Robin Newman, who is normally to be found hacking with Sonic Pi, has turned his attention to an online service called Telegram. Using your mobile phone, you can send messages to Telegram which will send them to your Pi which uses the Lua language to read the messages. The Lua and Python scripts then work together to bring about the desired behaviour – in this instance Robin is using LEDs and a buzzer from CamJam EduKit 2 and also the PiCamera. Read all about it and learn how to do it by following his tutorial.
Running a Minecraft server on a Raspberry Pi 2
Martin O’Hanlon, Minecraft hacker extraordinaire, wanted to see if the Pi 2’s better CPU and upgraded memory ran a Minecraft server any better than the B+. He’s documented the procedure on his blog including how to download a vanilla server (or build your own). Take a look here.
Nice Raspberry Pi 2 article over at ElectronicsWeekly.com
For those of you who would like to read a single article about the Raspberry Pi 2 that explains all the hardware changes and all the expected software options (such as Ubuntu and the IOT version of Windows 10) as well as some really precise details of the design of the board, I can recommend heading over to ElectronicsWeekly.com. One of their writers, Steve Bush, has put together a really great article summing it all up. And best of all, it was written on a Raspberry Pi 2!
Updating Raspbian and NOOBS for the Raspberry Pi 2
For those of you out there who have the Raspberry Pi B+ and have just bought a Pi 2, you will need to update your existing microSD card on the B+ before you plug it into the Pi 2. This is accomplished with a few simple commands and a bit of waiting about.
My friend Tim Richardson (@geeky_tim) has written a great, straightforward tutorial over at The Pi Hut that tells you how to do this. Head on over to The Pi Hut to read how to do it.
Build a DeLorean time circuit with a Raspberry Pi
Carl Monk has been busy writing up a project that he has been working on. You, too, can build the DeLorean time circuitry from Back to the Future by following his in-depth tutorial full of wiring diagrams and explanations. Great stuff. Start with his introduction here. Here it is in action:
Watch the Raspberry Pi 2 launch press conference
Element14 has posted a recording of Monday’s press conference on YouTube. It’s well worth a watch, if only to see how excited Eben Upton clearly is about the “New Toy”! It answers a lot of the questions about the board that you might have.