General Raspberry Pi stuff

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jack
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#196 Re: General Raspberry Pi stuff

Post by jack »

I'm using a standalone pi for Pi-hole and the latest version seems to behaving a bit oddly...

Using the Synology as a docker host with Portainer is working extremely well at the moment. Currently it's running the UniFi controller and a couple of other things...

Considering moving Pi-hole to it too...
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#197 Re: General Raspberry Pi stuff

Post by Neal »

I have an issue with pinhole blocking recapchta, can’t find anything solid via google as to what the cause may be….odd
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#198 Re: General Raspberry Pi stuff

Post by jack »

Neal wrote: Mon Jun 06, 2022 10:43 pm I have an issue with pinhole blocking recapchta, can’t find anything solid via google as to what the cause may be….odd
Certainly doesn't do that for me (that I'm aware of).

Do you have a specific URL I can check - I'm using the default lists only and the latest Pi-hole.
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#199 Re: General Raspberry Pi stuff

Post by Neal »

I've narrowed it down to Safari on the latest IOS (iPhone & iPad) using Brave works as does Safari on OSX, Firefox, Chromium etc...
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#200 Re: General Raspberry Pi stuff

Post by Neal »

Apple have changed the way Safari 15.5 works when using Limit IP Tracking network setting and iCloud Private Relay. Turning either of these off at the device works. Another workaround is to change PiHole's behaviour by adding the variable BLOCK_ICLOUD_PR=false to /etc/pihole/pihole-FTL.conf in the container (easy to do if you have mapped that directory to a directory on the host system)

Unfortunately you can't map this in Portainer/Docker it can only be in the FTL file. :bounce:

Details here: https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/safari- ... e/55516/28

.....and editing the FTL file didn't work for me aaarrrgh! I think this is a limitation of the PiHole Docker container.
Last edited by Neal on Wed Jun 08, 2022 11:37 am, edited 2 times in total.
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#201 Re: General Raspberry Pi stuff

Post by jack »

Neal wrote: Wed Jun 08, 2022 11:17 am Apple have changed the way Safari 15.5 works when using Limit IP Tracking network setting and iCloud Private Relay. Turning either of these off at the device works. Another workaround is to change PiHole's behaviour by adding the variable BLOCK_ICLOUD_PR=false to /etc/pihole/pihole-FTL.conf

Unfortunately you can't do this in Portainer/Docker only in the FTL file. :bounce:
Good catch.

That's not really Portainer/Docker's fault - if Pi-Hole doesn't present that option on the UI, there's not a lot you can do.
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#202 Re: General Raspberry Pi stuff

Post by Neal »

Updated my post above........and its just suddenly started working! I need a coffee!
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#203 Re: General Raspberry Pi stuff

Post by Neal »

Not anything to do with RPi but thought I put it here a bit of a ramble!

I run the IT at my local pub, it’s surprising how much they depend on it, what with CCTV, Hand held Card payment, Point of Sale tills, Printers, Office PC and backups, Guest Wifi access etc, theres a fair bit to keep me busy.

What they 100% require is a reliable broadband connection and recently they have been experiencing random drop outs. They are with BT and have a Business(!) Hub in the office, (there’s another access point in the Bar for the Tills and Card readers that’s hardwired back to the office) it’s the main Business hub that keeps disconnecting from the exchange...it happens at random times and sometimes after a local number phone call, very odd. We’ve had the master socket replaced to no avail and various engineers visit.

As a random experiment I turned off the BT Guest WiFi option and lo and behold the connection has been stable for the last 4 days…Hmmmm

The Landlord is happy to leave it as it is but stated he keeps getting asked for WiFi access from customers, theres absolutely no 3 or 4G in the pub so is there an easy and cost effective way of enabling a Guest WiFi.

My first though was simply to dump the Business hub and put a Draytek in there and create a VPN to another WiFi access point but thats a new bit of hardware and cost plus a bunch of setting up. Ubiquiti would be a solution but again cost is an issue.

What I need to consider is to keep guests from accessing the local network and from seeing other users plus keeping a control on bandwidth and content….and cost!

My low cost plan is to replace the current AP in the bar area with a TP-Link router. I’ve used TP-Link before, they are cheap, fairly reliable and have a Guest WiFi function built in and a QoS function. I’ve found an unused WDR3600 on eBay for £20 which should be sufficient.

I’ll configure it to have a hidden SSID for the Card readers and hide the access code from the Staff (they have a habit of giving out the access code of the bar AP to customers!). Then I’ll setup the Guest SSID with QoS enabled.

I’ve tested a setup at home with my own TP-Link Router and it seems to work other than for DHCP! Like my home network DHCP is provided by another device on the network; the Business hub and as a Guest user wont be able to access the local network they are never going to get an IP address. The TP-Link need to provide an address to the Guests.

What we can’t have is two DHCP servers on the same network and I really don’t want the DHCP server to be on the TP-Link (I think)….however if we split the available address range in to two and make sure there is no overlap we can have two DHCP servers running.

