Idea for motorhome gadget? (2 Viewers)

Feb 27, 2011
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This is more for the techie types I think.

I am thinking about getting one of Broken Link Removed 4" tablets and permanently mounting it in my van. I will get also get Raspberry Pi and link them via wifi. Due to the built in IO ports I can them control anything in the van via the android tablet. Just after christmas I will have my motorhomewifi.com 3g/wifi router set up so the van will be comprehensively networked:thumb:

I will configure the tablet to give me local weather wherever I am, temperatures from 2 digital thermometers one inside one outside.
I will be able to control the lights.
I will setup news feeds, email notifications and server monitoring.
I could also link in external cameras for additional security when wilding.

So many more ideas as well.

£49 for the tablet
£35 for the Pi
Probably no more than £20 for the electronics. So around the £100 mark.
 

Jim

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That could be useful and it certainly qualifies as a Funster gadget. ::bigsmile: Motorhomers can spend an hour a day staring at their BM1's, you could while away a whole wet weekend with that:Smile:

Be interesting to see what uses you can put it to:thumb:
 

mdixon

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I find doors are good to find out temp inside and outside::bigsmile:

Just kidding - keep us informed on what you get up to. Interested in what you can do with the Pi

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OP
OP
Gromett
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Good idea Jim, might look into adding a battery monitor to it then I could get rid of the NASA.:thumb:
 
Aug 27, 2009
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However you look at it, isn't it just a watered down version of what we all have in our homes.:winky:
 
Jan 24, 2010
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if you don't already have one...

how about a thermostat/timer for the water and heating

or even a frost control mechanism where if the temp drops the PI kicks the heating in or even remotely via a mail/text - on the rare occasions you may not be in the van overnight!!

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OP
OP
Gromett
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However you look at it, isn't it just a watered down version of what we all have in our homes.:winky:
No idea what you mean Buttons sorry. I never had a touch screen when I had a house and nothing was remote controlled via a portable panel not even my puter or tv.

if you don't already have one...

how about a thermostat/timer for the water and heating

or even a frost control mechanism where if the temp drops the PI kicks the heating in or even remotely via a mail/text - on the rare occasions you may not be in the van overnight!!

Timer might be hard to integrate into the truma system, would have to look at the control board. If it is just a simple switch and variable resistor then it should be doable.

A frost alarm would be possible to send an email but that would mean you would need to be on hookup if you don't have solar panels. The pi doesn't draw a lot of power but over a long winter it may have an impact on batteries? Not sure would have to check on that one. It wouldn't be high on my priority list as I am a full timer and the heating is on all the time anyway:winky:
 
OP
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I have found the 5V power supply for them both though. Just need to find the USB pin outs for the power supplies.:thumb:
 
Aug 27, 2009
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No idea what you mean Buttons sorry. I never had a touch screen when I had a house and nothing was remote controlled via a portable panel not even my puter or tv.
Houses have come on leaps and bounds since you went mobile Gromett:Smile: Lights cameras music door locks auto temp control Windows 8 with touch screens wireless external hard drives. all controlled and monitored from a tablet anywhere in the world.:roflmto:

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sedge

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Yup and Sterling Moss lives in a house where everything operates on hydraulics.

However for ordinary mortals we still adjust the boiler for temperature (or the stats on the rads) or open a window.

Yes we do have remote control on certain things although often walk across the room and operate the on/off switch etc - but they never invent anything that does the ironing - which is about the only gadget I really want !
 
Aug 27, 2009
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Yup and Sterling Moss lives in a house where everything operates on hydraulics.

However for ordinary mortals we still adjust the boiler for temperature (or the stats on the rads) or open a window.

Yes we do have remote control on certain things although often walk across the room and operate the on/off switch etc - but they never invent anything that does the ironing - which is about the only gadget I really want !
My partner loves ironing, why else would she do so much of it. :Smile:

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hilldweller

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but they never invent anything that does the ironing !


I seem to recall in The Good Book, "and Adam was so pissed off with ironing he asked God for a gadget" so, seeing as how he was a bit knackered after creating the universe and everything, he decided on a quick fix, grabbed a lump of Adam, juggled the DNA to add an ironing gene, and said to Adam, his is your ironing gadget. But watch out, I did it in a hurry and there may be a few bugs in the DNA but you'll have to live with them.
 
C

Chockswahay

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Gromett..........I like this idea :thumb::thumb::thumb:

::bigsmile:
 
Aug 27, 2009
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I seem to recall in The Good Book, "and Adam was so pissed off with ironing he asked God for a gadget" so, seeing as how he was a bit knackered after creating the universe and everything, he decided on a quick fix, grabbed a lump of Adam, juggled the DNA to add an ironing gene, and said to Adam, his is your ironing gadget. But watch out, I did it in a hurry and there may be[HI] a few bugs in the DNA [/HI]but you'll have to live with them.
Only a few bugs?:ROFLMAO:

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aba

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I seem to recall in The Good Book, "and Adam was so pissed off with ironing he asked God for a gadget" so, seeing as how he was a bit knackered after creating the universe and everything, he decided on a quick fix, grabbed a lump of Adam, juggled the DNA to add an ironing gene, and said to Adam, his is your ironing gadget. But watch out, I did it in a hurry and there may be a few bugs in the DNA but you'll have to live with them.

evil-ution has done many a wonder with these bugs :Doh: :whatthe: :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 
OP
OP
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Too small. Make it big 'n' bold then you aren't going to run out of screen space.

I chose this one because of price and it will fit in a small space on my wall.
It will be android based so you can always buy a bigger more expensive one:thumb:
 

jhorsf

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Am I correct in assuming you do not have a girlfriend Grommet::bigsmile:

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hilldweller

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I chose this one because of price and it will fit in a small space on my wall.

