[Tutorial] How I use the mightyboost as a base for RaspberryPi

[Steinarrr]

Hi everyone.

I'm working on an escape room. Some of the devices are running on Raspberry Pi's and the rest on moteinos or arduinos. One Raspberry Pi is controlling everything and that one has a moteino connected through USB.

Originally I had planned on using wifi to communicate from Pi to Pi but after some headache with socket programming I eventually decided that the moteinos are easier since I had that up and running.

The Pi's already had MightyBoosts so that they could handle sudden power loss so I figured I'd use those moteinos for communication as well.

It works great if you connect them togehter with USB but don't connect the Vin, DTR and RST pins of the FTDI connection.


Here is the final product





If you want more detail and some soldering tips then you can check out the Imgur Album


Hit me with questions if you have any, thanks for reading.

-Steinarr

[TomWS]

First question: What is an 'escape room'?  The name conjures up all kinds of possible 'uses'!

Tom

[Steinarrr]

Haha, it's a real life version of the escape room flash games that were somewhat popular a few years ago. The idea is that a group of people (4-5 in our case) is locked inside a room and the object is to get out (escape). This usually involves finding keys, solving puzzles or riddles.

There is usually a theme to each room, ours is set in 1945 and centers around William Stephenson who worked for MI5 and CIA in WW2.

It's a group activity, should take about an hour to solve all the problems needed to get out

[TomWS]

Haha, it's a real life version of the escape room flash games that were somewhat popular a few years ago. The idea is that a group of people (4-5 in our case) is locked inside a room and the object is to get out (escape). This usually involves finding keys, solving puzzles or riddles.

There is usually a theme to each room, ours is set in 1945 and centers around William Stephenson who worked for MI5 and CIA in WW2.

It's a group activity, should take about an hour to solve all the problems needed to get out

Wow! What if no one can solve the puzzle?   

Seriously, it sounds like fun, especially during Winter Months...

AND I've JUST learned that I personally know a group who broke a world record for a particular escape room.  Who would have guessed?

Neat, keep it coming!
Tom
PS:  I'll be outside, keeping the wine properly aerated.

[Steinarrr]

Wow! What if no one can solve the puzzle?   

Haha, There is a staff member keeping watch thorugh cameras and can provide hints if they are not getting anywhere.

[Felix]

Nice build, this is how my first gateway has been setup, except the Moteino was only used to control power on the MBoost, with a separate moteino as the receiver of things.

My current gateway uses a MightyHat which is much the same except all integrated on 1 'hat' board, and where the DTR line is controlled by a GPIO line of the Pi, so then the Mhat 328p could be programmed via avrdude from the Pi if required, by first asserting the GPIO/DTR to reset the board to go into bootloader. Or it could also be OTA programmed since it has DualOptiboot.
The power on the Mhat is latched so the Moteino can be reset without the Pi losing power.