Games, GPIO boards, Graphics, Programming

Collect the Dots game using the SenseHAT and Scratch on a Raspberry Pi

by  •  • 0 Comments

Albert Hickey is a big fan of using the SenseHAT on the Raspberry Pi and also of using Scratch, the visual programming language. So, he decided to use both with this simple game. You’re presented with a blue dot (which is you) and a red dot. By using either the SenseHAT joystick or the keyboard, you must ‘collect’ the red dot, at which point another red dot is spawned and on you go. The dots are shown on-screen as well as on the SenseHAT. The code is on GitHub or you can play it online without the SenseHAT by visiting Albert’s blog, where he’s written the project up. You can see the game in action in the video below:

Accessories, Cases, Geeky Techiness, GPIO boards, Making, Raspberry Pi Zero

Use an Altoids tin to create a portable Raspberry Pi Zero workstation

by  •  • 0 Comments

Matt Wagner has taken a Raspberry Pi Zero, a RedBear IoT HAT for wifi connectivity, a 2″ Adafruit screen and some power circuitry and fitted everything into an Altoids Tin, thus creating a portable Pi workstation. It’s even got a power switch, which is handy as it stops the battery discharging. His first version included a camera module, but the addition of the LiPo battery meant that had to go for the final version. He’s written the whole thing up as a tutorial, so head over to his blog to read all about it. Just needs to add an RF dongle in now to allow him to program with a keyboard!

Cases, Crowdfunding

New, crowdfunding aluminium case for Raspberry Pi Zero looks the part

by  •  • 2 Comments

JCF Engineering are running a Kickstarter for a new case for the Raspberry Pi Zero. It’s get a lanyard/keyring hole built into it and is made out of aluminium. It’s available either anodised or non-anodised and in both red and black. It’s currently available for £15 as a pledge on Kickstarter. That may seem like a lot for a case for the Zero, but it’s very pretty and might be worth backing as a bit of fun.

Accessories, Making, Programming, Tutorials

Get started with Node-RED with this worksheet from the Raspberry Pi Foundation

by  •  • 0 Comments

I’ve just spotted this new resource on the Raspberry Pi website’s resources section. It shows you how to get started with controlling the Raspberry Pi’s GPIO pins using visual programming language Node-RED. It’s a nice tutorial and helps you get your head round some of the intricacies of the language and how to configure it to work with the GPIO. Read it here. Shameless plug: If you’re after the components to do the tutorial, you can do worse than getting the £5 CamJam EduKit from The Pi Hut.

Networking, Software, Tutorials

Set-up a network printer server with a Raspberry Pi

by  •  • 0 Comments

Gus over at PiMyLifeUp has done a comprehensive tutorial on using the Pi as a network print server. He uses a piece of software on the Pi called CUPS and shows you how to configure it to achieve the correct result. I’ve done this myself and it’s a great way of re-purposing a non wifi printer so that anyone on your network can use it. Read the tutorial here.