Tag: IoT

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Jul012015July 1, 2015July 1, 20150Commentby Thomas Maurer
Windows 10 IoT Web Performance

The Windows 10 IoT Core web interface

Posted in Cloud, Fun, Hardware, IT, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Powershell, Private Cloud, Virtualization, Web, Windows, Windows 10, Windows IoT, Work

If you have successfully installed Windows 10 IoT Core on your IoT device, for exmaple the Raspberry Pi 2, you can browse the device using a web interface to get some more information. If you don’t know the IP address or name of your device you can use the Windows 10 IoT Core Watcher to find your device on the network.

One the web interface you have different kind of options:

Networking

Windows 10 IoT Web Networking

Performance Monitoring

Windows 10 IoT Web Performance

Processes

Windows 10 IoT Web processes

Device Manager

Windows 10 IoT Web Device Manager

AppX Manager

Windows 10 IoT Web AppX Manager

 

 


Jun292015June 29, 2015June 29, 20152Commentsby Thomas Maurer

Connect the Adafruit 5″ LCD to the Raspberry Pi 2 running Windows 10 IoT Core

Posted in Cloud, Fun, Hardware, Home, IT, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Powershell, Web, Windows, Windows 10, Windows IoT, Work

First I had connected my TV as an external display for my Raspberry Pi 2 running Windows 10 IoT Core. Since I need the little device for some demos, and I want to take it with me I got a Adafruit 5″ LCD display to connected to the device.

The setup with the display is very easy and just plug and play. Just connect the display to the Raspberry Pi 2 board.

Raspberry Pi 2 LCD Display

But by default the output of the Raspberry Pi 2 is Full HD and so the display setting is kind of wrong. But you change this by editing the config.txt file from the SD card.

Windows 10 IoT Display Config

Just open the SD card and add the folloing lines to the config.txt file. (Source)

Windows 10 IoT Display Config TXT

Now you get the perfect outputfor the 800×480 display. If you want to change the settings while the SD card is in the device it self, you can use PowerShell. Remote connect to the Raspberry Pi 2 using Powershell and navigate to C:\EFIESP and check out the config.txt

You can now set the content of the config.txt file

To have the changes active you have to restart the Windows 10 IoT Core device

 


Jun252015June 25, 2015June 25, 20151Commentby Thomas Maurer
Windows 10 IoT PowerShell Cred

How to connect to Windows 10 IoT Core via PowerShell

Posted in Cloud, Fun, Hardware, Home, IT, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Powershell, Web, Windows, Windows 10, Windows IoT, Work

After you have done the setup of your Raspberry Pi 2 with Windows 10 IoT Core you can now connected to the device via PowerShell.

Connect to the Windows 10 IoT device using PowerShell

First open up PowerShell and configure PowerShell remoting to allow your PC to remotely connect to your Raspberry Pi 2. You can use the name of your Raspberry Pi, which is “minwinpc” by default, or you can also using the IP address. You can also use the Windows 10 IoT Core Watcher which helps you find your devices on the network.

You can now open a new PowerShell Remote session by using the following command:

Windows 10 IoT PowerShell Cred

This will prompt you for credentials. The default password of your Pi is “p@ssw0rd”

You can also store the credentials inside a variable, so you do not have to enter it all the time:

Windows 10 IoT PowerShell Remoting minwinpc

To create the connection this can take up to 30 seconds. After that you will see the remote session.

Using PowerShell on your Windows 10 IoT Core device

You can now use PowerShell to do some stuff on your Raspberry Pi with Windows 10 IoT Core. Some PowerShell commands are not build in to Windows 10 IoT Core but you can use some command line utilities.

Get all the process running:

Windows 10 IoT PowerShell Processes

Get network adapter configuration:

List the directories:

Rename your computer:

By renaming your device, you have to reconnect and may change your credentials.

Change the password of your administrator:

Shutdown your device

Windows 10 IoT PowerShell Shutdown

Reboot your device

Close your remote session

I hope this helps you to manage your Windows 10 IoT Core device via PowerShell.


Jun242015June 24, 2015June 24, 20151Commentby Thomas Maurer
Windows 10 IoT Core Watcher

Find your Windows 10 IoT Core device on the network

Posted in Cloud, Hardware, IT, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Powershell, Web, Windows, Windows 10, Windows IoT, Work

If you have done the setup of your Windows 10 IoT Core device you can see the name and the IP address on the default app using a HDMI output. If you don’t have a display connected to your device, Microsoft as a cool tool for you to find your device on the network.

