Nowadays there are cameras everywhere. A particular scenario were cameras have been proved to be very helpful are street cameras: they allow us to see the trafic, monitor for people behavior and much, much more. It is commom to place these cameras outdoors, which means that they are exposed to weather conditions such as wind, rain, small debries, bird poop and other elements that can make the camera's len dirt and blur the video.There are some products that can be used as protective layer as well as plastic protections and enclousures for the cameras. Howerver, even with these options it is commom to see lens getting dirty and someone has to manually clean the lens.Inspired by the technology used in Formula 1 cars, I created a small prototype that automatic clean the lens of a camera. The ideia is to use some form of clear plastic sheet (i.e. transparent vinyl) that will be placed in from of the lens of the camera. When someone that is looking in the camera video feed note that the lens are dirty they just have to press a button and a small stepper motor will scrool the transparent material and clean the view. It is important to note that the material must be clear to not interfere with the video feed. After a while the material can be cleanned and replaced.To test this ideia I developed a simple prototype using a Raspberry Pi Zero W. This device is very handy, has a small form factor and allow us to connect with the motor. Unfortunately a did not have any other Raspberry Pi, so I have to use the RPI Zero W. Nevertheless, the new RPI Pico can be used in this project.Next I choosed the motor. I used the 28BYJ-48 stepper motor with a driver because they are reliable, have a strong torque and came in a small form factor. For this prototype I did not required external power, which means I could use the 5V provided by the RPI Zero W to power the motor.It is very simple to connect the motor with the RPI: you just need to connect the power + ground pins (do not forget to set the 5V using the provided jumpers) and the connect the 4 signal cables to the GPIOs of the RPI. The following image shows the schematic. The next step was to choose the webcam. For this prototype I used a simple Logitech webcam, but you can adapt the project to other cameras, including the ones used in CCTV (Closed Circuit Televition). The webcam I used is the C920 and I have to make use of lube in the corners to make the plastic material scroll smoothly.The next step was to place the transparent material into some kind of roll that can be scrolled. For the prototype I used a straw and a small woden stick, but I would like to recommend rivets. Yes, these rivets have some form o "cap" that you can unplug and use them to curl the material and hold the pin in such a way it scrolls.Here is a photo of the straw connected in the shaft of the stepper motor. Again, this was just to test and in a finalized version of the project you can replace the straw with some more permanent (and water proff) shaft.The next step is the transparent material. I would recommend a stiff transparent plastic, like vinyl or an acrilic sheet. However, I just have at my disposal a kitchen plastic wrap. This material fold easily and make a lot of wrikles, but at least it worked for the first prototype.Next I just have to curl up the material in the straw and the wodden stick. This part was easy, but to place the components in the webcam was not. In fact, this is a job for a 3D print case or enclouse that fits well with the format of the camera case. For the first prototype I just used soldering arms that help me place the components in a suitable position.Again, the transparent plastic material I used have a lot of folds and wrinkles. Howerver, it somewhat worked: I could just make the motor rotate clockwise and the the sheet of plastic scroll, which was the intented effect. I have a lot of lesons learned in this project and I think it has some interesting use cases. If anyone want to replicate that, please fell free to change the code that I attached here. Also, please try to make the sheet as close as possoble of the camera lens, so it wont create any kind of shadow or other effect in the video.

Raspberry Pi 4 NAS out of an old power amplifierStory:I had played around with the NAS feature of my router in the past, but quickly reached its limits. Since then, I was looking for a NAS solution for my whole family. Best to build it myself. I already had a few Raspberry Pis at home and when the PI 4B came out, this was the perfect moment to get this project started.Around the same time, a power amp at my school broke. Since I am involved in sound engineering there, it was no problem to get hold of it. So, I had a case in which all components would fit.This project is divided into two parts.In part 1 we take care of the hardware, i.e. the cabling of the individual devices and especially also the installation in the power amp case.In part 2 we will install the operating system and set up the NAS.If you are only interested in the software part and setting up the NAS with Ubuntu Server, you can jump straight to the second part.Attention! Working on mains voltage is life threatening and should only be done by qualified personnel. Some steps shown here should only be done if you know exactly what you are doing. Furthermore, a multiple socket, as shown here, should never be used for permanent installations.Specs:Raspberry Pi 48 GB DDR3 SDRAMGigabit Ethernet4 TB RAID 1 StorageWhat you need:Note: For a pure Raspberry Pi 4 NAS without amp case, we only need those articles in bold.Raspberry Pi 4B (I recommend the 8GB RAM version, as it is not much more expensive compared to other NAS solutions)Power supply (PSU) for the Pi (5V, 3A, 45W, UBS-C, surge- and overload protection)Micro SD card (32GB)Active cooling case for the PiUSB 3 Hub (This turned out later)Active USB-SATA adapterHard drives (4TB WD red)Power supply for the case fans (24V, 4.5A)2 relay board (to switch the two case fans and the fan on the Raspberry Pi)Ethernet feedthrough (To connect an Ethernet cable to the case, as it would be with a real server)Ethernet patch cable (20cm)Switch (250V, 10A, for the Case)Fuse (4.5A)MC 7805 (Fixed voltage regulator)Capacitors (2200μF, 10 μF, 100nF – more details later)Diode (1N4001)Jumper cablesPart 1 - The enclosure (not important for the NAS itself)Mounting the devices:After opening the 19" case, and removing the actual PCB, I was also able to unscrew the front panel and get access to the fans. Of course, these had to be cleaned first. I decided to further disassemble the front panel and spray paint it completely black. In order for the paint to hold better, I had to sand it down a bit.Then I had to think about the actual allocation of the devices in the case. This was only possible to a limited extent before, because I didn’t have any specifications of the power supplies for the USB-SATA adapters. I had originally wanted to take a black multi-socket, but the plugs there were arranged at an 45° angle, so that the power supplies would then have been too high and would no longer have fit into the housing. Therefore, I had to search for a multi-socket with straight plugs.Now that I knew what should go where, I could start attaching the parts. The Ethernet feed through I could simply attach to the place of a previous speakOn port, for this I only had to drill two holes for the screws. For the relay, the 24 V power supply and the Raspberry Pi, I marked the holes and punched them so I could drill them with a 2.5 and 3mm drill bit. I was able to immediately screw the 24V power supply to the bottom of the case. But since the relay module was not insulated at the bottom side of the PCB, I had to mount it on spacers and attach a small plastic sheet.I had long been wondering how I would mount the Raspberry Pi. In the end, the best solution was to mark the four holes of the base plate, with a scriber on the bottom of the amp, and then screw the Raspberry Pi case to the power amp case with longer screws. Since the fans were clean again in the meantime, I could screw them into the case as well.In order not to damage the hard drives during assembling the NAS, I took two old ones to mark the proportions. Then the hard drives were fixed with metal brackets. To allow air to get under the hard drives and reduce vibrations at the same time, I packed rubber spacers between both, the metal brackets and the case bottom.After all the important components were fixed, I could start the wiring.AC wiring:I decided to use the screw terminals on the 24V power supply to be able to connect the multisocket there. So I had to remove the plug, and strip the three stranded wires. I crimped ferrules onto the stripped ends and then screwed them (L2, N2, PE2) to the AC input side of the terminal block on the 24V power supply.From the incoming mains cable, I was able to connect the neutral conductor (N1) directly to the power supply, using a wire end ferrule.The phase (L1), I first connected to a 4.5A fuse. In my case, I was able to insulate the solder joints of the fuse holder well with heat shrink tubing and electrical tape.Then L1 was looped to the switch (250V, 10 A). There I used insulated cable lugs to be able to plug and unplug the switch easily. Next, the phase was pulled back to the power supply. Since I have an illuminated switch, I also had to connect the neutral (N3) to the switch.Because only two cable ends fit on the terminal strip of the 24V PSU, this neutral conductor (N3) had to be connected with a terminal plug.I also screwed the protective conductor (PE2) of the multiple socket to the terminal strip of the power supply.In order to be able to connect the protective conductor of the mains cable and the power supply (PE3) and the incoming cable (PE1) with the housing, I have sanded down an unpainted area again and screwed both protective conductors using a toothed ring.After an isolation test, I was able to plug it in for the first test. Fortunately, nothing blew up in my face, nothing exploded, and everything behaved as it should.... except the switch… Wiring this power switch was a bit difficult, as it had an LED that was supposed to indicate if the switch was set to on or off.... but it was not quite clear in which positions what happened. So it took me a few tries before I knew the correct wiring, as the manufacturer did not include instructions.DC wiring:This seems complicated because there are many cables, but it is relatively simple.To reduce a few cables and to be able to connect the fans well, I soldered a board to which I can plug both fans on one side and the 24V is connected on the other side. GND goes directly to the power supply and +24V are switched via relay 1. As it turned out later, the fans vibrated very strongly at 24V. At 20V, however, they ran quietly. Therefore I soldered a 85 Ohm power resistor in front of each fan. From the fan of the Raspberry Pi you can also plug GND directly to a GPIO. I connected the +5V with a jumper cable to relay 2 and led it back again, so I didn't have to cut and solder a cable. This would make the fan more replaceable.To switch the relay, we need to connect +5V (VCC) and GND (GND) from the Raspberry Pi as power supply to the relay module. We also need GPIO 04 (IN1) and GPIO 17 (IN2) to switch the relays. The jumper has to be set between VCC and RVCC. Now the relay