Skip to main content

more for self notes than anything

I moved into a new apartment on August, and so far, it's been great.

One of the things that I noticed when I got the keys to the apartment was that the front-door key was labeled "do not duplicate."


I normally copied a set of keys just in case I lose them, so I checked the internet to see if the "do not duplicate" denoted a physical difficulty or a moral request. The results pointed towards the former. Search results pointed out that these keys required a special "owner card," and locksmiths needed a special copying device for these specific locks. Inconvenient.

Meanwhile, I was humoring the thought of getting my hands on a Raspberry Pi, but I couldn't really think of a reason to justify the purchase.

Well, the two thoughts crossed ways, and the conclusion of "I should program something to open my front door" was made.

How?

There's an intercom system in the apartment, and I supposed that having something press the door open button would be something.

And the click on the check out button was made.

That was about 2 weeks ago.The Raspberry Pi is now here, and I have already started messing around with it. 

After working on it a bit, doing research on implementation and "learning" Python whenever it is needed, I thought that recording my progress would be a good and organized way to look back on it.

This is that record, and I'll try to write as much information as I can.

Couple of posts would be a recap of my progress to date, and future posts will be more of an update.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

dabbling with cylon

I'm playing around with Cylon JS whenever I have the time. in order to use the leap motion for control, the hand control will need to communicate with the pc that is connected to the leap motion device (leap motion does not provide an arm/linux driver). it seems that Cylon devices can communicate with each other through socket.io or http, and I am currently playing around with that.

interfacing alcohol sensor with the led

Programmed the Arduino to have the alcohol sensor play with the LED display. I had the display show either "open" or "lock" depending on the alcohol sensor level. Here is the result: Notice that this has a very notable flaw with respect to its potential use as a "breathalyzer lock": it stays "open" as long as there is alcohol present, which only then "lock"s. This means that currently, if you leave it alone (no breathing into it), it will keep the device unlocked. This is something I will have to resolve. code used for this: int del = 5000; int gasPin = 0; int value = 0; int lastValue = 0; void setup(){ //  Serial.begin(9600);   pinMode(12, OUTPUT);   pinMode(11, OUTPUT);   pinMode(10, OUTPUT);   pinMode(9, OUTPUT);   pinMode(8, OUTPUT);   pinMode(7, OUTPUT);   pinMode(6, OUTPUT);   pinMode(5, OUTPUT);   pinMode(4, OUTPUT);   pinMode(3, OUTPUT);   pinMode(2, OUTPUT);   pinMode(1, OUTPUT);...

alcohol sensor (and some patience)

Soldered the alcohol sensor into something that is connectable: I tried to connect this to the Arduino, as I had the appropriate circuitry, but I did not get any legitimate output from it. 5V going in, 5V coming out with no variations. Nothing seems to be awry in wiring, as the circuit seems to be grounded properly (and the 5V current is flowing).  There are a couple of potential factors as to why I'm not seeing any results: - I'm using a 10k ohm resistor, while some guides (and the datasheet for the sensor) asks for 100-200k. However, there seems to be a good amount of people using 10k and getting at least some kind of result. A batch of 100k ohm resistors I ordered is on its way, so I guess I can try with them when they come. - This site  claims that these sensors take 24-48 hours for its signals to be stable. It also tells me that I should not be powering the sensor directly from the Arduino, which I have been doing, out of concern that the power draw of ...