[Initial Release] RaspberryPints - Digital Taplist Solution

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It will display, for sure.

To enable the touchscreen portion, I think you have to return a serial cable to the Pi, which might get tricky. Pretty sure I've seen people do it on other Pi-based projects, but I haven't tried myself.
 
Adafruit has a touch screen that connects to the gpio so you could make a custom serial cable and possible use their code w/ some tweaks for your setup.


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jkurl said:
Adafruit has a touch screen that connects to the gpio so you could make a custom serial cable and possible use their code w/ some tweaks for your setup.
Click to expand...

Be aware that using other products for the GPIO may mean you're not able to use RPints flow monitoring or hardware control.
 
kerber said:
Be aware that using other products for the GPIO may mean you're not able to use RPints flow monitoring or hardware control.
Click to expand...

I know that many of the older-style touchscreens (especially POS systems) used an RS-232 serial connection. However, I can't see any reason those couldn't be passed through a converted to USB, as long as the adapter drivers were Linux-friendly.

That said, I'll bet most of the new models probably have USB support. At that point, you're just looking at using a USB hub, and preserving your ability to stack on the GPIO.
 
The one I'm looking at have the following connections.
*Multiple ports and cables:**VGA, USB, DP and HDMI connectivity plus an MHL
 
wanger99 said:
How can i get chrome to open up as the Pi starts so all i have to do is start my PI. Have we figured out how to get chrome to start in full screen mode once opening?
Click to expand...

Mozilla broke Firefox in a recent release so that --start-fullscreen no longer works.

Change it to --kiosk

*Edit: Devs broke Chromium, I meant. :\
 
kerber said:
Your research is spot on. The way most of them run is just by flipping a data line on when motion is detected, and off otherwise. The only issue is making sure that you're doing voltage level conversion if the PIR data line is 5v. Make sure to give the GPIO pins 3v3 or else you're going to have a very bad day. That doesn't increase the complexity a whole lot, but is essential.

Since it's just GPIO on/off, you're right - it would be really easy to mock up. I'd just enable the internal pull-up on the GPIO pin and short it with ground to get your pin high/low.
Click to expand...

I bought a couple of these a while back from a China e-bay seller for less than four bucks shipped. The ones I bought do the the 3v3 level shifting on board and can be connected directly to an Arduino digital or RPi GPIO pin.
 
beinert said:
I bought a couple of these a while back from a China e-bay seller for less than four bucks shipped. The ones I bought do the the 3v3 level shifting on board and can be connected directly to an Arduino digital or RPi GPIO pin.
Click to expand...

IIRC, Arduino GPIO pins can handle the full 5V.
 
I believe the pir needs a 5v power supply but only sends 3v to the gpio pin.


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beinert said:
I bought a couple of these a while back from a China e-bay seller for less than four bucks shipped. The ones I bought do the the 3v3 level shifting on board and can be connected directly to an Arduino digital or RPi GPIO pin.
Click to expand...

I mentioned earlier that the "spec" (such as it is) for the HC-SR501 PIRs I purchased for a bit under $2 each shipped says they will run with VDD from 3 to 5 volts, and the output is TTL 3.3V. I'll be checking that output level before I actually hook it up to my RPi, and if it looks like it could exceed 3.3V I'll run the output through a resistor divider first...

Cheers!
 
Got my setup done today and wanted to thank all the programmers that worked on this project. It is really amazing when I look at how easy this was to setup and think about how much went into the backend of this. Thanks!
 
Just wanted to say thanks for this project! While I'm not using it in the traditional RaspberryPi setup, I was able to get it installed and working on my GoDaddy shared hosting account and use it from my tablet via web browser. Had to tweak to get it compatible with PHP v5.2.x (no support for __DIR__) and manually create the MySQL DB (no root, can't use /install script). It works great! Also had to remove the overflow: hidden from css so scrolling would work for display of more than 3 taps.

Since I'm using it on a touch screen, was thinking a cool feature would be being able to touch the tap display to view recipe details, and in the keg level "tap to pour a pint" to reduce the keg level? I saw a post about v2 containing a new MVC and all, is there a dev code base to work from if I make mods to contribute back to the project?
 
I got my setup working this weekend. It was really easy and i want to say thanks to the developers who made this awesome setup. I'm working on integrating it with BrewPi too so I can get some different functionality with it.




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mavantix said:
Since I'm using it on a touch screen, was thinking a cool feature would be being able to touch the tap display to view recipe details, and in the keg level "tap to pour a pint" to reduce the keg level? I saw a post about v2 containing a new MVC and all, is there a dev code base to work from if I make mods to contribute back to the project?
Click to expand...

The recipe details are in development. The plan is to ultimately have the site able to upload and parse the beer.xml files for that information. Also in development is a "manual" way to mark pours in addition to the flow-meters.

