Plane | First Functioning Xbee test

January 15, 2013 / Leave a comment

So the first round of parts have come in for the plane, including the Xbees and the UartSBee V4s. My life is going to be very scattered over the next 4 or 5 months, so I’m going to be making frequent rudimentary posts for my own benefit.

Here’s a video:

First thing’s first I want to outline how everything’s connected.

The first xbee is connected to the first UartSBee which is connected to an Ardunio Uno which is connected to the first computer which has the console open and is looking at the serial stream at 9600 baud. The xbee is connected to the uno via Software Serial which is detailed in the code below. Here’s a picture:

The second setup is identical, except i’m using an Ardunio nano.

Here’s the code, I’m using the SoftwareSerial library to accomplish this. Both Arduinos are running the same thing.

</p>
#include <SoftwareSerial.h>

SoftwareSerial mySerial(10, 11); // RX, TX

void setup()
{
 // Open serial communications and wait for port to open:
 Serial.begin(9600);
 while (!Serial) {
 ; // wait for serial port to connect. Needed for Leonardo only
 }
 Serial.println("Goodnight moon!");

// set the data rate for the SoftwareSerial port
 mySerial.begin(9600);
 mySerial.println("Hello, world?");
}

void loop() // run over and over
{
 if (mySerial.available())
 Serial.write(mySerial.read());
 if (Serial.available())
 mySerial.write(Serial.read());
}
<p style="text-align: left;">

</p>

#include <SoftwareSerial.h>

SoftwareSerial mySerial(10, 11); // RX, TX

void setup()

{

// Open serial communications and wait for port to open:

Serial.begin(9600);

while (!Serial) {

; // wait for serial port to connect. Needed for Leonardo only

}

Serial.println("Goodnight moon!");

// set the data rate for the SoftwareSerial port

mySerial.begin(9600);

mySerial.println("Hello, world?");

}

void loop() // run over and over

{

if (mySerial.available())

Serial.write(mySerial.read());

if (Serial.available())

mySerial.write(Serial.read());

}

Here are a few pictures of the X-TCU setup. The baud is at 9600 and the pan ID is 115. The UartSbee itself is running at 115200 baud connected to the computer.

Thanks for reading!

Hey! This post was written a long time ago, but I'm leaving it up on the off-chance it may help someone. Proceed with caution. It may not be a good idea to blindly integrate this code or work into your project, but instead use it as a starting point.

Raspberry Pi Media Server | Mounting Hard Drive & Better Minidlna Config

December 30, 2012 / Leave a comment

Please note that this is more for my sake. To mount a hard drive in raspbian do the following: Make sure you have ntfs-3g installed by running:

sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g

1	sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g

Then mount the drive read/write with the following command:

sudo mkdir /media/USBHDD
sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1/ /media/USBHDD/

1 2	sudo mkdir /media/USBHDD sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1/ /media/USBHDD/

And it shout be mounted. /dev/sda1 is the location of your hard drive. Now to configuring minidlna. Location of minidlna.conf file and access command:

sudo vi /etc/minidlna.conf

1	sudo vi /etc/minidlna.conf

This is the file I’m running right now. As I type this i’m successfully streaming to my Kindle Fire HD (the reason why I’ve decided to really make this thing work) but I’m not sure if it’s stable. It’s also able to stream to VLC as of now.

Plane | Corrective Balancing Mechanism

December 27, 2012 / Leave a comment

First of all, here’s a video of this device in action.

So things are really starting to take shape with the plane (still unnamed…) and I’ve got a really solid framework for an auto-balancing system. Basically the program below maps the x value given from the ADXL335 to a value from 1-180 on the servo. A lot of this code is for debug, but that portion can be switched off.

