With the help of Dave Akerman, website The Register has successfully launched and recovered a payload from a high-altitude balloon. Reaching a height of 34,571m, there was also a Pi camera module onboard which returned some great images.
Sixth Formers launch a #RaspberryPi High Altitude Balloon
Three Cumbria-based sixth form students launched a high-altitude balloon payload on the 28th June. The onboard flight computer was a Raspberry Pi. The Foundation have added a guest post to their blog from one of the team. Read the article here
New products from Pimoroni and ModMyPi for the #RaspberryPi
Just a quick round-up of some new products for the Pi. I have no affiliation to either supplier and haven’t received any review products – just doing a quick summary for those who like buying bits!
First up is this £3.99 camera mount from ModMyPi.
It plugs into the 3.5mm jack one one end and on the other end has a fixing for one of the mounting holes on the camera. Very simple design, very good price.
Next is this Adafruit board which allows you to wire up 5 touch sensors and, for instance, detect when your finger touches a wire or touch pad.
Looks interesting and might get one for the Picorder – £8 isn’t bad.
Pimoroni, who make all the varieties of Pibow, have launched a new mostly-wooden case.
Made out of spruce hardwood layers (and plastic top-and-bottom), it really is a thing of beauty. At £14.95, it’s a touch pricey for a case, but it’s so pretty I’m not surprised it comes with a bit of a premium. As usual with Pibows, there are slots for the GPIO cable and the camera strip.
Another item from Pimoroni. This is a little board with surface-mounted LEDs.
It comes with 18 LEDs (three each of orange, red, yellow, green, blue and white) and is controlled using an onboard PWM chip which means you can dim the lights independently.
At £9 it’s not too bad, considering what you can do with it. For instance, if you mounted the Pi to the back of a television, you could conceivably achieve mood back-lighting.
#RaspberryPi Camera Module review from Linux User & Developer magazine
UK-based magazine Linux User and Developer have reviewed the camera module (rating it 4/5). It’s a fair review, and is quite critical in places. Nevertheless, it’s good to see the camera getting coverage.
#RaspberryPi or BeagleBone Black
Michael Leonard has blogged a comparison of the Pi and the Beaglebone Black. Once again the spectre of ‘open-ness’ appears again, which is just starting to get tiresome. Apart from that aspect though, it’s a good article. Some of the images don’t work for me, but you may have better luck. Read the article here
Opinion piece from Ostatic on lack of #RaspberryPi roadmap
Sam Dean from ostatic.com has written an article about his wish that the Raspberry Pi Foundation would develop a technology roadmap for future developments of the Pi platform. There are also some interesting comments below the article. Well worth reading and mulling over, but presented here without further commentary. Read the article