Accessories, Blinkies, Education, GPIO boards, Making, Opinion, Programming, Sensors, Shopping

4tronix launches Playground system for the Raspberry Pi

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Gareth, over at 4tronix, has been busy of late, developing the Playground system. Playground is an add-on board for the Raspberry Pi, Crumble and micro:bit that allows you to quickly and easily connect up various inputs and outputs using cables with 3.5mm plugs on the end. These inputs and outputs, known as Gizmos, contain various components such as sensors, buzzers, buttons and LEDs that can be used in combination with one another to do coding experiments and projects.

Up til now, the Playground has only been available for Crumble and micro:bit. Now, however, it is available for the Raspberry Pi. As you can see form the picture above, it is possible to connect up to 8 Gizmos to the HAT-form factor board, presenting lots of opportunities for combining inputs and outputs.

Gareth was kind enough to send me an early-release kit of the Playground, with lots of Gizmos, and it’s fair to say I was impressed.

The main Playground board is well-designed and functional, and the Gizmos are incredibly cute. Plus it all comes in a nice little toolbox. It looks like just the thing to engage the imagination of young makers, especially, and provides an easy way to get started with digital and analog sensors as well as various outputs. I’m going to be having a ‘play’ in the coming weeks and will let you know how I get on. My hopes are high for this one, though.

Software for the Playground for Raspberry Pi comes in the form of a Python library which you can use in conjunction with GPIO Zero. Very simple and effective.

4tronix is offering a “Super Kit” which includes the main board and several Gizmos for £52.40+VAT & shipping. Alternatively, you can get hold of the main board on its own and take a look at the individual Gizmos. Full details of all the Gizmos and the Playground system in general can be found on the 4tronix blog.

Making, Medical, Photography, Research, Science

Prototype retina camera lowers the cost with the Raspberry Pi

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Dr. Bailey Shen and Dr. Shizuo Mukai from the USA have developed a prototype camera unit that can be used by opticians to take photos of your retina. Normally, pupil-dilating eyedrops are required to do this, causing blurriness and headaches afterwards. By using a combination of light sources to first of all focus on the retina and then to take the actual picture, the eyedrops aren’t necessary. The camera’s total cost is approximately $185, a fraction of professional units. A ScienceDaily article is available to read here.

Uncategorized

Tiny portable terminal made from a Raspberry Pi Zero W and an iPhone 5 keyboard case

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NODE has taken a Raspberry Pi Zero W and an iPhone 5 sliding keyboard case and turned it into a portable terminal. The case is wrapped in a 3D-printed exterior shell to contain the Pi, power circuitry and battery and he has added a full-sized USB port by soldering directly onto the Zero’s micro USB port. He retains access to the HDMI port, the battery charging port and the SD card slot by providing cut-outs. You can read more and see a schematic of the power circuitry by visiting his blog or see the demo video below:

Accessories, Emulation, Games, GPIO boards, Programming, Sensors

Using a real car and a Raspberry Pi as a Mario Kart 64 controller

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Self-described “avid hacker” Adam Ringwood has taken realism to new heights by connecting his real car up to a game of Mario Kart 64, running on a laptop. The reading of OBD-II telemetry data from the car’s onboard computer is done by a Raspberry Pi and a PiCAN2 add-on board. The readings are processed and converted into control signals by the Pi and then transmitted to the laptop. The steering wheel controls the steering of the Kart whilst other events, for example from windshield wipers, headlights, brakes control other aspects of the game such as the ‘jump’ command. You can read more over on Adam’s blog and see the set-up in action below:

3D printing, Making, Operating systems, Robotics

German inventor builds humanoid-like robot with a Raspberry Pi

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With Pi Wars coming up this weekend, I thought I’d share with you a post from Raspberry Pi magazine The MagPi about the GeRo, a humanoid robot that is controller by a Pi. German inventor Johannes Jaegers took inspiration from the Rapiro project but instead of an Arduino core, he used a Pi running ROS, the Robot Operating System. The robot features a metal skeleton and 3D-printed parts together with a custom circuit board to power the Pi and control the 17 individual servos from a battery. He has now documented the process of building the robot, which took him around two years, over on his website. Read the MagPi’s coverage here.

Course, Events, pi-top

Raspberry Pi-powered pi-top weekend workshop at Malvern College – 11th-12th April

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Cat Lamin is running a two day workshop for teachers at Malvern College in Worcestershire in conjunction with pi-top as part of ATI 2017 (Advanced Teacher Institute). The workshop, which costs £225 ex VAT but including accommodation, runs from 11th-12th April. The first day is a Raspberry Pi extravaganza with sessions on physical computing and Minecraft hacking. The second day is more of a drop-in session using the pi-top where teachers can get used to using both the hardware and software on offer, in the shape of pi-topOS. Each teacher will be using a pi-topCEED during the workshop.

If you’ve not heard of Cat before, here’s some information about her (she’s generally awesome, actually!):

Former primary school teacher and real-life geek girl, Cat is enthusiastic about getting teachers and children interested in coding and computing. She is a Raspberry Pi Certified Educator, CAS Master Teacher and Google Certified Educator.

If you’re interested in this workshop, head over to ATI and choose the pi-top option from their registration page. Alternatively, read more about the workshop in this PDF.