</pre>
#include <Servo.h>

Servo myservo;

int raw_val;
int ref_val;
int mid_val = 336;

int left_tilt = 260;
int rght_tilt = 405;

int min_switch = 2;
int max_switch = 3;
int mid_switch = 5;
int mode_switch = 4;

int debug_switch = 6;

int bounds_LED = 10;
int mid_LED = 11;

int debug_LED = 7;
int normal_LED = 8;

void setup(){

 pinMode(min_switch, INPUT);
 pinMode(max_switch, INPUT);
 pinMode(mid_switch, INPUT);
 pinMode(debug_switch, INPUT);

 pinMode(mode_switch, INPUT);

 pinMode(bounds_LED, OUTPUT);
 pinMode(mid_LED, OUTPUT);

 pinMode(debug_LED, OUTPUT);
 pinMode(normal_LED, OUTPUT);

 Serial.begin(9600);
 myservo.attach(9);
}

void loop(){
 if (digitalRead(debug_switch) == HIGH) {

 digitalWrite(debug_LED, HIGH);
 digitalWrite(normal_LED, LOW);

 raw_val = analogRead(0);

 if (digitalRead(mode_switch) == HIGH) {

 digitalWrite(bounds_LED, HIGH);
 digitalWrite(mid_LED, LOW);

 Serial.print("BOUNDS MODE: ");

 ref_val = map(raw_val, left_tilt, rght_tilt, 0, 180);

 myservo.write(ref_val);

 if (digitalRead(min_switch) == HIGH){
 Serial.print("LEFT HGH");
 left_tilt = raw_val;
 }

 if (digitalRead(min_switch) == LOW){
 Serial.print("LEFT LOW");
 }

 Serial.print(" , ");

 if (digitalRead(max_switch) == HIGH){
 Serial.print("RGHT HGH");
 rght_tilt = raw_val;
 }

 if (digitalRead(max_switch) == LOW){
 Serial.print("RHGT LOW");
 }

 Serial.print(" , ");

 Serial.print("Left Tilt: ");
 Serial.print(left_tilt);

 Serial.print("Rght Tilt: ");
 Serial.print(rght_tilt);

 }

 if (digitalRead(mode_switch) == LOW) {

 Serial.print("MID MODE:");

 if (digitalRead(mid_switch) == HIGH){
 mid_val = raw_val;
 }

 int MLeft_val = mid_val - 75;
 int MRght_val = mid_val + 75;

 ref_val = map(raw_val, MLeft_val, MRght_val, 0, 180);
 myservo.write(ref_val);

 digitalWrite(bounds_LED, LOW);
 digitalWrite(mid_LED, HIGH);

 Serial.print(" , ");
 Serial.print("Left Most Value: ");
 Serial.print(MLeft_val);
 Serial.print(" , ");
 Serial.print("Rght Most Value: ");
 Serial.print(MRght_val);
 Serial.print(" , ");
 Serial.print(mid_val);

 }
 Serial.print(" , ");
 Serial.print("Raw Value: ");
 Serial.print(raw_val);
 Serial.print(" , ");
 Serial.print("Current Servo Value: ");
 Serial.print(ref_val);

 Serial.println("");
}

 if (digitalRead(debug_switch) == LOW) {

 digitalWrite(debug_LED, LOW);
 digitalWrite(normal_LED, HIGH);

 raw_val = analogRead(0);
 if (digitalRead(mode_switch) == HIGH) {
 digitalWrite(bounds_LED, HIGH);
 digitalWrite(mid_LED, LOW);
 ref_val = map(raw_val, left_tilt, rght_tilt, 0, 180);
 myservo.write(ref_val);
 if (digitalRead(min_switch) == HIGH){
 left_tilt = raw_val;
 }
 if (digitalRead(max_switch) == HIGH){
 rght_tilt = raw_val;
 }
 }

 if (digitalRead(mode_switch) == LOW) {
 if (digitalRead(mid_switch) == HIGH){
 mid_val = raw_val;
 }<a href="http://192.168.1.37/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/2012-12-27_14-20-51_644.jpg">
</a>
 int MLeft_val = mid_val - 75;
 int MRght_val = mid_val + 75;
 ref_val = map(raw_val, MLeft_val, MRght_val, 0, 180);
 myservo.write(ref_val);
 digitalWrite(bounds_LED, LOW);
 digitalWrite(mid_LED, HIGH);
 }
 }
}

