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Something like Ansible is a nice purpose built tool for managing many machines. If you just want the same code to run on all of them a little systemd service is all you need. If you want a nice web GUI then Jenkins is basically cron with a gui.
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Just wanted to chime in and say that I ended up dropping $5 for https://pushover.net/ With just a few lines of code I can get my RaspPi Python script to send push notifications to my phone. I imagine there are free alternatives but it was insanely simple to setup and that was good for me.
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Sep 25, 2017 03:14
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huhu posted:Just wanted to chime in and say that I ended up dropping $5 for https://pushover.net/ With just a few lines of code I can get my RaspPi Python script to send push notifications to my phone. I imagine there are free alternatives but it was insanely simple to setup and that was good for me. As for a free alternative...if you're using Android you can use Join which has a simple to use API.
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Sep 25, 2017 03:39
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Thermopyle posted:As for a free alternative...if you're using Android you can use Join which has a simple to use API. quote:30 day trial - one time $4.99 payment to unlock
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Sep 25, 2017 03:41
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Huh, they must've went paid some time after I first started using it. I switched to join after pushover went paid.
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Sep 25, 2017 03:50
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I am running a Raspberry Pi 3 as a controller for home automation using a Telldus Duo, where I have a bunch of switches and motion sensors all controlled by a program called Switchking, which runs as a Mono server. The Mono server has a REST interface which I grab data from using a basic Python script set to collect data every 5 min using the sleep command and if there are changes upload a text file to Dropbox. I recently got a Dlink IP-camera that I want to use for grabbing pics when one of my motion sensors reacts and then upload the pics to Dropbox. All of this is stuff I can do reasonable easy using some basic Python programming, which is also my level of programming. So basically I want the Raspberry Pi to: 1. Keep a logfile on motion sensors and update my Dropbox if changes have happened in the last 5 min. 2. Take pics and upload them to Dropbox when pictures are taken. 3. Once a day clear out the Dropbox from pics older than 7 days or so. I can solve all of this using python sleep or cron, but I guess there is better and more flexible ways of doing this on a Raspberry?
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Sep 25, 2017 14:19
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Hi all, My daughter is turning 5 in a few weeks and she has shown a lot of interest in computers (she likes to play Minecraft with me). I would like her to learn the backbone of computers and how coding works (basics are fine). So the obvious answer is to get a Raspberry Pi. But here is the problem: I took one coding class in college and it was for C++. Will I be able to teach her how to code for the Pi? What are some easy things to shoot for that she can see results (essentially keep her excited about the Pi and wanting to learn more). I was thinking along the lines of she could write some code so she can watch Netflix on it or maybe play a video game with me. The Pi will be hooked up to our main TV and I am planning on getting her a wireless keyboard/mouse/controller combo. Note - How hard is it to build a lego case? I was planning on getting this kit but I saw someone post a NES lego case they built and thought she would love to make some kind of pink case for it. Thank you so much in advance!
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Sep 29, 2017 22:30
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Fixit posted:Hi all, Ooof man. After a year of playing around with Arduino and Linux I still didn't want to go near a RaspPi. I'd start her off with just like the Scratch programming language and let her play around with that.
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Sep 29, 2017 22:33
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Fixit posted:Hi all, Don't do this. Just use coding environments that exist on the computers you already have. Also if she already likes Minecraft you might as well start things off by showing off the basic logic gates done using Redstone wiring and other stuff like that.
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Sep 29, 2017 22:40
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huhu posted:Ooof man. After a year of playing around with Arduino and Linux I still didn't want to go near a RaspPi. I'd start her off with just like the Scratch programming language and let her play around with that. fishmech posted:Don't do this. Just use coding environments that exist on the computers you already have. Oh my. Is it really the difficult? I was thinking it would be learning what each word means in a line of code and following what others have done. Or even just downloading whatever OS is for the Pi and letting her fiddle around on it. She has those toy computers where you learn your ABCs and 123s and those drive me crazy lol.
