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
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.
ioBroker is an open source Internet of Things platform written in JavaScript and using Node.js for the back-end. It is perfect to run on single board computers such as Raspberry Pi. The project started in 2014. The source code is hosted in GitHub and the core is available under MIT license. The creators and maintainers of ioBroker are from Germany and the project is very popular among the German open source community interested in home automation.
In this article you will learn how to get started with ioBroker by installing it on a Raspberry Pi and after that how to measure temperature and humidity from the built-in DHT22 sensor on ANAVI Thermometer through the machine-to-machine protocol MQTT.
ioBroker Installation Guide
Step by step video tutorial for installing ioBroker on Raspberry Pi
Only two steps are required to install ioBroker on GNU/Linux distributions, including on a Raspberry Pi with Raspbian:
After successfully installing ioBroker, open the web interface and complete the initial setup as explained in the video.
Monitoring Temperature and Humidity from DHT22 in ioBroker via MQTT
Integrating ANAVI Thermometer with DHT22 temperature and humidity sensor in ioBroker
ANAVI Thermometer is an open source hardware, Wi-Fi development board for measuring temperature that’s powered by an ESP8266 processor. It comes with a built-in DHT22/AM2302 temperature and humidity sensor and has slots for a mini OLED display, waterproof DS18B20 temperature sensor, and empty slots for up to three additional I2C sensor modules. Out of the box, the open source firmware of ANAVI Thermometer, works with Home Assistant specification for automatic discovery and MQTT messages with JSON payload.
Although ioBroker is an alternative open source IoT platform, through an adapter it supports the Home Assistant specification. The process for using ANAVI Thermometer in ioBroker is straight-forward thanks to the adapters MQTT Client/Broker and HASS-MQTT.
Adapter MQTT Client/Broker can be configured either as MQTT broker or as a client mode and use an external broker. In the particular demonstration in the video the instance of ioBroker adapter MQTT Client/Broker has been configured as a broker, without username/password and with disabled publish check-boxes from the MQTT Settings tab.
Adapter HASS-MQTT is required to support the Home Assistant MQTT specification. It have to be installed separately and bound to the instance of adapter MQTT Client/Broker as shown in the video. Get the HASS-MQTT adapter from: https://github.com/smarthomefans/ioBroker.hass-mqtt
ANAVI Themometer reporting temperature and humidity to the open source IoT JavaScript platform ioBroker
After turning on the instances of both adapters in Home Assistant, ANAVI Thermometer must be configured to connect to the same MQTT broker. After that ANAVI Thermometer will be automatically detected and the data from DHT22 as well as from any other attached supported sensors will be automatically reported to ioBroker. You just need to configure how to display it in your preferred graphical user interface (ioBroker offers several of them). In the video I used the ioBroker visualisation adapter which requires activation through an unique key. The activation requires registration with a email and is not shown in the video. Adapter visualisation if free for personal use. The other adapters, MQTT Client/Broker and HASS-MQTT are free and open source without any limitations.
ANAVI Smiley is a simple open source hardware add-on board for Raspberry Pi. It is compatible with any Raspberry Pi model or version. ANAVI Smiley has educational purposes: it is useful for learning how to solder and how to program. The simplicity of the board makes the kit appropriate for beginner. Example application written in Python shows how to use it.
Closer look at ANAVI Smiley after soldering the kit
ANAVI Smiley combines open source hardware with free and open source software. It has been certified by the Open Source Hardware Association under UID BG000061. ANAVI Smiley is available as a soldering kit with through-hole components:
Printed Circuit Board (PCB)
2 LEDs
2 resistors
Tactile button
Female connector
ANAVI Smiley soldering kit with all components
The color of the LEDs may vary. The primary kit includes with one green and another red LED, but there is also a kit with 2 yellow LEDs.
ANAVI Smiley with red and green LED as well another unit with 2 yellow LEDs
Have a look at the video for the exact steps how to solder ANAVI Smiley and to use it with Raspberry Pi.
