Raspberry Pi 2 Announced
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I have to laugh at myself. I'm an old man now, retired from Kodak and NTG. My life is filled with so many beloved activities, most important, my granddaughters, when I can be with them. Lately I've been so busy that I can't even squeeze in my afternoon nap, which I cherish. All that to say, I find it humorous when this past Saturday I ordered a "CanaKit Raspberry PI 2 Ultimate Starter Kit". I haven't programmed in over a decade. Now I find myself all excited about receiving this kit and digging in. Back in the 70's I programmed with Machine and then Assembly languages on Digital Equipment PDP-8 computers, interfaced with shop floor manufacturing equipment. What a delight. I have to ask myself why I feel so excited and I decided that there is a void in my life and that void requires a "toy" to fill it. My "toy" is scheduled to arrive next week.
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It's Here! And it is so cute. It was left in my backyard for several hours at 5 degrees, so it's thawing out right now. It arrived 3 days early and my quick inventory shows that all the kit parts are there. That's it in the middle next to the credit card, added for size comparison. More to come as I play with it.
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@SonshineAcres said:
It's Here! And it is so cute. It was left in my backyard for several hours at 5 degrees, so it's thawing out right now. It arrived 3 days early and my quick inventory shows that all the kit parts are there. That's it in the middle next to the credit card, added for size comparison. More to come as I play with it.
Looks cool. Any ideas for your first project?
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Very cool, what do you plan to do with it?
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Awesome
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I worked as a Thermal Engineer on the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) just out of college until the project's cancellation by Nixon. I loved working in the thermal area. Many years back I came across a four channel data logger kit(http://www.electronickits.com/kit/complete/meas/ck110.htm) that serial interfaced with my Windows 95 computer. With that I could store data readings every 30 seconds. My house uses a heat pump, which is common down south, but not so much up north. I used this data logging system to monitor the performance of the heat pump. Thermistor 1 is located outside. Thermistor 2 is located near the house thermostat and Thermistor 3 is setting on a register. The resulting graphs were amazing, helping me to tune the system and watch for degradation of the heat pump's performance. I learned the exact temperature swing at the thermostat. I can see when and how long "Defrost cycles" are. I can tell at what point the electric supplement heaters (bank1 and bank2) turn on and off.
I've had a couple of people ask if I could do a performance analysis of their heating and air conditioning systems. I'd love to but carrying the old computer around is a pain. I thought it would be neat to have the Raspberry PI be my data logger. Obviously I have to develop the data logging application and also deal with the USB to Serial conversion situation, which should be no big deal. After all that, my first project is to learn Python and then project 2 will be to design and build a cheap data logging system.
Obviously I need to design the data logger to handle many types of inputs, not just thermal needs. I think there may be applications in the Dairy business, monitoring tank temperatures and flow rates and alarming appropriately. Remember, I'm retired, so it's all PLAY.
Thanks for your interest.
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@SonshineAcres
Often thought that this would make a great thing to have in a smart home. I'd like to have the same thing in my house,.. -
@SonshineAcres said:
Obviously I need to design the data logger to handle many types of inputs, not just thermal needs. I think there may be applications in the Dairy business, monitoring tank temperatures and flow rates and alarming appropriately. Remember, I'm retired, so it's all PLAY.
My fiance works in the dairy industry as a milk inspector / procurement. I can tell you that an inexpensive, fool-proof, way to monitor tank temperature would be a great product for many producers out there. If it could also integrate into the scale and send that data in a text message farmers would be very happy (as would my fiance).
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@coliver he lives in the middle of dairy country too. He's got several farms just on his road.
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Everyone saying that everything about this Raspberry Pi is better expect they video performance apparently sucks now so it doesn't work as well for Media Centers or Digital Signage.
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Not sure what the use case of this would actually be as linux would be better on the Pi in most cases. but this is interesting.
https://dev.windows.com/en-us/featured/raspberrypi2support -
@coliver That's interesting. If I can pull off this first phase, taking it to a higher level should be a breeze. I'll keep you informed of my progress. Keep in mind, it's not the top priority on my list, but it sure has my interest currently.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
Everyone saying that everything about this Raspberry Pi is better expect they video performance apparently sucks now so it doesn't work as well for Media Centers or Digital Signage.
I thought that it had the same video system as before?
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@scottalanmiller said:
@thecreativeone91 said:
Everyone saying that everything about this Raspberry Pi is better expect they video performance apparently sucks now so it doesn't work as well for Media Centers or Digital Signage.
I thought that it had the same video system as before?
That what I thought too but, every I know who has both says it just doesn't work as well. Videos will have artifacts in them or play at a low frame rate on the 2 where as on the first Model B it will play fine with the same setup.
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@thecreativeone91 There is a warning that compiled apps for the previous models will have to be recompiled for the new CPU. https://learn.adafruit.com/introducing-the-raspberry-pi-2-model-b/what-to-watch-out-for There are differences and not everything transports over to the new model.
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@SonshineAcres said:
@coliver That's interesting. If I can pull off this first phase, taking it to a higher level should be a breeze. I'll keep you informed of my progress. Keep in mind, it's not the top priority on my list, but it sure has my interest currently.
Oh, I was just saying if you could get it working reliably and have it wifi/cellular connected there would be a market for it. This overall sounds like a fun project.