100

101

102

103

104

105

106

107

108

109

110

111

112

113

114

115

116

117

118

119

120

121

122

123

124

125

126

127

128

129

130

131

132

133

134

135

136

137

138

139

140

141

142

143

144

145

146

147

148

149

150

151

152

153

154

155

156

157

158

159

160

161

162

163

</pre>

#include <Servo.h>

Servo myservo;

int raw_val;

int ref_val;

int mid_val = 336;

int left_tilt = 260;

int rght_tilt = 405;

int min_switch = 2;

int max_switch = 3;

int mid_switch = 5;

int mode_switch = 4;

int debug_switch = 6;

int bounds_LED = 10;

int mid_LED = 11;

int debug_LED = 7;

int normal_LED = 8;

void setup(){

pinMode(min_switch, INPUT);

pinMode(max_switch, INPUT);

pinMode(mid_switch, INPUT);

pinMode(debug_switch, INPUT);

pinMode(mode_switch, INPUT);

pinMode(bounds_LED, OUTPUT);

pinMode(mid_LED, OUTPUT);

pinMode(debug_LED, OUTPUT);

pinMode(normal_LED, OUTPUT);

Serial.begin(9600);

myservo.attach(9);

}

void loop(){

if (digitalRead(debug_switch) == HIGH) {

digitalWrite(debug_LED, HIGH);

digitalWrite(normal_LED, LOW);

raw_val = analogRead(0);

if (digitalRead(mode_switch) == HIGH) {

digitalWrite(bounds_LED, HIGH);

digitalWrite(mid_LED, LOW);

Serial.print("BOUNDS MODE: ");

ref_val = map(raw_val, left_tilt, rght_tilt, 0, 180);

myservo.write(ref_val);

if (digitalRead(min_switch) == HIGH){

Serial.print("LEFT HGH");

left_tilt = raw_val;

}

if (digitalRead(min_switch) == LOW){

Serial.print("LEFT LOW");

}

Serial.print(" , ");

if (digitalRead(max_switch) == HIGH){

Serial.print("RGHT HGH");

rght_tilt = raw_val;

}

if (digitalRead(max_switch) == LOW){

Serial.print("RHGT LOW");

}

Serial.print(" , ");

Serial.print("Left Tilt: ");

Serial.print(left_tilt);

Serial.print("Rght Tilt: ");

Serial.print(rght_tilt);

}

if (digitalRead(mode_switch) == LOW) {

Serial.print("MID MODE:");

if (digitalRead(mid_switch) == HIGH){

mid_val = raw_val;

}

int MLeft_val = mid_val - 75;

int MRght_val = mid_val + 75;

ref_val = map(raw_val, MLeft_val, MRght_val, 0, 180);

myservo.write(ref_val);

digitalWrite(bounds_LED, LOW);

digitalWrite(mid_LED, HIGH);

Serial.print(" , ");

Serial.print("Left Most Value: ");

Serial.print(MLeft_val);

Serial.print(" , ");

Serial.print("Rght Most Value: ");

Serial.print(MRght_val);

Serial.print(" , ");

Serial.print(mid_val);

}

Serial.print(" , ");

Serial.print("Raw Value: ");

Serial.print(raw_val);

Serial.print(" , ");

Serial.print("Current Servo Value: ");

Serial.print(ref_val);

Serial.println("");

}

if (digitalRead(debug_switch) == LOW) {

digitalWrite(debug_LED, LOW);

digitalWrite(normal_LED, HIGH);

raw_val = analogRead(0);

if (digitalRead(mode_switch) == HIGH) {

digitalWrite(bounds_LED, HIGH);

digitalWrite(mid_LED, LOW);

ref_val = map(raw_val, left_tilt, rght_tilt, 0, 180);

myservo.write(ref_val);

if (digitalRead(min_switch) == HIGH){

left_tilt = raw_val;

}

if (digitalRead(max_switch) == HIGH){

rght_tilt = raw_val;

}

if (digitalRead(mode_switch) == LOW) {

if (digitalRead(mid_switch) == HIGH){

mid_val = raw_val;

}<a href="http://192.168.1.37/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/2012-12-27_14-20-51_644.jpg">

</a>

int MLeft_val = mid_val - 75;

int MRght_val = mid_val + 75;

ref_val = map(raw_val, MLeft_val, MRght_val, 0, 180);

myservo.write(ref_val);

digitalWrite(bounds_LED, LOW);

digitalWrite(mid_LED, HIGH);

}

Sorry for the lack of comments in this code, it’s pretty intuitive though, at it’s core its all about the map command.

