Hi folks, Rob here from The MagPi. I’m excited to introduce to you all issue 62 of The MagPi, in which we go block crazy with LEGO! This month’s magazine is brimming with 14 pages of magnificent Raspberry Pi projects using these ubiquitous building blocks.

LEGO of everything and get one from the shops right now!

LEGO + Raspberry Pi

In our cover feature you’ll find fun tutorials from our friends at Dexter Industries, such as a Rubik’s cube-solving robot and a special automaton that balances on two wheels. We also show you how to build a retro console case for your Pi out of LEGO, and we have eight other projects to inspire you to make your own incredible brick creations.

Weekend fun

Back at school and looking for a weekend distraction? Check out our weekend projects feature, and build yourself a smart fridge or a door trigger that plays your theme song as you enter the room! Mine is You’re Welcome from Moana. What’s yours?

We have a ton of other wonderful projects, tutorials, and reviews in this issue as well, including a GIF camera, a hydroponic garden, and a Halloween game!

You can’t escape our annual spooktacular puns. That would be impossi-ghoul.

Get The MagPi 62

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

Subscribe for free goodies

Some of you have asked me about the goodies that we give out to subscribers. This is how it works: 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.

Pre-order AIY Projects kits

We have news about the AIY Projects voice kit! Micro Center has opened pre-orders for the kits in the US, and Pi Hut will soon be accepting pre-orders in the UK. Pimoroni has set up a notification service in case you want to know when you can pre-order more stock from them.

Now go enjoy building some fun LEGO Pi projects, and we’ll see you next month!

The post MagPi 62: become a LEGO master builder appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – MagPi 62: become a LEGO master builder

Did you realise the Sense HAT has been available for over two years now? Used by astronauts on the International Space Station, the exact same hardware is available to you on Earth. With a new Astro Pi challenge just launched, it’s time for a retrospective/roundup/inspiration post about this marvellous bit of kit.

The Sense HAT on a Pi in full glory

The Sense HAT explained

We developed our scientific add-on board to be part of the Astro Pi computers we sent to the International Space Station with ESA astronaut Tim Peake. For a play-by-play of Astro Pi’s history, head to the blog archive.

Just to remind you, this is all the cool stuff our engineers have managed to fit onto the HAT:

• A gyroscope (sensing pitch, roll, and yaw)
• An accelerometer
• A magnetometer
• Sensors for temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure
• A joystick
• An 8×8 LED matrix

You can find a roundup of the technical specs here on the blog.

How to Sense HAT

It’s easy to begin exploring this device: take a look at our free Getting started with the Sense HAT resource, or use one of our Code Club Sense HAT projects. You don’t even need to own one in order to dive in. Emulators are available offline on Raspbian and online on Trinket.

The Sense HAT emulator on trinket.io

Fun and games with the Sense HAT

Use the LED matrix and joystick to recreate games such as Pong or Flappy Bird. Of course, you could also add sensor input to your game: code an egg drop game or a Magic 8 Ball that reacts to how the device moves.

Create random sparkles on the Sense HAT

Once December rolls around, you could brighten up your home with a voice-controlled Christmas tree or an advent calendar on your Sense HAT.

If you like the great outdoors, you could also use your Sense HAT to recreate this Hiking Companion by Marcus Johnson. Take it with you on your next hike!

Art with the Sense HAT

The LED matrix is perfect for getting creative. To draw something basic without having to squint at a Python list, use this app by our very own Richard Hayler. Feeling more ambitious? The MagPi will teach you how to create magnificent pixel art. Ben Nuttall has created this neat little Python script for displaying a photo taken by the Raspberry Pi Camera Module on the Sense HAT.

It’s also possible to incorporate Sense HAT data into your digital art! The Python Turtle module and the Processing language are both useful tools for creating beautiful animations based on real-world information.

A Sense HAT project that also uses this principle is Giorgio Sancristoforo’s Tableau, a ‘generative music album’. This device creates music according to the sensor data:

Tableau Generative Album

“There is no doubt that, as music is removed by the phonographrecord from the realm of live production and from the imperative of artistic activity and becomes petrified, it absorbs into itself, in this process of petrification, the very life that would otherwise vanish.”

Science with the Sense HAT

This free Essentials book from The MagPi team covers all the Sense HAT science basics. You can, for example, learn how to measure gravity.

Our online resource shows you how to record the information your HAT picks up. Next you can analyse and graph your data using Mathematica, which is included for free on Raspbian. This resource walks you through how this software works.

If you’re seeking inspiration for experiments you can do on our Astro Pis Izzy and Ed on the ISS, check out the winning entries of previous rounds of the Astro Pi challenge.

Thomas Pesquet with Ed and Izzy

But you can also stick to terrestrial scientific investigations. For example, why not build a weather station and share its data on your own web server or via Weather Underground?

Your code in space!

If you’re a student or an educator in one of the 22 ESA member states, you can get a team together to enter our 2017-18 Astro Pi challenge. There are two missions to choose from, including Mission Zero: follow a few guidelines, and your code is guaranteed to run in space!

The post The possibilities of the Sense HAT appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – The possibilities of the Sense HAT

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a person in possession of a large record collection must be in want of a good shelving system. Valentin Galea has solved this problem by developing the Vinyl Shelf Finder. In this build, a web-based app directs a pan-and-tilt laser to point out your record of choice among your collection.

Ta-dah!

Collector’s issues

People love to collect stuff. Stamps; soap bars; Troll dolls; belly button fluff (no, really); if you can think of a tangible item, someone out there in the world is collecting it. Of course, every collector needs to solve two issues — which system to use for cataloguing and sorting their collection, and how to best retrieve items from it. This is where Valentin’s Vinyl Shelf Finder comes in. He says:

My vinyl collection is pretty modest — about 500 records in one vertical shelf and a couple of boxes. This is enough to get cumbersome when I’m searching for specific stuff, so I came up with the idea of a automated laser pointer finder.

The Vinyl Shelf Finder

Valentin keeps an online record of his vinyl collection using Discogs. He entered each LP’s shelf position into the record, and wrote a Node.js app to access the Discogs database. The mobile app has a GUI from which he chooses records based on their name and cover image. To build the hardware, he mounted a Pimoroni Pan-Tilt HAT on a Raspberry Pi, and affixed a laser pointer to the HAT. When he selects a record in the app, the pan-and-tilt laser moves to point out the LP’s location.

Valentin Galea on Twitter

my latest hobby prj: #vinyl finder – with lazers and #raspberrypi #iot and #nodejs – https://t.co/IGGzQDgUFI https://t.co/7YBE3svGyE

Not only does the app help Valentin find records – he has also set it up to collect listening statistics using the Last.fm API. He plans to add more sophisticated statistics, and is looking into how to automate the entry of the shelf positions into his database.

If you’re interested in the Vinyl Shelf Finder, head over to Valentin’s GitHub to learn more, and to find out about updates he is making to this work in progress.

Vinyl + Pi

We’ve previously blogged about Mike Smith’s kaleidoscopic Recordshelf build — maybe he and Valentin could team up to create the ultimate, beautiful, practical vinyl-shelving system!

