Photo credit: Alex Eames, RasPi.TV
Alex Eames from RasPi.TV has tested out some sound cards from IQaudIO, JustBoom, and HiFiBerry. What’s great about his review is that he’s not only tested out what they sound like but also what kind of user experiences you get when faced with the task of adding the boards onto your Pi. Read more and see the overview video over at RasPi.TV. I’ll be doing my own comparison of several boards in the near future!
The guys over at Dexter Industries have put together a GoPiGo kit and then loaded onto it several pieces of software that allow you to issue voice commands to your robot. It’s a little laggy, due to the amount of inter-connection going on between the software, but it’s still a lovely project. Take a look here and how it’s done and see it in action below:
James Mitchell over at Raspberry Jam Berlin has been trying for the past two years to get a timelapse recording of a Ferris Wheel being constructed outside his office. Well, he’s finally managed it! (see above – leave him a thumbs-up and comment on YouTube!). He’s blogged about his trials and tribulations with the project and covered things like defeating reflections and flipping the image to the right orientation and you can read all about it here.
Clifton Roozeboom has been in touch. He and the team at PocketLab are currently running a Kickstarter campaign to fund PocketLab Voyager and PocketLab Weather. They are small devices that are packed with sensors and communicate with a host device over Bluetooth.
Clifton has said that they have just enabled Raspberry Pi support. They’ve built a Python library and example code that communicates with the PocketLab devices over Bluetooth LE.
Here is what they have to say about the devices on the campaign page:
PocketLab Voyager is an all-in-one science lab that is capable enough for a professional engineer and simple enough for a 4th grade student. Voyager can measure motion, light, magnetic field, and weather, and you can attach an external temperature probe.
PocketLab Weather is a rugged weather center that can measure temperature, humidity, light, barometric pressure, heat index, dew point and can connect to an external temperature probe. Weather combines precise measurement equipment in a portable device that you can take anywhere.
They are very cute packages that have a lot of capabilities. They have rechargeable batteries inside, making them very portable. You can pledge for the PocketLab Weather for $78 + postage and the PocketLab Voyager for $128. That’s not a bad price range considering the capabilities.
If you’re interested, you can view the campaign video above or visit the Kickstarter campaign page here.
The guys over at YouTube channel Hacker House have used a Raspberry Pi as the brains behind a motion tracking, nerf gun turret. They’ve published a video which shows you how to build the turret and install the software. There are copious notes attached to the video including a full bill-of-materials. This is a great maker project because it brings together electronics, woodwork, programming and 3D printing! Take a look at the video above and visit YouTube for the notes.
The next Leeds Raspberry Jam takes place on Wednesday, 4th January from 6-8pm at Swallow Hill Community College. They will have workshops on-the-go and a place for people to hack and give lightning talks. Get your free tickets here.
