India-based Arvind Ravulavaru has written a great tutorial that uses Node.js on a Raspberry Pi to create an internet-of-things doorbell. Read the tutorial here and see the video below.
Use an XBox 360 wireless controller with the Raspberry Pi
Martin O’Hanlon wanted a controller for his robot and settled on an XBox 360 wireless controller. He used a £5 USB dongle for the initial communication and then wrote a script in pygame to interface to the controller. You can read more and see the code here.
Raspberry Pi-powered pumpkin
It’s almost Halloween. Joy.
Allen Heard has taken a pumpkin, a Pi and a Pibrella and mixed it with some other basic electronics to create a scary object to sit on his doorstep. Here’s a video of it and you can see photos of the build here.
The Pi Hut stock clearance sale – Bargains galore at up to 75% off!
In an effort to reduce the number of items he has to count when doing his annual stock-take (and to celebrate his second year in business), Jamie at The Pi Hut has decided to have a massive stock clearance sale. There are loads of items with between 10% and 75% off. So, if you need to grab some bits, now is a great time to get yourself a bargain! Here are a few of the highlights:
- Raspberry Model B+ Starter Kit and Media Centre Kit – £35.20
- Raspberry Pi Model B for £27 and the Raspberry Pi Model B+ for £25.20!
- Pre-loved Model Bs for £15
- 8GB NOOBS full-size SD card – £3
- GPIO connectors, extra-tall GPIO connectors and shrouded box headers for 50p
- Pi Camera cable (30cm) – £1.25
- Beautiful wooden model B cases – £5
- Solid aluminium model B cases – £10
- Babbage Bear – £4 (everyone MUST have one of these – it’s the law)
- Model B PiBows – £6.50 (the model B Coupe is only £4.50!)
- Pi Camera Module (and NoIR) – £16.80
Right! I’m off to buy some stuff
RACHEL-Pi – the offline Raspberry Pi bringing education to far-flung locations
RACHEL-Pi is a great project that is being used in remote locations to distribute educational materials. Here’s what Liz Upton has to say about it on the Foundation’s blog:
RACHEL is an offline server, run on a Raspberry Pi, full of educational content from teaching curriculums, Khan Academy materials, Wikipedia, classic literature, reference material and textbooks; alongside vital community materials like medical and first aid textbooks.
The main body of the blog-post is written by Jeremy Schwartz, who is the Executive Director of World Possible – an organisation that has pushed RACHEL out all over the world. It’s great to read about the success of this initiative and how the Pi is involved. Read the blog post here.
Adventures in Minecraft – a new book for Raspberry Pi owners
David Whale and Martin O’Hanlon have been busy writing a new book which uses Minecraft Pi Edition to teach Python programming. Written in the same format as Carrie Anne Philbin’s awesome book Adventures in Raspberry Pi, it covers everything from basic programming to interacting with electronic circuits. It’s due to be published within the next few weeks and we hope to have the authors signing copies at Pi Wars on December 6th in Cambridge! You can see a full chapter list on David’s blog. Minecraft Pi Edition is now available by default on new Raspbian images.