Here’s a picture of what my desk looks like:

<a href="https://www.esologic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/2012-12-27_14-20-51_644.jpg"><img alt="" src="https://www.esologic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/2012-12-27_14-20-51_644.jpg" width="705" height="397" />
</a>

1 2	<a href="https://www.esologic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/2012-12-27_14-20-51_644.jpg"><img alt="" src="https://www.esologic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/2012-12-27_14-20-51_644.jpg" width="705" height="397" /> </a>

Here’s a picture of the fritzing document, which can be found: here

Thanks for reading!

Raspberry Pi Media Server | Speeding Up Raspberry Pi [Documentation]

December 14, 2012 / Leave a comment

So although I haven’t written about it yet, right now I’ve gotten a Raspbmc Server up and running along with Minidlna. It works great for about an hour at a time and then it really bogs down. This seems to be caused by a combination of Raspbmc and the hard drive spinning down. My solution is to try OpenELEC, overclock the Raspberry Pi, and change out the SD card for one with a faster read/write speed.

Basic Wetness Sensor

November 22, 2012 / 1 Comment

So I’ve had the idea for a while to try and automate the growing of plants so I need to be able to tell if something’s wet or not. Here’s a video:

Basically the hookup process is that of a regular analog sensor with this in it’s place. There’s a 10k pullup resistor as the voltage divider.

Here’s the source for the Arduino.

int write1;
int writeval;

void setup(){
 Serial.begin(9600);
 pinMode(3, OUTPUT);
}

void loop(){
 Serial.println(analogRead(0));
 write1 = map(analogRead(0), 0, 1023, 0, 100);
 writeval = map(write1, 0, 100, 0, 1023);
 analogWrite(3, writeval);
 delay(100);
}

int write1;

int writeval;

void setup(){

Serial.begin(9600);

pinMode(3, OUTPUT);

}

void loop(){

Serial.println(analogRead(0));

write1 = map(analogRead(0), 0, 1023, 0, 100);

writeval = map(write1, 0, 100, 0, 1023);

analogWrite(3, writeval);

delay(100);

}

That’s pretty complex but I was trying to make the light changes more drastic so it would show up in the video better.

Here are some pictures of the build process:

Thanks for reading!

Encoding A LOT of video in linux | [Documentation]

November 9, 2012 / Leave a comment

For my Raspberry Pi Media Server to be able to stream to mobile (a topic I haven’t yet covered here) I need to convert ALL of the video in my family’s 700+ file, 400+ gb, media collection to H.264/MPEG-4 AVC. I recently acquired a hard drive to consolidate and store all of this hard drive on. For the past week or so I’ve been making some progress in converting the video. On my windows tower I’ve been using the program Format Factory to convert the video. I’m running into a few problems with this. For one, my windows computer is my main machine, and multithread converting really bottlenecks it. It also takes a long time – having to watch it while it does it’s thing waiting for it to convert instead of just going to the next set of files is annoying. I could just convert

So I’ve decided to get back into python and write a program that will perfect the conversion process. Like in my PiScanner project, I’ll be using an existing program within python and my code will automate the process.

Goals are as follows:

1. Convert the video

2. Make sets of folders for the video

3. Have it all done on the external HDD

4. Have it be more “efficient” than the setup I’m running now. I.E be able to be on all the time – which shouldn’t be a problem as the server you’re viewing this website on is on all time time and I can just run the script here.

5. Make the end program useable for anyone.

WordPress installation on ubuntu 10.04

October 29, 2012 / Leave a comment

There are probably a million tutorials out there to do this, but as I’m doing it for the second time, I figure that I should probably write it down.

First thing’s first, make sure you’re all updated:

sudo apt-get update

1	sudo apt-get update

Then install lamp

sudo apt-get install lamp-server^

1	sudo apt-get install lamp-server^

and run through the install process. Make sure you write all of that info down.

Then download wordpress. Assuming they still have their download architecture the same as the time I’m writing this, you can just use this command.

wget http://www.wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz

1	wget http://www.wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz

And unzip this file.

tar -xzvf latest.tar.gz

1	tar -xzvf latest.tar.gz

You should see a LOT of stuff unzipping.