would theoretically already work, but the Raspi would not be galvanically separated from the relay module.To achieve this by using the optocouplers on the PCB, the jumper must be removed and a voltage of +5V must be connected to RVCC and GND.Since I don't have a 5V voltage source in the case, I built myself a voltage converter with a fixed voltage regulator with the following schematic:On the in pin of the MC7805 +24V are applied. Also an electrolytic capacitor is connected between +24V and GND. The middle pin (GND) is also connected to GND and the Out pin is connected to RVCC on the relay board. Between the out pin and GND an electrolytic capacitor with 10μF and a ceramic capacitor with 100nF are connected. To protect the MC7805 from a too high voltage at the out pin, a 1N4001 diode is connected between In and Out. The capacitors smooth the voltage. The GND of the circuit is connected to GND on the relay board.Because 19V drops at the fixed voltage regulator, it can get very hot. Therefore I took an old heat sink, which was previously installed in the power amp, and attached the MC7805 to it. I used a fixed voltage regulator instead of a DC/DC converter, because I had one at home. In addition, the 5V are only needed for the switching operations of the relay. Therefore the heat sink is theoretically not necessary. But since I might need the 5V output for other stuff and it does look good, I decided to use it.Now all that's left to do is plug in the power supplies, connect the hard drives to the Pi, and create a connection with the 20cm patch cable between the Pi and the Ethernet feedthrough.At this point it is important to add that it turned out later that you need an additional active USB hub between the Raspberry Pi and the active SATA USB adapters. When setting up the NAS, I struggled almost continuously with one of the disks being kicked out. sudo dmesg always returned errors that looked like this:over current change #54. There were other errors, but they were software related. After weeks of trying and researching I found someone with the same problem. His hard drives were also thrown out, although he also used active SATA USB adapters. Indeed. With an active USB hub I didn't get these error messages anymore. Interesting to know is that the active USB hub drew only 0.2A(DC) in IDLE and almost 1A(DC) in use. From this I conclude that the active adapters could not supply enough current. Now that the Raspberry Pi has been expanded with more USB3 ports, I'm also thinking of moving the operating system to an SSD, as these are more durable than SD cards.Of course, good cable management is important, so that cables do not unplug themselves and that it is easier to upgrade later.To stop dust that would be sucked in by the fans, I sandwiched a strip of filter floss for servers between the chassis and the fans.After flashing the Micro SD card (See Part 2) I was able to insert it into the Raspberry Pi and then attach the black painted front panel as well as the lid.About switching the fans: Since the fans do not support PWM out of the box, it would be an idea to control the fans with MosFets instead of just a relay, to control their speed proportional to the temperature.Also, mac587 had suggested on hackster, where I had presented the project a few months ago, to use an ATX power supply as power source. So you could save the voltage converter and run fans with only 12V.Now we continue in part 2, since we have already done everything that has to do with hardware.Part 2 - SoftwareInstall operating systemTo get the operating system onto the SD card, we use the Pi imager.There we select Choose OS -> Other general purpose OS -> Ubuntu -> Ubuntu Server 20.XX.x LTS (RPi 3/4/400).And then choose your SD card.Then press "Write" The process took me about 6 minutes.Get the IP of the RaspberryAfter the SD card is in the Pi and it is turned on, it should appear on your router's user interface after a few seconds.At my Fritz!Box you can find the IP under Home Tetworks -> Mesh -> Other connected or registered home network devices.There you should give the device a static IP, so that you don't have any problems later when mounting e.g. in fstab.Access the Pi via SSHTo get access to the Raspberry Pi via SSH, we open a terminal on the PC and type:ssh ubuntu@ubuntu or?ssh ubuntu@"IP_of_your_pi". the default password is ubuntu but the password should be urgently replaced with a strong password, otherwise an attacker will have access to all data stored on the NAS.After that you will be logged out and have to log in again with your new password.First steps on a new OSHints and tipsUse tab in terminal for auto-complete.Exit nano with Ctrl+x and confirm changes with y.Select a text section in nano: Alt+A+M and then move with the arrow keys. Ctrl+arrow key then selects the whole paragraph at once.Cut selected text in nano: Ctrl+KUpdate the Raspberry Pisudo apt-get update sudo at-get full-upgrade If errors occur here, just rebooting will help.Make SSH more secureNote: Since the NAS will only be accessible from the home network anyway, this is not absolutely necessary. This measure helps to make attacks on port 22 useless, but with a portscan you can also find out the actually used port. Therefore, a strong password is more important for every user. More help would be provided by fail2ban and access via certificate.For this we need to change the default SSH port and disable root login. This is done in the SSH configuration file under /etc/ssh/sshd_config:sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config Here we have to remove the "#" in line #Port 22 and change "22" to any other port (e.g. 2846).Also, in the line #PermitRootLogin prohibit-password, the "#" should be removed and "prohibit-password" should be replaced by " no".This should look like this:Port 2846 #AddressFamily any #ListenAddress 0.0.0.0 #ListenAddress :: ? #HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key [...] ? # Authentication: ? #LoginGraceTime 2m PermitRootLogin no ?To make the changes take effect immediately, we restart ssh:sudo /etc/init.d/ssh restart Allow selected port in the firewallSince we changed the default port of SSH, sudo ufw allow OpenSSH won't work anymore. Therefore, we need to use the following command to allow the newly selected port:sudo ufw allow 1636 Now the port must be specified when logging in via SSH:ssh ubuntu@ubuntu -p 2846 Change hostnameSince I have installed several Ubuntu servers and want to recognize my NAS better in the home network afterwards, the hostname will be changed. Note: After that the RPi is no longer reachable via ssh under ssh ubuntu@ubuntu -p 2846 but under ssh ubuntu@rpi-nas -p 2846.With hostnamectl we can display the current hostname:$ hostnamectl Static hostname: ubuntu Icon name: computer Machine ID: e5e5d4e8666c456488d91bc2735712d0 Boot ID: 1fdeecd84e8f48c499c520978bc60358 Operating System: Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS Kernel: Linux 5.4.0-1029-raspi Architecture: arm64 With the set-hostname option we can set a new hostname:sudo hostnamectl set-hostname rpi-nas Then we have to add the line 127.0.0.1 rpi-nas to the /etc/hosts file:sudo nano /etc/hosts It should then look something like this:127.0.0.1 rpi-nas # The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts ::1 ip6-localhost ip6-loopback fe00::0 ip6-localnet The last thing to do is to change a value in the cloud.cfg file:sudo nano /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg Search here for preserve_hostname: and change the value to trueTo make sure everything worked, we run hostnamectl again.$ hostnamectl Static hostname: rpi-nas Icon name: computer Machine ID: e5e5d4e8666c456488d91bc2735712d0 Boot ID: 1fdeecd84e8f48c499c520978bc60358 Operating System: Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS Kernel: Linux 5.4.0-1029-raspi Architecture: arm64 Add non-root userThe last thing we do is to add a default, non-root user, which we will work with from now on.To do this:sudo adduser config Add the user to the sudo group:sudo usermod -a -G sudo config Now we switch to the new user and run a command that requires root right to make sure everything worked:sudo su - config sudo apt-get update Python scripts to cool the NASCooling the Raspberry PiFirst, you need to install some packages:sudo apt-get install python3-pip sudo pip3 install Rpi.GPIO pip3 install gpiozero pip3 install pigpio sudo apt-get install rpi.gpio-common sudo apt-get install python3-rpi.gpio Then the group gpio must be created, the current user (config) must be added and the group must get rights for the GPIOs:sudo groupadd gpio # Add the group sudo usermod -a -G gpio $USER # Add the current user to the new group sudo grep gpio /etc/group # Assure that everything is working sudo chown root:gpio /dev/gpiomem # Change the gpio owner to root sudo chmod g+rw /dev/gpiomem # Add read and write permissions Alternatively, the current user may also own gpiomem:sudo chown root:$USER /dev/gpiomem Now we create another folder where the python scripts will be placed, and also the python script itself. The code that needs to be inserted is found on GitHub:mkdir code cd code mkdir python cd python nano cooling_pi.py # now paste the code from GitHub sudo chmod u+x cooling_pi.py # Make the script executable To ensure that the Pi is reliably cooled after each reboot, we add the following line to the crontab. To log any errors that occur, we also create a log file:cd log/ touch cron_user.log crontab -e @reboot python3 /home/config/code/python/cooling_pi.py > /home/config/log/cron_user.log 2>&1 # Insert this line. Cooling the HDDsTo be able to read out the temperatures of the hard disks, hddtemp must be installed:sudo apt-get install hddtemp The following line can be used to read out the temperature for a hard disk:for i in /dev/sdX ; do sudo hddtemp sata:$i; done For the script we create a new folder for shell scripts in the directory./code. There we will create a script for each disk (code on GitHub) Since the readout requires root rights, but the python script is executed by a non-root user, the owner of the shell scripts must be changed to root, as well as the file rights must be adjusted.cd code/ mkdir shell cd shell/ nano sda_temp.sh # For HDD1 nano sdb_temp.sh # For HDD2 sudo chown root:root sda_temp.sh sdb_temp.sh # Change the owner sudo chmod 755 sda_temp.sh sdb_temp.sh # Assign the relevant file permissions sudo visudo # To avoid the need to enter a password, insert those two lines config ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /home/config/code/shell/sda_temp.sh config ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /home/config/code/shell/sdb_temp.sh Now we create the python script and add it to the crontab.cd code/python/ nano cooling_hdd.py # now paste the code from GitHub sudo chmod u+x cooling_hdd.py # Make the script executable crontab -e @reboot python3 /home/config/code/python/cooling_hdd.py > /home/config/log/cron_user.log 2>&1 # Insert this line. Create Software RaidNow it finally comes to create the raid using mdadm.First, let's display the available disks to check that everything is working fine.sudo lshw -short H/W path Device Class Description =============================================== system Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.4 /0 bus Motherboard /0/1 processor cpu /0/2 processor cpu /0/3 processor