Baking : ProtoMokatines
Sort of, working from a Mokatine recipe I have online but focusing on trying the sponge (genoise) and buttercream (egg based). The buttercream works, surprising SWMBO, who is more used to castersugar / butter recipes. The lemon essence amount used also worked (3/4 tsp) so that’s a win. No other flavours were used.
The sponge was “ok”, flatter than it should have been so probably me hammering the batter more than I should knocking the air out. Will try again.
Presentation, it is what it is. Will be working on that over time.
Next week, need to work on getting the cake right ahead of someone’s 3rd birthday requiring a Duggee which doesn’t look like he’s been in a horrible accident.
F_ck you Facebook
Apparently posting a thread unroll from a scientist who has performed a reasonable breakdown of the data around Covid in the UK. With explaination of the conclusions, data sources, and so on is apparently worth time in Facebook link posting jail.
This link to be precise – https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1410989321394458629.html
This included links to pictures of fluffy bunnies. What is apparently acceptable is a link (no supporting text, that’s bad) to a product on amazon.
What we have learnt today is
- Post links so a big corp can make money, good
- Post links about fluffy bunnies, bad
- Post links which are backed up by evidence rather than woo and bullshit, also bad
- FB is a pile of shit
- My wordpress is still up and running despite being ignored for two years, expect to see more posted here.
Been a while
However it’s time to upgrade things behind the scenes so a new VM has happened and the site has been moved. All remarkably painless.
Graphing has happened
Some hunting later and I’ve found a graphing module which suits my needs and hacked up the first version (only filters for ‘TEMP’, doesn’t accont for the sensor ID etc etc).
Oh and yes I’m reading the database as root due to some weirdness with the permissions which needs fixing.
https://rockhopper.vom.org.uk/~mark/wirelessthing/CreateSensorGraph.py
On the todo list for the whole project
- Make the logger & grapher sensor ID aware
- Handle “BAR” and “HUM” data types
- Optionally handle the “BUTTON” type
- Graph multiple temperature sensors onto a single graph
- Rolling 24h graph; Day, Week and Month graphs
- Move the Pi to a central location and get wlan0 working
IoT monitor script
As promised here’s the code I’ve currently got watching for incoming messages from the slice of pi. It’s a hacked up version of the script from
The code pulling from Weather Underground is gone and I’ve shuffled things around a bit for my purposes. No judging what I’ve done to the python if you please, I’m fresh in from years of abusing perl to meet my needs but have shifted to python for pi related stuff since solstice.
https://rockhopper.vom.org.uk/~mark/wirelessthing/monitor_sql.py
#!/usr/bin/env python
# --------------------------------------------------
from time import time, sleep, gmtime, strftime
import logging
import logging.handlers
import serial
import os
import os.path
import datetime
import sys
import MySQLdb as mdb
# --------------------------------------------------
# create table things (
# thistime timestamp,
# ID varchar(2),
# type varchar(10),
# value float );
# --------------------------------------------------
DEVICE = '/dev/ttyAMA0'
BAUD = 9600
ser = serial.Serial(DEVICE, BAUD)
TIMEOUT = 10
# --------------------------------------------------
my_logger = logging.getLogger('MyLogger')
my_logger.setLevel(logging.INFO)
handler = logging.handlers.SysLogHandler(address = '/dev/log')
my_logger.addHandler(handler)
#my_logger.debug('this is debug')
#my_logger.critical('this is critical')
# --------------------------------------------------
def dumpResults( thingMsg ):
print "Message : " + thingMsg
readValue = -100
readID = "99"
readType = "NONE"
writeMe = 0
# Raw mesg logging
thisTime = strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M", gmtime())
my_logger.info( "%s,%s\n" % ( thisTime, thingMsg ) )
readID = thingMsg[1:3]
if thingMsg[3:7] == "TEMP":
writeMe = 1
readType = "TEMP"
readValue = thingMsg[7:]
if thingMsg[3:7] == "BATT":
writeMe = 1
readType = "BATT"
readValue = thingMsg[7:11]
if readValue == "LOW":
readValue = 0
if writeMe:
thisMsg = "%s,%s,%s,%s\n" % ( thisTime, readID, readType, readValue )
with open( "logfile.txt", "a", 0 ) as thisFile:
# Dump the information to file and setup the message
thisTime = strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S", gmtime())
thisFile.write( thisMsg )
print( thisMsg )
try:
con = mdb.connect('192.168.0.250', 'monitor', 'password', 'houseLogging');
with con:
# SQL stuff
cur = con.cursor()
cur.execute( "insert into things values ( '%s', '%s', '%s', %s )" % ( thisTime, readID, readType, readValue ) )
con.commit()
except mdb.Error, e:
print "Error %d: %s" % (e.args[0],e.args[1])
my_logger.critical( 'Could not write to db - '+thisMsg )
#sys.exit(1)
return( 1 )
def get_temp():
global ser
fim = time()+ TIMEOUT
my_logger.debug('Attempting to get temp')
while (time()<fim):
n = ser.inWaiting()
if n != 0:
data = ser.read(n)
nb_msg = len(data) / 12
print "Number of message blocks " + str(nb_msg)
for i in range (0, nb_msg):
msg = data[i*12:(i+1)*12]
print ">>" + msg
dumpResults( msg )
else:
sleep(5)
return {1}
# --------------------------------------------------
# main function
# This is where the program starts
def main():
while True:
temperature = get_temp()
#else:
# print ("temperature=ERROR-Timeout!")
if __name__=="__main__":
main()
# --------------------------------------------------
Wireless Things or “Fighting with IoT”
So I’ve been hunting around for a decent system to build out some initial “smart home” type projects, focusing to start with on temperature, humidity and pressure.