Then remove the tarball

rm latest.tar.gz

1	rm latest.tar.gz

Now you need to create a database.

mysql -u WHATEVER YOUR USERNAME IS -p YOUR PASSWORD
mysql> CREATE DATABASE wordpress;
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON wordpress_risp.* to "AUSERNAME"@"localhost"
#hit enter and make a new line
 -> IDENTIFIED BY "password";
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT

mysql -u WHATEVER YOUR USERNAME IS -p YOUR PASSWORD

mysql> CREATE DATABASE wordpress;

mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON wordpress_risp.* to "AUSERNAME"@"localhost"

#hit enter and make a new line

-> IDENTIFIED BY "password";

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

EXIT

Write down this information.

Next move your wordpress folder to where it’s going to be seen by the web, in my case /opt/bitnami/apps/wordpress/htdocs/risp

mv wordpress /opt/bitnami/apps/wordpress/htdocs/risp

1	mv wordpress /opt/bitnami/apps/wordpress/htdocs/risp

rename the file “wp-config-sample.php” to “wp-config.php”

mv wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php

1	mv wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php

edit it using your favorite text editor, in my case vim

vi wp-config.php

1	vi wp-config.php

Follow the instructions in the document to add your MySQL DB stuff that you established earlier.

At this point you’re pretty much done. Navigate you localhost/wp-admin/install.php in your favorite browser to set it all up.

To be able to upload images, you will need to run the following command:

 sudo chown -R 755 www-data:www-data /var/www

1	sudo chown -R 755 www-data:www-data /var/www

To be able to use custom permalinks within wordpress, we’ll need to make a couple modifications. The first is modify the apahce2 virtual host settings with:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default

1	sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default

Change the /opt/bitnami/apps/wordpress/htdocs/ settings so AllowOverride None is set to all like so:

We will also need to give the proper permissions of apache to the .htaccess (found in the root directory of your wordpress install, mine is /opt/bitnami/apps/wordpress/htdocs/) file by running the following commands:

sudo chown -v :www-data /opt/bitnami/apps/wordpress/htdocs/.htaccess
sudo chown -v 664 /opt/bitnami/apps/wordpress/htdocs/.htaccess

1 2	sudo chown -v :www-data /opt/bitnami/apps/wordpress/htdocs/.htaccess sudo chown -v 664 /opt/bitnami/apps/wordpress/htdocs/.htaccess

Note: If the file does not exist, you can create it with:

sudo nano /opt/bitnami/apps/wordpress/htdocs/.htaccess

1	sudo nano /opt/bitnami/apps/wordpress/htdocs/.htaccess

Raspberry Pi Media Server | Streaming To Any Source Using miniDLNA [Documentation]

October 7, 2012 / 3 Comments

I’ve made some progress on the RPi Streaming Server.

To replicate this you’ll need to do the following:

1. Install miniDLNA

sudo apt-get install minidlna

1	sudo apt-get install minidlna

2. Edit the config file to how you want it. Edit it using vim

sudo vi /etc/minidlna.conf

1	sudo vi /etc/minidlna.conf

3. Here’s what I’m working with, and it works.

# This is the configuration file for the MiniDLNA daemon, a DLNA/UPnP-AV media
# server.
#
# Unless otherwise noted, the commented out options show their default value.
#
# On Debian, you can also refer to the minidlna.conf(5) man page for
# documentation about this file.

# Path to the directory you want scanned for media files.
#
# This option can be specified more than once if you want multiple directories
# scanned.
#
# If you want to restrict a media_dir to a specific content type, you can
# prepend the directory name with a letter representing the type (A, P or V),
# followed by a comma, as so:
#   * "A" for audio    (eg. media_dir=A,/var/lib/minidlna/music)
#   * "P" for pictures (eg. media_dir=P,/var/lib/minidlna/pictures)
#   * "V" for video    (eg. media_dir=V,/var/lib/minidlna/videos)
#
# WARNING: After changing this option, you need to rebuild the database. Either
#          run minidlna with the '-R' option, or delete the 'files.db' file
#          from the db_dir directory (see below).
#          On Debian, you can run, as root, 'service minidlna force-reload' instead.
media_dir=A,/home/pi/stream_files/media/audio
media_dir=P,/home/pi/stream_files/media/pictures
media_dir=V,/home/pi/stream_files/media/video
media_dir=/home/pi/stream_files/media

