The Average Man has done a great round-up of the ways to use headers in various ways with the Pi. He looks at techniques for breaking them apart and at the various breakout and plugin boards you can use. Read it here.
Tweeting fish tank with a #RaspberryPi
Lauren Orsini has followed up her aquarium-temperature-monitoring project with an extra bit of programming which uses Twilio to facilitate tweeting when the tank is overheating. Read how she did it here.
Cheap #RaspberryPi robotics kit offer coming to an end soon
Ryan Walmsley is currently running an IndieGoGo campaign for a cheap robotics kit for the Raspberry Pi.
For £33 you get:
- A RTK-000-001 RPi Motor Controller Board Kit (to drive the motors)
- A laser cut out robot chassis (which is larger than the ones you usually get)
- Motors, wheels and screws
- Wi-Fi Adapter (which has been tested to work with the Pi)
- Battery Box for the Robot – a 4xAA Battery holder that is used to power the motors.
- Wires – 2×2 Wire cables, used to connect the motors to the controller board
- Documentation & Code – A set of online documentation and code that will guide you through making robots with the kit.
- Delivery of the kit
So far, the campaign has raised almost 350% of the funds needed so you’ll definitely get the kit. I happen to know Ryan’s already started putting the kits together so delivery should be fairly quick.
In my opinion, £33 delivered is an absolute bargain for what you get. All you need to complete you robot is the Pi itself, an SD card for the operating system, some batteries for the motors and a power source for the Pi. For an extra couple of pounds, Ryan will solder everything up for you including the controller board and the motor wires.
The campaign finishes at midday on Monday so if you want to get in on the offer, you’d better move quick. You can visit the IndieGoGo page here.
Featured Jam – #RaspberryPi group in Selly Oak, Birmingham, UK
I keep an eye on the User Groups & Events forum on the Raspberry Pi Foundation website, mostly for the purposes of CamJam, but also just to keep informed of what different groups are out there. I’m going to start featuring the groups and events on my blog as I reckon that they should be given as much prominence and publicity as possible!
The first group to be featured is based at Selly Oak Library, Birmingham (669 Bristol Road, Selly Oak, Birmingham, B29 6AE). They hold monthly Pi Club sessions where Pi owners (and prospective Pi owners) can get together, swap information on what they’ve been doing, and support each other if they’ve run into problems. They have 4 Raspberry Pis set-up and it’s also a great opportunity for people without Pis to have a go before they get their own little computers.
The group is open to everyone and they have people with different experience levels in attendance.
The next event is on Saturday, 26th April between 11am and 1pm and the one after is on Saturday 24th May at the same time.
More information is available via email from selly.oak.library@birmingham.gov.uk.
The State of the Toilet with the #RaspberryPi
Just spotted this on the Foundation’s blog. Callum Jefferies and a few of his colleagues over at Made by Many decided to take the Internet of Things a bit too far. By hooking up some reed switches to a Raspberry Pi (and constructing a LEGO prototype), they were able to track which toilets were in use at which time. This means that the days of toilet queues are over. You can read more about it over on their blog.
Plot data graphically on the #RaspberryPi
Matt Hawkins, over at Raspberry Pi Spy, wanted to plot some data on a graph. He’s managed to do it using a piece of software called “gnuplot”. Take a look at what he did over on his blog.