Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/10/12/industrial-pi.html
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Who told you about my missile range?!?
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Sorry. I was drunk.
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I love the design for the case, though i am suspicious about how secure Raspberry Pi could be in industrial applications 
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But where’s the attachable drone module? As shouldn’t the goal be an approximate exocomp? or peanut hamper as they’re now known.
Oh, this is good. I recently nodded a smartpi touch 2 case to show the data status on my APRS IGate but it would be great to have a whole line of DIN mount stuff.
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From reading the flyers this is actually the RPi 3 compute engine jammed into a case with more eletronics. It isn’t an alternative to an RPi it is a product built on top of an RPi (or more literary around one)
Looks cool though.
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Depends on how it’s used. I’ve got equipment that uses the CM3+ these use and asked the same question. If someone has physical access, assume it’s game over (though you can make it damn hard). Same as any other equipment. If it’s not networked, or the network is air gapped, then security is very high. If on a local network with internet access, then: it depends.
Most Pi’s run a flavor of Linux. Even the default is relatively secure compared to typical DIN rail SCADA controllers. Assuming you don’t leave the default login and password.
Configure it and the rest of the network properly and you have a controller that’s rather secure. In fact, you can even configure them to monitor network security. Imagine each controller doing it’s work AND watching the other controllers. Not impenetrable, but security the Stasi would be proud of.
TLDR; Pretty darn good.
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This would actually be perfect for the automation control that I built in our RV. I’m already using modbus rs-485 and canbus interfaces, and DIN rail electrical cabinets already. I just have RPI in a metal box screwed to the wall right now, and hot glued together to reduce vibration stress. This would definitely be a step up.
Cabinets with DIN stuff in them.
Example data about the lithium storage battery from that raspberry pi that has RS-485, canbus, and hotglue:
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This does look nice - I work on large scale renewables, and you’d be surprised (or not) at how often we open up a “custom network controller” for some piece of hardware and find a bare, off the shelf, raspberry pi inside, which can be quite infuriating.
Not that a small linux machine is necessarily a bad idea, but when you are designing something that is supposed to last 35 years (with a reasonable expectation of 20 years out of the controllers), something with hobby-level power supplies and isolation just isn’t acceptable. One lightning strike or some extra noise on the power rail and they are all done.
If the electronics they are wrapping around the RPI compute module are robust and have good wide-range supplies and optoisolation on key inputs, then this could make for a nice bridge between “maker products” and “the real world”.
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On the software side, the Revolution Pi has a specially adapted Raspbian operating system, which is equipped with a real-time patch.
Hm. On the hardware side, I’d want a watchdog timer.
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That’s a great way to describe the RPI compute module. They are designed for industry, but fundamentally are still a maker product. What’s fantastic about them is they are essentially a SoC+ that fits in a slot instead of being soldered. The final user can build any kind of wrapper including robust power and isolation. Developing that custom wrapper but using a CM3+ with off the shelf software instead of designing everything from the ground up is saving us an enormous amount of time. The cost per unit will be more, but heck, we probably save enough money on testing and debugging to pay for all the CM3’s we will ever use.
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Good point, so I searched for that. Apparently, Raspberry Pi’s all come with a watchdog timer! See for example, https://blog.kmp.or.at/watchdog-for-raspberry-pi/ .
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Nifty! What automation control did you build?
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Thanks, added to my notes.
Please tell us more about this wonder of automation you’ve built! I’m genuinely impressed and would like to know what you manage, what you’ve got hooked to it, sensors, software, monitoring, interfaces, everything!
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More details please!
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This reminds me of the covers of 1970s sci-fi novels, the ones featuring great bulbous spaceships that look like a 747 and a GE Dash-9 loco had babies, probably drawn by Chris Foss.
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A couple people asked about it, so I’ll just reply to this thread.
I’m using homeassistant as a simple front end for the family. HA itself runs in a docker environment on a RPI 4B+, with an SSD drive so it doesn’t burn a hole through an SD card.
So, basically homeassistant presents buttons to control stuff:
Lighting
Water pumps
Air conditoning
diesel furnaces
shore power
waste water controls
And it offers status on:
lighting
solar production
power consumption/status/storage
power trends
tank levels/trends
location and weather
remote control
On the “back end” is an MQTT server to act as clearinghouse for all the IoT stuff. Things that feed MQTT into that:
inverters
solar controllers
battery management system data
tanks
lights
heaters
aircon/heatpump
various contactor controls for systems controls (pumps, valves etc)
Then finally there’s a back end management system running node-red. Node-Red has a bunch of the logic and intelligence that is reactive and maintains “homeostasis” so to speak with the vehicle. There are boundries set for power intake and expenditure balancing, (so you can maintain battery charge in hot weather, it will dial back the air conditioning if there’s insufficient power for example) or in cold weather ensure that heaters are running to keep things from freezing (including the plumbing) and notify occupants when stores are low (like diesel fuel or propane)
Whew! lots of stuff. Anyway all of that stuff runs in a RPI, and having it as a din rail mounted thinger would just make it that much better in my opinion.
Here’s a video tour of the bus done by tiny home tours at the beginning of this year (february)
I don’t mind talking about it more!
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Dunno what is the range of your missile?
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