Internet of Things

Internet of Things - the name itself signifies that it's the communication of different objects for the information exchange. It is the network of physical objects like automobiles, buildings with other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors and the network connectivity that enables these objects to collect and exchange data. It has been labeled as "the next Industrial Revolution" because of the way it will change the way people live, work, and businesses interact with the world. Like we can automate the closing of blinds when the sun sets, automatic stock tracking in vending machines, monitor the health condition of people and send messages instantly if a person heart rate decreases, fire detection in the forests, temperature monitoring at home etc.. These all possible due to the Internet of Things. And, I will post here all my course work for 'CSC_9010 - Internet of Things' at Villanova University under the guidance of Professor Paul Schragger. 

The IoT kits I'm going to work in this course are:

1.Virlos Raspberry Pi 2 

2. Arduino ESP8266 kit

Apart from these, I will  use different sensors for my final project.

Week -1 :

My first experience working with Raspberry pi 2 Kit was wonderful. It contains so many different things in it. I took out each and everything and gone through the entire user manual I got along with the get to make from familiar with the things in the kit. Further going through the blog you will come across different experiments I have done with the Pi2 starting from the initial setup.

The Raspberry Pi2 Initial Setup

Introduction:

The Raspberry Pi2 is a small computer, a very small computer. It consists of mostly the same parts as a standard desktop computer or laptop. The Pi may be less powerful than Windows PC, but it is still impressive that it fits all of the parts of desktop computer on a board only which is slightly larger than a credit card.

Applications of Pi:

• As a regular computer. Can install a variety of operating systems on the Pi.
• Playing games, movies files, music on your TV.
• Providing Network Services etc.,

Installation of Raspbian to the Pi:

Raspbian is the operating system(OS) designed for the Raspberry Pi. It is a Linux distribution that is based on Debian, another popular version of Linux.
Installation of Raspbian can be done either by New out of Box Software (NOOBS) tool that can be run on Pi and helps in the installation of OS or using a Disk Image.

Installation of Raspbian OS using NOOBS:

Things Required:

• Raspberry Pi Device 
• HDMI Display 
• USB Keyboard and Mouse 
• An SD card with NOOBS installed (SC card supplied with Pi already contains NOOBS else can download from https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/noobs/, extract and copy to SD card)

NOOBS installation on SD card:
For Windows, first format the SD card using the platform-specific instructions below:

i. Download the SD Association's Formatting Tool from https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/eula_windows/
ii. Install and run the Formatting Tool on your machine
iii. Set "FORMAT SIZE ADJUSTMENT" option to "ON" in the "Options" menu
iv. Check that the SD card you inserted matches the one selected by the Tool(same drive)
v. Click the "Format" button

Next download the NOOBS from https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/noobs/.

Copy the extracted files onto the SD card that you just formatted so that this file is in the root directory of the SD card. Please note that in some cases it may extract the files into a folder, if this is the case then please copy across the files from inside the folder rather than the folder itself.

OS installation:

Connect the Pi to the TV using the HDMI cable. Insert the USB connectors of keyboard and mouse to the PI in the available USB sockets. Now supply power to the device.

The Pi will start and load the NOOBS tool. The display shows a list of operating systems that you can install. For installing Raspbian select it as OS type and click install which is on the top left corner. Once the installation is complete, Pi restarts and Raspbian starts for the first time. Now the installation is done.

Raspbian OS

Also tried installing Windows IoT Core

Instead of connecting to monitor, keyboard and mouse every time we can connect to Laptop. For this to do we first need to connect to the internet.

Internet Connection:

Connection to Network using Ethernet:

With the direct connection to the network router to the Ethernet cable socket on Pi using the Ethernet cable we can connect to the network.

Wi-Fi Connection:

Insert the Wi-Fi adapter and click on the network monitor that shows you the available Wi-Fi connections. Double click on your Wi-Fi network and provide the password and connect to the network.
At this stage we are done with the internet connection the next step is to connect to the pi from a remote desktop.

Remote Desktop Connection to Pi within network:

Things Required:

• A Software application on Pi to connect using Remote Desktop. 
• Network Connection 
• IP Address of Pi 
• Windows Laptop 

In order to connect from my windows PC, the Windows already comes with an application called “Remote Desktop”. I can use this to connect to your Raspberry Pi and use the desktop environment from a Windows computer. But need a small software application on Pi.

To install software from the command line:

On the Application Launcher, click LXTerminal and type the below command and Press Enter

Command: sudo apt-get install xrdp

Press Y and then press Enter.

To find the IP address of Pi:

On the Application Launcher, click LXTerminal and type the below command and Press Enter
Command: ifconfig

The address needed is the “inet addr” looks like 192.168.0.66

If connected to the network using Ethernet cable, check in “etho” section.
If connected to the network using a wireless adaptor, check in “wlan” section.

To start Remote Desktop connection from Windows:

Go to run Command or press Windows logo key + R. Type mstc and press Enter.
In the Computer box, type IP address of Pi and press Enter.
Then login using the Pi credentials.
Now, I can access the Pi from the laptop using the Remote Desktop Connection.

If we moved to a new network and want to connect to network from pi we can do so with the ethernet cable. First need to share the network connection.

In windows,
– Network and Sharing Center -> Change adapter settings (on left) -> Right click on wifi-network -> Properties -> Sharing Tab -> Tick ‘Allow…

Now, check the IP address of the Ethernet from properties-> IPV4 -> IP address

Now, from the command prompt check the IP address under the ethernet IP interface

Transfer Files to and from Pi:

Through secure copy(SCP) I can transfer/copy files from and to the computer to Pi.
Raspbian already supports this. But a client is required on the computer to do this.
Install WinSCP, a very popular application on Windows for transferring files. (can download from https://winscp.net)

Provide the File protocol as SCP, Host name as the IP Address of Pi and the username and password of the Pi to establish a connection to Pi.

Secure Remote Shell access to Pi using PuTTY

PuTTY is an SSH and telnet client, open source software and very versatile tool for remote access to another computer. You can download PuTTY here.
Using IP Address of Pi, username and password of the Pi can establish a connection to Pi.