Codebug, the ex-Kickstarter project, is now on sale at CPC for £15. The small board can be connected up to a Raspberry Pi via USB and used as an input device via a Python library. Thomas Macpherson-Pope has, over on the Codebug site, written a tutorial which shows you how to detect when a circuit is created on the Codebug and then have that trigger, via the picamera library, the use of the Pi Camera. It’s a nice little project that shows you how to use the two devices together. Read the tutorial here.
“Quake in a Box” is a project that allows you to run a full QuakeWorld LAN server on your Raspberry Pi. It comes in the form on a downloadable distro image based on Arch Linux. Instructions are available here.
At the Cambridge Raspberry Jam on Saturday, myself, Tim Richardson and Jamie Mann from The Pi Hut announced the third CamJam EduKit. This kit is all about robotics. You can catch the launch video below or skip it and read about the contents of the kit a bit further down the page:
The EduKit price has now been fixed at £17 plus delivery (which, for The Pi Hut, is £2) bringing the EduKit in under £20 (delivered) as promised. The EduKit, which doesn’t require any soldering, includes the following:
Two red wheels.
Two DC motors with pre-soldered wires (shrink-wrapped for protection and sturdiness).
Battery holder (you need 4 x AA batteries to power the motors).
Ball-caster “third wheel”.
Pre-soldered motor controller board with GPIOs broken out onto female headers (thanks to 4tronix).
Line follower sensor.
Ultrasonic distance sensor (SR-04).
Jumper wires to hook up the sensors.
and a sturdy two-part cardboard box to keep it all in.
It is expected that the EduKit will be available during October-November and will, of course, be accompanied by more of Tim’s excellent worksheets.
We’re really proud of this EduKit as it represents the lowest-cost robotics kit out there (as far as we can tell!). It doesn’t come with a plastic chassis like other kits. Instead, there is the expectation that people will use their imagination to come up with a solution to hold everything together. In our tests, we found the box lid to be an excellent chassis – it’s strong, sturdy and is just the right size for the job.
Just as with all the other EduKits, the profits go straight back into CamJam to further our educational and Jam-related activities.
To keep up-to-date with all the news about the EduKits, sign up to our mailing list here. If you would like to just be told when EduKit 3 is in stock at The Pi Hut, go to this page and fill in your email address.
The recording of Pimoroni’s Bilge Tank episode 001 is now online. This episode covers HATs; what they are, what HATs are available and what you can use them for. Take a look at the video below. As always, it leans towards the stuff you can get from the Pimoroni shop.
The Raspberry Pi Foundation have published a new SenseHAT tutorial. This one interrogates Minecraft Pi and creates a map of the surrounding blocks. This map is then sent to the SenseHAT where it is displayed on the 8×8 LED matrix. Read the tutorial here.
Matt Brailsford (aka Circuitbeard) has taken an old Grandstand Scramble gaming console and adapted it for use with the Raspberry Pi. He’s got a 5″ HDMI TFT screen (which gives a resolution of 800×480) for the display and used the Picade controller board from Pimoroni. He cut and adapted various parts to allow for the buttons and the joystick and then made a new bezel for more customisation. The end result is a beautiful, compact retro gaming system. Read more about the build here and see it in action below.
The recording of Pimoroni’s Bilge Tank episode 001 is now online. This episode covers HATs; what they are, what HATs are available and what you can use them for. 
