New standards for GPIO boards on the #RaspberryPi B+

There are two pins on the GPIO on the new B+ all to do with EEPROM. Now, it doesn’t really matter to most users what these pins do, but for those who are developing add-on boards that plug into the pins, it could make all the difference. According to James Adams of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, these pins can be used to allow add-on boards, called HATs (Hardware Attached to the Top) to program the Pi on boot-up and create new and exciting behaviours. You can read the current technical specs and documentation by visiting this GitHub site (although it’s currently a work-in-progress) and you can hear more from James about the potential of the EEPROM pins by reading this interview on Raspi.today.

Solar-powered #RaspberryPi powered school fundraiser


Some folks in South Africa who run the United Twenty-13 non-profit organisation are attempted to build a solar-powered Raspberry Pi lab for schoolkids. To do this, they need to raise just over $10k. This sounds like a great project to get behind and could really make a difference in the lives of children who are deprived of the luxuries most of us can afford. If you’d like to find out more or would like to donate, visit the IndieGoGo page. Thanks to the Raspberry Pi Foundation for pointing this story out!

Open the pod bay doors with a #RaspberryPi

hal9000

 

Eduardo Zola and Perla Zola have taken a Raspberry Pi, created a wooden case for it and added an ‘all seeing eye’ and made a HAL9000 replica. It’s a lovely build which you can see a tour of by watching the video below. Version 2 is currently in the works! It’s well worth looking at their website for some of the other projects they’ve done – really clever guys.