Articles

Whilst there are instructions on the GitHub site of how to install signal-cli we have to use an older version of the software because the current verion of Raspian doesn’t use Java Runtime Environment 21, only 17. It's probably possibly to install JRE 21 but I've opted for this route. Make install directory cd ~ mkdir signal-cli cd   more »

You'd have though it would be an easy enough tweak to be able to change the the formatting of your time series axis in Grafana, but the only option in your visualisation settings is to change that of the hover over pop-up. It does seem odd on the face of it, but once you see the solution it all makes sense - because of the nature of the dynamics   more »

It's a long time since I've use Fritzing but after a 10 year break I'm back programming my Arduinos! It was all spurred on  To my surprise, Fritzing has gone paid (unless you want to compile it yourself) since 2017. But there's still a way to access the last free executable installer if you don't mind using a slightly older version..... good   more »

As a bonus on the back of my posts about how to log temperature from your ThermoPro 350S with you RaspberryPi or in Linux and it's follow up of how to add the Heat Index calculation into the the mix using python I've also now got a calculation for MariaDB for you. It took a little time for me between working out how to log the data and writing   more »

I wrote a long winded guide to this in a previous post, but I've since though of a better way if you already have you onboard WiFi adaptor connected to your network. You also don't need an ethernet connection and can be running headless, simply head over to this directory: cd /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections ls -l you should   more »

On day five of me joining Martin on the Brittany leg of his Grand Tour 2024, we headed to the coastal village of Carnac. We came to visit megalithic granite stones, known as the Alignments de Carnac, dating from 3300 to 4500 BC, and varying in size from 0.5 metres to a whopping 6 metres tall, the largest collection of stones of this type in   more »

Install & testing First we have to set up some folders and download and install filebrowser (change the ip address to that of your rpi and a port of your choosing): cd /opt sudo mkdir filebrowser cd filebrowser curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/filebrowser/get/master/get.sh | bash sudo filebrowser -r /opt/filebrowser -a 192.168.0.10   more »

As i found out when I recently tried to move the OS from my Debian desktop to a different hard drive it involves a whole bunch of faffing with live CDs and cloning utils with multiple attempts to get it right followed by endless faffing with grub and bootloaders to get it working properly. So when it came round to swapping my micro SD card   more »

You would have though it was a thing people would use all the time, but apparently not so after too much researching I cobbled together this: echo 'Field dumpData dump'; for each ($array as $key => $value) { echo '' . $key . '' . $value . ''; } echo ''; jobs a good   more »

Update There's a quicker way if you are running headless and/or already have your Pi connected via WiFi Recently been researching USB WiFi adaptors a for my Pi3 given I just installed a PCIe Intel 8290 on my Lenovo Thinkstation M93a and I'm getting a whopping 780Mb/s connection through my WiFi broadband router. I'm also running out of ethernet   more »

Whenever you read on the internet of how to connect to other devices on your home network using a hostname instead of an IP address when they the machine doesn't broadcast it, you generally get the following two answers: add an entry to your hosts file manually yourself configure your router to send out the name. There's a couple of issues   more »

I don't know if this is related to the other issue I was having with my mailbox not being found which I fixed in the other blog post, but after installing postfix: sudo apt install postfix and correctly configuring the SMTP relay, I could send email using the sendmail function: sendmail youremail@gmail.com Subject: testing does it work! . but   more »

Just installed and configured postfix and mutt on a fresh copy of Raspberry Pi OS Lite, sending of mail was fine but I was having issues with mutt. Don't know whether it was related to my other issue here, but mutt opens but I get the error: Cannot open mailbox /var/mail/pi: No such file or directory Very annoying, its never happened to me   more »

Google's yearly summary has dropped, it's been a cracker for me in 2024. 3 distinct trips: Six weeks through Northern Spain A week in Brittany then a month travelling through Austria, Northern Italy and the French Riviera As google notes - 7 countries this year: France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain (including Majorca &   more »

This project has been on the boil for a while now, but I've finally got round to finishing it off to my satisfaction. I always wanted to see the elevation plot of my routes and rides but never really found somewhere I could get it from so after finding some code to parse the gpx log I've spent a long time fettling the output. Here's what you   more »

