In order to prevent my venetian window blinds to go down on timer in front of my open window-style terrace door, potentially locking me out, I needed to know if the door handle was in the “open” position. However, I did not want to use a battery powered radio sensor, but the existing door open/close magnetic sensor in the door frame. Here’s my solution.
Hiking Maps Follow-Up: Large Area Maps
The approach for creating feature-rich hiking maps described in my earlier post was limited in area, since it uses the Overpass API to download OSM data. The Overpass API has a restriction with regard to the amount of data downloadable in one go. In this post I describe a way to download a much larger area if needed, using the PBF files available from Geofrabrik and processing them with Osmosis.
Legal EPG Scraper for ARD TV Stations to Use With tvheadend External XMLTV Grabber
I wrote a Python EPG scraper for the EPG data of the German TV stations broadcast by ARD. It is legal for private use. Here I share the code and my thoughts behind it.
Le Potato Media Center & German IPTV Re-Revisited
The comment by Argus Nymus on my Media Center for German IPTV post made it clear that my approach with playlist filtering via web proxy was way too overengineered. For several reasons I needed to rebuild my media center anyhow, so it was time to simplify my approch, which I describe in some detail here.
Case for MP1584 Based Step-Down Converter Board with USB Port
This post is to share my self-made 3D printed housing for a 5V USB voltage converter. Since the used converter board is quite common, I guess others may profit from this design.
Interfacing EasyMeter Q3M via Info-Interface
The installation of my fuel cell heating required a bi-directional power meter. Bonn Netz, my local power network provider, uses meters of type EasyMeter Q3M which have two infrared interfaces: A bidirectional D0 interface, and a read-only info interface. I use the info interface (INFO-DSS) to read out power consumption and production of the three phases. For this, I built an optical interface, a 3D printed housing for it, and use the UART of a Raspberry Pi with python to get the values.
Rigol DS1054Z Password Login Problem *Solved*
I use the Rigol DS1054Z as my benchtop oscilloscope now since a few years (the one in my title image), and I am rather happy with it. However, one thing never worked for me (but is of utterly low importance – it was just nagging me): You can access a (very) few scope functions via the web interface when opening http://[IP of the scope]. The network settings section is password protected, and according to e.g. this post on EEVblog the user “rigollan” with password “111111” should work. It never worked for me. Other posts claim that “test” or even “blah”…Continue reading Rigol DS1054Z Password Login Problem *Solved*
IPv6 in my LAN with Unitymedia, Technicolor TC7200, Ubiquiti EdgeOS on Edgerouter X and Prefix Delegation
This post describes how to set up IPv6 with Edgerouter X (and supposedly any EdgeOS device) in interplay with the infameous Technicolor TC7200 cable modem as provided by Unitymedia in Germany, using prefix delegation to advertise valid IPv6 addresses into the LAN. This guide shows how to configure settings via GUI instead of CLI.
Quick Note: Web-View with PyQt5 and Qt 5.7+ on Raspberry Pi
This is a short note how to use QtWebKit with Qt 5.7+ on Raspberry Pi.
RFID Treasure Chest for LARP
I built a treasure chest which opens if a riddle is solved. To prove that the riddle is solved, the players need to put the correct three RFID/NFC tokens (out of several tokens to choose from) onto three RFID readers in the correct order. If they fail too often, a curse is uttered! In this post I describe the hardware selection, the electronics, the assembly and the software.