Merry Christmas and a Happy new year

 

I just hope you will enjoy this weblog the next year as much as you did this year.

Christmas presents 2025

For an index to all my stories click this text

It's almost Christmas and the time for buying presents is there.

If you have a relative or friend who is interested in electronics and the internet of things here are some suggestions to help them starting. There is still some time to get them delivered in time.

The books can be bought from your local bookstore or through Amazon who ships world wide. My Dutch books can be bought through BOL or your local bookshop.

Buying one of these books helps supporting this weblog.

Raspberry Pi Pico Simplified 

Click here for more info or to buy the book

 

This book can be used with the Raspberry Pi Pico and Pico 2.
It is the perfect way to start programming in MicroPython and teaches the first steps in starting your own projects. The book starts with installing the programming environment (Thonny) and shows what libraries are and how to install them. The Pico's pins are discussed and after that working with a breadboard is discussed. So no need to solder !!! Attention is also paid to properly powering your projects through a USB power adapter or with batteries.

There is a short course in programming in MicroPython.
Next a myriad of topics are addressed like adding buttons to your projects, adding leds, fading leds with PWM, the DS18B20 digital thermometer, using an LDR to measure light intensity, using a potmeter, attaching a servo motor, working with mains by using a relay, touch sensors, controlling a motor, making sound with a buzzer, neopixel addressable leds, motor control with an H-bridge, movement detection with a PIR or a RCWL-0516 radar, measuring distance, using a tilt sensor and vibration detection, displaying your data on a TM1637, using a rotary decoder and displaying data on an Oled screen.
Every chapter has detailed build instructions and example programs.


Raspberry Pi Pico W Simplified

Click here for more info or to buy the book

This book can be used with the Raspberry Pi Pico W and the new Pico W 2.
Most topics from the Raspberry Pi Pico Simplified book are discussed in this book. But this edition adds information about the Wifi capabilities of the Pico W. After explaining how the basic sensors work the book shows how to connect the Pico W to your home network. Then it discusses Ping which is used to test if devices are on-line or if anyone is at home. With urequests data is fetched from servers on the internet. Sending data to an online cloud service (Thingspeak) and obtaining the data is discussed. The book shows how to send notifications (if a door is open or a temperature has been reached etc) to your phone using Pushbullet. And it shows how to send messages to Telegram. A chapter is dedicated to Dweet a simple messaging service to which data can be send and retrieved from. And there is of course attention to building a webserver that shows sensor data (like button state, temperature etc.)

ESP32 Simplified

Click here for more info or to buy the book

Basically this is the same book as Raspberry Pi Pico W Simplified. The difference is that this book uses the Arduino IDE and the C++ programming language instead of MicroPython. This was the first book I wrote and some information is outdated. You can find updates for those parts on this weblog. The most part is still current.



ESP32 Uitgelegd is ook in het Nederlands verkrijgbaar. Klik hier voor meer info en om te bestellen

Javascript tips

Click here for more info or to buy the book

This book does not teach you how to program in Javascript. it is an aid to programming Javascript. The book offers more than 500 tips that make programming Javascript easier. There are tips on working with numbers, working with strings, working with date, working with arrays, working with objects. Tips on functions, communication. Some tips are in the category various as they did not fit in one of the mentioned chapters. And there are lots of tips on manipulating HTML.

Javascript tips is ook in het Nederlands verkrijgbaar. Klik hier voor meer info en om te bestellen

Til next time
have fun !!!

Luc Volders 

MicroPython evolves: build in neopixel library

For an index to all my stories click this text

In 2021 my book about the Raspberry Pi Pico was published. At that time MicroPython was at version 1.14. In the book there is a chapter that describes how to use neopixels with the Pico and MicroPython. You needed to download a library from github to get the neopixels working.



In later versions of MicroPython (starting at version 1.18) there is a neopixel library build in !! It is mentioned in the second row at the 4th line.

This does not mean that you can not use the "old" library that is discussed in my book. Actually the library discussed in the book has much more commands for working with neopixels as the build-in library nowadays has.

- strip.fill(r, g, b) fills the complete strip with a color
- strip.set_pixel_line(x, x, r, g, b) fills a range of pixels with a color
- strip.rotate_right(n) rotates all pixels n places right
- strip.rotate_left(n) rotatres all pixels n places left

These commands are all missing from the build-in library. Well except for one, on which later more.

Which commands are available.

First we need to load the needed libraries with:

from machine import Pin
from neopixel import NeoPixel

Then you need to define at which pin the neopixels are connected:

pin = Pin(4, Pin.OUT)

In this example the neopixels are connected to GPIO 4

Now we can start using the library.
According to the official MicroPython documentation there are only 3 commands.

- np = NeoPixel(pin, 12)
This command creates a neopixel object with the name np which is attached to pin and there are 8 neopixels connected to that pin.

- np[0] = (255, 255, 255)
This command sets the first neopixel (starting at 0) to the RGB values 255,255,255 which is full white. The values (255,255,255) need to be set exactly like this as the command aacepts them as a tuple. The first value is the value for red, the second for green and the last for blue (R, G, B) the values may vary from 0 to 255 where 0 is off and 255 is brightest.

- np.write()
And this command is absolutely needed after each time you change the colors of one or more neopixels to activate them.

Please be aware that this new library is available in MicroPython for the ESP8266, ESP32 and the Raspberry pi pico series.

Demonstration setup

Here is my demonstration setup.

As I used a neopixel ring with 12 neopixels the Raspberry Pi Pico does not supply enough current to feed the neopixel ring. So I attached a seperate USB connector which is connected to a USB power supply (or powerbank).
The GND of the USB connector is connected to the Pico's GND rail at the bottom of the breadboard. The VCC of the USB connector is only attached to the VCC of the neopixel-ring.

The Pico sends the data for the neopixel-ring over GPIO 4 which is connected to a current delimiting resistor of 470 Ohm.

The only other thing is that I put a capacitor over the USB power rail to stabilise the USB power a bit.

The MicroPython program

import machine, neopixel

ring = neopixel.NeoPixel(machine.Pin(4), 12)

import time

while True:
    for i in range(12):
        ring[i] = (60, 0, 0)
        ring[i-1]=(0,0,0)
        ring.write()
        time.sleep(.2)

As you can see I created the neopixel object with the name ring which is more suitable for my neopixel-ring.

This is just a very simple program that sets the neopixel with the number i to the value (60, 0, 0) which is a dim red. It then sets the previous neopixel (i-1) to black (0,0,0). and then moves on to the next neopixel. np.write() then writes the values to the neopixels so the colors actually change. Forget this command and nothing will happen.

The effect is a red dot looping around the ring.

A hidden command.

There is a hidden command that is nowhere listed in the manual and that is the fill() command.
The fill command fills the complete range of neopixels with a single color.

ring.fill((0,0,60))

In our example this would set the complete ring to a dim blue.

I have really no idea why this command is not listed in the documentation.

That's all for now.
Till next time and have fun

Luc Volders

Flexible led filament a first look

For an index to all my stories click this text.

In a previous story I showed how to work with led filament. These are rigid tubes that contain leds in one color and can be used for lots of projects. You can read that story here: https://lucstechblog.blogspot.com/2025/11/led-filament-first-look.html

There is however also a flexible version available. These usually consist of micro LED diodes mounted on a flexible metal base, coated with silicone for protection. They are constructed in a way that it looks as if the light of the leds shine 360 degrees. The back side of the strip though looks less bright as the front.

The led filament is indeed flexible. Bending the strip to sharp will break it. So no 90 degree corners, just a smooth bend.

These flexible leds are available in several colors: warm white, pink, green, blue and red.
and they can be bought in several lengths. I have seen lengths up to 450mm (45 cm).

Please note each of these led filaments have 1 color. They are not like ledstrips or neopixels. They have a fixed color. So make sure you order the ones you need.

Beware of the contacts.

There are versions available where both VCC and GND contacts are at one end of the ledstrip. And there are versions that have contacts at both ends, just like the rigid versions. So check which version you need before placing an order. Just be careful when experimenting as the contacts are fragile.

They are available from our usual Chinese friends. Adafruit sells them also (although a lot more expensive) and calls then nOOds (from noodles)

Power requirements.

There is surprisingly few documentation available.

There are two versions available. The first works at 12V and the second at 3V. For our microcontroller projects I advise to use the 3V version.

Adafruit suggest you can supply up to 100mA. Chinese suppliers advise a maximum of 50mA.
Better safe as sorry so I suggest stay below the 50mA.

Breadboard setup

I used the same breadboard setup as in the story about the rigid led filament.

Like in the previous story the led filament is powered by a 5V USB power supply. The Raspberry Pi Pico can not supply enough current from it's IO pins so a 2N2222 transistor is used.

The 2N2222 can supply a maximum of 800ma but that is in optimal circumstances with proper cooling. Stay on the safe side and attach up to 4 led filaments to one transistor so the maximum current the transistor needs to supply will be around 200ma.

You can exchange the Pico by an ESP8266 or ESP32 but then you will need to alter the programs to use the right GPIO.

