Pi-users June 2013

pi-users@socs.uoguelph.ca

5 participants
5 discussions

a robot contest!
by Judi McCuaig 25 Jun '13

25 Jun '13

We had a small but enthusiastic turnout to last week's pi-users meeting. After looking at a few in-progress projects we had a look at a list of projects that we had found online. You can see the whole list of projects on our pi-users website. http://pi-users.socs.uoguelph.ca We decided that we should focus the pi-users group efforts on a project so we decided to run a robot contest something like the one described here: http://pi-users.socs.uoguelph.ca/?page_id=33 Basically you are challenged to build a robot using your pi that will propel itself down the hallway, stop when it encounters a wall, turn 180 degrees and propel itself back to the start. You can use a battery or you can have a long extension cord.. it doesn't matter. We'll have a 'wall' at the start position too so that its easy to tell when you are back to the beginning. Post your progress to the list. We'll run one set of trials before the summer is out and then we'll run another set the first week of classes so that people who are away for the summer can still build and compete. I'll try to create some judging criteria and maybe even find a couple of small prizes. Finally, I'd like your help in trying out one of the enrichment activities we have designed for first year programming students. You can see the activity at http://greebo.socs.uoguelph.ca/~bend Please give it a go and send any comments you might have to me. Hope to see you at the next meeting! Judi

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meeting this thursday
by Judi McCuaig 18 Jun '13

18 Jun '13

Hi folks, We'll have a pi-users meeting this thursday- bring your show-and-tell items if you have them. I've got a shiny document filled with cool pi-projects that we can chat about and maybe set a goal for something we can all build over the remainder of the summer. Two other items: 1) We've got a pi-stuff channel in an irc chat room that I hang out it. If you feel like joining us in irc please do: tigger.pearlstein.ca 2) The first Ti-Cats home game is on thursday night.. so parking on campus will be a nightmare. I suggest biking or walking to the meeting. The parking announcement is below. See you Thursday! Judi ************* Campus Bulletin Most of the parking lots in central campus will be affected during the first game played by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in Alumni Stadium Thursday, June 20. This will be the only home game that will be held on a regular work day. Motorists are asked to remove cars from parking lots near the University Centre and South Residences, west of the Ontario Veterinary College and along College Avenue by 4:30 p.m. Thursday. These lots -- P8, 9, 11, 17, 19, 23, 24, 30 and 31 - will be reserved for game parking that evening. Lot P6, located north of the Powell Building, and P59, at the western end of the South Ring Rd. Extension (west of the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario), will be reserved beginning at 5 a.m. Thursday and will not be available for U of G parking all day. Lots P48 and P49, located on Powerhouse Lane adjacent to Alumni Stadium, will be reserved beginning at 5 a.m. Wednesday, and Powerhouse Lane will also be closed. Parking and access in this area will not be available until after the game on Thursday. Lot P7, located east of the stadium off East Ring Road, will remain closed for the entire 2013 football season. Affected lots are highlighted on a campus map: http://www.uoguelph.ca/img/news/ParkingLotMap.png All of the above lots with the exception of P7 will resume regular use after the game. Local traffic is expected to be very congested around campus and on Gordon Street before and immediately after the game, which begins at 7 p.m. There will be signs in the area directed people to Ticat parking lots.

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Re: [Pi-users] Pi-users Digest, Vol 3, Issue 3
by James Chapman-Brown 14 Jun '13

