Have you already ordered our open source mechanical keypad ANAVI Macro Pad 8 from the recent crowdfunding campaign? It is powered by Microchip ATmega32U4: an 8-bit microcontroller with 32K bytes of ISP Flash, USB Controller and I2C. This microcontroller is part of the AVR family of microcontrollers developed since 1996 by Atmel and acquired by Microchip Technology in 2016.
Microchip ATmega32U4 on the open source mechanical keyboard ANAVI Macro Pad 8
Microchip ATmega32U4 is how ANAVI Macro Pad 8 connects to the USB port of a personal computer, shows graphics and text on the mini OLED display through I2C. Furthermore, this microcontroller has more than enough general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins for the mechanical switches.
Photo of Microchip ATmega32U4 between microUSB connector and 4-pin slot for I2C mini OLED display on ANAVI Macro Pad 8
The popular open source Quantum Mechanical Keyboard (QMK) Firmware supports Microchip ATmega32U4 and therefore it is easy to use as the default firmware for ANAVI Macro Pad 8. However, it is technically also possible use ANAVI Macro Pad 8 as a development board and upload Arduino sketches compatible with Arduino Leonardo through Arduino IDE or PlatformIO. Many popular development boards such as Arduino Leonardo, SparkFun Pro Micro, Teensy 2.0, Olimex eduArdu also use ATmega32U4.
After the launch of the crowdfunding campaign we received a lot of positive feedback about ANAVI Macro Pad 8 and great ideas from the community. Based on the recommendations of several backers a new option has been recently added. Now you can order a maker kit with an extra add-on: Gateron red mechanical switches, translucent keycaps and 3mm red LEDs.
Gateron red mechanical switches with 3mm red LEDs and translucent keycaps
Basically with this optional add-on, you can get the same parts as in the developer kit, but not soldered. In some use cases, having all the parts in one package is a convenient option for advanced users with soldering skills. This way they don’t need to purchase separately the keycaps, the LEDs and the switches. Furthermore, they can still make advanced modifications before using them with ANAVI Macro Pad 8.
ANAVI Macro Pad 8 mechanical keyboard/keypad
As part of the stretch goals that the crowdfunding campaign has already met, all kits of ANAVI Macro Pad 8 will also include 32 transparent Emoji stickers to customize further the keycaps!
Translucent keycaps for mechanical keyboard with emoji stickers included in all ANAVI Macro Pad 8 kits
Morten Mathiasen, a highly skilled professional with 25 years of experience in software development and teaching, implemented an open source solution for HVAC control with Raspberry Pi, HTU21D temperature and humidity I2C sensor module as well as our open source hardware ANAVI Infrared pHAT. He recently shared details in a Crowd Supply Field Report.
Raspberry Pi 4 with ANAVI Infrared pHAT and HTU21D I2C sensor module
To save energy and to reduce global warming in his vacation house, Morten turns off the Panasonic HVAC system when his family is not there. Unfortunately, as a result next time when he arrives at the vacation house, it is too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer. It then takes up to 24 hours to get a comfortable temperature in the house.
Controlling the Panasonic HVAC through infrared signals and Home Assistant thanks to ANAVI Infrared pHAT and a Raspberry Pi
To solve this problem, Morten wrote in the C programming language a Home Assistant-based system that uses a Raspberry Pi with ANAVI Infrared pHAT to make an internet-connected remote control. Now, he can turn on the system remotely 24 hours before arriving to ensure a comfortable temperature.
After several months of development, the crowdfunding campaign for ANAVI Macro Pad 8 has been launched at Crowd Supply!
ANAVI Macro Pad 8
ANAVI Macro Pad 8 is an open source, programmable, eight-key mechanical keyboard with backlighting, underlighting, and OLED screen. The popular open source QMK firmware allows you to easily configure custom keyboard layouts and macros, even directly in a web browser.
The crowdfunding campaign has a very modest goal of just $1. We have 3 stretch goals! If we raise $500 or more we’ll add super cool 32 transparent emoji keyboard stickers to all kits. You can stick them to the top or the sides of the key caps.
Transparent stickers for the translucent keycaps on ANAVI Macro Pad 8
The crowdfunding campaign will help us manufacture it in a local factory in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, EU. We hope you’ll jump in and help us bring this entirely open source project to life!
