Les Pounder takes a look at a new board that offers a budget introduction to home automation. Now all he needs to do is train his robot to make coffee.
A home monitoring and automation board for £12? Surely that’s not possible? Well gang, it’s time to readjust your levels of expectation…
The team from Pimoroni has released another of its Raspberry Pi Zero W sized “pHAT” boards. The Automation pHAT is a tiny board, designed for the Pi Zero, but compatible with all 40-pin GPIO Pi. It features plenty of solutions for working with higher voltage devices, and comes with a line of screw terminals to ensure a solid connection. Note that the board does require some soldering, but it’s nothing too challenging.
Looking along the board the first thing we can see is an NEC EE2-5NU relay rated for up to 24V at 2A, but according to the datasheet this relay can switch up to 220V. Yet because of the small tracks on the board and no separation, this isn’t a safe option, so you should stick to 24V maximum.
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Create your first WebSocket service
Mihalis Tsoukalos explains how to use the Go programming language to work with the WebSocket protocol.
Fantastic Mr Firefox
Nick Peers takes a trip down memory lane to reveal the story behind the rise - and slight fall - of Mozilla's popular web browser.
Set up your terminal and email like it's 1983
Jump in the hot terminal time machine with Mats Tage Axelsson who emails from the command line using the latest technology.
Universal layer text effects with GIMP
Posters use them, films and presentations are hard to imagine without them: text effects. Attract attention with Karsten Günther and GIMP.
Jump to a federated social network
Nick Peers reveals how you can get up and running with this free, decentralised and non-profit alternative to Twitter.
Free our SOFTWARE!
Taking anything for granted is dangerous, so Jonni Bidwell and Mike Saunders revisit how the free software movement got started to help free us from proprietary tyranny!
Master RPI.GPIO
Les Pounder goes back to the early days of the Raspberry Pi - and his career with this classic library! -
Waveshare Zero to Pi3
Transform your Pi Zero into a Pi 3, they promised Les Pounder, but it's more like adding on go-faster stripes.
The Best OPEN SOURCE Software Ever!
In an attempt to trigger controversy, Michael Reed and Neil Mohr unequivocally state these are the greatest free software apps ever. Probably. We’re just trying to be helpful.
Linux-Mandrake 7
Simplicity and a wide range of applications make this a great distribution for all Linux users.
