Hi folks, Rob from The MagPi here! Issue 63 is now available, and it’s a huge one: we finally show you how to create the ultimate Raspberry Pi arcade cabinet in our latest detailed tutorial, so get some quarters and your saw ready.

Totally awesome video game builds!

The 16-page-long arcade machine instructions cover everything from the tools you need and how to do the woodwork, to setting up the electronics. In my spare time, I pretend to be Street Fighter baddie M. Bison, so I’m no stranger to arcade machines. However, I had never actually built one — luckily, the excellent Bob Clagett of I Like To Make Stuff was generous enough to help out with this project. I hope you enjoy reading the article, and making your own cabinet, as much as I enjoyed writing and building them.

Projects for kids

Retro gaming isn’t the only thing you’ll find in this issue of The MagPi though. We have a big feature called Junior Pi Projects, which we hope will inspire young people to make something really cool using Scratch or Python.

As usual, the new issue also includes a collection of other tutorials for you to follow, for example for building a hydroponic garden, or making a special MIDI box. There are also fantastic maker projects to read up on, and reviews to tempt your wallet.

The kids are alright

Get The MagPi 63

You can grab The MagPi 63 right now from WH Smith, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Asda. If you live in the US, check out your local Barnes & Noble or Micro Center in the next few days. You can also get the new issue online from our store, or digitally via our Android or iOS apps. And don’t forget, there’s always the free PDF as well.

Subscribe for free goodies

Want to support the Raspberry Pi Foundation, the magazine, and get some cool free stuff? If you take out a twelve-month print subscription to The MagPi, you’ll get a Pi Zero W, Pi Zero case, and adapter cables absolutely free! This offer does not currently have an end date.

That’s it for this month! We’re off to play some games.

The post MagPi 63: build the arcade cabinet of your dreams appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – MagPi 63: build the arcade cabinet of your dreams

After becoming internet-famous for their interactive Christmas lights, the Poplawskis have expanded their festive offerings this year with Holiday Frights, a fiendish collection of spooky decor controlled by a Raspberry Pi.

The Poplawskis’ holiday lights

Full of lights and inflatable decorations sprawling across the front lawn, the annual pi-powered Poplawski Christmas setup is something we await eagerly here at Pi Towers. What better way to celebrate the start of the holiday season than by inflating reindeer and flashing fairy lights on another continent?

image c/o Chris Poplawski

So this year, when an email appeared in our inbox to announce the Holiday Frights Halloween edition, we were over the moon!

Take control

It’s about 5am in Easton, Pennsylvania, but I’m 99% sure the residents of the Poplawski’s Holiday Frights home were fully aware of me endlessly toggling their Halloween decorations  — on, off, on, off — in the process of creating the GIF above.

The decorations of the Poplawski’s Holiday Frights are controlled by a Raspberry Pi which, in turn, takes input from a website. And while we’ve seen many Pi projects with online interfaces controlling real-life devices, we can’t help but have a soft spot for this particular one because of its pretty, flashy lights.

To try out the decorations yourself, go to the Poplawski’s Holiday Frights website. Also make sure to bookmark the site, or follow the Facebook page, for updates on their Christmas edition.

When you’re on the site, you will also see how many other people are currently online. If you’re not alone, the battle over which lights are turned on or off can commence! In case you’re feeling extra generous, you can donate 10¢ to fix the decorations in a state of your choosing for 60 seconds, while also helping the Poplawskis power their lights.

Getting spooky

Have you built something Pi-powered and spooky for Halloween? Make sure to share it with us across our social media accounts or in the comments below.

The post The Poplawski’s Holiday Frights appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – The Poplawski’s Holiday Frights

When Ben North was faced with the dilemma of his nine-year-old son wanting him to watch his pinball games while, at the same time, Ben should be doing housework, he came up with a brilliant hack. Ben decided to investigate the inner workings of his twenty-year-old Twilight Zone pinball machine to convert its score display data into a video stream he could keep an eye on while working.

Ben ended up with this. Read on to find out how…

Dad? Dad! DAD!!

Kids love sharing their achievements. That’s a given. And so, after Ben introduced his son Zach to his beloved pinball machine, Zach wanted his dad to witness his progress. However, at some point Ben had to get back to the dull reality of adulting.

My son Zach, now 9, has been steadily getting better at [playing pinball], and is keen for me to watch his games. So he and I wanted a way for me to keep an eye on how his game is going, while I do other jobs elsewhere.

The two of them thought that, with the right tools and some fiddling, they could hijack the machine’s score information on its way to the dot matrix display and divert it to a computer. “One way to do this would be to set up a webcam.” Ben explains on his blog, “But where’s the fun in that?”

Twilight Zone pinball wizardry

After researching how the dot matrix receives and displays the score data, Ben and Zach figured out how to fetch its output using a 16-channel USB logic analyser. Then they dove into learning to convert the data the logic analyser outputs back into images.

“Exploring in more detail confirmed that the data looked reasonable. We could see well-distinguished frames and rows, and within each row, the pixel data had a mixture of high (lit pixel) and low (dark pixel).”

After Ben managed to convert the signals of one frame into a human-readable pixel image, it was time to think about the hardware that could do this conversion in real time. Though he and Zach were convinced they would have to build custom hardware to complete their project, they decided to first give the Raspberry Pi a go. And it turned out that the Pi was up to the challenge!

“By an amazing coincidence, the [first] frame I decoded was one showing that I am the current Lost In The Zone champion.”

To decode the first frame, Ben had written a Python script. However, he coded the program to produce a score live stream in C++, since this language is better at handling high-speed input and output. To make sure Zach would learn from the experience, Ben explained the how and why of the program to him.

I talked through with Zach what the program needed to do — detect clock edges, sample pixel data, collect rows, etc. — but then he left me to do ‘all the boring typing’.

Ben used various pieces of open-source software while working on this project, including the sigrok suite for signal analysis and the multimedia framework gstreamer for handling the live video stream to the Raspberry Pi.

Find more information about the Twilight Zone pinball build, including a lot of technical details and the code itself, on Ben’s blog.

Worthy self-promotion from Ben

“I also did an FPGA project to replicate some of the Colossus code-breaking machine used in Bletchley Park during World War II,” explained Ben in our recent emails. “with a Raspberry Pi as the host.”

The original Colossus, not Ben’s.
Image c/o Wikipedia

As a bit of a history nerd myself, I think this is beyond cool. And if, like me, you’d like to learn more, check out the link here.

The post Ben’s Raspberry Pi Twilight Zone pinball hack appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – Ben’s Raspberry Pi Twilight Zone pinball hack

Halloween is almost upon us! In honour of one of the maker community’s favourite howlidays, here are some posts from enthusiastic makers on Twitter to get you inspired and prepared for the big event.

