Albert Hickey and Cat Lamin are running another Wimbledon Raspberry Jam on Sunday, 23rd April. Featuring talks, workshops and show-and-tell, this has turned into one of the best Jams in the South-East and is well worth attending. It runs from 1-4pm at the Merton Arts Space in Wimbledon Library. Get your free tickets here.
CAS co-ordinator Lorraine Underwood wanted to add some bling to her staircase. So she turned to a strip of Neopixel-type LEDs and a Raspberry Pi Zero. She added a weather feed so that different parts of the staircase light up depending on the weather outside. To find out how she did it, and to see a complete list of parts that make up the project, visit her blog.
Bulgarian Leon Anavi previously had success with the Anavi Flex board on IndieGoGo. Now, he’s seeking to raise $500 for his board, the Anavi Infrared pHAT. The board has the following features:
… and comes fully assembled. The pledges start at $9 USD plus shipping for the board alone, and there are further pledge levels giving you sensors to plug in, and multiple boards. Delivery is expected between July and September.
To take a better look at the campaign and to pledge, visit IndieGoGo or watch the campaign video below:
Brian Dorey noticed that there were three unpopulated pads on the Pi Zero W near the zero-ohm resistor and realised what it was for – to place a U.FL RF connector. This connector allows you to add an external antenna to the Zero W and increase its wireless range. By moving the resistor so that it connects to the pads, it disconnects the internal antenna and allows you to add your own. He’s written the modification up on his blog and you can read that here. Obviously, doing this will void your warranty and will make it hard to reverse the action, but as long as you’re aware of that, that’s fine!
James Mitchell has announced the launch of Berlin’s very first Tech Jam, on 1st April. At the event, there will be workshops, talks and a sharing of projects. The Jam is an all-inclusive event aimed at parents, teachers, students, makers, families… basically anyone interested in looking at and learning about tech. It’s a platform-independent event, not just Raspberry Pi, and has a special emphasis on open technology. The event runs from 12-6pm at Technische Universität Berlin Marchstr. 23, 10587 Berlin. If you want to contribute to the event in any way, from showing a project, to helping with a workshop, to being a marshal, email raspberryjamberlin@gmail.com and James will get back to you. Tickets are available from Eventbrite via the Raspberry Jam Berlin homepage.
On 11th March, at FabLab Berlin (Prenzlauer Allee 242 10405 Berlin), the group is also holding a Coding Evening.
This Coding Evening is a regular meeting for people looking to work in small groups for a given project based around the Raspberry Pi or other electronic devices.
This is a just-turn-up event. So whether you have a project in mind or not, turn up and get involved. It runs from 1-6pm. Please bring your own equipment! More info is available here.
Alex Eames (from RasPi.TV and Rasp.io) has run several Kickstarters and his new one looks to be his best yet.
His new campaign is called RasPiO Inspiring. It is a new system for ‘sculpting with RGB LEDs’ and is made up out of several different geometric shapes with a standard 10cm side length, covered in ultra-bright APA102 RGB LEDs and housing a standard solderable connector. This makes it easy to combine them into other 2-dimensional or even 3-dimensional shapes. To start with, Alex is offering a ‘straight-8’ (stick), a triangle and a circle, together with the Raspberry Pi driver board, along with some bundles. If the campaign does well, he plans to expand the range with a semi-circle and a square. Who knows where else he could take it? Letters? More shapes?
The really interesting part for me, apart from the new shapes (I really like the triangle), is that the Inspiring family can be driven from a Raspberry Pi (via a driver pHAT), an Arduino, an ESP8266 (for example, the Wemos) or a DigiSpark. This means that you can drive your shapes and sculptures from something very small (like the Digispark) to something larger (like a Pi 3). With the launch of the Raspberry Pi Zero W (which is compatible with Inspiring, as are all 40-pin Pis), the idea of an Internet of Things blinky riot of colour becomes possible. He’s even written a Python library for the Raspberry Pi to make it easy to get started and there’s an existing library called FastLED for the other platforms.
There are lots of other uses for bright LEDs, of course, and he identifies some of them on the Kickstarter campaign page.
Obviously, though, being a Kickstarter he needs your support to make it happen. Alex is currently offering the following pledges:
The kits do need some soldering, however this is expected to be well in the range of most abilities. There’s never been a better time to start learning if you don’t already – those Zero W headers won’t solder themselves!
I’ve already pledged for a Pyramid and am really looking forward to getting it. Alex has a proven track record on Kickstarter, and I have no doubt that he’ll manage this one well and deliver on time.
So, head over to Kickstarter and take a further look and, if you like the look of it, make a pledge! The campaign video is below:
