Category Archives: Experimental

ESP32, Experimental

LORA SETUP

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#78 Setting up the LoRa T-Beam

Living on a farm I often encounter communication issues coupled with the urgency to communicate when catastrophes strike. Therefore in my quest to find suitable backups and backups to the backups I stumbled upon the LoRa system. Specifically the LoRa boards in the T-Beam configuration using the Meshtastic firmware + Android app which allows text message communication over a few kilometers in my case.

After testing them I came to the conclusion that they do work and reliability, however they can get damaged easily and the quality of boards and components used is not up to the bar of commercial motherboards such as gigabyte PC motherboards as an example.

My final opinion being: they work and I would use them as one of my “coms” layers however I would not put the T-Beam on par with a mobile phone the quality is simply just not there.

Arduino, Bluetooth, ESP32, Experimental

ESP32 DEVKIT V1

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#76 ESP32 that is Arduino & MicroPython Compatible

ESP-WROOM-32 32-bit 240 MHz microprocessor

The ESP32 has already integrated an antenna and RF balun, power amplifier, low-noise amplifiers, filters, and power management module. The entire solution takes up the least amount of printed circuit board area. This board is used with 2.4 GHz dual-mode Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips by TSMC 40nm low power technology, power and RF properties best, which is safe, reliable, and scale-able to a variety of applications.

Bluetooth, Electronics, Experimental

JDY-30 BT RELAY

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#75 JDY-30 Bluetooth relay board

JDY-30 Bluetooth

This is a 12V relay that you can switch using the built-in JDY-30 Bluetooth slave module. By using the iq-blue terminal app on your phone, you can wireless open or close the relay by sending simple hexadecimal code to the board.

  1. Provide 12V DC input power to the board
  2. Search for bluetooth device and pair to “JDY-30” (password is “1234”)
  3. Download the IQ-BLue Bluetooth Terminal App
  4. Using hexadecimal, send “A00101A2” (open the relay), “A00100A1” (close the relay)
Back of the board
Schematic
Datasheet
BK3231
Experimental, RaspberryPI

IO PINS ON PI ZERO W

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#74 Operating IO pins on the Raspberry PI Zero W

RaspberryPI Zero W pinout.

While Java programming I started to wonder if I could program a pi board with java. During my research I found out that it is possible and there is the Java ME version that is specifically designed to be used in embedded devices.

Java ME requires the creation of MIDlets which is quite complicated so I decided to start by using the Java SE version and the WiringPi library. I’m using a Raspberry Pi Zero W with DietPi installed.

STEPS

Make sure Java & the WiringPi library is installed on your DietPi.
Now open the dietpi-launcher.

sudo dietpi-launcher

Install Optimized Software > Browse Software > Java

Install Optimized Software > Browse Software > WiringPi

Setting up the APP
Compile the app with Eclipse.
Now build the .class files into a .jar file on windows.
This makes one .jar file and compresses it for easy distribution.
Make sure JavaSE1.8 is selected in Eclipse so that it can run on the PI’s openjdk version "1.8.0_212".

"C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-16.0.2\bin\jar" cvfm GPIOPinTestMain.jar manifest.txt GPIOPinTestMain.class

N.B The manifest file must have an open newline at the end!

Once the .jar file is created you can now upload it to the PI’s usr dir e.g "/usr/bin/a_java_app/gpiotest"

Install OPENSSH to allow Putty connections.

INSTALL ProFTPD so allow sftp://10.0.0.17 connections.

Download the code below

GPIOPinTestDownload

Experimental, Programming

CURSOR ON TARGET

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#73 Cursor On Target (COT) protocol

Example flow

Cursor on Target is a simple exchange standard that is used to share information about targets. Its loosely coupled design led to multiple implementations and is used to facilitate interoperability of several systems with already fielded military software. Cursor on Target was originally developed by MITRE in 2002 in support of the U.S. Air Force Electronic Systems Center. Mitre first demonstrated Cursor on Target during a combined joint task force exercise in 2003, during which a Predator unmanned aircraft was able to operate in coordination with manned aircraft.

COT text example

For more detailed info read this and this document.

The COT protocol is used with ATAK to provide an exchange between sensors + coms etc.

