What to do with a Raspberry Pi Zero?

[Ian]

I bought a Raspberry Pi 3 to use as a 3D Print server (using Octoprint, but more on that later!). I noticed that the same shop had a Raspberry Pi Zero in stock for just £4... crazy to think that you can buy a mini Linux PC for that price!

I'm going to have a tinker with it next week to see how powerful it is, but I'd be interested to know if you guys can think of anything interesting that could be made with a mini £4 linux powered device? I'm considering using it for wireless audio streaming or perhaps add a relay to the GPIO ports to control things over the network... but neither of these are things I would use often.

Here's a pic of the thing, it's only 65mm x 30mm x 5mm:

• 1Ghz, Single-core CPU
• 512MB RAM
• Mini HDMI and USB On-The-Go ports
• Micro USB power
• HAT-compatible 40-pin header
• Composite video and reset headers

 

[Abarbarian]

The Raspberry Pi Zero now comes complete with a camera port! Using the new Raspberry Pi Zero Camera Adapter, you can now use a Raspberry Pi camera to your Zero

You could make a front door wireless video entry watcher that shows folk arriving on your pc monitor.

If you want to get really geeky then have a looksee here,

Get Started with Docker 1.12 on Raspberry Pi

 

[muckshifter]

... encase it in amber and bury it.

 

[floppybootstomp]

I'll watch this thread with interest as I too bought a Raspberry Pi Zero. The idea was to use it as an audio server and to that end I also bought the accessory kit (HDMI adapter and stuff) plus a digital audio interface or 'Hat'. I also have a wireless usb network adapter.

And tbh I have not a clue how to put it together, the biggest question being do I solder the 'hat' to the Zero or not? Plus I notice tiny touch screen monitor screens are available or could I access the Zero on my Windows Network? I would need to be able to see all the audio to select content to play.

At the moment all the relevant pieces are in a case under my bed cos I'm at a bit of a loss. Oh yes, I also have a Logitech wireless mouse and keyboard combo that work with it, I know this cos when I first received it I put it all together with a Linux OS and it worked fine.

Maybe I should start a new thread listing and showing pictures of all the separate components I have.

edit: New thread here: https://www.pcreview.co.uk/threads/help-needed-using-raspberry-pi-zero-for-audio-server.4071067/

 

[Ian]

I've been having a think on this and I'm going to try and create something that will tie in some of the separate home automation things we're got going, so I can use a service like IFTTT to control them. We've got some programmable lights, a Logitech Harmony Remote, Sonos, some IR LED strips and remote switch sockets - but none of them can be controlled from one place (yet!).

I've got some relays and have tested them on the GPIO pins a while back, so I can use that to control some of the items - then there are scripts for the lights and Sonos that I can use on the Pi Zero.

Pretty excited about this! .

If you want to get really geeky then have a looksee here,

Get Started with Docker 1.12 on Raspberry Pi

Funny you mention that as I started using Docker a few months ago and haven't looked back - it's fantastic. It makes running small apps really easy, there is almost no configuration required and I can run them all on the NAS.

I've started a fresh thread now so, Ian, if you wish to delete all mine and Abarbarians posts here then do so.

No problem, I'll clean up the thread and add a link to your post above - hope that's ok @Abarbarian

 

[Abarbarian]

Well you can run Docker on the Zero so you should be able to run Lychee inside Docker on the Zero. Hook it up to a Dropbox account and when you are out and about you can take pics with your phone and they will be saved to Lychee safe at home via Dropbox. If that makes any sense.

Self-hosted photo-management done right

Lychee is a free photo-management tool, which runs on your server or web-space. Installing is a matter of seconds. Upload, manage and share photos like from a native application. Lychee comes with everything you need and all your photos are stored securely.

http://forums.scotsnewsletter.com/index.php?showtopic=89052#entry440970



I realise that you have servers and stuff but it could be a quick and easy fun project to try.

 

[Abarbarian]

I'm reading up and playing with docker on a pi at the moment and came across an article that mentione Node-RED running on a pi. Lost the article but here is a link to Node-RED.

http://nodered.org/

Node-RED provides a browser-based flow editor that makes it easy to wire together flows using the wide range nodes in the palette. Flows can be then deployed to the runtime in a single-click.

JavaScript functions can be created within the editor using a rich text editor.

A built-in library allows you to save useful functions, templates or flows for re-use.

Built on Node.js
The light-weight runtime is built on Node.js, taking full advantage of its event-driven, non-blocking model. This makes it ideal to run at the edge of the network on low-cost hardware such as the Raspberry Pi as well as in the cloud.

