my tv pi project

It all started when I saw skpang's portable computer project. From that point I knew I had to try and make my own one.

Once I had sourced a cheap 3.5" screen on eBay for about ten quid I was set to go, I will be getting a 7" next as its a bit small to work on but for films and iplayer it's good enough.

Firstly I had to take the screen apart to by pass the 12v to 5v bit. Luckily I found four pins pass this bit that I could connect to, so after hacking the lead down and adding a USB lead to power the screen I soon had the av lead reattached and shorter. The only problem I did have was as the screen was cheap it did have a few pixels that were dead.

Next stage was to add raspbmc to the pi, I also added iplayer and a few other uk on demand catch up tv add ons. I then got a remote control to use on it, an open case to let it ventilate and heat sinks to keep the heat down.

I also added the ledborg, but need to work on that even through it does work and lights up the case nicely.

I then purchased some cheap three quid speakers from babz media to do the sound and run them, the tv, raspberry pi, wifi and remote receiver through a cheap 7 way USB hub bought for a couple of quid and run by a 5v 3a decent power lead to ensure there is enough amps, on a 1amp psu the device kept crashing.

The raspberry pi has been slightly clocked to allow it to keep up and so far no problems watching films, even through before I slightly clocked it it did stutter here and there, now the only stuttering is when the Internet can't keep up with it.

So total price for the project including the pi leads, psu etc came to about 70 quid. Taking out the stuff I can use for other projects (or if you already have a pi and the basics) would come to around £20.

Have a go, nice easy project and I now have a 20 quid portable phone charger to try and run it all from 5v 2a 8500mh so should be able to keep it running for a few hours.

Dunsden series

We went out on the dunsden series near reading today, wore Wellies which I was grateful for due to the waterlogged area. We passed a house that was once lived in but had been left in a bad state. Parking at near 9 we went round anti clockwise, frodo covered in mud within seconds. We could also see the tracks of other animals as we walked round. A few dnf s, but a good day out, a good view of reading and also the floods. Later on we went to get a cache in a hedge and actually found two dormice playing in the hedge. Near the end the footpath Was flooded, knee deep and over the tops of my Wellies, frodo became cleaner here as he swam around in the footpath. A nice afternoon out and nice to get back out after the recent weather and seasonal illnesses.

bugs, virus s and sd cards

After a great Christmas I was hit today by a big that left me in bed disliking light especially tv light. So after a good sleep I was able to come up with new ideas.

First was I have an sd card that claims its write protected when it's not. Thanks to a friend I will try out this https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_3/ tomorrow to see if it will fix it.

Next I'm trying to come up with making my own camera rocket that I can fire up into the sky and take pictures. I've got most of the concept there, tube, big elastic, parachute, but just need to find a way of running an old web cam with small battery and USB/sd card and can power for a few minutes, have wondered about just using a wifi cam straight to pc. Any ideas or other projects that could help then let me know.

Next up is the raspberry pi user guide book, a very good read and I've learnt more from this than all the Linux and unix books I've been reading recently, certainly a well received Xmas present.

Over the coming week or so I should have lots more bits coming to add or use with the raspberry pi, so watch this space.

Not much

Not much to report been too busy with my pi s, however with a week off soon I will be able to spend some time writing and learning python to hopefully do something with the gertboard.

wow great service

After contacting newit earlier during the week a helpful Jason said to return the pi. Well today the replacement has arrived and a quick turn round at Christmas.

A big thank you to all at newit, merry Christmas and have a happy new year from a very happy customer.

Xmas pi n caching

We went to the excellent Christmas geocaching event yesterday by the Cachehoppers, I kind of got dragged as I wasn't up to talking to people even through I doubt it showed.

We got to do around half a dozen caches with a couple of ftf s for good comfort.

Today I was up early, needed to get a doctors appointment. 8.30 am straight through to receptionist who seem to think they can assess you on the phone. "erm
I need to see the doctor I'm not having a good time and I'm on anti depressants". Soon had an appointment for ten minutes later so quick run outside and de I've the car to turn up just in time for my appointment. Extra tablets later I was back at home.

Whilst drinking a cup of tea I notice the memory card on pi 2 the tv project was at an odd angle, on closer inspection I could see the sd holder wasn't holding so will have to see how I can get this solved. Took off the heatsinks and out of the casing so it's ready to go back as soon as I hear back from the suppliers.

not much about pi

Not much to report really, have been rather down with depression. Have felt so low that at times I've wanted to lock myself away from everyone.

Caching has been quiet, not due to weather, just lack of nearby caches and quality caches. The trend for a soggy film canister just seems to grow, whilst a good quality hide deminishes.

On the pi front I have finished a few kits, the gertboard is running but with problems on LEDs 3,4,7,11. All the connections seem to have power and all LEDs work, but not plugged into the pi. Even after replacing the red LEDs with green and amber it didn't improve things. I then got the ladder board kit to find one red and two amber don't want to work and same again resoldered it. Then two berryclips where led s 2 and three don't want to work neither, which leads me to think its either the board or the software, answers on a postcard.

