Gus wanted to play some retro DOS games, so he set about seeing if he could do it on his Raspberry Pi. He’s managed it by using a piece of software called DOSbox and has written up full instructions on how to configure it to be able to play your games. There are plenty of game images out there, particularly on abandonia.com. There are a number of games that could be played on this emulator, including Doom and, which gets my interest, the original QUAKE! Read more over on Pi My Life Up.
Create a Raspberry Pi access point with PaPiRus and Pi PoE
Francesco Vannini recently had an article published in The MagPi about creating an access point using a Pi and two add-on boards: PaPiRus and Pi PoE from Pi Supply. He’s now blogged the full instructions of the project and you can read them here.
Raspberry Pi-powered, GPS-enabled metal detector robot
Ingmar Stapel from Munich has created a robot that will carry out metal-detecting activities. The robot is fitted with a GPS to track location and a pan-and-tilt camera to enable the person who is controlling it to see where they are going. In future, he hopes to add a compass to allow autonomous scanning of an area. Read more here.
Skycademy 2016 announced – Raspberry Pi high altitude ballooning CPD
James Robinson has just announced that this year’s Skycademy will take place on Monday 8th to Wednesday 10th August.
Skycademy is a FREE two-and-a-half day Continuing Professional Development (CPD) event aiming to provide experience of high altitude ballooning to educators, and demonstrate how it can be used as an engaging teaching tool.
The training includes tuition on the theory and practice of launching high altitude balloon flights and an opportunity to launch an actual flight in teams.
The aim is for each Picademy participant to eventually launch their own flight and, to this end, Skycademy attendees will receive support & equipment to help facilitate this over the following 12 months.
You can read more here and apply here. Information about last year’s Skycademy is available here.
Scarborough farmer uses Raspberry Pi to scan sheep
There’s a headline I never thought I’d type!
Dr Paul Buckley is a Scarborough-based farmer who wanted to tackle the problem of tracking his sheep. Sheep are required to be fitted with electronic identification chips and these have a very tight specification requiring a scanner that can cost in the 100s or 1000s of pounds. Paul realised that a USB scanner could do the job and so he hooked one up to a Raspberry Pi Zero and fashioned a ‘paddle’ that could be waived over the sheep’s chip to identify the animal. The MagPi has covered the detail and you can read it here.
Work experience opportunities sought in Cambridge
I’ve had a couple of emails from some parents of teenagers who are seeking work experience in the Hertfordshire/Cambridgeshire area. They are looking for something in the computing/technology arena. If you or your company is able to offer something like this, please get in contact with me.