4 ms·

Bzzzt: Opening the door with Websockets and Raspberry Pi

45 points by zgryw 11y ago

untog 11y ago
I'll bite: what happen when the wifi goes out and there's no-one inside the building?
- alexrbarlow 11y ago
  The door functions as normal becuase this is just an add on! The keypad etc outside works fine.
- kubindurion 11y ago
  take a look at a photo, apart from the system working as usual from the outside, you can even do a manual override from the inside ;)
- PhoenixWright 11y ago
  Sounds like you bit off more than you can chew.
kej 11y ago
>For the Raspberry Pi server we decided to write some Python using Tornado and instead of using an HTTP like API - HTTP and APIs built on it using REST etc are in my opinion often used too often when plain old sockets will do the job! - we decided to negotiate a socket using WebSockets and then communicate messages as small as possible over that socket so that the latency was negligible. Not that it matters much which tool you use for a job like this, but this part doesn't really make sense. A WebSocket handshake is at least as big as this sort of REST request would have been, and if you wanted to keep everyone connected a basic TCP socket would work even better. They write how they had to implement a heartbeat on top of WebSockets, which seems like more work than the message framing on a TCP socket would have been. Neat project just the same, though.
- StavrosK 11y ago
  I wanted something really simple for this, so I wrote this: https://github.com/skorokithakis/gweet https://github.com/skorokithakis/gweet It has a streaming HTTP mode, where the connection stays open and data comes in as the clients send them. It works very well for remotely opening my house doors.
- rhinoceraptor 11y ago
  I did a similar project, using Node.js to implement it with REST. The advantage of that is I can create a CA with OpenSSL and sign a certificate for the server and one for the Raspberry Pi, and that way you can check if the other end is presenting a certificate signed by the same CA. https://jacklew.is/raspberry-pi-redux/ https://jacklew.is/raspberry-pi-redux/
GauntletWizard 11y ago
I built a door system intended for a small office with a Pi, some sparkfun components, and Go. My code is here: https://github.com/GauntletWizard/vnw https://github.com/GauntletWizard/vnw ; If anyone wants a more detailed explaination, I'll try to write one up.

45 points by zgryw 11y ago

untog 11y ago

I'll bite: what happen when the wifi goes out and there's no-one inside the building?

alexrbarlow 11y ago
The door functions as normal becuase this is just an add on! The keypad etc outside works fine.
kubindurion 11y ago
take a look at a photo, apart from the system working as usual from the outside, you can even do a manual override from the inside ;)
PhoenixWright 11y ago
Sounds like you bit off more than you can chew.

kej 11y ago

>For the Raspberry Pi server we decided to write some Python using Tornado and instead of using an HTTP like API - HTTP and APIs built on it using REST etc are in my opinion often used too often when plain old sockets will do the job! - we decided to negotiate a socket using WebSockets and then communicate messages as small as possible over that socket so that the latency was negligible. Not that it matters much which tool you use for a job like this, but this part doesn't really make sense. A WebSocket handshake is at least as big as this sort of REST request would have been, and if you wanted to keep everyone connected a basic TCP socket would work even better. They write how they had to implement a heartbeat on top of WebSockets, which seems like more work than the message framing on a TCP socket would have been. Neat project just the same, though.

StavrosK 11y ago
I wanted something really simple for this, so I wrote this: https://github.com/skorokithakis/gweet https://github.com/skorokithakis/gweet It has a streaming HTTP mode, where the connection stays open and data comes in as the clients send them. It works very well for remotely opening my house doors.
rhinoceraptor 11y ago
I did a similar project, using Node.js to implement it with REST. The advantage of that is I can create a CA with OpenSSL and sign a certificate for the server and one for the Raspberry Pi, and that way you can check if the other end is presenting a certificate signed by the same CA. https://jacklew.is/raspberry-pi-redux/ https://jacklew.is/raspberry-pi-redux/

GauntletWizard 11y ago

I built a door system intended for a small office with a Pi, some sparkfun components, and Go. My code is here: https://github.com/GauntletWizard/vnw https://github.com/GauntletWizard/vnw ; If anyone wants a more detailed explaination, I'll try to write one up.