tangowhisky37/letshack

Notes & HowTo's covering the Raspberry Pi, Arduino, ESP8266, ESP32, etc.

What's LetsHack About

LetsHack provides a collection of notes and howto's that have been put together since 2016. A lot of the learning that you will find here is based on the long hours spent hacking on my numerous Raspberry Pi's, Arduino's, ESP8266, ESp32's, etc. i've got lying around the house. This website is labour of love documenting my learning including lessons learned along the way.

LetsHack initially started as a collection of notes and howto's that I put together mostly written up to serve as guides, notes to myself. These notes to myself were intended to serve as a reminder for the various systems administration, setup and programming tasks i would usually need to perform when i pick up a new Raspberry Pi, Arduino, ESP, etc. This site initially started with a primary focus on the Raspberry Pi but over a period of time as I began hacking with the Arduino Uno, Ardino MEGA, ESP8266, ESP32, etc. I've ended up listing all of those relevant notes, howto's documenting learning on each of these devices along the way.

Hopefully some of the information here will be useful to some of you out there who might stumble across simliar issues when hacking with your own Raspberry Pi, Arduino, ESP8266 or ESP32.

!!! Keep hacking !!!

HowTos -

• Browser Controlled Robot with Streaming Video
• Custom Node Red Installation
• Curses based Command Line Radio Player
• Configuring Wireless Adapter for the Raspberry Pi on the Command Line
• Configuring your Arduino IDE for use with the ESP32 (NodeMCU - DevKit v1 - DOIT)
• Configuring your Arduino IDE for use with the ESP8266 (NodeMCU - DOIT)
• Git Tutorial
• Git SSL Issues and how you might fix them
• Hacking the Disk Layout on a Raspberry Pi Model A
• Installing Alexa on the Raspberry Pi
• IoT - Building a Temperature, Humidity monitoring setup using the NodeMCU ESP8266 and the DHT11, DHT22 sensors
• Integrating Scratch with micro:bit for MS windows
• Configuring Raspbian on the Raspberry Pi 3
• Setting up your Raspberry Pi to monitor your home remotely using Rpi Cam
• SSH and SCP connections hang on launch
• SSH and SCP connection failures when connecting from remote machines
• Turn your Raspberry Pi 3 into a smart audio streaming solution using Mopidy
• Youtube on the Command Line

Just Code : Projects Completed + Projects Under Development -

• Obtain MAC address on the NodeMCU ESP8266
• Obtain MAC address on the NodeMCU ESP32
• Blink LED's - Interacting with LED's through GPIO
• Detect motion using a PIR Sensor and raising an alarm
• Interacting with Analog Sensors (PIR Module) using the ADC (MCP 3008) and the Raspberry Pi
• IoT - Measure Soil Moisture using the ESP8266, Soil Moisture Sensor, Relay & send data to Twitter
• IoT - Obtain Temperature & Humidity using DHT11, DHT22 on the NodeMCU ESP8266
• IoT - ESP8266 Web Server + Remote Relay Control + Display Temp & Humidity data obtained from DHT11 : RoboIndia board
• IoT - Obtain Temperature & Humidity data from ESP8266 on RoboIndia Blynk Board
• IoT - Obtain Temperature & Humidity using the DHT11, Raspberry Pi & uploading data to ThingSpeak
• IoT - Obtain Temperature & Humidity data from the Arduino MEGA (DHT 11) & uploading data to ThingSpeak
• IoT - Weather data acquisition on the Raspberry Pi using OWM and upload to ThingSpeak
• IoT - Weather data acquisition and write to LCD on the Raspberry PI
• IoT - Weather data acquisition and write to Twitter on the Raspberry PI
• IoT - Obtain sensor data using Arduino MEGA2560, ENCj2860 (Ethernet Module) and display data on a web page
• Robotics - GoPiGo keyboard controlled robot
• Robotics - GoPiGo browser controlled robot
• Robotics - GoPiGo GUI (PyGame Framework) controlled robot
• Robotics - GoPiGo obstacle avoidance robot
• Face detection usuing : Python + OpenCV + Raspberry Pi Camera + Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• Simple Face detection : Python + OpenCV + AWS Rekognition
• Detecting faces in a video stream : Python + OpenCV + AWS Rekognition
• Detecting faces in a video stream + STT (Speech To Text) : Python + OpenCV + AWS S3 + AWS Rekognition
• Face detection using Python + OpenCV + AWS S3 + AWS Rekognition with multiple faces within the source image
• Sensing light using the Photo Resistor Light Sensor Module

