The Raspberry Pi Foundation have posted some news about the Astro Pi competition. All the winners have now been selected and it is now clear whose code will be run on the International Space Station. There is a mix of private and state schools and a wide assortment of different experiments to be run on the Pis that will make it into orbit. You can read about all the winning entries for Astro Pi by going to the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s blog.
Here’s a quick piece of code for you. James Abela has been experimenting with the Minecraft API through Python and has developed a way to create a series of skyscrapers very quickly. He even gives them windows! This is a great example of a simple ‘place to start’. You can very quickly, for instance, introduce randomisation to the height and size of the skyscrapers, or change the blocks they’re made out of, or any of a hundred other different ideas. Perhaps you want them all to be linked together on the penultimate floor by a bridge? The possibilities are endless! Take a look at James’ code here.
Do you find yourself constantly forgetting how to set-up the RPi.GPIO Python library? I know I do: trying to remember the correct way of doing things has never been my strong point!
Most of the time when I’m programming the Pi to do hardware stuff, I have to sit with a laptop open next to me with a cheat sheet up on the screen. Alex Eames has come up with a great solution to this problem – a GPIO reference ruler. Other reference rulers, for general electronics, have been out there for a while, but no-one has come up with one for the Raspberry Pi, until now. You can see a picture of Alex’s new ruler below (click to embiggen):
To work out whether there are enough people interested in the ruler, Alex has launched it on Kickstarter today, so head over there to pledge. There are 500 rulers available at the £3 Early-bird price (plus shipping) and after that it rises to £4. This is extremely good value considering the finish and sheer usefulness of the product (see below for a mini review). Delivery is expected in September/October.
I got one of the pre-production rulers (such as the one pictured) a few days ago and I’ve already found it invaluable. I needed to program a lot of GPIO pins in a short period of time and used the ruler instead of booting up my laptop to get the proper commands. The commands listed on the ruler are all the ones you generally use when doing electronics experiments with the Pi. The ruler also includes a handy reference for the GPIO pins themselves, using the BCM numbering system, and you can push the holes in the ruler over the GPIO pins for ease-of-use. I’ve also found it very useful as a ruler – I needed to measure the length of some wires for an upcoming project and it just happened to be to hand. The white silkscreen is not quite production-sharp on the one I’ve got, but is still easily readable, and the gold parts make it look very attractive. If you consider that it’s basically £3-4, and there’s nothing like it out there, it’s a bargain. Rating: 10/10.
Patrick Catanzariti has written a tutorial in which he streams the video output from a Raspberry Pi camera then splits it into a stereo view in Javascript. This enables him to view the page through Google Cardboard and get a Raspberry Pi-powered VR experience! Read more here.
I’ve just finished updating a page on the Pi Wars website that should provide enough information for anyone to get started with Raspberry Pi robotics (and maybe even enter the competition!) It includes a list of things you need to build a robot, recommendations of kits to buy, a list of ‘skills videos’ from The Raspberry Pi Guy and details of an open source robot from Ipswich Makerspace. If anyone has any suggestions for adding to the page, please contact us and we’ll add it. We sincerely hope that this page will encourage more people to apply to enter Pi Wars and to get involved in robotics in general. Read the guide here.
Potton Pi & Pints takes place in Potton, a small town on the Bedfordshire-Cambridgeshire border. Potton also happens to be where me and Tim Richardson (who co-organises the Cambridge Raspberry Jam) live!
This event is completely informal and is suitable for all ages and skill levels.
This event is held at The Rising Sun pub (postcode SG19 2PA).
Free tickets are available now – book yours here. We’d prefer you to book, so we can be sure of numbers, but if you’d rather decide on the day, that’s fine, just turn up! 🙂
