The folks over at pi-top have just released a new version of their OS, Polaris. The new version uses Raspbian Stretch as a base and is now compatible out-of-the-box with the recently launched Raspberry Pi 3B+. Other improvements include an update to pi-topCODER, their learning environment. Full details can be found on the pi-top blog and the new OS image can be downloaded here.
Alex Angelov, Tim Ness and Alex Smith have teamed up as part of their Real Time Embedded Programming course to build this wonderful game of ‘Ghost Chess’. The system uses a Raspberry Pi to control a robotic arm mechanism with an electromagnet attached. By issuing commands to the Pi, the arm can move into position underneath a chess board and move the magnetised chess pieces to the correct position. The Pi runs an instance of the Stockfish chess engine to allow the computer to try and beat you. They’ve open-sourced everything you need to build your own and have documented it over on GitHub. You can see a video of it in action below (I recommend turning the audio off!):
A crafty maker called Mitxela has taken an old Polaroid camera and converted it to use a Raspberry Pi Zero and a thermal printer. The build itself is interesting and involved replacing the innards with the necessary circuitry for the Pi and printer. Where the magic really lies, though, is in the software. Rather than using a stock Raspbian image, Mitxela crafted his own Linux distro using buildroot that shaves loads of time off the typical boot cycle, taking the boot down to around 2 seconds! For an embedded Pi project, that’s outstanding! You can see a complete build log with dozens of photos here. A video of the camera in operation is below:
Robin Newman has taken a Raspberry Pi, a RasPiO Pro HAT and an Adafruit MPR121 touch capacitive breakout and created a touch-sensitive keyboard for Sonic Pi. He’s documented the whole process over on his blog along with all the installation instructions and scripts you need to create your own. Read more here. As he points out, you can do this in a variety of ways. You can see it in action controlling Sonic Pi on a Mac below:
Google has launched new versions of its two AIY Projects kits, but only to the US first of all.
The new kits come with a bundled Raspberry Pi Zero WH (that’s the pre-soldered version) and an SD card with the software installed, making life a lot easier.
The Vision kit, which moves to version 1.2 after a rather shaky start, also comes with a Pi Camera Module.
Also worth noting is an update and improvement to the documentation over at Google.
The AIY Voice kit, of course, started out as a MagPi giveaway before going on sale.
You can buy the Voice Kit v2 over on Target for $49 and Vision Kit v1.2 from the same store for $90.
You can expect them to hit UK stores in the Summer, according to Billy Rutledge, Google’s Director of AIY Projects.
Thanks to The MagPi for the tip – you can read more over there.
Bit of a Public Service Announcement today for RealVNC users.
Adam Byrne from RealVNC has said in a news item that things will need to change with the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that is coming in at the end of May. RealVNC will no longer be available to users under the age of 16. Instead, they will have to get a parent to sign-up for an account to enable them to use the software.
Existing users will be contacted to declare their age and any account that is currently signed up for by under 16s will be deleted. The same will happen to any account where the user does not respond.
You can read the full news item here.
GDPR is a bit of… I won’t type what I want to… a tough one. It’s quite extensive, a bit painful, but hopefully worthwhile in the end. You can read more about the regulation here.
