FUN with RPi

[Xant]

WeeWX works Great in both RPi3 w Python 2.7, or RPi4 w Python 3, or any variant of that.

Although ported to many (thanks Tom), the RPi seems the perfect WeeWX host due to low cost, OS portability, always on, flexibility, etc.

So... what can you do with your "piece of Pi"?

1) WeeWX

First-of-all indeed...

2) Skin

To honor ALL skin developers, and diversity IT's good.

Although, my skin of choice it's Bskin/Belchertown skin (thanks Pat) and HighCharts are great.

3) Influx & Grafana

Here is where you can have a diff DB and Graphs, as the following (my Grafana WeeWX; thanks to Matthew Wall: https://github.com/matthewwall/weewx-influx).

http://appnea.net/grafana/

Bonus: once you have Influx/Grafana working, you can also have RPi monitoring dashboard (https://grafana.com/grafana/dashboards/10578).

4) Nagios

WeeWX Nagios plugin: http://lancet.mit.edu/mwall/projects/nagios/check_wview (again, thanks Matthew Wall)

Extra info to install on RPi:

Pi-hole

Ad-blocker DNS server: https://pi-hole.net/

(it works great...)

Other RPi and NAS projects that "it doesn't work":

Hosting Own eMail

Tried locally, and also through VPS.

1- locally hosting (aka, residential IP) will cause email to be filtered as Spam, and may not reach destination

2- hosting at VPS got in similar issues

So, eMail validation it's complex (https://www.geekwire.com/2015/why-you-shouldnt-try-to-host-your-own-email/ ; https://medium.com/@stoyanov.veseline/self-hosting-a-mail-server-in-2019-6d29542dadd4) and might be not worth it.

Let me know if any other WeeWX or projects accomplished on RPi.

Xant

[Kevin Davis]

I’m using one with autoRipper to rip my CDs to a NAS(also on a Pi) and then it will transitional to a Volumio build to stream audio to my stereo.  

RetroPi is a fun one too!  

And a couple Allstar nodes(ham radio).  

On Jun 3, 2020, at 5:02 PM, Xant <armando...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Daniel Rich]

I have a whole stack of Pi systems...

WeeWx

Home Assistant (home automation - has a PiHole add-on as well) - https://www.home-assistant.io

Asterisk (home PBX, great for sending robocallers off to neverneverland) - http://nerdvittles.com/?p=31616

Stratum 1 time server (RPi with a GPS that supports PPS, ntpd and gpsd)

Console server for my network devices and firewall (RPi with a multipart USB to serial adaptor and https://www.conserver.com)

ADS-B monitor/feeder - https://flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/build

Music Player (currently one in the master bath, one in the family room on the stereo) https://volumio.org

While you can run a media server like Plex on a Pi, I have a NAS that supports it, so I run it there since that is where the audio and video files are.

I have a dream that someday I’m going to buy a handful of Pi 4 8GB boards and build a home kubernetes cluster… this isn’t something that normal people would do. :-)

I don’t run my mail server or monitoring (grafana, influxdb, graphite. sensu, smokeping, PHP weatherman) on a Pi as I found it just has too much CPU and I/O demand. It’s a lot more stable on a bigger machine. The same is true of e-mail, that runs on my home server. And my security camera system runs on a dedicated box for the same reason.

While it isn't on an RPi, I have been playing with a grafana dashboard built from my WeeWX data:

[Xant]

Daniel

Thanks for your feedback, but think there is a misconception. Think that RPi can handle much more load than you think. Underneath, is snapshot of my RPi4, which runs:

• WeeWX
• Belchertown skin
• MQTT (which I forgot to mention in original post)
  
• Influx + Grafana
• Nagios

To note, RPi4 takes all as a breeze, with much more room to spare (and that's why looking for other "RPi projects" to investigate).

My RPi4 Grafana monitor dashboard:

As it can be notice, CPU usage is almost 'none', and can take more...

