Mindless Fluffiness » Technical

Arduino + EtherShield + 1Wire Temperature Sensor + Pachube

fluffy — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 05:41:29 +0000

I put together a 1-wire temperature sensor with a Arduino board with Ethernet Shield. Every 5 minutes, it posts the current temperature to Pachube.com. Since there is only outbound connections, it works with firewalls and NATs with not port forwarding. It also has DHCP as I find hard coding IP addresses sort of a pain. I used a DS18S20 temperature sensor.

You can find the software at: http://fluffyhome.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/arduino/PachubeClientWithDHCP.cpp

First you will need to install the DHCP library from: http://blog.jordanterrell.com/post/Arduino-DHCP-Library-Version-03.aspx

And then install the 1-wire library and Dallas Temperature Control library which are both found inside the the zip file at: http://milesburton.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dallas_Temperature_Control_Library#Download

At this point you need to have an account on Pachube and create a manual update feed. The first data stream will be used for the temperature. Next you need to go in to the PachubeClientWithDHCP.cpp file and edit the API KEY and feed ID to match yours. You don’t really need to change anything else. If you have other Arduino with fake MAC addresses, you might want to check this one does not conflict.

The 1-wire bus is connected to Digital IO pin 8 on the Arduino and pulled high to the 5v power with a 4K ohm resistor. Pin 1 of the DS18S20 is connected to ground, pin 2 to the 1-wire bus, and pin 3 to 5v power. (Yah, I know about parasitic power but I have power so I used it).

Compile and install the software, connect up the Ethernet, and start it. That’s about it.

Useful LInks:

http://www.pachube.com

http://milesburton.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dallas_Temperature_Control_Library#Download

http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoEthernetShield

http://arduino.cc/

http://www.maxim-ic.com/quick_view2.cfm/qv_pk/2815

http://fluffyhome.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/arduino/PachubeClientWithDHCP.cpp

http://blog.jordanterrell.com/post/Arduino-DHCP-Library-Version-03.aspx

Home Automation graphs with MRTG using Insteon with Indigo software

fluffy — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 04:27:17 +0000

Let me start by just ranting about how bad MRTG is. It is unquestionable the worst graphing program I have ever used. No auto scale, can’t to negative numbers, can’t have a y axis that does not start at zero, need I say more. Oh, yah, obtuse and confusing to use.

I’m using a venstar T1900 thermostat (http://venstar.com) along with insteon module from SmartLabs (http://www.smartlabsinc.com) over to a INSTEON controller connected to the Indigo software from http://www.perceptiveautomation.com.The first step is to get the temperature from the thermostat into the database on the system running the Indigo software. I do that with using a “Time/Date Action” in the Indigo software that runs ever 10 minutes and has an action type of “Execute AppleScript”. I use the following embedded script

All the code following in this blog post is license under the simplified BSD license (see http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php) if you want to use it.

set myThermostatName to “MainThermo” # you can find the name to put here in the Device screen in Indigo

tell application “IndigoServer”

set mainThermoDev to device myThermostatName

set myTemp to temperatures of mainThermoDev

set value of variable “mainTemp” to myTemp

set myHumidity to humidities of mainThermoDev

set value of variable “mainHumidity” to myHumidity

end tell

This causes the variables to be updated with the values from the thermostat. Any time they change, they get written to the database.

Next I have a shell script program that reads values out of the databases and puts them in weird format that MRTG wants. This script looks like

#!/bin/csh

setenv VAL ` sqlite3 -csv /Library/Application\ Support/Perceptive\ Automation/Indigo\ 4/IndigoSqlClient/sqlite_db ” SELECT var_value FROM variable_history WHERE var_name=’$1’ ORDER BY ts DESC LIMIT 1 ; ” `

if ( $VAL == false ) then

echo 0

else if ( $VAL == true ) then

echo 100

else

echo $VAL

endif

echo 0

echo $1

exit 0

I call this script from the MRTG. My MRTG configuration has an entry that looks like

Target[mHumidity]: `/Library/WebServer/mrtg/scripts/mrtgGetVar.sh mainHumidity`

Options[mHumidity]: nopercent,growright,nobanner,integer,gauge,noo

Title[mHumidity]: Main Humidity

PageTop[mHumidity]:

