Arduino Pomodoro Timer

Do you want to work on something, fully focused? Maybe The Pomodoro Technique can help you. It dictates that you work in blocks of 25-minutes.

Timer

Inspired by this concept, I made my own Pomodoro Timer, with an Arduino of course ;) I made a prototype, with a breadboarded Arduino and only a Lego casing around the display, but it could also be built into a proper case of course.

When connecting to power, it will automatically start counting down 25 minutes (default). When your time is up, you will hear a beep and the timer shuts its display down. With one press on the button and you can start a new session. When pressing the button multiple times, you can switch the count-down period.

One button

The timer had to be super-easy to operate, so it only has one button. This button will make the timer:

• Reset the current session when already counting down;
• Switch to a different count-down period (25 (default), 45, 5 or 15 minutes);
• Start a new session when stopped.

Display

The display I used is a 3-Wire LED Module from DFRobot.

Demonstration

Source code

Download the source code for the Arduino Pomodoro Timer

How to fix boot problems with Hynix Raspberry Pi

I fixed a way to make the new 512MB Model B Raspberry Pi with Hynix RAM work with images based on an older boot loader.

Just a Red LED

Many users just have a "Red LED" and no further activity when using some images on their 512MB Raspberry Pi. When the Red LED lits and the green flashes briefly, there could be a problem with the version of the boot loader you are using.

512MB model with Hynix RAM needs latest boot loader

Supposedly there are multiple versions of the 512MB Model B Raspberry Pi. I am having the lastest edition, with the new Hynix RAM. This might have advantages (newer is better?) but older boot loaders won't work on this one. Please also look at: http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/3534

Because many 3rd party images are not based on the latest version of Raspbian (with the new boot loader), they won't work on these newer Raspberry Pi boards.

Is your Raspberry Pi working?

To determine whether your Pi is working in general, just make a "regular" latest version (2013-02-09-wheezy-raspbian in my case) SD card. See if your Pi starts as supposed to.

Yes? Let's migrate the boot loader

If your Raspberry Pi is working with the latest Raspbian, try the following steps:

Backup the Boot loader

If your Raspberry Pi is working OK with the above image, mount the SD card on your computer and backup the "bootcode.bin" and "start.elf" files.

Create your image

Make the image you want (I was working on a Ninjablocks SD card, with the image from http://wiki.ninjablocks.com/images#raspberry-pi).

Replace the boot loader

After creating the new image (that doesn't work, because of the wrong boot loader) replace the "bootcode.bin" and "start.elf" files with the ones from the Raspbian Wheezy backup.

That's it!

Now insert your SD Card in your Raspberry Pi, and it should work! At least, it did in my case :)

Setup a Raspberry Pi LAMP web server from scratch (without monitor, keyboard or mouse attached)

Friday I received my Raspberry Pi. My intention is to use it as a webserver. When you receive a Raspberry Pi it doesn't do anything straight out of the box. In this blogpost I will give you an overview of how I set up my Raspberry Pi with just:

• The Raspberry Pi itself
• A 4GB SD card

So I never connected a screen, keyboard and mouse to it, to install it.

Prepare the SD card

Download the image (I used the Raspbian “wheezy”) and put it to an SD card. To make this process easy I used the Pi filler (for Mac OS X 10.5 through 10.8). Read more on how to set up your SD card here.

SSH to your Pi

Insert your prepared SD-card in your Raspberry Pi, connect your ethernet and hook it up to power. Your Raspberry Pi will boot.

Since the latest images SSH is enabled by default. This makes it possible to directly connect to your Raspberry Pi, without attaching a monitor, keyboard and mouse the first time.

You can find the IP-address of your Raspberry Pi in your router, or use a tool like Pi Finder.

