Happy Birthday Raspberry Pi! The Pi is now four years old and as it is a leap year we can celebrate on 29th February rather than arguing over what is the best alternative. For that reason in the world of Raspberry Pi birthdays in multiples of four years are extra special.
Author: Matt
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The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B is here! It boasts improved performance, connectivity and power management with a 64-bit CPU and on-board WiFi and Bluetooth. The price is expected to remain at $35 which translates to £30 in the UK (inc VAT).
Whenever there is a new release of Raspberry Pi OS I always wonder what pre-installed packages are available by default. Sometimes this affects my old tutorials as I want to know if I need to bother telling people to install packages that are now included by default.
Here is a new infographic from RS Components. It’s got hyperlinks to 9 unusal Raspberry Pi projects covering topics such as droids, tea, rhinos, tanks and beer. There’s something for everyone! 9 of the best Raspberry Pi Projects – RS Components
In the 1980s the publisher Usborne released a series of 15 books that aimed to teach kids programming. They covered the basic fundamentals of computer programs as well providing code listing for lots of games. For some these books will offer a massive shot of nostalgia. If you owned a ZX Spectrum, a BBC Micro or a Commodore 64 you probably owned at least one or borrowed one from the library.
The Lumsing Grand A1 Plus power bank is a large USB power bank with a capacity of 13400mAh. I’ve been using it for a few weeks with my mobile phone but today I decided to see how long it would run a Raspberry Pi 2 for. The difference in power consumption between the other models is fairly predictable now so I didn’t plan to run the test with a Model A+/B+ to save time. Although I may use this battery to test my new Pi Zero. It has two USB outputs with a maximum current of 3A which makes it…
Almost within minutes of my posting my previous 3D Printed Adafruit Raspberry Pi Zero Case post Adafruit updated the design of this case to take into account the comments on Thingiverse.
Adafruit were quick of the mark with their original Pi Zero 3D printed case. They’ve recently modified it and provided a lid so I thought I would give it a try. It’s a basic two part design with cutouts for the GPIO header, micro-USBs, mini-HDMI and microSD card slot. The Raspberry Pi Zero board snap fits into the enclosure with the lid clicking into place on top. The case was designed by Noe Ruiz.
Once the dust had settled and I had a Pi Zero to play with I decided to 3D print a few cases. The most successful one so far has been the design mentioned in The MagPi Issue #40. That’s the one that made history by sticking a free computer on the cover.
The Pi Family Photo is created and maintained by Alex Eames from RasPi.tv. It shows each iteration of the Raspberry Pi and was updated in March 2018. The latest photo shows the Raspberry Pi Zero W and Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+.
Today saw the launch of the Raspberry Pi Zero. Unlike previous launches this piece of hardware is being given away for free on the cover of issue 40 of The MagPi magazine. The Pi Zero is three times smaller, faster and uses less energy. Oh and if you don’t get a free one you can buy it for £4 ($5).
The makers of The MagPi, the Official Raspberry Pi magazine, have just released a new book. “The Official Raspberry Pi Projects” book is packed full of reviews, articles and projects. It is available as a mobile app on both Apple and Google stores, a free downloadable PDF or a physical hardcopy.
Over the years I’ve used plenty of SD cards from various manufacturers at various prices. I never seem to have a spare card when I need one so I decided to buy a small selection and benchmark their performance. I was curious as to the differences and thought other people would be interested in the results.
Following on from my Basic Temperature Logging To The Internet With Raspberry Pi article I decided to upgrade my logging device. By coincidence Arthur Amarra launched a Kickstarter campaign for a “retroScreen” HAT which provided a Nokia 5110 screen, i2c header and four switches. This was exactly what I needed.
With the latest release of Raspbian I started to struggle to autorun Python scripts on bootup using Cron or rc.local. It appears that the Raspbian boot sequence has changed and these processes run at different points in that sequence. How much of an issue this is depends on what your Python script is trying to do and what resources it needs. The point at which your Python script is run in the startup sequence is vital if your script relies on any system features being available at that point in time. For me this often includes : Network is connected and…
One of the biggest changes in the new release of Raspbian is that by default it automatically loads the desktop environment. There are good reasons for this but it might not suit all users. Luckily the developers have given us something in return that makes this a welcome change for me. The “Raspberry Pi Software Configuration Tool” (aka raspi-config) has been updated and a new graphical version has been added to the desktop. Within both these utilities there are a new set of boot options. These options not only allow you to choose whether to boot into the desktop or…
Last month I bought myself a 3D printer. It uses standard micro-switches to register the position of the movable parts. I wanted to replace these with something less mechanical and someone on the support forum mentioned using a hall effect sensor instead.
The Raspberry Pi Foundation have announced the long awaited Official Raspberry Pi 7 inch touchscreen. It is now available to purchase at a base price of $60 plus local taxes and shipping. From CPC in the UK this equates to £50 with free delivery.
On the 23rd August 2015 the At-Bristol Science Centre hosted the 2nd Bristol Mini Maker Faire. It was two years ago that I attended the event at the M-Shed so I had been looking forward to this for a long time. I stuck my rucksack in a locker so I could travel light armed only with some money, a camera and a mobile phone. There was plenty to see and a good mixture of exhibits, demonstrations and workshops intertwined with a friendly atmosphere.
Following on from RobotSentry – Home Security System – Part 1 this is the second post in my security system project. With the basics of the design finished I assembled a set of components. Many of them I was able to salvage from previous projects.
Back in 2012 the Raspberry Pi caught my eye because I wanted to make a custom home security system. My mountain bike had been stolen and I wanted to make a system to have my revenge. Unfortunately I got side tracked and accidentally wrote 190 blog posts instead. Many of them are based on ideas I was trying out for potential security applications. So three years later I’ve decided to get back to my Pi roots and finish the system I had originally planned.
There have been many contenders to the Raspberry Pi’s crown and many of them have disappeared into obscurity. It’s not that they are bad devices but they just haven’t captured peoples’ imagination in the same way as the Pi. The new kid on the block is the BBC Micro Bit. This is a small computing device supported by a large number of well known organisations. Its goal is to promote IT creativity amongst kids and help them develop confidence in our digital world. Sound familiar? That’s the Pi’s turf!