Category Archives: Python

Voice-control RC sockets with Google’s AIY Project Kit

2017-05-11433 Mhz RC Sockets, Debian, Jessie, Linux, Programming, Python, Raspberry PiAIY Project Kit, MagPi57

Issue 57 of the official MagPi magazine contains a Do-It-Yourself Artificial Intelligence kit made by Google. The build instructions inside issue 57 are straightforward, so that you can talk to an intelligent device within minutes.

However, the installation walk-through in the MagPi57 did not work without problems, therefore I recommend to follow the instructions on Google’s AIY Project Page.

Speech recognition is an amazing feature for the Pi and if you ever wanted to know what “the answer to life, the universe and everything ” is, you should go for it!

The kit turned out to be very popular and it is currently difficult to get hold on it. It is sold out at many places :-(.

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Monitoring air quality with a Nova PM2.5/PM10 Sensor and Python

2017-02-18Debian, Jessie, MySQL, Programming, Python, Raspberry Pi, Sensorsparticulate matter, PM10, PM2.5, SDS011

It is a major problem in almost all large German cities, that fine particulate matter is frequently exceeding its maximum permissible value of 50 μg/m³. In a special issue of the Make Magazine (IoT special 01/2017), I read an article about the Nova PM SDS011 sensor, which is using the principle of laser scattering to measure the concentration of particulate matter between 0.3 to 10 μm in the air. The sensor is cheap (about 20 Euro) and easy to use, since it communicates via serial connection.

For placing the sensor into an enclosure, it is equipped with a nozzle that allows to connect a hose of max. 1 m length. The UART communication protocol requires a bit rate of 9600 baud, with 8 data bit, no parity and one stop bit.