Raspberry Pi Pod and micro:bit base

Accessories, Cases, DSI display, Internet of things, Making, Photography, Tutorials

Connected picture frame is an Internet of Things device running from a Raspberry Pi

by Michael Horne • 2 September 2017 • 0 Comments

Frederick Vandenbosch has taken a Raspberry Pi 3 and an Official Touch Screen and created a ‘connected picture frame’. The frame displays pictures which are periodically downloaded from Dropbox and allows the user to ‘like’ individual photos, thus indicating their favourites. These likes are sent over the Internet to the resin.io IoT service. The screen of the frame is turned off and on depending on the settings in the Raspberry Pi’s cron file. You can read more about how the project was done over at Element 14. You can see a video of the frame in action below:

Accessories, GPIO boards

The Return of the Raspberry Pi Christmas Tree from The Pi Hut!

by Michael Horne • 31 August 2017 • 1 Comment

Jamie over at The Pi Hut has just announced that the circuit board Christmas Tree has gone on pre-order. This product comes in two flavours: a pre-soldered tree (for £15) and a soldering kit (for £12). The tree is three-dimensional, slotting together from push-out circuit board parts and features 25 LEDs tied to individual GPIO pins. Take a look over at The Pi Hut. Pre-orders are being taken until October 15th and will be shipped on November 15th following manufacture.

3D printing, Accessories, Camera module, Cases, GPIO boards, Making, Photography, Raspberry Pi Zero, Tutorials, Video

Create animated GIFs on an ejectable cartridge using two Raspberry Pis!

by Michael Horne • 31 August 2017 • 0 Comments

Abhishek Singh has created this awesome GIF camera from two Raspberry Pis. Called the Instagif NextStep, a Pi 3 with a camera and preview screen records a short video clip and then transmits that clip to a Pi Zero which is then ejected in the form of a cartridge. The cartridge has its own Pi, battery and screen and displays the GIF recording.

All the parts are held together using 3D printed cases. You can see a video of it in action below and read a lot more about the build here.

Software, Tutorials

Get started with the NGINX web server on your Raspberry Pi

by Michael Horne • 29 August 2017 • 0 Comments

Gus, over at PiMyLifeUp, has written this great tutorial to get your started with the NGINX web server. He goes through all the commands you’ll need to install it and everything you need to know to get the PHP language working with it correctly. Take a look here. For those of you who have never heard of NGINX, it is a lightweight web server that is considerably less resource-intensive than the more popular Apache.

GPIO boards, Programming, Tutorials

Make a digital clock with the SenseHAT on the Raspberry Pi

by Michael Horne • 29 August 2017 • 0 Comments

Here’s a quick tutorial to build a digital clock with your SenseHAT and your Raspberry Pi. The tutorial takes you through installing the necessary software and includes the code for the project. To make it start automatically on power-up, take a look at the instructions in my Paper Clip tutorial.

AIY, Artificial intelligence, GPIO boards, Making, Shopping

Google AIY project kit available soon in both UK and USA

by Michael Horne • 29 August 2017 • 7 Comments

Exciting news for those of you still without a Google AIY Project Kit that came free with The Mag Pi 57. Micro Center in the USA and Pimoroni in the UK have announced that they will be stocking the kit in coming months. Micro Center are saying that it’s available for pre-order and will be available at the end of October. The situation with Pimoroni is less clear, but I’m going to assume a similar date. Check it out on Micro Center’s website and Pimoroni’s website.