Raspberry Pi – MOTD

For those not in the loop, the MOTD is the message of the day that is shown after you login to the Pi.

After some running through the motions on a few things, I was able to customize it to show information that I would like to know when I access the device…

After sitting and coding things out (mostly remembering things like grep, sed and cut…my default motd now looks like this.

Raspberry Pi – Getting Started with a Headless Pi

So in order to keep life somewhat simple at the moment, I’m not planning to immediately connect the Pi to the network via cable / monitor / keyboard or mouse…that means it’s gonna be headless.

Step 1 download the latest Rasbian LITE image

Step 2 extract the .img file from the file that was downloaded

Step 3 connect the sd card to the computer and use Etcher to flash the sd card to the latest raspian image

Step 4 enable ssh functionality by connecting to /Volumes/boot followed by touch ssh (this created a blank file called ssh)

Step 5 enable wireless functionality by editing /Volumes/wpa_supplicant.conf to reflect the following changes, when complete save the changes and eject the sd card

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
network={
    ssid="YOUR_SSID"
    psk="YOUR_WIFI_PASSWORD"
    key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}

Step 6 connect your pi to power and turn it on

Step 7 ping raspberrypi.local to determine your ip

Step 8 ssh raspberrypi.local -l pi with a password of raspberry

Step 9 perform the following tasks

a) sudo raspi-config

b) sudo apt-get update

c) sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

d) sudo reboot

Raspberry Pi

So in my never ending quest for knowledge, and making life better for long car rides…I’ve begun a personal project that I am calling Project Odyssey.

Stage 1 will be to gather a basic understanding of the Raspberry Pi device, and it’s strengths and weaknesses.

Stage 2 will be a prototype, with Stage 3 being a working product that my children may be able to use.

Today my Pi arrived, and in the past 30 minutes I have been able to set it up, get it fired up, and it is presently updating it’s distribution version.

So far, I have to say that I’ve been super impressed.

Phantom 3 Professional – Restoration

The controller arrived yesterday.  I bound it to the aircraft, and it fired right up.  The motors seem to move alright, so I’m more confident that this little beauty just needs some TLC and replacement parts.

The charge cable arrived today, so I am charging the flight battery and controller so that I can hopefully do a firmware update and flight test this evening.

 

Phantom 3 Professional – Restoration

After flying through a screen and causing damage, this little beauty has found a new home.  Time to validate it, test it, and test fly it before finding a new owner for it.

Confirmed thus far

Step 1 – Unit powers up

Step 2 – Camera gimbal fires up and appears to function on all 3 axis with no visible camera damage (despite flying through a screen and into a wall).

Step 3 – Unit flashes “red up front, and yellow behind”…indicating that it is searching for a controller.

Pending
Just waiting for the arrival of a controller so that I can bind them together and motor test.

If all the motors spin up, then I’ll replace the props and do a garage flight test.

If the garage flight test is successful then I’ll bind my ipad to the unit and do a video test flight in the garage.  Then I’ll start to “step up flights” to test it thoroughly.