In this setup I used a resistor of 100 Ohm. The USB wall connector supplies 5V. So the resistor reduces the current to 20Ma
If you are using a different power supply or want more (or less) current please revert to the previous story for an explanation of the calculations. You can find it here : https://lucstechblog.blogspot.com/2025/11/led-filament-first-look.html

If you want the leds to be brighter use a resistor of 47 Ohm. That will give around 40mA although I must say I did not notice any difference with my eyes. So I advise to stick at 100 Ohm.

The programs are also the same:

# -------------------------------------------
# simple test for setting filament on and off
# -------------------------------------------

from machine import Pin
import time

filament = Pin(16, Pin.OUT)

while True:
    filament.value(1)
    time.sleep(1)
    filament.value(0)
    time.sleep(1)

This sets the led filament on and off.

# -------------------------------------
# test program for dimming led filament
# with PWM
# -------------------------------------

import machine
import time

filament = machine.PWM(machine.Pin(16))
filament.freq(1000)

while True:
    min = 0
    max = 65536
    for i in range(min,max):
        filament.duty_u16(i)
        time.sleep(.0001)
    #time.sleep(.5)
    for i in range(max,min,-1):
        filament.duty_u16(i)
        time.sleep(.0001)
    #time.sleep(.2)

This program brings the led slowly to full brightness and then slowly dims it and keeps repeating this sequence.

The led filament consists of leds so if your program does not work try changing the VCC and GND contacts at the filament.

My tests.

I bought a 30 cm long pink strip which had both contacts at 1 side.

First I made a circle around a round object.

And here I draped the led filament around a wooden stick with a diameter of about an inch (2.5 cm).

The led filament is fun to play with. The filament is bright and invites to be used in several creative projects.

Till next time
have fun


Luc Volders

Led filament, a first look

For an index to all my stories click this text

This story is about the rigid led filament. There is also a flexible version which will be discussed in an upcoming story.

I saw on the internet something that looks like a small led strip. They have several names: Led Filament, Cob Led Filament and Edison bulb led parts.

They are meant as ledstrips for use inside filament-lamps like the one above. The yellow strips in the lamp is what I am talking about. They can be bought as tiny led strips.

These are actually really small led strips inside a tubing and have contacts at both sides.

The photo just shows the size of this filament compared to a normal led.
This clearly shows they are slim and long.

The filaments are available in several lengths. I have seen lengths up to 68mm (about 7cm)
For testing purposes I bought a batch of 3.8 cm. Well The advertisement said they were 3.8cm long. And that is correct. However that is inclusive the contacts.

The led filament itself is about 3cm.

And they can be bought in several colors. At the moment of this writing the following colors are available: white, warm white, red, pink, purple, green and blue. They are not like neo-pixels or ordinary led strips. Each strip has only 1 color.

If you are going to buy them just make sure you buy the right ones for your purpose as they are available in 3V and 12V and even higher voltage versions. For our purposes we will be working with the 3V versions. As that is the voltage most of our microcontrollers work with.

Fragile

The tubing that encapsulates the leds feels like plastic. It is not flexible but rigid. The tubing can handle some stress but be aware that it is fragile.

As i wanted to know if it was flexible I bend one of the filaments (a bit) and it broke immediately. So be careful when working with these.
Despite being broken it still worked, what amazed me. Only the leds after where the break was, were working as the picture shows.

VCC and GND

Like stated these are led strips. So they need power. And just like normal leds the power needs to be supplied at the right contacts.

Carefully look at the picture.
At the right side there is a small hole in the contact. That is the VCC side. The other side is GND.
Switching the VCC and GND contacts does not do any harm (yes I tried it) as they are leds. But they just do not work when the power is not connected right.

Current delimiting resistor.

As with all leds these need a current delimiting resistor. More on that later.

Power

On our favorite Chinese website there are several suppliers of these filaments. So I scrolled through a lot of them to find some good specifications.

Most of them stated that the maximum current that could be supplied was 100ma at 3V.

The problem is that no microcontroller that I own can supply that much power from it's IO pins. The Raspberry Pi Pico for example can supply 4ma per IO pin and a maximum of 50ma on all IO pins combined. So the current needed for this filament would fry it. The ESP32 can roll out 40ma maximum at a single IO pin but the total (maximum sum of all IO pins) it can supply is 120Ma. Next to that a prolonged delivery of 40ma on a single pin will overheat and damage the chip. Therefore powering the led filament from a microcontroller is no option.

So I am going to supply the power from a 5V USB phone adapter.
That is 5V so we need to reduce that to 3V. The easiest way to do that is by using a resistor.

