Author Topic: The big 'ole Raspberry Pi topic (Read 42937 times)

TB-AV · « **Reply #175 on:** April 22, 2015, 09:23:38 pm »

Seems like it would be a lot easier to just have them upgrade the router. If it's that old it probably doesn't even support newer standards they may be using.

Plus if you have to flash it you also run the risk of bricking it... and bricking your new router.

I've almost done that with one I'm using now.... I had to 'catch' the router at just the right time... and I actually got lucky but it's easy to basically render them useless.

Majik · « **Reply #176 on:** April 22, 2015, 09:33:34 pm »

Quote from: Cue Zephyr on April 22, 2015, 08:57:53 pm

I think the credentials are there to lock you into using that router.

It's actually nothing do do with restricting you to their router (although they may be taking advantage of the mechanism to do that).

If it's ADSL then it works in a very similar way to an old-school dial-up modem, using PPP protocol.

The line and the core network equipment is often provided by the local telephone company who resell the capability to various ISPs.

When you connect, the ADSL modem creates a PPP connection with the telephone company's "BRAS" (Broadband Remote Access Server) which uses the domain part of the username in the credentials to work out which ISP to connect you to. The credentials are then used to validate and select your account (e.g. for billing purposes) with the ISP.

This is different from "DOCSIS" Cable modem type service where you connect to a shared access network (shared with your neighbourhood). In that case they use the modem MAC address to tie you to the network. With ADSL there is no MAC address so they have to use PPP credentials.

Cheers,

Keith

Cue Zephyr · « **Reply #177 on:** April 22, 2015, 10:39:11 pm »

Great stuff Majik, thanks.

I'll see if there's a chance to get a new router. The Davolink is a rented router (from the ISP) and AFAIK you don't need to flash the router that replaces it. Bricking it would be a bit of a tricky reason to ask for a new router though.

Majik · « **Reply #178 on:** April 25, 2015, 11:06:33 am »

Cue,
I would check with the ISP, as they may be happy to give you the credentials to use with your own router. ADSL service providers normally seem much happier about doing this than Cable Internet providers in my experience.

Cheers,

Keith

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Dan Graves · « **Reply #179 on:** April 27, 2015, 02:49:36 am »

Don't bother if Tele2 is the ISP cue, these xx--xx are about as cooperative as an observant Jewish man being fed a bacon sandwich...
Why don't you just put the netgear behind the davoxx--xx router, turn off the WiFi on the Tele2 junk, and use the netgear as the AP ?
Also, don't brick the Davolink, they'll just send you another one.
Better yet : ditch Tele2 ASAP and switch to either fibre, cable or a better A(or V)DSL provider.

@ Keith : Unfortunately, Tele2 denies their customers access to the login data for the sole reason of not having to troubleshoot third party hardware, and they're using VERY old Davolink modem/router combo's that are complete and utter xx--xx.
Had cue been with xs4all or KPN he could have used any modem suited to their current standards (ADSL, VDSL, VDSLII), but Tele2 has always been complete and utter xx--xx about this.
Any subscription with them becomes a massive PITA at some point, and their customer service is less helpfull than throwing a rotting kiwi at a brick wall...

Cue Zephyr · « **Reply #180 on:** April 30, 2015, 12:14:52 am »

The other network is from Telfort and using the Sitecom router which looks like Star Trek next to the Davolink in terms of router control and GUI interface.

It seems to run fine behind the Davolink now, albeit a little bit slow. There should be 40 down/up conneciton there soon and I'll try to get it to work on LAN as well.

Right now I successfully installed WordPress without too much hassle so I can freely muck around with it and learn how to use it.

Dan Graves · « **Reply #181 on:** April 30, 2015, 07:02:26 am »

Well, I'll be away from the forums for the next few weeks, so if you need any help with the Wordpress, hit me up via email or PM.

bradt · « **Reply #182 on:** September 08, 2015, 05:34:38 pm »

Quote from: Dan Graves on February 26, 2015, 04:35:11 pm

I'd be careful with those modules bradt, they are capable of outputting a rather disturbingly strong signal, and unpredictably so...

