Random projects and posts

Bitmap to Byte array for e-ink display

Posted Saturday 28 April 2018 12:51 Page View Counter 338

Over the past few months Andrew has been working on a new circuit for a custom home alarm system to replace our current hardwired commercial alarm. For the display panel on the new alarm we are going to be using a e-ink display to show the status of the alarm and the sensor status for each door and window. We sourced a basic 2.9 inch e-ink display from ebay and it is a 296x128 pixel back and white display and a SPI interface from https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/2.9inch_e-Paper_Module The...

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Twenty Years of being Self Employed

Posted Wednesday 04 April 2018 20:34 Page View Counter 405

I don't normally write personal posts about myself but with 2018 being the 20th anniversary of starting my own business Apexweb, I thought I would write about the ups and downs of the past twenty years of being self employed. Twenty years ago...

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Mosquitto MQTT and Home Assistant Data Logging

Posted Wednesday 14 March 2018 17:13 Page View Counter 1029

We have removed the Raspberry Pi based data logger from our home and moved the logging hardware and new software to the Gigabit Internet Gateway Network PC which we installed in December 2017. The old Raspberry Pi system was initially designed...

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Goodbye Disqus, Hello HTTPS with Lets Encrypt

Posted Thursday 22 February 2018 16:03 Page View Counter 1496

I have decided to remove the disqus comment system from my blog posts. I have had a few issues with the disqus system including: Post order – oldest posts not always on top. Links to other sites and spam. Long load times Lot of external...

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YouTube demonetisation email arrived

Posted Wednesday 21 February 2018 16:51 Page View Counter 821

After a few weeks of reading about all the YouTube channels losing their ability to display adverts and receive a small income from their videos the email from YouTube has finally arrived for my YouTube channel to tell me that I can no longer access...

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Nest Thermostat and Smoke API with DotNet

Posted Saturday 10 February 2018 18:46 Page View Counter 844

This code example shows how you can use C# in either a Windows application or asp.net website to retrieve data from the Nest API to show information for your Nest Thermostat or Nest Smoke Alarms. Before starting to write your code, you need to create...

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Gigabit Internet Gateway Network PC

Posted Saturday 16 December 2017 17:12 Page View Counter 1602

Following from our home network upgrade in August 2017 we have been trying to find a way to add global adblocking for the computers, tablets and phones connected to our network and to run additional software. We had tried using Pi-hole® software...

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Blog and website upgrades to Bootstrap 4

Posted Sunday 12 November 2017 16:33 Page View Counter 1174

Over the past few weeks we have been working on some of our own websites to rewrite the code and pages to use Bootstrap which is an open source toolkit for developing with HTML, CSS, and JS. In the past we have always written our own responsive...

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Pick and Place Software Version 2-2 Update

Posted Monday 06 November 2017 16:04 Page View Counter 1867

Another software update to the Pick and Place Controller Software for the DIY pick and place machine. Since the UI redesign earlier this year I have now changed the vision system to use AForge.NET to read from the USB webcams and display on the screen...

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Google Analytics PageSpeed Insights Error Fix

Posted Thursday 14 September 2017 20:15 Page View Counter 1742

We test websites using tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to check the speed of their websites and find any potential issues with the content or other issues. One problem we often find about regarding the Google PageSpeed Insights...

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tp-link LB130 Smart Wi-Fi LED Bulb Python Control

Posted Wednesday 30 August 2017 13:28 Page View Counter 3224

A few weeks ago, we purchased a tp-link LB130 smart bulb to use with the Home Assistant software we had been trying on the Raspberry Pi. The support for the bulb in the Home Assistant software was limited and so Andrew started to decode the data using...

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Milling Machine Ballscrew End Float Fix

Posted Monday 28 August 2017 13:19 Page View Counter 1558

We converted our Axminster SIEG Super X1 micro mill to use ballscrews back in 2010 and every few months of use we have had to adjust the bearings to eliminate any backlash on the X and Y axis drives. The original drive couplings fitted onto the...

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Home Network Upgrade

Posted Tuesday 22 August 2017 21:37 Page View Counter 2527

The home network installation for our computers was first setup using 10BASE2 coax connections when we only had 2 computers and one was connected to the internet via a modem. Since then we have upgraded to using first network hubs then switches for...

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Setting up Home Assistant on Raspbian Jessie Lite with I2C

Posted Thursday 10 August 2017 18:29 Page View Counter 1797

Home Assistant is an open-source home automation platform running on Python 3 which can run on the Raspberry Pi to interface and control may of the internet of things (IOT) devices available from different manufacturers. I was first told about...

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Pick and Place Software 2017

Posted Wednesday 21 June 2017 17:59 Page View Counter 1750

Since writing the ModernUI Pick and Place Controller Software for the DIY pick and place machine in 2014 we have been planning to update the software and add some new features to improve productivity when using the Pick and Place machine. When...

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Raspberry Pi Zero Handheld Barcode Scanner Part 3

Posted Friday 02 June 2017 14:56 Page View Counter 2170

This is the third and final part of a three-part series on designing and building a barcode scanner using a Raspberry Pi Zero W. Raspberry Pi Zero Handheld Barcode Scanner Part 1 Raspberry Pi Zero Handheld Barcode Scanner Part 2 In the previous...

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