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Sep 29, 2017 22:53
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Fixit posted:Oh my. Is it really the difficult? I was thinking it would be learning what each word means in a line of code and following what others have done. Or even just downloading whatever OS is for the Pi and letting her fiddle around on it. She has those toy computers where you learn your ABCs and 123s and those drive me crazy lol. You can do all that stuff on the computers you already have. The Raspberry Pi doesn't really do anything to make learning this stuff easier, its primary use would be if you were insistent on doing stuff like controlling arbitrary external circuits to do things like flash lights. That's all stuff that you can simulate just as well on your computer or TV screen though. I wasn't joking about using minecraft to introduce basic computing concepts either though - it's a great way to lay out an easily visible set of circuitry and see how it affects things.
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Sep 29, 2017 23:07
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fishmech posted:I wasn't joking about using minecraft to introduce basic computing concepts either though - it's a great way to lay out an easily visible set of circuitry and see how it affects things. Oh I know. I will look into that. I never got into red dust in minecraft (for daily things). Had a few disappearing walls and stuff but that took a long time to figure out. Did not think circuits were similar to coding though.
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Sep 29, 2017 23:14
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I bought a pi for my 9 year old and with scratch you can do some basic poo poo with the gipo to learn basic computer logic and with the pi music thing whose name escapes me for now
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Sep 29, 2017 23:19
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Fixit posted:Oh I know. I will look into that. I never got into red dust in minecraft (for daily things). Had a few disappearing walls and stuff but that took a long time to figure out. Did not think circuits were similar to coding though. It's ultimately all logic. For the most part (excluding some stuff like command blocks, etc.), redstone in Minecraft allows simulation of an analog computer in a digital environment. Setting her up with a strong foundation in logical concepts will make it easier to grasp the parts of more complex code that build on that. Edit: although the Pi won't make learning programming or basic concepts easier, I do believe that having that kind of connection to the bare hardware does mean that there's more room for "playing and tinkering" kinds of projects (like building a LEGO case or using the GPIO on the Pi to do neat but ultimately useless tasks). It's also super simple to just start from scratch if something gets messed up, something that's harder to do when it's a computer that's used for more than just playing around. Magnus Praeda fucked around with this message at 00:11 on Sep 30, 2017 |
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Sep 30, 2017 00:06
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I bought a pi for my 9 year old then she called me a human being and hit me.
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Sep 30, 2017 00:07
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Fixit posted:Oh I know. I will look into that. I never got into red dust in minecraft (for daily things). Had a few disappearing walls and stuff but that took a long time to figure out. Did not think circuits were similar to coding though. That kind of logic is the absolute basis of programming. Look up truth tables and boolean algebra and start there. Actual programming languages come way down the list as something to understand. Imagine it that way- just because you can write English correctly it doesn't mean you are good at writing books. Programming works the same way. To relatives and acquaintances I usually say that I could teach them to write a program in a week without a problem and it's not something that's difficult to grasp technically, but actually applying it is the hard thing I see people failing at that come fresh from university and have a diploma in that kind of stuff. A solid basis of understanding is way more important than the technology, as that changes all the time anyways. It might also be a bit beyond a five year old, the best way to make sure a kid won't touch something again is frustrating them about the general topic. Play the game, apply things you learned in a playful way when you play together- I'm sure it will have a much more lasting impression.
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Sep 30, 2017 01:03
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Magnus Praeda posted:.... It's also super simple to just start from scratch if something gets messed up, something that's harder to do when it's a computer that's used for more than just playing around. You can totally just do that on a regular computer. Many simple programming environments won't even allow you to mess with the OS as a whole, and once they work their way up to big time programming environments you can spin up some simple VMs to isolate things in so you can revert major issues.
