Progress continues. I’ve drilled 16 × 16 mm holes in the top gland plate. Rubber grommets will seal the ones I don’t use.
This plate has never been properly mounted; the cables used to just “hang” into the cabinet.
Next is to get network and power up so the #RaspberryPi can be booted up. Then mount the #Arduino Mega and wire up some outputs.
I’m using the previous I/O board with 7 outputs. New boards will have 16 zones, 8 inputs, and 21 outputs.
DIN rails have been moved to better accommodate the new setup. Previously, there was lots of space at the bottom for the battery, but it has now been moved into a dedicated cabinet. There are lots of terminal blocks at the top for incoming cables.
I made a simple DIN-mountable PCB holder out of a 3.2 mm sheet of polystyrene for the #Arduino and I/O boards. I’m reusing the old board for testing.
Out with the old, to make room for the new. The firmware for the #Arduino Mega has reached a point where it’s time to give it a try. The last piece was the ability to store user PIN and RFID tags.
The system is currently operational, but only with wireless sensors and no outputs. Time to wire up some outputs and do a proper test — and figure out an optimal placement for the new cabinet content.
OK, so my scope may have exploded a bit. I am now working on:
Using 21% RAM and 6.2% flash on the Arduino Mega.
Source here: https://forge.cavelab.dev/diy-alarm/core
A lot has happened with my homelab rack since my last update. In fact, this post is a bit challenging to write as my plans have changed and changed again. Some communicated and some not.
My last update, from late 2024, contains many plans which have later been abandoned.
So let’s see if we can navigate through this mess and set the record straight.
The notes implementation is now complete; it even has Mastodon-style media support. In addition, I’ve revamped the computers, projects, and tag term lists.
I’ve started tinkering with dedicated video pages to make it easier to share and embed videos both in notes and on Mastodon. Still a work in progress.
I am testing the alt support on note images — here are some birds eating.
For about 10 days, while I’ve been distracted by fun implementations on my website, this #Arduino Mega board has been running the new alarm code. Constantly communicating with the Python application that will run on the #RaspberryPi — receiving 16 #Zigbee zones and responding accordingly. Not a single communication or checksum error has been logged.
I’d say this is a pretty good start 😀 Time to start building some IO interface boards…
Back in early June I started getting emails from updown.io warning me of IPv6 ping issues to my CHR edge router. I didn’t notice anything wrong, and everything seemingly worked just fine, so I muted the alarm and did summer stuff instead.
Lately I’ve noticed that wget and curl, when IPv6 was used, would often time out — not always, about half the time.
We rented a boom lift recently, to paint part of the house. I used the opportunity to mount an outdoor siren.
Now all I need is a control cable from the alarm cabinet to the attic, and I can get this thing wired up.
To prevent annoying the neighbours too much — this thing will only go off if there is a manually triggered panic alarm, or intrusion with more than one zone in alarm.
