Back up your Garmin activity data on a Raspberry Pi

 python programming, software installation  5 Responses »
Jul 282020
 
Back up your Garmin activity data on a Raspberry Pi

Anyone who owns a Garmin watch, bike computer or other activity logging computer can’t have failed to notice the 3 day outage on Garmin Connect over the weekend of 24-26th July 2020. Being denied access to a large portion of my data made me swiftly evaluate my (lack of) backup strategy. I expect it also forced quite a lot of people to dig out their USB cables to upload activities to Strava. I have most of the more recent activity data (bike rides and walks) still on my devices, but a whole year’s worth (June […more…]

Making a fairly simple bike dashcam with Raspberry Pi – “Live project blog” pt5 Road Testing

 Electronics, python programming, Raspberry Pi Camera, Raspberry Pi Hardware  5 Responses »
Dec 212018
 
Making a fairly simple bike dashcam with Raspberry Pi – “Live project blog” pt5 Road Testing

The installation ‘proper’ was finished in the previous post (part 4), so I grabbed a small ‘weather window’ and went out for a 16 mile ride on one of my regular routes to test out the system. It was very windy and rather cloudy but I was very keen to see how the bike dashcam would perform in a real-life situation. What can I say? It worked perfectly as an electronic rear-view ‘mirror’ all the way round. With the Perspex ‘wedge shim’ it was pointed at exactly the right angle. I could see whether there […more…]

Making a fairly simple bike dashcam with Raspberry Pi – “Live project blog” pt4

 Electronics, Laser Cutting, Making, python programming, Raspberry Pi Camera  18 Responses »
Dec 192018
 
Making a fairly simple bike dashcam with Raspberry Pi – “Live project blog” pt4

In part 3 the hardware and software were all working and attached temporarily to the bike. So now it was time to have a quick test ride up and down the street. Having shot some trial footage, I realised immediately that I needed to change the angle to point the camera down more. Once that was done by shoving a piece of foam in between the saddlebag and Pi (at the top) it became usable. The 4.2″ screen is a decent size and is easy to see while riding. You can clearly see what’s behind […more…]

Making a fairly simple bike dashcam with Raspberry Pi – “Live project blog” pt3

 Electronics, python programming, raspberry pihardware  3 Responses »
Dec 182018
 
Making a fairly simple bike dashcam with Raspberry Pi - "Live project blog" pt3

In part 2 we got as far as a proof of concept, but I decided I didn’t like the screen I had because the touch overlay made it reflecty and ‘ghosty’. But I can’t find a decent small HDMI screen without a touch overlay. Another revelation followed… What About Composite? MAJOR CHANGE OF DIRECTION #2 I remembered I’d used a small composite screen with RasPiCamcorder 2. But I couldn’t find it. I vaguely remember I might have broken it somehow, but I bought another one on Amazon for £12.99 (it’s 480 x 272 pixels). And […more…]

Making a fairly simple bike dashcam with Raspberry Pi – “Live project blog” pt2

 Electronics, python programming, Raspberry Pi Camera  15 Responses »
Dec 172018
 
Making a fairly simple bike dashcam with Raspberry Pi - "Live project blog" pt2

In part 1, I covered the initial concept’s ‘evening 1 musings’. Now it’s time to get going on the project and see if we can make it work… Getting Access Point Running on 3A+ I went through this procedure… Set up wireless access point on Raspbian Stretch stopping at the part “Add routing and masquerade” as it seemed unnecessary (there is no ethernet port on a Pi3A+). Then I could log into the 3A+ from my mac. I connected up the screen and tested it with the camera. The AP seemed OK with the screen […more…]

Make a Rain Alert System with Raspberry Pi

 Electronics, python programming, raspberry pi  18 Responses »
Nov 282017
 
Make a Rain Alert System with Raspberry Pi

You’ve been left at home in charge of the laundry. It’s already washed and hanging out to dry on the line. But you were warned – on pain of death – to bring it in if it starts to rain. The trouble is, you’re totally into whatever it is you’re coding right now and you won’t even notice if it rains. You’ll be toast if it rains and the laundry gets wet. So which is it to be? Code or laundry? That was your choice – until now! Let’s Make a Rain Alert System We’re […more…]

High Visibility Cycle Lights with Raspberry Pi, ESP8266 & RasPiO InsPiRing – Day 4 Build Log

 Electronics, python programming, Raspberry Pi Hardware  7 Responses »
Nov 022017
 
High Visibility Cycle Lights with Raspberry Pi, ESP8266 & RasPiO InsPiRing - Day 4 Build Log

I’m going to combine days 4 and 5 into one final blog post and video because I want to get it finished and out there. You can find day 1 here, day 2 here and day 3 here. I’m also publishing the code today in a slightly less documented/polished state than I usually do. But it works pretty well. I’ve been using these lights on my bike since Mid September (~6 weeks at the time of posting) and I’m really pleased with them. On the road, cars treat me like another car because I am […more…]

PiJuice – testing the software and hardware plus 6W 40W solar panels video?

 python programming, Raspberry Pi Hardware, Review  14 Responses »
Oct 112017
 
PiJuice - testing the software and hardware plus 6W 40W solar panels video?

Today we’ll take a closer look at the PiJuice and how to use it. We’ll also do a bit of testing of the PiJuice HAT and the 6W/40W solar panels. This carries on from the previous post where I had an initial look at the PiJuice. It’s mostly a video review, but there will be some extra information here in the blog. Calculations Before running the testing I did some calculations to predict how long the PiJuice battery might last. The BP7X battery has 1820 mAh and a nominal 3.7V. Multiplying these gives 6734 mWh […more…]

High Visibility Cycle Lights with Raspberry Pi, ESP8266 & RasPiO InsPiRing – Day 3

 Electronics, Input and Output, python programming, raspberry pi  No Responses »
Sep 192017
 
High Visibility Cycle Lights with Raspberry Pi, ESP8266 & RasPiO InsPiRing - Day 3

On day 3 (day 1 here, day 2 here) I wanted to see if I could use a Raspberry Pi (3 or 0W) as the WiFi access point instead of my phone. Knowing I was taking a slight risk (with my time) I flashed a µSD card with the shiny new Raspbian Stretch. I tweaked all the things I normally tweak (e.g. remove Wolfram and LibreOffice, enable SSH, SPI, I2C, camera etc. – I may well add a camera to this at some point WJDK). Then I went through this excellent tutorial here, which I […more…]

High Visibility Cycle Lights with Raspberry Pi, ESP8266 & RasPiO InsPiRing – Day 2

 Electronics, python programming, raspberry pi  6 Responses »
Sep 152017
 
High Visibility Cycle Lights with Raspberry Pi, ESP8266 & RasPiO InsPiRing - Day 2

We’ll start with a quick recap of day 1 (which you can find here). By the end of day 1 we had a proof of concept for a phone-controlled, Wemos-driven rear bike light, with indicators (turn signals), tail lights and brake lights. Day 2 started with a bit of real-world testing on the bike. It was determined pretty quickly – within one trip to the gym and back – that mobile phone control was NOT really the way to go. I wasn’t too upset about that because it wasn’t how I originally envisaged things anyway, […more…]

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