cpu /0/4 processor cpu /0/5 memory 7811MiB System memory # 8 GB RAM /0/0 bridge Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries /0/0/0 bus VL805 USB 3.0 Host Controller /0/0/0/0 usb1 bus xHCI Host Controller /0/0/0/0/1 bus USB2.0 Hub /0/0/0/1 usb2 bus xHCI Host Controller /0/0/0/1/1 storage ASM105x /0/0/0/1/2 storage ASM105x /0/6 scsi0 storage /0/6/0.0.0 /dev/sda disk 4TB ASM105x # HDD1 /0/6/0.0.0/1 /dev/sda1 volume 3726GiB EXT4 volume /0/7 scsi1 storage /0/7/0.0.0 /dev/sdb disk 4TB ASM105x # HDD2 /0/7/0.0.0/1 /dev/sdb1 volume 3726GiB EXT4 volume /1 wlan0 network Wireless interface /2 eth0 network Ethernet interface If the hard disks are not partitioned yet, we will do that first. Note that for disks larger than 2TB, GPT must be used instead of MBR as the partition table, since MBR can only handle partitions < 2TB and the disk will otherwise contain several small partitions instead of one large one.To create a partition using the entire hard disk, you can simply enter 0% 100%. Otherwise the start and end block must be specified.sudo parted /dev/sda mklabel gpt # Create partition table sudo parted -a optimal -- /dev/sda mkpart primary 0% 100% sudo parted /dev/sda set 1 raid on # Mark partition as RAID Of course must be repeated for the second drive (sdb).Now the RAID can be created. We create a RAID1, so the disks are mirrored.sudo mdadm --create /dev/md0 --auto md --level=1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1 The question "Continue creating array?" must be answered with "y".Now we create an ext4 partition on the raid array and mount it.sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/md0 sudo mkdir /mnt/nas sudo nano /etc/fstab /dev/md0 /mnt/nas ext4 defaults 0 2 # Insert this line sudo mount -a The last thing to do is to update mdadm.conf and initramfs. The second one takes a while.sudo su -c "/usr/share/mdadm/mkconf > /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf“ sudo update-initramfs -u -k all Whether everything went well can be checked with these two commands:cat /proc/mdstat Personalities : [linear] [multipath] [raid0] [raid1] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] [raid10] md0 : active raid1 sdb[1] sda[0] 3906886464 blocks super 1.2 [2/2] [UU] [>....................] resync = 1.9% (75295680/3906886464) finish=3092.5min speed=20649K/sec bitmap: 30/30 pages [120KB], 65536KB chunk Here you can also see if a hard disk is failed or synchronized.sudo mdadm --detail /dev/md0 /dev/md0: Version : 1.2 Creation Time : Wed Feb 3 09:26:57 2021 Raid Level : raid1 Array Size : 3906886464 (3725.90 GiB 4000.65 GB) Used Dev Size : 3906886464 (3725.90 GiB 4000.65 GB) Raid Devices : 2 Total Devices : 2 Persistence : Superblock is persistent Intent Bitmap : Internal Update Time : Wed Feb 3 10:31:45 2021 State : clean, resyncing Active Devices : 2 Working Devices : 2 Failed Devices : 0 Spare Devices : 0 Consistency Policy : bitmap Resync Status : 1% complete Name : ubuntu:0 (local to host ubuntu) UUID : ab3d8d90:b05e8253:5f8e750d:7ae67fea Events : 1235 Number Major Minor RaidDevice State 0 8 0 0 active sync /dev/sda 1 8 16 1 active sync /dev/sdb Block UASIn the beginning, I often had problems with my hard drives being kicked out. On the one hand, this was due to the lack of a USB hub, but on the other hand, it was also due to UAS. That is why we will block it. In addition, we deactivate the sleep mode of the hard drives, so that they do not switch off at some point and are then no longer accessible.lsusb -t # check, if your adapter uses UAS: /: Bus 04.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/4p, 5000M |__ Port 2: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=uas, 5000M # <- UAS sudo lsusb Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub Bus 004 Device 002: ID 174c:55aa ASMedia Technology Inc. Name: ASM1051E SATA 6Gb/s bridge, ASM1053E SATA 6Gb/s bridge, ASM1153 SATA 3Gb/s bridge, ASM1153E SATA 6Gb/s bridge sudo nano /boot/firmware/cmdline.txt usb-storage.quirks=174c:55aa:u # Insert this line. sudo update-initramfs -u # Update initramfs so that the changes take effect. sudo hdparm -S0 /dev/sda #Disable sleep Setup SambaCreate userssudo apt-get install samba samba-common # install samba I have created a total of 7 users on my end. The distribution as follows: User1, User2, User3, User4 for all family members. In addition, I have set up a public share (family). This is where files and photos are stored to which everyone has access. Then there is a share User2Work. This share is for the business data of user 2, which is also mounted only on the business laptop.There is also the user nas. This is generally used for writing, because otherwise conflicts with user rights could arise, for example, if User1 wants to change a file created by User2.With the first command a normal Ubuntu user named User1 is created. However, since this user does not need a home directory, nor does he need to log in to the NAS via ssh as we do, we disable this with the options --no-create-home and --disabled-login. Also questions about residence, department, etc. can be skipped. The second command sets a (strong!) password for this user. Note that anyone who has this password can also have access to all files stored under this user.sudo adduser --no-create-home --disabled-login --shell /bin/false user1 sudo smbpasswd -a user1 These steps are now repeated for all 7 users.Create folders for the usersOf course, no folder is created for nas, since this user is only used for writing. Besides that, a separate folder is created for each of the other 6 users.In order for nas to be used for writing, this user must also be specified as the owner at the end.cd /mnt/nas/ sudo mkdir shares cd shares/ sudo mkdir {user1,user2,user2work,user3,user4,family} sudo chown -R nas: /mnt/nas/shares/ Set up sharesTo do this, we edit the smb.conf file.For the normal users, the example of user1 can be used. Make sure that everywhere user1 (also in the path to the folder) is aligned with the real name.The example from the family can be used for all public shares.Just add it at the end of the file.In addition, the line map to guest = bad user must be changed to map to guest = never, so that Windows10 users can also use the share without errors. Otherwise "network errors" might occur.sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf ? # user1 [user1] # The name of the share. comment = User1 # This comment appears e.g. in Explorer. path = /mnt/nas/shares/user # This is the folder for all files of User1. write list = user1 valid users = user1 force user = nas read only = no browsable = yes ? # family [family] comment = Family path = /mnt/nas/shares/family write list = user1,user2,user3,user4 # Enter all users who should have access here. valid users = family,user1,user2,user3,user4 # In addition, of course, family must be added here. force user = nas read only = no browsable = yes Note at this point: Whoever has the ubuntu or config passwords also has access to all files stored on the entire NAS.Last stepThe last thing to do is to restart Samba and allow it in the firewallsudo service smbd restart sudo allow smb on ufw Now the NAS is completely set up and working.It can now be mounted under Windows or Linux//192.168.178.54/user1/documents /home/user1/Documents cifs credentials=/home/user1/.credentials/smbcredentials,users,uid=1000,gid=1000,forceuid,forcegid 0 0 and used normally like a hard disk.Keep in mind, however, that a Raid1 storage is not a fully permanent backup solution and that regular backups must be made to different locations.

Instead of using a mobile or web application, I decided to develop a brand-new device to track and display cryptocurrency data with Raspberry Pi Pico. Since I am a huge Star Wars fan, I thought it would be hilarious and intriguing if the one who brings me news about the balance of the cryptocurrency coins happened to be Darth Vader - the chosen one :) Thus, I designed this apparatus which presents data on these five coins:BitcoinEthereumBinance CoinRipple (XRP)TetherFirst of all, to elicit information on cryptocurrency coins concurrently, I decided to use the CoinGecko API V3 because it does not require account credentials or an authentification key. Though it is free, the CoinGecko API provides data in JSON for cryptocurrency coins profusely. After managing to get cryptocurrency data, I developed a web application in PHP, named Cryptocurrency Tracker, running on Raspberry Pi to obtain data from the API, process it, and print a JSON data packet containing these parameters for each requested coin:namecurrent pricetotal volumeprice change in 24 hourspercentage change in USD in 24 hoursThen, I used a Raspberry Pi Pico to get cryptocurrency data of the requested coins elicited by the PHP web application and display each coin's information with an ST7789 IPS screen. Since the Raspberry Pi Pico is not eligible for WiFi connectivity, I added an ESP8266 ESP-01 to my device to assist the Raspberry Pi Pico in obtaining information from the web application.Finally, I added a COM-09032 analog joystick and a button to control the interface of the device.After completing wiring on a breadboard and testing the code, I designed my Darth Vader-shaped PCB to complete my project. It became a stylish and intriguing addition to my workplace as an effective apparatus to track real-time cryptocurrency data :)In addition to presenting information, the device can be adjusted to notify the user under these two circumstances:price depletionprice surgeStep 1: Designing and soldering the Darth Vader Cryptocurrency Tracker PCBBefore prototyping my PCB design, I tested all connections and wiring with the Raspberry Pi Pico on the breadboard.Then, I designed the Darth Vader Cryptocurrency Tracker PCB by using KiCad. I attached the Gerber file of the PCB below, so if you want, you can order this PCB from PCBWay to create a stylish and felicitous apparatus to monitor real-time cryptocurrency data and get notified when there is a change in coin prices - surge or depletion - inspired by Anakin Skywalker :)First of all, by utilizing a soldering iron, I attached headers (female), COM-09032 analog joystick, buzzer, 5mm common anode RGB LED, 6x6 pushbutton, and 220Ω resistors.Component list on the PCB:Pico1 (Headers for Raspberry Pi Pico)ESP1 (Headers for ESP8266 ESP-01)S1 (Headers for ST7789 IPS Screen)U1 (COM-09032 Analog Joystick)BZ1 (Buzzer)D1 (5mm Common Anode RGB LED)K1 (6x6 Pushbutton)R1, R2, R3 (220Ω Resistor)J1 (External Battery)Step 2: Setting up a LAMP web server on Raspberry PiIf you are a novice in programming with Raspberry Pi, you can inspect well-explained instructions and tutorials on the official Raspberry Pi website.To go to the official Raspberry Pi setting up tutorial, click here.? Open a terminal window by selecting Accessories > Terminal from the menu.? Install the apache2 package by typing the following command into the terminal and pressing Enter:sudo apt-get install apache2 -y? To test the server, open Chromium by selecting Internet > Chromium Web Browser from the menu and enter http://localhost.? If you want, you can use the IP address of your Raspberry Pi as well.hostname -I? Install the php package with the following command:? Do not forget to update the Pi.sudo apt-get updatesudo apt-get install php -y?To be able to obtain information from the CoinGecko API V3, install the