Main Humidity

YLegend[mHumidity]: Percent

ShortLegend[mHumidity]: %

LegendI[mHumidity]: Humidity

LegendO[mHumidity]: Humidity Index

MaxBytes[mHumidity]: 100

And the end result is a graph like

I also have some triggers that happen when my office ligth goes on or off and set a variable called COfficeLight to true or false. The MRTG config looks like:

Target[cOffLight]: `/Library/WebServer/mrtg/scripts/mrtgGetVar.sh COfficeLights`

Options[cOffLight]: nopercent,growright,nobanner,integer,gauge,noo

Title[cOffLight]: C Office Lights

PageTop[cOffLight]:

C Office Lights

YLegend[cOffLight]: TBD1

ShortLegend[cOffLight]: TBD2

LegendI[cOffLight]: TBD3

LegendO[cOffLight]: TBD4

MaxBytes[cOffLight]: 110

Produces a graph like

Finally I have a python program to get weather information. This program requires the wether API for python to be installed (see http://code.google.com/p/python-weather-api/ ). The python program looks like

#!/usr/bin/env python

import pywapi

import string

import optparse

import sys

def main():

global options

optionParser = optparse.OptionParser(version=”%prog 0.1”,

description=”Get weather in format approperate for MRTG”,

usage=”%prog [options] city”)

optionParser.add_option(‘—verbose’,’-v’,action=’store_true’)

optionParser.add_option(‘—metric’,’-m’,

action=’store_true’,

help=”use metric values. Default is imperial”)

optionParser.add_option(‘—humidity’,”,

action=’store_true’,

help=”Return relative humidity instead of temperature.”)

options, arguments = optionParser.parse_args()

if ( len(arguments) != 1 ):

optionParser.error(“Must provide one city name such as ‘Calgary,AB’ “)

if options.verbose:

print “City is ” + arguments[0]

result = pywapi.get_weather_from_google( arguments[0] )

if options.humidity:

humRes = result[‘current_conditions’][‘humidity’]

hum = “%s”%humRes

if options.verbose:

print “Raw humidity string is ” + hum

h = int( float( hum.lstrip(“Humidity: “).rstrip(“%”) ) )

if options.verbose:

print “Parsed humidity is %d”%h

print “%d”%h

print 0

print “OutsideHumidity”

else:

if options.metric:

print result[‘current_conditions’][‘temp_c’]

print 0

print “OutsideTempCelcius”

else:

print result[‘current_conditions’][‘temp_f’]

print 0

print “OutsideTempFahrenheit”

return 0

if __name__ == “__main__”:

sys.exit(main())

and I use a MRTG config like:

Target[outsideHumidity]: `/Library/WebServer/mrtg/scripts/mrtgGetWeather.py —humidity “Calgary,AB” `

Options[outsideHumidity]: nopercent,growright,nobanner,integer,gauge,noo

Title[outsideHumidity]: Outside Humidity

PageTop[outsideHumidity]:

Outside Humidity

YLegend[outsideHumidity]: Percent

ShortLegend[outsideHumidity]: %

LegendI[outsideHumidity]: Humidity

LegendO[outsideHumidity]: Humidity Index

MaxBytes[outsideHumidity]: 100

To get a graph like

Using Pachube with Insteon/Indigo software

fluffy — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 02:51:00 +0000

I wanted to publish some sensor data from my house up to pachube.

I used a venstar T1900 thermostat (http://venstar.com) along with insteon module from SmartLabs (http://www.smartlabsinc.com) over to a INSTEON controller connected to the Indigo software from http://www.perceptiveautomation.com.

First you need to create an account on pachube.com and create a new feed with two data streams. The first stream is temperature and second is humidity. Make sure the “Feed Type” is set to manual when you created the feed. From the pachube site, you need to get your API key and the feed ID for the feed you created. In the Indigo software, I created a “Time/Date Action” that runs ever 10 minutes and has an action type of “Execute AppleScript”. I use the following embedded script

The following code is license under the simplified BSD license (see http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php) if you want to use it.