There is a development code base, however I would wait to grab it until the move to the MVC is complete as there are major holes in the development branch at the moment and things are changing daily.
 
Adeering said:
What do you use to look at the sql files on the raspberry pi?
Click to expand...

If you installed Raspbian with LXDE the default command line editor is nano.

Or you can pull the files up in a decent text editor on another system.
I use WinSCP to remote into the RPi and edit all files using UltraEdit on my Windows machine...

Cheers!
 
So recently I changed my startup file to --kiosk , replacing the --start-fullscreen. I did this remotely on my iPhone via SSH and then did a reboot. Later I went to check on the tap list to find a black screen. I couldn't exit out via any command so I did a remote reboot.

The Pi started normal and then I got an Fsck error 4. So I wen through the repair steps and rebooted again.

This time no error, but after it got to the point where it would start the GUI it went black again. Up until that point I was seeing all of the activity in the shell.

Plugged in a keyboard and still can't exit the blackness but I can reboot remotely, I can run other programs remotely, and the tap list shows up remotely at gronerstaps.servebeer.com

So obviously everything is running correctly but the screen stopped showing anything in the GUI since I changed to --kiosk

Naturally, I went and changed it back. No dice there either. It's starting to look like I need to reimage the SD card to fix it, but I don't want to lose my settings.

So three questions:

1. Are the any ideas on how to troubleshoot the black screen?

2. If I need to reimage that card, is there any way to save all my keg/beer settings?

3. For future reference is it possible to make an image of my card in the correct configuration for RPints so I don't have to set everything up all over again?

Much appreciated, thanks!


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StressedPenguin said:
I'm working on integrating it with BrewPi too so I can get some different functionality with it.\
Click to expand...

Since we're in the middle of a really big code rewrite, I'd recommend holding off for a bit. I'd hate for you to go through all the work of developing a new feature, only to have it be stuck with V1.
 
Thanks for the heads up. I am not going to do too much work as I am mostly a tinkerer rather than a fully capable programmer... I'm more than willing to reprogram over it!
 
PIRs arrived in the post today! Will be hooking on up tonight.
Meanwhile, I was able to find the schematics for the HC-SR501 PIR module and immediately noted that the board runs from the output of a 7133-1 3.3V regulator. Which means (1) best to run the board on 5V, and (2) the output is likely limited to 3.3V. I'll still check the latter 'cuz it takes seconds to verify, but it looks like these sensors are a good fit for the RPi...

Cheers!
 
Mr Tripper, will we be powering the sensor separately with a phone charger?


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Update for those who looked...

I put a separate Raspbian build on a different SD card into my RPi and it worked so it must have been software related, so:

I reinstalled the entire card from format. Everything works now.

I also made an image of the complete setup so I wouldn't have to do that again.

However:

Now when my Chromium browser opens it opens the tap list in one tab, and does a web search for "--kiosk" in another tab. I won't go into the irony of that but... I thought that whole issue was fixed?


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Really intrested in this however i am only going to be running 3 maybe 4 taps, does the user interface auto adjust its size to fill any empty space? So I don't have say 12" of tap info and 20" of black screen underneath?
 
StressedPenguin said:
I got my setup working it this weekend. It was really easy and i want to say thanks to the developers who made this awesome setup. I'm working on integrating it with BrewPi too so I can get some different functionality with it.




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Click to expand...

Ooooooh! Do fill me in I am putting one of those together as we speak... What are you looking to do with it?






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This is all preliminary as I JUST got BrewPi and rasp pints troubleshot so they are working (user error, not so much software problems).

Long term I want an RFID integrated recording system for weight of kegs for amount of beer remaining and have the arduino control my fermentation chamber and kegerator. First step is getting both the kegerator and fern chamber working. The limitation is from what I read BrewPi is only designed for one chamber. That is fine with me as I just want to insert a little bit of code into the arduino file for simple temp control without the sweet algorithm.

Like one of the developing guys said though, some of this functionality might come for the next release. When I Am looking at doing this stuff I have no intention of large code rewrites, more of inserting various snippets and troubleshooting.

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Aaaaand it just plain works!

To answer DanH: The HC SR501 PIR motion sensor is powered directly by the RPi, via the 5V rail. The sensor uses three connections to the RPi: 5V, GND, and GPIO7. The sensor has a local regulator that converts the 5V to 3.3V which runs the entire board, and making the output "RPi Safe" without dividers, etc.

Ok...So I haven't had to put an "instructable" together for a looong time, so bear with me. First person through let me know if there are any problems and I'll fix 'em up pronto. And I hope putting this here is ok with the 'Pints community!

Preview: You'll install xscreensaver and verify it works, stick the test and runtime scripts in the /home/pi folder, shut down and wire up the sensor, power up and test the sensor, then add an entry to the LXDE autostart file, and finally reboot to what should be a working feature.

