Come on sleepy head, get out of bed with a Raspberry Pi

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Yes, yes, it’s a dodgy picture…

Jamie Dixon has trouble getting his youngest child out of bed. So, he grabbed hold of an old electric hospital bed that could be triggered to go almost vertical. He hooked it up to a servo and a Raspberry Pi and wrote a program on the Windows 10 IOT operating system to control the servo. A simple web interface and a wireless router connected to the Pi lets him control the position of the sleeping surface. Ingenious! Read more here.

Les Pounder reviews the Nexdock as a Raspberry Pi screen & controller

Photo by Pete Lomas

Photo by Pete Lomas (I think!)

Les Pounder, a freelance writer for various Linux magazines (and all-round nice person!), recently backed Nexdock on IndieGoGo (just like I wish I had!). He received his unit a few days ago and has since been playing around with it getting the various functions to work. Read his blog to find out how he got on with using it as a Raspberry Pi display, keyboard & mouse amongst other things!

Pack up your troubles in your old (gig) bag with a Raspberry Pi and Arduino

Martin Hertig took a guitar bag, hooked up an Arduino to the zips via conductive thread to make a MIDI controller and then added a Raspberry Pi into the mix to create his project, called Zippy. The Pi runs FluidSynth synthesizer software (as my Music Box does!) to play the sounds. One zip is for playing notes or chords, one controls vibrato and one changes the bar. You can see it in action below and see more photographs on Martin’s blog.

PiPod Podcast – Episode 1 – Raspberry Pi news, products, crowdfunding, events and projects

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Last night, I recorded the first in what I hope will be an ongoing series of podcasts. This is a new venture for me, so please be kind! 🙂 In episode 1, I cover the latest news in the world of Raspberry Pi, some new/updated products, crowdfunding campaigns, upcoming events and then feature several Pi projects.

The podcast is available to watch on YouTube (embedded below) or to listen to as an MP3. If this proves popular, I will see about getting it distributed via iTunes, Google Play (when it’s available) and other apps. If anyone knows how to do this, by all means, get in touch, because I don’t have a clue!

Here’s the video:

And here’s the MP3:

And here are the notes for this episode of the podcast:

Introduction

News

Products

Crowdfunding

Events

Featured projects

Wrap-up