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Sep 30, 2017 01:24
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fishmech posted:You can totally just do that on a regular computer. Many simple programming environments won't even allow you to mess with the OS as a whole, and once they work their way up to big time programming environments you can spin up some simple VMs to isolate things in so you can revert major issues. Oh, absolutely. But my argument was more that it's kinda cool for a kid to have "their own computer" that they can screw around with, hardware included, that's easy to reset to a fresh system and, if they screw up the hardware somehow while playing with GPIO stuff, can be replaced for under $50. I'm all for having them play around on "the family computer" with simple programming environments and the like, but I also want to advocate for getting them started with simple hardware of their very own. Partly because that sense of ownership helps to reinforce the sense that this is something that they can really make their own. I remember getting a hand-me-down 486 Packard Bell when my parents upgraded to a Compaq with a Pentium MMX and feeling like it was really "my" computer and I wasn't afraid to screw it up because if I did, nobody other than me would care, whereas I treated that Compaq with kid gloves.
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Sep 30, 2017 05:02
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Magnus Praeda posted:Oh, absolutely. But my argument was more that it's kinda cool for a kid to have "their own computer" that they can screw around with, hardware included, that's easy to reset to a fresh system and, if they screw up the hardware somehow while playing with GPIO stuff, can be replaced for under $50. Yeah but your 486 also wasn't all that behind, you feel me? Raspberry Pi systems are still quite a bit less capable especially in the graphics department, while many people have an old laptop around or family who does.
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Sep 30, 2017 05:07
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Fixit posted:Hi all, Get her a Pi 3, hook it up to your (or her) TV, and let her play Minecraft on it through some sort of simple launcher. She'll figure a ton of stuff out on her own. Later you can show her things like Scratch but come on, she's 5 so she's barely literate & numerate, she's not going to be doing a lot of coding. But some of the design of Minecraft (crafting recipes, redstone contraptions) will lead her gently in that direction, and within a couple years she'll have both the interest and the basic facility with words and arithmetic to build on. Also be careful with the wireless keyboard/trackpad/controller things, some of them suck pretty fearsomely. Pick one that you'd be willing to use for the same level of interaction she'll have. Edit: I'm saying all of this as someone who is a strong advocate of teaching everyone to code early in life, as I think it's a beneficial tool for thought. I started learning with Logo at age 7 and while Seymour Papert had some students as young as 5 and claimed good results, I think practically speaking you need a certain baseline set of skills: Basic written language and basic arithmetic. eschaton fucked around with this message at 05:31 on Sep 30, 2017 |
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Sep 30, 2017 05:24
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fishmech posted:Yeah but your 486 also wasn't all that behind, you feel me? Raspberry Pi systems are still quite a bit less capable especially in the graphics department, while many people have an old laptop around or family who does. Sure, if you've got a spare laptop kicking around, that's fine. And yes, the Pi is not "graphically capable" really in any way. But it does have a lot of easy to use resources available for parents, teachers, and students because it is specifically and explicitly a learning tool. Yes there are plenty of programming and even hardware courses out there designed to be used on an x86 machine but the Pi, for all its shortcomings, has basically one (well, one per generation) hardware profile and, assuming you start with a Pi and an SD card with NOOBS, you can basically just follow along with the learning exercises and then expand out to projects. The Pi's strength lies in the fact that it's the de facto standard. Even within the realm of basic single-board computers, there are arguably better, much more powerful systems. But none has the community support or aftermarket hardware availability. Similarly, yes, you could use an old Core2 laptop but there are so many more variables even within a single hardware range. Integrated or discrete graphics, how much ram, what OS, what processor, what network card, sound card, etc. It's a hell of a lot more powerful, sure, but that added complexity can be intimidating when you're first starting out. I don't inherently disagree with your points, I just think the Pi has a place in learning about computers, both from a programming and from a hardware standpoint. Is it always the best or even right tool? No. But it's relatively simple, nonthreatening, and ubiquitous and that's a lot of power. Edit: eschaton posted:Get her a Pi 3, hook it up to your (or her) TV, and let her play Minecraft on it through some sort of simple launcher. She'll figure a ton of stuff out on her own. Basically, this. Plus you can (and should) do projects "together" like this. Will a 5 year old really "get" what's happening with the coding aspect? No. But it instills a kind of "this is freakin' sweet and daddy's using my computer to do it" attitude just from watching. Also, my personal recommendation for a kb/trackpad is the Logitech k400. I have three of them and I love them. Magnus Praeda fucked around with this message at 05:52 on Sep 30, 2017 |
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Sep 30, 2017 05:46
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I would get her a pi at the point she wants to program something practical, like anything to do with license plates of cars driving by your house. Or a log of everyone that comes to your front door that isn't recognized.