php-curl package:sudo apt-get install php-curl? Then, restart the apache server to be able to use the installed packages on the localhost:sudo service apache2 restartStep 3: Developing the Cryptocurrency Tracker web application in PHP to obtain data from the CoinGecko APII decided to use the CoinGecko API V3 in this project due to the fact that it does not require account credentials or an authentification key to send real-time cryptocurrency data. Although making requests to the CoinGecko API without account credentials returns limited information on coins, the incoming data is yet more than enough to display and interpret any given coin's status clearly.? The CoinGecko API uses coin names (IDs) to collate real-time cryptocurrency data and returns the collected data in JSON:https://api.coingecko.com/api/v3/coins/markets?vs_currency=usd<ids=bitcoinThe web application consists of one file - index.php. You can download the web application below to install it on your Raspberry Pi - Cryptocurrency_Tracker.zip.?? index.php? Define the cryptocurrency_tracker class and its functions.? In the display_currency function, make an HTTP Get request to the CoinGecko API V3 to obtain real-time data of any given coin, such as Bitcoin.? Get the incoming data by using json_decode and file_get_contents functions.? Create the query array with the required parameters:namepricetotal_volumeprice_change_24hpercent_change_usd_24? Insert the recently created query array into the currencies object with the given coin's name.private function display_currency($cryptocurrency){ # Make an HTTP Get request to the CoinGecko API V3 to collate data on the requested coin. $data = json_decode(file_get_contents("https://api.coingecko.com/api/v3/coins/markets?vs_currency=usd&ids=".$cryptocurrency, TRUE)); # Create the query array with the requested data: $query = array( "name" => $data[0]->name, "price" => $data[0]->current_price, "total_volume" => $data[0]->total_volume, "price_change_24h" => $data[0]->price_change_24h, "percent_change_usd_24" => $data[0]->price_change_percentage_24h ); // Assign objects for each given coin: $this->currencies[$cryptocurrency] = $query; } ? In the print_cryptocurrencies function, print the currencies object in JSON (json_encode) after inserting data for each coin in the given coin name (ID) list:bitcoinethereumbinancecoinrippletetherpublic function print_cryptocurrencies($cryptocurrencies){ foreach($cryptocurrencies as $coin){ $this->display_currency($coin); } echo(json_encode($this->currencies)); } ? Define the coin class object and the coin name (ID) list.$coin = new cryptocurrency_tracker(); # Get data on this list of cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance Coin, XRP, Tether $coin->print_cryptocurrencies(array("bitcoin", "ethereum", "binancecoin", "ripple", "tether")); Step 3.1: Setting up the web application on Raspberry Pi? First of all, extract the Cryptocurrency_Tracker.zip folder and move the application folder (Cryptocurrency_Tracker) to the apache server (/var/www/html) by using the terminal since the apache server is a protected location.sudo mv /home/pi/Downloads/Cryptocurrency_Tracker /var/www/html/? Go to the web application:http://localhost/Cryptocurrency_Tracker/Step 4: Programming the ESP-01 to print the response from the web application by serial communicationInstead of setting up and configuring the ESP8266 ESP-01 via serial with AT commands when connected to the Raspberry Pi Pico, I decided to program the ESP-01 with an ESP-01 USB UART adapter (programmer). In that way, the ESP-01 connects WiFi, obtains information from the web application, and prints the incoming data in JSON by serial communication automatically.Depending on the UART adapter model you have, you may need to solder jumper wires to activate the programming mode on the ESP-01.After connecting the ESP-01 to my computer successfully via the adapter, I used the Arduino IDE to program it.To obtain information from my web application explained in previous steps, I modified the BasicHTTPClient example in the ESP8266HTTPClient.If you do not know how to set up ESP8266 and its examples on the Arduino IDE, follow these instructions.? Wait for the WiFi connection.? Create the WiFi and HTTP clients.? Attempt to connect to the PHP web application.? If the connection is successful, get the server response header.? Print the response from the web application every fifteen seconds.if ((WiFiMulti.run() == WL_CONNECTED)) { // If successful, create the WiFi and HTTP clients: WiFiClient client; HTTPClient http; // HTTP Connection:// Change it with the IPAddress of your Raspberry Pi.if (http.begin(client, "http://192.168.1.20/Cryptocurrency_Tracker/")) { // Start the connection and send the HTTP header:int httpCode = http.GET(); // httpCode will be negative on errorif (httpCode > 0) { // HTTP header has been send and the server response header has been handled:if (httpCode == HTTP_CODE_OK || httpCode == HTTP_CODE_MOVED_PERMANENTLY) { String payload = http.getString(); Serial.println(payload); } } else { Serial.printf("[HTTP] GET... failed, error: %s\n", http.errorToString(httpCode).c_str()); } After uploading the modified BasicHTTPClient, the ESP-01 connects to the web application and prints the response (real-time JSON data) by serial communication every fifteen seconds.Step 5: Setting up the Raspberry Pi PicoIn this step, I will show you how to set up the Raspberry Pi Pico and install MicroPython.? First of all, download the latest Thonny IDE from thonny.org, compatible with Windows, macOS, and Linux. If you want to use a Raspberry Pi to program the Pico, Thonny is already installed on Raspberry Pi OS.If you have never used MicroPython on your Raspberry Pi Pico, you will need to add the MicroPython firmware.? Find the BOOTSEL button on your Raspberry Pi Pico.? Press the BOOTSEL button and hold it while you connect the other end of the micro USB cable to your computer.? This puts the Raspberry Pi Pico into USB mass storage device mode.? Then, in the bottom right-hand corner of the Thonny window, click on the Python version and choose ‘MicroPython (Raspberry Pi Pico)’:? When the dialog box pops up, click the Install button to copy the latest version of the MicroPython firmware to the Raspberry Pi Pico.? Wait for the installation to complete and click Close.Now, when you plug the Raspberry Pi Pico into your computer without pressing the BOOTSEL button, Thonny should recognize the board and firmware automatically.Step 6: Programming the Raspberry Pi PicoIn this project, the Raspberry Pi Pico requires four code files to monitor real-time cryptocurrency data, including libraries and fonts:bitcoin_tracker.pyst7789py.py (library)vga1_16x16.py (font)vga1_bold_16x32.py (font)When saving files to the Raspberry Pi Pico, click the Save button and choose the Raspberry Pi Pico option on Thonny.After saving all files, you should see the folder like this:If you want to run the code automatically when plugged, save the bitcoin_tracker.py file as the main.py file.In this step, I will discuss the bitcoin_tracker.py file. You can find more information on the library and fonts in the following step.? Include the required modules and libraries:from machine import Pin, PWM, ADC, SPI, UART from time import sleep import st7789py as st7789 import vga1_16x16 as normal import vga1_bold_16x32 as bold import json ? Define the cryptocurrency_tracker class and its functions.? In the __init__ function, define the UART settings for the ESP-01, the SPI settings for the ST7789 display, the RGB LED and buzzer settings, and the menu options.class cryptocurrency_tracker:def __init__(self, sck=10, mosi=11, res=12, dc=13, width=240, height=240): # Define the UART settings:# RX and TX are swapped, meaning Pico TX goes to ESP-01 RX and vice versa.self.uart0 = UART(0, rx=Pin(17), tx=Pin(16), baudrate=115200, rxbuf=1024, timeout=2000) self.coin_data = 0# Define the ST7789 display settings: spi = SPI(1, baudrate=40000000, polarity=1) self.display = st7789.ST7789(spi, width, height, reset=Pin(res, Pin.OUT), dc=Pin(dc, Pin.OUT)) # Define the RGB LED settings:self.red = PWM(Pin(22)) self.green = PWM(Pin(21)) self.blue = PWM(Pin(20)) self.red.freq(1000) self.green.freq(1000) self.blue.freq(1000) # Define the buzzer:self.buzzer = PWM(Pin(15)) self.buzzer.freq(450) # Define the controls:self.joystick_x = ADC(Pin(26)) self.joystick_y = ADC(Pin(27)) self.joystick_sw = Pin(19, Pin.IN, Pin.PULL_UP) self.exit_button = Pin(14, Pin.IN, Pin.PULL_DOWN) # Define menu options and list:self.menu_list = ["Bitcoin", "Ethereum", "Binance Coin", "XRP", "Tether"] self.menu_options = [False, False, False, False, False] self.activated = False self.x = 0 ... ? In the fetch_information_from_esp function, obtain, check, and decode the incoming JSON data (json.loads) printed by the ESP8266 ESP-01 via serial communication.... def fetch_information_from_esp(self): incoming = bytes() while self.uart0.any() > 0: incoming += self.uart0.readline() # Check the incoming data before decoding: if (len(incoming) and incoming.decode("utf-8")): incoming = incoming.decode("utf-8") if (incoming.find("[HTTP]") < 0 and incoming.endswith("}}\r\n")): self.coin_data = json.loads(incoming) ... ? In the interface function, display the interface with coins (menu options):BitcoinEthereumBinance CoinXRPTether? In the adjust_color function, change the color of the RGB LED.... def adjust_color(self, red_x, green_x, blue_x): self.red.duty_u16(red_x) self.green.duty_u16(green_x) self.blue.duty_u16(blue_x) ... ? In the read_controls function, read the analog joystick and the exit button values.... def read_controls(self): self.JX = self.joystick_x.read_u16() self.JY = self.joystick_y.read_u16() self.JSW = self.joystick_sw.value() self.EX = self.exit_button.value() ... ? In the change_menu_options function, select a coin (menu option) to activate according to the Y-axis of the analog joystick.... def change_menu_options(self): if (self.JY > 35000): self.x-=1if(self.JY < 9000): self.x+=1if(self.x > 5): self.x = 1if(self.x < 0): self.x = 5# Activate menu options:if(self.x == 1): self.menu_options = [True, False, False, False, False] if(self.x == 2): self.menu_options = [False, True, False, False, False] if(self.x == 3): self.menu_options = [False, False, True, False, False] if(self.x == 4): self.menu_options = [False, False, False, True, False] if(self.x == 5): self.menu_options = [False, False, False, False, True] ... ? In the activate_menu_option function, after being selected, if a coin (menu option) is activated by pressing the joystick button (SW):? Display real-time data (parameters) of the activated coin (menu option) from the PHP web application, transferred by the ESP-01 via serial communication:namepricetotal_volumeprice_change_24hpercent_change_usd_24? Depending on the price_change_24h value, detect if there is a price depletion or surge to notify the user via the buzzer.? Turn off the buzzer if the X-axis of the analog joystick is higher than 40000.? If there is no incoming JSON data, print Refresh for all parameters.? If the Exit button is pressed, return to the interface.... def activate_menu_option(self, i, r, g, b, row, coin_name, s_bac, i_col=st7789.color565(243,208,296), i_bac=st7789.color565(165,40,44), o_col=st7789.color565(31,32,32)): if(self.menu_options[i] == True): self.display.text(bold, self.menu_list[i], 