HullPixelbots racing at Techdays NL

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We had an amazing session today at TechDays NL. I was talking about the use of the Microsoft Bot framework to control physical robots via the Azure IoT Hub. I had a couple of robots linked via MQTT to the cloud and delegates could use a web interface to a chatbot to try to drive them around the room.

This was the web interface we were using. Half of the room was controlling the red robot and the other half were driving the white one. It was quite fun to watch as the robots inched towards the finish line. Eventually the white robot managed to win and one of the white team was awarded the big prize of a HullPixelbot platform.

The slides for the presentations will be available via the TechDays NL site soon. I'm also going to post all the source code (minus all the keys and passwords) next week. 

A tense moment in the race

Would you buy a used HullPixelbot from this man?

 

 

Using a Raspberry Pi as an Access Point with Windows 10

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I've got a few things running for my TechDays sessions next week. They are working fine on my home network. Now, I know that the conference will have WiFi, but in my experience this can be problematic. Sometimes they use browser based authentication steps which are hard to replicate on a device with no screen, keyboard or mouse. 

But I have a plan. I've got a portable access point that I use on occasions just like this. I know exactly which shelf it is stored on, in a nice little case and everything. So I go and grab it. Of course it's not there. It's not anywhere. Blarst.  

However, I do have a Raspberry Pi 3 which I was planning to take along as well. And it turns out that it will work as an access point too. And setting it up is a dead doddle. I started with the howto here. That got me the Windows 10 IoT Core Dashboard which is an awesome little program that will create an SD card to use to boot your Pi and then take you through connecting and configuring it. The great thing for me is that it lets you use a "naked" Pi, with no keyboard, mouse or screen. All the configuration can be done via the browser based control center. 

If you want to turn your Pi into an access point just head for the IoT Onboarding page you can see above, select a suitably obscure SSID and password and then save them. (I'd advise against the defaults). After a reboot you should have an access point which clients can connect to. 

If you want to share the wired network connection from your Pi you have to actually turn this on. The user interface here is a bit rubbish to be honest. There's nothing I could see that indicates if the sharing is on or off, and you have to make sure that you connect the right adaptors at each end. Which is why you might find the screenshot useful. Just select the items that you can see in the "Access point adaptor" and "Shared network adaptor" and then click the "start shared access" button. And then it all just works. Awesome. 

One tiny gotcha. On my Pi the SSID gets a bunch of hex characters added to it.  HullSSID would probably change to XY_HullSSID_ED50. Browse for the WiFi connection with another device before you put the text into a client program.

Building a Joke Alarm for Techdays

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I'm doing a couple of sessions at TechDays next week. I'll be showing off a few HullPixelbots and a "Joke Alarm Button" device. The idea is that if I every say anything funny I can press the button and tell the world via Azure. I've no idea how I'm going to test it. 

I've fiddled with the software and now it's time to build the hardware. I've had the box for ages. It is large, yellow and has a big red button on the top. Today I thought I'd put something behind the button. The active component is my favourite device of the moment, the Wemos D1 mini. So I got one, programmed it up and connected it to the light in the button, expecting a light to brightly illuminate the button in an "impress the audience" kind of way. 

It was rubbish. A weedy little led that I could hardly see.

By now I was coming to the conclusion that today was going to be one of those "hard fought" days. By that I mean that everything I try to do will be difficult. Pin numbers will be wrong, leds will be wired the wrong way, some things won't work. And I'll probably burn my fingers at some point. 

First thing I tried was to add a little amplification to the led. The esp8266 is a wonderful device, but it doesn't put out much power. So I popped in a transistor to add some amplification and waited to be blinded. I wasn't. So next I found a larger led. Still rubbish. By now I'm getting worried. There's no point in turning up with hardware if it's not going to impress. 

