jenfoxbot

That's an awesome alternative approach, thanks for sharing!

Thanks! Sadly I do not have easy access to a cat but that is an excellent idea for an experiment! Please do chat with your kitty about being a test subject :)The Pi should be able to record data that fast.. I forget what the data transfer rate is but I remember it being sufficient to see that sharp peak of impact force.If you end up doing the kitty experiment, please share! I'd love to see what you find :D

well foo! there are a lot of factors that could be causing this. are there any shorts? did you coat the electrical connections in epoxy? where did you connect the GPIO pin? Also, use a multimeter to check the capacitance of the soil moisture sensor directly in water and in air to be sure that you're getting different values. if that is working, then it's not the sensor and the issue is somewhere in the hardware or software. best of luck!

Good question! Yes, you can use an Arduino Uno, but you'll need a different method of hooking up speakers (there's no audio jack input). There might be a shield or you can connect them directly to the digital (analog?) pins. There should be a tutorial somewhere on how to do that..

Good question! Yes, I think that should work. You can calculate the size of the hovercraft using the following: Pressure = Force / Area. The force is your weight + the weight of the hovercraft (F = (120 lbs+ 10 lbs) * 9.8 m/s^2 ). The pressure is given by the speed of the wind coming out of the leaf blower -- here's a good overview of that equation: https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/wind-load-d_177...Hope that helps :D(TLDR:// yes, 150 mph should be sufficient for a 120 lb human with a hovercraft surface area of about 1 m^2)

Happy to help! And hey, we're all beginners at some point! This was my first project so I totally know how it goes. Yes, you can use the same 3.3V pin for both the sensor and the relay. The relay won't pull too much current since it is mostly just looking for a change in voltage on the DC side -- that's why relays are super useful, you can use a small current and voltage to control a much larger current and voltage. Also, you can use the same ground pins for both. Related aside: all ground points need to be connected to the same place, or you might get funny readings (since voltage is a potential difference it is measured between two points, like dropping a ball at arm's length while standing on the ground vs. on top of a building, the ball will bounce the same distance even though you'...

Happy to help! And hey, we're all beginners at some point! This was my first project so I totally know how it goes. Yes, you can use the same 3.3V pin for both the sensor and the relay. The relay won't pull too much current since it is mostly just looking for a change in voltage on the DC side -- that's why relays are super useful, you can use a small current and voltage to control a much larger current and voltage. Also, you can use the same ground pins for both. Related aside: all ground points need to be connected to the same place, or you might get funny readings (since voltage is a potential difference it is measured between two points, like dropping a ball at arm's length while standing on the ground vs. on top of a building, the ball will bounce the same distance even though you're technically higher up in the second scenario).

Just one Pi, like you guessed it's both projects combined (soil moisture sensor and irrigation controller) -- it was all one big project but I separated them in write-up to make it easier to follow. I split the soil moisture sensor PCB from the irrigation controller and Pi because I wanted to be able to install the sensor far from the spigot. In retrospect, I could have just added longer wires to the sensor and combined all the PCBs in one box. Hope that helps!

Thanks! And hey, when I first started I wasn't super good, either! We are all beginners at some point :)All of the code is open-source so you don't need to worry about figuring out anything for yourself -- follow the build instructions and snag the code and you're good to go!

Heck yes, I agree! Thank you :)You should totally design your own! There are a ton of possible routes -- Step 1 covers how facial recognition software works and mentions key elements for tricking it, so check out that step for some ideas on where to get started. Float some ideas in your head and when you come up with one you really like, write it down and come back to it when you have time :)I'm slowly still working on this, or at least I'll post another one at some point.. If you beat me to and write it up, it I'd be happy to feature yours in this tutorial!

Whoa, missed this comment, thanks for responding, MukulB8!

Hmm I think I ran into a similar issue at one point.. can't remember what the specific problem was but I ended up redoing that part and then it magically worked. It could be a spelling error or a lack of internet connectivity.. or if you are using the same SD card and just redoing it, there is likely some configuration setting that is blocking it. if you haven't done it yet, try wiping the SD card and starting completely from scratch.Hope that helps! LMK if you continue running into errors and I'll do my best to help ya troubleshoot.

Thanks! And happy to help :D

Hmm it seems like iptables isn't installed? Were you able to get the command below to run successfully?sudo apt-get install iptables-persistentAlso, wiping the SD card and starting over is a good way to test it. It took me a couple of times to get this all to work correctly, ha. I'm about to head out on vacation but leave a comment if you are unable to get it to work and I'll see if I can do some digging when I'm back early Jan. Best of luck!

Foo!! Hmmm some debugging questions:1. You're connected to the Interwebs? 2. Did you run update and dist-upgrade? 3. Are you using Jessie Lite? 4. Did you run the commands in order they are listed

Yup! Once you set it up as an access point, you can use WinSCP or another file transfer protocol to wirelessly transfer files to your Pi. If you do a lil' research I"m sure you could find a python or linux code to do this automatically :)Also yes to the external hard drive! You might need to look up how to transfer files to USB via linux but it's definitely possible.

Thank you! :D (& I'll pass along the compliment to the pooch!)