30, row, color=i_col, background=i_bac) self.adjust_color(r, g, b) if (self.JSW == False): self.display.fill(s_bac) self.activated = Truewhile self.activated: self.read_controls() # Get information from the PHP web application:self.fetch_information_from_esp() # Print information from the web application:if not (self.coin_data == 0): self.display.text(bold, self.coin_data[coin_name]["name"], 30, 20, color=o_col, background=s_bac) self.display.text(normal, str(self.coin_data[coin_name]["price"]), 30, 100, color=o_col, background=s_bac) self.display.text(normal, str(self.coin_data[coin_name]["total_volume"]), 30, 135, color=o_col, background=s_bac) self.display.text(normal, str(self.coin_data[coin_name]["price_change_24h"]), 30, 170, color=o_col, background=s_bac) self.display.text(normal, str(self.coin_data[coin_name]["percent_change_usd_24"]), 30, 205, color=o_col, background=s_bac) # Activate the buzzer:if(self.coin_data[coin_name]["price_change_24h"] < 0): self.buzzer.duty_u16(1000) else: self.display.text(bold, "Refresh", 30, 20, color=o_col, background=s_bac) self.display.text(normal, "Refresh", 30, 90, color=o_col, background=s_bac) self.display.text(normal, "Refresh", 30, 125, color=o_col, background=s_bac) self.display.text(normal, "Refresh", 30, 160, color=o_col, background=s_bac) self.display.text(normal, "Refresh", 30, 205, color=o_col, background=s_bac) # Deactivate the buzzer:if(self.JX > 40000): self.buzzer.duty_u16(0) # Exit:if self.EX: self.activated = Falseself.display.fill(st7789.color565(32,32,32)) self.buzzer.duty_u16(0) ? Define the coin class object and set up all menu options.coin = cryptocurrency_tracker() coin.display.fill(st7789.color565(32,32,32)) coin.adjust_color(65025, 65025, 65025) while True: # Initiate: coin.read_controls() coin.interface() coin.change_menu_options() # Menu Options: coin.activate_menu_option(0, r=0, g=65025, b=0, row=20, coin_name="bitcoin", s_bac=st7789.color565(209,205,218)) coin.activate_menu_option(1, r=0, g=0, b=65025, row=60, coin_name="ethereum", s_bac=st7789.color565(243,208,296)) coin.activate_menu_option(2, r=65025, g=0, b=0, row=100, coin_name="binancecoin", s_bac=st7789.color565(174,225,205)) coin.activate_menu_option(3, r=65025, g=0, b=65025, row=140, coin_name="ripple", s_bac=st7789.color565(26, 219, 97)) coin.activate_menu_option(4, r=65025, g=65025, b=0, row=180, coin_name="tether", s_bac=st7789.color565(94,176,229)) Step 6.1: Displaying texts with the ST7789 IPS screenTo print texts with the ST7789 IPS Screen, I used this driver for MicroPython.? First of all, I added this library to the Raspberry Pi Pico as the st7789py.py file.? Then, I saved two different fonts (vga1_16x16 and vga1_bold_16x32) to the Raspberry Pi Pico to display headers and parameters separately.Connections and Adjustments# Connections: # Raspberry Pi Pico # ST7789 SPI 240*240 Display # GP10 --------------------------- SCL # GP11 --------------------------- SDA # GP12 --------------------------- RES # GP13 --------------------------- DC # ESP8266 ESP-01 # GP17 (RX) ---------------------- TX # GP16 (TX) ---------------------- RX # COM-09032 Analog Joystick # GP27 --------------------------- VRX # GP26 --------------------------- VRY # GP19 --------------------------- SW # 5mm RGB Common Anode # GP22 --------------------------- R # GP21 --------------------------- G # GP20 --------------------------- B # Buzzer # GP15 --------------------------- + # Exit Button # GP14 --------------------------- S As shown above, I designed my PCB connections according to the pinout of the Raspberry Pi Pico. If you do not know the Raspberry Pi Pico pinout diagram and specifications:After completing and uploading the code, I attached all required components to the board via headers - Raspberry Pi Pico, ESP8266 ESP-01, and ST7789 IPS screen.Unfortunately, even though Raspberry Pi Pico works at 3.3V, the current provided by Pico is not enough for ESP-01 to run while collecting information from a web application precisely. Thus, I added a connector (J1) to my PCB design to supply the ESP-01 with an external battery (3.3V).Modes and Features???? The device shows five different coins (menu options) on the interface to display real-time cryptocurrency data of:BitcoinEthereumBinance CoinXRPTether???? The device allows the user to select between coins to display information via the analog joystick:Y-axis (> 35000) -> Go UpY-axis (< 9000) -> Go DownSW -> Activate???? While selecting a coin on the interface with the Y-axis of the analog joystick, the device turns the RGB LED to a different color for each coin as its color code:Bitcoin -> PurpleEthereum -> YellowBinance Coin -> CyanXRP -> GreenTether -> Blue???? The device also shows the same color code as the background when displaying data for each coin.???? After activating any coins by pressing the joystick button (SW) to display real-time data, the device lets the user return to the interface by pressing the Exit button.?? Coins (Menu Options)???? If the Bitcoin option is selected and activated, the device displays its real-time data (parameters) from the PHP web application, transferred by the ESP8266 ESP-01 via serial communication:namecurrent pricetotal volumeprice change in 24 hourspercentage change in USD in 24 hours???? Depending on the price change value in 24 hours, the device can detect if there is a price surge or depletion to notify the user via the buzzer. By default, the device is set for detecting the price depletion in 24 hours:price_change_24h < 0???? The device turns off the buzzer if the X-axis of the analog joystick is higher than 40000.???? If the ESP-01 is not sending accurate data, the device prints Refresh for each parameter until obtaining the correct information.???? If the Ethereum option is selected and activated, the device displays its real-time data (parameters) from the PHP web application, transferred by the ESP8266 ESP-01 via serial communication:namecurrent pricetotal volumeprice change in 24 hourspercentage change in USD in 24 hours???? Depending on the price change value in 24 hours, the device can detect if there is a price surge or depletion to notify the user via the buzzer. By default, the device is set for detecting the price depletion in 24 hours:price_change_24h < 0???? The device turns off the buzzer if the X-axis of the analog joystick is higher than 40000.???? If the ESP-01 is not sending accurate data, the device prints Refresh for each parameter until obtaining the correct information.???? If the Binance Coin option is selected and activated, the device displays its real-time data (parameters) from the PHP web application, transferred by the ESP8266 ESP-01 via serial communication:namecurrent pricetotal volumeprice change in 24 hourspercentage change in USD in 24 hours???? Depending on the price change value in 24 hours, the device can detect if there is a price surge or depletion to notify the user via the buzzer. By default, the device is set for detecting the price depletion in 24 hours:price_change_24h < 0???? The device turns off the buzzer if the X-axis of the analog joystick is higher than 40000.???? If the ESP-01 is not sending accurate data, the device prints Refresh for each parameter until obtaining the correct information.???? If the XRP option is selected and activated, the device displays its real-time data (parameters) from the PHP web application, transferred by the ESP8266 ESP-01 via serial communication:namecurrent pricetotal volumeprice change in 24 hourspercentage change in USD in 24 hours???? Depending on the price change value in 24 hours, the device can detect if there is a price surge or depletion to notify the user via the buzzer. By default, the device is set for detecting the price depletion in 24 hours:price_change_24h < 0???? The device turns off the buzzer if the X-axis of the analog joystick is higher than 40000.???? If the ESP-01 is not sending accurate data, the device prints Refresh for each parameter until obtaining the correct information.???? If the Tether option is selected and activated, the device displays its real-time data (parameters) from the PHP web application, transferred by the ESP8266 ESP-01 via serial communication:namecurrent pricetotal volumeprice change in 24 hourspercentage change in USD in 24 hours???? Depending on the price change value in 24 hours, the device can detect if there is a price surge or depletion to notify the user via the buzzer. By default, the device is set for detecting the price depletion in 24 hours:price_change_24h < 0???? The device turns off the buzzer if the X-axis of the analog joystick is higher than 40000.???? If the ESP-01 is not sending accurate data, the device prints Refresh for each parameter until obtaining the correct information.Videos and ConclusionAfter completing all steps above, I placed the device on my desk by utilizing a plastic easel as a fitting and stylish decoration for my workplace. It works impeccably :)SchematicsCode Files and Downloads

First of all, I hope that you and your loved ones are safe and healthy during these unprecedented times.Tracking the current data on the daily impact of the coronavirus had encumbered lots of my friends' and acquaintances' thought processes due to the uncertain data update times. Hence, I developed a bot hosted by a Raspberry Pi, which notifies the user when there is a change in the daily case report of the selected country via WhatsApp, in the hope of soothing their minds even a little bit. In other words, you will get notified via WhatsApp (as notification messages) when the daily case report of your country is uploaded or updated by the data provider - The 2019 Novel Coronavirus Visual Dashboard operated by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering (JHU CSSE) with the support of ESRI Living Atlas Team and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab (JHU APL). Also, the notifier bot sends an information message in the given period if there is no change (STABLE).The project in a nutshell:To obtain the information from the data provider(JHU CSSE with JHU APL), I used a well-programmed application by Rodrigo Pombo (pomber). It collects all the required data for the bot in a JSON file.As you may have got familiar with my previous projects, to send notification messages via WhatsApp, I used the Twilio's API for WhatsApp in PHP.To host the coronavirus notifier bot and manage the data evaluation process automatically in PHP to detect the data status of the selected country (STABLE or CHANGED), I set up a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) server with MariaDB on Raspberry Pi.Running on the LAMP server hosted by Raspberry Pi, I designed a user-friendly interface in which you can change the country whose data is collated and enter your Twilio application settings (SID, AUTH_TOKEN, from_phone_number, to_phone_number). The interface also allows you to automatically create a database table named variables before activating the notifier bot. And thus, without needing any coding, you can observe the daily coronavirus case report of the selected country by merely using the bot interface.By the following steps, you can replicate the WhatsApp coronavirus notifier bot project to run it on your Raspberry Pi or your personal computer as the localhost.Preview: What You Will LearnHow to create a Twilio applicationHow to install and configure Apache, PHP, and