There will be a Raspberry Jam at The Hive Enterprise Centre in Southend-on-Sea on the 20th May. The event, which runs from 10am-5pm will feature talks, workshops and other Raspberry Pi-related happenings. More information can be found here and free tickets are available from Eventbrite.
Mark Norwood is a beginner at hacking and making, so he says, but that hasn’t stopped him from taking on this project to take an off-the-shelf robot spider and control it from a Raspberry Pi. He took two of the spider kits, split them in half so that he could control the two sides independently and added a Raspberry Pi Zero W and the controller board from CamJam EduKit 3. He got it following lines and detecting objects as well as responding to remote control and he’s documented the entire process over on his blog – so head over there to read more.
The MagPi has published their issue 56 review of the Western Digital PiDrive Compute Centre. The kit features a Raspberry Pi 3, a 375GB hard drive and a custom version of NOOBS (along with a keyboard and adapters) allowing you to boot from the hard drive. It’s a very positive review and you can read the whole thing here.
Les Pounder and Claire Wicher have just announced the 2017 Raspberry Jamboree, which takes place on Saturday, 27th May in Manchester from 9am to 5pm. This is an unconference-style event which will have two tracks of non-organised talks and one track of organised workshops. Free tickets to the event, which takes place in the Central Library, are available here. More information about the event and how to get involved is available on Les’ blog.
I think this is terrific – the North needs a big event like this and Les and Claire are well-known people in the community who can make it happen.
Hi everyone. Pi Wars is now over! Phew! It means I can get back to blogging regularly and keeping you up to date with all the news from the Raspberry Pi world.
On Saturday, 15th April, there will be a Raspberry Jam in Covent Garden, London. Taking place at the Dragon Hall Trust on Stukeley Street, the event will have various activities happening including Sonic Pi and Minecraft as well as beginners sessions for those who have just bought their Pi. Free tickets are available from Eventbrite.
Gareth, over at 4tronix, has been busy of late, developing the Playground system. Playground is an add-on board for the Raspberry Pi, Crumble and micro:bit that allows you to quickly and easily connect up various inputs and outputs using cables with 3.5mm plugs on the end. These inputs and outputs, known as Gizmos, contain various components such as sensors, buzzers, buttons and LEDs that can be used in combination with one another to do coding experiments and projects.
Up til now, the Playground has only been available for Crumble and micro:bit. Now, however, it is available for the Raspberry Pi. As you can see form the picture above, it is possible to connect up to 8 Gizmos to the HAT-form factor board, presenting lots of opportunities for combining inputs and outputs.
Gareth was kind enough to send me an early-release kit of the Playground, with lots of Gizmos, and it’s fair to say I was impressed.
The main Playground board is well-designed and functional, and the Gizmos are incredibly cute. Plus it all comes in a nice little toolbox. It looks like just the thing to engage the imagination of young makers, especially, and provides an easy way to get started with digital and analog sensors as well as various outputs. I’m going to be having a ‘play’ in the coming weeks and will let you know how I get on. My hopes are high for this one, though.
Software for the Playground for Raspberry Pi comes in the form of a Python library which you can use in conjunction with GPIO Zero. Very simple and effective.
4tronix is offering a “Super Kit” which includes the main board and several Gizmos for £52.40+VAT & shipping. Alternatively, you can get hold of the main board on its own and take a look at the individual Gizmos. Full details of all the Gizmos and the Playground system in general can be found on the 4tronix blog.