I think this may be OK the TP-Link serves address to Guest users who are blocked from accessing the local network and each other and can issue none conflicting address to local devices as necessary along with the Business Hub.

The only downside is controlling content I was planning on setting the TP-Link DNS to Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.3 family server but this may provide inconsistency accessing the web if one moment the DNS is resolved by the BT hub and the next by the TP-Link…I guess I’ll have to try it and see.
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#204 Re: General Raspberry Pi stuff

Post by jack »

Could always have a different subnet for the guests, then you could serve that from a separate DHCP pool...

I use the UniFi guest SSID capability - works well
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#205 Re: General Raspberry Pi stuff

Post by ed »

also not rpi....
having fun and games with an esp32 with onboard sim800l gprs modem....
been running this setup for 2 years with EE sim in the modem....v.problematic as its a data only sim and I've had to phone EE support every month to do an add-on from my credit. EE don't support this transaction from the website. Plus they keep telling me the 2G switch off is looming ever closer.

So...finally located a data only sim provider, Geosim, and ordered a 20mb per month sim contract. Well, the sim connects and gives me the signal strength, the IP address, the location of the mast...and the moment I send a packet it disconnects and doesn't send the packet and consequently I cant get a success reply.......into deepest, darkest test mode at the moment....waily
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#206 Re: General Raspberry Pi stuff

Post by ed »

deepest darkest test report.....
after much head scratching and recompiling and swapping of sim cards I might be getting somewhere...

the geosim card only connected to the internet intermittently, and when it did the connection to the web server failed intermittently.
error replies were non existent so no help there! oh waily.
I suddenly remembered reading somewhere in an ancient text that modems sometimes want a brief burst of current to transmit....mmmm...

this modem has been working faultlessly with an EE sim card for the last 2 years, both on test and at it's remote location. With a geosim card it doesn't work. The only discernable difference is that EE use the EE network, mast is 450 mtrs distant, and geosim uses Vodafone mast at 550 mtrs distance.

I had a creepy feeling and switched the test lead from the usb socket to the usb3 socket.....the test rig has been running without a hitch for the last hour....

the lesson may be too early to preach, but seems to be don't try running a mobile modem from a usb2 socket for certain networks.
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#207 Re: General Raspberry Pi stuff

Post by Neal »

My idea of using the tp-link guest network feature didn’t work out….well it does but there isn’t a way to enable guest network isolation without the Router being connected to the WAN. It works if the guests are allowed local network access which is not desirable so I’ve gone down the openWRT route as the router can be flashed with it.

It’s taken me a while to get around the more complex setup but I’ve now finally managed to get an isolated guest network setup using a different subnet along with a hidden network for the card machines…
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#208 Re: General Raspberry Pi stuff

Post by shane »

Nothing to do with audio, but I have a general feasibility query about Raspberry Pi.

As I mentioned elsewhere, my son Tom is involved in a project to introduce regenerative farming techniques to the five farms owned by the Yeo Valley yogurt people, with their findings then being fed out to the other 150 or so farms that supply YV.

The project has a number of aims related to reduction of co2 emissions and increasing carbon capture, but it’s also aiming to improve bio-diversity, all of which needs to be measured and quantified.

In order to help understand how bio-diversity is improving amongst bird species he’s been running a trial using a machine-learning application running on a pi with a usb microphone hanging out of his office window. This listens for birdsong 24/7 and records anything it thinks it can identify. In the first couple of weeks it made over 11,000 recordings and identified thirty different species, which was way ahead of expectations.

He now wants to start putting together a kit that can be sent out to farms around the country, which will need to be able to run 24/7 without too much attention from the farmer, so he’s looking at putting it together with a 4g module to send data back to him, and running the whole thing from a solar panel charging a battery.

Given that it’s going to need to run through long winter nights and charge on short dull winter days, is this going to be feasible? Also, I’ve seen pi hats that can run solar battery management systems, and others that give 4g access capability, but is it possible to do both at the same times as well as running the listening application?

My knowledge of the pi is very limited, as is Tom’s, although I suspect he’s learning fast, but there’s lots of knowledge here that I thought we might be able to tap into.

For those interested, the software he’s using is open-source, more info here:

https://github.com/mcguirepr89/BirdNET-Pi
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#209 Re: General Raspberry Pi stuff

Post by Nick »

Not tried, but something like https://thepihut.com/products/solar-power-manager-5v seems to just provide a 5v USB connector, so shouldn't take up any of the connectivity that a 4g board would need. Or for that matter you could use a USB 4g dongle.
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#210 Re: General Raspberry Pi stuff

Post by ed »

I have some experience of telemetrics but unfortunately don't use a pi for this application.
I use 100 watt panel with one of these:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Solar-Controll ... Controller
together with a 12v leisure battery and 5v regulator for the processors I use.

I sized the panel and battery for the current that my rigs use but I don't know if that kind of thing would work with your current requirements.
This may be of some help but it's deffo not an off the shelf solution.

The whole thing becomes a lot easier if you have mains and wifi though,
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