To calculate what value the resistor should have we need the following formula.

voltage supplied - voltage desired
-------------------------------------------------------
                  milliamps

The voltage supplied = 5V
The voltage desired  = 3V
The milliamps we need is 50 ma

As you can see I am not powering the strip to the maximum 100Ma.
This gives the following formula:

5V - 3V
----------
50 ma

And 50ma is 0.050 Amps
So that gives 2V / 0,050A is 40 and that makes the value of the resistor 40 Ohm.

So the minimal resistor value is 40 Ohm
Any higher value will do.

Supplying the power.

It is obvious that our ESP8266, ESP32 or Raspberry Pi Pico can never supply such power. So we need an external component for that: a transistor.

The most common used transistor for supplying power is the BC547. This transistor can supply a maximum of 100ma. So we could attach a maximum of 2 led filament strips to 1 of these BC547's. The BC547 is dead cheap. You can get about 50 pieces for 1 USD if you shop around.

If you need more current then use the 2N2222. This transistor is pin compatible with the BC547 but capable of delivering 800ma. Beware that this is under ideal conditions. It would need cooling to achieve that much current. So aim for a lower current like 200-400ma maximum.

I opted for the 2N2222

In real life.

In real life I did some experiments and found that a 100ohm resistor already supplied so much current that the ledstrip was very bright and could even be seen in broad daylight.

Let me do the recalculations for you.

5V - 3V
----------
 X ma

This should equal 100 Ohm

So 5-3 / X ma = 100 this gives 2 / 100 = 0.02A = 20 Ma.

Using a 2N2222 transistor I should be able to attach easily 10 led filaments (10 x 20ma - 200ma) to 1 IO pin of the microcontroller.

There is one extra calculation and that is the calculation for the resistor that needs to be attached to the base of the 2N2222 and that defines how much the output will be. I will not bother you with these calculations. But if you mail me I will show these to you in a separate story on this weblog.

The combined calculations.

I will not bother you with the calculations for the base resistor (until you mail me and ask for it).  I needed a resistor of 1.5K to 2K for the base of the transistor and for each led filament a resistor of 100 ohm.

2N2222

The 2N2222 has 3 connections E, B and C which are emitter, base and collector.

The Base is connected to a 1.5K resistor and that determines (the gain) the amount of current that will flow from the Emitter (GND) to the Collector. Any load (like our led filament) gets connected to the collector.
So the GND of the led filament is connected to the collector using the current delimiting resistor of 100Ohm.
The Emitter is connected to GND.

I made a test setup first without using a Microcontroller.

Breadboard for the first test.

Here is the breadboard for the first test.

The setup is the same as discussed above.
A resistor of 1.5K is attached to the base of the 2N2222. It is connected to a pushbutton that is connected to VCC. When the pushbutton is pressed some current will flow to the base of the transistor.
The Emitter is just connected to GND.
The Collector is connected through a 100 Ohm current delimiting resistor and from that to GND of the led filament. The VCC of the filament is connected to VCC.
The project is powered by a USB wall adapter, the kind used for phones.

When you push the button, the led filament will light up.
If the filament does not light up, check your connections. Most likely the VCC and GND of the filament have been swapped. Remember that the side where there is a whole in the connection is the VCC side.

That is all.

Attaching a Microcontroller.

The resistor connected to the base of the transistor is calculated at a value that accepts 3.3V from a microcontroller. We can use any microcontroller we like: ESP8266, ESP32 or Raspberry Pi Pico.

For our example we will be using the Raspberry Pi Pico.
The only thing we need to do for our first test is to attach a GPIO pin to the base resistor.
And of course connect the GND of the Pico to the rest of the project.

The Pico will get powered from our computer so:
DO NOT CONNECT THE VCC FROM THE USB POWER ADAPTER TO THE PICO'S POWER RAIL.
CONNECTING BOTH THE PICO WITH THE COMPUTER AND THE EXTRA USB POWER ADAPTER WILL BLAST YOUR PICO AND YOUR COMPUTER TO KINGDOM COME.

The first test program.

This is a small test program that puts the pin GPIO16 at HIGH, waits a second and then puts the pin LOW. The ledstrip will go on for a second, then off for a second and that sequence repeats.

# -------------------------------------------
# simple test for setting filament on and off
# -------------------------------------------

from machine import Pin
import time

filament = Pin(16, Pin.OUT)

while True:
    filament.value(1)
    time.sleep(1)
    filament.value(0)
    time.sleep(1)

Make sure this works before trying the next step.

Dimming the led filament

Now let's see if we can dim the filament with our program.
We can fake the voltage output of a GPIO pin by using PWM.

If you are not aware on how this works I can recommend my books on the Raspberry Pi Pico with MicroPython which you can find at the bottom of this story.

