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Element14 lets London school cook up Raspberry Pi code | IT PRO

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>Element14 lets London school cook up Raspberry Pi code | IT PRO:
A group of London school children have been given the chance to test out their coding skills on a Raspberry Pi computer.
Nearly 250 students at St Saviour’s Primary School in Paddington, London, got their hands on the British-developed device to programme a Lego robot crocodile as part of the school’s day of creativity.
The credit card-sized computers were supplied by Raspberry Pi global distributor element14.

Making, My Projects, Picorder, Raspberry Pi Foundation

Picorder – Raspberry Pi-powered Tricorder

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Long-term hardware project: a Raspberry Pi tricorder. It’s not exactly a novel idea, but it gives me the opportunity to merge my software skills with the hardware side of the Pi, which I’m just learning.

PHASE 1 – Tricorder
BASICS

  • Battery-powered Raspberry Pi with 3.5mm (or larger) screen.
  • Additional diagnostics via 16×2 lcd screen.
  • Wifi network access.
  • Extended capabilities via Windows Mobile phone connecting with VNC and Putty.
  • Rii Bluetooth keyboard and touchpad. (Touchpad will be visible all the time as will a couple of the keys, but the main part of the keyboard will be a ‘revealable’ affair.
  • Contained in a clamshell case of some sort.
  • LCD readout panel. (PARTIALLY DONE)
  • LCDs and moving parts for function and decoration.

SENSORS

  • Temperature/humidity
  • Distance via ultrasonic
  • Movement via PIR
  • Barometric pressure

PHASE 2 (Location and Environment)

  • Add GPS module
  • Add mapping interface to GPS
  • Light level sensor
  • Compass module
  • Some kind of on/off switch for the Pi itself
  • Accelerometer

PHASE 3 (Medical tricorder)

  • Some kind of bluetooth/wireless peripheral (“Medical tricorder”) for taking temperatures, that kind of thing.
  • A camera to take picture of ‘patients’.
  • Heart rate / blood oxygen monitor – http://www.coolcomponents.co.uk/catalog/heart-rate-monitor-p-816.html
  • Geiger counter (for when you absolutely MUST know the level of cosmic radiation on that alien planet!)
  • Some kind of sound sensor
  • Some kind of bluetooth/wireless peripheral (“Medical tricorder”) for taking temperatures, that kind of thing.
  • A camera to take picture of ‘patients’.

Hoping that at each Milton Keynes Raspberry Jam I can show a bit more.

The Picorder will run Adafruit’s Occidentalis distro with my Redwing script suite.

Now, if only I could find my original toy tricorder…

Great Sites, Raspberry Pi Foundation

Great & Vital Raspberry Pi Websites (#1) – Raspi.TV

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This will be a series for Great Raspberry Pi Websites.

First up is Raspi.TV – http://raspi.tv/.
As the site proclaims, it is a site for “Raspberry Pi Information and Videos” but it’s more than that. Alex, the site creator, explained at the Milton Keynes Raspberry Jam that the way he does his videos and instructions is to a) write them and b) try them out himself.
That means, that the site features, if not fool-proof, then hard-to-mess-up and above all accurate instructions on how to do lots of things with your Pi.
Currently (1st October 2012), the site contains articles on everything from first installation to using the Gertboard expansion board to control a motor.

Fantastic, multimedia, content on a very easy to use site. That’s why it becomes our first Great Raspberry Pi Website.