Articles about Raspberry Pi Zero W

How to configure motionEye to only capture video if there are movements in particular sections of the surveillance area

Undeniably, Calin Crisan had created one of the best way for us to build a Raspberry Pi security camera. In addition to the ease of setup via motionEyeOS, the motionEye web-based frontend is also easy to use.

Since a Raspberry Pi security camera is used for surveillance, we will want it to record videos of things that happened when we were not looking.

However, recording footages of the surveillance area when there were no motion being detected is wasteful. Moreover, it is hard to get to the video recording of a stranger moving your flower pot when there are too many redundant video clips in your Raspberry Pi security camera.

Even if we switched on motion detection for the entire video frame, there could be motion detected outside of the area of interest. For example, we may be interested in birds resting on our plant rather than birds flying in the sky.

So how do we configure motionEye to only capture video if there are movements in a particular section of the surveillance area?

This post will show you how to do so.

How to make your Raspberry Pi Zero W camera see an ultra-wide view

While I was organising cabinet, I found a pack of Camera Lens Kits for mobile phones.

Since I am using my Raspberry Pi Zero W as a surveillance camera, I figured that it would be useful if I can use the Fisheye lens in the pack to make my camera see a wider view.

This post shows how you can make a Raspberry Pi Zero W camera see an ultra-wide view.

How to connect your Raspberry Pi to your iPhone WiFi hotspot via Raspbian Stretch Lite

Raspberry Pis with WiFi are very useful for building prototypes that connect to services on the Internet.

In case you need a Raspberry Pi with in-built WiFi, you can get one of these:

• Raspberry Pi 3 B+
• Raspberry Pi 3 B
• Raspberry Pi Zero W

An operating system is needed for running your Raspberry Pi and Raspbian Stretch Lite is an ideal choice for server based applications.

Although Raspbian Stretch Lite does not have a graphical user interface, it is not difficult to get it to connect to a WiFi hotspot.

If you wish to use your iPhone as a WiFi hotspot for your Raspberry Pi prototype, read this post to find out how to connect Raspbian Stretch Lite to your iPhone hotspot.

Setting up a fast git server on Raspberry Pi Zero W with Go Git Service (Gogs) and Raspbian Stretch Lite

The Go Programming Language is a compiled programming language created by Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike, and Ken Thompson from Google in 2009. With Google Go, it is possible to build programs that run efficiently on minimum hardware resources. The compiled code runs close to the speed of C. Use cases of Go Programming language includes Docker, Kubernetes and Go Git Service.

If you happen to need a self-hosted git server to track software projects that you build on the side, you can consider using Go Git Service. With the Raspberry Pi Zero W bundle set, you can set up a fast git server that does not take up too much space on your desk.

This post details how you can setup a fast git server on Raspberry Pi Zero W with Go Git Service and Raspbian Stretch Lite.

How I setup a Raspberry Pi Zero W CCTV camera with motionEye and Raspbian Stretch Lite

I had previously built a Raspberry Pi Zero W CCTV camera with motionEyeOS which was connected to the Wifi network of my old DLink router.

After I started using Linksys AC1900 Dual Band Wireless Router as my home router, I could no longer connect to that Raspberry Pi Zero W CCTV camera.

After reinstalling motionEyeOS a couple of times on my Raspberry Pi Zero W, I determined that motionEyeOS is not suitable for this new Wifi network.

On the other hand, my setup of WordPress on Raspberry Pi Zero W with Raspbian Stretch Lite, nginx, mariadb and PHP was able to connect to my new Wifi network, even after multiple system reboots.

Hence, I figured that if I wanted to build a Raspberry Pi Zero W CCTV camera that can connect to my new Wifi network, I could use Raspbian Stretch Lite as the base operating system and install motionEye for the web frontend to view the camera footage.

This post documents how I setup a Raspberry Pi Zero W CCTV with motionEye and Raspbian Stretch Lite.

Setting up WordPress on Raspberry Pi Zero W with Raspbian Stretch Lite, Nginx, MariaDB and PHP as the LEMP stack

A Raspberry Pi Zero W is a small and capable computer that included a Wi-Fi chip for projects that requires an Internet connection.

Apart from running client programs on the Raspberry Pi Zero W, it is equally capable of being a web server. Since I had a spare Raspberry Pi Zero W lying around the house and there are good reasons to blog as a programmer, I decided to use it as a WordPress server to collect content for a new blog project.

This post documents how I setup WordPress on a Raspberry Pi Zero W with Raspbian Stretch Lite, nginx, MariaDB and PHP as the LEMP stack.

How to setup Raspbian Stretch Lite on Raspberry Pi Zero W to run Python 3 applications

With Wi-Fi included, the Raspberry Pi Zero W is very useful for implementing embedded projects that require Internet connection.

Apart from using the Raspberry Pi Zero W for CCTV surveillance, we can run customized Python 3 applications on a Raspberry Pi Zero W for various use cases.

Pairing the official operating system for Raspberry Pi with Python 3, we will be able to get a versatile computer to do our bidding.

Anticipating the need to setup a version of Raspbian Lite on Raspberry Pi Zero W for future Python 3 projects, I created this post to document the steps of how to do so with Raspbian Stretch Lite.

How to host multiple websites from home

A website is a collection of related web pages, including multimedia content, that people can access anytime from anywhere of the Internet.

A website facilities the exchange of information between multiple parties. For instance, when you read the content of this page, I would have, hopefully, share the information of how to host multiple websites from home.

With the proliferation of single-board computers, it is now inexpensive to deploy computing devices to serve web applications from home. If you do not switch off your Internet modem at home, you may want the option of accessing some of these devices when you are away from home.

For example, here are some web applications / websites that you may host from home:

• WordPress on Raspberry Pi 3 with Raspbian Stretch Lite, nginx, MariaDB and PHP 7 as the LEMP stack
• Static website on Raspberry Pi 3
• Raspberry Pi 3 Go Git Service
• Taiga project management system on Raspberry Pi 3
• Raspberry Pi 3 CCTV camera
• Raspberry Pi Zero W CCTV camera
• Codiad Web IDE on my Raspberry Pi 3
• ProjectSend on your Raspberry Pi 3 for sharing files

This post documents some procedures that we can follow in order to host multiple websites from home.

How I setup a CCTV camera with Raspberry Pi Zero W and motionEyeOS image for home surveillance

When the Raspberry Pi Zero W was launched, I didn’t think twice before ordering one. Compared to the Raspberry Pi Zero, the Raspberry Pi Zero W comes with WiFi. This meant that I can use my new Raspberry Pi Zero W to replace my Raspberry Pi 3 CCTV camera for home surveillance and use the more powerful Raspberry Pi 3 for other projects.

This post documents how I setup my Raspberry Pi Zero W as a CCTV camera using the MotionEyeOS image.