Back to Basics: Building a Buggy

Although I built a handful of various types of buggies during university, I have always wanted to build another one. There is something about putting together a buggy and watching it work that is very satisfying.

I recently came across one of my old drawings from high-school of a buggy that I had wanted to build but never got around do it. So I decided to collect up some of bits and bobs and put together a very rudimentary buggy just to make my lock-down weekend a little bit exciting.

From what I remember from when I was drawing this I wanted a bunch of features on it, like;

• Pull out control panel
• Automatic docking for charging
• Use as balance-bot and
• Line following

Setting up WiFi communication between Raspberry Pi and ESP8266 with MQTT

One of the fundamental components in setting up your DIY smart home or IoT project is to set-up the communication method between your devices and the server.

Given the most accessible wireless network to most of us is our home WiFi, I will be using the MQTT protocol to send messages over WiFi. The main server for this will be a Raspberry Pi and the devices (or clients) are ESP8266, ESP32 or similar devices

CoViD-19 Social Distance Enforcing Device

Hope you are keeping safe in 2020!

Social distancing is one of the top recommended ways to stop the spread of CoViD-19 disease by the WHO. It is also important to make sure that this is enforced at all times as people can be absent minded or accidentally come close to each other. This is especially true in crowded areas like hospitals and work places.

https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public

To mcontinuously onitor and enforce this I have come up with a simple ESP based  device. The idea is to provide everyone working in one location with this device that will continuously monitor if there is a similar device around them. If there is another similar distance around them close to a preset distance of roughly 1 meter or 3 meters according to the regulations in the location and use of PPE, the device will light up or ring loudly alerting the wearer to move away from the location or to be extra cautious.

Tabletop Screen

This is a project that I wanted to do for a quite a while.
I had a very old laptop where the screen had come off and I wasn't able to use the laptop any more. So I decided to embed the screen to my electronics table so that I can use the screen to display some information that I want to look up while working.

NFC Enabled Invitations Cards (+ Analytics for a Sri Lankan Wedding)

Invitation cards are one of the key components of a big event. It provides a description of the event, time, venue, dress code and other important information the invitee needs to know. These are generally a one way mode of communication. The organizer hands out the invitation card to the invitees, the invitees make a note of the details and that's the end of that.

For my wedding I wanted to push the limits of wedding invitation cards in order to provide some ease for the invitees. In order to achieve this I pasted a cheap NFC tags to the back of each invitation card with a simple message to describe what it is. As some people do not prefer this, the NFC can also be embedded within the invitation card for a premium feel.

The purpose of using an NFC tag was so that I can allocate a unique identification code to each invitation and link it to a table number or any other information that is needed. Generally table numbers are not known when handing out the invitation cards. These are usually assigned closer to the day of the event and the guests can scan their invitation cards at the entrance on the day of the event and be presented with their table number(s). However, as I was working on this project as a hobby, a number uses for this presented itself.

Benefits of using the NFC tag.

• Added security - Officials at the event location can scan the invitation card to verify the identity of the invitee
• Avoid congestion & crowding - Invitee can avoid the queue to check the table numbers at the entrance
• Custom messages - Invitees can be displayed with a custom message on arrival
• Photo booth - Scanning the invitation can launch a photo-booth that can take the picture of the invitee and automatically email it to them.

Remotely Updatable Raspberry Pi based Dashboard

This article consists of instructions on how you run your python code on a stand-alone Raspberry pi connected to a screen while updating your code from your own personal computer.

For this project, my main intention is to have a dashboard that will be displayed on a large screen connected to a Raspberry Pi while all the codes can be updated using a computer that is not connected to the Raspberry Pi. My dashboard will be a Kivy app running on python. I will be using a Raspberry Pi 3 B to display the dashboard and I will use a Basic Onedrive account to synchronize the folder structure and the python code between my computer and the raspberry pi.

Hand Activity Recognition: Literature Review

I am planning on starting my own project in Hand Activity Recognition. However before starting on this project I have conducted a literature review that is shown below.

Please note that most of the information given below are not mine. The source of the information is linked with the respective title.

Project SpiderWeb

Project SpiderWeb is my domestic answer to the fourth industrial revolution. IoT is one of the key words that gets tossed around during these times. As there is much potential in what can be achieved with devices across the house that talk to each other and exchange and analyse data, I have started my own IoT project (SpyderWeb) - for the love of technology, of course!