Lorraine’s VR Puppet

Lorraine Underwood on Twitter

Using a @Raspberry_Pi with @pimoroni tilt hat to make a cool puppet for #Halloween https://t.co/pOeTFZ0r29

Made with a Pimoroni Pan-Tilt HAT, a Raspberry Pi, and some VR software on her phone, Lorraine Underwood‘s puppet is going to be a rather fitting doorman to interact with this year’s trick-or-treaters. Follow her project’s progress as she posts it on her blog.

Firr’s Monster-Mashing House

Firr on Twitter

Making my house super spooky for Halloween! https://t.co/w553l40BT0

Harnessing the one song guaranteed to earworm its way into my mind this October, Firr has upgraded his house to sing for all those daring enough to approach it this coming All Hallows’ Eve.

Firr used resources from Adafruit, along with three projectors, two Raspberry Pis, and some speakers, to create this semi-interactive display.

While the eyes can move on their own, a joystick can be added for direct control. Firr created a switch that goes between autonomous animation and direct control.

Find out more on the htxt.africa website.

Justin’s Snake Eyes Pumpkin

Justin Smith on Twitter

First #pumpkin of the season for Friday the 13th! @PaintYourDragon’s snake eyes bonnet for the #RaspberryPi to handle the eye animation. https://t.co/TSlUUxYP5Q

The Animated Snake Eyes Bonnet is definitely one of the freakiest products to come from the Adafruit lab, and it’s the perfect upgrade for any carved pumpkin this Halloween. Attach the bonnet to a Raspberry Pi 3, or the smaller Zero or Zero W, and thus add animated eyes to your scary orange masterpiece, as Justin Smith demonstrates in his video. The effect will terrify even the bravest of trick-or-treaters! Just make sure you don’t light a candle in there too…we’re not sure how fire-proof the tech is.

And then there’s this…

EmmArarrghhhhhh on Twitter

Squishy eye keyboard? Anyone? Made with @Raspberry_Pi @pimoroni’s Explorer HAT Pro and a pile of stuff from @Poundland ‼️ https://t.co/qLfpLLiXqZ

Yeah…the line between frightening and funny is never thinner than on Halloween.

Make and share this Halloween!

For more Halloween project ideas, check out our free resources including Scary ‘Spot the difference’ and the new Pioneers-inspired ‘Pride and Prejudice‘ for zombies.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of the zombie virus must be in want of braaaaaaains.

No matter whether you share your Halloween builds on Twitter, Facebook, G+, Instagram, or YouTube, we want to see them — make sure to tag us in your posts. We also have a comment section below this post, so go ahead and fill it with your ideas, links to completed projects, and general chat about the world of RasBOOrry Pi!

…sorry, that’s a hideous play on words. I apologise.

The post Twitter makers love Halloween appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – Twitter makers love Halloween

Halloween: that glorious time of year when you’re officially allowed to make your friends jump out of their skin with your pranks. For those among us who enjoy dressing up, Halloween is also the occasion to go all out with costumes. And so, dear reader, we present to you: a steampunk tentacle hat, created by Derek Woodroffe.

Finished Tenticle hat

Finished Tenticle hat

Extreme Electronics

Derek is an engineer who loves all things electronics. He’s part of Extreme Kits, and he runs the website Extreme Electronics. Raspberry Pi Zero-controlled Tesla coils are Derek’s speciality — he’s even been on one of the Royal Institution’s Christmas Lectures with them! Skip ahead to 15:06 in this video to see Derek in action:

Let There Be Light! // 2016 CHRISTMAS LECTURES with Saiful Islam – Lecture 1

The first Lecture from Professor Saiful Islam’s 2016 series of CHRISTMAS LECTURES, ‘Supercharged: Fuelling the future’. Watch all three Lectures here: http://richannel.org/christmas-lectures 2016 marked the 80th anniversary since the BBC first broadcast the Christmas Lectures on TV. To celebrate, chemist Professor Saiful Islam explores a subject that the lectures’ founder – Michael Faraday – addressed in the very first Christmas Lectures – energy.

Wearables

Wearables are electronically augmented items you can wear. They might take the form of spy eyeglasses, clothes with integrated sensors, or, in this case, headgear adorned with mechanised tentacles.

Why did Derek make this? We’re not entirely sure, but we suspect he’s a fan of the Cthulu mythos. In any case, we were a little astounded by his project. This is how we reacted when Derek tweeted us about it:

Raspberry Pi on Twitter

@ExtElec @extkits This is beyond incredible and completely unexpected.

In fact, we had to recover from a fit of laughter before we actually managed to type this answer.

Making a steampunk tentacle hat

Derek made the ‘skeleton’ of each tentacle out of a net curtain spring, acrylic rings, and four lengths of fishing line. Two servomotors connect to two ends of fishing line each, and pull them to move the tentacle.

Then he covered the tentacles with nylon stockings and liquid latex, glued suckers cut out of MDF onto them, and mounted them on an acrylic base. The eight motors connect to a Raspberry Pi via an I2C 8-port PWM controller board.

The Pi makes the servos pull the tentacles so that they move in sine waves in both the x and y directions, seemingly of their own accord. Derek cut open the top of a hat to insert the mounted tentacles, and he used more liquid latex to give the whole thing a slimy-looking finish.

Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn!

You can read more about Derek’s steampunk tentacle hat here. He will be at the Beeston Raspberry Jam in November to show off his build, so if you’re in the Nottingham area, why not drop by?

Wearables for Halloween

This build is already pretty creepy, but just imagine it with a sensor- or camera-powered upgrade that makes the tentacles reach for people nearby. You’d have nightmare fodder for weeks.

With the help of the Raspberry Pi, any Halloween costume can be taken to the next level. How could Pi technology help you to win that coveted ‘Scariest costume’ prize this year? Tell us your ideas in the comments, and be sure to share pictures of you in your get-up with us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

The post Derek Woodroffe’s steampunk tentacle hat appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – Derek Woodroffe’s steampunk tentacle hat

Fit an entire Raspberry Pi-based laptop into your pocket with N O D E’s latest Handheld Linux Terminal build.

The Handheld Linux Terminal Version 3 (Portable Pi 3)

Hey everyone. Today I want to show you the new version 3 of the Handheld Linux Terminal. It’s taken a long time, but I’m finally finished. This one takes all the things I’ve learned so far, and improves on many of the features from the previous iterations.

N O D E

With interests in modding tech, exploring the boundaries of the digital world, and open source, YouTuber N O D E has become one to watch within the digital maker world. He maintains a channel focused on “the transformative power of technology.”

“Understanding that electronics isn’t voodoo is really powerful”, he explains in his Patreon video. “And learning how to build your own stuff opens up so many possibilities.”

The topics of his videos range from stripped-down devices, upgraded tech, and security upgrades, to the philosophy behind technology. He also provides weekly roundups of, and discussions about, new releases.

