PiBox Media Center v0.11.0 Release 2016-10-11 The PiBox Media Center v0.11.0 binary releases are now available for download.  This release represents the first public release that will be demo’d at this weeks Maker Faire in Colorado Springs.  It’s focus has been on performance, usability and developer functionality. Additional Information Meetup […]

PiBox 0.11.0 release

PiBox has a new project web site:  https://www.piboxproject.com.  I created this to help give the project a more professional appearance in order to entice new developers to the project.   The wiki remains the location of meaningful developer information. And I created a Meetup group too:  http://www.meetup.com/PiBox-Embedded-Developers My goal is to […]

New PiBox web site and Meetup group

It’s official: PiBox will be at the Colorado Springs Maker Faire on October 15th. The Maker Faire will be held at Library 21c which is just North of the Northeast corner of the Chapel Hills Mall.  Last year saw around 6300 attendees and turnout is expected to be even better […]

PiBox @ CS Maker Faire, Oct 15th

So here’s my use case:  I need a camera that is easily positioned away from the Raspberry Pi and can stream via mjpeg-streamer.  Not huge requirements.  Here is why the Raspicam doesn’t fit that use case. I’ve received a camera with the wrong cable from a Chinese distributor via Amazon.  […]

Why a Raspicam isn’t better than a USB webcam.

Programming the ESP8266 is rather easy.  I’m using the Arduino libraries and the makeEspArduino build system because I like to use the command line, not IDEs.  Stock libraries provide everything you’d expect: Wifi setup, web servers, DNS support, etc.  There’s even a library that allows you to boot into the […]

ESP8266: its’ all about power

I’ve been fiddling with an ESP8266 this week that is being powered by an FTDIBasic board from SparkFun.  The setup is simple enough and it’s easy enough to get a simple web server running on it but I don’t have a power switch so the whole thing is powered through […]

udev rule for FTDIBasic from SparkFun

PiBox was built as a proof of concept for a variety of purposes. One of those was to serve media in my trailer when we go camping.  I use omxplayer to play videos that are provided over SMB between a server and a player system.  That works okay but the […]

Streaming just got easier, with DLNA and Roku

My first PCBs arrived in early December, but due to the holidays I haven’t done anything with them yet.  I just wanted to show what they look like. There are 5 small boards attached to my PCB: An FTDI Basic from Sparkfun for connecting a USB cable to my Linux […]

APC PCBs

What do you get when an old software geek tries to learn about electricity?  The same thing you get when you teach a 5 year old not to put their hands on the red coils on the stove.  Experience through interactivity.  Today’s lesson:  fat wires vs thin wires. I’ve been […]

Learning about power

So my little aeroponics project is growing beyond its real needs, but once you start assembling legos it’s hard to stop.  I’ve added an ESP8266 for wireless connectivity and a really small OLED LCD display.  The latter will let me monitor the system without either serial (FTDI Basic) or wireless […]

Adruino updates: APC w/ESP8266 and OLED LCD

One of the directions my PiBox project is headed is as a central hub for sensor management.  This implies the ability to communicate between the PiBox and the sensor node using BLE or Wifi.  PiBox can do that already over Wifi (and supports basic BLE communication though lacks a meaningful […]

Embedded project: 4 channel Arduino-based power controller

One of the longterm goals for PiBox is to integrate it into the home.  I want to see the PiBox Server provide centralized communication for an array of IoT devices.  One way to do this is with Bluetooth Low-Energy, aka BLE, aka Bluetooth 4.0.  This specification allows very low power […]

PiBox: bluetooth for video means no omxplayer