In The Works -

• Documentation / HowTo's
  • Evolution of the Raspberry Pi
  • Overview of the Raspberry Pi 3
  • Burning the SD Card & Booting up your Raspberry Pi
  • Configuring your Raspberry Pi to connect to a Wireless Network
  • Performing basic configuration on your Raspberry Pi using "raspi-config"
  • Setting up your Raspberry Pi for remote (Command Line) access using SSH
  • Setting up your Raspberry Pi for remote (GUI) access using VNC
  • Setting up your RaspberryPi 3 to able to VNC (remote connection) to the main display
  • Linux survival basics - Introduction to the BASH shell and key commands
  • Mounting an external Windows recoginzed USB Device (& File System) on the RaspberryPi 3
  • Setting up a USB Web Camera on Raspberry Pi 3
  • Configuring the Raspberry Pi to play audio, video
  • Interacting with the real world using GPIO. Build simple circuits.
  • Changing the default sound output on the Raspberry Pi 3
  • Installing and testing a USB mike on the Raspberry Pi 3
  • Browser controlled robot with streaming video.
  • Setting up your Raspberry Pi to monitor your home remotely using Rpi Cam
  • Installing Alexa on the Raspberry Pi
  • OpenCV - Face detection using AWS S3, AWS Rekognition, AWS Lambda. Read out current weather on positive match.
  • Turn your Raspberry Pi into a smart audio streaming solution using Mopidy
  • Hacking the disk layout on a Raspberry Pi Model A
  • Custom Node Red Installation
  • Curses based command line radio player.
  • Git Introductory Tutorial
  • Dealing with Git SSL issues on windows.
  • Youtube on the Command Line
  • IoT - Building a Temperature, Humidity monitoring setup using the NodeMCU ESP8266, DHT11/ DHT22 sensors.
  • SSH and SCP connections hang when connecting from remote machines
  • Turn your Raspberry Pi 3 into a smart audio streaming solution using Mopidy
• Projects
  • My connected Smart Home
  • Graph data collected via sensors, plot in real time
  • Connect up RF 433mHz to NodeMCU ESP8266 to open/close Garage Door

Important Links -

• Raspberry Pi Foundation
• BBC Microbit
• Arduino.cc
• Arduino.org
• Cicrcuito - Drag and drop interface to design circuits and auto-generate code
• PiBakery - Create pre-configured SD card images for your Raspberry Pi
• Etcher - Write Raspberry Pi Image to the SD Card
• Win32DiskImager - Write Raspberry Pi Images to the SD Card
• Fritzing - Software to design circuits
• PiNet - Centralised user accounts & file storage system for a Raspberry Pi Classroom
• Pi-Finder

Documentation & Tutorials -

• Adafruit Electronics Tutorials
• Sparkfun Electronics Tutorials
• All About Circuits
• Circuitbasics
• DIYProjects.IO
• Hackster.io
• Hackaday
• Instructables
• Initialstate
• All About Circuits
• Maker.Pro
• Cactus.io
• DIY Hacking
• Random Nerd Tutorials
• Programming Electronics
• Hello World Magazine
• Raspberry Pi Learning Resources for kids
  • Raspberry Pi Magazine
  • Installing OpenCV 3 on the Raspberry Pi 3 (Raspbian Jessie)
  • Pi Moroni Tutorials
  • Pi My Life Up
• Makezine's guide to boards for makers
• Makezine - Magazine for makers
• ESP8266 - IoT
  • A Begginers Guide to the ESP8266
  • ESP8266 Wifi Shield for Arduino Uno, Arduino MEGA 2560 by Diot.AM
  • ESP Tutorials by RandomNerdTutorials
• ESP32 - IoT
  • ESP32 Tutorials by Luca Dentella
  • ESP32 Tutorials by TechTutorialsX
  • Kolban's Tutorials @ Youtube
  • PCBReflux's Tutorials @ Youtube
  • Andreas Spiess's Tutorials @ Youtube
• Arduino.cc
  • Arduino Basics - Blog
  • Arduino Blog - http://arduino-er.blogspot.com.au
  • A Beginners Guide to the Arduino
  • Jaycar Arduino Projects
• Robotics - Custom Raspberry Pi Robots

Maker Projects For Kids

• Getting started with Scratch on the Raspberry Pi
• Scratch for Arduino
• Experimental Extensions for Scratch - Arduino, BBC Microbit, etc.
• Scratch GPIO
• Code Club
• RaspberryPi Digital Maker Curriculum for kids
• Raspberry Pi Learning Resources for kids
• Hello World Magazine
• CoderDojo
• CoderDojo Resources for volunteers
• Edublocks
• SonicPi
• Computing At School - UK
• BBC Microbit
• CamJam Edu Kit
• Raspberry Pi Education Manual
• Making Science With Google

Purchasing Electronics, Arduino's, Rapberry Pi's Online -

• Adafruit
• Sparkfun
• Little Bird Electronics
• Tronix Labs
• Core Electronics
• Jaycar
• Robotgear Australia
• Freetronics
• Pakronics
• AusElectronicsDirect
• Digikey

Thanks for visiting -

Hopefully you have found some value in the guides that have been published at this site. If you have any input or feedback please drop me an email at trevor at practical performance analyst dot com. You can see the rest of my open contributions at Github

Who is tangowhisky37 -

tangowhisky37 is the pseudonym that Trevor (Warren) has used for a while now. Its inspired by his love for the physics of aviation. Trevor (Warren) is passionate about challenging the status-quo and finding reasons to innovate. Over the past 15 years he has been delivering complex systems, has worked with very large clients across the world and constantly is looking for opportunities to bring about change.

His love for working with people and harnessing the power of the collective human intellect he believes helps him deliver the expected outcomes. Trevor constantly strives to combine his passion for delivering outcomes with his ability to build long lasting professional relationships. You can learn more about the work he does at LinkedIn. You can download a copy of his CV at VisualCV. Visit the Github for details of the projects he's been hacking with.