Ben Nuttall, Raspberry Pi community manager, has just posted on the Raspberry Pi blog about a new set of resources for Jam organisers. The best part of it is a new Jam Guidebook which tells you everything you need to know about setting up a Raspberry Jam in your local area including hints and tips, case studies and answers to the “big questions” that you might ask if taking on such a task. There is also an application form for a Jam starter kit which contains some goodies to get you started and organised, as well as a branding pack for those who need to get some graphics done for their event but don’t quite know where to start. Read more about the new resources here.
Pickles is one lucky dog. Not only does he have two owners who dote on him (and miss him when they’re not there!), one of those owners, Eric Page, decided to build a Raspberry Pi-controlled treat dispenser. The idea is that when they’re not there, Eric and his fiancee Shirin can connect to the Pi over the internet and tell the dispenser to do its stuff. The machine is called, rather adorably, the Pickles Loves His Mom Treat Machine.
The Pi controls a stepper motor which rotates a cylinder with a cut-out. The cut-out allows the treats to fall out onto the floor, which Pickles gratefully chomps up! It also plays a sound clip of Shirin’s voice (which has developed a lovely Pavlovian effect!) and then takes a picture if the Pi detects motion (which it inevitably does – Pickles gets hungry, after all) and emails it to the person who submitted the dispense request. Apparently, Eric went to a lot of effort to ensure that just the right amount of treats were dispensed to avoid Pickles developing a weight problem!
The software uses Adafruit’s IO MQTT interface to transmit messages to the dispenser. This can be triggered either over the web or via voice through an Alexa device. The back end on the Pi is written in Python and it also monitors a Gmail account occasionally for email requests.
There’s a new operating system on the block and it’s based on the open-source ChromiumOS, familiar to all users of Chromebooks. Based on Google’s popular browser, ChromiumOS has been ported to the Raspberry Pi as FlintOS. There is a downloadable image available (built in February) and everything indicates that more work will be carried out to develop it further. More information is available from the FlintOS website.
Music artist otem rellik (Toby Hendricks) has built an amazing musical instrument. It is a music samples looper that he created to replace his iPad for live performances. It features a Raspberry Pi 3 running Pure Data and a Teensy 3.6 for handling the controls, the screen and communications with the Pi, which it achieves over a serial link.
At the bottom right are the instrument buttons. Normally, these play sounds but by pressing a small button to the left, he can choose which instrument he is playing. The screen at the top right shows the instrument selection and other menus.
Top-right of the box are the loop buttons, for recording and playing back of the loop sequences and volume controls for them. Bottom left is where effects are handled such as delay, reverb, cut-off, feedback and beat repetition.
Above the instrument buttons, there is a large screen (which is actually a Nintendo DS touch screen) where post-loop effects are created – he can create these effects by drawing on the screen with his finger.
There is a large rotary encoder on the top right which allows him to save, load and delete loop sequences, the menu for which is also displayed on the small screen.
Along the back (the top in the photograph) are various external inputs and outputs, including a USB link to his girlfriend’s instrument so that data like beats-per-minute can be synchronised between the two.
The whole box has a strip of Neopixels round the bottom edge (you can’t see them in the photo) which change in reaction to the music being played.
In 2015, the Environment Agency released it’s LIDAR data to the general public. LIDAR (Light Detection & Ranging) uses a laser “to scan and map the landscape from above and is widely considered to be the best method for collecting very dense and accurate elevation data across the landscape.” [source]
Stefan Janusz from Defra Digital has posted a way of using this data on a Raspberry Pi (not to mention Macs and Windows machines) to generate 3D terrain maps based on this data. In particular, Minecraft Pi Edition is used to generate these maps in a live environment. It’s all very ‘big data’-y and exciting, and fun! You can explore this method of using the LIDAR data here. Make sure you read the whole thing and get to the Pi instructions, which are a little way down the page.
One of Laura‘s pet projects is GUI Zero, a wrapper for GUI library tkinter that has been designed to make it easier for kids (and, frankly, adults) to use! She’s now written a series of worksheets for the Foundation that use GUI Zero to create simple GUI interfaces. Take a look here.
Ultrasonic Theremin
Another resource. This time using an ultrasonic sensor to create a theremin. The Python script plugs into a (running) Sonic Pi session to create the sounds. Ingenious! Take a look here.
Poo Near You!
Here’s an interesting, and slightly disgusting, resource that will likely appeal to all kids who giggle whenever poo is mentioned. Tapping into Nottingham City Council’s open data source, this resource allows you to plot on a map the locations where people have been fined for dog fouling. It’s an interesting use of external ‘big data’, certainly, and you can take a look here.
Ben Nuttall, Raspberry Pi community manager, has just posted on the Raspberry Pi blog about a new set of resources for Jam organisers. The best part of it is a new Jam Guidebook which tells you everything you need to know about setting up a Raspberry Jam in your local area including hints and tips, case studies and answers to the “big questions” that you might ask if taking on such a task. There is also an application form for a Jam starter kit which contains some goodies to get you started and organised, as well as a branding pack for those who need to get some graphics done for their event but don’t quite know where to start. Read more about the new resources here.