# Path to the directory that should hold the database and album art cache.
db_dir=/var/lib/minidlna

# Path to the directory that should hold the log file.
#log_dir=/var/log

# Minimum level of importance of messages to be logged.
# Must be one of "off", "fatal", "error", "warn", "info" or "debug".
# "off" turns of logging entirely, "fatal" is the highest level of importance
# and "debug" the lowest.
#log_level=warn

# Use a different container as the root of the directory tree presented to
# clients. The possible values are:
#   * "." - standard container
#   * "B" - "Browse Directory"
#   * "M" - "Music"
#   * "P" - "Pictures"
#   * "V" - "Video"
# if you specify "B" and client device is audio-only then "Music/Folders" will be used as root
#root_container=.

# Network interface(s) to bind to (e.g. eth0), comma delimited.
#network_interface=

# IPv4 address to listen on (e.g. 192.0.2.1).
#listening_ip=

# Port number for HTTP traffic (descriptions, SOAP, media transfer).
port=8200

# URL presented to clients.
# The default is the IP address of the server on port 80.
#presentation_url=http://example.com:80

# Name that the DLNA server presents to clients.
#friendly_name=

# Serial number the server reports to clients.
serial=12345678

# Model name the server reports to clients.
#model_name=Windows Media Connect compatible (MiniDLNA)

# Model number the server reports to clients.
model_number=1

# Automatic discovery of new files in the media_dir directory.
#inotify=yes

# List of file names to look for when searching for album art. Names should be
# delimited with a forward slash ("/").
album_art_names=Cover.jpg/cover.jpg/AlbumArtSmall.jpg/albumartsmall.jpg/AlbumArt.jpg/albumart.jpg/Album.jpg/album.jpg/Folder.jpg/folder.jpg/Thumb.jpg/thumb.jpg

# Strictly adhere to DLNA standards.
# This allows server-side downscaling of very large JPEG images, which may
# decrease JPEG serving performance on (at least) Sony DLNA products.
#strict_dlna=no

# Support for streaming .jpg and .mp3 files to a TiVo supporting HMO.
#enable_tivo=no

# Notify interval, in seconds.
#notify_interval=895

# Path to the MiniSSDPd socket, for MiniSSDPd support.
#minissdpdsocket=/run/minissdpd.sock

# This is the configuration file for the MiniDLNA daemon, a DLNA/UPnP-AV media

# server.

# Unless otherwise noted, the commented out options show their default value.

# On Debian, you can also refer to the minidlna.conf(5) man page for

# documentation about this file.

# Path to the directory you want scanned for media files.

# This option can be specified more than once if you want multiple directories

# scanned.

# If you want to restrict a media_dir to a specific content type, you can

# prepend the directory name with a letter representing the type (A, P or V),

# followed by a comma, as so:

# * "A" for audio (eg. media_dir=A,/var/lib/minidlna/music)

# * "P" for pictures (eg. media_dir=P,/var/lib/minidlna/pictures)

# * "V" for video (eg. media_dir=V,/var/lib/minidlna/videos)

# WARNING: After changing this option, you need to rebuild the database. Either

# run minidlna with the '-R' option, or delete the 'files.db' file

# from the db_dir directory (see below).

# On Debian, you can run, as root, 'service minidlna force-reload' instead.

media_dir=A,/home/pi/stream_files/media/audio

media_dir=P,/home/pi/stream_files/media/pictures

media_dir=V,/home/pi/stream_files/media/video

media_dir=/home/pi/stream_files/media

# Path to the directory that should hold the database and album art cache.

db_dir=/var/lib/minidlna

# Path to the directory that should hold the log file.

#log_dir=/var/log

# Minimum level of importance of messages to be logged.

# Must be one of "off", "fatal", "error", "warn", "info" or "debug".

# "off" turns of logging entirely, "fatal" is the highest level of importance

# and "debug" the lowest.

#log_level=warn

# Use a different container as the root of the directory tree presented to

# clients. The possible values are:

# * "." - standard container

# * "B" - "Browse Directory"

# * "M" - "Music"

# * "P" - "Pictures"

# * "V" - "Video"

# if you specify "B" and client device is audio-only then "Music/Folders" will be used as root

#root_container=.