If you listen to lots of LP records and would like to learn about digitising them, check out this Pi-powered project from Mozilla HQ. If, on the other hand, you have a vinyl player you never use, why not make amazing art with it by hacking it into a CNC Wood Burner?

Are you a collector of things common or unusual? Could Raspberry Pi technology help make your collection better? Share your ideas with us in the comments!

The post Vinyl Shelf Finder appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – Vinyl Shelf Finder

Astro Pi is back! Today we’re excited to announce the 2017-18 European Astro Pi challenge in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA). We are searching for the next generation of space scientists.

YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

Astro Pi is an annual science and coding competition where student-written code is run on the International Space Station under the oversight of an ESA astronaut. The challenge is open to students from all 22 ESA member countries, including — for the first time — associate members Canada and Slovenia.

The format of the competition is changing slightly this year, and we also have a brand-new non-competitive mission in which participants are guaranteed to have their code run on the ISS for 30 seconds!

Mission Zero

Until now, students have worked on Astro Pi projects in an extra-curricular context and over multiple sessions. For teachers and students who don’t have much spare capacity, we wanted to provide an accessible activity that teams can complete in just one session.

So we came up with Mission Zero for young people no older than 14. To complete it, form a team of two to four people and use our step-by-step guide to help you write a simple Python program that shows your personal message and the ambient temperature on the Astro Pi. If you adhere to a few rules, your code is guaranteed to run in space for 30 seconds, and you’ll receive a certificate showing the exact time period during which your code has run in space. No special hardware is needed for this mission, since everything is done in a web browser.

Mission Zero is open until 26 November 2017! Find out more.

Mission Space Lab

Students aged up to 19 can take part in Mission Space Lab. Form a team of two to six people, and work like real space scientists to design your own experiment. Receive free kit to work with, and write the Python code to carry out your experiment.

There are two themes for Mission Space Lab teams to choose from for their projects:

• Life in space
  You will make use of Astro Pi Vis (“Ed”) in the European Columbus module. You can use all of its sensors, but you cannot record images or videos.
• Life on Earth
  You will make use of Astro Pi IR (“Izzy”), which will be aimed towards the Earth through a window. You can use all of its sensors and its camera.

The Astro Pi kit, delivered to Space Lab teams by ESA

If you achieve flight status, your code will be uploaded to the ISS and run for three hours (two orbits). All the data that your code records in space will be downloaded and returned to you for analysis. Then submit a short report on your findings to be in with a chance to win exclusive, money-can’t-buy prizes! You can also submit your project for a Bronze CREST Award.

Mission Space Lab registration is open until 29 October 2017, and accepted teams will continue to spring 2018. Find out more.

How do I get started?

There are loads of materials available that will help you begin your Astro Pi journey — check out the Getting started with the Sense HAT resource and this video explaining how to build the flight case.

Questions?

If you have any questions, please post them in the comments below. We’re standing by to answer them!

The post Announcing the 2017-18 European Astro Pi challenge! appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – Announcing the 2017-18 European Astro Pi challenge!

At some point, many of you will have become exasperated with your AI personal assistant for not understanding you due to your accent – or worse, your fantastic regional dialect! A vending machine from Coca-Cola Sweden turns this issue inside out: the Dialekt-o-maten rewards users with a free soft drink for speaking in a Swedish regional dialect.

The world’s first vending machine where you pay with a dialect!

Thirsty fans along with journalists were invited to try Dialekt-o-maten at Stureplan in central Stockholm. Depending on how well they could pronounce the different phrases in assorted Swedish dialects – they were rewarded an ice cold Coke with that destination on the label.

The Dialekt-o-maten

The machine, which uses a Raspberry Pi, was set up in Stureplan Square in Stockholm. A person presses one of six buttons to choose the regional dialect they want to try out. They then hit ‘record’, and speak into the microphone. The recording is compared to a library of dialect samples, and, if it matches closely enough, voila! — the Dialekt-o-maten dispenses a soft drink for free.

Code for the Dialekt-o-maten

The team of developers used the dejavu Python library, as well as custom-written code which responded to new recordings. Carl-Anders Svedberg, one of the developers, said:

Testing the voices and fine-tuning the right level of difficulty for the users was quite tricky. And we really should have had more voice samples. Filtering out noise from the surroundings, like cars and music, was also a small hurdle.

While they wrote the initial software on macOS, the team transferred it to a Raspberry Pi so they could install the hardware inside the Dialekt-o-maten.

Regional dialects

Even though Sweden has only ten million inhabitants, there are more than 100 Swedish dialects. In some areas of Sweden, the local language even still resembles Old Norse. The Dialekt-o-maten recorded how well people spoke the six dialects it used. Apparently, the hardest one to imitate is spoken in Vadstena, and the easiest is spoken in Smögen.

Speech recognition with the Pi

Because of its audio input capabilities, the Raspberry Pi is very useful for building devices that use speech recognition software. One of our favourite projects in this vein is of course Allen Pan’s Real-Life Wizard Duel. We also think this pronunciation training machine by Japanese makers HomeMadeGarbage is really neat. Ideas from these projects and the Dialekt-o-maten could potentially be combined to make a fully fledged language-learning tool!

How about you? Have you used a Raspberry Pi to help you become multilingual? If so, do share your project with us in the comments or via social media.

The post Dialekt-o-maten vending machine appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – Dialekt-o-maten vending machine

David Pride, known to many of you as an active member of our maker community, has done it again! His FRED-209 build combines a Nerf gun, 3D printing, a Raspberry Pi Zero, and robotics to make one neat remotely controlled Nerf tank.

FRED-209 – 3D printed Raspberry Pi Nerf Tank

Uploaded by David Pride on 2017-09-17.

A Nerf gun for FRED-209

David says he worked on FRED-209 over the summer in order to have some fun with Nerf guns, which weren’t around when he was a kid. He purchased an Elite Stryfe model at a car boot sale, and took it apart to see what made it tick. Then he set about figuring out how to power it with motors and a servo.

To control the motors, David used a ZeroBorg add-on board for the Pi Zero, and he set up a PlayStation 3 controller to pilot his tank. These components were also part of a robot that David entered into the Pi Wars competition, so he had already written code for them.

3D printing for FRED-209

During prototyping for his Nerf tank, which David named after ED-209 from RoboCop, he used lots of eBay loot and several 3D-printed parts. He used the free OpenSCAD software package to design the parts he wanted to print. If you’re a novice at 3D printing, you might find the printing advice he shares in the write-up on his blog very useful.

David found the 3D printing of the 24–cm-long lid of FRED-209 tricky

On eBay, David found some cool-looking chunky wheels, but these turned out to be too heavy for the motors. In the end, he decided to use a Rover 5 chassis, which changed the look of FRED-209 from ‘monster truck’ to ‘tank’.

Next step: teach it to use stairs

The final result looks awesome, and David’s video demonstrates that it shoots very accurately as well. A make like this might be a great defensive project for our new apocalypse-themed Pioneers challenge!