As part of the excessive digging through google and testing out my ability to keep changing search parameters until something good pops up I came across the range of radio sensors from Ciseco (http://www.wirelessthings.net/) which merrily plug into the RPi and an Instructable which at least pointed in the right direction while missing some of the key steps which aren’t entirely clear from the product docs.
Setup
First things first, install the hat onto your RPi of choice, I’ve installed on a RPi B+, but the forum indicates that it should work just as well on a RPi 2. The hat isn’t stackable so the RPi 2 might be better in the long term by keeping access to some of the GPIO pins.
Pop the lid off the sensor, you’ll need access to the configure button later on.
You must either install the LaunchPad application on the RPi and be able to run an X based display either locally on the RPi or exported back to your working system of choice (I’m using on a Win7 machine running Xming). This is needed to setup the sensor which arrives in a deep sleep and no hint as to what the device ID is.
Disable the serial console from the raspi-config application, or go through the manual steps to remove /dev/ttyAMA0 from /etc/inittab and /boot/cmdline, reboot as necessary. Failure to do this blocks the ability to actually access the radio device.
Follow the LaunchPad documentation (PDF Doc from github), first setting up the encryption key for the radio device (I’m using the Slice of Radio for the RPi). Then run the LaunchPad and follow the instructions for getting the Message Bridge running and setting up the sensor for the first time.
For inital testing purposes I’d recommend setting the reporting interval at 10 seconds so you’re not spending the entire evening waiting for the next poll.
Providing that everything has gone well, you’ve worked out the permission problem on /dev/ttyAMA0 (or are running with root privs) you should be seeing something like the following in minicom
aAATEMP019.0
aAAAWAKE----
aAABATT3.15-
aAASLEEPING-
aAATEMP019.1
The Message Bridge appears to be there to provide a pretty interface into the serial port, however if all you intend to do is listen for information landing on the serial port I would ditch it and just run a script in your language of choice and parse the data as it comes in.
To come
I need to add in some more monitors, work out the range on the sensor and position the monitorPi appropriately in the house, then some graphing to make it actually useful.
I’ll post the script I’m using later.
Links and other useful stuff
Language of things : https://www.wirelessthings.net/language-of-things
LaunchPad : https://www.wirelessthings.net/launchpad
Alternate Instructable
Strike action and Westminster weasels
Some numbers.
Quorum for votes in the House of Commons, 40.
Quorum for votes in the House of Lords, 30.
So respectively votes of 21 and 16 are needed for a motion to pass, this is for legislation which affects the UK. This is the level at which our politicians think it is ok for them to make decisions on our behalf.
2015 general election, numbers (wikipedia); Overall turnout 66.1%; Conservatives 11.3M votes, 36.9% of the cast votes (~28% of electorate)
Now compare this with what they are proposing for the unions, double standards from our elected lords and masters, yeah. Not surprised at all.
Election Fact Check
This graphic is doing the rounds, in the interests of getting rid of the bullshit (taking a lesson from the awesome Full Fact & The Last Leg) I detest infographics which do not provide their sources so I can check for bullshit or bias.
| Who | From | To | Party | Rebellions | Attendance | Teller |
| Clegg | 6 May 2010 | 30 Mar 2015 | LDem | 1 vote out of 264, 0.4% | 264 votes out of 1239, 21.3% | 0 times |
| Cameron | 6 May 2010 | 30 Mar 2015 | Con | 2 votes out of 202, 1.0% | 202 votes out of 1239, 16.3% | 0 times |
| Osborne | 6 May 2010 | 30 Mar 2015 | Con | 8 votes out of 318, 2.5% | 318 votes out of 1239, 25.7% | 0 times |
| May | 6 May 2010 | 30 Mar 2015 | Con | 6 votes out of 597, 1.0% | 597 votes out of 1239, 48.2% | 0 times |
Based on the information from Public Whip the claim is pretty spot on based on the number of rebellions against votes attended. Had Clegg found his courage (maybe that’s what the other parties bring to the LDs while they’re providing a heart or brain) and attended more of the votes the rebellion rate might have been higher.
Sources:
Clegg : http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpn=Nicholas_Clegg&mpc=Sheffield%2C_Hallam&house=commons
Cameron : http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpn=David_Cameron&mpc=Witney&house=commons
Osborne : http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpn=George_Osborne&mpc=Tatton&house=commons
May : http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpn=Theresa_May&mpc=Maidenhead&house=commons
A concussed kitten on a ketamine trip
The Guardian sums up the Camerloon proposals, personally I welcome the digital czar and his furry paws of security.