[Wylug-discuss] [MASSMAIL] Summary of WYLUG meeting on Monday 29th February 2016

[Gary Stainburn]

On Tuesday 01 March 2016 21:27:35 David Morris wrote:
> *Raspberry Pi3*
>
> Horay - there's a new Pi! Recently announced, at the end of February, the
> new Raspberry Pi 3
> <https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-3-on-sale/>has:
>
>    - 1.2GHz Quad Core Broadcom 64 bit processor
>    - Wifi on board - 802.11b/g/n
>    - Bluetooth Low Energy on board
>    - 1GB Ram @ 900 Mhz
>    - 4 x USB 2 ports
>    - 40 pin GPIO
>    - HDMI, RCA video output
>    - Fully compatible with Raspberry Pi 1 and 2.
>
> It's around £24.99 + VAT but already sold out everywhere and available on
> back order.

I received confirmation last night that my two new Pi3's are on their way.  I 
understand that a lot of places are already out of stock.

> The Pi 3 uses a bit less power when idling than the Pi 2 and the same at
> full load so it'll save a few pennies if you're running 10 Pi 2's in a
> multi room sound and media serving extravaganza
> <http://mailman.lug.org.uk/pipermail/wylug-discuss/2016-February/004476.htm
>l>

I like the idea of built in Bluetooth and WIFI.  It will make my DashCam look 
much better as I won't need external USB versions. I've yet to put the kit in 
the car but it's coming along.  The Bluetooth car diagnostics adaptor has 
arrived. 

I installed some software from the radiodan project which looks for a local 
WIFI that it knows, and if it doesn't find one, it becomes an AP.  This works 
really well, but unfortunately I can't find the URL now.  What it means is 
that when I'm out I can connect to the cam using my phone, but when I'm home, 
the cam can connect to the house WIFI.

As I'm going to start again from scratch, I'm going to have to do this stage 
again, and as I can't find the original UWL, I may have to look at 
http://www.pi-point.co.uk/ which appears to do something similar

I've installed "SMS Gateway" on my Galaxy S6 phone which will allow the 
DashCam to monitor and use my texts.  This means that the DashCam can use my 
phone's unlimited texts allowance and removes the need for a 3G dongle which 
has a monthly charge. (On EE, the PAYG dongle only has 30 days which means 
even if you don't use all the data, you lose it).

The USB GPS dongle will still stick out the end which is a pity, but it means 
that when I'm 10 minutes from home, the car can text my wife to put the 
kettle on :-)

>
> I wondered if the Pi3 might suit as a replacement server for my current
> monolithic Plex server - but I need transcoding at 1080P and the Plex
> recommendations are at least Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz for each stream.

I've had a quick Google and there are a number of hits for using a Pi as a 
Plex server, including transcoding.  These of course are not using Pi3's.

The Pi 3 is supposed to be 10x faster than the Pi 1, but I don't know how it 
compares to a Pi 2.

> *Amazon Dash button with embedded Linux*
>

So Amazon *sell* you a device to make it easier for them to *sell* you more 
products. Neat :-)

>
> There's a teardown here
> <https://mpetroff.net/2015/05/amazon-dash-button-teardown/>and an of how to
> get it to run your own bare metals code. Apparently you can order the
> devices form ebay and then reprogram them yourself if you feel inclined to
> do this.

It does look a nice small device though, and I can see a use for reprogramming 
them for your own use.  I would imagine a AAA battery would last a very long 
time in one of these.  I can see lots of uses for this in the home automation 
system