# to use this script, you need to edit the next three lines with your API key, and URL for for your feed, and device name in indigo software for your thermostat

set myPachubeAPIKey to “PUT YOUR KEY HERE”

set myPachubeFeed to “http://www.pachube.com/api/feeds/1234.csv” # change to your key

set myThermostatName to “MainThermo” # you can find the name to put here in the Device screen in Indigo

tell application “IndigoServer”

set mainThermoDev to device myThermostatName

set myTemp to temperatures of mainThermoDev

set value of variable “mainTemp” to myTemp

set myHumidity to humidities of mainThermoDev

set value of variable “mainHumidity” to myHumidity

end tell

try

set myRes to do shell script “curl –max-time 10 –silent –show-error –request PUT –header ‘X-PachubeApiKey:” & myPachubeAPIKey & “‘ –data ‘” & myTemp & “,” & myHumidity & “‘ ” & myPachubeFeed

if myRes is not equal to ” “ then

log “Problem with posting to pachube. curl result is:” & myRes

end if

on error

log “Error execting curl to post to pachube.com: Result was ” & myRes

end try

#log “ran the temp log script temp=” & myTemp & ” humidity=” & myHumidity

You can get a google gadget on a web page to graph your feed by embedding the following code after changing the feedID from 1234 to whatever your feed is.

The end result should look something like:

PhD

fluffy — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 18:47:44 +0000

I was taking abuse about an existence proof of my PhD Thesis the other day so here it is:
http://www.dial911anddie.com/PhD/CullenJenningsPhDThesis.pdf

And the proposal for it is at:
http://www.dial911anddie.com/PhD/CullenJenningsPhDProposal.pdf

Dan explains SRTP keying while I drink coffee

fluffy — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 15:49:39 +0000

http://www.blueboxpodcast.com/2006/04/blue_box_podcas.html

Dan’s slides are at:

http://www3.ietf.org/proceedings/06mar/slides/raiarea-1/sld1.htm

http://www3.ietf.org/proceedings/06mar/slides/raiarea-1/raiarea-1.ppt

UBC Award

fluffy — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 16:16:03 +0000

Outstanding Young Alumnus Award – UBC Alumni Association

Latest release of lib SRTP is out

fluffy — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 15:36:00 +0000

See http://sourceforge.net/projects/srtp

CVS access is also available now.

For my P2P SIP stuff, go to www.p2psip.org

fluffy — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 14:49:06 +0000

target="NewWindow">www.p2psip.org is now the top hit in google

How good is your basic probability theory?

fluffy — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 18:48:13 +0000

Many people think they are pretty good at basic
statistics and probability theory. So give this one some thought
…

Imagine there are two drugs, A and B,
that might help cure a problem you have and you are given the following
information. 1100 people took drug A and it helped 505 of them. And 1100 people
took drug B and it helped 195 of them. I put this in the table below along with
the percentage of people where each drug was a success. Assume you can’t take
both drugs and that neither drug has any ill effect, risk, or cost from taking
it.

Drug | Successful | Failed   | percentage success

A    |    505     |     595  |   46%

B    |    195     |     905  |   18%

Which drug would you choose to take given this
information?

Now let me provide a little
extra information. In the study above, it turns out that for drug A, there were
100 males and it worked for 5 of them and for drug B there were 1000 males and
it worked for 100 of them. From this information, and a little subtraction, I
have filled out the two tables below.

For
males

Drug | Successful  |  Failed   | percentage success

A    |      5      |      95   |   5%

B    |    100      |     900   |  10%

For
females

Drug | Successful |   Failed   | percentage success

A    |    500     |     500    |   50%

B    |     95     |       5    |   95%

From the percentage success, it looks like for
humans, drug A is successful about twice as often as drug B. However, for males
drug B is successful about twice as often and for females, drug B is successful
about twice as often.

So which drug
would you take? And how good is basic probability theory?

The really disturbing information thing
here was there was nothing special about the male/female separator. It might be
that if you looked at the data based on any other separator such as over/under
18 years old you would get something like this.