Taking FRED-209 further

David will be uploading code and STL files for FRED-209 soon, so keep an eye on his blog or Twitter for updates. He’s also bringing the Nerf tank to the Cotswold Raspberry Jam this weekend. If you’re attending the event, make sure you catch him and try FRED-209 out yourself.

Never one to rest on his laurels, David is already working on taking his build to the next level. He wants to include a web interface controller and a camera, and is working on implementing OpenCV to give the Nerf tank the ability to autonomously detect targets.

Pi Wars 2018

I have a feeling we might get to see an advanced version of David’s project at next year’s Pi Wars!

The 2018 Pi Wars have just been announced. They will take place on 21-22 April at the Cambridge Computer Laboratory, and you have until 3 October to apply to enter the competition. What are you waiting for? Get making! And as always, do share your robot builds with us via social media.

The post FRED-209 Nerf gun tank appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – FRED-209 Nerf gun tank

Lasers! Cookies! Raspberry Pi! We’re buzzing with excitement about sharing our latest YouTube video with you, which comes directly from the kitchen of maker Estefannie Explains It All!

Laser-guarded cookies feat. Estefannie Explains It All

Uploaded by Raspberry Pi on 2017-09-18.

Estefannie Explains It All + Raspberry Pi

When Estefannie visited Pi Towers earlier this year, we introduced her to the Raspberry Pi Digital Curriculum and the free resources on our website. We’d already chatted to her via email about the idea of creating a collab video for the Raspberry Pi channel. Once she’d met members of the Raspberry Pi Foundation team and listened to them wax lyrical about the work we do here, she was even more keen to collaborate with us.

Estefannie on Twitter

Ahhhh!!! I still can’t believe I got to hang out and make stuff at the @Raspberry_Pi towers!! Thank you thank you!!

Estefannie returned to the US filled with inspiration for a video for our channel, and we’re so pleased with how awesome her final result is. The video is a super addition to our Raspberry Pi YouTube channel, it shows what our resources can help you achieve, and it’s great fun. You might also have noticed that the project fits in perfectly with this season’s Pioneers challenge. A win all around!

So yeah, we’re really chuffed about this video, and we hope you all like it too!

Estefannie’s Laser Cookies guide

For those of you wanting to try your hand at building your own Cookie Jar Laser Surveillance Security System, Estefannie has provided a complete guide to talk you through it. Here she goes:

First off, you’ll need:

• 10 lasers
• 10 photoresistors
• 10 capacitors
• 1 Raspberry Pi Zero W
• 1 buzzer
• 1 Raspberry Pi Camera Module
• 12 ft PVC pipes + 4 corners
• 1 acrylic panel
• 1 battery pack
• 8 zip ties
• tons of cookies

I used the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s Laser trip wire and the Tweeting Babbage resources to get one laser working and to set up the camera and Twitter API. This took me less than an hour, and it was easy, breezy, beautiful, Raspberry Pi.

I soldered ten lasers in parallel and connected ten photoresistors to their own GPIO pins. I didn’t wire them up in series because of sensitivity reasons and to make debugging easier.

Building the frame took a few tries: I actually started with a wood frame, then tried a clear case, and finally realized the best and cleaner solution would be pipes. All the wires go inside the pipes and come out in a small window on the top to wire up to the Zero W.

Using pipes also made the build cheaper, since they were about $3 for 12 ft. Wiring inside the pipes was tricky, and to finish the circuit, I soldered some of the wires after they were already in the pipes.

I tried glueing the lasers to the frame, but the lasers melted the glue and became decalibrated. Next I tried tape, and then I found picture mounting putty. The putty worked perfectly — it was easy to mold a putty base for the lasers and to calibrate and re-calibrate them if needed. Moreover, the lasers stayed in place no matter how hot they got.

Although the lasers were not very strong, I still strained my eyes after long hours of calibrating — hence the sunglasses! Working indoors with lasers, sunglasses, and code was weird. But now I can say I’ve done that…in my kitchen.

Using all the knowledge I have shared, this project should take a couple of hours. The code you need lives on my GitHub!

“The cookie recipe is my grandma’s, and I am not allowed to share it.”

Estefannie on YouTube

Estefannie made this video for us as a gift, and we’re so grateful for the time and effort she put into it! If you enjoyed it and would like to also show your gratitude, subscribe to her channel on YouTube and follow her on Instagram and Twitter. And if you make something similar, or build anything with our free resources, make sure to share it with us in the comments below or via our social media channels.

The post Laser Cookies: a YouTube collaboration appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – Laser Cookies: a YouTube collaboration

In 2015, The Raspberry Pi Foundation built two space-hardened Raspberry Pi units, or Astro Pis, to run student code on board the International Space Station (ISS).

A space-hardened Raspberry Pi

Astro Pi upgrades

Each school year we run an Astro Pi challenge to find the next generation of space scientists to program them. After the students have their code run in space, any output files are downloaded to ground and returned to them for analysis.

That download process was originally accomplished by an astronaut shutting down the Astro Pi, moving its micro SD card to a crew laptop and copying over the files manually. This used about 20 minutes of precious crew time.

space pi – Create, Discover and Share Awesome GIFs on Gfycat

Watch space pi GIF by sooperdave on Gfycat. Discover more GIFS online on Gfycat

Last year, we passed the qualification to allow the Astro Pi computers to be connected to the Local Area Network (LAN) on board the ISS. This allows us to remotely access them from the ground, upload student code and download the results without having to involve the crew.

This year, we have been preparing a new payload to upgrade the operational capabilities of the Astro Pi units.

The payload consists of the following items:

• 2 × USB WiFi dongles
• 5 × optical filters
• 4 × 32GB micro SD cards

Before anyone asks – no, we’re not going outside into the vacuum of space!

USB WiFi dongle

Currently both Astro Pi units are located in the European Columbus module. They’re even visible on Google Street View (pan down and right)! You can see that we’ve created a bit of a bird’s nest of wires behind them.

The D-Link DWA-171

The decision to add WiFi capability is partly to clean up the cabling situation, but mainly so that the Astro Pi units can be deployed in ISS locations other than the Columbus module, where we won’t have access to an Ethernet switch.

The Raspberry Pi used in the Astro Pi flight units is the B+ (released in 2014), which does not have any built in wireless connectivity, so we need to use a USB dongle. This particular D-Link dongle was recommended by the European Space Agency (ESA) because a number of other payloads are already using it.

An Astro Pi unit with WiFi dongle installed

Plans have been made for one of the Astro Pi units to be deployed on an Earth-facing window, to allow Earth-observation student experiments. This is where WiFi connectivity will be required to maintain LAN access for ground control.

Optical filters

With Earth-observation experiments in mind, we are also sending some flexible film optical filters. These are made from the same material as the blue square which is shipped with the Pi NoIR camera module, as noted in this post from when the product was launched. You can find the data sheet here.

Rosco Roscalux #2007 Storaro Blue

To permit the filter to be easily attached to the Astro Pi unit, the film is laser-cut to friction-fit onto the 12 inner heatsink pins on the base, so that the camera aperture is covered.