MySQL to create a LAMP web server on Raspberry PiHow to install CURL on Raspberry PiHow to define a new user and create a new database with MariaDB on Raspberry PiHow to develop a web application (bot) in PHP to send WhatsApp notification or information messages depending on the incoming data from an external serverHow to install the bot on Raspberry PiHow to activate the bot terminal in a loop on Raspberry PiStep 1: Creating a Twilio applicationTo send WhatsApp messages through Twilio's API, the only thing you need to do is to sign up for a Twilio Trial Account.After signing up, with your SID and Auth Token, you can use Twilio's API for WhatsApp without any charge. As explained on Twilio, you need to join a shared phone number with your phone in order to verify your phone number and initiate the Twilio's API for WhatsApp.For more information and learn how to create a new account, click the link below.Go to Twilio.You can sign up for Twilio with my referral code here.1) Create a new application2) Go to the Sandbox to get the code3) Connect your phone to your application with the codeStep 2: Setting up a LAMP web server on Raspberry PiIf you are a novice in programming with Raspberry Pi, you can inspect well-explained instructions and tutorials on the official Raspberry Pi website.To go to the official Raspberry Pi setting up tutorial, click here.Open a terminal window by selecting Accessories > Terminal from the menu.Install the apache2 package by typing the following command into the terminal and pressing Enter:sudo apt-get install apache2 -y To test the server, open Chromium by selecting Internet > Chromium Web Browser from the menu and enter http://localhost.If you want, you can use the IP address of your Raspberry Pi as well.hostname -I Install the PHP package with the following command:Do not forget to update the Pi.sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install php -y Install the MySQL Server (MariaDB) and PHP-MySQL packages by entering the following command into the terminal window:sudo apt-get install mariadb-server php-mysql -y To create a new user, run the MySQL secure installation command in the terminal window.sudo mysql_secure_installation You will be asked Enter current password for root (enter for none): — press Enter.Type in Y and press Enter to Set root password.Type in bot at the New password: prompt, and press Enter.Type in Y to Remove anonymous users.Type in Y to Disallow root login remotely.Type in Y to Remove test database and access to it.Type in Y to Reload privilege tables now.When complete, you will see the message All done! and Thanks for using MariaDB!.To create a database (coronabot), run mysql in the terminal window:sudo mysql -uroot -p Enter the root password - botYou will be greeted by the message Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.Create the database for the coronavirus notifier bot, named as coronabot, at the MariaDB [(none)]> prompt using:create database coronabot; GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON coronabot.* TO 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'bot'; FLUSH PRIVILEGES; Exit the MariaDB prompt with Ctrl + D.To be able to run the Twilio's API on the localhost, install the php-curl package:sudo apt-get install php-curl Then, restart the apache server to be able to use the installed packages on the localhost:sudo service apache2 restart Step 3: Developing the coronavirus notifier bot and installing it on Raspberry PiI developed the coronavirus notifier bot (coronabot) in PHP and explained the source code of the bot in the Code Explanation section below for those who are interested.However, if you are not fond of web development, you can skip the Code Explanation section since the bot is ready to install and run.Install:If you have completed Step 1 and Step 2, you can run the bot interface to enter settings (SID, AUTH_TOKEN, To_Number, From_Number, Country) without needing any coding on your Raspberry Pi by installing the coronabot on the localhost. All database and user settings are pre-filled.By the following steps, install the coronabot on the localhost:Download the bot with all code and asset files, including the Twilio's API for WhatsApp, in a zipped folder (coronabot) in Downloads.Extract the coronabot.zip.Move the coronabot folder from Downloads to the server (/var/www/html) by using the terminal because the apache server is a protected location.sudo mv /home/pi/Downloads/coronabot/ /var/www/html/ Go to the bot interface:http://localhost/coronabot/Features:1) Open the bot interface to create a table named as variables in the coronabot database. You should see the default variables if the bot is working properly after installation.2) Enter the required settings for the bot - SID, AUTH_TOKEN, To_Phone_Number, From_Phone_Number, Country. All accessible countries are provided. Note: Refrain from entering phone numbers with '+' at the beginning.3) Display the current settings in the table (variables) and change them even though you activated the terminal to get WhatsApp messages.4) Via the terminal, according to the settings in the table (variables), get the daily case report of the selected country from the data provider and send WhatsApp notification or information messages depending on the data status (CHANGED or STABLE). If there is a change in date, confirmed, or recovered variables, the bot defines the data status as CHANGED.http://localhost/coronabot/terminal.phpCode Explanation (Optional):In this section, I will explain how I developed the coronavirus notifier in PHP.1) index.phpInclude the coronabot class.Define the coronabot object.Connect to the database. If you completed Step 1 and Step 2, the settings should be "localhost", "root", "bot", "coronabot".Create the variables table with the default settings in the coronabot database to save information (unless already created).If the user changed the bot settings using the bot interface, save new settings to the database table (variables).Get the previous data in the database table, including the Twilio settings.Print the previous user data in the database table (variables) and create a form with accessible countries.2) index.cssDesign the bot interface.3) class.phpCreate a class named as coronabot.In the connect_to_database function, connect to the database depending on the entered settings.In the create_database_table function, create a database table with the given name and insert the default variables unless already created.In the get_previous_data function, get previous data from the database table.In the save_new_bot_settings function, if the user changes the bot settings, save the new settings to the database.In the save_new_report_data function, save the daily report data of the selected country to the database table.In the checkTable function, check whether there is a table with the given name in the database (coronabot).4) terminal.phpNote: If you have completed Step 1 and Step 2, do not change any values.Include the coronabot class and the Twilio's API autoload page.Define the coronabot object and the database (MariaDB) settings - "localhost", "root", "bot", "coronabot".Get the required variables from the database table (variables).Initiate the Twilio's API for WhatsApp.Define the path to gather information from the application created by Rodrigo Pombo (pomber).Using the file_get_contents() function, fetch the raw data from the application.Decode the raw data in JSON by using the json_decode() function.Get the last (recently updated) element in the selected country in the decoded data object.Save the information in the current_entry object to the current_data array to call them easily.Detect the data status (CHANGED or STABLE).Save the current data to the database table (variables).According to the data status (STABLE or CHANGED), send a notification message or an information message (?) via WhatsApp.Create a new client to send text messages over WhatsApp. Get the Twilio application settings from the database table, entered via the bot interface.Step 4: Programming Raspberry Pi to create a loopDownload the requests library to make HTTP requests in Python.pip install requests Include the required libraries - requests and sleep.In activate_terminal function, make an HTTP Get request to the terminal and print the response text.Start the loop and execute the activate_terminal function in the given period - 15 minutes.Note: I chose to get update messages via WhatsApp every 15 minutes, but you can change the period in the code - 15 * 60.Features1) Get notified when there is a change in date, confirmed, or recovered values in the daily case report.2) Change the selected country via the bot interface on Raspberry Pi to obtain information about different countries via WhatsApp.3) Observe the daily coronavirus (COVID-19) case report of your country in the given period (15 minutes) via WhatsApp. VideosSchematicsCode Files and Downloads

The purpose of the project is to setup Jellyfin server for home media and Samba for file sharing.Installing Jellyfin ServerInstall HTTPS transfort for APT is not installedsudo apt install apt-transport-https Import Jellyfin GPG signing keywget -O - https://repo.jellyfin.org/debian/jellyfin_team.gpg.key | sudo apt-key add - Add Jellyfin Repositorysudo touch /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jellyfin.list echo "deb [arch=$( dpkg --print-architecture )] https://repo.jellyfin.org/debian $( lsb_release -c -s ) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jellyfin.list Finally update and install jellyfinsudo apt update sudo apt install jellyfin After install Jellyfin, start jellyfin servicesudo systemctl enable jellyfin sudo systemctl start jellyfin To check if jellyfin service is startedsudo systemctl status jellyfin Setup JellyfinOnce jellyfin is installed, open the browser and navigate to - http://<domain-name>:8096 or http://<IP-Address>:8096 URL.You can see the jellyfin welcome screen. Select preferred language and create a new user for Jellyfin.And then choose folders where your media files are using Add Media Library use the content type, i.e., audio, video, movies etc. Similarly add all the media files. Choose Metadata language and configure if you want to allow remote connections and finally click Finish to complete Jellyfiin configuration.Now login to Jellyfin login page with username and password you created earlier. And after your libraries are scanned you can see your media in the home of Jellyfin.And voila you have setup your Jellyfin Server.Installing Samba File SharingInstall samba using the following commandsudo apt-get install samba samba-common-bin To configure Samba open the smb.conf file using the following command.?sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf Scroll down the file and add the following[global] netbios name = Pi server string = The Pi File Center workgroup = WORKGROUP [HOMEPI] path = /home/pi comment = No comment writeable=Yes create mask=0777 directory mask=0777 public=no You can also add your external storage disk which is mounted to your Raspberry PiWe now need to add Pi as a Samba user. Enter the following command:sudo smbpasswd -a pi Enter a new passwordAnd at last restart the Samba service using the following commandsudo service smbd restart And with that you have created the file server which you can access with any device on the network.