I now see what you mean about the ESP8266. I plugged it in today to try out a few things. On startup the gpios all went high, and everything in the house lost wifi. Don't know how far reaching that was, or if it even affected any other networks (may have just flooded my router somehow).

This was with the original ESP-01. I have a different model I am going to drop in the prototype to try, but it looks like these may not be the right fit for the home automation mesh I was going to build.

Dan Graves · « **Reply #183 on:** September 09, 2015, 04:46:15 am »

Imagine what happens in a more amplified setting, with external antennas and one of the more 'heavyweight' modules they make...
When i said i ended up jamming radio coms in a 1 mile radius, i was not kidding.
Hence why the prototype i made ended up with the police, they could easily trace the signal back to it's original... there was no mistaking the source

LievenDV · « **Reply #184 on:** September 14, 2015, 10:08:12 am »

Quote from: Dan Graves on September 09, 2015, 04:46:15 am

Hence why the prototype i made ended up with the police, they could easily trace the signal back to it's original... there was no mistaking the source

darn, you lost your gear? :/

I had an idea and I wonder if this stuff could tackle it.

I'd like to have some kind of video streaming at home.

the gear present:
-a desktop pc, win 8.1, conencted with utp to router
-a samsung tablet running android (my wife's)
-an iPhone 5 (mine..my employers actually..I wouldn't buy one myself

)
-a TV with hdmi but nog a smart tv. It supports USB for a built in media player though.
-an external HD

what I would like to achieve is that, with a minimum of devices running, watch media on the iphone and tablet. The computer would be used to 'acquire' the media in the fom of physical files. So no streaming services like netflix etc. I would transfer them, over network, to an SD card or something, plugged in the Pi. (that would eliminate the external HD, as it needs to be plugged in all the time and I don't want to wear out my drive I use for backups).
Ideal would be that, for example, I drop put stuff like our family video's to de storage of the Pi from my pc as a network drive or something and that from there on, my wife doesn't need my assistance to watch them on het tablet or on the tv. (she will be needing an app of some sorts I suppose)
as we have a traing bike upstairs, we would like to watch stuff there as well while we excercise. I'll be watching stuff on my iPhone then.

What would I need and how would it work for the mobile devices? (which apps etc)

TB-AV · « **Reply #185 on:** September 14, 2015, 02:55:56 pm »

Lieven, I have been building the same thing and Dan has helped me out. I can tell you a few things...

This is the short story.

Main Family TV = RiPi 2 w/Openelec-KODI
http://openelec.tv/get-openelec
--- notice builds for every OS
-------- this means you can install it on all your devices and stream from local or far.

Now what I figured out about the same time Dan was telling what I needed, and he told me the same thing.... was.... KODI is a kind of a bare bones media center and due to copyright and such, you need to add 3rd party "addons".... of which there are a gazillion.....
I highly recommend you watch/do this... just as a basis to get started....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8Fgc5IpH30

Hard drives.... you are going to want a big drive to store stuff on... just no two ways about it... music, vids, pictures, docs, everything you want your devices to access 'at hand'... honestly I would get 2 drives... one live and one a copy.

Now my router has some USB ports so I can connect a drive there and share it. It can be shared via UPnP Universal Plug n Play... So your devices can see it. Like VLC player and other such media playing progs on your devices. There is an issue with VLC and Win10 just so you know.

Ok, now let's say your router has no usb. Dan turned me on to DietPi and you can share your stuff on it. Again though... and I didn't catch on to this right away... it has to have a USB hard drive connected to install correctly and also serve up all the files. The good news is it will run on one of the older Pi B, B+.. It can assist in "aguiring" etc.. ... I have not got to that yet, as I branched off to my router for some of those duties. http://dietpi.net/ .. you will need to get Dan to get you squared away on that as I am not real clear yet just how that all works... plus just being Linux is a stumbling block for me... I still don;t take to it easily.

