Garage Monitor Memory Leak: Part 1

Code, Electronics, Raspberry Pi, ,

Update: Garage Monitor Memory Leak, Part 2: Tracing the memory leak.

There is some kind of memory leak happening. I first noticed a problem yesterday when the python script stopped running. The Raspberry Pi was still responding to my SSH requests, and when I ran “ps aux | grep garagemonitor.py”, the script was no longer in memory.

As a troubleshooting step I disabled some of the superflous functions (such as temperature monitoring and startup LED flashing). I have been watching how much memory is free over the past hour or two. The free memory has gone from 299596 to 288784. So it is obvious to me that this is going to run out of memory at some point as well.

Apparently Matt Hawkins from the Raspberry Pi Spy blog is having the same issue. Does anyone have any suggestions? At this point all I can think to do is schedule a reboot every so often.

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My Raspberry Pi Powered Garage Monitor

Electronics, Raspberry Pi, , , , ,

Update #1: Garage Monitor Memory Leak: Part 1.

Update #2: I should point out that the arm on the switch I ended up using bent so it stopped working after about a month of us. I really need to figure out a way to mount the magnetic switch instead. I added a rough parts list to the end of this article.

This project uses a switch and temperature sensor connected to a Raspberry Pi (revision 2 board) to provide the state of the garage to a personal web server. This allows my wife and I to check the status of the garage via a bookmark on our smartphones.

This is the first circuit I have created a circuit board for. I am proud of the results. :)

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My Path to iPad Devlopment

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Waiting for an excuse to learn

I have been wanting to learn to develop for mobile devices since I got my first Windows Mobile phone six years ago. At the time my attention was occupied with the impending birth of my first son, and the traumatic transition from working life1 to becoming a stay-at-home parent.

I want an iPhone… never mind, I want a Droid!

Two years ago my wife and I were wanting to treat ourselves to iPhones… then Verizon launched the Motorola Droid.2 By this time our second son was 1-year-old and I was too busy raising two young boys.

The path to an iPad (and to an iPhone for the wife).

This summer, Google launched the “Honeycomb” version of Android meant for Tablet devices.3 Although I had trouble justifying why I needed one, I bought an Android tablet. I found it quite handy and my 5-year-old, my wife, and I all got addicted to playing Plants vs Zombies. It was clear we needed a second tablet. To justify buying an iPad we did some research and found a bunch of nice educational apps/games for our boys to play and learn at the same time… oh and PvZ was available on the iPad as well. My wife enjoyed the iPad enough that she traded her Droid for an iPhone 4S.

An opportunity appears.

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