Laser cutting at Makespace

The laser-cutting work was done right here in Cambridge at Makespace by our own Alex Bate, and local artist Diana Probst.

An Astro Pi with the optical filter installed

32GB micro SD cards

A consequence of running Earth observation experiments is a dramatic increase in the amount of disk space needed. To avoid a high frequency of commanding windows to download imagery to ground, we’re also flying some larger 32GB micro SD cards to replace the current 8GB cards.

The Samsung Evo MB-MP32DA/EU

This particular type of micro SD card is X-ray proof, waterproof, and resistant to magnetism and heat. Operationally speaking there is no difference, other than the additional available disk space.

An Astro Pi unit with the new micro SD card installed

The micro SD cards will be flown with a security-hardened version of Raspbian pre-installed.

Crew activities

We have several crew activities planned for when this payload arrives on the ISS. These include the installation of the upgrade items on both Astro Pi units; moving one of the units from Columbus to an earth-facing window (possibly in Node 2); and then moving it back a few weeks later.

Currently it is expected that these activities will be carried out by German ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst who launches to the ISS in November (and will also be the ISS commander for Expedition 57).

Payload launch

We are targeting a January 2018 launch date for the payload. The exact launch vehicle is yet to be determined, but it could be SpaceX CRS 14. We will update you closer to the time.

Questions?

If you have any questions about this payload, how an item works, or why that specific model was chosen, please post them in the comments below, and we’ll try to answer them.

The post Astro Pi upgrades on the International Space Station appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – Astro Pi upgrades on the International Space Station

Pioneers, we just received this message through our network — have you seen it?

Can you see me? Only YOU can save us!

Uploaded by Raspberry Pi on 2017-09-14.

Only you can save us

We have no choice – we must help her! If things are as bad as she says they are, our only hope of survival is to work together.

We know you have the skills and imagination required to make something. We’ve seen that in previous Pioneers challenges. That’s why we’re coming directly to you with this: we know you won’t let her down.

What you need to do

We’ve watched back through the recording and pulled out as much information as we can:

• To save us, you have ten weeks to create something using tech. This means you need to be done on 1 December, or it will be too late!
• The build you will create needs to help her in the treacherous situation she’s in. What you decide to make is completely up to you.
• Her call is for those of you aged between 11 and 16 who are based in the UK or Republic of Ireland. You need to work in groups of up to five, and you need to find someone aged 18 or over to act as a mentor and support your project.
• Any tech will do. We work for the Raspberry Pi Foundation, but this doesn’t mean you need to use a Raspberry Pi. Use anything at all — from microcontrollers to repurposed devices such as laptops and cameras.

To keep in contact with you, it looks like she’s created a form for you to fill in and share your team name and details with her. In return she will trade some items with you — things that will help inspire you in your mission. We’ve managed to find the link to the form: you can fill it in here.

In order to help her (and any others who might still be out there!) to recreate your project, you need to make sure you record your working process. Take photos and footage to document how you build your make, and put together a video to send to her when you’re done making.

If you manage to access social media, you could also share your progress as you go along! Make sure to use #MakeYourIdeas, so that other survivors can see your work.

We’ve assembled some more information on the Pioneers website to create a port of call for you. Check it out, and let us know if you have any questions. We will do whatever we can to help you protect the world.

Good luck, everybody! It’s up to you now.

Only you can save us.

The post Pioneers: only you can save us appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – Pioneers: only you can save us

The Raspberry Pi is not a chunky computer. Nonetheless, tech treasure merchants Pimoroni observed that at almost 20mm tall, it’s still a little on the large side for some applications. So, in their latest live-streamed YouTube Bilge Tank episode, they stripped a Pi 3 down to the barest of bones.

But why?

The Raspberry Pi is easy to connect to peripherals. Grab a standard USB mouse, keyboard, and HDMI display, plug them in, and you’re good to go.

But it’s possible to connect all these things without the bulky ports, if you’re happy to learn how, and you’re in possession of patience and a soldering iron. You might want to do this if, after prototyping your project using the Pi’s standard ports, you want to embed it as a permanent part of a slimmed-down final build. Safely removing the USB ports, the Ethernet port and GPIO pins lets you fit your Pi into really narrow spaces.

As Jon explains:

A lot of the time people want to integrate a Raspberry Pi into a project where there’s a restricted amount of space. but they still want the power of the Raspberry Pi 3’s processor

While the Raspberry Pi Zero and Zero W are cheaper and have a smaller footprint, you might want to take advantage of the greater power the Pi 3 offers.

How to slim down a Raspberry Pi 3

Removing components is a matter of snipping in the right places and desoldering with a hot air gun and a solder sucker, together with the judicious application of brute force. I should emphasise, as the Pimoroni team do, that this is something you should only do with care, after making sure you know what you’re doing.

The project was set to take half an hour, though Jon and Sandy ended up taking slightly more time than planned. You can watch the entire process below.

Bilge Tank 107 – The World’s Slimmest Raspberry Pi 3

This week, we attempt to completely strip down a Raspberry Pi 3, removing the USB, Ethernet, HDMI, audio jack, CSI/DSI connectors, and GPIO header in an audacious attempt to create the world’s slimmest Raspberry Pi 3 (not officially ratified by the Guinness Book of World Records).

If Pimoroni’s video has given you ideas, you’ll also want to check out N-O-D-E‘s recent Raspberry Pi 3 Slim build. N-O-D-E takes a similar approach, and adds new micro USB connectors to one end of the board for convenience. If you decide to give something like this a go, please let us know how it went: tell us in the comments, or on Raspberry Pi’s social channels.

The post Pimoroni’s ‘World’s Thinnest Raspberry Pi 3’ appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – Pimoroni’s ‘World’s Thinnest Raspberry Pi 3’

With ten days to go until the end of their crowdfunding campaign, the team behind the Turtle Rover are waiting eagerly for their project to become a reality for earthbound explorers across the globe.

Turtle Rover

Turtle is the product of the Mars Rover prototype engineers at Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland. Their waterproof land rover can be controlled via your tablet or smartphone, and allows you to explore hidden worlds too small or dangerous for humans. The team says this about their project:

NASA and ESA plan to send another rover to Mars in 2020. SpaceX wants to send one million people to Mars in the next 100 years. However, before anyone sends a rover to another planet, we designed Turtle — a robot to remind you about how beautiful the Earth is.

With a Raspberry Pi at its core, Turtle is an open-source, modular device to which you can attach new, interesting features such as extra cameras, lights, and a DSLR adapter. Depending on the level at which you back the Kickstarter, you might also receive a robotic arm as a reward for your support.

The Turtle can capture photos and video, and even live-stream video to your device. Moreover, its emergency stop button offers peace of mind whenever your explorations takes your Turtle to cliff edges or other unsafe locations.

Constructed of aerospace-grade aluminium, plastics, and stainless steel, its robust form, watertight and dust-proof body, and 4-hour battery life make the Turtle a great tool for education and development, as well as a wonderful addition to recreational activities such as Airsoft.