Due to the nature of how all this streaming stuff works.. some of it requires you subscribe to services and of course some is just out there free and some is copyright protected but randomly available. All that is mixed all together within the 'addons" for KODI... so many may wish to use a VPN service.

GMAIL does not play well with VPN services. It thinks you are in another region trying to log in and blocks you until you prove it's really you. Just a heads up on that. VPNs seem to use ip4 but not ip6 such as this one.... although they are supposed to have ip6 next year. https://nordvpn.com/

Dan has a link to a good article on VPNs which I don;t have handy.

Finally you will probably want a cloud backup for your devices once you get all this mess configured. If you don't have a Dropbox account, get one BUT... have Dan send you an invite and both you and he will get an extra 250 to 500 Mb... I could give you one, but get it from Dan so he can bump his up as I am going to be purchasing a 1T upgrade for something else I have going and somehow I signed up to a new account and it's up to almost 6GB now and neither Dan nor I know exactly how that happened... When you sing up though... go through the little tour and deal they present and when finished they will bump your space up.

so in review

Internet
---- Main TV = fast Pi + access to local storage
--------- oh, you will probably need these too...
--------------- http://www.amazon.com/FLIRC-FL-09028-Universal-Receiver-Components/dp/B00BB0ETW8
--------------- http://www.amazon.com/Edimax-EW-7811Un-150Mbps-Raspberry-Supports/dp/B003MTTJOY/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1442238318&sr=1-1&keywords=edimax+wifi
You don't need the FLIRC on them all, just your main TV, the WiFi dongle as needed ( if not wired ).

---- Devices = KODI or some media player to access local home storage
---- Pi = stroage share, acquire, other
--------- Cloud storage for at least Pi backups
------------- Some form of backup for everything

So that's the general layout / flow... but it can be tweaked, streamlined in many ways...
Oh,, and you may want a Pi Radio box and Dan has that info as well... I haven't got to that yet either.

So far I've got
Music Share
KODI and VLC on all my devices and can play all my music on any device
One main KODI install on a Pi2.. have FLIRC but need to plug it in and configure

So Desktop - W7, Laptop W10, Tablet Android for Nook HD+
1 Music Share local
--- next is to connect a USB hub to that port so I can share more drives. then use the second USB port for a network printer ( just found out I can do that hub deal )

I have 2 older Pis left for radio, dietPi duties, etc... so still a ways to go.
Hope that gives you a sort of big picture over view as it's fresh in my mind as I just did it in the last week or so. Dan with have to get you detail stuff.

It's beginning to make sense to me now that I've gotten this far.

Dan Graves · « **Reply #186 on:** September 14, 2015, 04:51:31 pm »

I'd suggest a Raspberry Pi 2, with DietPi installed, connect a decent size harddrive, and share files by installing SAMBA on DietPi (it will install just about anything for you, just choose a software package during setup and you're basically done), and you could add an Owncloud install so you could drop files to the system from cellphones as well.
DietPi also does MiniDLNA, so you could stream to any device that supports DLNA/UPnP.
If you want specifics in Dutch, give me a shout on Steam

Cue Zephyr · « **Reply #187 on:** September 14, 2015, 11:23:41 pm »

I recently had my mom purchase an RPi 2 which is now running OpenELEC and connected to the TV. I'm not even half aware of what I can make it do. Primariy goal is getting it to play movies and/or series but I've got other things on my mind so I never really got to sit down and figure it out.

I found the YouTube application to be slightly awkward as well (lack of autoplay and can't figure out how to log in).

Dan Graves · « **Reply #188 on:** September 15, 2015, 10:55:23 pm »

If you need help, you know where to find me...
Hell, i can probably talk you through how to set things up on skype even

Also, cue, FliRC dongle.

TB-AV · « **Reply #189 on:** September 16, 2015, 04:29:06 am »

Take Dan up on the Skype offer.

This is one subject where you can whizz in the wind for a long time on your own.

If you see it happen and then do some research and then think ... ok... what's the big picture... it will likely snap in place for you.