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Sep 30, 2017 06:28
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Magnus Praeda posted:Sure, if you've got a spare laptop kicking around, that's fine. And yes, the Pi is not "graphically capable" really in any way. But it does have a lot of easy to use resources available for parents, teachers, and students because it is specifically and explicitly a learning tool. Yes there are plenty of programming and even hardware courses out there designed to be used on an x86 machine but the Pi, for all its shortcomings, has basically one (well, one per generation) hardware profile and, assuming you start with a Pi and an SD card with NOOBS, you can basically just follow along with the learning exercises and then expand out to projects. The Pi's strength lies in the fact that it's the de facto standard. Even within the realm of basic single-board computers, there are arguably better, much more powerful systems. But none has the community support or aftermarket hardware availability. Similarly, yes, you could use an old Core2 laptop but there are so many more variables even within a single hardware range. Integrated or discrete graphics, how much ram, what OS, what processor, what network card, sound card, etc. It's a hell of a lot more powerful, sure, but that added complexity can be intimidating when you're first starting out. Holy balls I want to do that with her and I know she will get a kick out of it! I know she isn't going to truly get what is going on. My hope is that she sees what coding can do gets excited for it. And yes, I want it to be "her computer". Give her a sense of responsibility. She practically shares everything with her little brother. I remember that and really enjoying things I could call just my own. On the topic of keyboard/mousepad combos is this a good choice? It looks to fit her hands perfectly while me still being able to use it. Can the two D-pads be used for minecraft or will that need a standard mouse and keyboard? Or even a controller?
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Sep 30, 2017 08:07
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Those aren't actually D-Pads, they're exactly what the icons on them show. I've got one, and we use it for our HTPC. The keyboard is fine, but the touchpad is awkward as hell and imprecise. The idea of using it for scratch, an extremely mouse-driven tool, sounds difficult and frustrating.
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Sep 30, 2017 14:04
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Magnus Praeda posted:Sure, if you've got a spare laptop kicking around, that's fine. And yes, the Pi is not "graphically capable" really in any way. But it does have a lot of easy to use resources available for parents, teachers, and students because it is specifically and explicitly a learning tool. Yes there are plenty of programming and even hardware courses out there designed to be used on an x86 machine but the Pi, for all its shortcomings, has basically one (well, one per generation) hardware profile and, assuming you start with a Pi and an SD card with NOOBS, you can basically just follow along with the learning exercises and then expand out to projects. The Pi's strength lies in the fact that it's the de facto standard. Even within the realm of basic single-board computers, there are arguably better, much more powerful systems. But none has the community support or aftermarket hardware availability. Similarly, yes, you could use an old Core2 laptop but there are so many more variables even within a single hardware range. Integrated or discrete graphics, how much ram, what OS, what processor, what network card, sound card, etc. It's a hell of a lot more powerful, sure, but that added complexity can be intimidating when you're first starting out. Ok, but like most of the "support" for the Pi pales in comparison to the support for some of the most popular computing platforms in the world, who have billions of users versus the maybe a few million people using a Pi. Additionally a lot of the support people need for the Pi is in the form of getting around its limitations. Over on a PC it doesn't really matter that much either whether you're using a particular network card, a particular sound card, a particular configuration of graphics card. Nearly everything a beginner's going to program should work fine on at all recent Windows 7+ machines, and they shouldn't be messing with things that somehow need a particular network card - because that would essentially mean they've hosed up their use of the network, and same goes for most of the other things.