When you download the Windows 10 IoT Core Image you also have a installer file called “WindowsDeveloperProgramForIoT.msi”. This installer installs you a tool called Windows 10 IoT Core Watcher, which will discover your Windows 10 IoT Core devices on the network.

You can also open some options directly from that tool:

Windows 10 IoT Core Watcher Access

This is needed for the next steps in this blog series. If you want to know more about Microsoft and Windows IoT check out my first blog post: Microsoft and the Internet of Things.

 


Jun232015June 23, 2015June 23, 20155Commentsby Thomas Maurer
Windows 10 IoT Core Raspberry Pi2

How to install the Windows 10 IoT Core on the Raspberry Pi 2

Posted in Cloud, Hardware, IT, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Powershell, Web, Windows, Windows 10, Windows IoT, Work

Several months ago Microsoft announced that Windows 10 for the Raspberry Pi 2 will be free. In the last weeks I started working on some Internet of Things (IoT) projects, just to figure out how good the Microsoft story is and how simply I can connect devices for example to Microsoft Azure.

First step in the scenario, I bought my self a Raspberry Pi 2 to start with and checked out the Windows IoT dev center for some more information. Now in this blog post I will describe how you can install Windows 10 IoT Core on your Raspberry Pi 2.

First make sure you have the following things ready:

  • A device running the Windows 10 Insider Preview – must be a physical Windows machine (not a VM).
  • Raspberry Pi 2.
  • 5V micro USB power supply – with at least 1.0A current.
  • 8GB micro SD card – class 10 or better.
  • HDMI cable (if you want to use a display).
  • Ethernet cable.
  • Windows 10 IoT Core Insider Preview Image for Raspberry Pi 2” from Microsoft Connect

After you have download Windows 10 IoT Core for Raspberry Pi 2 copy it to a folder for me this was C:\WindowsIoT. Make sure you have the flash.ffu file in it.

Insert the SD card to your device and open PowerShell  and checkout which disks the SD card is running the following PowerShell commands:

Windows 10 IoT PowerShell DISM Applying Image

Now you can see which disk number is your SD card. This is important for the next command. First navigate to the folder where you have stored the flash.ffu file for me this was C:\WindowsIoT. Now you can run the following command to copy the image to your SD card, change \PhysicalDriveN to the Drive with the disk number in my case this would be \PhysicalDrive1:

Now safely remove your SD card from your PC.

Windows 10 IoT Core Raspberry Pi2

You can now insert the SD card to your Raspberry Pi 2 and connect the network cable, screen via HDMI and the USB power adapter to boot the device up. After you have connected the power supply your device will automatically boot up. On the very first boot Windows 10 IoT Core will do some first boot configurations and it will display a blue default application while this is happening. Wait for a few minutes and the board will automatically restart. This will happen only once and then DefaultApp should show up, displaying the IP address of the Raspberry Pi 2.

Windows 10 IoT Core

I will show you how you can connect to your Windows 10 IoT Core device using PowerShell in another post.


Jun222015June 22, 2015June 22, 20150Commentby Thomas Maurer
Internet of Things Today

Microsoft and the Internet of Things

Posted in Cloud, Fun, Hardware, Home, IT, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Powershell, Private Cloud, Web, Windows, Windows 10, Windows IoT, Work

With the release of Windows 10, Microsoft has not only a strong focus on Business and Consumer end users, it also has a strong focus on Internet of Things (IoT) solutions. Microsoft announced different editions of Windows 10, one of the is called Windows 10 IoT Core and there are also more Windows 10 IoT editions.

But first what is the Internet of Things. Well you can look at it this way, today and in the past the Internet was designed and used by people, to connected people to each other – The Internet of People if you will. But you can think that you can even connected devices to each other, for example your car, your fitness band, your home and a lot of other things.

If you think about how technology can make our life easier, you will see a lot of opportunities for the Internet of Things. IoT can be used for simple things like if you come home, the system automatically detects your car and turns on the lights in your house, starts to play music and so on… But it can also help you in much bigger scenarios where a health sensor detects that you are having problems and automatically calls the ambulance. You see there are a lot of different scenarios which can help you make your life easier.

Internet of Things Today

As you can see, this looks like a huge business.