There are some things you just need to have someone sit you down and show you the basic deal. Then you can go out into the forest and forage for yourself.

bradt · « **Reply #190 on:** November 30, 2015, 05:23:00 am »

Digging up an old topic here, but have you guys seen the Raspberry Pi Zero? Pretty sweet, and selling for about $5. Hopefully they can get more of them out soon.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-zero/

A pretty decent video of it as well.

Now, to find a compatible micro usb wifi dongle.

Fox Cunning · « **Reply #191 on:** November 30, 2015, 09:40:22 am »

Quote from: bradt on November 30, 2015, 05:23:00 am

Digging up an old topic here, but have you guys seen the Raspberry Pi Zero? Pretty sweet, and selling for about $5. Hopefully they can get more of them out soon.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-zero/

A pretty decent video of it as well.

Now, to find a compatible micro usb wifi dongle.

Sold out everywhere in the UK

I wanted to use one as a controller for my AKAI keyboard and drum pad.

Dan Graves · « **Reply #192 on:** November 30, 2015, 03:04:07 pm »

More like sold out everywhere, UK, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands...
Not a single RPi zero in sight

bradt · « **Reply #193 on:** November 30, 2015, 03:12:55 pm »

Yeah, I believe they said they sold something in the neighborhood of 20,000 units in the first 24 hours. There should be more coming out soon enough though.

TB-AV · « **Reply #194 on:** December 01, 2015, 04:42:30 pm »

So now the case costs more than the computer!

I don't understand how they can make that thing for $5 much less sell it for that.

It doesn't even show as being a stock item over here from two big national resellers.

TB-AV · « **Reply #195 on:** December 01, 2015, 04:43:50 pm »

Quote from: Fox Cunning on November 30, 2015, 09:40:22 am

Sold out everywhere in the UK
I wanted to use one as a controller for my AKAI keyboard and drum pad.

How would that work?

bradt · « **Reply #196 on:** December 01, 2015, 05:28:36 pm »

Quote from: TB-AV on December 01, 2015, 04:42:30 pm

I don't understand how they can make that thing for $5 much less sell it for that.

It doesn't even show as being a stock item over here from two big national resellers.

They removed a lot from it (ethernet port, zif sockets, soldered headers, USB port, etc), and lowered the cpu specs from the Pi2. But yeah $5 is cheap.

I believe this first run was only at microcenter and Adafruit in The US. I've only ever bought stuff like this through Amazon, Adafruit, or some of the other specialty electronics retailers online. Where do you generally get them?

TB-AV · « **Reply #197 on:** December 01, 2015, 05:42:32 pm »

Normally I will just see who has best price... Amazon, eBay, .. but if I need other parts or what have you, I will buy from..

MCM Electronics
Allied Electronics
Newark Electronics

It just all depends if there is a sale, shipping, combine with other stuff, etc. Like I might pay more for it but save on something else and shipping. You know a transformer or FX parts and things. Transformers are usually cheaper at the parts suppliers or you can get a better transformer.

Fox Cunning · « **Reply #198 on:** December 02, 2015, 12:43:02 am »

Quote from: TB-AV on December 01, 2015, 04:43:50 pm

How would that work?

Presuming it can run the same real-time Linux kernel as the bigger Raspberry Pi, I would pre-configure Fluidsynth and the Jack daemon with "aconnect" using a startup script, so that the input from the keyboard/drum pad goes to the output of Fluidsynth.

If I decide I don't want a display I would then use the GPIO headers with momentary switches to do things like change bank/program, adjust volume and so on. I would have to write my own "driver" for that, but it's fairly easy.

It would need a small, low power amp and speakers (which I already have) to be complete.

At the moment I use a 10 years old 10" laptop to control my LPK25 and LPD8

TB-AV · « **Reply #199 on:** December 02, 2015, 02:04:57 am »

Ok, I see... I was thinking of controller in the other direction.

As in LPK25 as controller.. .so that would make the Pi the host for the soft synth.

Or do you mean the Pi is going to be some sort of device between the LPK25 and an existing computer? Like a midi interface of some sort?