Here is the program that sends a PWM signal to GPIO16.
The led filament is off at first and then slowly gets brighter. When the maximum brightness has been reached it slowly dims till its off again and then the sequence repeats.

# -------------------------------------
# test program for dimming led filament
# with PWM
# -------------------------------------

import machine
import time

filament = machine.PWM(machine.Pin(16))
filament.freq(1000)

while True:
    min = 0
    max = 65536
    for i in range(min,max):
        filament.duty_u16(i)
        time.sleep(.00015)
    time.sleep(1)
    for i in range(max,min,-1):
        filament.duty_u16(i)
        time.sleep(.00015)
    time.sleep(1)

You can adjust the minimum value and the time between steps to your own liking.

Now everything works as expected we can start some real projects with this led filament.

So have fun,
Till next time

Luc Volders

Pi-Apps in Raspberry OS with KDE

For an index to all my stories click this text.

I got a mail from a reader that had a question about my previous story in which I installed the KDE Desktop on my Raspberry Pi OS.

He saw that I installed the TOR browser and wondered how I did that as it is not officially listed in the Raspberry program list (repository) , but it is also not available in Discover (the KDE program list).

I am going to show you how you can install the TOR browser and a lot of other programs that are not listed in the official repositories.

Pi-Apps

Somewhere on the internet I found a link to a website that is the home of a program called Pi-Apps. The link is this: https://pi-apps.io/

Pi-Apps is a repository that offers all kinds of Raspberry Pi specific programs that are (or were) not available in the official Raspberry repository.

You actually have to trust the developers who post programs there as they are not linked to the Raspberry Pi organization.
On the other hand I have to mention that this service has been around since a long time and I have never heard about any problems with it (viruses or spyware). They claim that more than 1.000.000 people have used their service. If there was something wrong with one of their apps you should have heard about it by now.

So I can recommend Pi-Apps as a second repository for Raspberry specific software that can not be found in the Raspberry's own repository or in Discover (the KDE repository).

Installing Pi-Apps

To install Pi-Apps you first have to visit the website https://pi-apps.io/

On this webpage there is a big INSTALL button. Click that button and a new webpage opens.

On this webpage are the instructions and they are very simple.

First open a terminal (Konsole) window and paste in the following line:

wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Botspot/pi-apps/master/install | bash

Then press enter and the package gets installed.

Using Pi-Apps

Pi-Apps can be found in the Utilities section of the desktop menu.

Click in the menu on the Pi-Apps entry and a window will open. For those that don't recognize this screen: it is the KDE desktop running on a Raspberry Pi. I can really recommend that !!

This is the main window and shows all available categories with programs.
Take your time and scroll through the lists with programs. Some sections have sub-menu's.

In the internet section for example there is a submenu for all the available browsers.

And there we find near the bottom of the list the TOR browser.

Clicking once on the icon or the name will open a separate window in which you will find a short description of the package.
At the bottom of that window there is a button that shows the scripts that are used to install or uninstall the selected package.
Next to that is the button that installs or uninstalls the chosen program.
In this example the TOR browser is already installed so I can only chose uninstall.

Settings

At the bottom of the window there is the familiar looking glass for searching apps but also the gear icon that opens the settings menu.

I would leave the settings as is. However make sure Check for updates is set to daily so you can be sure you always have the most up to date list of available packages.

Till next time
have fun


Luc Volders

Raspberry Pi5 as a desktop computer

For an index to all my stories click this text.

Last saturday (18 october 2025) was a memorable day.
I switched over permanent to my new computer !!

Up untill a few days ago my desktop system was an AMD Ryzen 5 1400 with Quad Core, a total of 8Gb memory and a 1 Terrabyte harddisk. At the time when I bought it (2018) this system cost about 800 Euro's not counting the mouse, keyboard and monitor.
The machine was getting terribly old and slow and that was mainly due to Windows. So I switched over to Linux (Kubuntu) about 2 year ago and that speeded things up enormously.

But lately The system had memory (ram) problems and hanged regularly. Terribly annoying when you try to do things. So while still working with this system in the mean time I was installing and experimenting with what would be my new computer. And like said a few days ago I switched over permanently.

I am typing this on my new computer. It is fast and works flawless.

My new system is ...............

A Raspberry Pi5 with 8Gb memory and a 1 Terrabyte SSD harddisk.

Yes, indeed a Raspberry Pi, is now my new main computer. And I am impressed.

I experimented a lot with the Pi5 before making the actual switch.

I first started with a 3D printed case. Inside was the Pi5 with a 128Gb SD card.

But soon I realized that while this was already faster as my desktop machine there were some things I did not like.