Recently Michel submitted a very interesting Crowd Supply Field report about his awesome project with ANAVI Infrared pHAT. He used a Raspberry Pi Zero W and ANAVI Infrared pHAT to consolidate all the remote controls (TV, DVD, cable box, etc.) in his household to a single interface available on a tablet or smartphone.
Web interface for controlling remote controls over the web with Raspberry Pi, ANAVI Infrared pHAT and LIRC
Michel runs a local Apache2 web server on the Raspberry Pi Zero W and the Infrared pHAT can record and play back the infrared signals from any brand of remote control using the popular open source software Linux Infrared Remote Control (LIRC). He shared details in Crowd Supply and GitHub.
Furthermore Michel crafted a fantastic wooden box and shared with us a couple of photos!
Wooden box for Raspberry Pi Zero W and ANAVI Infrared pHATInside the wooden box the two infrared LEDs have been carefully extended with appropriate wires
Yes, absolutely! Just use a USB power bank and connect it with an appropriate USB cable to the microUSB connector on the ANAVI Fume Extractor.
ANAVI Fume Extractor on Batteries
Yes, absolutely! Just use a USB power bank and connect it with an appropriate USB cable to the microUSB connector on the ANAVI Fume Extractor.
Measuring the power consumption of ANAVI Fume Extractor
The power consumption of the ANAVI Fume Extractor developer kit with the fan and all peripherals turned on is about 0.5A. The board operates at 5V. The 80mm fan consumes 0.25A. You can adjust the hardware jumper to turn off the WiFi and slightly reduce the overall power consumption.
Earlier this week the crowdfunding campaign for ANAVI Fume Extractor at Crowd Supply ended successfully! 83 backers from 16 countries all around the world ordered kits. With their generous help ANAVI Fume Extractor will go from prototype to mass-manufactured do-it-yourself kit for makers.
The printed circuit board of ANAVI Fume Extractor
We have already sourced most of the mechanical parts for the kits, so we proceed with manufacturing of the printed circuit boards in a small local factory in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. This is a long and time-consuming process. . The PCBs are expected by the end of July. After that the local factory has a scheduled summer vacation in weeks 32 and 33 so the assembly is planned for the end of August, and it will be done on several batches.
ANAVI Fume Extractor developer kit
Each ANAVI Fume Extractor kit will be flashed with the default open source firmware, packaged carefully and provided to the Crowd Supply team. They will ship the kits to their owners. The estimated shipping date remains Oct 29, 2020.
The whole world is gong through difficult times right now. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak the local factory is working with reduced capacity, so we will keep backers updated with the progress. So far everything is OK. Fingers crossed we will be able to carry on at the same pace.
To avoid any risks for backers, we have an agreement with Crowd Supply that they will keep all funds until ANAVI Technology Ltd provides them the kits. This way in the unexpected case of a complete inability to deliver, Crowd Supply will offer backers full refunds.
ANAVI Miracle Controller connected with USB to UART cable to a personal computer
Esptool is a free and open source ESP8266 and ESP32 serial bootloader command-line utility. The source code is available at GitHub under GPLv2 license. It is written in Python therefore it is universal and runs on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS and any GNU/Linux distribution (Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint, Fedora, CentOS, OpenSUSE, etc). We have already cover it for our other projects in a previous blog post. Today we will focus on ANAVI Miracle Controller although in general the steps are the same.
Installation
As of today, esptool works fine with Python 2.7 or Python 3. Python 2 has been deprecated since January 1, 2020 therefore it is recommended to use esptool with Python 3.
The easiest way to install the latest stable version of esptool is from pypi via pip. The pre-requirements are to have Python and pip installed. Open a terminal and execute the following command:
pip install esptool
Using write_flash argument esptool flashes pre-compiled binary to devices with ESP8266 or ESP32. Here are the exact steps:
NOTE: As of the moment the latest stable version is anavi-miracle-controller-sw-100-20200527.bin. Over the time other version may be released so please make sure you are using the latest and replace the file name accordingly in the command above!
Pretty much the same approach can be used to flash the pre-compiled firmware to any of our dev boards with ESP8266, like ANAVI Fume Extractor, ANAVI Thermometer, ANAVI Gas Detector, etc. Apart from flashing firmware to ESP8266 and ESP32 devices, esptool has a lot of other advanced features which I encourage you to explore. Have a look at the video tutorial and run esptool.py -h to learn more.