So I fell back on technology that's served me well in the past. I dug out one of my neopixel rings and dropped it inside the button as you see above. Of course this was difficult. I had to dismantle the button. Then I had to fit the ring. The screws that I used fouled the button movement so I had to resort to the glue gun to fix the ring in place. And of course I burnt my fingers. Then I assembled it the wrong way round, wired it to the wrong pins and generally failed all over the place. But eventually I got a happy ending. 

The neopixels can display lots of colours, but of course the thick red plastic button means that only red works well. Never mind. I can do fancy animations and you can definitely tell when it's lit. 

The button switch itself was easy to wire up, although at one point my test software convinced me that it wasn't wired correctly. Anyhoo, I'll get the software hooked up tomorrow. 

I just hope things won't be quite so difficult. 

Old Tapes and Tidy Code

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Did some tidying up today. The experience with my office has taught me a valuable lesson. 

"If you don't know you've got something, you might as well not have it"

I've been looking for things I didn't know I had, and then chucking them out. It's going quite well, what with two trips to the tip so far. 

This is one thing that I definitely know I have, and so I'll be keeping forever. It's my prized Sony TC-270 tape recorder. It might not look much, but thanks to its snap on speakers and ability to play music for several hours non stop (and quite loudly) it made me, if not a god amongst men, at least someone who could get the party started in my younger days. 

Apparently it was made at a time when all silicon transistors was something to brag about. It contains about twenty or so. 

Update: Done some digging. Just 18 transistors and 4 diodes. Your phone probably has several million. And they're silicon too.  

Hull Scooterists

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There were some scooters down at the Hull Marina today. The Hull Scooterists were heading off on a charity run and they'd gathered in the sunshine before setting off. Some of the scooters were awesome. I took some pictures and of course the shot I really wanted to get came out blurred.

Note to self. Just because it looks sharp on the camera screen doesn't mean that it is actually sharp. 

But these lights came out OK. 

In one era and out the other

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Well, that's it. My office is eerily empty. I've filled around thirty bags with rubbish and I've handed my keys in. Technically I'm still on the payroll of the university until the end of the month, but I'm not really working here any more. It's been very strange to watch the people around me planning for a whole bunch of things that I'm not going to be part of. 

I'm going to miss so many things about the university, particularly the staff in Computer Science and our amazing students, but I've got one or two silly plans (some of them involving cheese) and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens when I start with them.

Of course I'll still be blogging. And maybe even the odd podcast and other things. The new C# Yellow Book will be out next week (apologies for the delay, it's been a busy week) and I've got some other ideas in the pipeline. It's going to be rather liberating to be able to spend time on stuff that I find interesting, and you can be sure that I'll be writing all about it. 

Leaving Do

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Click through for the full 360 degree experience....

We had my "leaving do" today. Organised by Helen with her customary efficiency and good humour. There was tea. And cake. And great people. I been working at the University of Hull. But the folks I've been working with are what has made it worth sticking around for 38 years. 

They are all awesome. I made this point as I said thanks to everyone for my lovely leaving gifts (posh pens, a silver photo frame and a lump of credit to spend on gadgets at Amazon. They know me well...

Some things in life I worry about. But as long as we have such a wonderful bunch of folks who care about what they are doing, the future of Computer Science in Hull is in great hands. 

Amazon Echo now in the UK

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I've mentioned the Amazon Echo before. It is rather nice. Up until now the only way to get one was to import it yourself, which is what we do. Works a treat, as long as you are OK with only knowing the weather in Seattle. 

Anyhoo, after my positive review Amazon have decided to release it in the UK. Which means all kinds of useful UK services including trains, news and weather. I'm not completely sure how much of the american version will work once there is a "proper" version of the device in the UK, but even with it's slightly truncated feature set we've found it pretty useful. 

Cheese Yellow Book back from the printers

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We got the latest copy of the C# Yellow Book back from the printers today. We had a whole bunch of copies printed for the new first year course, and to give away on Open Days. 

This is the "Cheese" edition. The changes are mainly evolutionary. Thanks to everyone who contributed comment and pointed out mistakes. The pdf version will be going live later in this week. Then I'll update the Kindle version.