Right after I got out of bed this morning, I heard a distinct “ding” coming from somewhere in the house. A few seconds later, it happened again; I finally figured out that it was the house alarm telling me that the battery in the bedroom motion detector was low. No problem – I had another battery in hand (much to my surprise, since it’s an odd battery type).
I thought it would also be a good time to check the status of the Raspberry Pi that connected the alarm to my home automation system. I couldn’t connect to its web server – and I couldn’t connect to it by ssh. So after Shabbat services, I unhooked it from the alarm and tried to read its SD card. No dice – the file system was corrupted.
I found another SD card and installed the newest version of the software; it booted and worked on the network, so all I had to do was connect it back to the alarm panel. When I gave it power, nothing happened – no flashing lights, no nothing.
I disconnected it and powered it up again – nothing. So I dug out another Raspberry Pi, put in the SD card, and all was well. Until I plugged it back into the alarm. The alarm started beeping randomly, and the Raspberry Pi didn’t boot up. So I disconnected it and the alarm stopped beeping; the Raspberry Pi seems dead.
I’m running out of Raspberry Pis! And ideas. At least the alarm is working, even if I can’t control it from my phone for now.
On a brighter note, I got a note from Chase saying that my credit for the failed webcam is now permanent. At least there was one happy ending today!