Similar to your posting, thought Influx/Grafana would be too much for RPi, and tried install in the NAS first... Big mistake, too much trouble and docker, while Influx/Grafana in the RPi is how its supposed to be.

The only reason I'm using Pi-hole in the RPi3 (which it was the one now to spare), is that its now my main wholehouse DNS, and don't want to reboot/shutdown at times.

Per your feedback:

• Home-assistant - will investigate
• Asterisk - though about it, but it is a PBX thing, not a VOIP; a PBX is too much for home use, while I continue searching for a VOIP own hosting option... if it ever exist; so far, I have Ooma
• Stratum - will investigate
  
• Conserver - will investigate
• Flightaware - will investigate
• Music Player - not for the Pi; have Plex on NAS

Xant

[Luc Heijst]

I use my Raspberry Pi model 2B as an airprint server for my old HP Laserjet 4050 printer.

See: https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/dbknom/how_to_turn_your_old_usbonly_hp_printer_into_a/

Note: the printer has a Centronix serial connection, I use a serial to USB adapter cable between the printer and the RPI.

The printer is automaticly recognised by my iPad 6 (IOS 13.4.1) and Windows laptop (Windows 10 - 64 bits).

Luc

[Luc Heijst]

Logitech Media Center on Raspberry Pi

See: https://www.hagensieker.com/wordpress/2018/06/12/302/

The RPI  version of Logitech Media Center is a lot faster than the (elder) version on my Synology NAS.

My configuration:

- Raspberry Pi model 3B+

- Gigabit router and swith

- Synology Squeezebox Radio - name: SB-radio

- Squeezebox Radio UE (firmware converted to Squeezebox Radio) - name: SB-accu

- Logitech Media Server Versie: 7.9.2 - 1578996832 @ Tue Jan 14 12:17:56 CET 2020

Music data:

a. via a network share

b. on a local USB hard disk

Configuration

a. Synology NAS DS216j with a total of 18,063 mp3 songs with embedded lyrics and album covers.

sudo nano /etc/fstab

and add the following line

//<ip-addres-of-nas>/music /home/pi/music cifs username=<myusername>,password=<mypassword>,uid=pi,gid=pi,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777,iocharset=utf8,vers=1.0 0 0

mount /home/pi/music

   

b. My Passport 500 GB USB harddisk connected to the RPI

sudo nano /etc/fstab

and add the following line

PARTUUID=<uuid of my passport disk>  /media/music    ntfs      defaults          0       2

Note: The 135 GB music data was transferred with rsync from my NAS to the local hard disk.
(My cmon application crashed during the transfer because the number of received bytes by the network was bigger than the database int(11) value!)

On my iPad I use the LMS webinterface (http://<ip addres of my RPI>:9000 to control the playing or via my iPeng app.

Luc

[Luc Heijst]

A fun weewx project: Modbus Energy Monitor

Configuration:

- Raspberry PI 3B+

- wifi connection

- usb to modbus converter cable

- Eastron SDM630Modbus_v2_MID smart energy meter

- modbusenergy.py (own developed weewx driver)

The driver has two loop frequencies:

- a fast loop of 1 s to measure the power consumption and line voltages

- a normal loop of 15 s to measure 85 values of the smart meter data

In the service section of the driver the fast loop data is examined.

A a fun project the on-off states of various power consumption devices in my home are detected an presented.

BTW. This RPI also measures the temeperatures and humidities of 10 TFA sensors via the weewx tfrec driver and controll one of my webcams.

Luc

[Daniel Rich]

If you're only using InfluxDB for WeeWX, then a RPi is fine. However, I feed my entire home data collection into it and it would quickly overwhelm both the I/O rates of the RPi as well as memory (CPU would be fine). My InfluxDB instance is using just short of 3GB of real memory and 60+GB of virtual. I ended up moving it and Grafana off to a dedicated box (and a bunch of other monitoring tools) a while back as it was causing I/O issues on my home server. If don't have a drive connected to your RPi for the data you are also going to kill your SD card with the number of writes InfluxDB does. It's a stretch even for the high-write rated cards. I tend to avoid putting anything that requires high data writes on a RPi for that very reason.