PicoMacroMacroKeyboard made with a Raspberry Pi PicoIntroductionThis keyboard is currently just a prototype and could be improved in the future.An enclosure example can be found in the repository, it could be laser cut as I did with MDF or Acrylic. Feel free to improve it as you like!The PCB is also available with the Gerber File. (It has not been tested yet so the PCB might not work.)CodeThe code is currently available in the code.py file. It will be shared once it is working! Feel free to modify it as you want. It is running on AdaFruit's Circuit Python with a few libraries.BOM(1) Raspberry Pi Pico(1) Micro USB Cable(1) PCB (Gerber ZIP is available on GitHub)(11) MX Compatible Key(11) MX Compatible Keycaps(1) OLED Screen (4 Pin, 128x32, 0.91")(1) Some kind of enclosure(2) Male headers for the pico(1) Male headers for the OLED Screen(2) ButtonsSome wiresResponsibilityI am not responsible for any issues that occur with this project but feel free to contact me by email if you have questions!

StoryWhat We Will Build Today?Today we will learn how to build a local web server using raspberry pi 3 model B (RPi 2, zero will work well) also we will make a web page that will be the user interface to the system.The web page will allow the user to control (send orders) RPi GPIO Pins over the internet, Example: If I am in America and my house in Egypt I will be able to control my Egypt's house lights and any appliances that connected to the PI GPIO over the internet. That's Cool Right!!We will use Flask Microframework for Python to turn our RPi to a Local Web Server, we will use Python to talk to the web server, also we will use HTML and CSS to make a web Page.We will divide this tutorial in four parts:The first part: is how to control the RPi GPIO using basic Python Prpgramming without any web servers.The second part: is how to make a simple web page using HTML and CSSThe Third part: is how to host the web page which we built on The RPi (local web server) Using Flask and Python.The fourth part: is how to control RPi GPIO over the internet.IMPORTANT: IF YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH THE BASICS OF RASPBERRY PI AND PYTHON AND WANT TO SEE THE FINAL PROJECT PLEASE JUMP TO THE LAST PART OF THIS TUTORIAL TO NOT GET BORED :)THE FIRST PART: (control the RPi GPIO using basic Python Programming without any web servers)First Example (Led Blinking)First: We need to go to this directory on the Raspberry Pi do this by writing this in the Terminal.cd /home/pi/Documents Then we need to make a new folder called ledBlinking to organize our Work (best Practice) we do this in the documents directory by writing:mkdir ledBlinking Then we need to go to the folder which we made (ledBlinking):cd ledBlinking Then we need to make the Python Script using nano editor which will do the work.nano ledBlinking.py The nano editor will open empty like this:We need to write the Code To Control The GPIO26, we need to turn the led on for 1 second and turn it off for 1 second. That is the code if you are new to Python or RPi we will explain each line in the code don't worry.import time import RPi.GPIO as GPIO first Line: we import the time library to allow us to use the (sleep function) to make a delay between each ordersecond Line: we import the RPi.GPIO module to initialize the library, and allow us to control the RPi GPIO pins as (inputs or outputs). we give it a simple name (GPIO) for further uses.GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM) There are two main numbering schemes to numbering the GPIO:GPIO.BCMGPIO.BOARDThe GPIO.BOARD option specifies that you are referring to the pins by the number of the pin the plug - which in the Outside of the diagrams below. (Pin#), Example: pin number (1, 2, 3, 4,....., 40)The GPIO.BCM option means that you are referring to the pins by the "Broadcom SOC channel" number, these are the numbers after "GPIO" in the (NAME) Column Example: (GPIO02, GPIO03, GPIO04,....), we take only the number after The "GPIO" Word.led = 26 We make a variable called (led) to store the GPIO number which we connect the led on it, in our case we connect the led on GPIO26. (pin 37)GPIO.setup(led, GPIO.OUT) GPIO.output(led, GPIO.LOW) In the first line: we set the pin number (GPIO26) to output, it tells the RPi to make this pin an OUTPUT Pin that we will write a value on it (HIGH or LOW).In the second Line: we tell the RPi to write a logical value (LOW) which means (0 VOLT) to the (GPIO26) which means that this led on the beginning of the program will be turned OFF.while True: Here we are making an infinite loop, which means the block of code in this while loop will be executed until we force to stop the whole program.while True: GPIO.output(led, GPIO.HIGH) print("the led is turning ON") time.sleep(1) GPIO.output(led, GPIO.LOW) print("the led is turning OFF") time.sleep(1) NOTE: The spaces in the block of code are very important without this spaces the script will not work, to make this space press (tap) button on every line of code under the while loop, this means that this line belongs to the while loop to write another block doesn't belong to the while loop, easily remove this spaces, its python programming language rules.In this block of code we tell the led to turn on (3.3 VOLT), then print on the screen "the led is turning ON" then delay 1 sec. then turn the led off, then print on the screen "the led in turning OFF", then delay 1 sec.After we finish writing the code correctly we need to close the nano editor, then run the python script:Press CTRL +xthe editor will ask you if you want to save the changes press ythen press enterThen run the python script by writingpython3 ledBlinking.py After running the program you will see that messages printing on the screen:This block of code will repeat over and over (infinite), only to stop this program we need to press:CNTRL + cSecond Example (control Led from a Push Button)We will work on the same directory on the same ledBlinking.py script, to make this example we need to write different code, we need take an input from a switch, and according to this input we will take an action (turn led ON or OFF), it's a very basic and easy example will teach you how to deal with input and outputs together.In the previous code, we will find small different changes.button = 19 Here we define a new variable its name (button) has a value 19, 19 is the GPIO number, we connecting the push button in the GPIO19.GPIO.setup(button, GPIO.IN) Here we set the button as INPUT because we want to know if someone press on the button or not, if the button is pressed we will take an input (1 or HIGH) if the button is not pressed we will take an input(0 or LOW) according to this input we can take an action (turn led ON or OFF).buttonRead = GPIO.input(button) print(buttonRead) GPIO.output(led, buttonRead) first line: we make a new variable called (buttonread) to store the button reading value (pressed(1), not pressed(0)) if the button is pressed the button read Value Will be (1), if the button is not pressed the button read Value will be (0).second line: we will print the value of the button read on the screen.third line: we will take the action according to the button value, if the button is pressed the led will turn on, if the button is not pressed the led will turn off.That's it these few lines will do the work for us :)Then you need to close the nano editor and run this script(like the previous example) to see the results.At this point, you now know how to control the RPi GPIO with only Python, how to write outputs and how to take inputs, that's great, this step will ease a lot of things on us atpart two and three and four :)Part Two (how to make a simple web page using HTML and CSS)HTML and CSS are very very simple languages, these two languages are used to make front-end web pages.HTML is the language for describing the structure of Web pages, like adding Headers, Paragraphs, Images, Links, Buttons,...CSS is the language for describing the presentation of Web pages, including colors, layout, and fonts,.....In this part, we will learn how to use these two languages to make a very simple web page.First example: we want to make a web page that contains a header, a link that takes the user to the google website, and an Image. like this web page.let's get our hands dirty, we will start by the HTML, making the structure of the webpage.We will make a new folder in the /home/pi/Documents directory called (noNormies) or any other name you prefer :DGo to the /home/pi/Documents Directory.cd /home/pi/Documents Then make a noNorimes folder.mkdir noNormies Then go to this (noNormies) folder.cd noNormies NOTE: the (noNormies) folder is the workspace for our project.Then we will make a file using nano it's name index.htmlnano index.html Then we will write our code in this HTML script.<html> </html> The <html> element is the root element of an HTML pageHTML TagsHTML tags are element names surrounded by angle brackets:<tagName>content goes here..</tagName> HTML tags normally come in pairs like <p> and </p>The first tag in a pair is the start tag, the second tag is the end tagThe end tag is written like the start tag, but with a forward slash inserted before the tag nameWeb BrowsersThe purpose of a web browser (Chrome, IE, Firefox, Safari) is to read HTML documents and display them. The browser does not display the HTML tags, but uses them to determine how to display the documentNote: Only the content inside the <body> section (the white area above) is displayed in a browser. <title>My Awesome web page</title> It's the title name that appears in the web browser tab:<h1> </h1> It means what written between the opening tag and the closing tag will be the header, there is h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6.EXAMPLE:<h1>Heading 1</h1> <h2>Heading 2</h2> <h3>Heading 3</h3> <h4>Heading 4</h4> <h5>Heading 5</h5> <h6>Heading 6</h6> <p> </p> Between the two tags, we write any paragraph we want to display on the browser.<img src="path of the image" width="the width of the image" height="the height of the image"/> The src, width, height, are called attributes, attributes provide additional information about HTML elements.All HTML elements can have attributesAttributes provide additional information about an elementAttributes are always specified in the start tagAttributes usually come in name/value pairs like: name="value"<a href="https://www.google.com.eg"> press here to go to google web site</a> If we want to put a link we use this tag, and put the attributes like this, when we press on the (press here to go to the google website) will take us to the Google website.Our web page with the HTML code only will look like thisThe web page doesn't look good! we need to add some colors and organize it, to look more nicer, we will use CSS to make This, here is the CSS code:We will make a new CSS file in the Same directory (/home/pi/Documents/noNormies/)nano style.css Then write this code:After finishing the CSS code we need to save it, then add this CSS code to our HTML code.We will open our HTML code again:nano index.html To add the CSS code in our HTML page we only need one line of code.