[sclug] Winter project

[Jason Rivers]

When looking at extending the Pi through it's GPIO you might want to
look at www.quick2wire.com. They have addon boards for the Pi that make
this sort of thing quite easy, and also have a full library here:
https://github.com/quick2wire [1] 

I've started playing with the Pis
GPIO pins but mostly talking to an arduino using I2C, The arduino has
some very simple code on it that accepts 3 bytes of data which is
[Analogue/Digital] - [Pin Number] - [On/off/Value] there's also read
requests to read pins, too - this is because the Pi is less good at
talking PWM and has no analogue input pins. 

The Quick2Link library and
addon boards should. 

As for the Android, if you wish to use Mono, you
can use the Xamarin toolkit (ontop of mono develop) - annoyingly the
Xamarin toolkit doesn't have a linux client, but if you're playing with
.NET, I assume you have access to a windows system, the other downside
is that to actually put your code onto the Arduino, you need a licence,
and they're not cheep. so probably not fit for a hobby. with the (very
limited) Andoird work I've done, I've been in Eclipse on the Android
SDK. 

Hope some of that helps. 

Jason. 

On 14.05.2013 20:56, Neil
Haughton wrote: 

> I've been musing over what actually to do with my Pi
apart from play with
> it when I have the time, and I thought a good use
for it, to while away the
> forthcoming winter evenings and also to put
it to good practical use, would
> be to use it to remotely control my
central heating.
> 
> The idea is to connect the GPIO via some buffering
circuitry to my actual
> controller, to override the two switches that
advance the CH and DHW
> cycles, and also to replace the present room
stat with a temperature sensor
> that the Pi can monitor. The extra
thing that would make this a useful
> device rather than a slightly more
complicated version of what I already
> have in place is an Android app
that allows me to connect over t'internet
> to set the temperature set
point and/or advance the CH and DHW cycles from
> wherever I am using my
mobile phone. I would also be able to monitor the
> room temperature on
the phone.
> 
> So the Pi would act as a "controller controller",
connected via wifi to my
> home router and operated by my mobile phone
over t'internet to report the
> room temperature or operate the two
'switches', perhaps with a simple
> display on the phone showing the
state of the CH and DHW cycles and current
> room temperature.
> 
> The
physics of it I am mentally equipped to do, but the Android app and
the
> Pi software are not something I have tried before (I earn a crust
slaving
> away at the .Net coal face and haven't had the energy to
venture much into
> Linux programming, in spite of best intentions).
>

> Is there anyone out there who could (and would be willing) to mentor
me, at
> least to get me started, and perhaps offer guidance on how to
do the
> Android/Pi stuff? I expect I will be told to use Python on the
Pi, which I
> have never done before, and I guess Eclipse for the
Android part (although
> I am guessing there). I suppose Mono is out of
the question, but that would
> be more comfortable and reduce the
learning curve.
> 
> TIA
> 
> Neil.
 

Links:
------
[1]
https://github.com/quick2wire