I am tempted to get an 8GB RPi 4 with an external drive and move a bunch of things off to it though and retire one of my older server boxes...

I'm using HA for MQTT, it gives me a central place to send it and lets me use it for driving home automation tasks. That includes my power monitoring (Brultech GreenEye), WeeWX output, and motion activation from my cameras (BlueIris).

Funny you mention docker, as that's how I'm running most of my applications these days unless they are on a RPi. It makes them easy to move around from system to system and to manage upgrades. I run very little in docker on my NAS though, it just doesn't have the CPU power (although it is where I'm running Plex). My LMS server is in Docker however on the NAS because it's easier than dealing with Synology's package that they break from time to time.

As for the music player -- the RPi is the player, not the streamer. Since the NAS doesn't have audio output, I need something to feed the music to my stereo (and the speakers in the bathroom). It pulls the music directly from the NAS and the one in the bathroom has a 7" display on it so it can be controlled either locally or from a phone or tablet. 

We don't have VoIP, our phone lines terminate in a analog-to-voip box from GrandStream. We don't really need the PBX, but it does give me a way to make telemarketers go away as the home phone only rings after some either goes through a IVR (which robocallers can't figure out) or comes from a known number.

[Xant]

Thank you all for your piece of Pi feedback. All interesting Projects, and learning.

For one, Media stuff I still keeps in my NAS, and glad for this configuration. Not just my QNAP provides good Plex and media library, but also works great as Web Server with Multiple Virtual Hosts (WeeWX included).

This is important to note, that my QNAS setup allows Web Server hosting for MULTIPLE Domains, even with a regular Residential IP... which I don't think "easily" possible with RPi, or extended hack.

So, any Media stuff goes to NAS, other RPi's goes to RPis as possible...

And yes... my QNAS  TS-253A even has a HDMI, which would allow direct connection to TV for further "entertainment". But it is hard-drive noisy, and now in the basement while performing Media network streaming.

Thanks to Daniel Rich for appoint Home Assistant (installed and learning).

And Luc Heijst, Modbus Energy Monitor might be next.

Xant

[Xant]

Luc

The Modbus Energy Monitor seems very enticing as next RPi Project.

But as seen in snapshots your house power-panel seems much more "cleaner" and high-tech than mine, which has the usual standard (and probably old) power-switches/circuit-breaker and no "smart-meter".

That said, think my house may not be a "candidate" for Modbus Energy Monitor, correct?

Xant

[Luc Heijst]

Xant,

The smart meter was no part of my house power installation. The installation has three phase 230 V, mainly for the airco’s and three phase 130 V for equipment and light.

I have installed the smart meter myself. By wiring 3 phase wires (6 mm2) from the main power switch to the smart meter and the 3 outgoing wires to the power rails. I followed studies electro technics, so I know what I’m doing.

The maximum input current of the meter is 100 A, so I didn’t have to use extra current transformers.

I bought a modbus to usb adapter which is wired to one of the usb inputs of the raspberry pi.

So, without a smart power meter with a modbus interface you are not a candidate for my modbus energy monitor I’m afraid.

Luc

[Xant]

Daniel et al

Per your note, recently found-out HomeAssistant (and keeping up at night...).

As open-source, information is scattered, and sometimes dated.... with time allowance, already setup some things, but still debating with MQTT.

Pat has some information before, but think that some have already changed as well (https://groups.google.com/d/msg/weewx-user/EI1mi1qrGA8/IuJlV_B3FQAJ).

Would appreciate feedback on how to setup Hass MQTT, which it seems not provide much (graphical maybe) config options, to connect to generic and WeeWX.

Xant