Category: Members

Members

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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


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February 9, 2019 – Project Day

raspberry pi

VicPiMakers will be supporting Projects in 2019. What are Projects? Deid’s pond is a project, for example. If you have a project idea, bring it in and we’ll see how we can help you complete your project.

George Bowden – Timed Lock
Heidi Bada – Intro – https://badadigitalmarketing.com/piprojects/
Ideas
Phillips Hue – timed dim/colour
Weather Sensors
Wearable Sensors in sport
Home Safety –
Flow sensor in toilet
Launchpad pro using python – Open Firmware project
Environmental Sensors – birdfeeder motion (wisecam), soil moisture
Pi version of “the clapper”
Eileen & Cody – Space Station Light & Sound – https://github.com/cozyhost/
Plan on lighting Neo Pixels
Peter Sprague – Packet Radio Satellite tracker
Portable, run in truck
Moved from Pi, to FreeBSD
Dan Willis – LED running as a Canadian flag flying
Weatherproof boxes outside

10:00am
Q-College, Suite 303 – 771 Vernon Ave, Victoria, BC

Contact projects at vicpimakers dot ca to share your project on our next Project Day.

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November 10, 2018 – Lights Out!

Saturday, November 10, 2018

10:00am
Q-College, Suite 303 – 771 Vernon Ave, Victoria, BC

Hosted by George Bowden and Craig Miller

LIGHTS OUT, a possible life saver. An acquaintance fell in the washroom and was unable to raise attention for thirty hours, and never fully recovered. The monthly cost ($50) of wearable alert bracelets and the habit of not wearing them is a large risk to seniors living alone. This alarm system, based on an ESP8266 and a php web app, alerts friends that a bathroom light has been left on for way too long. The link to the presentation docs is here.

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Summer Break 2018

Victoria PiMakers and Others are on a summer break.  We will meet again on Saturday, September 8th,  at Q-College.  The presentation(s) will be “My Summer Show & Tell.”

In the meantime, do attend the Linux Sigs! Saturday, July 7, 2018 and Saturday, August 18, 10:00am to 12:00pm at Island Savings, 3195 Douglas St.

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March 10, 2018 – Intro 1 to Statistical Computing using R & Python

10:00am
Q-College
Suite 303 – 771 Vernon Ave, Victoria, BC

Two views of Statistical Programming.  Python using Panda & PyNum libraries for statistical computing. And a following meeting,  (28 April) with R  a programming language and free software environment for statistical computing and graphics that is supported by the R FoundationTwo views of Statistical Programming.

See presentation pdf s here.

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Intro to Pi and Others – 20 Feb 2018

Intro to Pi & Others is a short monthly session to help get you up and running with your Pi or Other (embedded device). It is an unstructured hour-long session where you can ask questions, bring in your Pi or Other (and power supply), and get help with your project.

This month, learn the basics of GPIO and how to turn on/off a LED. We have extra green projects boards and LEDs to use. See you on Tuesday.

LED Presentation

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Oct 28, 2017 – Open Source Routers with OpenWrt/LEDE

9:30 AM

Q-College, Suite 303 771 Vernon Ave, Victoria, BC (map)

routerYou have seen Craig carrying around routers, but he has never shown you what is inside. In this session, Craig will show you the Open Source alternative to Router Software, which supports over 1000 router models. There is a good chance your router is supported by OpenWrt/LEDE.

https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/start

https://lede-project.org/toh/start

OpenWrt/LEDE also have excellent IPv6 support. What could be better to prepare you for the future of the internet.

View Presentation