My first concern was that I thought that the mini HDMI connection was too fragile for everyday use.
Second I wanted a real harddisk in stead of the SD card.
And I was not particularly fond of the cable spaghetti.

And then the software.........

I started out with Raspberry OS Bookworm.
And although the OS is great, it's Debian after all, the graphical shell (Pixel) is terrible. After all the years I work with Raspberry I can not get used to it.
So I removed the Desktop and installed KDE Plasma in stead.
That is the same desktop I was used to on my desktop machine when I installed Kubuntu on it.
And that works flawless and looks super !!!

If you want to install KDE Plasma on bookworm you can follow this tutorial:
https://lucstechblog.blogspot.com/2025/10/raspberry-os-bookworm-with-kde-desktop.html

And about a week Later Raspberry introduced their new OS called Trixie. Fortunately is was easy to install KDE Plasma also on this new OS. I wrote how to do that in this story:
https://lucstechblog.blogspot.com/2025/10/raspberry-trixie-with-kde-plasma.html

After installing all my necessary software on the Pi5 I made a backup of my desktop PC's home directory in which are all my datafiles, photo's video's and stories. I made a backup on an external harddisk.

For safety, you should anyhow make a backup each week !!!

Now that everything was softwarewise to my liking, remained the casing problem.

Raspberry Pi cases

You can, of course, print your own case like I did. But I wanted something more.

A great option is SunFounders Pironman 5 case. I like the tower look and the transparant side with RGB fans. But it lacks USB ports on the front.
So if you regularly need to plug in USB sticks or USB harddisks you need to do that at the back of the case. Or you need to use an USB extension cord from the back to a more reachable place.

This is annoying but it's really a pita when you want to program your ESP's and Raspberry Pi Pico's. Then you really need an easy reachable USB connection.

This makes the Pironman 5 not suitable for me.

Raspberry Pi 500+

I must say this looked very tempting.
But I still have to see one in the wild, before I buy one.
As a writer one of the most important parts of a computer is the keyboard. I do not like the chiclet keys of the Pi 500. Those of the Pi 500+ should be considerably better. But then it misses the numeric keypad and cursor keys.

I do like the 16GB Ram.
But then it has "only" 256GB storage which is too low by my standards. (I write books remember)
And yes you can remove the SSD and put a larger one in. But that would bring the cost up.

Argon One V5 M.2 case

I opted for the Argon One V5 M.2 case. This one had all the features wanted.

At the front:
- 2 USB 2 ports
- 1 Audio out port (for headphone etc)
- An on-off switch
- A power indicator led
- Access to the Raspberry's SD-card port

At the back:
- The USB-C power port
- 2 Full HDMI ports
- The ethernet (network) port
- 2 USB3 ports
- 2 USB2 ports

Inside:
- A fan which speed is regulated by a script
- A PCI board with an SSD slot
- An audio card connected to the front audio port
- An extension board that transforms the micro HDMI ports
  into full HDMI ports and adds 2 USB ports (the front connections)

Assembly.

The case comes as several loose parts. And I thought it was going to be hell to assemble it.
But in fact it took me about half an hour to finish the full assembly.

First step is to push the extension board (for audio, extra USB ports and full HDMI ports) into the raspberry ports.
Then glue the supplied thermal strips to the Raspberry chip's. And then screw the board in the base plate.

Next connect some power leads and a ribbon lead for the PCI board. Push the SSD in and glue some thermal strip on.
Close the case and you are done.

Piece of cake.

Argon software

To use all features of the Argon One V5 case you need to install a small script.

Again there is nothing to it. Just open the Konsole (terminal window) and copy some commands. That is it.
From that moment on your 2 front USB ports are operational.

And you get a dashboard on which you can see how much free ram there is, how much free disk space and your processors temperature and loads.

And here is my desk !!

In the front you see the Argon One V5.
At the back it is attached to a powered USB hub that connects to my keyboard and mouse. The USB hub also connects to my external harddisks that you can see on the right side.
They vary in size from 500Gb to 1 Terrabyte.
Connecting to a powered USB hub connects multiple apparatus to a single USB port. So I still have 3 USB ports available at the back.

The yellow box in the back is a Raspberry Pi3 which acts as a printer server. Through this server everyone in my home can use my Epson Ecotank printer which keeps printing costs very low.

And in the back there is a network switch that ties it all together.

Pricing.

Well let me add it all up.

- Raspberry Pi5 with 8GB € 86,50
- Power supply 27W       € 12,69
- Argon One V5 M.2 case  € 54,44
- Patriot 960GB SSD      € 70,17

This all adds up to a total of 223.80 Euro

This is presuming that you already have a computer monitor (or tv) with HDMI, a mouse and a keyboard. The necessary cables and a spare SD card to install the OS on before you switch over to the SSD as your main storage.

