fired up NFC reader

So I went home and tried the Pi, it booted up just fine. So the HDMI-VGA adapter I have is the problem. Not sure if I should
(1) get a new one (not sure if it will work)
(2) get a small screen just for the Pi, about 5 or 7 inches, seems to sell for about 50sgd on DX.com
(3) get a new (and bigger) hdmi monitor :p
(4) just switch my monitor with the one at home
(5) get a new dongle and continue using SSH. This isn't ideal when I need to fire up the GUI as it isn't stable over SSH.

Anyways, photos.

Booting up the RPi

The NFC board did not indicate power so I realized I need to solder them (the bending for contact method did not work). 

Luckily I was at home and my soldering kit was available.

All soldered up. Did not do a very good job. Think I will buy a thinner solder as well. 

It now indicated power when connected to the RPi.

Here I have managed to recover the keys of a old NFC card I had lying around. 

I had some issues with installing this MFOC library. I will experiment more after the exams and explain in detail my issues when I do so.

trying to fire up NFC

So I hooked up the NFC reader with my RPi2, to communicate with it over UART. I decided to try this before trying SPI/I2C with the Arduino, because this will give me more direct control. However I was unable to get my RPi to boot up. At first I thought it was a power supply issue (RPi was only drawing 30)mA, regardless of what was plugged in. Then I noticed that my phone was drawing 1.3A so it could not be an issue with the power supply. I checked online and by the behavior of the LEDs (the green blinks for a while before going off, red is on all the way), it is possibly booting up. As I do no have my Wifi dongle or a spare LAN wire with me, I could not check using the network. Then it hit me, it must be the HDMI-VGA causing the issue. Now this converter works with my laptop, but I do not recall it working with the RPi before. Probably cannot draw enough power from it? However it still does not explain why the RPi is only drawing 300mA, even without anything plugged in. I guess I will have to monitor or check online if that is its standby power requirements (at 5V).

Anyways, here are some photos.

The package

The bill

The goods, all sealed up. Good thing is that the bad is reusable. 

All the things it came with. at first I did not know what those two black things on the top left were for, but then I realized they were to switch between ON and OFF for two variables. 

Hooked up to the RPi2. I did not have my soldering kit in hall so I had to improvise. It was a little hard as not everything was spaced evenly (between different sectors).  I have bend the jumper wires to try and ensure contact but won't know until I fire up the RPi.

After trying everything and before packing everything into the box so that I can bring them home and try them on the HDMI monitor. Ignore my watch.

Absence and updates

It has been a long time since my last post and the reason for that is because I was involved in a start up! We taught computational thinking and I was the main Python instructor. Along the way I learned bootstrap and actually set up our website. A few pages are still not done. You can check it out here: www.thekrono.com.


So last week I met up with a friend to help him get his proximity sensor up and running with Arduino. Then I realized how much I missed working with Arduino. My own FYP is purely software(more on that in another post), so sadly I wont get to play with hardware.

I've decided to hold some Arduino workshops for Open Source Society, since so many people seem to need to learn Arduino. I will start on Sunday (trial class with friends) and then hold the first proper one on Thursday. I will be calling this series 'Tinkering Thursdays : Arduino 101'.

Meanwhile I have been eyeing a NFC card reader shied that works with Arduino and Raspberry Pi.
It is called 'PN532 NFC/RFID Controller Shield for Arduino'. I am wondering if I should get the original (will cost me 50-70) or a third party one from DX.com (will cost me 30). Will give an update on it once I have bought it and tried it out.