HeaterMeter on the Raspberry Pi Model A+


 
What about standardizing on the A+ model and then "pass the savings" on to those who wish to use wired ethernet to purchase a USB Wired Ethernet adapter. It should work out to about the same price as buying the B+ anyways.
 
The beauty of the onboard LAN port on the B models is guaranteed compatibility and ability to connect via LAN cable, if you go USB for the wired LAN it might work, might not. As we have seen with the WIFI adapters, some RA5370 dongles work, others don't. Also, the A+ seems to only have one USB port, so you can't connect the Wired USB adapter along side the Wireless USB adaptor to configure the WIFI connection easily over the wired network. It's all totally do-able, but might complicate setup and troubleshooting for some. I'm expecting an A+ soon and will poke at it a bit with a fresh install to see if it goes easy or gets frustrating...
 
I considered that too, but you'd need driver support for whatever ethernet dongle you use which means I'd need to build a bunch more drivers included in the standard build (because you wouldn't be able to live-add drivers without network support!). It is less than ideal. Also you can't plug in a keyboard and the wifi adapter at the same time if you wanted to configure it.
 
Yah, the single USB port can cause a bit of difficulty, I could see that being frustrating. I guess you could try a USB hub to get two devices rolling at the same time....
 
At some point there's going to have to be some give and take in order for the project to remain sane. Having to keep 2 designs on hand for B+ and A+ seems like a headache.

It would be interesting to find out how many people are using wired vs wireless.
 
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I would guess that over 90% are wireless....
I don't have a B+ yet, my A+ is on the way, so I'm not able to compare their layouts at this point. It would be my hope that the next HM board could be designed so it could run either the A+ or B+ model pi and let it be the users choice, but I am not sure if that is possible or not?
 
One could design for the B+ and the A+ would fit, but the USB wifi adapter would be inside the case. That's not a big deal in my mind because it just reduces the reception slightly (although sensitivity to the sides and rear of the HeaterMeter is slightly better). It is just that one of the inputs/outputs would probably have to be moved to the bottom edge so the whole board wouldn't have to be extended to accommodate the space taken by the Pi B+ USB jacks.
 
I think that is the way to go Bryan, design for the B+ and know it will fit the A+ if someone wants to go that route (knowing the WIFI dongle will be inside the case). As for how to fit the B+, again, I vote that you increase the height of the HM board to allow more room for I/O on the sides, from the look of the B+ compared to the B the ports are squeezed together tighter on the B+ so the extra USB header doesn't take up quite as much extra space as it would seem. So the the game would be to put the rPi header as high on the HM board as possible, squeeze the power and CAT5 jack closer together and as close to the bottom edge of the HM board as possible and then increase the HM board height just enough for the power jack to clear the USB port. If the overall size of the HM is a bit bigger I say no biggie, the HMv4.2 is very small as is, TBHWY if it got any smaller I would probably say it has gotten too small. As for having space between the I/O on that side, the CAT5 and power jack are pretty easy to work with and don't really require extra space between them, and they could squeeze right up next to the USB ports because you wont need to use that pair, you can use the other pair of USB ports that are further away.
 
I would prefer that if possible the device didn't get much bigger than it is now. Aesthetically, the 4.2.4 is a world of difference compared to the 4.0 or 4.1. If anything, I would love to see it get smaller but I don't see that being a possibility.

On a side note, I will be posting the A+ version of the case this weekend.
 
When the HM went from v4.1 to v4.2 the board actually got larger side to side, and smaller top to bottom, this resulted in a unit that ends up wider than tall. I personally would prefer the HM go back to a taller than wide profile, shrinking the board back down side to side and getting a little taller instead. The overall size of the unit wouldn't change much, it would just be a bit taller top to bottom but would be thinner side to side.
 
I prefer a device where the width is greater than the height. That said, I would prefer HeaterMeter weren't as wide as it is presently.