Essentially, if you like technology, you’ll like N O D E.

Handheld Linux Terminal v3

Subscribers to N O D E’s YouTube channel, of whom there are currently over 44000, will have seen him documenting variations of this handheld build throughout the last year. By stripping down a Raspberry Pi 3, and incorporating a Zero W, he’s been able to create interesting projects while always putting functionality first.

With the third version of his terminal, N O D E has taken experiences gained from previous builds to create something of which he’s obviously extremely proud. And so he should be. The v3 handheld is impressively small considering he managed to incorporate a fully functional keyboard with mouse, a 3.5″ screen, and a fan within the 3D-printed body.

“The software side of things is where it really shines though, and the Pi 3 is more than capable of performing most non-intensive tasks,” N O D E goes on to explain. He demonstrates various applications running on Raspbian, plus other operating systems he has pre-loaded onto additional SD cards:

“I have also installed Exagear Desktop, which allows it to run x86 apps too, and this works great. I have x86 apps such as Sublime Text and Spotify running without any problems, and it’s technically possible to use Wine to also run Windows apps on the device.”

We think this is an incredibly neat build, and we can’t wait to see where N O D E takes it next!

The post N O D E’s Handheld Linux Terminal appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – N O D E’s Handheld Linux Terminal

Last month, we shared the news that Riot Games is supporting digital literacy by matching 25% of sales of Championship Ashe and Championship Ward to create a charity fund that will benefit the Raspberry Pi Foundation and two other charities.

Vote for the Raspberry Pi Foundation

Riot Games is now calling for all League of Legends players to vote for their favourite charity — the winning organisation will receive 50% of the total fund.

By visiting the ‘Vote for charity’ tab in-client, you’ll be able to choose between the Raspberry Pi Foundation, BasicNeeds, and Learning Equality.

Players can vote only once, and your vote will be multiplied based on your honour level. Voting ends on 5 November 2017 at 11:59pm PT.

League of Legends with Riot Gaming

In honour of the Riot Games Charity Fund vote, and to support the work of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, KimmieRiot and M0RGZ of top female eSports organisation Riot Gaming (no relation to Riot Games) will run a four-hour League of Legends live-stream this Saturday, 21 October, from 6pm to 10pm BST.

Playing as Championship Ashe, they’ll be streaming live to Twitch, and you’re all invited to join in the fun. I’ll be making an appearance in the chat box as RaspberryPiFoundation, and we’ll be giving away some free T-shirts and stickers during the event — make sure to tune in to the conversation.

In a wonderful gesture, Riot Gaming will pass on all donations made to their channel during the live-stream to us. These funds will directly aid the ongoing charitable work of Raspberry Pi and our computing education programmes like CoderDojo.

Make sure to follow Riot Gaming, and activate notifications so you don’t miss the event!

We’re blushing

Thank you to everyone who buys Championship Ashe and Championship Ward, and to all of you who vote for us. We’re honoured to be one of the three charities selected to benefit from the Riot Games Charity Fund.

And a huge thank you to Riot Gaming for organising an evening of Raspberry Pi and League of Legends. We can’t wait!

The post Join us for an evening of League of Legends appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – Join us for an evening of League of Legends

Back in May 2013, we heard from Dominique Laloux about an exciting project to bring Raspberry Pi labs to schools in rural West Africa. Until 2012, 75 percent of teachers there had never used a computer. The project has been very successful, and Dominique has been in touch again to bring us the latest news.

Preparing the new Pi labs building in Kuma Tokpli, Togo

Growing the project

Thanks to the continuing efforts of a dedicated team of teachers, parents and other supporters, the Centre Informatique de Kuma, now known as INITIC (from the French ‘INItiation aux TIC’), runs two Raspberry Pi labs in schools in Togo, and plans to open a third in December. The second lab was opened last year in Kpalimé, a town in the Plateaux Region in the west of the country.

Using the new Raspberry Pi labs in Kpalimé, Togo

More than 400 students used the new lab intensively during the last school year. Dominique tells us more:

“The report made in early July by the seven teachers who accompanied the students was nothing short of amazing: the young people covered a very impressive number of concepts and skills, from the GUI and the file system, to a solid introduction to word processing and spreadsheets, and many other skills. The lab worked exactly as expected. Its 21 Raspberry Pis worked flawlessly, with the exception of a couple of SD cards that needed re-cloning, and a couple of old screens that needed to be replaced. All the Raspberry Pis worked without a glitch. They are so reliable!”

The teachers and students have enjoyed access to a range of software and resources, all running on Raspberry Pi 2s and 3s.

“Our current aim is to introduce the students to ICT using the Raspberry Pis, rather than introducing them to programming and electronics (a step that will certainly be considered later). We use Ubuntu Mate along with a large selection of applications, from LibreOffice, Firefox, GIMP, Audacity, and Calibre, to special maths, science, and geography applications. There are also special applications such as GnuCash and GanttProject, as well as logic games including PyChess. Since December, students also have access to a local server hosting Kiwix, Wiktionary (a local copy of Wikipedia in four languages), several hundred videos, and several thousand books. They really love it!”

Pi lab upgrade

This summer, INITIC upgraded the equipment in their Pi lab in Kuma Adamé, which has been running since 2014. 21 older model Raspberry Pis were replaced with Pi 2s and 3s, to bring this lab into line with the others, and encourage co-operation between the different locations.

“All 21 first-generation Raspberry Pis worked flawlessly for three years, despite the less-than-ideal conditions in which they were used — tropical conditions, dust, frequent power outages, etc. I brought them all back to Brussels, and they all still work fine. The rationale behind the upgrade was to bring more computing power to the lab, and also to have the same equipment in our two Raspberry Pi labs (and in other planned installations).”

Students and teachers using the upgraded Pi lab in Kuma Adamé

An upgrade of the organisation’s first lab, installed in 2012 in Kuma Tokpli, will be completed in December. This lab currently uses ‘retired’ laptops, which will be replaced with Raspberry Pis and peripherals. INITIC, in partnership with the local community, is also constructing a new building to house the upgraded technology, and the organisation’s third Raspberry Pi lab.

Reliable tech

Dominique has been very impressed with the performance of the Raspberry Pis since 2014.

“Our experience of three years, in two very different contexts, clearly demonstrates that the Raspberry Pi is a very convincing alternative to more ‘conventional’ computers for introducing young students to ICT where resources are scarce. I wish I could convince more communities in the world to invest in such ‘low cost, low consumption, low maintenance’ infrastructure. It really works!”

He goes on to explain that:

“Our goal now is to build at least one new Raspberry Pi lab in another Togolese school each year. That will, of course, depend on how successful we are at gathering the funds necessary for each installation, but we are confident we can convince enough friends to give us the financial support needed for our action.”

