A Million Useless Thoughts

Continuing on the House of Cload Pi. This though is about the software and how to get it setup and going at least for getting things staged YOCTO Being familair with Yocto from other projects, this seems like a good place to start. It means dropping the ease of Raspbian Lite, but adds the customization and flexibility we are going to need to make this work. So, first Task is to get a basic image for a pi3 or pi zero w and then we can work from there. We will be following this toturial to get started at getting a basic setup for a PI. We should be able to add recipes and modify from there. Yocto can also be configured to create cross platform SDK's which will be useful in early development. SWUpdate After getting a basic image down we should attempt to get some level of updating system in place for the pi in the field. We are not going to be able to simple remove/replace and SDCard easily if there is a pi stuck some where in a wall or too high, so having a method of up...

Continuing from "The House of Cloud Pi." General idea is a Wifi Mesh network of pi's that can also perform as a cluster for home automation I have started ordering parts to start experimenting with various components required to build out the House of Cloud PI. The base model is going to use Raspberry Pi Zero W's as these will work for outlet controls, light dimmers, ceiling fan controls, and even RGB light controls, irrigation controls and monitoring. I'm not convienced about using them for cameras, but there appears to be much success in the community for using the pi zeros as security cameras. I'd feel better if it was a PI 4 for ones near the house as that would provide more house power. The Base Unit Pi Zero W - $10 ref AC USB Charger or USB Auto Charger - $4 ref 64 GB micro SD card $5 ref Base unit does not have headers, everything will be soldered, this will make it much more reliable. The USB power supply is the smallest cheapest p...

The concept of a smart house with a computer that is everywhere is a concept that is today possible with things like alexa and all sorts of technologies. But when the internet is down much of this breaks down to a more simplier format. What if it were possible to combine the cluster performance of the cloud with a set of smart home controllers. That is with the always on of many of the smart plugs and bulbs can we boost each's CPU power and combine that power into a cluster? The concept being take a quad core arm, but now every bulb, outlet, switch, appliance, and smart camera contains one. First would the combined house power be useful? or efficient? Efficent would be a draw of about 2 Watts per device, which be up from the near 0 most of the zigbee and zwave device produce now when they are in low power mode. Does that mean that let's assume you have 40 of these (40 from how many devices I had when I last constructed a smart home, but really we'd likely be higher o...