Accessories, Arduino, Blinkies, Crowdfunding, Geeky Techiness, GPIO boards, Internet of things, Making, Raspberry Pi Zero

New Kickstarter encourages you to sculpt with RGB LEDs and a Raspberry Pi, Arduino, DigiSpark and Wemos

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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.

  • Light Pyramid
  • Mood light
  • Internet Clock (NTP)
  • TV simulator security device
  • Persistance of vision project
  • Natural light alarm clock
  • Controllable light source for macro photography/videography
  • Christmas or other holiday decorative lighting
  • Eye-catching wearable

Obviously, though, being a Kickstarter he needs your support to make it happen. Alex is currently offering the following pledges:

  • Earlybird Pyramid (three triangles, driver pHAT, jumpers and headers) – £40 (rising to £50 in a couple of days)
  • Earlybird Bundle (four straights, 2 triangles, 2 circles, driver pHAT, jumpers, headers and a Raspberry Pi Zero W) – £75 (rising to £76 in a couple of days, without the Zero W)
  • Straight 8 (stick, driver pHAT, jumpers, headers) – £10
  • Triangle (triangle, driver pHAT, jumpers, headers) – £20
  • Circle (circle, driver pHAT, jumpers, headers) – £20
  • NTP (Internet-connected) Clock with Pi Zero W (as per the Circle, but adding in a Pi Zero W) – £30

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:

 

Crowdfunding, GPIO boards, Robotics

New Pi Borg robotic Kickstarter is a Monster – and a very nice Monster at that!

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Pi Borg, the Cambridgeshire-based robotics specialist, has just launched their latest Kickstarter, and it’s a bit of a monster!

There are two parts to the campaign (both of which are pictured above): the ThunderBorg motor controller and the MonsterBorg four-wheeled robot.

The ThunderBorg is a 5A dual motor controller. It has on-board voltage monitoring, an RGB LED, a built in DC-DC converter (allowing you to use power supplies from 7V to 36V), and is just larger than a Raspberry Pi Zero. It allows control of speed via PWM and works in forward and reverse directions. From the campaign text:

It controls 2 DC motors per board and has a powerful 5 amp per motor continuous rating.  Each board will alternatively control a 4 wire stepper. You can drive more than 2 motors by connecting motors in parallel or adding more ThunderBorgs in a daisy chain.

It has various protection features on-board including over-current protection, short circuit protection, over temperature protection and under-voltage lockout. Here it is in close-up:

The second part of the campaign is a four-wheeled, off-roadable robot called the MonsterBorg with the following features:

  • Up to three hours runtime on 10xAA batteries.
  • Designed for the Raspberry Pi 3, Pi 2, B+ or Pi Zero.
  • 4 x 300 RPM Zhengke 37mm motors (pre soldered)
  • A 3mm thick Aluminium chassis
  • 105mm / 4 inch diameter off road wheels
  • ThunderBorg 5A motor controller
  • ThunderBorg Lid for 10xAA batteries
  • Mount for the Raspberry Pi camera
  • No soldering required

It does require assembly, but with everything pre-soldered, this should be pretty easy.

I recently attended a get-together at The Pi Hut with Tim and Claire from Pi Borg and had a chance to have a play with the MonsterBorg. This is no crawler like the DiddyBorg. This is a four-wheeled, rugged, speedy robot. The big, heavily-gripped wheels and the 300 RPM motors deliver plenty of torque, but without sacrificing a decent lick of speed. You can see that same prototype robot in the campaign video at the bottom of this page. I loved “having a go” with the MonsterBorg. In practice, it really makes you want one!

Here’s a better photo of the robot:

Speaking of “wanting one”, I should tell you about the pledge levels.

  • The ThunderBorg motor controller by itself is currently available for £22 (Earlybird, 50 of them) rising to £29 after. This is a very good deal for what is probably the best, affordable motor controller on the market. There are options for multiple units.
  • The MonsterBorg robot is available for £150 (Earlybird, 25 of them) rising to £180 after. Considering the quality of the robot, this is very good value. This is cheaper than the Pi Borg DiddyBorg, and I think much better. Obviously, this price isn’t going to be everyone’s idea of value, but considering it’s pre-soldered, incredibly powerful and very nice to look at in-person, you can be sure it’s worth looking at.

Delivery for the campaign is scheduled to be May-June, which I would say is ambitious, but Pi Borg do have a proven track-record with delivering on time.

Take a look at the campaign here or watch the video below for more details and a demo of the robot!

Accessories, Operating systems, Software, Tutorials, Wearable

Maker creates a Raspberry Pi-powered smart watch running Windows 98!

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Over at 314Reactor, one ingenious maker has taken a Raspberry Pi A+ and created his very own smart watch running Windows 98. He uses the emulation software QEMU to run the operating system, a small TFT screen to display it and a LiPo battery to power the whole thing. I’m not too sure about strapping a LiPo to my arm, though! It’s ingenious, although he does admit that it’s as slow as a very slow thing. Read how to do it yourself here.

Interview, Magazines, Raspberry Pi Foundation, Raspberry Pi Zero

More detail on the Raspberry Pi Zero W’s wireless antenna design

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MagPi writer Lucy Hattersley has interviewed Raspberry Pi’s Roger Thornton, head designer of the Raspberry Pi Zero W. In their conversation, Roger reveals how the antenna works and what they needed to do to the board design to fit everything in. Makes for very interesting reading – take a look on The MagPi site here.

Magazines, Raspberry Pi Foundation, Raspberry Pi Zero

New issue of The MagPi out with full Raspberry Pi Zero W coverage

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The latest MagPi is out, delayed slightly past it’s usual publication date to allow for the launch of the Raspberry Pi Zero W. You can see from the cover above some of what is included in this issue. You can buy it online from The Pi Hut or in person from various supermarkets and newsagents. You can also download it for free from the MagPi website.