Reliable Raspberry Pis in the labs at Kpalimé

Get involved

We are delighted to see the Raspberry Pi being used to bring information technology to new teachers, students, and communities in Togo – it’s wonderful to see this project becoming established and building on its achievements. The mission of the Raspberry Pi Foundation is to put the power of digital making into the hands of people all over the world. Therefore, projects like this, in which people use our tech to fulfil this mission in places with few resources, are wonderful to us.

More information about INITIC and its projects can be found on its website. If you are interested in helping the organisation to meet its goals, visit the How to help page. And if you are involved with a project like this, bringing ICT, computer science, and coding to new places, please tell us about it in the comments below.

The post More Raspberry Pi labs in West Africa appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – More Raspberry Pi labs in West Africa

Tim Rowledge produces and sells wonderful replicas of the cases which our Astro Pis live in aboard the International Space Station. Here is the story of how he came to do this. Over to you, Tim!

When the Astro Pi case was first revealed a couple of years ago, the collective outpouring of ‘Squee!’ it elicited may have been heard on board the ISS itself. People wanted to buy it or build it at home, and someone wanted to know whether it would blend. (There’s always one.)

The Sense HAT and its Pi tucked snugly in the original Astro Pi flight case — gorgeous, isn’t it?

Replicating the Astro Pi case

Some months later the STL files for printing your own Astro Pi case were released, and people jumped at the chance to use them. Soon reports appeared saying you had to make quite a few attempts before getting a good print — normal for any complex 3D-printing project. A fellow member of my local makerspace successfully made a couple of cases, but it took a lot of time, filament, and post-print finishing work. And of course, a plastic Astro Pi case simply doesn’t look or feel like the original made of machined aluminium — or ‘aluminum’, as they tend to say over here in North America.

A batch of tops designed by Tim

I wanted to build an Astro Pi case which would more closely match the original. Fortunately, someone else at my makerspace happens to have some serious CNC machining equipment at his small manufacturing company. Therefore, I focused on creating a case design that could be produced with his three-axis device. This meant simplifying some parts to avoid expensive, slow, complex multi-fixture work. It took us a while, but we ended up with a design we can efficiently make using his machine.

Tim’s first lasered case

And the resulting case looks really, really like the original — in fact, upon receiving one of the final prototypes, Eben commented:

“I have to say, at first glance they look spectacular: unless you hold them side by side with the originals, it’s hard to pinpoint what’s changed. I’m looking forward to seeing one built up and then seeing them in the wild.”

Inside the Astro Pi case

Making just the bare case is nice, but there are other parts required to recreate a complete Astro Pi unit. Thus I got my local electronics company to design a small HAT to provide much the same support the mezzanine board offers: an RTC and nice, clean connections to the six buttons. We also added well-labelled, grouped pads for all the other GPIO lines, along with space for an ADC. If you’re making your own Astro Pi replica, you might like the Switchboard.

The electronics supply industry just loves to offer *some* of what you need, so that one supplier never has everything: we had to obtain the required stand-offs, screws, spacers, and JST wires from assorted other sources. Jeff at my nearby Industrial Paint & Plastics took on the laser engraving of our cases, leaving out copyrighted logos etcetera.

Lasering the top of a case

Get your own Astro Pi case

Should you like to buy one of our Astro Pi case kits, pop over to www.astropicase.com, and we’ll get it on its way to you pronto. If you’re an institutional or corporate customer, the fully built option might make more sense for you — ordering the Pi and other components, and having a staff member assemble it all, may well be more work than is sensible.

Tim’s first full Astro Pi case replica, complete with shiny APEM buttons

To put the kit together yourself, all you need to do is add a Pi, Sense HAT, Camera Module, and RTC battery, and choose your buttons. An illustrated manual explains the process step by step. Our version of the Astro Pi case uses the same APEM buttons as the units in orbit, and whilst they are expensive, just clicking them is a source of great joy. It comes in a nice travel case too.

This is Tim. Thanks, Tim!

Take part in Astro Pi

If having an Astro Pi replica is not enough for you, this is your chance: the 2017-18 Astro Pi challenge is open! We’re offering young people two missions, one of which guarantees getting your code into space. Could you, or someone you know, be part of the next generation of space scientists? Head over to the Astro Pi website to find out more.

The post Manufacturing Astro Pi case replicas appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – Manufacturing Astro Pi case replicas

After making a delightful Bitcoin lottery using a Raspberry Pi, Sean Hodgins brings us more Pi-powered goodness in time for every maker’s favourite holiday: Easter! Just kidding, it’s Halloween. Check out his hair-raising new build, the Haunted Jack in the Box.

Haunted Jack in the Box – DIY Raspberry Pi Project

This project uses a raspberry pi and face detection using the pi camera to determine when someone is looking at it. Plenty of opportunities to scare people with it. You can make your own!

Haunted jack-in-the-box?

Imagine yourself wandering around a dimly lit house. Your eyes idly scan a shelf. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a twangy melody! What was that? You take a closer look…there seems to be a box in jolly colours…with a handle that’s spinning by itself?!

What’s…going on?

You freeze, unable to peel your eyes away, and BAM!, out pops a maniacally grinning clown. You promptly pee yourself. Happy Halloween, courtesy of Sean Hodgins.

Eerie disembodied voice: You’re welco-o-o-ome!

How has Sean built this?

Sean purchased a jack-in-the-box toy and replaced its bottom side with one that would hold the necessary electronic components. He 3D-printed this part, but says you could also just build it by hand.

The bottom of the box houses a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B and a servomotor which can turn the windup handle. There’s also a magnetic reed switch which helps the Pi decide when to trigger the Jack. Sean hooked up the components to the Pi’s GPIO pins, and used an elastic band as a drive belt to connect the pulleys on the motor and the handle.

Sean explains that he has used a lot of double-sided tape and superglue in this build. The bottom and top are held together with two screws, because, as he describes it, “the Jack coming out is a little violent.”

In addition to his video walk-through, he provides build instructions on Instructables, Hackaday, Hackster, and Imgur — pick your poison. And be sure to subscribe to Sean’s YouTube channel to see what he comes up with next.

Wait, how does the haunted part work?

But if I explain it, it won’t be scary anymore! OK, fiiiine.

With the help of a a Camera Module and OpenCV, Sean implemented facial recognition: Jack knows when someone is looking at his box, and responds by winding up and popping out.

Testing the haunting script

Sean’s Python script is available here, but as he points out, there are many ways in which you could adapt this code, and the build itself, to be even more frightening.

So very haunted

What would you do with this build? Add creepy laughter? Soundbites from It? Lighting effects? Maybe even infrared light and a NoIR Camera Module, so that you can scare people in total darkness? There are so many possibilities for this project — tell us your idea in the comments.