# Network interface(s) to bind to (e.g. eth0), comma delimited.

#network_interface=

# IPv4 address to listen on (e.g. 192.0.2.1).

#listening_ip=

# Port number for HTTP traffic (descriptions, SOAP, media transfer).

port=8200

# URL presented to clients.

# The default is the IP address of the server on port 80.

#presentation_url=http://example.com:80

# Name that the DLNA server presents to clients.

#friendly_name=

# Serial number the server reports to clients.

serial=12345678

# Model name the server reports to clients.

#model_name=Windows Media Connect compatible (MiniDLNA)

# Model number the server reports to clients.

model_number=1

# Automatic discovery of new files in the media_dir directory.

#inotify=yes

# List of file names to look for when searching for album art. Names should be

# delimited with a forward slash ("/").

album_art_names=Cover.jpg/cover.jpg/AlbumArtSmall.jpg/albumartsmall.jpg/AlbumArt.jpg/albumart.jpg/Album.jpg/album.jpg/Folder.jpg/folder.jpg/Thumb.jpg/thumb.jpg

# Strictly adhere to DLNA standards.

# This allows server-side downscaling of very large JPEG images, which may

# decrease JPEG serving performance on (at least) Sony DLNA products.

#strict_dlna=no

# Support for streaming .jpg and .mp3 files to a TiVo supporting HMO.

#enable_tivo=no

# Notify interval, in seconds.

#notify_interval=895

# Path to the MiniSSDPd socket, for MiniSSDPd support.

#minissdpdsocket=/run/minissdpd.sock

You can grab the file itself here. The only thing that’s different is where I put the media directories. The rest of the instructions are still in the .conf, it’s much simpler than mediatomb for example.

Here’s a video of the whole thing working on 3 devices!

Rpi Media Server | Testing video playback from external data source [Documentation]

September 29, 2012 / Leave a comment

So first we need to make sure I can output video files from a usb source.

I’ll be using “usbmount” and omxplayer, to get these packages make sure you’re pi’s setup correctly and run the following commands:

Note: make sure no storage devices are plugged into the usb port when you install “usbmount”

sudo apt-get install usbmount
sudo apt-get install omxplayer

1 2	sudo apt-get install usbmount sudo apt-get install omxplayer

Once those are installed you can start trying to play videos off of the usb drive (eventually the thumb drive will be replaced with a large hdd

I’ll be using filezilla to transfer to and from the pi.

Check out the video below to see omxplayer in action:

Edit: The upload failed and I forgot to check on it. Come back soon for the video.

I’m choosing to debug my Pi over composite. The reason being is because I’m going to be working a lot with video outputs, and I don’t have a second hdmi ready monitor. I’m going to be using the EasyCAP usb video capture card. This will also give me the ability to record what i’m seeing as well. This 100% better / much more efficient than buying a second monitor and filming on it. Of course when this is ready for implementation, it will be plugged into a television with HDMI so the picture will be amazing.

Rpi Media Server | [Declaration]

September 29, 2012 / Leave a comment

The goal of this is to become independent from cable TV while still being able to do all of the same things we would with a cable service – I.E still consume content in the living room on the television.

It should also improve upon the experience. I want to be able to stream content from the Pi to any capable device. That list includes but is not limited to:

1. Windows XP
2. Windows 7
3. Linux Debian
4. Linux Ubuntu
5. iOS 6 (ipad)
6. iOS 5.3 (ipod Touch)
7. OSX and up
8. Android "Gingerbread" and up

1. Windows XP

2. Windows 7

3. Linux Debian

4. Linux Ubuntu

5. iOS 6 (ipad)

6. iOS 5.3 (ipod Touch)

7. OSX and up

8. Android "Gingerbread" and up

I’ll be working on this post most of today, so they’ll be a few posts coming.