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Raspberry Pool: Solar-heated Pool Controlled by a Raspberry Pi


The wizards over at Wotton Pool have created a system that allows them to control the solar-heated system for the pool with a Raspberry Pi. The Pi tracks temperatures throughout the system to decide when to pump water heated by the sun. They've gotten pretty sophisticated about it and even set up a dashboard to give some data on what the Pi has accomplished. The system also is set up so that it can be controlled over the Internet and adjusted from anywhere.

Have you found an interesting example of a Raspberry Pi in action? Let us know in the comments or with our contact form!

source:
Raspberry Pool
The Science Bit (more details)

Installing BitTorrent Sync on a Raspberry Pi





I've been looking for a replacement for Dropbox for a while now. I've tried OwnCloud, but it seemed awefully slow on a normal machine, and especially slow on a Raspberry Pi. It seemed to heavy for the simple task of file syncing, anyway, with all of its features. I knew about BitTorrent Sync, but didn't know that there was an ARM version of the client for it. When I saw that there was, I decided to try it out on the Raspberry Pi. It works great and with the Pi always on it replaces Dropbox perfectly for my needs.

To install BitTorrent Sync on your Raspberry Pi download the ARM version  and transfer it to your Pi. Next, extract it and in the folder you will find the BitTorrent Sync binary called btsync. Following BitTorrent's instructions, simply run that binary by entering `./bstync` in your Raspberry Pi's terminal.

Next, you can visit /gui on port 8888 of your Pi. So if your Pi's IP address is 192.168.1.4, visit http://192.168.1.4:8888/gui to set up the folders you want to share.


BitTorrent Sync web interface
BitTorrent Sync web interface

Once you select a folder to sync on the Pi, you can generate a secret string for that folder. When you enter that string in the web interface for BitTorrent Sync running on another computer, it will start syncing files from that folder on your Pi. To get BitTorrent Sync for your other computer (Windows, Linux, or Mac) go to that same download page and download the client for your machine.

BitTorrent Sync is a great replacement for Dropbox or other similar file syncing software. You also get to control the computers that your files are on with BitTorrent Sync, and aren't vulnerable to anyone deleting an account and endangering your data.

If you have any questions just ask them in the comments below and I'll help you out.

Setting up Apache on a Raspberry Pi

I recently covered how to set up nginx on a Raspberry Pi and also how to use PHP with nginx on a Raspberry Pi. For those of you that would prefer to use Apache on your Pi, here is how you can get it set up and configured.
First, install Apache by entering this command into a terminal on or connected to the Raspberry Pi:
sudo apt-get install apache2
You can also check for other running web servers with this command:
ps -Alf | grep www
That shows lines like 00:00:00 nginx: worker process for my Pi, so I'm going to stop nginx (sudo /etc/init.d/nginx stop).
Now that Apache is installed, you can visit your Pi's local IP address to make sure it's working. Apache is automatically started, and when I visit 192.168.1.33 (my Pi's IP, found by using the ifconfig command) I see a page that says "It works!".
Next, you can edit that default page on your Pi by opening and editing /var/www/index.html. That's all there is to it, Apache is now installed and running on your Raspberrry Pi!