The post Sean Hodgins’ Haunted Jack in the Box appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – Sean Hodgins’ Haunted Jack in the Box

Joe Birch has built a simple device that converts online news stories to Braille, inspired by his family’s predisposition to loss of eyesight. He has based his BrailleBox on Android Things, News API, and a Raspberry Pi 3.

The background

Braille is a symbol system for people with visual impairment which represents letters and numbers as raised points. Commercial devices that dynamically produce Braille are very expensive, so Joe decided to build a low-cost alternative that is simple to recreate.

Image by DIPF CC BY-SA 3.0

News API is a tool for fetching JSON metadata from over 70 online news sources. You can use it to integrate headlines or articles into websites and text-based applications.

The BrailleBox

To create the six nubs necessary to form Braille symbols, Joe topped solenoids with wooden balls. He then wired them up to GPIO pins of the Pi 3 via a breadboard.

One of the solenoids Joe built into the BrailleBox

Next, he took control of the solenoids using Android Things. He set up the BrailleBox software to start running on boot, and added a push button. When he presses the button, the program fetches a news story using News API, and the solenoids start moving.

BrailleBox Demo

Uploaded by Joe Birch on 2017-06-20.

Since Joe is an Android Engineer, looking through his write-up and code for BrailleBox might be useful for anyone interested in Android Things.

If you like this project, make sure you keep an eye on Joe’s Twitter, since he has plans to update the BrailleBox design. His next step is to move on from the prototyping stage and house all the hardware inside the box. Moreover, he is thinking about adding a potentiometer so that users can choose their preferred reading speed.

Accessibility

If you want to find our community’s conversation about accessibility and assistive technology, head to the forums. And if you’re working to make computing more accessible, or if you’ve built an assistive project, let us know in the comments or on social media, so that we can boost the signal!

The post BrailleBox: Android Things Braille news display appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – BrailleBox: Android Things Braille news display

We appreciate it’s only October, but hear us out. The Pi Hut’s 3D Xmas Tree is only available for pre-order until the 15th, and we’d hate for you to find out about it too late. So please share in a few minutes of premature Christmas cheer as we introduce you to this gorgeous kit.

Oooo…aaaaahhhh…

Super early Christmas prep

Designed by Pi Towers alumna Rachel Rayns, the 3D Xmas Tree kit is a 25-LED add-on board for the Raspberry Pi, on sale as a pre-soldered and as a ‘solder yourself’ version. You can control each LED independently via the GPIO pins, allowing you to create some wonderful, twinkly displays this coming holiday season.

The tree works with any 40-pin Raspberry Pi, including the Zero and Zero W.

You may remember the kit from last Christmas, when The Pi Hut teasingly hinted at its existence. We’ve been itching to get our hands on one for months now, and last week we finally received our own to build and play with.

So I took the time to record my entire build process for you…only to discover that I had managed to do most of the soldering out of frame. I blame Ben Nuttall for this, as we all rightly should, and offer instead this short GIF of me proudly showing off my finished piece.

The Pi Hut’s website has complete soldering instructions for the tree, as well as example code to get you started. Thus, even the most novice of Raspberry Pi enthusiasts and digital makers should be able to put this kit together and get it twinkling for Christmas.

If you don’t own helping hands for soldering, you’re missing out on, well, a helping hand when soldering.

If you need any help with soldering, check out our video resource. And once you’ve mastered this skill, how about upgrading your tree to twinkle in time with your favourite Christmas song? Or getting two or three, and having them flash in a beautiful synchronised multi-tree display?

Get your own 3D Xmas Tree

As mentioned above, you can pre-order the kit until Sunday 15 October. Once this deadline passes, that’s it — the boat will have sailed and you’ll be left stranded at the dock, waving goodbye to the missed opportunity.

Don’t be this kid.

With 2730 trees already ordered, you know this kit is going to be in the Christmas stocking of many a maker on 25 December.

And another thing

Shhh…while you’re there, The Pi Hut still has a few Google AIY Projects voice kits available for pre-order…but you didn’t hear that from me. Quick!

The post The Pi Hut’s 3D Xmas Tree pre-order appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – The Pi Hut’s 3D Xmas Tree pre-order

In March, the CoderDojo Foundation launched their Girls Initiative, which aims to increase the average proportion of girls attending CoderDojo clubs from 29% to at least 40% over the next three years.

Six months on, we wanted to highlight what we’ve done so far and what’s next for our initiative.

What we’ve done so far

To date, we have focussed our efforts on four key areas:

• Developing and improving content
• Conducting and learning from research
• Highlighting role models
• Developing a guide of tried and tested best practices for encouraging and sustaining girls in a Dojo setting (Empowering the Future)

Content

We’ve taken measures to ensure our resources are as friendly to girls as well as boys, and we are improving them based on feedback from girls. For example, we have developed beginner-level content (Sushi Cards) for working with wearables and for building apps using App Inventor. In response to girls’ feedback, we are exploring more creative goal-orientated content.

Moreover, as part of our Empowering the Future guide, we have developed three short ‘Mini-Sushi’ projects which provide a taster of different programming languages, such as Scratch, HTML, and App Inventor.

What’s next?

We are currently finalising our intermediate-level wearables Sushi Cards. These are resources for learners to further explore wearables and integrate them with other coding skills they are developing. The Cards will enable young people to program LEDs which can be sewn into clothing with conductive thread. We are also planning another series of Sushi Cards focused on using coding skills to solve problems Ninjas have reported as important to them.

Research

In June 2017 we conducted the first Ninja survey. It was sent to all young people registered on the CoderDojo community platform, Zen. Hundreds of young people involved in Dojos around the world responded and shared their experiences.

We are currently examining these results to identify areas in which girls feel most or least confident, as well as the motivations and influencing factors that cause them to continue with coding.

What’s next?

Over the coming months we will delve deeper into the findings of this research, and decide how we can improve our content and Dojo support to adapt accordingly. Additionally, as part of sending out our Empowering the Future guide, we’re asking Dojos to provide insights into their current proportions of girls and female Mentors.

We will follow up with recipients of the guide to document the impact of the recommended approaches they try at their Dojo. Thus, we will find out which approaches are most effective in different regional contexts, which will help us improve our support for Dojos wanting to increase their proportion of attending girls.

Role models

Many Dojos, Champions, and Mentors are doing amazing work to support and encourage girls at their Dojos. Female Mentors not only help by supporting attending girls, but they also act as vital role models in an environment which is often male-dominated. Blogs by female Mentors and Ninjas which have already featured on our website include:

• Creating an environment to support female Ninjas
• Building a network to support female Mentors and Ninjas
• CoderDojo youths: Laura loves building robots with friends
• Celebrating Girls in ICT Day with CoderDojo
• [Video] Niamh on ways to encourage young girls in CoderDojo at a Mentor meetup
• Mentor story: Maggie on understanding what kids want
• Aerospace Engineer Tiera Guinn spoke at Coolest Projects 2017
• Ruth and Alina (Ninja) talk about their Dojo and badging!

