Ted Hale has built his own weather station with some strip board and screw terminals so that he can attach whatever peripherals he needs. Read about his project here.
Water cooling the Raspberry Pi
This one is roughly in the category of “Why would you do that?” but Unprecedented has gone ahead and done it anyway. He’s taken a few 3D printed parts and some tubing and created a water cooling system for the Raspberry Pi. You can read how he did it over on Instructables and you can see more in the video below. Obviously, doing this yourself requires a lot of guts and know-how and it’s not recommended unless you really know what you’re doing.
Adafruit start to launch their HATs for the Raspberry Pi
US maker store Adafruit has just started to release HATs for the Raspberry Pi B+ and A+. The one I’m featuring here is the Ultimate GPS Hat. This sits on top of your B+ or A+ and allows you to receive GPS signal data from the GPS receiver on top of the HAT. Here’s a list of features, taken from the Adafruit site:
- -165 dBm sensitivity, 10 Hz updates, 66 channels
- Only 20mA current draw
- Built in Real Time Clock (RTC) – slot in a CR1220 backup battery for 7-years or more of timekeeping even if the Raspberry Pi is off!
- PPS output on fix, by default connected to pin #4
- We have received reports that it works up to ~32Km altitude (the GPS theoretically does not have a limit until 40Km)
- Internal patch antenna which works quite well when used outdoors + u.FL connector for external active antenna for when used indoors or in locations without a clear sky view
- Fix status LED blinks to let you know when the GPS has determined the current coordinates
The rest of the HAT is dedicated to a small prototyping area and all the non-used pins are broken out for your use. You can read more here and purchase one here.
New desktop for the Raspberry Pi released
Slightly under the radar, the Raspberry Pi Foundation have released a new, slicker and more user friendly version of the standard Raspbian desktop. You can get the new desktop by downloading a new image for your Pi or by typing in the following instructions:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get install raspberrypi-ui-mods Naughty or Nice Raspberry Pi machine
Brian Corteil is a regular at both CamJam and Potton Pi & Pints. He often brings along his ‘naughty and nice’ machine which magically detects, when you insert your hand, whether you’ve been naughty or nice. Ideal for Christmas time – it could really save Father Christmas a lot of time! Read more about it at the Raspberry Pi Foundation or find out how to make your own by heading over to Adafruit.
Photo from Adafruit
Embedded art installation with Raspberry Pi
Malte Steiner and Wolfgang Spahn are exploring the artistic potential of embedded open source systems. In their new project “Embedded Artist”, they have used Raspberry Pis and Paper Duinos. Here’s what they say about their project:
The performance combines four different layers of visions that are merging into one visual Gesamtkunstwerk: 3D models, video scratching, live camera, and mechanical effects are likewise projected within the space.
The 3D models are animated in Open GL, whereas video scratching and live cameras run on each Raspberry Pi. Mechanical and optical effects such as fragmented projections are generated by servos and glass prisms.
“Embedded Artist” is not only projecting all over the walls, but it is filming the audience and the space likewise and re-projecting those images. Moreover, the light beam of each projector is fractionized by a prism and therefore sends broken images onto the walls. Thus the combined effects of all four layers allow for the linking together of performance and space. In doing so the performance is blurring distinctions between artist and audience, body and mind, artwork and space.
Below is an excerpt video of the work at Piksel 2014, Bergen, Norway. You can read more about the project here and here.