Literally within an hour of finding the API docs, I had a Python script grabbing temperature readings from the thermostat and pumping them intro a Pachube feed. It took longer to get the thing attached to the A/C and reliably connected to wifi.

Code

I used the requests module for retrieving the JSON. Here’s the short version (config variables have been hardcoded and error checking remove for brevity .

response = requests.get( 'http://192.168.1.123/temp' )
indoor_temp = json.loads( response.content )['temp']

It helped speed things along significantly having the Pachube part mostly taken care of by the eeml module. Adding that temperature as a new datapoint to my feed goes something like this.

import eeml
pachube = eeml.Pachube( PACHUBE_API_URL, PACHUBE_API_KEY )
# This particular feed has named datastreams -- if you're posting to one with a numerical ID instead, enter that here.
datastream = 'temp'
pachube.update( [ eeml.Data(datastream, indoor_temp) ] )
pachube.put()


Excuses

I was about to wrap this up with a list of reasons I haven’t posted the entire chunk of code on github yet. But like many unpublished personal software projects, it really comes down to some combination of perfectionism and (perceived) lack of free time. “The perfect is the enemy of the good enough” and all that. The right way would be to just post it already – having code out there publicly means other people can spend their free time to help me make it perfect.

Maybe next weekend.

I poked around for “flickr screensaver linux” on Google and was a bit disappointed. Most of the results a) discuss Mac- or Windows-only solutions, b) link to programs that no longer exist, or c) are more complicated than what I need.

Well, it is Linux … time to roll my own. Maybe this solution is so obvious that no one bothered to document it, but this is what I came up with.  Maybe it will save time for someone else.  Besides, I need a new post to break in the new theme on this blog.

The basic formula: RSS feed from Flickr + podcast downloader + cron +  “Pictures folder” screensaver.
Read on for the details …

Actually, any RSS feed with images as enclosures will work, since that’s what the podcatching software looks for.  However, podget does not handle Atom feeds with enclosures, so make sure you reach for the RSS.  The tricky part of this setup was finding a feed for the Interesting pics on Flickr.   Flickr does not supply an official feed, but someone has already solved this problem.  (His APOD feed is nice as well.)

You want step-by-step?  It’s actually pretty Easy In Linux (not to be confused with regular easy):

• Install the podcatcher:
  sudo apt-get install podget
• Tell podget to download to the ~/Pictures directory.  Here’s the relevant line from my ~/.podget/podgetrc:
  dir_library=/home/mythtv/Pictures
  ( alternate: tell the Pictures screensaver to grab images from the podcast directory )
• Add feeds to podget.   Here’s my ~/.podget/serverlist:
  # FORMAT:    <url> <category> <name>
#
# my photostream
http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne?id=31073629@N00&lang=en-us&format=rss2 screensaver Flickr mine
#
# my favorites
http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_faves.gne?id=31073629@N00&lang=en-us&format=rss_200 screensaver Flickr faves
#
# Flickr pictures with "interestingness"
http://feeds.feedburner.com/seanreiser/flickrinterestingness screensaver flickr interesting
#
# Astronomy Picture of the Day
http://feeds.feedburner.com/seanreiser/apod screensaver APOD
• Tell cron to grab new pictures once a day:
  Run crontab -e and add this line:
  0 5 * * * podget  # run podget at 5am every day
  (You may need to give a full path for podget)

First one we saw was Joel Greenberg showing off his nifty homemade mic zeppelin. According to my del.icio.us links, I read about this back in April, but didn’t realize he was from Austin. (Note to self: checkout his podcast )

Next up was Rich LeGrand and his Lego-bot with a Gameboy brain. Basically, he put an FPGA and some flash memory on a card that fits in the Gameboy Advance cartridge slot, which lets the GBA brain talk to sensors and motor controllers and cameras and all kinds of roboty goodness. For a demo, the bot spotted a loose lego piece, wheeled itself over, grabbed the piece, and moved it to the other side of the table. It was also able to learn and repeat and little dance — you push the thing around the table, and it senses the movement through the motors, records it, and plays it back. ( video! )

The Austin Robot Group had the last two presentations: Eric Lundquist explained the Babbling Head and had it sing a few songs, and Vern Graner demoed the controller board/prototype of a funky spin-art game-type-thing they’re making for the next First Night Austin.

All kinds of Neat Stuff[tm] .. we’ll have to go back next month. (I heard they had a homemade Tesla coil last month!) I managed to catch part of the evening with the voice recorder on my iAudio. I’ll try to clean it up and stick it online sometime in the next few days.

[tags] austin, austintx, geek, dorkbot, dorkbotaustin, nerd, robots, robotics[/tags]

A few months ago, I had a similar idea but took a different approach. I was a bit more speed-oriented (some might say lazy) and decided to use the X10 system I already have going in the house. Maybe not as elegant or robust as making a circuit from scratch and hooking it directly into the ethernet, but

Sensing

I used an X10 Powerflash module connected to a reed switch mounted on the overhead door. When the door changes state, it sends an X10 code of on or off, telling if the door was just opened or closed. The signal is received by an X10 CM11A attached to the house server, which triggers a short script that logs the time and status in a text file (again, “speed-oriented” .. as in speed of completion). Another script generates a (SSL and password protected) web page displaying the current state of the overhead door and time of last change: “Garage was opened at 8:00 am”.