What’s next?

We recognise the importance of female role models, and over the coming months we will continue to encourage community members to share their stories so that we bring them to the wider CoderDojo community. Do you know a female Mentor or Ninja you would like to shine a spotline on? Get in touch with us at info@coderdojo.org. You can also use #CoderDojoGirls on social media.

Empowering the Future guide

Ahead of Ada Lovelace Day and International Day of the Girl Child, the CoderDojo Foundation has released Empowering the Future, a comprehensive guide of practical approaches which Dojos have tested to engage and sustain girls.

Some topics covered in the guide are:

• Approaches to improve the Dojo environment and layout
• Language and images used to describe and promote Dojos
• Content considerations, and suggested resources
• The importance of female Mentors, and ways to increase access to role models

For the next month, Dojos that want to improve their proportion of girls can still sign up to have the guide book sent to them for free! From today, Dojos and anyone else can also download a PDF file of the guide.

We would like to say a massive thank you to all community members who have shared their insights with us to make our Empowering the Future guide as comprehensive and beneficial as possible for other Dojos.

Tell us what you think

Have you found an approach, or used content, which girls find particularly engaging? Do you have questions about our Girls Initiative? We would love to hear your ideas, insights, and experiences in relation to supporting CoderDojo girls! Feel free to use our forums to share with the global CoderDojo community, and email us at info@coderdojo.org.

The post The CoderDojo Girls Initiative appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – The CoderDojo Girls Initiative

Robot-builder extraordinaire Clément Didier is ushering in the era of our cybernetic overlords. Future generations will remember him as the creator of robots constructed from cardboard and conductive paint which are so easy to replicate that a robot could do it. Welcome to the singularity.

Bare Conductive on Twitter

This cool robot was made with the #PiCap, conductive paint and @Raspberry_Pi by @clementdidier. Full tutorial: https://t.co/AcQVTS4vr2 https://t.co/D04U5UGR0P

Simple interface

To assemble the robot, Clément made use of a Pi Cap board, a motor driver, and most importantly, a tube of Bare Conductive Electric Paint. He painted the control interface onto the cardboard surface of the robot, allowing a human, replicant, or superior robot to direct its movements simply by touching the paint.

Clever design

The Raspberry Pi 3, the motor control board, and the painted input buttons interface via the GPIO breakout pins on the Pi Cap. Crocodile clips connect the Pi Cap to the cardboard-and-paint control surface, while jumper wires connect it to the motor control board.

Sing with me: ‘The Raspberry Pi’s connected to the Pi Cap, and the Pi Cap’s connected to the inputs, and…’

Two battery packs provide power to the Raspberry Pi, and to the four independently driven motors. Software, written in Python, allows the robot to respond to inputs from the conductive paint. The motors drive wheels attached to a plastic chassis, moving and turning the robot at the touch of a square of black paint.

Artistic circuit

Clément used masking tape and a paintbrush to create the control buttons. For a human, this is obviously a fiddly process which relies on the blocking properties of the masking tape and a steady hand. For a robot, however, the process would be a simple, freehand one, resulting in neatly painted circuits on every single one of countless robotic minions. Cybernetic domination is at (metallic) hand.

One fiddly job for a human, one easy task for robotkind

The instructions and code for Clément’s build can be found here.

Low-tech solutions

Here at Pi Towers, we love seeing the high-tech Raspberry Pi integrated so successfully with low-tech components. In addition to conductive paint, we’ve seen cardboard laptops, toilet roll robots, fruit drum kits, chocolate box robots, and hamster-wheel-triggered cameras. Have you integrated low-tech elements into your projects (and potentially accelerated the robot apocalypse in the process)? Tell us about it in the comments!

The post Low-tech Raspberry Pi robot appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – Low-tech Raspberry Pi robot

We’ve all been there: zombies at the door, Daleks on the driveway, creatures from the Upside Down in the walls. You want to be able to monitor their movements, but how do you do that without attracting their attention? Wesley Archer (AKA Raspberry Coulis) has the answer: a Pi-powered Night Vision Camera, perfect for catching unearthly creatures on the prowl — and for wildlife spotting, birdwatching, and home security too, I guess…

Wesley’s Pi-powered Night Vision Camera

Black box

To build his Night Vision Camera, Wesley ordered an infrared Lisiparoi LED Light Ring, a Cyntech Raspberry Pi case, a Pi NoIR Camera Module, and USB WiFi adapter. He based this project around a Raspberry Pi Model B that was in need of a good home, but there’s no reason why you couldn’t use a more up-to-date model with built-in wireless networking.

Wesley set about adapting the case to hold the camera and the infrared light, cutting a hole for the camera lens and attaching the LED Light Ring to the front of the box. The light ring acts as an infrared floodlight, invisible to the zombies, but when combined with the NoIR Camera Module, capable of capturing useful images in the dark. His blog includes helpful step-by-step instructions for this process — unlike Wesley, we recommend using a metal file from your toolbox, and not a nail file belonging to another member of your family. If you’re surrounded by the undead hordes, domestic harmony is essential.

Cutting holes in the case. Please don’t use your spouse’s nail file for this job …

Monitoring

When your hardware is complete, it’s time to install the software. Wesley chose MotionEyeOS to run his camera, and his blog explains the process of downloading and installing the software on your Pi. When everything is set up, and the Pi is connected to your WiFi network, all you need is the Pi’s IP address to view the feed from the camera. Type the IP address into a browser on the same WiFi network, log in, and you’ll soon be spotting intruders (supernatural or otherwise), or possibly watching the fluffy residents of your bird box. Whatever makes you happy.

Visibility

While a camera with night vision is obviously useful, both the Lisiparoi Light Ring and the Camera Module are available for use with the visible spectrum. You can order the Light Ring with infrared or standard white LEDs, and the standard Camera Module works with visible light. If you don’t mind attracting attention, both options could be used to monitor your perimeter for threats.

Saving the world

We think this project would be an amazing inspiration for the current Pioneers challenge, Only you can save us! Set up a camera to control entry to your secret bunker, even when the lights fail. Fend off attacks from zombies, Daleks, or giant spiders, and help save humanity from catastrophe!

Save yourselves!

Have you built a security system to keep your property safe from marauding zombies? Or even from regular burglars? Has your Pioneers team used infrared monitoring in your build? Tell us about it in the comments!

The post Raspberry Coulis’s night vision camera appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – Raspberry Coulis’s night vision camera

October has come at last, and with it, the joy of Halloween is now upon us. So while I spend the next 30 days quoting Hocus Pocus at every opportunity, here’s Adafruit’s latest spooky build … the spooktacular Haunted Portrait.