If you open a terminal (e.g. Terminal on Mac) you can connect to your Raspberry Pi:

ssh pi@192.168.xxx.xxx

The default password is "raspberry".
But to make life easier, you can copy your SSH certificate to the Raspberry Pi to make logging in very easy:

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh pi@192.168.xxx.xxx 'cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys'

Just type the password one last time and you're done!
After logging in,  you can change the default password:

sudo passwd pi <<<PASSWORD>>>

Basic Raspberry Pi config

Run the following, to configure your Raspberry Pi:

sudo raspi-config

raspi-config

I made the following settings:

• Expand_rootfs, to have more storage space (makes it possible to use the full SD card)
• memory_split, changed it to 16, because I don't need graphical memory for my webserver. 
• boot_behaviour, "no", don't start the desktop
• update, to update raspi-config

Update Debian

To update Debian:

• sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get upgrade

Install Git

sudo apt-get install git-core

Install automatic firmware updater and update

• sudo wget https://raw.github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update -O /usr/bin/rpi-update && sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/rpi-update
• sudo rpi-update

Now the firmware and software are up to date, reboot the Pi:

sudo shutdown -r now

Install Apache and PHP5

sudo apt-get install apache2 php5 libapache2-mod-php5

If you want to enable all error reporting you could do stuff like this:

• echo 'error_reporting  =  E_ALL' > /etc/php5/conf.d/error_reporting.ini
• echo 'display_errors = On' >> /etc/php5/cond./error_reporting.ini

Install MySQL

sudo apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client php5-mysql

Restart Apache

sudo service apache2 restart

That's it!

Now you have a running webserver with PHP5 and MySQL. You can put your PHP files in /var/www/.

Arduino Facebook like-counter with 7 segment display

Last year I wanted to be able to follow the amount of likes on a website, but not by looking at a Facebook or the website itself. I made an IRL display with the amount of likes with an Arduino.

The case
I created an PHP-script, using the Facebook API, checking the amount of likes and just outputting it. My Arduino would regularly check for the value outputted by my PHP script and display this on its display.

Requirements
The stuff I used is:

• An Arduino Ethernet
• A 3-wire LED bar module from DF Robot (bought it at iPrototype)

Result
Check this video for the results:

My Arduino code looks like this:

#include <SPI.h>
#include <Ethernet.h>

// Enter a MAC address for your controller below.
// Newer Ethernet shields have a MAC address printed on a sticker on the shield
byte mac[] = {  0x00, 0xAA, 0xBB, 0xCC, 0xDE, 0x02 };
char serverName[] = "xxxxxxxx.nl"; //location of PHP script telling me the amount of likes

const int latchPin = 8;
const int clockPin = 3;
const int dataPin = 9;
byte chars[]={0xc0,0xf9,0xa4,0xb0,0x99,0x92,0x82,0xf8,0x80,0x90,0xff,0xbf,0xf7,0xfb,0xab,0x86}; //0-9," ", -, _,i,n,e

// Initialize the Ethernet client library
// with the IP address and port of the server 
// that you want to connect to (port 80 is default for HTTP):
EthernetClient client;

void setup() {
  pinMode(latchPin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(dataPin, OUTPUT);  
  pinMode(clockPin, OUTPUT);
  
  //Put "ini" on the dis
  digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);
  shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, chars[13]);
  shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, chars[14]);
  shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, chars[13]);
  shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, chars[10]);
  shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, chars[10]);
  shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, chars[10]);
  shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, chars[10]);
  shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, chars[10]);
  digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);
  
  // Open serial communications and wait for port to open:
  Serial.begin(9600);
   while (!Serial) {
    ; // wait for serial port to connect. Needed for Leonardo only
  }