<link rel="stylesheet" href="/home/pi/Documents/noNormies/style.css"/> Tada! Successfully added our CSS code to the HTML Page.After adding the CSS code our Web Page Will looks good.At this point you now know how to make a simple webpage, it's COOL! In the next part, we will Learn How to Use Flask webServer using Python. Let's Rock it!For more details on how to learn HTML and CSS go to this LINK.Third Part (RPi as a web server Using Flask and Python)First, we need to install Flask On our Raspberry Pi.What we will makeInstall the lightweight web framework Flask and set up a basic web server with different pages using Python, HTML, and CSS.What we will learnHow to install software on your Raspberry PiHow to Make Python-powered web serverHow to build a basic web app with Flask and run it as a local website on your Raspberry PiHow routes are used to map URLs to web pagesHow to configure Flask and make your website accessible to other devices on your local networkFirst, you’re going to install the Flask package. Make sure you are connected to the internet, either by Ethernet cable or WiFi before you start. Let's start by opening a Terminal window from the taskbar or applications menuNow install Flask by typing:sudo apt-get update Wait until finishes the updating, then type:sudo apt-get install python3-flask After finishing downloading and installing flask framework, now we are able to start the hard work.What do we want to do?We need to make the web page that we built, accessible to anyone who has internet, anyone can access this web page from anywhere in the world. To do this we need to make a new folder inside the /home/pi/Documents directory called (myFirstApp)Then we need to go to the myFirstApp folder and make a new two subfolders (templates) and (static)The final folder "tree", will look like this:/myFirstApp /static /templates Inside /home/pi/Documents/myFirstApp we need to make an app.py file using nano editor:Now enter the following lines into the blank app.py window:from flask import Flask app = Flask(__name__) @app.route('/') def index(): return 'Hello world' if __name__ == '__main__': app.run(debug=True, host='0.0.0.0') First we imported the Flaskclass, Next we create an instance of this class. We then use the route()decorator to tell Flask what URL should trigger our function(index( )), The function is given a name(index) which is also used to generate URLs for that particular function and returns the message we want to display in the user’s browser..NOTE: the host='0.0.0.0' means the web app will be accessible to any device on the network.Just save it as app.py or something similar. Make sure to not call your application flask.py because this would conflict with Flask itself.Return to the Terminal window and enter python3 app.py to run the web server, If everything has been written correctly, you should see an output similar to this:* Running on * Restarting with reloader Open the Pi’s web browser from the taskbar or application menu and navigate to http://127.0.0.1:5000/. You should see a white screen with the words Hello world:Note:127.0.0.1means ‘home’ i.e. this computer, and:5000means ‘port 5000’, which is the port the web server is running on@app.route('/') def index(): return 'Hello world' This route is made up of three parts:@app.route('/'): this determines the entry point; the / means the root of the website, so just http://127.0.0.1:5000/.def index(): this is the name we give to the route. Here it was called index because it’s the index of the website.return 'Hello world': this is the content of the web page, which is returned when the user browses the index of the website.Create a new route by adding the following lines below the first route:@app.route('/cakes') def cakes(): return 'Yummy cakes!' Save your code and navigate to your website’s cake page in the browser at 127.0.0.1:5000/cakes. You should see a webpage with the text Yummy cakes! on it:Next, we will modify your existing routes to return full HTML templates, rather than simple text strings.Now we will go to the folder we created before (templates) at this directory/home/pi/Documents/myFirstApp/templates And create a new HTML file by typing:nano index.html This will open the empty nano editor, we will enter our HTML code:<html> <body> <h1>Hello from a template!</h1> </body> </html> Save the file as index.html in the templates directory. Return to your app.py file and modify the first line of your code to import the render_template function as well:from flask import Flask, render_template Finally, you’ll need to modify your index view to return the HTML template instead of the normal text. Change the index() function to this:@app.route('/') def index(): return render_template('index.html') Flask will look for index.html in a directory called templates, in the same directory as the app.py file.Save the file. Make sure your web app is still running. If you stopped it, just run python3 app.py from your myFirstApp directory.Reload the route in your web browser (go to the base route at http://127.0.0.1:5000/) to see your new HTML template being displayed.Adding color to the web page with CSSCascading Style Sheets (CSS) are rules for how HTML content is displayed by the browser. Now you’ll add some CSS to add colour to your web page.If you’re in the templates directory, go back up one level with cd ... now u should be at /home/pi/Documents/myFirstApp directory. Go to the static folder which we made before by typing:cd static Then make a new file called style.css using the nano editor by typing:nano style.css Add the following CSS rules to the file:body { background: red; color: yellow; } Note: here we’ve used color names: usually colors are defined by hex codes like #ff0000 (red) but this is a simple example.Then exit and save this CSS file.Now modify your HTML template called index.html to include the CSS file, by adding a <head> tag containing a <link> tag with a reference to the stylesheet:<html> <head> <link rel="stylesheet" href='../static/style.css' /> </head> <body> <h1>Hello from a template!</h1> </body> </html> Save the HTML file and reload the webserver. You should see a colorful version of the web app!We have so far created a number of files and directories. It is worth just double-checking your myFirstApp project directory.├── ├── static │ └── └── templates └── index.html Adding dynamic content to a viewSo far you’ve learned to deliver HTML templates through a web server running on your Raspberry Pi. Wouldn’t it be good if you could add some dynamic content to the pages to display different information? Large websites like Facebook, YouTube, and BBC News show different content depending on the route you visit, even though the templates are very similar.Now you’ll create a new route on your website so that when you go to http://127.0.0.1/hello/name, it will say “Hello name!” and replace ‘name’ with whatever you put there; so /hello/Paul/ will display “Hello Paul!”.Create a new route in your application like so:@app.route('/hello/<name>') def hello(name): return render_template('index.html', name=name) @app.route('/hello/<name>') - the <name> part means it passes the name into the hello function as a variable called namedef hello(name) - this is the function that determines what content is shown - this time it takes the given name as a parameterreturn render_template('index.html', name=name) - here we look up the template index.html and pass in the variable name from the URL, so the template can use itWe will modify our index.html file to be like this:<html> <body> <h1>Hello {{name}}</h1> </body> </html> Save the files, reload the webserver and visit http://127.0.0.1:5000/hello/paul. It should look like this:Browsing on other devicesTo browse this web page you need to know what is the IP address of the RPi. and be connected to the same network(WiFi)It's something like 192.168.1.3. Open up a web browser on the other device and enter the Raspberry Pi’s IP address into the address bar with :5000 on the end e.g. http://192.168.1.3:5000/At this point, you now know to use Flask and how to turn your RPi into a local Web Server, and how to render different contents using the render_template function, it's a great job, let's dive into our last part and the most important part.For more information on this part go to this Tutorial.The Fourth Part (How to control RPi GPIO over the internet)What we want to do in this Part ?We want to control the 3 of the RPi GPIO pins over the internet, by making this 3 pins as an outputs, when the user press on any button from the six buttons it changes the URL we will read the URL and according to it we will take the ActionThe Python Script:# Raspberry Pi 3 GPIO Pins Status And Control Using Flask Web Server and Python import RPi.GPIO as GPIO from flask import Flask, render_template, request app = Flask(__name__) GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM) GPIO.setwarnings(False) ledRed = 13 ledYellow= 19 ledGreen= 26 ledRedSts = 0 ledYellowSts = 0 ledGreenSts = 0 GPIO.setup(ledRed, GPIO.OUT) GPIO.setup(ledYellow,GPIO.OUT) GPIO.setup(ledGreen, GPIO.OUT) GPIO.output(ledRed, GPIO.LOW) GPIO.output(ledYellow, GPIO.LOW) GPIO.output(ledGreen, GPIO.LOW) @app.route('/') def index(): ledRedSts = GPIO.input(ledRed) ledYellowSts = GPIO.input(ledYellow) ledGreenSts = GPIO.input(ledGreen) templateData = { 'ledRed' : ledRedSts, 'ledYellow' : ledYellowSts, 'ledGreen' : ledGreenSts } return render_template('index.html', **templateData) @app.route('/<deviceName>/<action>') def do(deviceName, action):if deviceName == "ledRed": actuator = ledRed if deviceName == "ledYellow": actuator = ledYellow if deviceName == "ledGreen": actuator = ledGreen if action == "on": GPIO.output(actuator, GPIO.HIGH) if action == "off": GPIO.output(actuator, GPIO.LOW) ledRedSts = GPIO.input(ledRed) ledYellowSts = GPIO.input(ledYellow) ledGreenSts = GPIO.input(ledGreen) templateData = { 'ledRed' : ledRedSts, 'ledYellow' : ledYellowSts, 'ledGreen' : ledGreenSts } return render_template('index.html', **templateData ) if __name__ == "__main__": app.run(host = '0.0.0.0', debug=True) The code is pretty straightforward and very simple, according to the previous parts you are now able to read and understand well this code.When the user press on the Turn On Button it generates a URL (http://192.168.1.4:5000/ledRed/on)ledRed is the (deviceName)on is the (action)according to this URL we will take The Action turn on or off the ledsafter this we will check the status of the leds is it ON(1) or OFF(0) and write this status on the page.The HTML Code:<!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title> GPIO Control Web App</title> <link rel="styleSheet" href="/static/style.css"/> </head> <body> <img src="/static/dogMeme.jpg" width="300px" height="300px" alt="Because You Normie"/> <h1>Actuators</h1><br> <h2>Status</h2> <h3> RED LED --> {{ledRed}}</h3> <h3> YELLOW LED --> {{ledYellow}}</h3> <h3> GREEN LED --> {{ledGreen}}</h3><br> <h2>Led Control</h2> <h3> RED LED CNTRL ==> <a href ="/ledRed/on" class="button">TURN ON</a> <a href="/ledRed/off" class = "button">TURN OFF</a></h3> <h3> YELLOW LED CNTRL ==> <a href="/ledYellow/on" class="button">TURN ON</a> <a href="/ledYellow/off" class="button">TURN OFF</a></h3> <h3> GREEN LED CNTRL ==> <a href="/ledGreen/on" class="button">TURN ON</a> <a href="/ledGreen/off" class="button">TURN OFF</a></h3> </body> </html> The CSS Code:body { text-align: center; background: #54ff9f; color: #fff5ee; } .button{ font: bold 16px Arial; background-color:#EEEEEE; padding: 1px; border: 1px solid #CCCCCC; } I wish this tutorial is useful and not boring. For any questions please don't hesitate to ask in the comments.My Email: ahmed.ibrahim@makesomestuff.orgIf you reached this line say Woohoo! and check out my humble website :D www.makesomestuff.org