Back the Turtle

If you want to join in the Turtle Rover revolution, you have ten days left to back the team on Kickstarter. Pledge €1497 for an unassembled kit (you’ll need your own Raspberry Pi, battery, and servos), or €1549 for a complete rover. The team plan to send your Turtle to you by June 2018 — so get ready to explore!

For more information on the build, including all crowdfunding rewards, check out their Kickstarter page. And if you’d like to follow their journey, be sure to follow them on Twitter.

Your Projects

Are you running a Raspberry Pi-based crowdfunding campaign? Or maybe you’ve got your idea, and you’re soon going to unleash it on the world? Whatever your plans, we’d love to see what you’re up to, so make sure to let us know via our social media channels or an email to comms@raspberrypi.org.

The post Turtle, the earthbound crowdfunded rover appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – Turtle, the earthbound crowdfunded rover

Joe Herman’s Pi Film Capture project combines old projectors and a stepper motor with a Raspberry Pi and a Raspberry Pi Camera Module, to transform his grandfather’s 8- and 16-mm home movies into glorious digital films.

We chatted to him about his Pi Film Capture build at Maker Faire New York 2016:

Film to Digital Conversion at Maker Faire New York 2016

Uploaded by Raspberry Pi on 2017-08-25.

What inspired Pi Film Capture?

Joe’s grandfather, Leo Willmott, loved recording home movies of his family of eight children and their grandchildren. He passed away when Joe was five, but in 2013 Joe found a way to connect with his legacy: while moving house, a family member uncovered a box of more than a hundred of Leo’s film reels. These covered decades of family history, and some dated back as far as 1939.

Kodachrome film reels of the type Leo used

This provided an unexpected opportunity for Leo’s family to restore some of their shared history. Joe immediately made plans to digitise the material, knowing that the members of his extensive family tree would provide an eager audience.

Building Pi Film Capture

After a failed attempt with a DSLR camera, Joe realised he couldn’t simply re-film the movies — instead, he would have to capture each frame individually. He combined a Raspberry Pi with an old Super 8 projector, and set about rigging up something to do just that.

He went through numerous stages of prototyping, and his final hardware setup works very well. A NEMA 17 stepper motor  moves the film reel forward in the projector. A magnetic reed switch triggers the Camera Module each time the reel moves on to the next frame. Joe hacked the Camera Module so that it has a different focal distance, and he also added a magnifying lens. Moreover, he realised it would be useful to have a diffuser to ‘smooth’ some of the faults in the aged film reel material. To do this, he mounted “a bit of translucent white plastic from an old ceiling fixture” parallel with the film.

Joe’s 16-mm projector, with embedded Raspberry Pi hardware

Software solutions

In addition to capturing every single frame (sometimes with multiple exposure settings), Joe found that he needed intensive post-processing to restore some of the films. He settled on sending the images from the Pi to a more powerful Linux machine. To enable processing of the raw data, he had to write Python scripts implementing several open-source software packages. For example, to deal with the varying quality of the film reels more easily, Joe implemented a GUI (written with the help of PyQt), which he uses to change the capture parameters. This was a demanding job, as he was relatively new to using these tools.

The top half of Joe’s GUI, because the whole thing is really long and really thin and would have looked weird on the blog…

If a frame is particularly damaged, Joe can capture multiple instances of the image at different settings. These are then merged to achieve a good-quality image using OpenCV functionality. Joe uses FFmpeg to stitch the captured images back together into a film. Some of his grandfather’s reels were badly degraded, but luckily Joe found scripts written by other people to perform advanced digital restoration of film with AviSynth. He provides code he has written for the project on his GitHub account.

For an account of the project in his own words, check out Joe’s guest post on the IEEE Spectrum website. He also described some of the issues he encountered, and how he resolved them, in The MagPi.

What does Pi Film Capture deliver?

Joe provides videos related to Pi Film Capture on two sites: on his YouTube channel, you’ll find videos in which he has documented the build process of his digitising project. Final results of the project live on Joe’s Vimeo channel, where so far he has uploaded 55 digitised home videos.

m093a: Tom Herman Wedding, Detroit 8/10/63

Shot on 8mm by Leo Willmott, captured and restored by Joe Herman (Not a Wozniak film, but placed in that folder b/c it may be of interest to Hermans)

We’re beyond pleased that our tech is part of this amazing project, helping to reconnect the entire Herman/Willmott clan with their past. And it was great to be able to catch up with Joe, and talk about his build at Maker Faire last year!

Maker Faire New York 2017

We’ll be at Maker Faire New York again on the 23-24 September, and we can’t wait to see the amazing makes the Raspberry Pi community will be presenting there!

Are you going to be at MFNY to show off your awesome Pi-powered project? Tweet us, so we can meet up, check it out and share your achievements!

The post Digitising film reels with Pi Film Capture appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – Digitising film reels with Pi Film Capture

With the incredible success of this year’s Moonhack under their belt, here’s Code Club Australia‘s Kelly Tagalan with a lowdown on the event, and why challenges such as these are so important.

On 15 August 2017, Code Clubs around the globe set a world record for the most kids coding in a day! From Madrid to Manila and from Sydney to Seoul, kids in Code Clubs, homes, and community centres around the world used code in order to ‘hack the moon’.

Moonhack 2017 Recap: WORLDWIDE CODING

We set a world record of the most kids coding at the same time not only across Australia….but across the WORLD! Watch our recap of our day hackathon of kids coding across the globe.

The Moonhack movement

The first Moonhack took place in Sydney in 2016, where we set a record of 10207 kids coding in a day.

The response to Moonhack, not just in Australia but around the world, blew us away, and this year we decided to make the challenge as global as possible.

“I want to create anything that can benefit the life of one person, hundreds of people, or maybe even thousands.” – Moonhack Code Club kid, Australia.

The Code Club New Zealand team helped to create and execute projects with help from Code Club in the UK, and Code Club Canada, France, South Korea, Bangladesh, and Croatia created translated materials to allow even more kids to take part.

Moonhack 2017

The children had 24 hours to try coding a specially made Moonhack project using Python, Scratch or Scratch Jr. Creative Moonhackers even made their own custom projects, and we saw amazing submissions on a range of themes, from moon football to heroic dogs saving our natural satellite from alien invaders!

In the end, 28575 kids from 56 countries and from 600 Code Clubs took part in Moonhack to set a new record. Record Setter founder and Senior Adjudicator, Corey Henderson, travelled to Sydney to Moonhack Mission Control to verify the record, and we were thrilled to hear that we came close to tripling the number of kids who took part last year!

The top five Moonhack contributing countries were Australia, New Zealand, the USA, the UK, and Croatia, but we saw contributions from so many more amazing places, including Syria and Guatemala. The event was a truly international Code Club collaboration!

The founder of Code Club Bangladesh, Shajan Miah, summed up the spirit of Moonhack well: “Moonhack was a great opportunity for children in Bangladesh to take part in a global event. It connected the children with like-minded people across the world, and this motivated them to want to continue learning coding and programming. They really enjoyed the challenge!”