Last but not least, huge thanks to the contributors of the open source firmware of ANAVI Miracle Controller: Per Cederqvist, CODeRUS and Daniel Landau. Community always must be priority for any open source project and it is great to see more people involved with ANAVI Miracle Controller!
The crowdfunding campaign for ANAVI Fume Extractor in Crowd Supply has been very successfully so far so we have already contacted suppliers and started sourcing various components. Most of the mechanical parts have already been delivered and we can have a closer look at them.
As some of you know, we will make and assemble the printed circuit boards in my beautify hometown of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. One of our goals is to support local manufacturing and if possible purchase parts from local factories and suppliers even when their prices are not the best. Of course, ANAVI Fume Extractor contains a lot of parts and some are so specific that nobody manufactures them locally. Because of this the project also relies on trusted suppliers from the US, the UK, Germany, Poland and China.
Parts for ANAVI Fume Extractor
Transparent Acrylic Enclosures
Each kit of ANAVI Fume Extractor contains 4 transparent acrylic enclosures. They have been designed with the free and open source tool OpenSCAD. The source and the schematics are available in GitHub. For the laser cutting I rely on a local Bulgarian company from Stara Zagora.
There are protective films on both sides of each acrylic enclosure. You must carefully remove them before assembly your do-it-yourself kit with ANAVI Fume Extractor.
Screws, Nuts and Stand-offs
20mm M4 stands-offs
ANAVI Fume Extractor contains various screws, nuts and washers for attaching the printed circuit board, the fan, the display and the sensor modules. The most difficult-to-source part is the 20mm M4 metal stand-off. Each kit contains 4 of them. We couldn’t find anyone in Bulgaria making stand-offs with the required size, so through a local supplier we imported the “abstandsbolzen” from Germany.
80mm Fan
80mm 5V DC fan
The key part of ANAVI Fume Extractor is the 80mm 5V/0.25A brushless DC fan. This type of a fan is primarily used in personal computers which makes it relatively quite and compact. Unfortunately, this is another part that nowadays nobody makes in Bulgaria so we are importing it from China.
Packaging
All kits will come in an eco friendly recyclable cardboard box made in another Bulgarian town Lyaskovets. Although we do our best to reduce plastic packaging as much as I can, some small plastic bags made in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria are still required to store the components in the kit. The stickers will be printed in Plovdiv.
Cardboard box with ANAVI Fume Extractor Advanced Kit
The next step is the manufacturing of the printed circuit boards. Numerous components from various suppliers all around the world have to be assembled on the PCB. We will make it in a small local factory in my hometown of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The manufacturing is scheduled to start right after the end of the campaign when we know the exact quantities.
This step by step tutorial explains how to install and configure the free and open source video conference software Jitsi Meet on Raspberry Pi with 64-bit Ubuntu Server 20.04. Although the Jitsi Meet installation is simple, the network configuration is not.
This tutorial is only for 64-bit Raspberry Pi models and versions, for example Raspberry Pi 4 or 3. It is recommended to use Raspberry Pi 4 with 4GB or more. Please note that Raspberry Pi 0, 2 and other older versions are 32-bit and this tutorial is NOT suitable for them.
Setup Network
To successfully run self-hosted Jitsi Meet on your Raspberry Pi at home and allow your friends and family to access it from anywhere you need to make several network configurations.
The network setup depends on your WiFi router and although the steps in general are the same they vary depending on the router model and version:
Dynamic DNS (DDNS) – the public IP of your WiFi router is provided by your ISP (Internet Service Provider) and in general may change over time. To avoid service downtime and hassle to remember IP address, it is highly recommended to setup DDNS. Some ASUS routers, like RT-AC68U, have this advanced service built-in. Alternatively you can use one of the many free or low-cost DDNS services.
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate – for secure communication over HTTPS. It is highly recommended to get a free certificate from the automated and open certificate authority Let’s Encrypt. You can do this through your WiFi router (if it supports it), manually or during the installation of Jitsi Meet.
Port Forwarding – two ports must be forwarded from the Raspberry Pi on which Jitsi Meet is running to the Internet through the configurations of the WiFi router. By default these ports are: 443/TCP for the HTTPS server and 10000/UDP for the video bridge of Jitsi Meet.
Install Jitsi Meet
Download and add Jitsi GPG key to the list of trusted keys. Once added you can remove the downloaded file.