Haunted Portraits

If you’ve visited a haunted house such as Disney’s Haunted Mansion, or walked the halls of Hogwarts at Universal Studios, you will have seen a ‘moving portrait’. Whether it’s the classic ‘did that painting just blink?’ approach, or occupants moving in and out of frame, they’re an effective piece of spooky decoration – and now you can make your own!

Adafruit’s AdaBox

John Park, maker extraordinaire, recently posted a live make video where he used the contents of the Raspberry Pi-themed AdaBox 005 to create a blinking portrait.

The Adabox is Adafruit’s own maker subscription service where plucky makers receive a mystery parcel containing exciting tech and inspirational builds. Their more recent delivery, the AdaBox 005, contains a Raspberry Pi Zero, their own Joy Bonnet, a case, and peripherals, including Pimoroni’s no-solder Hammer Headers.

While you can purchase the AdaBoxes as one-off buys, subscribers get extra goodies. With AdaBox 005, they received bonus content including Raspberry Pi swag in the form of stickers, and a copy of The MagPi Magazine.

The contents of AdaBox 005 allows makers to build their own Raspberry Pi Zero tiny gaming machine. But the ever-working minds of the Adafruit team didn’t want to settle there, so they decided to create more tutorials based on the box’s contents, such as John Park’s Haunted Portrait.

Bringing a portrait to life

Alongside the AdaBox 005 content, all of which can be purchased from Adafruit directly, you’ll need a flat-screen monitor and a fancy frame. The former could be an old TV or computer screen while the latter, unless you happen to have an ornate frame that perfectly fits your monitor, can be made from cardboard, CNC-cut wood or gold-painted macaroni and tape … probably.

You’ll need to attach headers to your Raspberry Pi Zero. For those of you who fear the soldering iron, the Hammer Headers can be hammered into place without the need for melty hot metal. If you’d like to give soldering a go, you can follow Laura’s Getting Started With Soldering tutorial video.

In his tutorial, John goes on to explain how to set up the Joy Bonnet (if you wish to use it as an added controller), set your Raspberry Pi to display in portrait mode, and manipulate an image in Photoshop or GIMP to create the blinking effect.

Blinking eyes are just the start of the possibilities for this project. This is your moment to show off your image manipulation skills! Why not have the entire head flash to show the skull within? Or have an ethereal image appear in the background of an otherwise unexceptional painting of a bowl of fruit?

In the final stages of the tutorial, John explains how to set an image slideshow running on the Pi, and how to complete the look with the aforementioned ornate frame. He also goes into detail about the importance of using a matte effect screen or transparent gels to give a more realistic ‘painted’ feel.

You’ll find everything you need to make your own haunted portrait here, including a link to John’s entire live stream.

Get spooky!

We’re going to make this for Pi Towers. In fact, I’m wondering whether I could create an entire gallery of portraits specifically for our reception area and see how long it takes people to notice …

… though I possibly shouldn’t have given my idea away on this rather public blog post.

If you make the Haunted Portrait, or any other Halloween-themed Pi build, make sure you share it with us via social media, or in the comments below.

The post Spooktacular Halloween Haunted Portrait appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – Spooktacular Halloween Haunted Portrait

Three researchers from Michigan State University have developed a low-cost, open-source fingerprint reader which can detect fake prints. They call it RaspiReader, and they’ve built it using a Raspberry Pi 3 and two Camera Modules. Joshua and his colleagues have just uploaded all the info you need to build your own version — let’s go!

Sadly not the real output of the RaspiReader

Falsified fingerprints

We’ve probably all seen a movie in which a burglar crosses a room full of laser tripwires and then enters the safe full of loot by tricking the fingerprint-secured lock with a fake print. Turns out, the second part is not that unrealistic: you can fake fingerprints using a range of materials, such as glue or latex.

The RaspiReader team collected live and fake fingerprints to test the device

If the spoof print layer capping the spoofer’s finger is thin enough, it can even fool readers that detect blood flow, pulse, or temperature. This is becoming a significant security risk, not least for anyone who unlocks their smartphone using a fingerprint.

The RaspiReader

This is where Anil K. Jain comes in: Professor Jain leads a biometrics research group. Under his guidance, Joshua J. Engelsma and Kai Cao set out to develop a fingerprint reader with improved spoof-print detection. Ultimately, they aim to help the development of more secure commercial technologies. With their project, the team has also created an amazing resource for anyone who wants to build their own fingerprint reader.

So that replicating their device would be easy, they wanted to make it using inexpensive, readily available components, which is why they turned to Raspberry Pi technology.

The Raspireader and its output

Inside the RaspiReader’s 3D-printed housing, LEDs shine light through an acrylic prism, on top of which the user rests their finger. The prism refracts the light so that the two Camera Modules can take images from different angles. The Pi receives these images via a Multi Camera Adapter Module feeding into the CSI port. Collecting two images means the researchers’ spoof detection algorithm has more information to work with.

Real on the left, fake on the right

RaspiReader software

The Camera Adaptor uses the RPi.GPIO Python package. The RaspiReader performs image processing, and its spoof detection takes image colour and 3D friction ridge patterns into account. The detection algorithm extracts colour local binary patterns … please don’t ask me to explain! You can have a look at the researchers’ manuscript if you want to get stuck into the fine details of their project.

Build your own fingerprint reader

I’ve had my eyes glued to my inbox waiting for Josh to send me links to instructions and files for this build, and here they are (thanks, Josh)! Check out the video tutorial, which walks you through how to assemble the RaspiReader:

RaspiReader: Cost-Effective Open-Source Fingerprint Reader

Building a cost-effective, open-source, and spoof-resilient fingerprint reader for $160* in under an hour. Code: https://github.com/engelsjo/RaspiReader Links to parts: 1. PRISM – https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00WL3OBK4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (Better fit) https://www.thorlabs.com/thorproduct.cfm?partnumber=PS611 2. RaspiCams – https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012V1HEP4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 3. Camera Multiplexer https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012UQWOOQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 4. Raspberry Pi Kit: https://www.amazon.com/CanaKit-Raspberry-Clear-Power-Supply/dp/B01C6EQNNK/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1507058509&sr=8-6&keywords=raspberry+pi+3b Whitepaper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1708.07887 * Prices can vary based on Amazon’s pricing. P.s.

You can find a parts list with links to suppliers in the video description — the whole build costs around $160. All the STL files for the housing and the Python scripts you need to run on the Pi are available on Josh’s GitHub.

Enhance your home security

The RaspiReader is a great resource for researchers, and it would also be a terrific project to build at home! Is there a more impressive way to protect a treasured possession, or secure access to your computer, than with a DIY fingerprint scanner?