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Sep 30, 2017 16:30
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I built a computer for my 5 year old niece from an old pi I was no longer using just so she had her own computer. What I'm hoping she will learn is just how to plug in USBs turn it on, navigate directories and find games. Or not even games, something like mspaint would keep her entertained for hours.
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Sep 30, 2017 18:17
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fishmech posted:Ok, but like most of the "support" for the Pi pales in comparison to the support for some of the most popular computing platforms in the world, who have billions of users versus the maybe a few million people using a Pi. Additionally a lot of the support people need for the Pi is in the form of getting around its limitations. Over on a PC it doesn't really matter that much either whether you're using a particular network card, a particular sound card, a particular configuration of graphics card. Nearly everything a beginner's going to program should work fine on at all recent Windows 7+ machines, and they shouldn't be messing with things that somehow need a particular network card - because that would essentially mean they've hosed up their use of the network, and same goes for most of the other things. So, I said I don't really disagree with some of your points but gently caress, dude, why are you in the Raspberry Pi thread if you think they suck so badly? They're not super fast, there's plenty of hardware decisions I wish they did differently (hello storage on anything other than an SD card, for example), but they're literally under $50 for everything you need other than a TV or monitor. And they really are pretty good for kids and there are tons of resources out there for students, parents, and teachers and it's not just stuff about "getting around its limitations" but real projects (like the one I linked to, for example). I'm currently building a retropie system in case that looks like a tiny NES with USB SNES-style controller. Could I just plug the controller into my desktop and play any of the roms I want to on emulators there? Sure. But this is 1) neat, 2) a fun project to tinker with, and 3) adorable.
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Oct 1, 2017 05:36
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I was looking to introduce my 11 years old to a raspberry and python so we can make xmas lights that change colours and maybe create some images on a tft or led. Any suggestions on tutorials?
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Oct 1, 2017 09:16
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Use a micro controller instead?
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Oct 1, 2017 10:05
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evil_bunnY posted:Use a micro controller instead? Any suggestions on how to start a project like that without any experience on the subject?
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Oct 1, 2017 10:24
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Adafruit has both the hardware and tutorials you need. If you want changing colors your best bet is probably RGB(W) led strips (double them up for 360 coverage).
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Oct 1, 2017 11:47
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Adafruit calls what you'll probably want "Neopixels," https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-neopixel-uberguide/overview is probable a pretty good place to start. A Pi isn't a great option due to the tight timing constraints on the control channel.
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Oct 1, 2017 15:00
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I'll have a look at the NeoPixels and see if my 8 years old arduino still works. And start looking at some arduino tutorials since I've never used mine before. Good to have an excuse to start working with it after all those years. Do we have an Arduino thread by any chance?
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Oct 1, 2017 15:27
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Magnus Praeda posted:So, I said I don't really disagree with some of your points but gently caress, dude, why are you in the Raspberry Pi thread if you think they suck so badly? They're not super fast, there's plenty of hardware decisions I wish they did differently (hello storage on anything other than an SD card, for example), but they're literally under $50 for everything you need other than a TV or monitor. And they really are pretty good for kids and there are tons of resources out there for students, parents, and teachers and it's not just stuff about "getting around its limitations" but real projects (like the one I linked to, for example). Because a lot of people end up buying Raspberry Pis for things that not actually that good at and end up not really using it. And going all "it's under $50 for everything you need" tends to ignore that the same would be true if someone simply used old tech they had lying around or which or friend or family member had. Or you could buy other things brand new for under $50 that would be better to use for a lot of purposes, like those little HDMI stick devices from Roku, Amazon, et al that are great for doing video and audio streaming stuff.
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Oct 1, 2017 16:13
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The first computer I ever used was my dad's Apple IIc around age 4 or 5. So, every time I wanted to use it, I had to know to 1) Find the floppy I wanted to play, 2) Properly insert the floppy, 3) Make sure the correct joystick/controller was attached, 4) Turn on the computer, 5) Properly navigate to and launch the game. It taught me all about computers, and I love computers to this day. The Raspberry Pi experience, I would imagine, is very similar to these early experiences. Seems like a great idea to me. It's a set of basic skills. Love it. Totally going to do that for my ids.
