Alex Eames from RasPi.TV has done a nice video of the new official case that has just been launched. He shows how it all clips together and how compatible it is with HATs and other GPIO accessories such as the RasPiO Duino. Watch the video here.
Raspberry Pi motion sensor with realtime alerts
Eric Grossman over at PubNub has written an interesting tutorial which uses an ultrasonic distance sensor. The sensor detects motion by taking constant readings and then uses the PubNub service to ‘subscribe’ to any alerts generated. Read more here.
The story behind the official Raspberry Pi case
Here’s a great post over at the Foundation written by Gordon Hollingworth. It describes in details the trials and tribulations (or possible tribble-ations, for those Trekkies amongst you) of producing an injection moulded case for the Pi. This new official case is available from the Swag Store, element14, or RS Electronics. (or MCM Electronics, Newark and Allied if you’re outside the UK) Read more here.
Official wifi adapter and new official case launched for the Raspberry Pi
I was just browsing around this morning when I discovered that the official Raspberry Pi wifi adapter and the official Raspberry Pi case have both been launched!
The case
The official case, which was launched in beta form at the Big Birthday weekend, comes in several pieces and is white and red in colour. It’s a very well-fitting case and has a detachable side panel to allow you to access the GPIO pins. The top cover can be left off if needed to allow for the use of a HAT or other add-on board. It’s a handsome case and at £6 you can’t go wrong. It’s available from the Swag store.
The wifi dongle
The official wifi dongle is tiny, white and has the Raspberry Pi logo moulded into it. It’s compatible with 802.11 b/g/n networks and works with Raspbian straight out of the box. It’s currently sold out on the Swag store but you can also buy it from The Pi Hut for £6, which is the same price as The Pi Hut’s own dongle.
Read temperature, pressure and altitude with the BMP180 sensor on the Raspberry Pi
Malcolm Maclean is developing an eBook for the Raspberry Pi and it’s available for you to read online. One of the sections of the book is all about the brilliant little BMP180 sensor (pictured above). This sensor, which replaces the larger BMP085, can read temperature, pressure and altitude and then exposes these readings over the I2C bus to the Pi. Malcolm takes you through wiring the sensor up, taking readings and then storing them to a MySQL database. Read more here.
The BMP180 is a great sensor – you can buy one from The Pi Hut for only £2 here – it’s tiny and so easy to use!
Flappy Bird game controlled by brainwave activity via a Raspberry Pi
On 6th June, we held a Cambridge Raspberry Jam at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge. One of our Show and Tell tables was manned by Carl Monk and Albert Hickey. Albert has created a game called ‘Flappy Bird’ using Python & the Pygame library. You control a ‘flying brain’ and try to avoid obstacles placed in your way. The control mechanism is a headset which senses your level of concentration and then moves the brain up and down in response. The headset is wired to an Arduino which sends the readings to a Raspberry Pi. You are literally controlling the game by using your mind! It’s very impressive and extremely cool. Alex Eames of RasPi.TV has made a video in which he interviews Albert, has the project explained to him and then shows a demo play-through of the game. Take a look here.