Record IP Camera Surveillance Video With A Raspberry Pi

As some of you may know, I have wireless surveillance cameras around my home. Many years back I even released an Android application called SpyFi to be able to view the video feed from these cameras. Up until recently I would have these cameras upload a sequence of images to a remote FTP server every time there was motion. The problem with this is that these were only a sequence of still-images rather than video, and the server was not free or necessarily cheap.

Being that I own a few Raspberry Pi computers, I figured it might be a good idea to utilize them for surveillance storage. The cool thing about this approach is that it is cheaper and that I can record video rather than pictures.

We’re going to take a look at how I’m recording video on a Raspberry Pi device to keep my home safe.

Three Simple Ways To Get Online With A Raspberry Pi Zero IoT Device

As you know from the guides that I put out, I’m a Raspberry Pi collector. I collect the full size units as well as the Pi Zero units. In a previous post I explained how to emulate ethernet over a USB as a way to connect to a Pi Zero that is not using WiFi or ethernet. However, what happens when you decide you’re at a point where you’d like to bring your Pi Zero online?

I’m going to show you three quick, easy, and cheap ways to get WiFi internet on your Raspberry Pi Zero IoT device, none of which will require any soldering or advanced hardware knowledge.

Test Amazon Alexa Skills Offline With Mocha And Chai For Node.js

By now you’re probably aware that I’m all about Amazon Alexa skills since I’m a proud owner of an Amazon Echo. I had released a Alexa skill called BART Control and published a guide on creating a simple skill with Node.js and Lambda. If you went through my Node.js and Lambda guide you probably found it pretty painful to test the skill you were working on. The constant building and uploading to Lambda could easily get out of control. What if I told you there was a much simpler way that could save you a ton of time?

We’re going to take a look at adding test cases for testing an Alexa skill offline without ever having to upload the skill to Lambda.

Create An Amazon Alexa Skill Using Node.js And AWS Lambda

Recently I published my first skill for Amazon’s Alexa voice service called, BART Control. This skill used a variety of technologies and public APIs to become useful. In specific, I developed the skill with Node.js and the AWS Lambda service. However, what I mentioned is only a high level of what was done to make the Amazon Alexa skill possible. What must be done to get a functional skill that works on Amazon Alexa powered devices?

We’re going to see how to create a simple Amazon Alexa skill using Node.js and Lambda that works on various Alexa powered devices such as the Amazon Echo.

Connect To Multiple Wireless Networks With A Raspberry Pi

So I recently picked up some more Raspberry Pi 3 units. You’re probably thinking I’m building my own T1000 (Terminator reference) with these things. No, actually I got these units for work to play around with some IoT projects around the office at Couchbase. I have a few offices that I visit at Couchbase which brought up my need to have multiple possible wireless networks to connect to as I travel. These are headless units so I’m not connecting to them with a mouse and keyboard.

Now one would imagine that I can just add a bunch of networks to a configuration file in Linux, but that wasn’t the case. There are special configurations that must be done to allow the Raspberry Pi to automatically connect to different wireless networks as they become available.

We’re going to see how to add multiple WiFi network SSIDs to a Raspberry Pi operating with Raspbian so it can automatically connect as they become in range.

TPDP Episode #7: Developing For The Internet Of Things (IoT) And Where To Start

When it comes to software development there are many different items to develop for. I’ve spent most of my developer life creating applications for the web, desktop, and mobile, but when it comes to possibilities it doesn’t end there. In recent years the Internet of Things (IoT) has been taking over. In this episode of The Polyglot Developer Podcast, guest speaker Jen Looper and I discuss the Internet of Things and what you need to get started as a developer.

Jen Looper is a developer advocate at Progress Software, but is also a huge advocate for IoT. In Episode #7: Developing for The Internet of Things (IoT) and Where to Start, we’re going to discuss quite a bit, covering everything from a background on IoT to possible development technologies for various hardware.

Auto Attaching USB Storage To A Raspberry Pi Running Linux

I’ve written a few articles about how I’m using my many Raspberry Pi units. Recently I wrote about using a Raspberry Pi as an automatic network backup server, but I didn’t talk about expanding the storage beyond the micro or standard sized SD card. What if you want to utilize a much larger USB hard drive or thumb drive? By default Linux won’t mount the drive, and heck, it may not even be in the correct format.

We’re going to see how to format a USB drive, mount it on a Raspberry Pi, and then auto mount it every time the Raspberry Pi reboots.