Raspberry Pi Pod and micro:bit base

Vote for Raspberry Pi in the Inquirer Tech Hero Awards

by Michael Horne • 30 March 2015 • 0 Comments

The Inquirer has unveiled the shortlist for its first Tech Hero Awards, aimed at celebrating the best business IT products and people across the industry. The awards cover software and hardware products, along with innovation, events and people working in IT departments and at technology vendors.

Raspberry Pi fans have interest in three categories. The Raspberry Pi 2 is nominated in both Best Developer Tool and Best Product and Eben Upton has been nominated in the Tech Champion category.

Competition is sure to be fierce so head on over to The Inquirer now and cast your votes!

Geeky Techiness, Making, Robotics

Automated Raspberry Pi squirrel feeder

by Michael Horne • 30 March 2015 • 0 Comments

Blogger ‘ulfster’ decided he wanted to be kind to the wildlife in his garden. He has some squirrels that come into the garden but they were a little skittish around him when he tried to feed them. So, he struck upon the idea of building an automated feeder. He made up a box and placed a Pi inside which controls a servo motor which deals with the release of a nut. All he had to do was wait until a squirrel came in to see if it worked. You can see from the video below that he was successful! Read more here.

Programming, Software

Graphical plot of Raspberry Pi load averages

by Michael Horne • 30 March 2015 • 0 Comments

Eric, a self-confessed beginner with Raspberry Pi, is using Python’s matplotlib library to plot data. In this code example, he uses the library to plot the Pi’s 1-minute load average on a line graph. See the code here.

Accessories, Education, GPIO boards, Making, Wearable

Theatrical endeavour for one lucky Raspberry Pi

by Michael Horne • 27 March 2015 • 2 Comments

Spencer Organ, who teaches at KESH Academy in Birmingham, had a problem: How to give a Tin Man a heart. For his school’s performances of The Wizard of Oz, he decided that a Raspberry Pi was the way to go. Thanks to a Unicorn HAT from Pimoroni he was able to have a very very BRIGHT, beating heart shining out from the actor’s chest. Brilliant stuff.

Update: Spencer has now shared his code on his blog

Medical, Robotics, Science

Robotic otter used for emotional therapy has Raspberry Pi as a heart

by Michael Horne • 27 March 2015 • 0 Comments

Students on an MIT Product Engineering Processes course in 2013 decided to build a product to help patients suffering from anxiety and depression as a result of dementia. It’s a cute baby otter called Ollie who responds to touches from the person holding it. It has robotic arms moved by wires wrapped in silicon and it has a waterproof coat underneath a washable fur coat just in case of spills and accidents. You can read more over at the IEEE site and watch the pitch video here.

The future of the product is in question as nothing has come out of it, but it’s great to see the Pi being used for such a great purpose.

Magazines

Issue 32 of The MagPi published for Raspberry Pi owners

by Michael Horne • 27 March 2015 • 0 Comments

The newly relaunched MagPi has just published its newest issue. There’s lots of fantastic content and the magazine really does look like it will go from strength-to-strength under the steady hand of new editor Russell Barnes. Take a look at the new issue here. There’s a chance to win an A+, too, courtesy of The Pi Hut, so what are you waiting for?