I’ve been busy with a bunch of projects in the last week. Let’s take a look at them!
Git Report
As you may know, I’m working on Skeleton Cave with my brother. Since we are in different states and working on things separately, I am using git for the project so that we can work on things individually and not step on any toes.
My brother isn’t familiar with git like I am, but I wanted a system in place where I could show my latest commits to him easily. Initially, I created a tool in python that will create an html file of my git report and neatly list everything in a table. It isn’t pretty (yet!) but it works. This is great, but the problem is I don’t want to host this site publicly since this is an internal project.
HTML version of the git report
I redid my code, but this time it creates an excel spreadsheet that organizes everything in tables. It works great and can be set to automate whenever a new commit is written (or just nightly via cron job). I can even have it automatically save to a folder that syncs with Google Drive (our primary cloud based sharing service). This way he has a nice clean log of my git commits just in case he needs to reference something or see why something broke. It works great, and for future public projects I will probably implement the HTML method so that people can view the changes online.
Excel version of the git report
I’m currently working on a better version that can spit out custom changelogs in Markdown based on parameters you put into a config file. More to come on that!
Raspberry Pi NAS
The second project was to create a NAS. Why? Well, I’m using a Samsung USB HDD for backups right now. It works, but it’s not very secure. If there’s anything I’ve learned in IT and just owning old computers is that backups are important. I regret not backing my stuff up when I was younger. A lot of my old childhood videos and games I made are now lost forever. I looked into getting a Synology NAS for about 180 bucks. My finger was on the mouse ready to click, but something told me to look at the reviews a bit more in depth. Thankfully I did. I don’t think this was what I was looking for. I needed something with more control.
I then realized I could just build my own NAS with a Raspberry Pi 4. I bought one along with x2 2TB HDDs and a powered USB 3.0 hub. The hub is needed because the Raspberry doesn’t output enough power for two HDDs.
The two drives are set up in a RAID 1 configuration. Both are mirrored. This gives me some redundancy just in case one drive goes bad. I have 2TB of network storage to save my backups and projects to. I also plan on turning this into a VPN server (so my brother can remote in and access internal files). It is also currently my main git server that I push to and sync my projects across multiple computers in the house.
I’m glad I went this route because all together, the RaspNAS is much smaller in form factor than the synology, probably takes up less power consumption all together (it does require two outlets. The Pi and the hub), and can be customized to my liking.
Game Dev
On top of those other projects, I’ve been working real hard on my game projects. Skeleton Cave is moving at a slow but steady pace. I’ve also started working on a game with my girlfriend in Unity. I’m not too familiar with Unity, but I must admit the more I use it the more sense it makes. I’m having a lot of fun with the game we’re putting together. I would talk more about it, but that’s gotta wait. Here’s a screenshot for now
So that’s about it. These are the projects I’ve been working on this week. My next project will be to recreate IdiotBox, my Raspberry Pi powered car bluetooth receiver. Mine got stolen out of my car early last year. Bummer, but at least it gives me an excuse to have some more fun with it!