Raspberry Pi Pod and micro:bit base

Doctor Who fan starts creating a K9 with a #RaspberryPi

by Michael Horne • 5 March 2014 • 1 Comment

Image copyright BBC. No infringement intended.

Doctor Who fan William Reichardt decided that he wanted to do an electronics project that would bring together a Raspberry Pi and an Arduino. Being the Whovian he is he decided to recreate the Doctor’s faithful canine companion K9.

So far, he has built the basic chassis (read about it here) and has now moved onto the electronics he’ll need to make the robot move (read more here). He estimates that the whole thing will take him about three years and he’s about a year into the build already – his first prototype for the chassis was made out of cardboard!

Raspberry Jams

Exeter Raspberry Jam for #RaspberryPi owners

by Michael Horne • 5 March 2014 • 1 Comment

Just seen this on the Foundation forum:

The next Exeter Raspberry Jam will take place in Exeter Central Library on 22nd March between 10:00 and 12:00. Lots of projects on display, help and guidance, tea, coffee and biscuits.

So, if you’re in the area, why not pop along?

Making, Tutorials

Monitor your aquarium with the #RaspberryPi

by Michael Horne • 5 March 2014 • 1 Comment

Using a combination of the Pi and a waterproof temperature sensor (and some other bits), Laura Orsini has created a water temperature-sensing project to monitor her aquarium. She has kindly written a full tutorial on how to do it.

Southend Raspberry Jam write up

by Michael Horne • 4 March 2014 • 2 Comments

Ria, from LoveSouthend, has done a lovely write-up of her time at the first Southend Raspberry Jam. Judging by her reaction, and the reaction of everyone else there, it won’t be the last!

Read the write-up

Events

Cambridge Science Festival programme announced with lots of #RaspberryPi goodness

by Michael Horne • 4 March 2014 • 1 Comment

The Cambridge Science Festival runs from 10th-23rd March and is a great event for all the family. This year, there are several Pi-related events happening:

Thursday 20th March, 6-7pm – Mill Lane Lecture Rooms
A festival piece of Raspberry Pi. Find out about the history of the Raspberry Pi from its inception at the University of Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory to the amazing projects being undertaken throughout the world today.
Saturday 22nd March, 1-5pm – The Institute for Manufacturing
Raspberry Pi at the IfM. Meet the creators of the revolutionary Raspberry Pi low-cost computer with demos, competitions and hands on activities.
Saturday 22nd March, 10.30-12.30pm & 1.30-3.30pm – Cambridge Junction
How to make music with the Raspberry Pi. In a two hour workshop, you will get the chance to learn some basic coding, allowing you to create music on the Raspberry Pi computer. Supported by Dr Sam Aaron, Research Associate at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory and Rachel Drury, Creative Producer.

Education, Programming

New #RaspberryPi Foundation education website to launch at the end of March – some resources available now

by Michael Horne • 4 March 2014 • 1 Comment

The Hour of Code is an initiative to give children a flavour of programming in a single hour, with the hope that they’ll continue their exploration afterwards. The Foundation have just released a set of tutorials and resources to support Hour of Code and, at the same time, have given a launch date of “end of March” for their education website launch.

I’m ever so glad that my assumption of “weeks rather than months” was correct – I’d rather hung my reputation on it in some quarters!

The choice of GitHub to store the majority of the resources is an interesting one and I hope it doesn’t put people off contributing. But, I guess it’s a fairly safe choice as a ‘sort-of’ CMS and as a code-storage device it can’t be beaten IMHO.

Take a look at these new resources now

There is also a blog post about how to contribute to these resource.