Control

Now I have webpage that tells me I left the garage door wide open when I took off for work … if only I could close it remotely! Once more, with ease-of-installation in mind, I grabbed another X10 product from Fry’s, the Universal module and wired it to the same contacts that connect to the wall-mounted door-opener button. A small addition to that web script, and a click will use the heyu program to generate the proper X10 signal, causing the relay to fire and close the door.

Side note:

Our garage door has an “electric eye” to detect an object (or person) in the path of the closing door, and will reverse and refuse to close if something’s in the way. (I believe this is required by state law.) It’s still possible to close the door on your car if the bumper and the beam are at different levels, but at least it makes it harder There’s an LED on the sensor itself, but it’s hard to see from inside the car without adjusting the side-mirror to an odd angle. So there’s a possible enhancement to my version of the garage monitor: use the signal from the original obstruction sensor to drive a second better placed LED.

[tags] house,homeautomation,x10,nerd,geek,make,diy,garage,sensors,control,remotecontrol[/tags]

With the new car, I had no tape deck .. so hacking was required to add a line-in (by way of FM modulator) to connect my external digital audio device. In the course of this hacking, I discovered it’s fairly simple to take apart the interior of a Mazda 3 (see my del.icio.us links for some hints). So ideas and possibilities started popping into my brain .. “I could put the GPS under this panel here .. and the wires would go here”.

Also, there’s this nifty device called the “AuxMod”:http://www.sylfex.com/products/AuxMod/ .. which provides a much cleaner line-in than a modulator. And the Advanced version adds a serial port for some nifty interfacing to the OEM head-unit — the buttons on the steering wheel could control a PC, and the PC could send text to the in-dash display ..
more ideas

Anyway, I finally started this weekend. I pulled off a few plastic panels and put USB WiFi adapter and a GPS receiver under the dash, right behind the defroster vent. The actual computer (case+board+DC-DC power supply) is still on the way, but I’m planning on sticking it right under the driver’s seat. I already have the USB and audio cables under there, ready to plug in. I also stuck an open USB port where the ashtray used to be.

Once I get the PC in there, I’ll start playing with the software.
OS will be Linux of some flavor (probably “Debian”:http://debian.org or “Ubuntu”:http://ubuntu.com ) .
“MPD”:http://musicpd.org has worked great around the house as a headless music player, should work well in the car too.
Still looking for a GPS program that will work well with a text-only display (or no display). Some simple track logging should be pretty easy to set up though.

Other possible hardware:
bumper mounted digital camera(s) – you’d be surprised how hard it is to accurately remember the license plate number of a hit-and-run driver
OBD-II interface – think /var/log/car_engine

Case and PC should be arriving this week, I’ll post more after I have it installed .. *evilgrin*

Earlier this week, I heard about this thing called Mologogo .. which is basically cellphone+gps+java app+internet = homemade lojack! So I bought myself a cheap-ish Motorola i285 on the Boost pay-as-you go plan. It has builtin Assisted GPS (somehow uses the cell towers to help with the GPS fix I think). The pay-as-you go lets you get on the “wireless web” for $0.20/day (cheap!). And the mologogo java app lets you upload your coordinates to the intarwebnets at regular intervals.

So, like I said .. I am here. The app on the phone also displays a small map of your location, and any friends’ locations who might be logging their own coordinates. Nifty ..

I’m thinking about plugging the phone into the lighter socket in the car and leaving it there .. out of site, but still able to catch the GPS signal.

I was a big dork in 1996.

a sample:

Hey. howzit goin?
Would like to win a laptop? I found this contest on the web where you have to solve all these puzzles and when you finish, you get yourself entered into a drawing for a pentium 75 laptop with a 28.8 PCMCIA modem.. here’s the URL

A modem — how quaint! 28.8 kbps no less!

Also found backups of old webpages, but I’ll spare you the horror.

Haven’t completely abandoned the wiki though .. upgraded my version of Instiki today, in fact. And since there appears to be no “import” function, I rolled my own. I was impressed with how easy that turned out to be — curl is quite versatile with the HTTP POST action. I’d post the actual script to show you, but I left it at work .. maybe tomorrow

This flag would have another use .. say I use streamripper to save some href="http://npr.org/">NPR program or
download some news from someplace like HREf="http://www.factsquad.org/radio">this. I probably only want to hear
this mp3 once, and only within a few days of copying to my iPod. So I set an
expiration date and/or a playcount limit. So after I hear it once or the story
is a week old, it never comes up randomly again. It stays on the iPod until I
explicitly delete it or all the expired tracks, so I can still manually select
it if I really do want to hear it again.

Just a thought ..

Might be possible someday with this Linux firmware for the iPod