Matrix is a new-ish network for exchanging messages. Currently it’s main use is with one of several clients as an instant messenger for 1:1 or group chat. How cool would it be to embed a chatroom in a webpage…
Continue readingEscaping Corona madness
After almost a year of experiencing “the new normal” in central Europe I decided to accept my friend’s offer to come to Mexico and get reminded how does it feel to live as a free (as in freedom) person.
Continue readingUsing Azure CI for cross-platform Linux and Windows Qt application builds
Developing cross-platform applications brings some extra challenges. Generally your development machine runs an operating system of your choice, but you need to assure that your application runs on other platforms as well. In the end the only way to do this is to actually test if everything is OK. This hassle can be simplified using CI.
Continue readingManaging packages on KDE Neon without entering a password
KDE Neon is build on Ubuntu LTS (currently 18.04) with up-to-date Qt and KDE libraries. Updates tend to arrive pretty much every other day and it gets annoying to enter your password every time you launch Discover to install an update.
Continue readingSimple MQTT temperature sensor
Note: this post was first published on Mevisys website.
In the previous post about monitoring temperature we have used a simple RS-485 connection to communicate with a sensor. While this approach is very simple and has been proven to work well in many applications it can be complicated when the amount of connected sensors increases. Also adding or removing sensors can cause complications.
Modern technologies allow us to connect sensors using existing computer networks. For example the incredible ESP32 SoC can easily be programmed to read data from a sensor and relay them over WiFi using MQTT protocol.
Continue readingEnvironment monitoring using InfluxDB and Grafana
Note: This post was first published on the Mevisys website.
When we talk about environment monitoring, temperature monitoring is one of the most ubiquitous use-cases and makes for an illustrative example as well. The measurement side of the process is not an area that would offer many exciting innovations in this day and age – today it is all about how you process the collected data.
Continue readingHome automation – the beginning
In the year of 2019 home automation is finally starting to be a thing. However the industry is walking in an uncharted territory where most of the companies are coming up with their very own devices, protocols and mobile apps. And if you don’t want to use a separate app to switch on your lights and another to open the door you can sometimes even connect them to a walled garden network proprietary smart-home framework or even your home surveillance device assistant!
Moving the blog
Sometime last year the company hosting my blog at wincak.besaba.com decided to change the rules and move all blogs hosted for free on a new domain.
This transfer wasn’t the one-click-painless process they advertised so it took a while to find out how to do it properly and get around some bugs. But here we go, this great blog is online again!
Linux and fingerprint sensors in 2018
I have recently gotten involved in setting up both latest Gnome (Ubuntu) and KDE (Manjaro) environment on two X230 Thinkpads with fingerprint sensors and the question of how to make them work appeared.
Electronics workshop #2
After the wild success of the first workshop, it was time to make another one. Location and team remained the same: Marius and me had a room in Krikragaa HQ (in Pilies dirbtuves, Klaipeda) at our disposal. This time we have focused more on manufacturing process and simplified the circuit complexity as much as possible. Components: coin battery and flashing RGB LED. Skills taught: PCB preparation. Goal: make a flashing badge.