Mobile phones kill early media? One can only hope

fluffy — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 11:55:11 +0000

I love the mobile phones guys – first they
trained users that lousy voice quality really was OK. Then they got people to
understand that when they were done pressing all the digits in a phone number,
they had to press some some other send key before anything would happen.

Now they have an approach to eliminate any one
way media from the far end during the “ringback” time, and of course an
desperate attempt to try and wrap a business model around it. See

http://apnews.myway.com//article/20041129/D86LODF00.html
for a story on charging for songs that play as your custom “rickback tone”.

This of course would be a huge step
forward for the phone industry. The current approach of you hear the “busy” tone
from the country you are calling is insane. How do I know what “busy” sounds
like when I phone Antarctica. This whole practice is the exact opposite of what
Internationalization of most technology tries to achieve. When I make a call, I
should get a consistent indication of “busy” that I understand. The funny thing
is that it is incredibly difficult to achieve this useless feature and the only
argument for it is basically “that’s how it has always been done on the PSTN”
and “users would not accept any change”. People regularly tell me they actually
know tones – this seems unlikely, there are quite a few. Check out
this
list David and I did.

It’s not quite true it this early
media has no use. It is also used for basically toll fraud purposes. Many large
IVR system (1-800-gofedex being the canonical example but including many other
people like the US IRS) use it to play out the initial prompts of their IVR as
“ringback” so they can delay connecting for a little extra
time.

Update from Adam
Roach

"My reading of this is that it affects the ringback that people hear when
they call *you*, not the ringback you hear when you call people. In other words, this virtually guarantees early media for a long time, since it's now a money-making service."

Did I mention the mobile
guys really drive me nuts.

Photos from ReSiprocate Nov 04 coding session

fluffy — Wed, 24 Nov 2004 22:22:01 +0000

href="http://www.dial911anddie.com/resip-nov04/resip-nov04.html"
target="NewWindow">http://www.dial911anddie.com/resip-nov04/resip-nov04.html

These are the photos of the white board – it will
only make sense to people who where there. Actually, I doubt it will make sense
to them either but people asked me to post them.

Clean up photographs of text documents in PhotoShop

fluffy — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 00:28:52 +0000

Download CleanDocs.atn from href="http://www.libvoip.com/e911/cleanDocs/CleanDocs.atn"
target="NewWindow">http://www.libvoip.com/e911/cleanDocs/CleanDocs.atn

Start
Photoshop

Go to the Window menu in
photoshop and make sure that the action palette is
visible.

On the action palette, on the
top right there is a circle with an arrow on it. Click on this menu and select
“Load Actions”

Find the CleanDocs.atn
file you downloaded and load it

Now
you can load a photo, click on the CleanDocument action, and hit the play like
arrow on the bottom of the action menu to see what it does.

Clean and Save cleans it and saves it
- unfortunately it tires to save it in a file C:\Documents and
Settings\Cullen\Desktop. You can change this be editing the action. Click on the
arrow beside the action to expand it and you can see the save command part-way
down. Double click on this (when you have an image loaded) to save it somewhere
different and change the action.

Go to
the File menu, then Automation, then create Droplet and create a droplet that
has the Set as “CleanDocs” and the action as “CleanAndSavePrint” and uncheck all
three check boxes under it. This will create a droplet on your desktop that when
you drag an image over on top of it and drop it, it will Clean it, Save it, and
Print it. You can do similar thing to create a droplet with the action set at
CleanAndSave.

You can use the File,
Automate, Batch processing stuff with this action too.

Why DRM will never work over an extended period of time

fluffy — Sat, 30 Oct 2004 22:36:40 +0000

In short, tamper resistant hardware isn’t.

And oh yah, like most security systems
where the weakest link of the chain determines the over all level of success,
well, the link between computers and humans is real hard to protect.

Somewhere there is a great rant about
DRM. Effectively it says that DRM works like this. For people we want to read
the content, we give theme the encrypted content and they keys. For people we
don’t want to read the content, we give them the encrypted content and, get
this, the keys. Then we are surprised by the results.

The mastermind behind IPv6

fluffy — Sun, 10 Oct 2004 04:36:52 +0000

I took
this picture in Taiwan – and let me tell you. Their IPv6 steering committee is
way more pervasive that the folks where I work.