Competitions, Internet of things

Internet of Things competition from The MagPi, Initial State and MCM

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iotcompetition

Initial State, The MagPi and MCM Electronics have teamed up to run a great competition, all based around The Internet of Things. The projects must use Initial State and a Raspberry Pi to be considered and you have until 31st October to submit your project. There are plenty of prizes and a chance to get your project published in The MagPi! Here are the full rules:

  • The deadline for applications is October 31st
  • No late applications will be considered
  • By submitting an application, you are giving us permission to publish your project, and how you created it.
  • Projects must use a Raspberry Pi and Initial State to be considered
  • We will never give away or sell your contact information to any outside party
  • Must be 18 years or older to apply
  • Projects must be original and not copied from any of MagPi or Initial State’s previous postings
  • Contest judging criteria is determined by contest operators and sponsors. The competition judges, a select group from Initial State and MagPi, have final say in what most creative, practical and awesome.

Projects are judged according to Creativity, Practicality and Awesomeness!

Take a look at the competition and enter here.

Accessories, Environment, GPIO boards, Internet of things, Programming, Raspberry Pi Zero, Sensors, Tutorials

GrovePi Zero – a Raspberry Pi sensor playground – review and sample project

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GrovePi Zero used as part of an Initial State IoT dashboard

Jamie Bailey’s been in touch. Over at Initial State, they’ve been playing around with the GrovePi Zero by Dexter Industries. It’s an add-on board that plugs into the Zero’s GPIO pins and gives you the ability to use Grove sensors, as pictured above. Using a couple of the sensors, Jamie has created an Internet of Things device that reads humidity and air quality levels and then ties this into the Wunderground weather service API. Together, this data is used to create a dashboard (as you can see above) on the Initial State website. Not only has he written the entire project out as a tutorial but he’s also given an honest review of the GrovePi Zero board including the quality, usefulness and cost of the device. It’s a really great piece of work and you can see the full tutorial and review here.

Accessories, Games, Geeky Techiness, Making

Building a Raspberry Pi-powered Pokemon Pokedex

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Philip Organ, a 12-year old, year 7 student from Birmingham. He has recently been captured by the Pokemon Go craze and wanted to bring a bit of Raspberry Pi know-how to the game. So, he took a Pi, added a couple of screens, a camera module and a keypad and then constructed a laser-cut case at his local Makespace. His Dad, Spencer, admits to helping him a little – by driving him to the Makespace and, of course, being the Bank of Dad – but apart from transport and money, it’s all Philip’s own work!

What you do is to type in the number of the Pokemon into the keypad and then the large screen displays a picture of the chosen monster. The smaller screen is used for menu selection. You can read more about it on the UK Tech Reviews blog, see the code on GitHub and you can see Philip giving a talk at CamJam about the project below. Great stuff – keep on making, Philip!

Art, Blinkies, Making, Wearable

Halloween disco ball costume runs from a drone battery and a Raspberry Pi

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disco_ball

Wolfie wanted to build a costume for his 12-year old granddaughter for this Halloween. He settled on the idea of a giant wearable disco ball (as you do) and set about building it out of suspended ceiling hanger wire. He added chicken wire and a looooot of duct tape to the framework and then embedded 288 WS2811 LED pixels. Into the mix is thrown a Raspberry Pi 2 to control the sequencing of the LEDs and a level converter to protect the Pi. The Pi itself is powered from a portable power bank, whilst the rest is driven by a drone battery. You can read more over at Thingiverse.

GPIO boards, Internet of things, Making, Reviews, Shopping

ModMyPi PiOT relay board for the Raspberry Pi reviewed by Average Man and Raspberry Pi Spy

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ModMyPi PioT relay board

A while back, Jacob over at ModMyPi sent me a new board – a relay board designed to be used for IoT projects. I haven’t had a chance to use it myself yet, but I would like to feature it a bit here.

Here is a list of features:

  • 4 x OMRON G5LA-1 Relays for Switching up to 10A @ 250VAC, or 10A @ 24VDC
  • 4 x Tactile Buttons for GPIO/Relay Bonding
  • Two-Digit 7 Segment Display for Visual Feedback & Setting Control
  • Micro-controlled GPIO/Relay Setting & Switching (No Jumpers Required!)
  • 40 Point Raspberry Pi GPIO Modeled Input
  • 5V & 3.3V Input Compatible
  • Low Holding Current via PWM ~ 100mA per Relay Board
  • Stackable Relay Board (Up to 5 Without External Power)
  • Multiple Start-Up Modes to Negate Boot GPIO Chatter (Delayed/Handshake)
  • Pi Zero Mounting Points
  • Overall size 72mm x 110mm

First of all, here’s a review from Average Man, Richard Saville. He likes the board generally, but does warn that although the relays are rated for mains voltage, you’d be a damn fool to use it for that unless you enjoy danger.

Secondly, Matt over at Raspberry Pi Spy has reviewed the board. He also likes the board, particularly the way you use buttons actually on the board to configure it.

You can get hold of the board from ModMyPi for £23.99.