C.H.I.P.py Ruxpin – Blog. by Next Thing https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com News & Notes. Process & Projects. No BS. Srsly. Thu, 09 Nov 2017 03:16:07 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.5 Give Your Old Electronics New Life with These 3 C.H.I.P. Projects https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/give-your-old-electronics-new-life-with-these-3-c-h-i-p-projects/ https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/give-your-old-electronics-new-life-with-these-3-c-h-i-p-projects/#comments Tue, 08 Nov 2016 17:46:27 +0000 http://blog.nextthing.co/?p=1145 The electronic guts of a wireless speaker project that use C.H.I.P.

The electronic guts of a wireless speaker project that use C.H.I.P.

If you’re like most of us at NTC, you have a bunch of old electronics that lack Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity. Here are 3 projects that use C.H.I.P. to upgrade these old dust collecting devices and give them a second, more connected life!

C.H.I.P.Play Wireless Speaker

Don’t spend hundreds of dollars to get an AirPlay speaker, just use C.H.I.P. and upgrade the bookshelf speakers you already own. C.H.I.P.Play speakers are a great DIY introduction to C.H.I.P. and who doesn’t want to make their own wireless speakers?!

Apple’s AirPlay technology lets you seamlessly stream audio from your Apple laptop or phone right to AirPlay compatible speakers. But these types of speakers aren’t cheap, it’s Apple after all. Fortunately, with C.H.I.P. and a little help from Ben, you can transform any speaker into an AirPlay compatible C.H.I.P.Play speaker.

You’ll need a C.H.I.P., a 3.7V LiPo battery (to make your speakers more portable), an audio cable, and old speakers or amp. The project takes around 30 minutes to complete and is excellent for C.H.I.P. noobs. You can find Ben’s full instructions for the project on Hackster.io.


Wireless Speakers For All Platforms

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Not a fan of Apple AirPlay, no problem. Peter has you covered with instructions to turn your wired speakers into WiFi capable speakers.

Peter configure his C.H.I.P. to act as a Music Player Daemon (MPD) server, one half of the MPD client-server protocol for streaming audio. Unlike AirPlay, MPD is not proprietary, and there are tons of cross-platform clients available: iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and most desktop operating systems. Here’s the full list of MPD supported clients and plug-ins. Yeah, there are a ton!

Since Peter is a huge audiophile, he also added a few extras to the project like a decent amp and a dedicated hard drive for more of his music. While not required, they add that extra bit of polish that makes this project rewarding to build. Expect to spend about a half an hour building and many hours more listening to these WiFi connected speakers.


Read All The Things with C.H.I.P.py Ruxpin

Why buy a new Teddy Ruxpin, when you can hack your old one? C.H.I.P.py Ruxpin, the terrifying brainchild of Langley is the perfect project to build and gift this holiday season.

C.H.I.P.py is powered by C.H.I.P. and runs software to actuate its mouth, control audio output, and even hosts a web server where you can log in and tell C.H.I.P.py exactly what to say. Have writer’s block? Configure C.H.I.P.py to read a Twitter feed and sit back and enjoy. Trust us, life with C.H.I.P.py can get kind of weird.

C.H.I.P.py explained

C.H.I.P.py explained

Expect to spend close to 3 hours wiring and configuring C.H.I.P. for this project. You’ll also need about $50-$70 worth of parts, including an H-bridge circuit that’s wired between Ruxpin and C.H.I.P. and used to control the motors in the bear’s eyes and jaw. Langley has all the instructions, plus the parts and tools required for the project posted on Hackster.io. C.H.I.P.py is one project that’s definitely worth the time to make!


How are you using C.H.I.P. to upcycle old electronics? Let us know in the comments below, share your build instruction in the forum, and post project pictures on Twitter. We can’t wait to see what you’re making!

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PocketC.H.I.P. Does Field Repair with C.H.I.P.py Ruxpin https://ntcblogbackup.wpengine.com/pocketc-h-i-p-does-field-repair-with-c-h-i-p-py-ruxpin/ Tue, 29 Mar 2016 19:44:55 +0000 http://blog.nextthing.co/?p=396 CHIP in the Wild

Does a bear C.H.I.P. in the woods?

We were out in a field taking pictures of C.H.I.P.py Ruxpin –as you do when you have a C.H.I.P.-powered talking bear– and I wanted to get C.H.I.P.py to comment on the weather.

Lacking my laptop and with no clue of C.H.I.P.py’s IP address, what was I to do? Easy. Use three wires to directly connect C.H.I.P.py and PocketC.H.I.P.. With a few commands on PocketC.H.I.P., it’s easy to setup a connection and gain shell access to the bear (or any other device with exposed TX, RX, and ground). Here’s how I did it.

Parts

  • Three wires (18 AWG) – these don’t need to be fancy wires, but if you want to make them more robust, twist the wires using a drill, add header pins, and heatshrink tubing. Here are some great cable creation tips.

Tools

  • PocketC.H.I.P. – you could also use C.H.I.P. to connect to other devices using the same commands, however, since there’s no screen on C.H.I.P., I didn’t use it.

Connect to CHIPPY

1. Connect to target device

The connection between the two devices needs to share a ground wire and cross the TX and RX wires. The main reason I made this fancy wire is to have a cable with the TX and RX lines already crossed. This way I don’t have to think about wiring, I just make sure the ground pin is plugged into the proper pin.

Ground — Ground
TX — RX
RX — TX


CHIPpy Connected to PocketCHIP

2. PocketC.H.I.P. Setup

Power-on PocketC.H.I.P. and launch a terminal from the drop down menu.

sudo su

Stop the tty that’s running on /dev/ttyS0 using systemd.
systemctl stop serial-getty@ttyS0.service

Ensure the wires are connected correctly (something my fancy cable already takes care of), then grant permissions to root for PocketC.H.I.P.’s /dev/ttyS0.
chmod a+rw /dev/ttyS0

Connect to
cu -l /dev/ttyS0

To end the cu connection, simply type ~. and the connection will terminal.

Note: Learn more about cu here.


This method is great for more than just talking bears! When I need to setup a C.H.I.P. and don’t want to lug out a monitor and keyboard this is my default approach. Best of all, this trick works for any computer or device that exposes Ground, TX, and RX pins and has a UART. So the next time you need to access an unconfigured device, grab three wires and PocketC.H.I.P.!

CHIPpy Header

Posing with PocketC.H.I.P.

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