Tag Archives: raspberry

Tech

Old radio part 2

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I bought a radio … an old one.

So this week I made a Magic Eye replacement using an ESP32, Microphone and a round display.

Maybe I have to fix the black dot (bigger) the lines on the 3D printed part will be invisible when placed in the radio frame.
We’ll see.

Today I made some code to switch to different playlists, using triggers.

  • Multiple playlists containing mp3’s which will be played in order
  • I can trigger at any time a moment that static will be mixed in
  • After the static I can play a new playlist

So this will emulate turning into a radio channel and searching for the next channel

Little demo below

For tuning I will use potentiometer or a rotary encoder to select playlists, using the original knobs below.

Computer, IOT / Domoticz / Home Assistant

Dual PICO UART test with CirquitPython

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Test for UART serial communication for my whack-a-mole game

CODE for Client

import board
import busio
import time

uart = busio.UART(
    tx=board.GP16,
    rx=board.GP17,
    baudrate=115200,
    timeout=1,
)

time.sleep(2)

commands = ["PING", "HELLO", "TEST"]
while True:
    for cmd in commands:
        print("Sending:", cmd)
        uart.write((cmd + "\n").encode())

        response = uart.readline()

        if response:
            print("Response:", response.decode().strip())
        else:
            print("No response")

        time.sleep(1)

CODE for server

import board
import busio
import digitalio
import time

# UART pins
uart = busio.UART(
    tx=board.GP0,
    rx=board.GP1,
    baudrate=115200,
    timeout=0.1
)

# Onboard LED
led = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.LED)
led.direction = digitalio.Direction.OUTPUT

print("UART LED server ready")

while True:
    data = uart.readline()

    if data:
        command = data.decode("utf-8").strip()
        print("Received:", command)

        if command == "PING":
            # Blink LED
            led.value = True
            time.sleep(0.2)
            led.value = False

            # Reply
            uart.write(b"PONG\n")

        else:
            uart.write(b"UNKNOWN\n")

    time.sleep(0.01)
Computer

Whack-a-mole progress

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A while back I started modifying Arcade buttons.

UPDATE 20260706

Fireworks LED addition and modifying Arcade buttons

Now, I’ve made a board with 16 modified buttons and some micropython code.

White = mole, green = hit in time, red = wrong button/out of time, rainbow = bonus points.

Now i have to think of a display and select buttons, to select the game mode and see the score.

Schematic

Above is a simplified schematic. See notes below.

  • Led rings are 8 not in example 12 (didn’t have that part in fritzing)
  • Led rings have 5V, GND, DI (data in) and DO (data out)
  • Led rings are connected in series, python code divides by 8
  • GPIO for buttons (16 yellow) have internal PICO pullup resistors
  • Todo: Screen and mode select
  • Game modes : Currently I can think of four.
  • 1 Player mode – with bonus button – works kindda
  • 2 Player mode – Green player 1 and Blue player 2 – need testing
  • 2 Player mode (half playfield) … todo
  • Above with mixed random colors, press only GREEN (or blue) .. todo
  • 1 Player mode – all random colors + bonus .. todo
  • 1 Player mode – with bonus button – keep bonus pressed for 5 seconds to double, so you need to single hand press others. (Missing is reset bonus?!?) … todo
  • Button keeps lit until pressed .. do 10 in a row. Print fastest and average time… todo

Speedup ?

Scoreboard – using a HUB75 (previous project here)

64×64 Matrixrgb plus Conway’s Game of Life

SCOREBOARD this will be connected using UART to the whack-a-mole Raspberry Pico

Scoreboard

Some game mode examples

Computer, IOT / Domoticz / Home Assistant

Raspberry Pi 5 Projects

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Again … out of SBCs
Where are all these things in my home. Someone is stealing Raspberry Pi’s, ESP32 and other sensors.
(Probably me)

So I’ve got multiple projects running on one RPi.

  • Dual Camera’s on top (brown ribbons), these are for VR streaming project.
  • Dual Camera’s on top. these are for a Red Light Green Light game. (Using motion detection on both camera’s for two players.
  • Below a INMP441 Mems microhone. This is a test for BirdNet recording.