A photo of ANAVI Smiley a moment after the kit has been assembled.
The short leg of the LED must go to ground (GND), aka the hole marked with a square on the printed circuit board. It is recommended to solder 4-pin connector on the opposite side, as shown on the picture. This way ANAVI Smiley will fit better on the 40-pin header of Raspberry Pi.
Python3 script to use ANAVI Smiley on a Raspberry Pi is available at GitHub. It relies on gpiozero to control the LEDs and to read the state of the button. Gpiozero is a simple and convenient Python interface to GPIO devices with Raspberry Pi, started by Ben Nuttall and Dave Jones.
Please note that SW1 button on the PCB doesn’t have a resistor, therefore your application must use the internal pull-up resistor present on each Raspberry Pi GPIO, for example with gpiozero in Python and pin 26:
btn = Button(26, pull_up = True, bounce_time=0.1)
ANAVI Smiley PCB in KiCad
ANAVI Smiley has been designed with the free and open source software tool KiCad. The whole KiCad project is also in GitHub. The two layer printed circuit board is made in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
Raspberry Pi Imager is a brand new free and open source tool for flashing operating system on a microSD card for your Raspberry Pi. It is written in C++ and QML. The source code is available at GitHub under Apache license.
Raspberry Pi Imager (screenshot from Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS)
Raspberry Pi Imager is available for download here. It works on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS and GNU/Linux distributions. It is super easy to use it:
Select the operating system for your Raspberry Pi
Select the microSD card (SD card for the first Raspberry Pi version)
Click Write
Raspberry Pi Imager will automatically download, flash and verify the operating system on your microSD card. Have a look at the video for more details.
It is highly recommended to you Raspberry Pi Imager to flash microSD cards if you are using any of our open source hardware Raspberry Pi HATs: ANAVI Infrared pHAT, ANAVI Light pHAT, ANAVI Play pHAT, etc.
Raspberry Pi 4 with peripherals and a microSD card flashed using Raspberry Pi Imager
The primary goal of ANAVI Technology Ltd. is to combine open source hardware with free and open source software. So far numerous of our development boards have been certified by the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA). In February 2020 a couple new products were also certified: ANAVI Smiley and ANAVI Tag Manager. Both of them have been designed with the free and open source tool KiCad.
A lot of products on the market claim their are open source hardware, however this is not always true. Open Source Hardware certification allows the community to quickly identify hardware that truly complies with the definition of open source hardware. Because of this certification by OSHWA is important for us.
ANAVI Smiley
ANAVI Smiley add-on board for Raspberry Pi as a soldering kit
ANAVI Tag Manager with PN532 NFC RFID module and an acrylic enclosure
ANAVI Tag Manager is a WiFi development board for using PN532 NFC RFID module. The board is using ESP8266. It is powered from microUSB connector. There are slots for UART pins, mini OLED display and up to 3 I2C sensor modules. Furthermore there is also an extra GPIO pin for custom automation solutions. ANAVI Tag Manager is useful for various applications with NFC, including smart locks and payment systems. It has been certified by OSHWA with UID BG000062.
Stay tuned for new articles with details about both of these exciting new open source hardware gadgets!
ANAVI Light Controller is a certified open source hardware WiFi dev board for controlling a 12 V RGB LED strip. Furthermore it has 3 slots for attaching I2C devices, for example sensors for temperature, humidity barometric pressure, light, mini OLED display, etc.
The hardware required for Jonathan’s project includes a Raspberry Pi, ANAVI Light Controller, 12V RGB LED strip, appropriate power supplyies and appropriate lamp. Jonathan used IKEA Holmo floor standing lamp and placed RGB LED strips around a suitable tube inside it. The software requirements are JAVA 8 or above as well as an MQTT broker, for example the free and open source mosquitto.
ANAVI Infrared pHAT is an open source hardware add-on board that converts your Raspberry Pi into a smart remote control that can bring your old consumer electronic devices, like air conditioning, TV, set top boxes and Hi-Fi systems to the Internet of Things (IoT) era.