With over 225,000 modules in Node's package repository, it is easy to extend the range of palette nodes to add new capabilities.

As you mentioned home automation and docker I thought you might be interested.

To make messing around easier you could use docker to make a Node-RED container. I found a docker friendly os for the pi called HypriotOS and am using it for my experiments.

http://blog.hypriot.com/post/releasing-HypriotOS-1-0/

I am using version 1.0.1 but I seem to have lost the link. You can just change "v1.0.0" to "v1.0.1" in the instructions above and it will get you the new version if you decide to have a looksee.









http://nodered.org/

 

[Ian]

Thanks @Abarbarian - I've got a NAS that does all the things that Lychee can do, so probably not much point in me duplicating things there. I may give it a whirl out of curiosity though .

I have to confess, I'm not entirely sure what NodeRED does - if it's just a way to organise flow, it may be overkill for what I had in mind - there will only be about 5 things integrated! I found a clever project on GitHub that should mean I can control Sonos (https://github.com/jlmcgehee21/SoCo), so that is quite a bit of the hard work done already .

 

[Abarbarian]

Thanks @Abarbarian - I've got a NAS that does all the things that Lychee can do, so probably not much point in me duplicating things there. I may give it a whirl out of curiosity though .

I have to confess, I'm not entirely sure what NodeRED does - if it's just a way to organise flow, it may be overkill for what I had in mind - there will only be about 5 things integrated! I found a clever project on GitHub that should mean I can control Sonos (https://github.com/jlmcgehee21/SoCo), so that is quite a bit of the hard work done already .

I seem to have come across a stumbling block in my Lychee/docker plan . So I may try to install Lychee as is on the pi and then try to make a docker image when I know what I am doing.

As to Node-RED sort of have an idea what it does but it does have some tie in with sonos,

http://www.networkworld.com/article/3075329/internet-of-things/node-red-wiring-the-raspberry-pi-to-the-iot.html

http://www.networkworld.com/article...ot-connected-raspberry-pi-smarter.html#slide2

http://flows.nodered.org/

 

[Ian]

Ah, so there is far more to NodeRED than meets the eye... I need to read up on this then!

Good luck with Lychee!

 

[Ian]

Looks like most of the things I want to integrate already have some plugins for NodeRed, so perhaps this is the way to go - I need to get my head around MQTT first it seems.

 

[Abarbarian]

Ah, so there is far more to NodeRED than meets the eye... I need to read up on this then!

Good luck with Lychee!

Phew I thought it may be of use but was a tad worried that I may have been wasting your time with a red herring.

Lychee on hold. However I have got Hypriot running on a pi and docker works as I ran the demo docker container.

Hypriot is probably the easiest pi/os install I have ever done and as a plus docker is already set up. Don't you just love penguin geeks

 

[Abarbarian]

Looks like most of the things I want to integrate already have some plugins for NodeRed, so perhaps this is the way to go - I need to get my head around MQTT first it seems.

One last piece of information regarding Pi+NodeRed as I will be really busy from now on for a while.

https://opensource.com/life/15/9/experimenting-docker-raspberry-pi

Now that it's working, what should I try next? One project I find myself continually coming back to on my Pi is Node-RED, which is self-described as "a visual tool for wiring the Internet of Things." You might think of it as an open source version of IFTTT that allows for a much higher level of customization, especially if you're willing to write a little bit of JavaScript.

Sure enough, I was not the first person to have this idea. I found a helpful Dockerfile on GitHub which set everything up for me. There were a couple of extra nodes I wanted to add, and after a little modification I had it up and running, too.

At this point, it's worth asking, so what? Couldn't I have just installed Node-RED directly onto my Pi? Sure, I could have. But now, when I want to "save" a project, I just need to save the Dockerfile, and I can run it on any Pi out there with a very easy installation. If I've got custom code written to import onto the Pi, maybe to talk to an Arduino or blink a series of lights, I can have that code pulled in at container launch. I can modify it easily, in code, and save that revision. I can try out a different Linux distribution for my Pi without wiping the card. I can share ideas with friends on the other side of the country that they can replicate quickly and easily without moving a large file.

And to me, that's a great tool to have in hand.

Checked out the Docker file mentioned. It is from Dec 2015 and uses python 2 but it may work as is. If not the docker file would only need a small tweak or two to bring it up to date.



I'll stop hijacking the Zero thread now. A new thread might be useful but I may not have time to contribute for a while.