Category: Members

Members

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Sat. Oct 22, 2020 – Old Man Savers

George will share his old man savers. Consumer kitchen appliances are designed for one size fits all, not for my personal needs. My needs change as I age, and I need alerts for faults.

  • I like to turn off my drip coffee maker as soon as coffee is brewed. If I forget, it wastes electricity (500watts) and spoils the coffee. If I forget to insert the carafe, I’ve got a mess. A timed relay with a contact sensor for the carafe solves the problem.
  • So as not to overcook the meat, I turn off my induction hot plate based on a thermistor inserted into the meat to trip a relay to power off the hot plate.
  • A centralized monitor and alarm system, with text message notifications, can be tailored to one’s specific needs. My monitoring system needs to include at least 9 sensors:
  • Exterior door that gets left ajar.
  • Bathroom light gets left on
  • Bathroom water flooding
  • Fridge power lost
  • Fridge temperature too high
  • Freezer power lost
  • Freezer temperature too high
  • Exterior hall temperature
  • Smoke detector

George’s presentation is here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/107pIcvgMJfG5TxZLBdD5MD1n3QWQPcR2-Dehy2xVzjI/edit?usp=sharing

His code .pdf file is here:

9:30-10a Cocktails & Conversation
10a Presentation

QCollege has welcomed us back to meet in-person. We thank them for their support.

We will be holding a Hybrid meeting (in-person & Jitsi).

https://meet.vinnythegeek.ca/vicpimakers

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Sat. Sep, 24, 2022 – Firefox Extension tracking

9:30-10a Cocktails & Conversation (virtual)
10a Presentation

Mark will share his work in stripping tracking info on Firefox on a Pi, and how to load it onto your Firefox.

QCollege has welcomed us back to meet in-person. We thank them for their support.

Suite 303 – 771 Vernon Ave · Victoria, BC

We will be holding a Hybrid meeting (in-person & Jitsi).

https://meet.vinnythegeek.ca/vicpimakers

Mark’s presentation .pdf is here.

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June 25, 2022 – Recent Projects

Come share your recent projects with the group, online or in person.

9:30-10a Cocktails & Conversation (virtual)
10a Presentation


QCollege has welcomed us back to meet in-person. We thank them for their support.

George shared some pico links

https://learn.adafruit.com/welcome-to-circuitpython

https://learn.adafruit.com/getting-started-with-raspberry-pi-pico-circuitpython/blinky-and-a-button

https://learn.adafruit.com/getting-started-with-raspberry-pi-pico-circuitpython/neopixel-leds

Virtual…

https://meet.vinnythegeek.ca/vicpimakers

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Sat. Feb. 26, 2022 Making a music player – bits of Python causing grief

I decided to build my own Raspberry Pi music player using Python, as the available players didn’t really do what I wanted. This is Python at the beginner level, and the saga of making the player. Mostly it is about the little things in Python that caused me to stumble for a while. The music player is functional, the interface isn’t elegant, and I learned a few things about Python programming. – Don

9:30-10a Cocktails & Conversation (virtual)
10a Presentation

Here are Don’s presentation .pdf and(change to .py) .txt file.

https://meet.vinnythegeek.ca/vicpimakers

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Sat. Mar. 13, 2021 – Hardware Containers

Now that you have the world’s most useful project, it is time to package it up so the world doesn’t break it. We’ll discuss using different packaging containers to protect your project.

9:30 AM to 11:30 AM PST

Jitsi Virtual Meeting

https://meet.vinnythegeek.ca/vicpimakers
Please contact markg@vicpimakers.ca if you are having trouble connecting to the meeting server.

George’s packaging presentation: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ivUou7D7rNFYmZPl1GAi4F6A5dP52ewsqoxxl0eUt5c

Deid’s packaging presentation: http://drsol.com/~deid/pi/packaging/

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Postponed – Projects and Challenges

Due to the current situation @ March 14, 2020, in-person meetings have been suspended until further notice. Please do join us on Slack or at our online learning sessions using Jitsi. Write to hello at vicpimakers.ca for invitations and information.

Q-CollegeSuite 303 771 Vernon Ave · Victoria, BC – 10am

1) Hack Challenge, by George
Modify a window alarm to be a useful or entertaining device. Window alarms to be supplied free March 14th, one per attendee.

2) Hack Challenge, by Deid
New “Christmas Light” patterns

3) … bring projects that you want to share or need help with… If you like, email a description to be added to this page.

It is fun to repurpose battery powered consumer products.  For instance, here is a Leak Detector made from a window alarm.  The article includes the window alarm schematic.  

