The guys over at Initial State have written a comprehensive tutorial to create an Internet of Things Beer Fridge! By using a Raspberry Pi, some sensors and a Wii balance board (!), the software is able to determine how many beers are in the fridge, whether the door is open or closed and the temperature inside the fridge. The output is streamed to their online data service which you can then look at using a tablet/phone/browser. Read more here.
Ria Parish writes for “Love Southend” and has done a nice write-up of the Southend Raspberry Jam which took place last weekend. She gives a thorough overview of the events that took place and there’s plenty of photos to give you a feel for the place. Keep an eye out for notification of the next Jam – it’s definitely worth going to! Read the review here.
Richard Hayler has also been working with the AstroPi. His school’s project is to detect the presence of an astronaut by measuring the amount of sweat in the air using the AstroPi’s onboard humidity sensor. He is documenting his work on his blog and you can read his latest entry here.
The Diddyborg from PiBorg is a lovely, hard-wearing, speed robot. Richard Hayler has taken an old digital joystick he had lying around and hooked it up to a Slice of Pi prototyping board on the Pi so that the Diddyborg’s movement can be controlled. Read more here. Because we can never have enough robot action on this blog, here is some obligatory video footage of the Diddyborg in action:
Martin O’Hanlon has constructed a model of the International Space Station in Minecraft. He has then used the AstroPi HAT to send accelerometer data to the Pi. When the AstroPi is rotated, the space station within Minecraft mimics this movement. It’s a bit slow, but it is very cool. Take a look at the video:
Sai Yamanoor is planning a trip to the Sierra Nevada in California/Nevada and he’s using a Raspberry Pi to do it! He’s using an API provided by the California Department of Transportation to retrieve road condition data and then manipulating it for his own purposes. This is an ongoing series and you can read part 1 here.
