Enviro+ for Raspberry Pi

By Pimoroni: Monitor your world with Enviro+ for Raspberry Pi! There’s a whole bunch of fancy environmental sensors on this board, and a gorgeous little full-colour LCD to display your data. It’s the perfect way to get started with citizen science!

 

Enviro+ is an affordable alternative to environmental monitoring stations that can cost tens of thousands of pounds and, best of all, it’s small and hackable and lets you contribute your data to citizen science efforts to monitor air quality via projects like Luftdaten.

See also: Getting Started with Enviro+

Raspberry Pi has opened an official retail store in the Grand Arcade, Cambridge.

MagPi Magazine: The new store sells a wide range of Raspberry Pi boards, accessories, kits, and merchandise. More importantly, it has interactive product demonstrations and breakout areas for people to learn all about digital making with Raspberry Pi.

Gordon Hollingworth, Director of Software Engineering at Raspberry Pi: “The concept is about trying to get closer to a less connected demographic, people who aren’t involved with technology, and show them that coding isn’t an inexplicable dark science reserved only for a few. Instead show them that it is possible, with the right instructions and an inquisitive nature, to learn about computers and coding.”

The Raspberry Pi store has been gestating for “over six years,” says Gordon. But each year Gordon and Eben Upton, Raspberry Pi CEO and co-founder, “decided against it.”

Things changed when Maplin closed all its stores in 2018. “With the demise of Maplin, we decided there was the possibility of recruiting just the right person to launch the store for us.”

See also: Other posts tagged ‘raspberry pi’

ZeroPhone

Hackaday blog: There are several open source phones out there these days, but all of them have a downside. Hard to obtain parts, hard to solder, or difficult programming systems abound. [Arsenijs] is looking to change all that with ZeroPhone. ZeroPhone is based upon the popular Raspberry Pi Zero. The $5 price tag of the CPU module means that you can build this entire phone for around $50 USD.

Features:

• Raspberry Pi Zero in a PCB sandwich
• No proprietary connectors, hard-to-get parts or chips that are tricky to solder
• All the specifications for making this phone yourself will be available
• Python as the main language for developing apps (aiming to add other languages later)
• UI toolkit making development quicker and easier
• Numeric keypad, 1.3" 128×64 monochrome OLED screen (with screen header supporting other types of screens)
• 2G modem for phone functions, can be replaced with a 3G modem
• WiFi (using an ESP8266), HDMI and audio outputs, a free USB host port
• GPIO expansion headers for customization
• RGB LED and vibromotor – for notifications
• Tons of Pi Zero-related hacks that were discovered along the way, that I'll share with you as the project goes =)

See also: Other posts tagged ‘Raspberry Pi’ & Phones for the people

NES Pi: A 3D printed Mini NES Raspberry Pi games console

NESPi – my Mini NES Classic Raspberry Pi games console

‘Daftmike’: It was inevitable… I have a Raspberry Pi, I have a 3D printer, I’m a huge nerd… At some point I was going to print a case for it in the shape of the old Nintendo Entertainment System.

In the end, this project turned into more of a love-letter to the NES than just printing a case. I learnt a lot of new things about Linux, 3D design, wrote my first Python program and had a blast doing it…

See also: Other posts tagged ‘Raspberry Pi’

Build your own Amazon Echo with a Raspberry Pi for $60

The Next Web: Amazon’s Echo is a nifty little gadget that’s powered by the company’s Alexa voice assistant and listens for voice commands to do things like order your groceries, update you on the weather and play your favorite tunes. The only problem is, it costs a pretty penny — $180 to be precise.

Thankfully, you can build your own for about $60.

Project: Raspberry Pi + Alexa Voice Service

This guide provides step-by-step instructions for obtaining the sample code, the dependencies, and the hardware you need to get the reference implementation running on your Pi.

The hardware you need

1. Raspberry Pi 2 (Model B) – Buy at Amazon
2. Micro-USB power cable for Raspberry Pi (included with Raspberry Pi)
3. Micro SD Card – To get started with Raspberry Pi you need an operating system. NOOBS (New Out Of the Box Software) is an easy-to-use operating system install manager for the Raspberry Pi. The simplest way to get NOOBS is to buy an SD card with NOOBS preinstalled – Raspberry Pi 8GB Preloaded (NOOBS) Micro SD Card
4. An Ethernet cable
5. USB 2.0 Mini Microphone – Raspberry Pi does not have a built-in microphone; to interact with Alexa you’ll need an external one to plug in – Buy at Amazon
6. A USB Keyboard & Mouse, and an external HDMI Monitor – we also recommend having a USB keyboard and mouse as well as an HDMI monitor handy if for some reason you can’t “SSH” into your Raspberry Pi. More on “SSH” later.
7. WiFi Wireless Adapter (Optional) Buy at Amazon

More Raspberry Pi projects

• PaPiRus: ePaper screen for Raspberry Pi
• Make a Raspberry Pi-powered handheld Linux terminal
• Onion Pi: Use a Raspberry Pi as a Tor proxy
• SnapPiCam & Otto: Two Raspberry Pi camera projects.

…and other posts tagged ‘Raspberry Pi’.

Four years of the Raspberry Pi

Four years of Pi

This February 29th the Raspberry Pi will be four years old.

Four years. One leap year. 8 million Raspberry Pis.

Matthew Timmons-Brown (aka The Raspberry Pi Guy): I was an 11 year old school boy when I first heard about the Raspberry Pi in 2011. It seemed pretty darn cool that I could own a personal computer for under £30. I followed the progress of this little British invention for the next 6 months, a total novice, and witnessed the launch on the 29th February 2012: the world’s affordable computer had been born.

