Events, Raspberry Jams

Potton Pi & Pints – Saturday 14th May

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We’re holding another one of our informal, social “Jam Doughnuts” on Saturday, 14th May at The Rising Sun, Potton, Bedfordshire. Free tickets (and more details) are available here.

You can read about previous Potton Pi & Pints here and here.

This is a family-friendly and beginner-friendly event that we hope will attract newcomers and old hands alike so that attendees can share knowledge and get problems solved.

The event starts at 1pm, finishes around 5pm and then if you wish you can join us for a meal/drink and chat some more!

Register on Eventbrite here or just come along!

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3D printing, Camera module, Photography

Photographing the moon with the Raspberry Pi camera module & 3D printing

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James Mitchell, who runs the Berlin Raspberry Jam, decided that he wanted to indulge his obsession of photographing the moon. So, he took a Pi Camera Module, removed the lens and attached it to a 3D printed mount onto which he attached a Canon 78-300mm lens. He connected it up to a Pi, set the lens to 300mm and took a shot of the moon from his balcony. A little Photoshopping to clean the picture up resulted in the image above. For more detail and photos of the rig, take a look at James’ blog.

Accessories, Programming, Raspberry Pi Foundation, Tutorials

Use the Raspberry Pi and the BBC micro:bit together with MicroPython and mu

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Over at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, they say that they’re “platform agnostic”. In other words, whatever people can use to learn coding and electronics is all for the good. That’s why it’s encouraging to see them publish a new set of learning resources that revolve around the recently-released BBC micro:bit. These resources, which start here, use a language called MicroPython and a program editor called mu to interact with the micro:bit from a Raspberry Pi.

You can follow their Getting Started guide here, from which there are links to several other resources such as this great one in which the micro:bit is used as a simple game controller.

Events, Raspberry Jams

First Isle of Wight Raspberry Jam at Blackgang Chine – Sunday, 5th June

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Dr Lucy Rogers is organising a Raspberry Jam at Blackgang Chine on the Isle of Wight. The event takes place on Sunday, 5th June from 10.30am-1.30pm at the Ship Ashore Tea Room. The event is free, but does not give you access to the theme park (with it’s Raspberry Pi-controlled dinosaurs!). This is a bring-and-share event, so bring your projects along. There will be some self-guided workshop material available for you to try out. Under-16s should be accompanied by an adult. Book your tickets here.

Games, Making, Retro

Amazing GameBoy has a Raspberry Pi Zero inside

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“Chad McChad” (not, I suspect, his real name!) has done an absolutely awesome job creating a retro gaming machine out of an old GameBoy and plenty of other parts, as well as a core of a Raspberry Pi Zero. This is one of the best jobs I’ve ever seen – by using the Zero he has been able to cram a lot more electronics into the case and, with some careful Dremmelling and hand-crafting, he has managed to maintain the look of the original console.

Take a look at his build photos and rough ‘how-to’ here. You can see him playing it in the (long) video below:

Reviews, Shopping

Review of iClever 6-port desktop USB charging station – excellent for Raspberry Pi

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I was contacted by Gabriel from HisGadget at the start of February to see if I would be interested in reviewing one of their 6-port USB charging stations. They subsequently sent me one, but I’m free to say what I like about it.

This is a rather nice USB charging station from iClever. It has 6 ports, each giving a maximum current of 2.4A, which is more than enough to drive all models of Raspberry Pi (although the Raspberry Pi 3 is right on the limit if you plug lots of power-hungry devices in).

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It measures 10 x 2.7 x 6.9 cm which is small enough to sit on your desk without taking up loads of room and is fairly portable. It comes with a standard figure-of-8 power cable that doesn’t have a brick attached, so that adds to the portability. The unit is in a matt-black soft finish and is kind of attractive if you’re into the minimal look.

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I tried it out thoroughly by plugging in:

  • A Raspberry Pi touch screen.
  • A Raspberry Pi 3.
  • A Raspberry Pi Zero with an attached LED board and Scroll pHAT.
  • A Raspberry Pi 2.
  • A Raspberry Pi B+.
  • A Raspberry Pi B.

Needless to say, everything booted up correctly. I did get an undervolt warning on the Raspberry Pi 3, but that could have been the quality of the USB cable I was using to connect it up with. The warning went away, however, when I wasn’t really doing very much on it.

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The charging station costs £14.99 from Amazon and you can get one here.

Summary

I really enjoyed using this station. It’s small, it’s powerful and can power or charge 6 devices at once. For £14.99, it is great value for money and I thoroughly recommend one if you’re looking for a power solution.