Message-Router-Users-Guide
Data-Schemas-for-Net-Centric-Situational-Awareness
The-Developers-Guide
Cursor-on-Target-and-the-Air-Defense-Environment
Cursor-On-Target-Dr.-Christopher-Niessen

Experimental

MIG WELD ATTEMPT

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#72 Learning to MIG weld

While living on the farm I couldn’t help but notice the necessity of a welder. From fixing gates to fixing vehicles and setting up fences. Creating burglar guards and security gates. These are all musts especially in the dangerous rural areas in South Africa.

So I endeavored on my welding journey, looking for the best welder for a beginner. After months of research I decided on the MAC AFRIC 180 A IGBT (MIG & MMA) Industrial welding machine. It has (120A=100%, 150A=60%, 180A=35% ) duty cycles.







I purchased the machine from Adendorff

After setting up and practicing a few beads I got the hang of it, Just need to improve my bead and reduce splatter. More practice.

My first bead… quite a hot mess.
Second bead (on the other side) much better but still needs work…




Very happy with this option as a first timer welding steel.

Electronics, ESP32, Experimental

ESP32-CAM

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#71 ESP32-CAM WiFi & Bluetooth Dev Board

The ESP32-CAM, is a fine product of Espressif, and features WiFi + Bluetooth with an onboard Camera and even a built-in flash for complete solutions to IoT, so you can give your IoT systems eyes to “see”, in addition to the many Sensors that allow them to “feel”.

The camera included with this development board is the OV2640 camera, which is surprisingly high quality for the low price that it’s typically offered for. However, the board also allows use with the OV7670 camera too, allowing you to use whichever camera best suits your project – with more than enough computing power to operate a range of different tasks, and multiple sleep modes for impressively versatile power consumption.

This product is comprised of two parts, one of which is the Development Board while the other is the OV2640 camera module. This allows you to utilise these separately, or as a single unit, giving you more freedom to take your projects in whatever direction they need to go.

ESP32 Technical Reference Sheet.pdf
IOTESP32C – Datasheet.pdf
OV2640 – Datasheet.pdf
Experimental, FreeTAKServer, Programming

FREETAKSERVER MANAGER

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#70 FreeTAKServer Windows Manager Concept

FreeTAKServer manager control panel concept.

Just a quick C# working example of a FreeTAKServer Manager application for the Windows OS.

WinForms & WPF versions are supported.

The FreeTAKServer Manager C# application was created to make using the current v1.7 of FreeTAKServer more user friendly.

FreeTAKServer Manager has the ability to Start, Stop, Restart, Install and Uninstall the FreeTAKServer & FreeTAKServer-UI.

It can also start on startup, send alert emails, let the user test the API (localhost & custom), allow quick MainConfig.py & config.py edits, Open a portforward testing page.

The App requires Admin privilege in order to run cmd commands effectively.

Remove all previous Python environment variables (if you have them) because they mess up the paths.

N.B the application has been created with the microsoft Visual Studio 2019 Community IDE. (https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/)

API testing form

https://github.com/Cale-Torino/FreeTAKServer_Manager

Experimental, FreeTAKServer, Server Install

FREETAKSERVER ON WINDOWS

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#69 Installing FreeTAKServer on Windows 10

UI running on windows using Flask

In November last year I had a client that was looking for a geospatial situational awareness ecosystem for their security guards. Upon researching I found out the the ATAK (Android Team Awareness Kit) system was released to the public earlier that year (2020)

ATAK is just one team awareness kit medium of many. Other mediums which are integrated into this TAK solution are WinTAK and the FreeTAKServer these are all available to the public at this time. Check out the awesome FreeTAKTeam Github here.

FreeTAKServer works as the connector between the ATAK-CIV and WinTAK-CIV platforms. As of the date today FreeTAKServer is still in development and wonderful new features and plugins are being developed to be shared with the Github community.

The definition of ATAK according to the wiki is as follows:

Android Team Awareness Kit (ATAK) is an Android smartphone geospatial infrastructure and military situation awareness app. It allows for precision targeting, surrounding land formation intelligence, situational awareness, navigation, and data sharing. This Android app is a part of the larger TAK family of products.

For more info on the FreeTAKServer check out the YouTube video series by * DA-B6 * here also please check out the ATAK MAP YouTube page here

Other links:
https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/tactical_awareness_kit_508.pdf

https://www.cofiretech.org/index.php/feature-projects/team-awareness-kit-tak

FreeTAKServer_Windows_Install_Tutorial.MD