A full working desktop computer with 8GB and a 1Tb harddisk is what I would call cheap.

And just a sidenote.

In a previous story where I showed how to install the KDE desktop on your Raspberry PI I mentioned that booting the PI took a bit longer: 43 seconds.

But that is when booting from an SD card. Booting from the SSD is blazing fast. Just a few seconds.

The Future ??

For now this machine works as a charm for me. Loads of memory and storage, and it runs all the software I need.

I can not predict that the Pi5 will last 8 years like my AMD Ryzen machine did. But then it also did not cost as much.

And without a doubt Raspberry will bring out a Pi6 in a few years. And it will be faster with more memory etc etc. And maybe I switch over at that time.

But for now I am very happy with my new workhorse.

That's it for now.
Back to work for me
have fun and till next time

Luc Volders










 

Using a VPN with Kubuntu

For an index to all my stories click this text.

This story explains how to install a VPN on Kubuntu
This does not work on a Raspberry Pi. For the Pi there is a different solution which will be addressed in an upcoming story. 

What is a VPN

For those that have no idea what a VPN is and why you could use one I'll give a brief explanation.

First the name. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network.

Normally when you visit a website with your browser you have a direct connection to that website.

A VPN is a bridge in between. So you send the request for the website to the server of the VPN provider. The connection between your browser and the VPN server is encrypted and their server is a secure server. The VPN then contacts the website, gets the information and sends it encrypted back to you.
That way you do not have direct contact with the website you want to look at. This keeps you safe in countries where free speech is at stake. But it also makes it impossible for the website you are visiting to track you down. Even your Internet Provider can not see what sites you are visiting.

Another advantage is that you can access sites that are geo-restricted. This means that the website you are contacting even does not know in which country you are.
For a long time this was popular by people in Europe that wanted to watch certain US TV-shows. Without a VPN the US media server saw that you were in Europe and prohibited viewing. If you contacted these media through a VPN server they could not see that you were not in the US.

A VPN is secure for both UDP and TCP communication. Therefore you can also mask your IOT communication this way.

But it's not only safe for anonymously browsing. For Internet banking and mailing a VPN is also an extra safety step.



Free or paid VPN's

There are free and paid VPN services.
The restriction of a free VPN service is that you have less VPN servers to chose from, the service might not always be available and it may be slower.

I have been using the free VPN services from Proton for a while and they were always available and I did not notice any significant speed limitations. I do see that the amount of free VPN servers is indeed more limited as with their paid service, but for my testing purposes that did not bother me.

Proton have a no-log policy. That means that they do not keep a log of your activities. That is an extra safety measure that makes sure that no one can see what sites or services you have been using.

Even the Dutch consumer organisation "Consumentenbond" stated that the free Proton VPN service had little restrictions.
https://www.consumentenbond.nl/veilig-internetten/veiliger-internetten-met-een-vpn



Proton

Proton is a company that was founded by crowdsourcing and their main shareholder is the non-profit Proton Foundation. Their first priority ia privacy for internet users. One of the members of the organisation is Tim Berners Lee who is the inventor of the internet. Many of the people that work at Proton originate from CERN the European Organisation for Nuclear reasearch. Which is also the place where the internet was born.

This all sounds trustfull which is a must for a privacy first oriented company and VPN service.

Next to the VPN service they also supply a safe email service, a cloud based storage (drive), bitcoin wallet etc. etc. etc. Indeed all kinds of products where privacy is of the utmost concern.



Install Proton VPN

To use a VPN you'll need to install a small software package. This package intercepts all your network communication and sends it to the VPN server.

Installing the VPN software in Kubuntu is easy. Just visit the Proton website and follow the steps by pressing the button "Get Proton VPN"

https://protonvpn.com/

Fill in your email address and make up a password. Then download the software.



Using the Proton VPN

After downloading and installing Proton VPN you will find the software in the internet section of the Application Launcher.

The first time using Proton VPN you need to log in with your freshly created email address and password.

The software mentions that you are disconnected, meaning that you are not connected to a VPN server. You can choose the option "Quick Connect" at the top of the window in which case Proton chooses a radom server for you.
You can also click on one of the Cobbect buttons next to a mentioned country in the list. That way Proton VPN choses a connection to a free server in that country.

Clicking on the down arrow next to the country of your choosing presents a list of VPN servers in that country.
As you can see there are 2 free to use servers in Romania. There are 13 more servers in Romania but they are for paying members.

Next to the server you can see a percentage. In this example both servers show 87%. That means that the server still has some room for making new connections. If the percentage is at 100% the server is at his maximum capacity and it will not allow you to connect.

