Stop freezing pipes with the #RaspberryPi and a new #Arduino board

Alex Eames at RasPi.TV has invented a new board that plugs into the Raspberry Pi. Called a RasPiO duino, it’s programmable from the Pi and will also work away from the Pi providing it’s given a power source. He has a problem at his house over in Poland – the basement gets so cold that the water in an inlet pipe can freeze (and make the pipe burst). So, he’s used a combination of his new board, some relays and some heat lamps to Macgyver a solution together. There’s more detail and a video over on his blog.

Use a Wii Nunchuck on the #RaspberryPi to control a turtle

Jason Barnett has written a tutorial over on tuts+ about using a Wii Nunchuck to control the turtle library to draw lines via Python. There’s two ways of doing it: hacking directly into the circuitry of the Nunchuck or using a tiny adapter board. This looks like a good way of controlling a robot if you don’t want to do it wirelessly. Read it here.

Free #RaspberryPi CPD for teachers/leaders/technicians in Birmingham

Mr Organ from KESH Academy in Birmingham is arranging some free Raspberry Pi-themed CPD for teachers, technicians and school leaders on 3rd July. Aimed at primary and secondary teachers, the early evening session will take place at KESH Academy. The following sessions are planned:

Session 1: What is a Raspberry Pi and what can you do with it?

Session 2: Using Minecraft to engage learners

Session 3: Connecting things to the Raspberry Pi

Session 4: I want to buy a Pi, what do I do next?

You can book (free) tickets to the event by visiting this EventBrite page.