  • 28 Billion Internet connected “things” by 2020*
  • $20 Billion opportunity for Wearables by 2017*
  • $12 Billion opportunity for Smart Home by 2017*

*Source: IDC, Goldman Sachs

Think about what is possible for you or your business, for example you can connected your home automation with other devices. And if you think what you can do by connecting and using cloud services such as Microsoft Azure you will have limitless opportunities.

Microsoft Azure IoT Services:

Microsoft Azure IoT Services

Microsoft offers a Microsoft Azure IoT Suite which will help you connect devices to the cloud and use services from the cloud. If you want to know more about the possibilities with Windows IoT and Microsoft Azure you can check out the videos on Channel9.

In the next blog posts I will show you how you can use Windows 10 IoT Core together with Azure.

 


May192015May 19, 2015May 19, 20150Commentby Thomas Maurer
Windows 10 Product Familiy

Windows 10 Editions and upgrade paths

Posted in Cloud, Hardware, IT, Microsoft, Surface, Web, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows RT, Work

Last week Microsoft announced the different editions of Windows 10. As in the past Microsoft offers Windows in different editions that are tailored for various different use cases and scenarios. Windows 10 will power an broad range of devices – everything from PCs, tablets, phones, Xbox One, Microsoft HoloLens and Surface Hub. It will also power the world around us, core to devices making up the Internet of Things, everything from elevators to ATMs to heart rate monitors to wearables.

Editions

The different Windows 10 editions address specific needs of our various customer groups, from consumers to small businesses to the largest enterprises.

  • Windows 10 Home – Windows 10 Home is the consumer-focused desktop edition.
  • Windows 10 Mobile – Windows 10 Mobile is designed to deliver the best user experience on smaller, mobile, touch-centric devices like smartphones and small tablets.
  • Windows 10 Pro – Windows 10 Pro is a desktop edition for PCs, tablets and 2-in-1s. Building upon both the familiar and innovative features of Windows 10 Home, it has many extra features to meet the diverse needs of small businesses. Windows 10 Pro will add some management capabilities to the Windows 10 and also adds Windows Update for Business.
  • Windows 10 Enterprise – Windows 10 Enterprise builds on Windows 10 Pro, adding advanced features designed to meet the demands of medium and large sized organizations. Windows 10 Enterprise will be available to Volume Licensing customers and adds some features such as Direct Access, Branch Cache and Windows Update for Business. With Windows 10 Enterprise customers will also get access to the Long Term Servicing Branch to better control deployment options for future updates.
  • Windows 10 Education – Windows 10 Education builds on Windows 10 Enterprise, and is designed to meet the needs of schools – staff, administrators, teachers and students. This edition will be available through academic Volume Licensing, and there will be paths for schools and students using Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro devices to upgrade to Windows 10 Education.
  • Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise – Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise is designed to deliver the best customer experience to business customers on smartphones and small tablets. It will be available to our Volume Licensing customers. Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise will adds a flexible ways for businesses to manage updates.
  • Windows 10 IoT  – Windows 10 will also be avaialble for different industry devices like ATMs, rteail point of sale, handheld terminals and industrial robotics and as well for IoT (Internet of Things) devices with a Windows 10 IoT Core edition.

Upgrade

As Microsoft  announced in January this year, for the first time ever, Microsoft is offering the full versions of Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Mobile and Windows 10 Pro as a free and easy upgrade for qualifying Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 devices that upgrade in the first year after launch. Once you upgrade, you have Windows 10 for free on that device. In the Microsoft Partner Network Microsoft published some more information about the upgrade paths.

Microsoft will offer a free upgrade to Windows 10 for qualified Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8.1 devices in the first year. After the first year, upgrades will be paid via boxed product and VL Upgrades.

  • Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 7 Home Basic and Home Premium devices upgrade to Windows 10 Home
  • Windows 8/8.1 Pro and Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate devices upgrade to Windows 10 Pro
  • If upgraded within the first 12 months following launch, the device will receive ongoing Windows 10 updates for free for the life of that device
  • Excludes Windows Enterprise and RT devices
  • The free Windows 10 upgrade is delivered through Windows Update; domain-joined machines can manually get the update via Windows Update. The upgrade cannot be deployed through WSUS.

Windows Update for Business

At Ignite, Microsoft  announced the free Windows Update for Business service, available for all Windows Pro and Windows Enterprise devices, designed to help organisations keep their Windows devices always up to date with the latest security and features. In case you missed it, check out the blog, Announcing Windows Update for Business for what the service will provide.