November 12th Meeting: IoT Streaming

Raspberry Pi and IoT Streaming

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a hot topic. Join us, as we continue to explore the vast world of IoT using the Raspberry Pi. This weeks session will focus on IoT devices streaming data over the internet.

Saturday, November 12th, 2016
9:30 AM
Victoria Computer Club
85A Burnside Rd West (at Wascana), Victoria, BC

A full writeup for this presentation is available on the presenters website.

July 9th Meeting

Serving The Web With A Slice Of Pi

Although small in size, the Raspberry Pi and other embedded Linux boards can be used as very capable web servers.

Instructor Don Woods will show you how to set up a Web server on a Raspberry Pi and get around the little snags to be able to access your Pi from outside your local network.

The entire tutorial is available here:

http://piserver.vicpimakers.ca/

Note: This will be our last Meetup before the summer holiday season. We will reconvene in early September. Have a good summer, y’all!

June 25th Meeting

Low-cost High-quality PiFi Audio

Presented by Stuart Hertzog

Tired of iTunes? Time for PiTunes! — HiFi audio from your Pi.

You don’t need a PC or laptop to enjoy listening to hifi audio from your personal collection or Internet streaming. And you won’t have to endure the convoluted iTunes interface.

A low-cost Digital Audio Converter (DAC) or DAC and Amplifier such as offered by HiFiBerry or IQAudio will turn any Raspberry Pi2 or 3 into a low-cost and energy-efficient MPD audio server controlled from a Web browser or an iOS/Android app.

Join us as instructor Stuart Hertzog explains how to set up a DAC on your Pi and demonstrates the free and open-source Linux audio software PiMusicBox, Volumio, RuneAudio, and MoOde Audio.

Discover PiFi audio and a world of listening pleasure!

Check out the links for this presentation:

May 14th Meeting

Using the GPIO Pins on the Pi – Part 2

By Deid Reimer

This meeting we’ll pick up on the Pi GPIO pins (Part 2), looking at input, using switches (push buttons). You’ll learn how to not only have your Pi illuminate lights or close relays, but also to take input via GPIO. Using the input and output GPIO capabilities of the Pi, one can create a home automation system, or even replace your “Nest” thermostat with the Pi.

Bring your Pi and get hands on help after the presentation.

Read the tutorial material

April 9 Meeting

VNC on the Raspberry Pi

by Craig Miller

In this meeting we’ll learn:

  • What is VNC
  • Why would you want to use VNC?
  • Basic Networking
  • VNC Server, VNC Client
  • Other remote GUI methods, X-Windows
  • Demo

Bring your Pi if you have one so you can set it up for VNC access as the presentation progresses.

Outline

  • What is VNC?
  • Why would you want to use VNC?
  • Basic Networking
  • VNC Server, VNC Client
  • Other remote GUI methods

Read the Presentation

February 27, 2016 – Python 2: Basic Constructs

This Python Course covers what is useful to know so you can quickly and easily set about writing Python programs. (Detailed Python programming will be covered in subsequent courses.) This course is suitable for anyone, from those that may have very little computing/programming experience, to those who have already been actively programming in Python. The aim is to get everyone up to the point where they feel confident in using Python and writing useful programs.

Simon Bluck

See tutorial material here.

February 13 Meeting

41BkDwf1-JL._AA160_   flightradar

A Live Flight Data Feeder

Presented by Gordo

One of the many cool things you can do with your Raspberry Pi is to add a special $30 DVT-T USB dongle and install some software to turn your Pi into a live flight data feeder for FlightRadar24.com and FlightAware.com.

The recommended one is an ADS-B USB Dongle (R820T), which includes a small indoor antenna, but I purchased an equivalent one from Amazon at a very reasonable cost.

Among the benefits of this project are gaining free premium memberships with both sites; the ability to monitor flights overhead in real-time; and learing a bit about how to install third-party software via the command line.

In this presentation, I will give an overview of the hardare and software required and perform a quick walk-through installing the FlightRadar24.com feeder. If time permits, I will also demonstrate installing the FlightAware.com feeder.

Since these feeder stations are location-dependent, you will have to perform your own install at the place from which you’ll set up your Pi feeder and antenna.

Place: Victoria Computer Club, 85A Burnside Rd West (at Wascana), Victoria
Time: 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Read the full instructions here

January 23, 2016 – Python 1: Introduction

Jan 23, 2016 · 9:30 AM
Victoria Computer Club

Python is a modern programming language that is relatively easy to learn and well-suited to sensor or robotics projects using the Raspberry Pi, Arduino, or other embedded Linux boards.

The first of a monthly series, An Introduction to Python is co-presented by Deid Reimer and Simon Bluck, two VicPiMaker members with considerable combined experience in programming and teaching.

See tutorial material here.

What topics do you want covered at our Meetups?

Hi! My name is Deid Reimer and I have taken on the task of ensuring that we have presentations, demonstrations, or something else of interest as the focus of our biweekly Saturday Victoria PiMakers And Others Meetups.

Send me your ideas and suggestions as to:

  • What topics you are interested in seeing covered at our meetings?
  • A topic or project you could present or showcase at a meeting.

We’d also like to know:

Please don’t worry if you have an idea for a topic or a project you can present but don’t know how to structure your talk, or are just shy about speaking in public. I can help with this: send me your idea and we’ll work to make it happen.

Presentations should be about an hour long, leaving up to an hour for questions and answers, directed help, and general discussion.

Some possible future topics could include:

  • More on GPIO and sensors
  • More on command line Linux
  • Projects you or others have completed or are still in progress
  • Programming (could be a series of tutorials) in:
    • Python
    • JavaScript
    • HTML/CSS
    • C+
    • Scratch
    • Sonica
  • Using the Pi (And Others) as a:
    • Media centre
    • DNS server, or a
    • Web server
  • Backing up your SD cards and devices
  • And all the other topics that I haven’t thought of…

Please contact me at presentations@vicpimakers.ca with your ideas.

Meetups for the first quarter of 2016 are:

  • January 9th and 23rd
  • February 13th and 27th
  • March 12 and 26th

First 2016 presentation – January 9th

To kick off the New Year, I’m going to present simple Raspberry Pi General Purpose Input Output (GPIO) (basic turning an LED light on and off — don’t worry, I’ll bring the LED!) on January 9th, 2016. This is the equivalent of the introductory Hello World printout in programming. So this date is covered unless anyone else wants it; if so I will yield.

Happy New Year!

Deid

December 12 Meeting

Learn To Love Linux

tuxSaturday, December 12, 2015
to
Victoria Computer Club
85A Burnside Rd West (at Wascana), Victoria, BC (map)

Once your SD card is set up and the Pi booted, a powerful but complex command-line world lies behind the deceptively-easy graphical desktop interface. Raspbian is a special version of Debian Linux modified to run efficiently on the Raspberry Pi.
Continue reading “December 12 Meeting”

First meeting Saturday November 14, 2015

Victoria Raspberry PiMakers And Others will hold its first meeting on Saturday November 14th 9:30 a.m. to noon at the Victoria Computer Club, 85A Burnside Rd W Victoria Canada, and then on the second and fourth Saturday morning of each month. The meeting is open to all people interested in using the Raspberry Pi, Arduino, and other small board computers in their projects and for learning.

Talk PiFi To Me

Continue reading “First meeting Saturday November 14, 2015”