After jumping on the obligatory cheap PC / Linux server bandwagon, I was looking into the obligatory WiFi install. I was initially concerned I was going to have to pay through the tooth for an OEM version of the of the card. There seems to be a lot of chat on the interwebs of there being some BIOS locking involved restricting use to a few cards.   more »

Following on from my post of how to log the data from your ThermoPro 350S, I noted that the app also calculates the Heat Index - quite a handy metric as it measures the 'feels like' temperature taking into account the humidity. I'd been interested in the phenomenon after my travels last year through Spain as despite the scorching hot   more »

Back in the day I had to make my own data logger out of an ESP8266-12E wired to a temp and humidity sensor with custom firmware to log into my home WiFi and ping the results to a some custom PHP code to log! It's all pretty easy now days, IoT has come on so much we just call devices smart and give them an app. Whilst the hardware and app are   more »

Following on from my post of how to batch convert Garmin Fit files to GPX using Babel GPS in Windows, thought I'd follow it up with the equivalent Linux command. Obvs you need gpsbabel installed but run this command in the directory you are storing the files and you are away find . -maxdepth 1 -iname "*.fit" -exec gpsbabel -rt -i garmin_fit   more »

This is one which has been bugging me for a while - the post editor page on my site will readily underline incorrectly spelled words but when i right-click to get the spelling corrected in the context menu it doesn't want to show me correct spellings. It's probably a case of read the manual but I finally got round to working it out, and it's as   more »

Whilst working on a project to output the elevation chart of a GPX track I came across some code to produce your own heatmap from a bunch of gps tracks. I thought that'd be pretty cool to visualized my own as I've been using Strava's global heatmap since it was released in 2017 to plot mountain bike routes. I was pretty bummed that when they   more »

The automated filing of your photo's into day, month and/or year folders is great for speeding up your workflow, but I just couldn't get it working under windows. There's plenty of information about it all over the internet but for me instead of putting it into the requisite YYMMDD folders it would just move everything into a folder called   more »

Use this every time I'm on my way back from France on the ferry. Only 2 mins form the terminal Stopover details Directions: Turn right at the end of Rue Margolle in Calais Google Maps link Park4Night link Cost:   more »

Another year, another travel-log update, finally managed to escape to the continent after shunning numerous lucrative contracts and offers on full-time employment in favour of travelling EU rope in my Van My very own Tour de   more »

I don't know about your but I've always had trouble aligning my stem perfectly parallel to my front wheel. It's even more infuriating when out on the road or tail sensing even the tiniest misalignment which niggles you for weeks or even months. The trouble is that it's really hard to quantify if it is actually out of kilter or just in your head!   more »

This is probably the bain of a lot of cyclist's lives, well the ones that keep their bikes indoors anyhow, despite how careful you are it is just a matter of time before you inadvertantly catch a tyre on the wall as you wheel your bike around. No probs you would think, bit of Cif and the mark'd come right off. No such luck here, for some reason   more »

I'm usually rubbish at amusing inventive word-play - ask me to come up with a pub quiz name and I'm utterly stumped. This one was easy for me, though I wasn't asked to think of one, the thought just randomly came up in my   more »

I've been eagerly awaiting the fourth version of the RaspberryPi for a while, but when it passed the point where I had expected it to be released I googled it only to find that the next incarnation may be a while. Darn it, I have to get anothe RaspberryPi3. So the time has come to commission it and I find the lastest version of Raspian called   more »

My first encounters with Camelbak Podium bidons were not great, I borrowed a bottle from Ali for use on quick ride but but I was soon struggling with it! What I hadn't experienced before in my two decades of cycling was an increase in nozzle length, every time I wen't for a sip I ended up punching myself in the face - I'd have to relearn how to   more »

So you want to rig up your Raspberry Pi OSMC to be controlled by your favourite remote control, easy peasy - it is just a matter of plugging the IR receiver diode in and swith GPIO on in the settings. Dont like the standard pins 17 or 18, no problem - you can change them at teh same time, just follow these instructions. Go to 'My OSMC, Select 'Pi   more »