After choosing the server of your liking you can see that the connection is established.

That is all.

You can now open your browser and visit any website you want without anybody being able to trace your internet tracks. 



Does it work.

We here is a quick and simple test to see if the VPN works.

Start with disconnecting the VPN server in the Proton VPN software by simply pressing the Disconnect button.
Then open your internet browser and visit the following site:

https://www.whatsmyip.org/

The website shows your normal IP address.

Now activate the Proton VPN server and choose any server anywhere in the world to your liking. Then again visit https://www.whatsmyip.org/

And look at that: a totally different IP address.



Extra safety

Those of you who have used a TOR browser know that a TOR browser connects to a TOR server, that connects to another TOR server and that again connects to yet another TOR server. And that last server connects to the website you wanted to have a look at.

This way you can not easily be traced.

For extra safety you can use your TOR browser with the VPN.

Just make sure to start the VPN connection first and then start your TOR browser. That way your TOR browser connects to a TOR server through your VPN connection which gives you an encrypted communication line upon an encrypted line. So a double encrypted and untraceable connection.

So if you, for example, want to see a tv show or series that is only available for US citizens within the US connect to a VPN server in the US. And if you connect through a TOR browser make sure the last server in the range is also a US TOR server.

Just be aware that a TOR browser slows your connection to the end station down. 

Safe surfing
till next time
have fun


Luc Volders 

Raspberry Trixie with KDE Plasma

For an index to all my stories click this text

In the previous story I showed how to install the KDE desktop on a Raspberry Pi with the Raspberry OS Bookworm. Why ?? Well because the KDE desktop is beautiful while the Raspberry OS desktop is childish.As this story leans heavily on that previous story I urge you to read that first. Here is the link: http://lucstechblog.blogspot.com/2025/10/raspberry-os-bookworm-with-kde-desktop.html

And just when I was writing that story Raspberry introduced Trixie. The new OS based on Debian 13.
So I upgraded my setup (always recommended) and started experimenting to check if I could install the KDE desktop, called Plasma, on Trixie.

The official Raspberry site writes:
Something you will notice, however, is that we’ve made some changes of our own in the Trixie release. The most obvious is that we have updated the theme for the desktop — we have a completely new set of icons, a new font, new desktop backgrounds, and some other small tweaks to refresh the appearance of the system. This should be apparent as soon as you launch it.

Well actually the new theme looks indeed a bit better. But installing new software, and changing settings and a lot of other things still look dreadful. I wonder why they did not take the chance to upgrade tp KDE Plasma together with the new OS.

How to try this safely

A reader send me a mail telling that he was reluctant to do this as he was afraid to break things in his software. I told him not to worry.

You can try this safely before definitely stepping over.
Just use a fresh SD card. Install the Raspberry OS on that and follow the described steps. That will not harm your original setup and you can experiment as much as you like

But do yourself a favour and give it a try. You will not be disappointed.

Backup your data

First thing to do is to backup your valuable data. Good practice is to do that at least every week. I use an external harddisk for that and copy my complete home directory to that.

Installing KDE Plasma

Well actually most of the steps are equal to installing KDE Plasma on the previous OS: Bookworm.

So I refer to that story which you can find here:
https://lucstechblog.blogspot.com/2025/10/raspberry-os-bookworm-with-kde-desktop.html

The differences in the steps.

Step 7 in the story says:

And there we are.
The screen opens with your user name and you need to login with your password.

Well with Trixie that is not the way it works.
After rebooting the Raspberry GUI appears again.

Another difference is that when updrading Bookworm there is a dropdown menu on the top left side of the screen.
With Trixie this menu is at the left bottom side of the screen.

Just continue.

That is what you need to do. Just continue all the steps and when you reached the last step you will have achieved what you want: the KDE Plasma desktop on the Raspberry Pi !!!

The picture shows the Raspberry Config screen on the KDE Plasma desktop.

Keeping both: Raspberry Theme AND KDE Plasma

Actually it is possible to keep the Raspberry theme and KDE at the same time.
If you want this just omit the steps 10-11-12 from the previous story.

When the login screen appears you can then use the menu on the left-bottom side of the opening screen.

Be aware that it does not really look as a menu. There is just a text saying KDE Plasma on X11 (or Wayland). But that text is clickable and when you do the rest of the options are shown. Just click on the one you want and log in.

The only point with keeping all GUI's is that it will take up space on your root directory. And on a small SD card, like 32Gb, that might limit the amount of additional software you can install.

But when you have installed KDE Plasma and tried it you will see there is no reason to go back.

That's all for now
have fun


Luc Volders