Frank, at Raspberry Alpha Omega, has worked out how to use WiringPi to drive a 7219 LED matrix. Read how he did it here
Product review: a Slice of Pi for #RaspberryPi
Oxford-based Peter Haban has done a mini-review of the Slice of Pi GPIO breakout board. Seems like a very useful little board. Read the review
System freezes – a guide to what to do
Jeff Skinner has blogged about the various things you to need to know if your Pi (or Linux system in general) locks up. For more info, read the blog
Learn and play piano in Minecraft with the #RaspberryPi
Martin O’Hanlon has written a tutorial and Python script to generate a piano and the notes to go along with it! Read more here
Testing the #RaspberryPi camera automatic exposure settings
Alex over at RasPi.TV has created a script to test the automatic exposure compensation of the official camera module. A video of the output from the script is available on the RasPi.TV website.
Accessory watch: New boards for the #RaspberryPi ahoy!
Ahoy… we’re not at sea, Mike! Anyway…
I always keep an eye out for new boards and here are a couple I’ve just spotted.
GeekRoo All-in-One Breakout Board – ModMyPi – £14.99
The GeekRoo All-In-One Raspberry Pi Breakout Board is one of the most advanced prototyping breakout boards available to date! This board plugs directly in to the GPIO pins on the Raspberry Pi, and then extends the GPIO pins through itself, giving you the ability access the GPIO pins (without using the board), and hence ‘stack’ boards up!
Simultaneously, the board breaks out the 3.3V GPIO pins to a separate stack (Picture 1.), breaks the SPI pins in two groups, in addition breaking out the I2C pins, with a jumper setting to enable both 3.3V and 5V operation (Picture 2.). The board also features an external power source Input (Picture 3.) with 8-Way Output which, provided with further current amplification using a Darlington Driver IC (pre-soldered), can supply up to 50V, 600mA for each output. It therefore has more than enough power to directly drive relays, 1W high-power LED, servos, stepper motors, etc.
Finally, the board also features a power LED and 2A fuse, so you know when it’s on, and your Raspberry Pi is protected! It even has space to add a Mini Breadboard so you can really customise this board to suit whatever project you’re working on, without permanently soldering it all together.
GeekRoo Cockatoo RTC Clock Board – ModMyPi – £17.99
The GeekRoo Clockatoo Raspberry Pi Breakout Board allows you to Transform your Raspberry Pi in to a Fully Functioning Clock! The board features a coin-battery powered real time clock (RTC) module, in addition to an LED screen that can be mounted both horizontally and vertically across the board, which turns you Pi into a beautiful clock. It also has an integrated programmable buzzer so you can use it as an alarm, and reset switch!
The board comes pre-assembled, so there’s no soldering, there’s a full set up guide available from on the GeekRoo Wiki, and the source drivers are available from the GeekRoo Github. All parts come in GeekRoo’s super stylish component tin, so it’s the perfect gift for any Raspberry Pi lover.