And George made a bike theft deterrent alarm with remote radio alerting from the same window alarm.

In normal operation, the window alarm senses separation from its external magnet via its internal reed switch and feeds its piezo disk with an oscillation.  The window alarm runs on 3 button cells and draws no current when the reed switch is open. There is also a slide switch to enable/disable the alarm.

Here is a photo of the circuit board:  The OUT signal from the 8 pin oscillator chip is a 10V DC wave, pumped up by the inductor from 5 volts. A voltage divider can be added to lower this chip output signal to less than 5v to feed another device.    

Or the piezo can be used as a microphone, providing about 100mv into a very high impedance input

In May we can show what we achieved.

New “Christmas Light” patterns

Deid successfully connected a 50 light string of addressable LEDs to an ESP8266 to cause the lights to light and change colour and move and …

Deid created the following patterns:

  • Primary
  • Random
  • Web Safe
  • Follow
  • Lead
  • Random On ***
  • All On
  • All Off
  • Rainbow
  • Moving
  • Colour
  • Christmas
  • Rainbow Group
  • Dual Colour ***
    *** Shown in the images

The ESP8266 C code to do this can be found here.  Deid makes no representation that the existing code is good.  In fact he knows some of it is not. Feel free to fix.

The challenge is to add more patterns and the code to implement the patterns.  If you send Deid the code he will load and try the code. Unless someone comes up with a better way for folks to test remotely.


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Sat, Nov 23, 2019 -Electrical measurements in the unsteady state

10:00 AM to 12:00 PM

Learn how to measure the electrical world using your embedded device. In this talk, we’ll answer the following, and show you lots of cool stuff:

  • When does Ohm’s law apply?
  • Measuring inductance and capacitance, and formulas for these
  • Recording transient currents when a motor starts and stops.
  • Protecting devices with inrush current limiters and transient suppressors.

Camosun College Interurban Campus
4461 Interurban Road · Victoria, BC
Tech Bldg, Tech 177

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Summer Break 2019

Victoria PiMakers and Others are on a summer break.  We will meet again on Saturday, September 14th,  at Q-College.  The presentation(s) will be “My Summer Show & Tell.”

In the meantime…


Linux Sigs!
First Saturday of the Month
July 6th and August 3rd
9:30 am – 12:00pm
Quality Foods, Upstairs Large Boardroom
Eagle Ridge Plaza
27 Helmcken Rd

And The Net Sig!
First meeting
Thursday, July 25, 2019 and the next meeting is August 22.
6:30 PM to 8:00 PM
Q-College
Suite 303 771 Vernon Ave · Victoria, BC

A Special Interest Group focused on computer networking. Building networks for Today and Tomorrow!

Half of the meeting is education or presentation. Half is sharing and problem-solving.

Bring a laptop with Wireshark installed: We’ll be covering the basics of packet capture, and seeing what is actually on your network.

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Intro to Pi and Others: Part 4

Light it up!

Tuesday, May 21, 2019
6:00 PM to 7:30 PM
Q-College
Suite 303 771 Vernon Ave · Victoria, BC

Intro to Pi & Others is a 4 part series of short monthly sessions to help get you up and running with your Pi or Other (embedded device). It is a structured hour-long session where you can ask questions.

Please bring in your Pi, HDMI cable, and power supply. All other equipment will be provided.

This is a four-part series with each session building on the previous sessions, where Pi basics of software and hardware will be explored. Read More

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Intro to Pi & Others Part 3

Light it up!

Tuesday, May 7, 2019
6:00 PM to 7:30 PM
Q-College
Suite 303 771 Vernon Ave · Victoria, BC

Intro to Pi & Others is a 4 part series of short monthly sessions to help get you up and running with your Pi or Other (embedded device). It is a structured hour-long session where you can ask questions.

Please bring in your Pi, HDMI cable, and power supply. All other equipment will be provided.

This is a four-part series with each session building on the previous sessions, where Pi basics of software and hardware will be explored. Read More

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March 23, 2019 Let’s Encrypt

“Let’s Encrypt” is a free, public usable Certificate Authority that makes encrypting your web server’s http traffic easy. All you need to know about setup up a Raspberry Pi to use Let’s Encrypt will be presented by Mark G.

Camosun College
Bldg: Technology Bldg, Room: Tech 177 – 4461 Interurban Rd, Victoria, BC (parking at lot 8 for park users)

Download: Using Let’s Encrypt As A Certificate Authority on a Raspberry Pi

letsencryptpresentation