Yesterday the other part of team text got their 5000th cache, well done to Thierry and Helena on achieving it.

raspberry caching

Headed off to the raspberry pi event at Milton Keynes today, no real caching planned and not suitable clothing but ok for the drive bys on the way up.

After two dnf s things improved then 2 hours later I arrived at the event (caching makes your journeys last longer).

Didn't know what to expect and soon saw dr sollys geotruck so knew if things went quiet there be someone to talk to about geocaching.

Within minutes of arriving I found someone who had done a light and fan project which pricked my ears as I had been looking at how I could do this and now with the ability to use unix code to see the thermal CPU temperture I reckon it be easier.

There were many friendly and welcoming people, skpang who runs a electronics business and a whizz with electrical stuff showed us a set up using a reversing camera as a monitor, excellent idea and one i want to do.

A lady who is a school teacher was telling us how hard it had been to try and get pi s into school and one that annoys me considering how cheap these devices are and the fact that these things could be what brings in new programmers etc to a future generation.


At the end of the event we went on a tour to see some of the old computers, including collisus and the witch. The witch is a two tonne machine from the 1940 s used by the harwell scientists to work out their huge calculations in the atomic research establishment. We were lucky to be shown it up and running and certainly an interesting machine. Whilst looking at the other computers there I came across one with basic code. Remember this:

10 print"hello";
20 goto 10
Run

Yeap that brought back memories, then there was one, yes, well two, bbc micro machines my first insight into computers when I was 8 and those famous red buttons at the top.

After the event myself and dr solly went off caching, a linear route, with two vehicles we parked one at one end and one at the other end. Things started off ok till we got near a bridge and found with dr sollys walking stick that it was about knee deep with what was left of a walk way and a plank of wood. After some careful adjustments we were able to make our way across.

Later on we did a night cache nearby and realised once we did it that we had passed some caches that I hadn't done so got one on the way back to the car. Note next meet run a pocket query of the area. The night cache was a huge cache with some good goodies. Dr solly torches left at various good caches including this one.

Along the way we talked caching and pi s and one idea I need to do is turn off the GUI off one of my pi s, also need to add the hard drive dr solly gave me for a file server project .

For what was meant to be a morning out ended up being a great day out, thanks to everyone at raspberrypimk event and dr solly .

geocaching pi

Not really been up for much outdoorness recently, might be the time of the year or I can't be bothered to drive for an hour to get to a trail.

However I have started a new project called raspberry pi. It's a £20 quid computer that you need to then buy a lead to you tv (99p) a case (a couple of quid) power pack (couple of quid again) wifi or Ethernet and USB keyboard and mouse (about 7 quid) and a USB powered hub (three quid). Oh an an sd card of minimium 4gb and preferable class 10.

So for under fifty quid it's up and running, I currently have two. One is plugged in with ssh and vnc so I can play and learn from anywhere. The other I interchange the sd cards, one card has xbmc on it and since changing the class 4 card to a class 10 doesn't seem to buffer or drag no more I know have a better way of watching films than with my apple tv.

Ok I've had to start learning Linux and unix and have been lucky to find many of the books on amazon second hand costing a grand total of £2.81 including postage for many books costing ten times what I'm paying for brand new. Yes I've had one dirty book with part of a page ripped out, but 99% of the books have been received like brand new.

My current project is to make a cloud at home to use from anywhere. I did succeed with my first file server and ended up connecting my tb harddrive back to the router and have since started adding all my DVD s to it as my music (200gb) is already loaded on there after going through a spate of buying secondhand CDs for less than a quid including postage and using iTunes to get a better quality with their service and cloud thingy and certainly cheaper than buying the old albums from iTunes.

So what have I planned? Well I'm looking eventually to run one of these devices from the car with mobile data, touchscreen, live maps and live cache status of caches, ambitious? Yes but an interesting project it will be.

mega day out

Firstly sorry for not posting in a while it's been hectic with the only big trip out to sussex to do the Leigh valley loop and a few 5/5s that we were passing, one being an excellent one in a tunnel.

Today however we went to the Halloween event in Northamptonshire. Starting the day off early we managed to get twenty caches on the way up including a night cache thanks to my excellent led lenser torch and find a ten pound note floating in the street.

Once at the mega it was a case of downloading the just published caches with my mifi dongle and netbook and adding the caches to the gps s.

The caches were so well thought out that it was impossible to fault any. After getting caught in a bad hail storm that soaked us we still plodded on and later on participated in the excellent night cache series of 14 caches and a cache in a tunnel under the nearby main road where I came across my first live and wild otter. By the time I got my camera phone out it was gone.

Finishing the day on nearly 80 caches and some of the most excellent caches to date. We meet up with friends and like with all caching events made new friends too.

Once again a big thank you to the organisers, it was one excellent day and with mega status too it just shows all the hard work and dedication the team have shown.

Will we go again next year? Silly question really, a big yes from us and once again thank you.