The reason it is however, is because the LCD has to be that far to the right to clear the ethernet jack and it is then centered in overall device. If I wanted to move it back to the left, it would have to go above the ethernet jack and we're back to the original device depth. It's almost the only option, with a corresponding increase in height (back to front). I like it thin though!
 
I finally got around to working with the new rPi A+ a bit and things worked out relatively well...

I didn't have buzzer installed on this board so no need to remove/move it, the transistor I did have to move to the back side of the board. I was able to mate the A+ to the HMv4.2.3 now, close inspection of the extra pins on the rPi header revealed that they were not interfering with the resistor so I left it in place. The rPi A+ mates to the board nicely....

Next, the test fit into my sliding back case went very well, fits right in, no mods required. All I've got to do is close up the extra slots for the rPi Model B LAN and USB ports on the 3D model and it's a done deal....

Here's a pic of my HM with rPi A+ installed in my case:
HMv4.2_Case_rPiA+.jpg


The back slides right on so it worked out perfectly with my case....

Since the rPi A+ has a MICRO SD card slot (overlooking this caused me delay because I didn't have a spare MICRO SD on hand) I had to start fresh with a new/blank MICRO SD card. I downloaded the the OPENWRT (12) zip file, unzipped the IMG file from it and used the Win32DiskImager to write the image to the MICRO SD card. All went well...

I installed the MICRO SD into the rPi A+ and booted up the HM. The HM booted fine with my COMFAST WU715N RT5370 connected, scanning for WIFI networks with my laptop I see HEATERMETER in the list. After choosing to connect to HEATERMETER my laptop is assigned an IP from the HM, checking properties on the WIFI connection I see the GATEWAY IP is 192.168.201.1(IP of the WiFi Access Point created by the HM) so I bring up a browser and navigate to 192.168.201.1 and the HM home page loads promptly... NICE!

I want to run my HM connected to my WiFi network rather than as it's own WiFi Access Point so I go to the Network/WiFi section of the HM config and click the SCAN button. After a short delay I see my home WiFi network listed so I choose to connect to that network, now the HM IP changed over to a an IP in the group from my WiFi DHCP table and I am able to connect to the HM from other computers on my network. So that all went really well...

The only problem I have run into so far is the HM don't seem to want to save my password and other setting changes? When I log into the HM Config I see the message:
"No password set!
There is no password set on this router. Please configure a root password to protect the web interface and enable SSH."
I renamed the probes and those changes don't seem to be saved either.... IDK what's up with that? I guess I am gonna poke around at the MICRO SD card a bit, perhaps re-image it, re-seat it... IDK... Open to suggestions....
 
The probe names aren't stored on the SD card, they are just passed to the AVR. The wifi settings saved so you know the SD card at least partially works. I'm not sure why it wouldn't save the root password.
 
Yah, on second look (and reboot) the probe names did change, maybe the screen was just lagging waiting on the unsaved changes.... For some reason I am not able to save the password, It reports "Unknown Error, password not changed!"... but it's not a rPi A+ problem because I moved the card over to a rPi B and I still can't save the password. I'm starting to think it might be a problem with the memory card... I found another MICRO SD in an old phone I forgot I had and am going to give that at try...
 
I just boot the rPi A+ with the 4GB MICRO SD card from my phone and I can change the password, so I guess that means it is a problem with the memory card. This is card I bought from Amazon, you might want to avoid getting this one I guess 'cause it doesn't seem to work. If there are any tricks I can use to get this memory card to work that you can pass on I would be interested in trying. I will poke around at it a bit more and report back if I solve the problem.....
 
I was going to reply earlier, that i had a similar problem with a different type of sandisk that i had bought and i could not get it to save anything. I went back to the cheap sandisk sd cards and it was fine.
 
Well, I only paid $6 bucks for the 8GB card with adapter, so that's pretty cheap... Did you notice if it was size or speed that made the difference? The rPi says to use Class 4, which is what the card I bought is... The 4GB card that works is a Sandisk Class4 as well, they look identical, it would be nice if there was a way to predict if a card will work before you buy it.
 
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