Thanks! Yes, you can definitely use the Pi Zero. As long as you are using the Jessie Lite OS, the process *should* be the same.

Thank you! A friend mentioned piratebox, will have to check that out when I have the time. I'll take a look at Docker too -- definitely a newbie when it comes to networking but it's easier when other folks have already figured out the hard stuff!And thank you for the super helpful technical points!! Your comment re: WPA2 is on the last page w/ a link to your profile. This is why open-source is awesome :D

hah! Grab your keyboard of justice and show 'em the light of Linux! The Pi might be the perfect intro for your friends, since you can use it w/ a Desktop OS which makes it less intimidating. If you want to show 'em something easier before diving into this, here's a tutorial that is like the "part one" for beginners: https://www.instructables.com/id/Intro-to-the-Headless-Raspberry-Pi/

That's awesome!! Super stoked you decided to dust off your previous server! Maybe you can wrangle a few of your friends to do the same and then you can chat w/ 'em! :D

Yayy, thank you!! Very happy to hear that you enjoyed it (and the photos of my pup lol) :D

Glad it is helpful :D

Do you have an adequate power supply? Did you try using the zoom in and out features or changing the display? It could also be a faulty connection, so once you've exhausted all other options, I'd go back and double check the schematic and compare it to yours. Best of luck figuring out the issue!

If you are using a low-power solar panel and you disconnect the panel when it is not charging it shouldn't damage the battery (look up trickle charging). Yes, you will have to use a rechargeable 9V if you want to use the solar panel -- you could build the same project WITHOUT a solar panel and just a regular ol' 9V, but where's the fun in that!

Thank you!! I'm stoked that you love renewable energy technology, me too! :DThat's a great idea to use a 3D printer to make USB chargers! If you have access to one I challenge you to tackle that!And also, your English is waay better than my Dutch so spelling errors are always forgiven :)Have a wonderful day as well! Go forth and build all the things! :D

Good question! Voltage adds in series, so your effective battery voltage would be 18V. To charge the batteries, you'll need a panel (or 2 panels in series) that put out more than 18V. You can think about it like a roller coaster: the roller coaster has to start higher (i.e. more energy) than the subsequent hills or it won't have enough energy to get over them. Likewise, the solar panel needs more energy output than the batteries to push electrical energy into the batteries and not the other way around (which would damage the panel). Hope that helps!

Thanks! Good suggestion, will try it out in V2.0!

Thanks!

Thank you!! Yea, I <3 how it turned out :D I'm going to use roses for the next one, they work really well. Love your idea also -- definitely post photos!! :D

Awesome, thanks for the recommendation, will check out the sensor you linked to!

Well that's interesting, def want to avoid corrosion if it's actually going to be used to maintain plant life. Thanks for the feedback + alternative recommendation!

Omg yes SO much fun!! Thank you :D

Thank you!! Aww yea my pup definitely wants to be a good dog, and for the most part he is :)

lolol he was such a good dog helping me test it! Don't worry, he is plenty spoiled :)

This is so awesome!!!! Also, super impressive!! Love that you used a yogurt container in the design -- when I worked in a lab my professor had a running joke about his superstitious use of yogurt containers, all the detectors he built used yogurt containers in some way and whenever he didn't use one the detector almost always failed lol (obs not an actual correlation but still rather amusing XD). Anyway, thanks a ton for sharing your project!! I'm super stoked that it worked for you and kept your plants alive, yayyyy!!! Also thanks a ton for the links that you used, excellent documentation of the services you used!

Interesting info! The high voltage warning is there because the particular valve used for this project requires interfacing w/ household AC voltage, whether through a transformer or some other means. Even if 24VAC isn't enough to break skin resistance, that amount of current is still dangerous and there's always the possibility of shorts. It's always always always important to encourage safety and caution.

Good question! The simple resistor-capacitor ("RC") circuit is used to measure changes in the capacitance of the soil moisture sensor. The RPi logs the time constant of the circuit (aka how long it takes to charge the capacitor) which changes depending on moisture and the resistor needs to be large enough to be able to see those small changes. Hope that helps!

Yes, this particular soil moisture sensor is a co-planar capacitor. If your soil moisture sensor is putting out voltage, it is not just the sensor but includes additional circuit components. If you're having trouble calibrating it or whatnot, I'd suggest doing a search in Google for the specific sensor you are using and then reading up on it. You could also do what I did to try and calibrate my sensor -- bake some soil in the oven to get all the moisture out, then all small volumes of water and make readings over time. Takes a loooong time but it's not terribly difficult.

Thank you! Glad you found it useful! 200 kg equates to about 440 lbs, so my initial thought was that with even weight distribution across 4 load cells you could put as much as 4 * 440lbs = 1760 lbs, so theoretically it should be able to handle 1700 lbs. Since 1 ton is ~ 2000 lbs, the post would likely be a bit much with this first design. But! You can definitely use geometry w/ some levers to reduce the weight distribution even further, which is how bathroom scales work. Hope this helps, LMK if you have any other questions! :D

lolol thank you, he's a pretty entertaining pooch ^.^

Thanks! :D