14 Jun '13

Why don't you solder the wires onto the pi, it's a fairly permenant solution, requires a bit of skill, but should be rock solid and take up no space at all. I just looked at my pi and soldering connections that large is a breeze. ----- Original Message ----- From: pi-users-request(a)socs.uoguelph.ca To: pi-users(a)socs.uoguelph.ca Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2013 12:33:23 PM Subject: Pi-users Digest, Vol 3, Issue 3 Send Pi-users mailing list submissions to pi-users(a)socs.uoguelph.ca To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://snowhite.socs.uoguelph.ca/mailman/listinfo/pi-users or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to pi-users-request(a)socs.uoguelph.ca You can reach the person managing the list at pi-users-owner(a)socs.uoguelph.ca When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Pi-users digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Re: My Pi Project (Julian Horvat) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2013 12:27:23 -0400 From: Julian Horvat <horvat(a)uoguelph.ca> To: "Stefan C. Kremer" <skremer(a)uoguelph.ca> Cc: pi-users(a)socs.uoguelph.ca Subject: Re: [Pi-users] My Pi Project Message-ID: <CACZE84eNLe0cOKu_R0BZpSre4ju_qc8d-dyEmAD00JTtnzmS=Q(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" If looking nice isn't a problem you could probably open that USB plug's plastic housing and then just protect the wires again using some electrical tape. Unless of course there's something important in that housing (not sure what that could be but you never know). Its not pretty and it'll be tedious but you should be able to reduce the size of that plug by removing all that plastic. If you're lucky you may even be able to preserve the metal that gives the plug more grip in the port. I won't be able to do it until much later tonight but I can post my own cable that I ripped apart to give you a feel of what it looks like. - Julian On Wed, Jun 12, 2013 at 5:56 PM, Stefan C. Kremer <skremer(a)uoguelph.ca>wrote: > Hi, > > So a few weeks ago, I spoke to this group about my RaspberryPi project: > an on-board sailing coach computer. The goal of this is to create a > self-contained, battery powered, waterproof Pi equipped with GPS, Compass, > Accelerometer and Gyroscopes. > > This is a little project report/update for anyone who is interested as > well as to see if anyone has any help with a couple of challenges that I > have encountered. > > I purchased a 4.3" diagonal TV (designed for car use) and successfully > connected it to the Pi (via RCA cable) and a USB cable for power (it can > run off 5v). My goal is to embed that display into my waterproof Otterbox > connected to a Cell-phone recharger USB battery. I will power the Pi also > via another Cell-phone recharger USB battery. > > The problem that I'm facing at this point is connecting all the cables and > still fitting everything into the box. > > For the RCA video connection, I need to take the cable from the mini-TV > which has a female RCA and connect it to the Pi which also has a female > RCA, so I need to have a male-male connector, like this one: > > > > sold by Adafruit.com > > But, that's going to stick out really far from the Pi, especially when I > connect the connector on the end of the TV's cable to it. I might try to > get a right-angle RCA connector like this: > > > > > I haven't found a good source for this connector in Canada; if you can > find one, please let me know. > > But, really I should get a male-male right angle RCA connector which does > not seem to exist. If anyone can find a male-male version of the right > angle connector, please let me know. > > The other solution is to just remove the female connector from the video > screen and replace it with a male connector that I can plug into the Pi. > If there is a short male RCA connector that I can attach to the video > cable, that would be awesome! Let me know if you know of any. > > The situation is even worse with the USB connections. I connect the GPS > breakout board to the Pi using this USB to TTL Serial cable: > > Holy cow! Look at the length of the USB plug on that sucker! It almost > doubles the length of the Pi when plugged in! > > I'm using the same cable to connect the Battery to the video. But the > battery has the USB output power on the side so it more than doubles the > width of the battery. Ack! > > There's a swivel adapter: > > > But even the swively part of that sticks out about 1" beyond the edge of > the Pi. > > Crazy thing is I have a USB Wifi adaptor that is tiny in comparison and it > does 802.11b/g presumably had an antenna inside, and only sticks out about > 2mm: > Wow, that's nice and small. > > So if anyone has any ideas on <how to build/where to buy> a > "short-profile" USB connector, please let me know. > > Once, I get these pieces resolved, I can finish the physical build. > > The next step after that will be to start pulling data off the sensors and > displaying them on the screen (first, while I walk to work, then on the > boat). > > Stefan Kremer > > > -- > Dr. Stefan C. Kremer, Director > School of Computer Science > skremer(a)uoguelph.ca * 519-824-4120x58913 > > > _______________________________________________ > Pi-users mailing list > Pi-users(a)socs.uoguelph.ca > http://snowhite.socs.uoguelph.ca/mailman/listinfo/pi-users > >

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My Pi Project
by Stefan C. Kremer 13 Jun '13

13 Jun '13

Hi, So a few weeks ago, I spoke to this group about my RaspberryPi project: an on-board sailing coach computer. The goal of this is to create a self-contained, battery powered, waterproof Pi equipped with GPS, Compass, Accelerometer and Gyroscopes. This is a little project report/update for anyone who is interested as well as to see if anyone has any help with a couple of challenges that I have encountered. I purchased a 4.3" diagonal TV (designed for car use) and successfully connected it to the Pi (via RCA cable) and a USB cable for power (it can run off 5v). My goal is to embed that display into my waterproof Otterbox connected to a Cell-phone recharger USB battery. I will power the Pi also via another Cell-phone recharger USB battery. The problem that I'm facing at this point is connecting all the cables and still fitting everything into the box. For the RCA video connection, I need to take the cable from the mini-TV which has a female RCA and connect it to the Pi which also has a female RCA, so I need to have a male-male connector, like this one: sold by Adafruit.com But, that's going to stick out really far from the Pi, especially when I connect the connector on the end of the TV's cable to it. I might try to get a right-angle RCA connector like this: I haven't found a good source for this connector in Canada; if you can find one, please let me know. But, really I should get a male-male right angle RCA connector which does not seem to exist. If anyone can find a male-male version of the right angle connector, please let me know. The other solution is to just remove the female connector from the video screen and replace it with a male connector that I can plug into the Pi. If there is a short male RCA connector that I can attach to the video cable, that would be awesome! Let me know if you know of any. The situation is even worse with the USB connections. I connect the GPS breakout board to the Pi using this USB to TTL Serial cable: Holy cow! Look at the length of the USB plug on that sucker! It almost doubles the length of the Pi when plugged in! I'm using the same cable to connect the Battery to the video. But the battery has the USB output power on the side so it more than doubles the width of the battery. Ack! There's a swivel adapter: But even the swively part of that sticks out about 1" beyond the edge of the Pi. Crazy thing is I have a USB Wifi adaptor that is tiny in comparison and it does 802.11b/g presumably had an antenna inside, and only sticks out about 2mm: Wow, that's nice and small. So if anyone has any ideas on <how to build/where to buy> a "short-profile" USB connector, please let me know. Once, I get these pieces resolved, I can finish the physical build. The next step after that will be to start pulling data off the sensors and displaying them on the screen (first, while I walk to work, then on the boat). Stefan Kremer -- Dr. Stefan C. Kremer, Director School of Computer Science skremer(a)uoguelph.ca * 519-824-4120x58913

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pi-users group meeting this Thursday
by Judi McCuaig 05 Jun '13

05 Jun '13

Hi everyone, This Thursday at 6:30 we'll have our next pi-users group meeting. If you've got projects to show off, please come a little early to set up and we'll have a show-and-tell time right at 6:30. Everyone can set up, and we'll just wander around looking at the different projects. If you want to give people a sneak preview of what you've been doing, post a message to the list and tell us about it. (you can post to the list by emailing pi-users(a)socs.uoguelph.ca) We'll take a look at the shoot-the-fruit game and see how far people got in making mods to it and I think we'll fire up my Gert boards and see what we can do with them. I have keyboards and monitors aplenty I think, but I'm short on mice- so if you have an extra mouse bring it with you? See you Thursday! Judi

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Pi-users June 2013