already) and Telegram messaging has the following principles of operation:

  • The car drives up to the gates.
  • Camera reads the car plate numbers.
  • Checks the read number with the database; if it finds one, then it opens the gate and lets the car pass.
  • Each car at the gates is photographed, then a photo is sent to the Telegram application with the car plate number and its status.
  • Telegram bot has the ability to open and close the gates, take a current photo and add an unknown car to the database.

He’s written up the project over at Hackster.io.

Internet of things, Operating systems, Software

Mozilla enters the Web of Things fray with the Things Gateway for the Raspberry Pi

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Mozilla have just announced the launch of the Things Gateway. Aimed at providing a common interface for various non-web-enabled wireless devices to get them onto the internet, the Things Gateway is fully open-source and is an implementation of a “Web of Things” gateway.

Currently, the gateway supports Zigbee and Z-Wave smart plugs, but other devices should be supported soon. You will need a Digi XStick (ZB mesh version) for ZigBee support, and the Aeotec Z-Stick (Gen5) for Z-Wave—although other OpenZWave compatible dongles may also work.

The API documentation is available here, Mozilla’s official announcement is here and you can download a pre-configured OS image here.

Accessories, Programming, Robotics, Sensors, Tutorials

Build a hexapod walker robot with a Raspberry Pi and servos

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Roland Pelayo has written up his project in which he creates a hexapod walking robot with a Raspberry Pi for control. He’s used a piece of acrylic as the main chassis and then fashioned legs out of strips of aluminium. The servos are powered by AA batteries whilst the Pi is powered by a 5V “lipstick” power bank. He’s added an ultrasonic distance sensor for autonomous operation. The software is Python on the back end and he’s also created a PHP/Javascript front end to operate it manually. A write-up of the project is available here, the code is available from GitHub and you can see a video of it in action below:

Accessories, GPIO boards, Programming, Tutorials

Control Philips Hue lights with a Pimoroni Touch pHat

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My good friend Tim Richardson has been experimenting with the Philips Hue range of connected lights. He’s got a set out in his shed Cabin and he wanted them to be controlled remotely from another Raspberry Pi (primarily so that people in the main house could ‘call him in’). He struck upon the idea of using a Pimoroni Touch pHat in the main house so that different colours were triggered in the Cabin when the buttons were pressed. This gives granularity over how urgent the ‘call’ is. He’s used and adapted the phue library and developed some custom scripts. All the instructions, and the code, are available on Github. You can get hold of Hues by doing a quick search on Amazon! They’re not cheap, but they’re great fun 🙂

Accessories, Camera module, Photography, Raspberry Pi Zero, Shopping

Colour-coded GPIO pin headers and new ZeroCams for the Raspberry Pi Zero from The Pi Hut

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Jamie from The Pi Hut has been in touch about some new products he’s launched today and I thought I’d pass the info on.

Colour-coded GPIO header

First up, we have a colour-coded GPIO 40-pin header for the Raspberry Pi Zero. Taking it’s inspiration from the Asus Tinker Board, the header is colour-coded for 5V, 3V3, Ground and do-not-connect. They’re selling for a very tempting £1 each and are ideal if you want to brighten up your Zero with something a little functional. Take a look on The Pi Hut here.

ZeroCams – cameras for the Raspberry Pi Zero

There are small cameras for the Pi Zero out already, but The Pi Hut has gone that bit further by bringing out three (count em!) cameras on the same day.

The first is a regular 5MP camera, the second is a NoIR camera (suitable for night-time or low-light conditions) and the third is a spiffing fisheye camera for when you need an extra wide angle. As far as I know, this is the first Pi camera specifically for the Zero with a fisheye lens (it also comes with a lens cap). The cameras are presented in lovely hard plastic boxes with magnetic closures, which means that storing them is much less risky than ye olde anti-static bags. All the cameras sell for £15 which is a lot cheaper than the full-size camera module. Of course, they sport fewer mega-pixels, but if you want something tiny and cheap, they’re absolutely ideal.

Accessories, Artificial intelligence, Camera module, Games, Making, Programming, Robotics, Software

Raspberry Pi robot solves Sudoku puzzles

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A maker called msana has posted his latest project in Hackster.IO. It is a robot, based on a 3D printer, with a Raspberry Pi & camera module attached. The camera takes a photo of a Sudoku puzzle placed on the print bed which is then image-processed via OpenCV to determine the exact layout of the puzzle. The puzzle is then abstracted and run through intelligence library TensorFlow to determine the solution. The robot part then writes the solution onto the grid using a pen attached via the motors. You can read more about the project here, (although I would like to have seen much more detail on the robotic part of the build). The code is available on GitHub. See it in action below: