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Monday, September 28, 2015

List of 18 Crowdfunded Raspberry Pi Boards That Didn't Make It


If you're looking to crowdfund your Raspberry Pi project maybe you can learn what didn't go right for these projects.  Here is a list of hardware projects that didn't get funded. This list was pulled from the two top crowdfunding sites Indiegogo and Kickstarter.  This isn't all of the projects that I had found but some of the more interesting ones.

*Note items in the list may have been re-listed later and funded.  Some projects may have been ahead of their time as the Pi wasn't popular enough.


Img Project Descripton Backers Pledge / Goal / %
+1 Button
CoMo Booster Board for Rpi Module with: wifi, oled screen, digital audio, RTC, 6-36v power input. 55 $6,834 / $40,000 / %17
ZIR EL-200 "ZIR EL-200 is connected to your computer, smartphone or tablet using Wi-Fi wireless network, and from there we set or directly assign instructions using the browser. However, one of its most interesting features is the ability to also be controlled by voice, using for that purpose applications on iOS and Android." 60 $5,012 / $90,000 / %5.6
1080Pi 10" 1080p Screen that mounts to the Rpi GPIO with 16 extra GPIO, 4 with 3A sinking current.  189 £20,451 / £100,000 / 20%

RFberryPi A 433Mhz Radio Shield used to communication with several peripherals such as relays & sensors.  14 £321 / £4,850 / 6.6%

SerialPi5 Board giving the Rpi the ability to have 5 RS-232 serial ports. 5 £261 / £11,000 / 2%

Jilia Iot Dev Kit "Add ZigBee, Z-Wave, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi to your Raspberry Pi with on-board sensors and an easy cloud API." 119 $6,256 / $50,000 / 12.5%


RF Breakout Kit
Breakout kit to build your own radio using the Rpi's built in clock generator.  Frequencies up to 250Mhz 126 £1,330 /  £1,800 /  72%

Bridge Shield Bridge an Arduino  with:
RTC, Motor drivers, Temp Sensor, IR Sensor, USB-UART converter, 5V 3A Reg, header for ESP8266, header for HC-05, level shifting between Rpi and Arduino, 8 Servo Motor Driver (I2C)
45 $2,696 / $4,100 / 65.8%

Pi UpTime "GPIO connections, analog ports, UPS, RTC & battery power enabling Raspberry Pi to be mobile." 17 hours of uptime on full battery, 2 analog input, RTC, and  25 $4,020 / $15,000 / 26.8%

Hatlogico "Open-source 16 PWMs, 8 ADCs and dual-voltage communications to sit on your Raspberry Pi to drive your quadcopter, robot, 3D printer etc" 42 £1,352 / £4,800 / 48.3%

BattPi "BattPi is a Case for Raspberry Pi with integrated Battery and Real Time Clock. Built in UPS offering up to 8 hours of battery life." 34 £1,973 / £20,000 / 9.9%

ProtoPLC Industrial add-on board.  6 inputs, 6 outputs, 1 analog input, 1 analog output, programmable leds. 28 $3,653 / $20,000 / 18.3%

Raspitab Hackable tablet built from the Rpi Module with 3400mah battery, 7" screen, wifi usb, 5MP camera module. 87 £9,981 / £125,000 /  8%

Pi-Home Add-on board with the ability to control: Zwave, Infra-red devices (TV/DVD..), RF Device (315/433 Mhz Plugs), and Zigbee devices.  80 $10,001 / $15,000 / 66.7%

TX-1 GSM Cellular phone w/GPS add-on module.  5 $641 / $14,000 / 4.6%

HDMI Input Module "Add an HDMI input interface to your Raspberry Pi and record or stream high quality video from your HD camcorder with clean HDMI output."  63 $6,907 / $15,000 / 34.5%

easyPio GPIO breakout module for prototyping. 45 £329 / £1,200 / 27%

RasPoE Raspberry Pi PoE Shield.  28 €3,310 / €12,500 / 26.5%

Sunday, September 27, 2015

Raspberry Pi Relay Boards Compared



A Comparison of some add-on/hat relay boards that are fully compatible with the raspberry pi.  This list is only for boards that connect directly to the Raspberry Pi's  GPIO.

If you have one of these and you recommend it. +1 it :-) to help others. Comment below if you don't see one on here and I will add it. Please include a link to the seller. All prices are priced as of 09-28-15 and do NOT include shipping. Some Items may not ship to and from the US as it includes foreign shops.
Board Relays Extra
Inputs
Extra
Outputs
Stack-able Size Pi Ver. Price
(usd)
+1
PiFace 2 8 8 YES(8) A/B A/B $35
PiFace Rev 2 2 8 8 - B+ B+/2 $44
PiFace Relay+ 4 - - YES(8) A+ A+/B+/2 $46
SeeedStudio Hat 4 - - YES(?) * * $32
Plate Shield 4 - - - B A/B $35
LN Digital Interface 2 8 8 - A+ A+/B+/2 $35
MiniPiio 2 - - - 1/2 A/B $18
OpenElectronics
I/O Exp Board
8 - YES(8) Large A/B $30
BCRobotics Relay Hat 4 - - - A+ A+/B+/2 $19
Temperature Controller Plate 2 TypeK
Therm.
4 YES B A/B $50
2803 4 Relay 4 - 2
Stepper
Motor
YES B A/B $34
2803 2 Relay 2 - 2 Stepper
Motor
YES 1/2 A/B $25
Ps-6 Relay Hat 6 - - - A+ A+/B+/2 $50
Slice of Relay 2 - - - 1/2 A/B $17
Rpi+ 2Relay Hat 2 1-Wire - - A+ A+/B+/2 $23
OssoPi I/O Board 8 8 - - X-Large A+/B+/2 $103
ER-OPTO Relay4 Hat 4 - - YES A+ A+/B+/2 $22

Sunday, September 20, 2015

5 Ways to Secure Your Raspberry Pi's Websocket Server.



Websocket's are a great way to transmit real time data.  I use them quite often from transfering picam to the web, controlling lights, controlling a raspberry pi picture frame, and controlling my sprinklers(pending post).  ALL with the Raspberry Pi.  But if it's done without security someone somewhere can tap in and take control.  Things could end up pretty bad if it's used to stream video and control lighting.

1. WSS (WebSockets over SSL/TLS).

First I strongly strongly recommend SSL/TLS encryption.  Just like https it encrypts the traffic between the client and server.  Nothing should be transmitted in plain text to a client. Anyone smart enough to be listening on the connection can probably find out how your websocket protocol is working and take control.  For examples on how to create a wss capable server refer to:
Some problems arise when using self-signed certificates with some clients/browsers. See here.


2.  Query String Authentication

Creating a connection connection to your websocket server by your connection parameters (sometimes a username/password) and appending it as a Query String to the end of the connection:

    var websocket = new Websocket("wss://rpi?user=Eben&password=Upton");

I don't recommend doing it that way especially if you don't have a secure SSL/TLS connection.

3. CHAP Authentication (Challenge Response Authentication)

I was not liking the query string method and knowing that just securing the channel using SSL/TLS wasn't enough I tried implementing a CHAP authentication routine for my Autobahn WS server on my Pi.
CHAP explained on wikipedia.  CHAP is a 3 way handshake:

  1. Client Connects to the websocket server, server then sends a challenge string (random characters of random or set length) to client.  
  2. Client responds with the hash of the challenge+'shared secret' 
  3. Server calculates the challenge it sent and the 'shared secret' it has locally and compares the client's hash to it's own and either authenticates (adds it to approved clients) or drops the client.
I went a bit further in my code and if the client was dropped I added him to a blocked list with a timestamp.  If the client tries to connect I check if he is in the blocked list and if his timestamp is old enough. Then continue with the CHAP auth for the client again.  I use a SHA256 one-way hash in my example.  Since I don't use nodejs I only have an autobahn example:

The javascript library I used for SHA256 is found here

4. Basic/Digest/Forms Authentication

Basic/Digest is a common way the web authenticates it's clients.  Uses a username and password authentication and there several APIs that support it.  Explanation of Digest Auth 

This can be done before a connection to the websocket server is made using a post to the server.  The server can then add the client to the list of accepted connections. 

5. Auth Header

*This only works if the client is NOT a webpage.  Just like basic/digest authentication some websocket servers can read custom headers.  Through the current web api for websockets you are not able to modify the headers in any way.  But your client may able to change his auth header through nodejs, autobahn, and socketrocket

Bonus. Using A Third Party Authentication

One way to authenticate it use a third party authentication service.  
With websockets becoming more and more popular for a easy-to-make realtime feed for your Raspberry pi projects it's important to keep your pi safe from all sides.  It's possible to layer these options to improve security.  I strongly suggest using websocket SSL/TLS always and at least one of the authentication methods.  

Please share

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Raspberry Pi: How to create your own WebSocket API - Part 2

Part 1: Setup xcode project

Now that I've set up the server to handle request from the client we can set up the iOS client. Either you can start with a blank project or fork/clone my github example.




  • Now install the SocketRocket websocket client library.  There are a couple ways to do it.  I used cocoapods, follow the directions for installation here.   I setup a basic uitableview within my viewcontroller.  
  • Link your tableview to your viewcontroller and call it tableView. 
  • Setup your viewDidLoad

static NSString *cellIdent = @"cellIdent";
NSMutableArray *outputs; //global array of our outputs for the piface 
NSMutableArray *inputs;  //global array of our inputs
- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];
    _webSocket = [[SRWebSocket alloc] initWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"wss://192.168.5.21:9000" ]];
    _webSocket.delegate = self;
    outputs = [@[@0,@0,@0,@0,@0,@0,@0,@0] mutableCopy];//pre populate our array with zeros
    inputs  = [@[@0,@0,@0,@0,@0,@0,@0,@0] mutableCopy];// "
    self.tableView.dataSource = self; //don't forget to set your delegate for your datasource
//we have a custom xib for our tableview cell.  register it here
    [self.tableView registerNib:[UINib nibWithNibName:@"OutputTableViewCell" bundle:nil] forCellReuseIdentifier:cellIdent];
    [self.webSocket open]; //open our websocket
}


We need to set our socket rocket delegate so we can handle messages from the server:


-(void)webSocket:(SRWebSocket *)webSocket didCloseWithCode:(NSInteger)code reason:(NSString *)reason wasClean:(BOOL)wasClean{
    [self performSelector:@selector(connectWS) withObject:nil afterDelay:5];
}
-(void)webSocket:(SRWebSocket *)webSocket didFailWithError:(NSError *)error{
    [self performSelector:@selector(connectWS) withObject:nil afterDelay:5];

}
-(void)webSocket:(SRWebSocket *)webSocket didReceiveMessage:(id)message{
    NSData *data = [message dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
    NSDictionary *json = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:data
                                                         options:NSJSONReadingMutableContainers
                                                           error:nil];
    [self parseJSON:json];
}
-(void)webSocket:(SRWebSocket *)webSocket didReceivePong:(NSData *)pongPayload{
    
}
-(void)webSocketDidOpen:(SRWebSocket *)webSocket{
    
}
-(void)parseJSON:(NSDictionary*)jsonObj{
    if([jsonObj isKindOfClass:[NSArray class]]){
        for (NSDictionary *dict in jsonObj) {
            if([dict objectForKey:@"Outputs"]) [self parseOutputs:[dict objectForKey:@"Outputs"]];
            if([dict objectForKey:@"Inputs"]) [self parseInputs:[dict objectForKey:@"Inputs"]];
        }
    }
    else{
        if([jsonObj objectForKey:@"Outputs"]) [self parseOutputs:[jsonObj objectForKey:@"Outputs"]];
        if([jsonObj objectForKey:@"Inputs"]) [self parseInputs:[jsonObj objectForKey:@"Inputs"]];
    }
}
-(void)parseOutputs:(NSString*)outputStr{
    for(int index=0; index < outputStr.length; index++){
        NSString *val = [outputStr substringWithRange:NSMakeRange(index, 1)];
        [outputs setObject:@([val boolValue]) atIndexedSubscript:index];
    }
    [self.tableView reloadData];
}
-(void)parseInputs:(NSString*)inputStr{
    for(int index=0; index < inputStr.length; index++){
        NSString *val = [inputStr substringWithRange:NSMakeRange(index, 1)];
        [inputs setObject:@([val boolValue]) atIndexedSubscript:index];
    }
    [self.tableView reloadData];
}

Note what we just did here:

  1. Set up the delegates
    •  webSocketDidOpen
    • didRecieveMessage
    • didCloseWithCode
    • didFailWithError
  2. Created code to handle the JSON message
    • Convert our JSON msg into NSData and then into a NSDictionary
    • Parsing Inputs and Outputs and modifying our global arrays for each
Now we set up the table a bit more:

-(UITableViewCell*)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath{
    OutputTableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:cellIdent forIndexPath:indexPath];
    if(indexPath.section==0){
        int output_num = [@(indexPath.item) intValue];
        [cell setLabelText:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"Output: %d",output_num]];
        [cell setOutputStatus:[outputs[indexPath.item] boolValue]];
        [cell setOutput:output_num];
        [cell setCmd:^(int output) {
            [self.webSocket send:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"{\"Output\":\"%d\"}",output]];
        }];
    }
    else{
        int input_num = [@(indexPath.item) intValue];
        [cell setLabelText:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"Input: %d",input_num]];
        [cell setOutputStatus:[inputs[indexPath.item] boolValue]];
        [cell setCmd:nil];
    }
    return cell;
}
-(void)connectWS{
    _webSocket = [[SRWebSocket alloc] initWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"wss://10.10.55.21:9000" ]];
     _webSocket.delegate = self;
    [self.webSocket open];
    
}
-(NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section{
    if(section==0)
        return outputs.count;
    if(section ==1)
        return inputs.count;
    else
        return 0;
}
-(NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)tableView{
    return 2;
}

When we set the table up we use our custom cell class:

  1. Cell count/ Section count.  We have two types of cells. One we don't have a reaction to button presses (inputs we are reading). And the other we have the outputs we want to control and see status.    
    • return 2 in our numberOfSectionsInTableView
    • return our output/input row count depending on the section number in numberOfRowsInSection
  2. Connect our cells up to the status stored in the global input/output array
    • If it is an output we set up the callback to send a custom message to our WebSocket Server.  If you recall we set our server to respond to JSON messages formatted as {"Output",pinNumber}.  So we use the IndexPath.Item to determine our position in the inputs/outputs.
    • If it is an input we do not set the "setCmd" callback from our button press.  
  3. We also set up a connectWS method to have it attempt to re-connect after 5 if the websocket connection drops. (usually happens when you lose connection to wifi/cellular or if you restart the websocket server.
In this iOS app I won't connect my custom plug code since you haven't set up the server to respond to anything but output commands.  We could set it up to be {"Plug":plugNum} in the server if we needed.  

Now we only color our output and input buttons ONLY when we know the status.  Don't set the color just because you tapped the button, let the server reply with it's status.  


For simplistic purposes I didn't decorate it anymore than this in this example.  You can be creative and set up your UI however it seems easiest.  Note that iOS does not keep this connection open when you close your app.  I don't handle it elegantly in my example code.  If you wish to have your phone get updates on your sensors while off you will need to set it up as a background service and have it poll a REST-like service you can set up on your Pi with-in the same server app.  


Custom API and modules for WebSockets

WebSocket communication is one of the best ways to get realtime data to your client device.  Creating custom class modules for each sensor type connected to device can make your code and  organized and and your project expandable.  

Raspberry Pi: How to create your own WebSocket API - Part 1



A while I posted my very first raspberry pi home automation project (LightSwitchPi) and since then I've learned a lot more python and circuitry.  I, being one of many, achieving exactly what the Raspberry Pi Foundation wanted, Education.

Here's a quick tutorial on how to create and form your own home automation api for expansion.  I am going to use Autobahn Python for the WebSocket backend and in Part 2 going to build a simple iOS app to communicate with the Pi via WebSockets (SocketRocket).

Part 1: Custom Sensor/Control Modules:

Install the following if you don't have it:

  • For WebSockets, Autobahn Python :
    • sudo apt-get install python-twisted python-pip 
    • sudo pip install autobahn
    • github example
In the github example there are several files to note:
  • websocket.py
    • The autobahn python based websocket broadcast server with ssl encryption.
  • ButtonListener.py
    • The lightswitch (module) using the first gen PiFace Relay Board.  
  • PlugPoller.py
    • A wifi plug I built (link here, forgive the sloppy design :-P ) with a uart-to-wifi interface.
  • web folder
    • simple webpage showing the broadcasts from the websocket server for testing.
First we need to set up our modules.  I'm using the term modules to clarify that you can at anytime add to your websocket server "things" your Raspberry pi can do (I.E temperature sensing, motion, etc...).  In each module you set it up as a separate thread.  

For example ButtonListener is as Follows:

import threading
import os
import pifacedigitalio
from sys import exit
from time import sleep
import time

class Buttons(threading.Thread):
    cmd = None
    loop = True
    button1Callback = None
    button2Callback = None #set up a callback for each button
    button2LongPressCallback = None #set up custom stuff if needed

We start by importing our needed libraries and creating a class of the "threading.Thread) type. I am creating several callback variables so that when we instantiate our class in the websocket server we can assign those callbacks to broadcast to our clients the status of the button presses.  We continue with the init and the run.  Take note that when input[x] is pressed it sets a variable to true and then doesn't react till you release the button. A way to programmatically set a rising/falling edge detection for button presses.  

def __init__(self):
        threading.Thread.__init__(self)
        self.cmd = pifacedigitalio.PiFaceDigital()
        self.loop = True

    def run(self):
        time_pushed = 0
        pushed_1 = False
        pushed_2 = False
        inputs = None
        # toggle button turn relay 1 on
        while self.loop:
            sleep(0.05)
            inputs = self.input_status()
            outputs = self.output_status()
            # print inputs, ' ', outputs
            if inputs[0] == '1' and pushed_1 is not True:
                pushed_1 = True
                if self.button1Callback:  # json callback for button press
                    self.button1Callback('{"Inputs":"' + self.input_status() + '"}')
            if inputs[0] == '0' and pushed_1:
                pushed_1 = False
                self.cmd.relays[0].toggle() 
                if self.button1Callback:  # json callback for button press
                    self.button1Callback('{"Outputs":"' + self.output_status() + '"}')
                    self.button1Callback('{"Inputs":"' + self.input_status() + '"}')
            if inputs[1] == '1' and pushed_2 is not True:
                pushed_2 = True
                time_pushed = time.time()
                if self.button2Callback:
                    self.button2Callback('{"Inputs":"' + self.input_status() + '"}')
            if inputs[1] == '0' and pushed_2:
                time_taken = time.time() - time_pushed
                pushed_2 = False
                if(self.button2Callback):
                    self.button2Callback('{"Inputs":"' + self.input_status() + '"}')
                if time_taken < .5:
                    self.cmd.relays[1].toggle()
                    if self.button2Callback:
                        self.button2Callback('{"Outputs":"' + self.output_status() + '"}')
                    time_pushed = 0
                if (time_taken > .5):
                    try:
                        if self.button2LongPressCallback:
                            self.button2LongPressCallback()
                    except:
                        pass
                time_pushed = 0

We also need to create a stop function so we can exit cleanly from the thread if needed. "def output_status" and "def input_status" are reading the inputs and outputs of the PiFace board and outputting them to a string for our JSON broadcast. "def output_cmd" is a quick method for changing outputs along with outputting the result to the callbacks.

    def stop(self):
        self.loop = False

    def output_status(self):
        list1 = self.cmd.output_port.value
        status = '{0:08b}'.format(list1)[::-1]
        return status

    def output_cmd(self, pin, value, local=True):
        self.cmd.leds[pin].value=value
        if self.button2Callback and not local:
            self.button2Callback('{"Outputs":"' + self.output_status() + '"}')
        return self.output_status()

    def input_status(self):
        list1 = self.cmd.input_port.value
        status = '{0:08b}'.format(list1)[::-1]
        return status


Part 2: WebSocket Broadcast Server Broadcasting

*(For the complete github code see here)
In a broadcast server you need to keep track of the following:
  • Registering clients
  • UnRegistering clients
  • Broadcasting to clients
  • When to broadcast
In my previous post I usually have a polling timer in my websocket server having the server check status of each item and sending it out on change. In this example the "modules" are doing that anyway so we will only need to assign what the callback methods do.
We will put the light switch button module in the init part of the broadcast portion of the server:

class BroadcastServerFactory(WebSocketServerFactory):

    def __init__(self, url, debug=False, debugCodePaths=False):
        WebSocketServerFactory.__init__(self, url, debug=debug, debugCodePaths=debugCodePaths)
        self.clients = []
        self.lighting = Buttons()
        self.lighting.button1Callback = self.broadcast
        self.lighting.button2Callback = self.broadcast
        self.lighting.start()
        self.plugs = PlugPoller(plugIp, 8080)
        self.plugs.statusChangeCallback = self.broadcast
        self.lighting.button2LongPressCallback = self.plugs.toggleAll

Note what we did: 

  1.  We instantiate our Button class and assign the two regular button press callbacks.  Since self.broadcast only takes one argument self.broadcast(msg) it works great for how we set it up in the button class. 
  2. Set up the plugs module along with it's callbacks. 
  3.  We also set up the long button press callback to toggle some plugs.
With those we will broadcast to our clients status changes for inputs and outputs in a JSON format. {"Outputs":"00000000"},{"Inputs":"00000000"}

Since we are not polling periodically we need to let the clients know the status of all the modules when they are registered as a client:

    def register(self, client):
        if client not in self.clients:
            client.sendMessage(json.dumps([{"Outputs":self.lighting.output_status()},
                                {"Inputs":self.lighting.input_status()},
                                {"Lamps":self.plugs.getstatus()}]))
            print("registered client {}".format(client.peer))
            self.clients.append(client)

Part 3: WebSocket Commands from clients:

When our server receives a message from a client we need to handle it if is supposed to control something.  In mine I decided since it's an output I'm toggling I just send a JSON string {"Output",pinNum}.  If it was an analog device you'd need to send a bit more.  With python you can convert json to a dictionary using json.loads(json_string).

    def onMessage(self, payload, isBinary):
        if not isBinary:
            data = json.loads(payload)
            if(data["Output"]):
                output = data["Output"]
                #get current status to toggle the output. 
                current = factory.lighting.output_status()[int(output)]
                newval = not int(current)
                #print(output,' ',current,' ',newval)
                factory.lighting.output_cmd(int(output), newval, False)
                
Remember we put a status change callback whenever we call the output_cmd.  That way all clients get the new status change.


For the iOS portion continue here