OK but you've got good big ambitions there, I really do think you'll hamper yourself in no time. It's not that much more for a cheap(ish) 7" or 10", you don't need a blistering fast one or even new. First time you rig up a camera you will realise this.

There is also a case for "why Android" ? You've got a computer with good video why not use it ?
 

micky drip

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I`m not very clued up on things technical, but I suspect some of you are not treating this forum seriously.:Doh:
 

hilldweller

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I`m not very clued up on things technical, but I suspect some of you are not treating this forum seriously.:Doh:

There would be something very wrong if we did. FUN rules. What Gromett is great FUN. Serious FUN in fact.

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Jan 28, 2008
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weve got the remote weather station already a bit of sea weed hanging on the mirror if its wet its raining or has been if its dry its not raining and hasnt for a while
 
Apr 13, 2012
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For me motorhoming is about getting away from stuff - not taking it with me :Smile:

Can't even change the time on my car - all Winter the time will be wrong, can't wait for the clocks to go back !
 
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OP
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OK but you've got good big ambitions there, I really do think you'll hamper yourself in no time. It's not that much more for a cheap(ish) 7" or 10", you don't need a blistering fast one or even new. First time you rig up a camera you will realise this.

There is also a case for "why Android" ? You've got a computer with good video why not use it ?
As I think I said the one I linked to will fit into a specific space I have in mind for it. I can't see the small size as hampering me as it will be for control/reporting only. For normal stuff I will use my 7" tab.

Android, because there is a much better range/choice of tabs to choose from and I don't fancy developing for IOS. If I want to share any Apps later I don't want to have to go through Apples walled garden and then pay them 30% just for the privilege. I can't use my computer for this for a number of reasons.
1) the main computer requires 240V, the big laptop is not always out and when it is it pulls 5Amps off the battery. I can't leave this running overnight or when I am away from the van. I will of course have an interface running on my computers to access the same data.

For me motorhoming is about getting away from stuff - not taking it with me :Smile:

Can't even change the time on my car - all Winter the time will be wrong, can't wait for the clocks to go back !

I am a fulltimer so the rules are a little different for me:winky: This gadget is about making my life on the road just that little bit easier. Also it is a fun project for me as a sideline.

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Jan 4, 2012
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I think it`s great, i like all the gadget tecki stuff, this is just the sort of thing i will be going along with and fitting.
I like to fiddle :Blush:
I will be following Grommet`s advice on here :thumb:
 
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I am a fulltimer so the rules are a little different for me:winky: This gadget is about making my life on the road just that little bit easier. Also it is a fun project for me as a sideline.


Understood ! :thumb:

Still can't change the time though ! :Smile:



 

hilldweller

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1) the main computer requires 240V,.

I meant the Raspberry Pi as the main computer in this case.

If the Android is more or less a dumb terminal, it's easier to hang a small display off the Pi. The you just ponder a touch overlay or a neat mini keyboard.

Well that's my take on it.

I wondered about sellable Android apps, everything I thought might be useful I found done many times over and usually free. I bought Basic4Android, it's not a bad tool except I don't know visual basic so I was a bit slow but have a rough laptimer/stopwatch running.

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OP
OP
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I meant the Raspberry Pi as the main computer in this case.

If the Android is more or less a dumb terminal, it's easier to hang a small display off the Pi. The you just ponder a touch overlay or a neat mini keyboard.

Well that's my take on it.

I wondered about sellable Android apps, everything I thought might be useful I found done many times over and usually free. I bought Basic4Android, it's not a bad tool except I don't know visual basic so I was a bit slow but have a rough laptimer/stopwatch running.

The reason I will be using the Pi is that it exposes all its I/O ports in an easy to use manner, it runs off 5v, it's extremely low power so can be left switched on all the time. It is also very small so can be wedged in a cupboard out of the way and just get on with its stuff. All the IO ports can be accessed using any language including Python. I will setup a small web server on it and using html 5 to interface to the Python scripts to read and write to the IO ports. Its a really simple way of doing things that just isn't possible using either my desktop or laptop.

Hanging a small display with capacitive touch screen wouldn't be as versatile and would cost more. The tablet has wifi built in so I can unclip it from the wall if needed. I doubt I could get a capactive touch screen to connect directly to the PI as cheaply as the tablet I linked to.

The android part will allow me to get a lot of open source stuff and compile it with modifications to interface directly with the PI. Can't do that on IOS.

I have been looking at my work schedule and it looks like I should be able to start this project in Feb. Plenty of time to plan it all out and write some code before I start in anger. :thumb::winky:


I am fairly excited about this project as it will make quite a few things easier.

For example I keep forgetting to turn off my bathroom light (don't ask) so I will put a timer on this so that if it is still on after an hour it will flash it off once to prompt me and if no response in 10 minutes it will turn it off fully.

Lots of little ideas like that and all of them are just a few minutes programming once the IO ports are integrated into the van.::bigsmile:

The battery monitor is going to be a royal pain in the arse to program though. But will probably be the most fun part of the project.
I will be adding things like graphing so I can see 15 minutely reports on how much power I use and when. I will be able to do running predictions on how long the batteries will last which should be more accurate than the NASA as the nasa only works on current usage not on historical. I will display two figures. 1 based on current usage and the other based on historical usage over the last 24/48 hours. Lots of fun here::bigsmile:
 

Minxy

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weve got the remote weather station already a bit of sea weed hanging on the mirror if its wet its raining or has been if its dry its not raining and hasnt for a while

Could use one of these instead for something that won't rot .... :roflmto:
 

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