Pi-Top giving away Pi-Tops and CEEDs, including Raspberry Pis, to the winners of their fiendish Christmas programming competition

Pi-Top Christmas competition 2016

Pi-Top are running a Christmas competition in which you must pit your wits against their fiendish programming challenges. There are 5 standard levels to complete before you are entered in their raffle, plus bonus levels just for fun! The raffle has three prizes: a Pi-Top laptop and two Pi-Top CEEDs. Well worth the time it takes to work out the puzzles!

To play, make sure you click on the direction you want at the bottom first and then click the box you want it to go into above second. (Took me a while to figure it out!)

The competition closes on Monday 12th December at 12pm GMT so hurry up and try it! 🙂

Try out the game and enter the competition here.

Internet of Things Christmas tree uses Alexa and a Raspberry Pi

alexa_christmas_tree

Alex Ellis has taken a mini Christmas tree, a NeoPixel strip, some jumper wires and an Alexa/Echo Dot and created an Internet of Things device that is sure to get your blinkiness senses going. The Alexa communicates with the Raspberry Pi using MQTT messages. Alex has carefully (by asking Pimoroni!) found out that the Pi can power the NeoPixel strip without an extra power supply, so it’s just hooked up to 5V, GND and pin 18 to provide the PWM signal the strip needs via the UnicornHAT library. It’s a lovely, seasonal project so take a look at Alex’s blog post here and see it in action below:

Raspberry Pi 5th Birthday Weekend – 4th-5th March 2017

Raspberry Pi Birthday Weekend 2017

The Raspberry Pi 5th Birthday Weekend will take place from Saturday 4th-Sunday 5th March 2017 at Cambridge Junction. This is a different venue from previous years and is being run by staff from the Raspberry Pi Foundation, so expect it to ‘feel’ a little different.

The event starts at 10.00am on Saturday and ends at 6.30pm on Saturday and 5pm on Sunday.

There’s a Travelodge on-site in case you need accommodation.

They’re asking for people to register their interest in helping. If you’d like to (and it’s great fun to), please fill out the form here.

Black Friday deals galore with Raspberry Pi retailers

This is the 2016 post – you’re probably here because you Googled Raspberry Pi Black Friday deals or something 🙂

Black Friday is upon us. Dun-dun-dunnnnnnnn! As usual, I’ve thrown the net out and asked the Pi retailers what they’ve got planned and done a survey of them to see what deals are available.

So, without further ado, and in no particular order, here we go.

RasP.io

Alex Eames of RasPiO has gone down the ‘special bundles’ route and is offering the following:

  • Ruler combo – the two rulers, one 6″ (RPi.GPIO) and one 12″ (GPIO Zero) ruler for £10 (normal price £13).
  • Black 5 Bundle – a Portsplus, both rulers, an Analog Zero kit and a Pro Hat for £34 (normally £42).
  • Analog Zero weather station kit – an Analog Zero kit plus everything you need for a basic weather station set-up for £27 (normal price £32).
  • Black 7 Bundle – as the Black 5 Bundle but adding in a Breakout kit and a RasPio Duino kit for £45 (normally £61).

Everything includes global shipping, making it a slightly better deal. You can view these deals and shop for them here.

The Pi Hut

The Pi Hut

Jamie over at The Pi Hut has chosen to keep things simple by offering a 10-15% discount on (almost) everything across the board, including the Raspberry Pi 3 itself.

Pimoroni

Pimoroni

Pimoroni are offering up to 40% off various products, including a massive £35 off the popular Picade. Check out their special offers list here.

RyanTeck

RyanTeck

Ryan at Ryanteck is offering a 10% discount on everything with code BLKFRI16 when used at the checkout.

Pi Supply

Pi Supply

The guys and gels over at Pi Supply are offering a 15% side-wide discount with promo code BLACKFRIDAY16 when used at the checkout. They’re also giving away a free surprise gift for the first 50 people who have orders over £75.

IQaudIO

IQaudIO

Gordon over at IQaudIO is offering a free Pi-DacZero with every purchase – just use the code FreeDACZero at the checkout. It’s high-quality gear, so well worth having!

Adafruit

Adafruit

Adafruit in the US is having a 15%-off-everything sale. Just use code ‘ADATHANKS’ at the checkout.

Raspberry Pi Foundation launches Pioneers initiative #MakeYourIdeas

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has just announced the Pioneers programme. For this programme, they’re looking for kids aged 12-15 to be digital makers. Makers will form teams of up to four people and take on challenges, that the Foundation will set, and then share their projects. The best projects will win “money-can’t buy prizes” and “cool swag”. Every team will require an adult mentor, and the Foundation are also putting the call out for these volunteers. Take a look at the video above to get a flavour of the competition.

If you’re interested in taking part in the programme, there’s lots of information here.

If you’re interested in being a mentor, take a look here.

This seems like a really exciting programme. I’ll keep an eye out for more developments and, of course, report on the challenge theme once it’s announced.