Instructables user TakTik02 has developed a musical instrument using the Raspberry Pi, some electric cords, a winder and some polystyrene. Together with some other small components, he’s used an MCP3008 to convert the analog signal for the Pi. Take a look here.
The folks over at Dexter Industries have taken an elf-on-a-shelf, their PivotPi servo controller board, a servo and an ultrasonic distance sensor and built an animated elf that reacts and waves when someone approaches it. It’s very cute and you can read how they did it here.
This month’s MagPi (issue 53) is out with all the regular projects, news and reviews you’ve come to expect. There’s a cover disc (DVD) containing the new x86 version of Raspbian/PIXEL for you to use on your home computer (this can also be downloaded as an ISO image). The issue’s main feature is a “get into coding” guide (which is entirely appropriate for the Christmas issue as lots of new people will be getting Pis). You can find out more and download it electronically here and if you’d like a print copy (highly recommended), you can buy one from The Pi Hut or good newsagents.
The folks over at Raspberry Pi have just announced that PIXEL/Raspbian is now available for x86 machines. This means that you can now run the new desktop environment on a regular PC or Mac. You can download it here as a live-booting ISO image. It will also be available tomorrow on the front of The MagPi, so if you want to wait until you have physical media in your hands, you can! The only things it doesn’t include are Mathematica and Minecraft Pi Edition (for reasons of licencing). So, if you want a unified experience across all your machines, this is the way to go!
Naomi Wu, aka SexyCyborg, has created a fabulous cosmetics case which conceals within it a penetration test kit driven by a Raspberry Pi running Kali Linux. Called the Pi Palette, it is a 3D-printed (rather large) box which looks to start with like a container for make-up. The make-up tray, however, lifts out and reveals a keyboard. The cosmetics ‘mirror’ turns out to be a rather nifty hidden screen. It’s a cool project, although she does admit it’s a bit bulky and really is just a bit of fun.
WARNING: If you click around long enough on Naomi’s feed, you’ll find some not-safe-for-work/young-eyes pictures. If you’re not mature enough to handle that, I wouldn’t bother!
You can read more and see more photos (including a full build-log) over on Imgur and see a video of it in action below. The bill-of-materials and STL files can be found here.
Just picked up on this in NASA’s ISS update report for 19th December. Australia has just launched their first payload to the International Space Station. Onboard is a project called CubeRider, which appears to be a Raspberry Pi Model A+ attached to a sensor board with a non-official camera module. I daresay the actual package is more complicated than that (the ISS specifications being very strict, to say the least!) but I can’t find too much information on it. Here’s what the NASA report says about CubeRider:
CubeRider is an Australian educational module utilizing a Raspberry Pi, internal camera, sensors that monitors internal environment variables, some radiation, ISS dynamics and movement, and runs computer code written by 9th and 10th graders.
It appears, from the report, that the project isn’t entirely working at the moment.