Of course, the most important thing about Moonhack was that the kids had fun taking part and experienced what it feels like to create with code. One astute nine-year-old told us, “What I love about coding is that you can create your own games. Coding is becoming more important in the work environment and I want to understand it and write it.”

This is why we Moonhack: to get kids excited about coding, and to bring them into the global Code Club community. We hope that every Moonhacker who isn’t yet part of a Code Club will decide to join one soon, and that their experience will help guide them towards a future involving digital making. Here’s to Moonhack 2018!

Join Code Club

With new school terms starting and new clubs forming, there’s never been a better time to volunteer for a Code Club! With the official extension of the Code Club age range from 9-11 to 9-13, there are even more opportunities to get involved.

If you’re ready to volunteer and are looking for a club to join, head to the Code Club International website to find your local network. There you’ll also find information on starting a new club from scratch, anywhere in the world, and you can read all about making your venue, such as a library, youth club, or office, available as a space for a Code Club.

The post Moonhack 2017: a new world record! appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – Moonhack 2017: a new world record!

In July, winners of the first two Pioneers challenges came together at Google HQ at Kings Cross in London for the Pioneers Summer Camp. This event was a special day to celebrate their awesomeness, and to give them access to some really cool stuff.

Pioneers: Google Summer Camp 2017

In July this year, winners of the first two Pioneers challenges came to Google HQ in London’s Kings Cross to meet, make and have an awesome time.

The lucky Pioneers

The summer camp was organised specifically for the winners of the two Pioneers challenges Make us laugh and Make it outdoors. Invitations went out to every team that won an award, including the Theme winners, winners in categories such as Best Explanation or Inspiring Journey, and those teams that received a Judges’ Recognition. We also allowed their mentors to attend, because they earned it too.

Code Club Scotland on Twitter

Excited about @Raspberry_Pi Pioneers day at @Google today with @jm_paterson and The Frontier Team #makeyourideas https://t.co/wZqfqqgZuL

With teams of excited Pioneers arriving from all over the UK, the day was bound to be a great success and a fun experience for all.

The Pioneers Summer Camp

The event took place at the rather impressive Google HQ in King’s Cross, London. Given that YouTube Space London is attached to this building, everyone, including the mentors and the Raspberry Pi team, was immediately eager to explore.

image c/o IBT

In rooms designed around David-Bowie-associated themes, e.g. Major Tom and Aladdin Sane, our intrepid Pioneers spent the morning building robots and using the Google AIY Projects kit to control their builds. Every attendee got to keep their robot and AIY kits, to be able to continue their tech experiments at home. They also each received their own Raspberry Pi, as well as some Google goodies and a one-of-a-kind Raspberry Pi hoody…much to the jealousy of many of our Twitter followers.

Meanwhile, mentors were invited to play with their own AIY kits, and the team from pi-top took accompanying parents aside to introduce them to the world of Scratch. This in itself was wonderful to witness: nervous parents started the day anxiously prodding at their pi-top screens, and they ended it with a new understanding of why code and digital making makes their kids tick.

After the making funtimes, the Pioneers got to learn about career opportunities within the field of digital making from some of the best in the industry. Representatives from Google, YouTube, and the Shell Scholarship Fund offered insights into their day-to-day work and some of their teams’ cool projects.

And to top off the day, our Pioneers winners went on a tour of the YouTube studios, a space to which only YouTube Creators have access. Lucky bunch!

The evening

When the evening rolled around, Pioneers got to work setting up their winning projects. From singing potatoes to sun-powered instruments and builds for plant maintenance, the array of ideas and creations showcased the incredible imagination these young makers have displayed throughout the first two seasons of Pioneers.

As well as a time for showing off winning makes, the evening was also an opportunity for Pioneers, mentors, and parents to mingle, chat, swap Twitter usernames, and get to know others as interested in making and changing the world as they are.

The Pioneers Summer Camp came to a close with a great Q&A by some eager Pioneers, followed by praise from Raspberry Pi Foundation CEO Philip Colligan, Mike Warriner of Google UK, and Make it outdoors judge Georgina Asmah from the Shell Centenary Scholarship Fund.

Become a Pioneer

We’ll be announcing the next Pioneers challenge on Monday 18 September, and we’re so excited to see what our makers do with the next theme. We’ve put a lot of brain power into coming up with the ultimate challenge, and it’s taking everything we have not to let it slip!

Well, maybe I can just…don’t tell anyone, but here’s a sneek peak at part of the logo. Shhhh…

One thing we can tell you: this season of Pioneers will include makers from the Republic of Ireland, thanks in part to the incredible support from our team at CoderDojo. Woohoo!

We’ll announce the challenge via the Raspberry Pi blog, but make sure to sign up for the Pioneers newsletter to get all the latest information directly to your inbox.

The post Pioneers Summer Camp 2017 appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – Pioneers Summer Camp 2017

As everyone knows, one of the problems with the weather is that it can be difficult to predict a long time in advance. In the UK we’ve had stormy conditions for weeks but, of course, now that I’ve finished my lightning detector, everything has calmed down. If you’re planning to make scientific measurements of a particular phenomenon, patience is often required.

Wake STEM ECH get ready to safely observe the eclipse

In the path of the eclipse

Fortunately, this wasn’t a problem for Mr Burgess and his students at Wake STEM Early College High School in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. They knew exactly when the event they were interested in studying was going to occur: they were going to use their Raspberry Pi Oracle Weather Station to monitor the progress of the 2017 solar eclipse.

Wake STEM EC HS on Twitter

Through the @Celestron telescope #Eclipse2017 @WCPSS via @stemburgess

Measuring the temperature drop

The Raspberry Pi Oracle Weather Stations are always active and recording data, so all the students needed to do was check that everything was connected and working. That left them free to enjoy the eclipse, and take some amazing pictures like the one above.

You can see from the data how the changes in temperature lag behind the solar events – this makes sense, as it takes a while for the air to cool down. When the sun starts to return, the temperature rise continues on its pre-eclipse trajectory.

Weather station data 21st Aug: the yellow bars mark the start and end of the eclipse, the red bar marks the maximum sun coverage.

Reading Mr Burgess’ description, I’m feeling rather jealous. Being in the path of the Eclipse sounds amazing: “In North Carolina we experienced 93% coverage, so a lot of sunlight was still shining, but the landscape took on an eerie look. And there was a cool wind like you’d experience at dusk, not at 2:30 pm on a hot summer day. I was amazed at the significant drop in temperature that occurred in a small time frame.”

Close up of data showing temperature drop as recorded by the Raspberry Pi Oracle Weather Station. The yellow bars mark the start and end of the eclipse, the red bar marks the maximum sun coverage.

 Weather Station in the classroom

“I’ve been preparing for the solar eclipse for almost two years, with the weather station arriving early last school year. I did not think about temperature data until I read about citizen scientists on a NASA website,” explains Mr Burgess, who is now in his second year of working with the Raspberry Pi Oracle Weather Station. Around 120 ninth-grade students (ages 14-15) have been involved with the project so far. “I’ve found that students who don’t have a strong interest in meteorology find it interesting to look at real data and figure out trends.”