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Oct 1, 2017 16:30
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I think you might have a misconception about it. At it's core, a Raspberry Pi is just a very small desktop PC, which requires an installed OS and connected peripherals. You shouldn't be expecting that your kids are going to be swapping out the SD cards, for example. You're going to end up writing the contents of the SD card, popping it in, MAYBE going through a menu to choose which particular thing you want it to do (if you put NOOBS on the card instead of just straight installing Raspbian, for example) and start the installer, and then more likely than not they'll be sitting at a Linux desktop. From there, it's no different than a full blown PC running Linux, just cheaper and slower. There's no magic to it, it's not some sort of learning tool by virtue of being a single-board computer. Literally the only advantage that it has for the sake of learning is having exposed GPIO pins, which are useful if you want to learn about hardware integration with simple electronics. If you're trying to teach your kids basic computer skills, it's probably better to start with something that you're familiar with and that they'll actually be able to use in a practical way. Personally, I started my son off on Linux (fully knowing that he won't be using it at school, but he's also exposed to Windows here at home on his mom's PC, so he's getting both sides), because I run it as my primary OS. I'm also a full time sysadmin, though, so my experience and use case are different than many other people's. My goal was to teach him to use something different, so he has more reason to try things that are new and to adapt to change. I can help him with anything that goes wrong and teach him how to self-help, and I think that's really important. In the end, do what you think is best, but keep in mind that the expectations are important, and if you're expecting a simplified version of a computer, you may be dissatisfied.
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Oct 1, 2017 17:05
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Sneeze Party posted:The first computer I ever used was my dad's Apple IIc around age 4 or 5. So, every time I wanted to use it, I had to know to 1) Find the floppy I wanted to play, 2) Properly insert the floppy, 3) Make sure the correct joystick/controller was attached, 4) Turn on the computer, 5) Properly navigate to and launch the game. No, the Raspberry Pi experience is just like using any modern desktop computer. Unless you're going to go to the effort of buying tons of small-capacity USB sticks just to have individual software on, set them up to only work with one random USB controller out of many you buy, and all that. You're just using a modern Linux desktop environment (or command line environment, if you so choose), except it's slow compared to modern computers and the software selection is slightly limited by some packages not being pre-built for ARM that are pre-built for x86/x86-64. You go click the icon or you type the program name in to the command line and its pretty much instant loading. I know this thread used to be called "Your Kid's Commodore 64" or something to that effect, but that was always misleading. It's in no way that sort of environment unless you go to great lengths to set things up to create such an environment on it, which you could also do on any other modern computer. If you want your kid to have that experience you had, where picking different controllers is meaningful and you actually need to swap physical disks, you can pick up a legit old computer and disks for cheaper than you might expect. fishmech fucked around with this message at 17:10 on Oct 1, 2017 |
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Oct 1, 2017 17:08
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I'm more thinking about having a relatively easily navigable console/kiosk type situation, a menu, with various choices, roughly analogous to the Apple IIc situation. Maybe even different input options, like a joystick, a console controller, or a mouse/keyboard. But yeah, I get that it's not quite the same sort of situation.
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Oct 1, 2017 17:16
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The best you're going to get in that regard is EmulationStation or OpenELEC, and those are pretty specialized. They're a lot closer to a modern game console or dedicated streaming box than anything else, not like a standalone computer at all.
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Oct 1, 2017 17:47
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LochNessMonster posted:I'll have a look at the NeoPixels and see if my 8 years old arduino still works. And start looking at some arduino tutorials since I've never used mine before. Good to have an excuse to start working with it after all those years. Just keep digging on the Adafruit site. They've got great tutorials starting from simple blinking lights up to more complex projects. Once you understand the groundwork, it's very easy to copy and paste bits of code like Legos. I have no real coding knowledge and I get by.
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Oct 1, 2017 17:48
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