Check out this James-Bond-themed blog post for Raspberry Pi resources to help you build a high-security lair. If you want even more inspiration, watch this video about a laser-secured cookie jar which Estefannie made for us. And be sure to share your successful fingerprint scanner builds with us via social media!

The post RaspiReader: build your own fingerprint reader appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – RaspiReader: build your own fingerprint reader

For passive projects such as point-of-sale displays, video loopers, and your upcoming Halloween builds, Adafruit have come up with a read-only solution for powering down your Raspberry Pi without endangering your SD card.

Pulling the plug

At home, at a coding club, or at a Jam, you rarely need to pull the plug on your Raspberry Pi without going through the correct shutdown procedure. To ensure a long life for your SD card and its contents, you should always turn off you Pi by selecting the shutdown option from the menu. This way the Pi saves any temporary files to the card before relinquishing power.

Dramatic reconstruction

By pulling the plug while your OS is still running, you might corrupt these files, which could result in the Pi failing to boot up again. The only fix? Wipe the SD card clean and start over, waving goodbye to all files you didn’t back up.

Passive projects

But what if it’s not as easy as selecting shutdown, because your Raspberry Pi is embedded deep inside the belly of a project? Maybe you’ve hot-glued your Zero W into a pumpkin which is now screwed to the roof of your porch, or your store has a bank of Pi-powered monitors playing ads and the power is set to shut off every evening. Without the ability to shut down your Pi via the menu, you risk the SD card’s contents every time you power down your project.

Read-only

Just in time of the plethora of Halloween projects we’re looking forward to this month, the clever folk at Adafruit have designed a solution for this issue. They’ve shared a script which forces the Raspberry Pi to run in read-only mode, so that powering it down via a plug pull will not corrupt the SD card.

But how?

The script makes the Pi save temporary files to the RAM instead of the SD card. Of course, this means that no files or new software can be written to the card. However, if that’s not necessary for your Pi project, you might be happy to make the trade-off. Note that you can only use Adafruit’s script on Raspbian Lite.

Find more about the read-only Raspberry Pi solution, including the script and optional GPIO-halt utility, on the Adafruit Learn page. And be aware that making your Pi read-only is irreversible, so be sure to back up the contents of your SD card before you implement the script.

Halloween!

It’s October, and we’re now allowed to get excited about Halloween and all of the wonderful projects you plan on making for the big night.

Adafruit’s animated snake eyes

We’ll be covering some of our favourite spooky build on social media throughout the month — make sure to share yours with us, either in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or G+.

The post Adafruit’s read-only Raspberry Pi appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – Adafruit’s read-only Raspberry Pi

My evenings spent watching the Polygon Awful Squad play PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds for hours on end have made me mildly obsessed with this record-breaking Steam game.

So when Michael Darby’s latest PUBG-inspired Game Boy build appeared in my notifications last week, I squealed with excitement and quickly sent the link to my team…while drinking a cocktail by a pool in Turkey ☀️

PUBG ON A GAMEBOY

https://314reactor.com/ https://www.hackster.io/314reactor https://twitter.com/the_mikey_d

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds

For those unfamiliar with the game: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, or PUBG for short, is a Battle-Royale-style multiplayer online video game in which individuals or teams fight to the death on an island map. As players collect weapons, ammo, and transport, their ‘safe zone’ shrinks, forcing a final face-off until only one character remains.

The game has been an astounding success on Steam, the digital distribution platform which brings PUBG to the masses. It records daily player counts of over a million!

Yeah, I’d say one or two people seem to enjoy it!

PUBG on a Game Boy?!

As it’s a fairly complex game, let’s get this out of the way right now: no, Michael is not running the entire game on a Nintendo Game Boy. That would be magic silly impossible. Instead, he’s streaming the game from his home PC to a Raspberry Pi Zero W fitted within the hacked handheld console.

Michael removed the excess plastic inside an old Game Boy Color shell to make space for a Zero W, LiPo battery, and TFT screen. He then soldered the necessary buttons to GPIO pins, and wrote a Python script to control them.

The maker battleground

The full script can be found here, along with a more detailed tutorial for the build.

In order to stream PUBG to the Zero W, Michael uses the open-source NVIDIA steaming service Moonlight. He set his PC’s screen resolution to 800×600 and its frame rate to 30, so that streaming the game to the TFT screen works perfectly, albeit with no sound.

The end result is a rather impressive build that has confused YouTube commenters since he uploaded footage for it last week. The video has more than 60000 views to date, so it appears we’re not the only ones impressed with Michael’s make.

314reactor

If you’re a regular reader of our blog, you may recognise Michael’s name from his recent Nerf blaster mod. And fans of Raspberry Pi may also have seen his Pi-powered Windows 98 wristwatch earlier in the year. He blogs at 314reactor, where you can read more about his digital making projects.

Player Two has entered the game

Now it’s your turn. Have you used a Raspberry Pi to create a gaming system? I’m not just talking arcades and RetroPie here. We want to see everything, from Pi-powered board games to tech on the football field.

Share your builds in the comments below and while you’re at it, what game would you like to stream to a handheld device?

The post PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds on a Game Boy?! appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds on a Game Boy?!

It’s no secret that we love music projects at Pi Towers. On the contrary, we often shout it from the rooftops like we’re in Moulin Rouge! But the PianoAI project by Zack left us slack-jawed: he built an AI on a Raspberry Pi that listens to his piano playing, and then produces improvised, real-time accompaniment.

Jamming with PIanoAI (clip #1) (Version 1.0)

Another example of a short teaching and then jamming with piano with a version I’m more happy with. I have to play for the Pi for a little while before the Pi has enough data to make its own music.

The PianoAI

Inspired by a story about jazz musician Dan Tepfer, Zack set out to create an AI able to imitate his piano-playing style in real time. He began programming the AI in Python, before starting over in the open-source programming language Go.

The Go mascot is a gopher. Why not?

Zack has published an excellent write-up of how he built PianoAI. It’s a very readable account of the progress he made and the obstacles he had to overcome while writing PianoAI, and it includes more example videos. It’s hard to add anything to Zack’s own words, so I shan’t try.

Some of Zack’s notes for his AI

If you just want to try out PianoAI, head over to his GitHub. He provides a detailed guide that talks you through how to implement and use it.

Music to our ears

The Raspberry Pi community never fails to amaze us with their wonderful builds, not least when it comes to musical ones. Check out this cool-looking synth by Toby Hendricks, this geometric instrument by David Sharples, and this pyrite-disc-reading music player by Dmitry Morozov. Aren’t they all splendid? And the list goes on and on…

Which instrument do you play? The recorder? The ocarina? The jaw harp? Could you create an AI like Zack’s for it? Let us know in the comments below, and share your builds with us via social media.

The post Algo-rhythmic PianoAI appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – Algo-rhythmic PianoAI