Wake STEM EC Raspberry Pi Oracle Weather Station installation

As many schools have discovered, Mr Burgess found that the biggest challenge with the Weather Station project “was finding a suitable place to install the weather station in a place that could get power and Ethernet“. To help with this problem, we’ve recently added two new guides to help with installing the wind sensors outside and using WiFi to connect the kit to the Internet.

Raspberry Pi Oracle Weather Station

If you want to keep up to date with all the latest Raspberry Pi Oracle Weather Station activities undertaken by our network of schools around the world, make sure you regularly check our weather station forum. Meanwhile, everyone at Wake STEM ECH is already starting to plan for their next eclipse on Monday, April 8, 2024. I wonder if they’d like some help with their Weather Station?

The post The Weather Station and the eclipse appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – The Weather Station and the eclipse

The first official CoderDojo book, CoderDojo Nano: Build Your Own Website, was a resounding success: thousands of copies have been bought by aspiring CoderDojo Ninjas, and it‘s available in ten languages, including Bulgarian, Czech, Dutch, Lithuanian, Latvian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Slovakian. Now we are delighted to announce the release of the second book in our Create with Code trilogy, titled CoderDojo Nano: Make Your Own Game.

The paperback book will be available in English from Thursday 7 September (with English flexibound and Dutch versions scheduled to follow in the coming months), enabling young people and adults to learn creative and fun coding skills!

What will you learn?

The new book explains the fundamentals of the JavaScript language in a clear, logical way while supporting you to create your very own computer game.

You will learn how to animate characters, create a world for your game, and use the physics of movement within it. The book is full of clear step-by-step instructions and illustrated screenshots to make reviewing your code easy. Additionally, challenges and open-ended prompts at the end of each section will encourage you to get creative while making your game.

This book is the perfect first step towards understanding game development, particularly for those of you who do not (yet) have a local Dojo. Regardless of where you live, using our books you too can learn to ‘Create with Code’!

Tried and tested

As always, CoderDojo Ninjas from all around the world tested our book, and their reactions have been hugely positive. Here is a selection of their thoughts:

“The book is brilliant. The [game] is simple yet innovative. I personally love it, and want to get stuck in making it right away!”

“What I really like is that, unlike most books on coding, this one properly explains what’s happening, and what each piece of code does and where it comes from.”

“I found the book most enjoyable. The layout is great, with lots of colour, and I found the information very easy to follow. The Ninja Tips are a great help in case you get a bit stuck. I liked that the book represents a mix of boy and girl Ninjas — it really makes coding fun for all.”

“The book is a great guide for both beginners and people who want to do something creative with their knowledge of code. Even people who cannot go to a CoderDojo can learn code using this book!”

Writer Jurie Horneman

Author of CoderDojo Nano: Make Your Own Game Jurie Horneman has been working in the game development industry for more than 15 years.

Jurie would get on well with Babbage, I think.

He shares how he got into coding, and what he has learnt while creating this awesome book:

“I’ve been designing and programming games since 1991, starting with ancient home computers, and now I’m working with PCs and consoles. As a game designer, it’s my job to teach players the rules of the game in a fun and playful manner — that gave me some useful experience for writing the book.

I believe that, if you want to understand something properly, you have to teach it to others. Therefore, writing this book was very educational for me, as I hope reading it will be for learners.”

Asked what his favorite thing about the book is, Jurie said he loves the incredible pixel art design: “The artist (Gary J Lucken, Army of Trolls) did a great job to help explain some of the abstract concepts in the book.”

Gary’s art is also just gorgeous.

How can you get your copy?

You can pre-order CoderDojo Nano: Make Your Own Game here. Its initial pricing is £9.99 (around €11), and discounted copies with free international delivery are available here.

The post Make your own game with CoderDojo’s new book appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – Make your own game with CoderDojo’s new book

Abhishek Singh’s printing GIF camera uses two Raspberry Pis, the Model 3 and the Zero W, to take animated images and display them on an ejectable secondary screen.

Instagif – A DIY Camera that prints GIFs instantly

I built a camera that snaps a GIF and ejects a little cartridge so you can hold a moving photo in your hand! I’m calling it the “Instagif NextStep”.

The humble GIF

Created in 1987, Graphics Interchange Format files, better known as GIFs, have somewhat taken over the internet. And whether you pronounce it G-IF or J-IF, you’ve probably used at least one to express an emotion, animate images on your screen, or create small, movie-like memories of events.

In 2004, all patents on the humble GIF expired, which added to the increased usage of the file format. And by the early 2010s, sites such as giphy.com and phone-based GIF keyboards were introduced into our day-to-day lives.

Welcome to the age of the GIF

Polaroid cameras

Polaroid cameras have a somewhat older history. While the first documented instant camera came into existence in 1923, commercial iterations made their way to market in the 1940s, with Polaroid’s model 95 Land Camera.

In recent years, the instant camera has come back into fashion, with camera stores and high street fashion retailers alike stocking their shelves with pastel-coloured, affordable models. But nothing beats the iconic look of the Polaroid Spirit series, and the rainbow colour stripe that separates it from its competitors.

Shake it like a Polaroid picture…

And if you’re one of our younger readers and find yourself wondering where else you’ve seen those stripes, you’re probably more familiar with previous versions of the Instagram logo, because, well…

I’m sorry for the comment on the previous image. It was just too easy.

Abhishek Singh’s printing GIF camera

Abhishek labels his creation the Instagif NextStep, and cites his inspiration for the project as simply wanting to give it a go, and to see if he could hold a ‘moving photo’.

“What I love about these kinds of projects is that they involve a bunch of different skill sets and disciplines”, he explains at the start of his lengthy, highly GIFed and wonderfully detailed imugr tutorial. “Hardware, software, 3D modeling, 3D printing, circuit design, mechanical/electrical engineering, design, fabrication etc. that need to be integrated for it to work seamlessly. Ironically, this is also what I hate about these kinds of projects”

Care to see how the whole thing comes together? Well, in the true spirit of the project, Abhishek created this handy step-by-step GIF.

Piecing it together

I thought I’ll start off with the entire assembly and then break down the different elements. As you can see, everything is assembled from the base up in layers helping in easy assembly and quick disassembly for troubleshooting

The build comes in two parts – the main camera housing a Raspberry Pi 3 and Camera Module V2, and the ejectable cartridge fitted with Raspberry Pi Zero W and Adafruit PiTFT screen.

When the capture button is pressed, the camera takes 3 seconds’ worth of images and converts them into .gif format via a Python script. Once compressed and complete, the Pi 3 sends the file to the Zero W via a network connection. When it is satisfied that the Zero W has the image, the Pi 3 automatically ejects the ‘printed GIF’ cartridge, and the image is displayed.

For a full breakdown of code, 3D-printable files, and images, check out the full imgur post. You can see more of Abhishek’s work at his website here.