See also: Other posts tagged ‘Raspberry Pi’

PaPiRus: ePaper screen for Raspberry Pi

This seems like it could be the perfect screen for any number of Raspberry Pi projects. It’s a shame they don’t show any pictures of the display actually working, but Pi Supply have a good Kickstarter track record, so I wouldn’t be overly concerned.

Kickstarter: PaPiRus – the ePaper Screen HAT for your Raspberry Pi

PaPiRus is a versatile ePaper display HAT for the Raspberry Pi with screens ranging from 1.44″ to 2.7″ in size.

ePaper is a display technology that mimics the appearance of ink on paper. Unlike conventional displays, ePaper reflects light – just like ordinary paper – and is capable of holding text and images indefinitely, even without electricity.

Because of this, ePaper displays and Raspberry Pi’s are a match made in heaven as together they use a very small amount of power whilst still bringing a display to your project.

See also: Other posts tagged ‘Raspberry Pi’

The new Raspberry Pi 2

Raspberry Pi 2 on sale now for $35, featuring a 900MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU (~6x performance), 1GB LPDDR2 SDRAM (2x memory) and complete compatibility with the Raspberry Pi 1.

Because it has an ARMv7 processor, it can run the full range of ARM GNU/Linux distributions, including Snappy Ubuntu Core, as well as Microsoft Windows 10. Says Eben Upton:

“I think it’s a usable PC now. It was always the case that you could use a Raspberry Pi 1 as a PC but you had to say ‘this is a great PC in so far as it cost me 35 bucks’. We’ve removed the caveat that you had to be a bit forgiving with it. Now it’s just good.”

Compared to the Model B it has:

• More GPIO. The GPIO header has grown to 40 pins, while retaining the same pinout for the first 26 pins as the Model A and B.
• More USB. We now have 4 USB 2.0 ports, compared to 2 on the Model B, and better hotplug and overcurrent behaviour.
• Micro SD. The old friction-fit SD card socket has been replaced with a much nicer push-push micro SD version.
• Lower power consumption. By replacing linear regulators with switching ones we’ve reduced power consumption by between 0.5W and 1W.
• Better audio. The audio circuit incorporates a dedicated low-noise power supply.
• Neater form factor. We’ve aligned the USB connectors with the board edge, moved composite video onto the 3.5mm jack, and added four squarely-placed mounting holes.

In-depth with the Raspberry Pi 2

Make interviews Eben Upton of the Raspberry Pi foundation about the new board and all of its technical details.

In addition the Raspberry Pi 2-compatible version of Windows 10 will be available free of charge to makers.

See also: Other posts tagged Raspberry Pi.

See also

How to create a handheld Linux terminal

This tutorial will teach you how to create your own handheld linux terminal with built in screen, QWERTY thumb keyboard and battery. It has four passive USB ports for expansion and extra connectivity. It’s super portable and is about the size of a Nintendo DS (if slightly thicker).

Size comparison with an 11″ MacBook Air

(via The Next Web)

• Onion Pi: Use a Raspberry Pi as a Tor proxy
• Otto: A customizable camera powered by Raspberry Pi & The SnapPiCam

See also:

Onion Pi: A Raspberry Pi Tor proxy

Feel like someone is snooping on you? Browse anonymously anywhere you go with the Onion Pi Tor proxy. This is fun weekend project that uses a Raspberry Pi, a USB WiFi adapter and Ethernet cable to create a small, low-power and portable privacy Pi.

Using it is easy-as-pie. First, plug the Ethernet cable into any Internet provider in your home, work, hotel or conference/event. Next, power up the Pi with the micro USB cable to your laptop or to the wall adapter. The Pi will boot up and create a new secure wireless access point called Onion Pi. Connecting to that access point will automatically route any web browsing from your computer through the anonymizing Tor network.

• Use a Raspberry Pi as an Ad Blocking Access Point!
• I have a few other posts on this blog tagged Raspberry Pi about using the Pi as a camera.
• Wildly successful crowdfunded ‘anonabox’ router accused of lying to customers – I found out about the Onion Pi a when the Anonabox backlash hit.

Otto: A customizable camera powered by Raspberry Pi

Meet Otto, a hackable GIF camera powered by a Raspberry Pi. It’s on Kickstarter now and costs either $149 or $199, depending on how quickly you get your pre-order in.

I really like this Otto prototype photograph that appears on the Next Thing website:

I think this could be the inspiration I needed for my own Raspberry Pi project!

(via raspberrypi.org)

Previously on Rapid Notes

• The SnapPiCam – A Raspberry Pi powered digital camera with Adafruit PiTFT touchscreen and swappable lenses.
• Raspberry Pi Camera Module – Review and tutorial guide.

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The SnapPiCam – a Raspberry Pi camera

The SnapPiCam kit will be available soon from The LittleBox Company.

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Tweak Town’s Raspberry Pi Camera Module Review and Tutorial Guide:

The Raspberry Pi Camera Module is a 5MP CMOS camera with a fixed focus lens that is capable of capturing still images as well as high definition video. Stills are captured at a resolution of 2592 x 1944, while video is supported at 1080p at 30 FPS, 720p at 60 FPS and 640×480 at 60 or 90 FPS.

The camera module measures in at just 25mm x 20mm x 9mm and weighs a mere 3 grams. This makes it ideal for projects such as hidden security cameras, high altitude balloon experiments, and even an onboard camera for RC car adventures.