Pi Zero: adapting the USB socket

Although the Raspberry Pi Zero is about half the size of a credit card, the connectors stick out sideways, which affectively increases the boards footprint once connected.

To make matters worse, the USB socket is the micro version, so you need an adaptor if you only have a standard USB wifi dongle.

So in order to make a really small, headless Zero system, you need to do something radical.

PiHut Vs. Edimax wifi dongles

A couple of weeks ago I swung by the PiHut website to order some bits & pieces.

While I was there I ordered one of their wifi dongles, just so I could try to evaluate its performance compared to my Edimax dumpy dongle.

So I've just spent a couple of hours this afternoon running a few tests.

5GHz Wifi: shifting up-band

Every so often I get seduced by the promise of faster wifi with wider coverage from a shiny box with 3 aerials.

It usually ends in disappointment when I discover that the new contender is less stable with lower coverage than my old trusty Netgear DG834G.

However, the latest candidate is not too shabby, and it gives me access to both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz wifi bands.

BlissFlixx on RaspberryPi

A few days ago I stumbled upon a video media application for the Raspberry Pi.

I've tried others in the past like XBMC, and I don't really like them. But BlissFlixx is different.

I have only been playing around with it for a couple of days, and I'm already hooked!

Some thoughts on Wifi coverage

As our resident robins have built a second nest in our shed, I've been doing what I can to improve the wifi link between wifi router and PiCam.

 

My efforts may also be useful for next season (BirdBox 2016), as I plan to install two boxes further down the garden than in previous years.

It is tempting to assume that a powerful router/wifi node will solve all your problems, but I don't think that is the case.

The Insomniacs Bedside Radio

If you ever have difficulty getting [back] to sleep, you may find that reading a book or listening to music for a while will make you sleepy.

That's OK if you sleep alone, but turning on a light to read a book or cranking up the volume on your MP3 player at 2am may make you very unpopular if you share your bed.

But maybe you can get away with listening via a pair of headphones, if you keep the volume turned down low on your radio.

BirdBoxPi2015: Jessie U-Turn & other troubles

Unfortunately I've had to abandon Raspbian Jessie and return to Wheezy.

But I'm now back on track, with both hardware and software performing as expected.

I started out using Jessie and had no problems with my Gambas applications, custom scripts and other applications that I rely on for my system, including VLC media player.

BirdBoxPi2015: Using RaspberryPi model A+

I'm running way behind this year, but I've now started building a RaspberryPi powered nest box for the 2015 season.

The 2014 system will be re-assembled, bolted to the side of a tit box and used again without any real changes.

But the 2015 controller version will be much smaller, and hopefully will fit inside a bird box without the need for its own enclosure.

RaspberryPi Wifi: Slow To Connect

I've just wasted 20 hours of my life trying get wifi to work on a Raspberry Pi.

All I had to do was follow a previous post, and it should have worked straight away. But life's not like that!

The cause of my problem was rather unexpected, and the solution couldn't have been easier.

BirdBoxPiCam 2014; #1 The Plan

I bought my first Raspberry Pi mid-2012 with the idea of using it with a bird box camera.

 

Unfortunately there were problems with the EzCap video capture module driver, and I have still not been able to get this going.

However, now armed with a PiCam I'm hoping for better luck with my new project.