  // start the Ethernet connection:
  if (Ethernet.begin(mac) == 0) {
    Serial.println("Failed to configure Ethernet using DHCP");
    //Put "e" (error) on the dis
    digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);
    shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, chars[15]);
    shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, chars[10]);
    shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, chars[10]);
    shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, chars[10]);
    shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, chars[10]);
    shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, chars[10]);
    shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, chars[10]);
    shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, chars[10]);
    digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);
    // no point in carrying on, so do nothing forevermore:
    while(true);
  }
  // give the Ethernet shield a second to initialize:
  delay(1000);
}

void loop()
{
  checkOnlineStatus();
  delay(2000);
}

void checkOnlineStatus()
{
  //Serial.println("connecting...");
  boolean newLine = true;
  String line = "";
  
  if (client.connect(serverName, 80)) {
    //Serial.println("connected");
    // Make a HTTP request:
    client.println("GET / HTTP/1.0");
    client.println("Host: rogier.nu");
    client.println();
  }
  
while(client.available()){
    char c = client.read();
    //Serial.print(c);
    
    // if you've gotten to the end of the line (received a newline
    // character) and the line is blank, the http request has ended,
    // so you can send a reply
    if (c == '\n' && newLine) {
      
    }
    if (c == '\n') {
      // you're starting a new line
      newLine = true;
      line = "";
    } 
    else if (c != '\r') {
      // you've gotten a character on the current line
      newLine = false;
      line += c; 
    }
  }
  

  processLine(line);

  // if the server's disconnected, stop the client:
  if (!client.connected()) {
    client.stop();
  }
}

void processLine(String line)
{
  if(line.length() > 0) {
    //Serial.println("Verwerken:" + line);

    digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);

    //Putting up the online value
    for(int i=line.length()-1; i >= 0; i--)
    {
      int bitToSet = (byte)line.charAt(i) - 48;
      shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, chars[bitToSet]);
    }
    
    //Putting up the leading zeroes
    for(int i=0; i<8-line.length(); i++)
    {
      shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, chars[10]);
    }
    
    digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);
  }
 }

Improvements

My sketch is relying on an external PHP-script, to make the Arduino code as simple as possible. A better way to do this is by having the Arduino make direct connections to Facebook, as is done in this project: Facebook Like box

Control lights with an Arduino remotely with 433Mhz

I wanted to use Arduino's for a domotica project. The main purpose is to control the lights in my livingroom, using a web-interface. This way I can switch on and off my lights with my mobile phone, iPad, etc. even when I am not home (over the internet)! Because making elektrical connections with Arduino's and the outlet power supply went wrong one time earlier (blew all the fuses!), I wanted to use secure standard components for the high-power part. So, I bought these:


This is a set containing of one transmitter and a couple receivers to wirelessly switch lights (plugged into the outlets) on or off.

The Arduino has a 433 Mhz transmitter and receiver. This way I can listen to what is being broadcast, or I can send signals/codes myself. This is the one I am using: http://www.emartee.com/product/41357/



I used my Arduino to "sniff" the sent signal from the transmitter to the receiver switching the lights. I did this for all on/off combinations for all lights.

The Arduino is also equipped with an ethernet shield, so I can host a litte web application on it. I use this to be able to command my Arduino over the internet or my house network.

So I have:

• An Arduino that "understands" the remote control and can learn from it;
• The possibility to send signals myself as well;
• A small web application running on the Arduino.

In the video below, you can see I am learning the codes from the original transmitter to my Arduino. After learning, I can use the web interface on the Arduino, to retransmit those codes, to switch my lights on and off!

Useful links

• To be able to send and receive the remote's signals, I used the RemoteSwitch library as RF-library, check https://bitbucket.org/fuzzillogic/433mhzforarduino/wiki/Home
• For the webserver on the Arduino, I used the Webduino Library.
• To store the learned codes, and be able to remember them (even after a reset of the Arduino), I store them in the EEPROM. An easy way to store stuff in the EEPROM, is by using the EEPROMAnything code.
• My code examples:
• Simplified source using GET requests and without 7-segment LED display: https://gist.github.com/rogiervandenberg/1f923f0760225054946d
• Source code I am using in the video: https://gist.github.com/rogiervandenberg/1d9c138bbc44524c004c