All of the above are partially working. Code follows.

INMP441 is a tricky thing. I needed to do some bitbanging to get it working.

Loads of INMP441 info will be posted

Computer, IOT / Domoticz / Home Assistant

Home Assistant Voice and OpenMqttGateway

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Yesterday I got my Home Assistant Voice!

This is a Non-Cloud solution like Alexa and Google devices.
I only could play with it for a few minutes because I was working on Arduino code with an ILI9341 Display and a BME280 (Temperature/Humidity/Air pressure).

Today I got some new goodies in, one of these is a LilyGO LoRa display which works on 433 Mhz.

I flashed OpenMQTTGateway on this device.

In the past, I posted about the RFCOM Gateway using Domoticz.
This runs on a Raspberry Pi.
While looking for alternatives, I found a rtl-sdr solution.

https://github.com/merbanan/rtl_433

Using this:

But I liked the ESP32 solution more.
Now I can dismantle Domoticz, which served me well for many years.

How cool to see realtime updates!

Note: This is a receiver device only!
But I only use read-only sensors like : Door/window, doorbell, temperature/humidity and Firesensors.

These are automatically detected in Home Assistant.

No more RFXCOM with a Raspberry.

Computer

Amiga on Raspberry Pi 400

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I bought some broken RPi 400’s from Marktplaats, after repairing I installed PiMiga on one of them.

To set up PiMiga, download the PiMiga image via its community torrent link, flash it to a 16GB+ SD card using Raspberry Pi Imager, add your own legally obtained Amiga Kickstart ROM to the boot/kick partition.
I bought the Amiga Forever ROM set.

https://www.amigaforever.com/screenshots

I also installed Aros os on a old Laptop.

http://www.aros.org/

Computer

Started working on C64Pico with Bigred

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A week ago I got the last components delivered to my doorstep.

This project was made by Silvervest and it’s f*ckin awesome.

https://github.com/silvervest/c64pico

I was afraid to start this myself, SMD is on another level for me.
But my good friend Marco said … No problem!

So I ordered components online, which was not easy.
Selecting the correct parts, sizes and options.

Finding orientations of the components
The master at work, he has always been our soldering master (see GPC)
Using a microscope
Flux
Wick
I have to do one myself

These things are really really small

1.6mm x 0.8mm
40 connections / 20mm !

Using tweezers to place the components was even difficult.
The slippery tiny bastard got catapulted everywhere. (Or got stuck on fingers, soldering iron and alike)
Many small components got lost into the 7th dimension. Never to be found again.

Awesome to work on this together, but Marco said that I have to try it myself.
Welllll, I got 3/4 of the ATmega328PB-A perfectly soldered, then I notished that it was crooked.
Desoldering was a mess, and I heated the PCB TOO much with the heatgun.

My messed-up PCB, and f*cked-up IC. Leave it to the professionals.

Next step for me is soldering the 75 mini buttons!

Got a Trinitron display from him, I was looking for this for a long time.

Computer, IOT / Domoticz / Home Assistant

What to do when waiting for your ribs on the smoker. (Programming some python)

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Use a little spoon NOT a knife
Get your fingers underneath the membrane
Preparing the ribs, getting the membrane off.

This time I used a rub with the following ingredients:
Seasalt, garlic, brown sugar, mustard seeds, paprica, cilantroseeds, black pepper, red pepper, oregano, thyme and cumin.

Doing a simple 3-2-1 smoke session, so .. what to do in dose 6 hours?

Lets make something using a Sense hat and Python.
Same HAT I used for my xmas ornament thingy in our tree.

  • Generate a large maze (80×80 for now)
  • Paint the maze using colors on the SenseHat
  • Read joystick movement and scroll the maze accordingly, keeping the player in the middle

Now I have to paint my ribs with BBQ sauce, and leave it in the smoker for yet another hour. (Nice glazing)

Next steps for the maze:

Use a better way to generate (reverse backtracking as I made for my other maze thing)

(Blind) Maze puzzle now with generation and play modes.

Wall collision detection is nearly completed.

Better placement “birth” of player in the maze.

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