Raspberry Pi Tutorial 45: How to use Screen (Linux)

Screen is a program that allows you to run multiple virtual windows or screens within one terminal login session. Why does this matter? It can be a PITA running multiple PuTTY windows open on your machine while you remote into your Linux computer. Screen eliminates the need for you to run multiple windows – instead you can just run screen.   A benefit more important to me is being able to run programs on your remote computer without needing to keep the ssh session window active. Why get a remote Raspberry Pi to run something if it means your home…

Raspberry Pi Tutorial 44: Text Message Greeter

This tutorial brings together what the past two tutorials were working up: turning your Raspberry Pi into a text messaging greeter who welcomes you home from work! In this tutorial I show you how to scan your LAN for your cellphone and then send a message to you via a text welcoming you home.   I know this isn’t the biggest or most interesting project, but the concepts learned can be applied to other projects you may have in mind where you want a reaction based on whether you’re home, and the ability to send SMS out from your Pi…

Raspberry Pi Tutorial 43: Send a Text Message!

In this tutorial I show you how you can use your Raspberry Pi to send a text message to your cellphone using Twilio. Sending text messages is useful if you want updates from your home automation system. In the context of the project I’m working on in the previous tutorial (and the next one), I will use this texting service to send myself a greeting message whenever I come home from work.   This is done using Twilio. I’m not affiliated with them, and there are other options out there. However it’s easy to get started with Twilio and the…

Raspberry Pi Tutorial 42: Who is Home: Network IP Scanning

This is the first of three tutorials that works on turning your Raspberry Pi into a home greeter bot. The idea is: whenever you return home after work or school your Raspberry Pi sends you a text message welcoming you home. The first step in this project is trying to figure out when you’re home without you having to purchase expensive sensing gear or manually interacting with something.   Smartphones are ubiquitous these days, as is Wifi. Everyone has a smart phone on their home wifi network. This can be taken advantage of by having your Pi scan your home’s…

Raspberry Pi Tutorial 41: Control a DSLR with your Pi!

In this tutorial I will show you how to control a DSLR camera with your Raspberry Pi and gphoto2! I am using a Canon EOS Rebel t3i and a Raspberry Pi 2 B.  

Raspberry Pi Tutorial 40 – How to Setup WordPress on your Pi

In the previous tutorial I covered how to setup an Apache web server to host a simple website. But what happens if you want to setup WordPress? In this tutorial I show you how to setup PHP, MySQL, and WordPress on your Pi!  

Raspberry Pi Tutorial 39 – Setup a Website on your Pi!

How to setup an Apache web server on your Raspberry Pi and access that website either via LAN or through your external IP address (internet).  

Raspberry Pi Tutorial 38 – Use an Arduino as a Slave with Python (Nanpy)

Arduinos are great. The Raspberry Pi is pretty cool too. Together, they’re spectacular. However writing separate codes in different languages to have the two units works together is a bit of a hassle. In this tutorial I show you how to stream commands from the Raspberry Pi to the Arduino using UART serial communication. The package is Nanpy, allowing you to run Arduino commands in a Python script.  

Raspberry Pi Tutorial 37 – ATMEGA328P Serial Monitor Communication

In the previous tutorial I showed you how to connect your Raspberry Pi to an ATMEGA328P AVR microcontroller and program it using SPI. Now I am going to show you how to connect to the ATMEGA328P through UART using trivial serial monitor communication.  

Raspberry Pi Tutorial 36 – ATMEGA328P AVR (Arduino) Programming via GPIO (SPI)

How to program an Atmel AVR ATMEGA328P chip with Arduino bootloader preloaded via the Raspberry Pi’s GPIO header! In this tutorial we walk through programming the ATMEGA328P to blink a LED through the SPI bus a the Raspberry Pi.  

Raspberry Pi Tutorial 35 – Wireless Pi to Arduino Communication with NRF24L01+ Part 2

How to establish two way communication between a Raspberry Pi and an Arduino using a NRF24L01+ transceiver. These are inexpensive transceivers allowing for high speed long range communication sending upwards of 2 Mbps. This is a master / slave setup between the Raspberry Pi and Arduino, following up on a previous setup tutorial.  

Raspberry Pi Tutorial 34 – Wireless Pi to Arduino Communication with NRF24L01+ Part 1

How to send bytes of data between a Raspberry Pi and Arduino using a NRF24L01+ transceiver! These low cost transceivers allow for communication ranges on the order of 30m using only a few jumper wires.  

Raspberry Pi Tutorial 33 – Wireless Pi to Pi Python Communication with NRF24L01+ Part 2

The NRF24L01 + is an inexpensive low power high speed communication device! It’s not exactly plug and plug on a Raspberry Pi though, as compared to a wifi dongle. Building upon the previous tutorial, in this tutorial I show you how to establish two way communication between two Raspberry Pis connected to two NRF24L01+ transceivers! I’m talking master and slave communication style simulating pulling data from a sensor.  

Raspberry Pi Tutorial 32 – Wireless Pi to Pi Python Communication with NRF24L01+ Part 1

The NRF24L01 + is an inexpensive low power high speed communication device! It’s not exactly plug and plug on a Raspberry Pi though, as compared to a wifi dongle. In this tutorial I show you how to establish one way communication between two Raspberry Pis connected to two NRF24L01+ transceivers!  

Raspberry Pi Tutorial 31 – Catching the Cookie Thief

Putting together what we’ve learned from the past few Raspberry Pi tutorials, we catch our Cookie Thief!   This video is part of a series of building a practically ‘useful’ security system using Raspberry Pi to catch the Cookie Thief. I am not a computer scientist, software engineer, programmer or electrical engineer. Everything I cover was self taught using resources I found on the web. I thought it would be great to put together a series of videos that consolidates what I have learned to yield a single resource to cover many interesting topics about the Raspberry Pi! Having said…

Raspberry Pi Tutorial 30 – Transfer or Backup a File using Socket File Transfer!

This video is part of a series of building a practically ‘useful’ security system using Raspberry Pi to catch the Cookie Thief. I am not a computer scientist, software engineer, programmer or electrical engineer. Everything I cover was self taught using resources I found on the web. I thought it would be great to put together a series of videos that consolidates what I have learned to yield a single resource to cover many interesting topics about the Raspberry Pi! Having said that, due to my relatively little experience, I may have made mistakes or could have done certain things…

Raspberry Pi Tutorial 29 – Practical Socket Communication

The last couple videos setup our server and client using trivial text based examples. We need to get this doing something practical! I show you how to flip a relay based on temperature readings from a TMP36. Starting to bring it together.   This video is part of a series of building a practically ‘useful’ security system using Raspberry Pi to catch the Cookie Thief. I am not a computer scientist, software engineer, programmer or electrical engineer. Everything I cover was self taught using resources I found on the web. I thought it would be great to put together a…

Raspberry Pi Tutorial 28 – Socket Communication 2

How to setup the client side of the other Raspberry Pi, allowing us to communication through TCP and get some data sent!   This video is part of a series of building a practically ‘useful’ security system using Raspberry Pi to catch the Cookie Thief. I am not a computer scientist, software engineer, programmer or electrical engineer. Everything I cover was self taught using resources I found on the web. I thought it would be great to put together a series of videos that consolidates what I have learned to yield a single resource to cover many interesting topics about…

Raspberry Pi Tutorial 27 – Socket Communication 1

Raspberry Pi Tutorial 26 – GPIO DHT22 Digital Temperature + Humidity Sensor