Create GIFs with a Raspberry Pi

Want to create GIFs with your Raspberry Pi? Of course you do. Who wouldn’t? So check out our free time-lapse animations resource. As with all our learning resources, the project is free for you to use at home and in your clubs or classrooms. And once you’ve mastered the art of Pi-based GIF creation, why not incorporate it into another project? Say, a motion-detecting security camera or an on-the-go tweeting GIF camera – the possibilities are endless.

And make sure you check out Abhishek’s other Raspberry Pi GIF project, Peeqo, who we covered previously in the blog. So cute. SO CUTE.

The post A printing GIF camera? Is that even a thing? appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – A printing GIF camera? Is that even a thing?

Today, we’re excited to announce the expansion of Code Club to secondary school ages up to 13. When we made our plans known last May, we were beginning work with a pilot group of 50 UK secondary schools to discover how we could best support them, and how we could make Code Club work as well for children aged 12 and 13 as it does for its original age range of 9 to 11 years. Now, new projects are available for secondary-aged children, and we will continue to create more resources to build on the support we offer this age group.

One in five UK secondary schools

In extending Code Club’s age range to 9-13, we’re responding to huge demand. One in five UK state-sector secondary schools has already registered with the programme, and most of these – almost 600 of them – are already running Code Clubs.

By giving secondaries access to the Code Club support network and providing new, more advanced programming projects, we will help schools better to meet the needs of their students, and offer many thousands more children the opportunity to develop essential skills in programming and computing. Libraries and other non-school venues will also be able to welcome children of a wider range of ages to their clubs.

New Code Club resources

Our first five projects for older children offer a variety of ways for more advanced coders to build on their skills and explore further programming concepts.

From ‘Flappy Parrot’ and Where’s Wally-inspired ‘Lineup’, to ‘Binary Hero’ and quiz-tastic ‘Guess the Flag’, there’s something to spark everyone’s imagination. You can read more about these new resources in today’s Code Club UK blog post.

Help Code Club in your local school

Around 300 secondary schools across the UK have registered with Code Club but have not yet started their club, because they’re still looking for volunteers to support them. Can you help these keen teachers and students get up and running? If you can volunteer an hour each week, either on your own or by taking turns with friends or colleagues, you could make all the difference to a Code Club near you.

A Code Club in every community

We want every 9- to 13-year-old to have the opportunity to join a Code Club, and we will continue working hard to deliver our goal of putting a Code Club in every community. Make sure your local school, youth club, or library knows how to get involved.

The post Code Club reaches 1 in 5 UK secondary schools appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – Code Club reaches 1 in 5 UK secondary schools

Learning with Raspberry Pi has never been so easy! We’re adding a new course to FutureLearn today, and you can take part anywhere in the world.

FutureLearn: the story so far…

In February 2017, we were delighted to launch two free online CPD training courses on the FutureLearn platform, available anywhere in the world. Since the launch, more than 30,000 educators have joined these courses: Teaching Programming in Primary Schools, and Teaching Physical Computing with Raspberry Pi and Python.

Thousands of educators have been building their skills – completing tasks such as writing a program in Python to make an LED blink, or building a voting app in Scratch. The two courses are scaffolded to build skills, week by week. Learners are supported by videos, screencasts, and articles, and they have the chance to apply what they have learned in as many different practical projects as possible.

We have had some excellent feedback from learners on the courses, such as Kyle Wilke who commented: “Fantastic course. Nice integration of text-based and video instruction. Was very impressed how much support was provided by fellow students, kudos to us. Can’t wait to share this with fellow educators.”

Brand new course

We are launching a new course this autumn. You can join lead educator Laura Sachs to learn object-oriented programming principles by creating your own text-based adventure game in Python. The course is aimed at educators who have programming experience, but have never programmed in the object-oriented style.

Future Learn: Object-oriented Programming in Python trailer

Our newest FutureLearn course in now live. You can join lead educator Laura Sachs to learn object-oriented programming principles by creating your own text-based adventure game in Python. The course is aimed at educators who have programming experience, but have never programmed in the object-oriented style.

The course will introduce you to the principles of object-oriented programming in Python, showing you how to create objects, functions, methods, and classes. You’ll use what you learn to create your own text-based adventure game. You will have the chance to share your code with other learners, and to see theirs. If you’re an educator, you’ll also be able to develop ideas for using object-oriented programming in your classroom.

Take part

Sign up now to join us on the course, starting today, September 4. Our courses are free to join online – so you can learn wherever you are, and whenever you want.

The post Create a text-based adventure game with FutureLearn appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – Create a text-based adventure game with FutureLearn

It’s the beginning of a new school year, and the latest issue of Hello World is here! Hello World is our magazine about computing and digital making for educators, and it’s a collaboration between The Raspberry Pi Foundation and Computing at School, part of the British Computing Society.

In issue 3, our international panel of experts takes an in-depth look at assessment in computer science.

Approaching assessment, and much more

Our cover feature explores innovative, practical, and effective approaches to testing and learning. The issue is packed with other great resources, guides, features and lesson plans to support educators.

Highlights include:

• Tutorials and lesson plans on Scratch Pong, games design, and the database-building Python library, SQLite3
• Supporting learning with online video
• The potential of open-source resources in education
• A bluffer’s guide to Non-Examination Assessments (NEA) for GCSE Computer Science
• A look at play and creativity in programming

Get your copy of Hello World 3

Hello World is available as a free Creative Commons download for anyone around the world who is interested in Computer Science and digital making education. Grab the latest issue straight from the Hello World website.

Thanks to the very generous support of our sponsors BT, we are able to offer free printed versions of the magazine to serving educators in the UK. It’s for teachers, Code Club volunteers, teaching assistants, teacher trainers, and others who help children and young people learn about computing and digital making. Remember to subscribe to receive your free copy, posted directly to your home.

Free book!

As a special bonus for our print subscribers, this issue comes bundled with a copy of Ian Livingstone and Shahneila Saeed’s new book, Hacking the Curriculum: Creative Computing and the Power of Play. 

This gorgeous-looking image comes courtesy of Jonathan Green

The book explains the critical importance of coding and computing in modern schools, and offers teachers and school leaders practical guidance on how to improve their computing provision. Thanks to Ian Livingstone, Shahneila Saeed, and John Catt Educational Ltd. for helping to make this possible. The book will be available with issue 3 to new subscribers while stocks last.

10,000 subscribers

We are very excited to announce that Hello World now has more than 10,000 subscribers!

We’re celebrating this milestone, but we’d love to reach even more computing and digital making educators. Help us to spread the word to teachers, volunteers and home educators in the UK.

Get involved

Share your teaching experiences in computing and related subjects with Hello World, and help us to help other educators! When you air your questions and challenges on our letters page, other educators are ready to help you. Drop us an email to submit letters, articles, lesson plans, and questions for our FAQ pages – wherever you are in the world, get in touch with us by emailing contact@helloworld.cc.

The post Hello World Issue 3: Approaching Assessment appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Source: Raspberry Pi – Hello World Issue 3: Approaching Assessment