Camera module, Crowdfunding, GPIO boards, Making

Build a camera module project with this new Raspberry Pi prototyping board

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Richard Saville, aka The Average Man, has just launched his first Kickstarter campaign.

The ProtoCam is a prototyping board that plugs into the Pi’s GPIO pins and has a mounting space for the camera module.

There are loads of different applications for this board – simply put, anything you want to do with your camera module from adding a flash (lots of ultra-bright blinkies!) to adding a countdown timer to… well, anything you can come up with, basically.

Richard has put together a fantastic Kickstarter page, with lots of detail, and his promotional video (below) is also excellent.

The board costs £8 (rising to £9 post-Earlybird) and comes with all the fixings you need, including a GPIO header and a shorter camera ribbon cable. It’s great value. I’ve already pledged, and I recommend you do too if you’ve got, or are thinking of getting, a camera module.

Visit the Kickstarter page here.

Operating systems, Raspberry Pi Foundation, Software

New release of NOOBS and Raspbian for the Raspberry Pi

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The Raspberry Pi Foundation has announced a new version of Raspbian is now available, as well as a new version of NOOBS containing that new release. The following features are included in the update:

  • New firmware with various fixes and improvements
  • Minecraft Pi pre-installed
  • Sonic Pi upgraded to 2.0
  • Include Epiphany browser work from Collabora
  • Switch to Java 8 from Java 7
  • Updated Mathematica
  • Misc minor configuration changes

You can download the new version from here.

Geeky Techiness, Internet of things, Making

Professor uses Raspberry Pi as part of an earthquake early-warning system

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Berkeley professor Joshua Bloom is part of the beta-testing team for ShakeAlert, an earthquake early warning system. He has used a Raspberry Pi to tap into the data source of the system to provide him with a 5-second warning should a large earthquake occur. You can read more here. The data source is not currently available to the public, but it is hoped that the use of a low-cost board to demonstrate the feasibility of personal warning systems could be used to get the project funded fully.

Making, Security

Apartment door buzzer control with a Raspberry Pi

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Jonathan from RoboPenguins.com wanted a way to get into his apartment without needing to remember his key (which he tends to forget). So, he built a circuit to switch the buzzer/access button in his apartment from a Raspberry Pi. He and a friend then wrote a web interface connected to his network. All he needs to do is connect his phone to the same network, access the web interface and send the signal that buzzes him in. Read more here.