Right then, we're off:

Unpack zip file:

I've put a zip file up on Google Drive with the two scripts, the instructions, and a couple of images to orient the user to the RPi GPIO header and the sensor. That file can be downloaded from here.

Unpack the file and place the two Python scripts (pir_test.py and pir_run.py) in the /home/pi folder. Have the other files handy as you put things together.


Install xscreensaver from an LXDE terminal:

apt-get install xscreensaver

After the installation completes, you can Add the ScreenSaver Preferences shortcut from the 'start' menu (look in folder "Other") to the desktop to make it handy while you're setting things up.

Most of the screensavers are not installed as part of the kit, but they are selected in the ScreenSaver Preferences - Display Modes sheet. You'll want to de-select the unavailable screensavers (stick your cursor on a title and if it doesn't show up in the preview pane it isn't installed), and probably quite a few of the installed ones as well. The Preferences gui is a total POS but it's free, so don't complain ;)

In any case, you'll want to verify the xscreensaver is actually working before proceeding. In ScreenSaver Preferences - Display Modes you can set the "Blank After" delay to something short so you're not twiddling your thumbs waiting for it to kick in.


Shut down, remove power and wire up the PIR sensor

Refer to hc_sr501.jpg and 2x13_header.jpg for connection locations (pictures are below).
A detailed description of the HC SR501 can be found here: http://www.mpja.com/download/31227sc.pdf

5V: Pin 2
GND: Pin 6,9,14,20 or 25 (pick one)
GPIO7: Pin 26

For orientation on a Model B RPi, Pin 2 is located almost in the very corner of the RPi board. Pin 26 is at the opposite end of the same row.

You don't need heavy wire for this. The PIR sensor uses very little power, so 18-22ga stranded is fine.

Notes:
- Verify that the two pin jumper is positioned as shown in hc_sr501.jpg
- Set the Sensitivity Adjust to 50% of travel to start
- Set the Time Delay Adjust full counter-clockwise to start (minimum delay between triggers is roughly 10 seconds)


Power up and boot to the desktop

Open an LXDE terminal and run pir_test.py as root

sudo python pir_test.py

You'll see the following text appear:

PIR Module Test (CTRL+C to exit)
Ready


Let the PIR settle for ~10 seconds, then wave a hand in front of the sensor.
The terminal should immediately show:

Motion Detected!

The script will continue to respond to PIR interrupts until you CTRL+C out.

If you do not get the PIR to respond, shut down and verify your wiring, then verify the above steps.

You can play around with the Sensitivity Adjust potentiometer until you're happy with the response, and you'll likely want to tune it when you have the RPi and sensor in their final locations. The Time Delay Adjust can be left at minimum - the sensor will retrigger after the delay and keep the display "alive" while you're moving around in front of your dispensing system.


Set up Autostart for the PIR runtime script

Add an entry to LXDE startup to autostart the PIR run time script. In an LXDE terminal:

sudo nano /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE/autostart

Add this line at the bottom:

sudo python pir_run.py

Write out the file (^o) and exit (^x)


Restart the RPi and boot to the desktop

Allow xscreensaver to kick in, then wake it up by waving at the PIR sensor.


That's all there is to it!

fwiw, both sensors I received worked perfectly (best as I can tell, anyway).

I haven't spent a lot of time playing with the Sensitivity adjustment. Set at 50% of travel the sensor picks me up when I come in my office door a good ten feet from the sensor, which isn't even pointed at the doorway. So it appears the sensor is certainly sensitive enough for this application :)

Cheers!

2x13_header.jpg


hc_sr501.jpg
 
Thank you!!! I just have to wait for the sensor...


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I ordered mine on the 19th and they arrived today - a good week earlier than the earliest date (4/7) and way earlier than the worst case (4/23). That seems to be fairly typical of stuff I've ordered that supposedly ships from the Far East.

So I've noticed the "cone of detection" is quite substantial. I haven't checked out each approach angle, but from what I've tried I would guess there's around 150° of scope. Also haven't tried to correlate Sensitivity with true distance yet - mostly because my office is all of around 140 square feet so it's not like I can get very far from the sensor :cross:

Finally, in my quest for a true low power monitor state I believe I may have finally stumbled across the Holy Grail out there in the InterSpace. But I'm a bit gassed tonight so I'll save that for tomorrow.

Cheers! (Wave at the 'Pi and the 'Pi wakes up! Cool! ;) )
 
Goolsbymd said:
Really intrested in this however i am only going to be running 3 maybe 4 taps, does the user interface auto adjust its size to fill any empty space? So I don't have say 12" of tap info and 20" of black screen underneath?
Click to expand...

It does auto adjust it seems. I have seen people with two taps and it displays full screen.


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