Raspberry Pi Official Magazine #115

Every March we run our yearly #MonthOfMaking special (page 66). This is where we all get together and finally build that project we’ve been dreaming of. Get involved and you can join hundreds of other makers to share and inspire, and get a little advice along the way. Raspberry Pi is where electronics and code smash together to produce (hopefully) something rather wonderful. The metal pins on Raspberry Pi (known as ‘GPIO’) are used to wire up your little computer to lights, buttons, speakers, and even larger appliances around the home. Code is the language you use to control a computer. Code is cool, but electronics is even cooler. It’s one step beyond. You use code to control a computer to build and control real-world electronic appliances. Getting started is…

Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit) is now available in Raspberry Pi Imager, having been previously only available in a beta trial. “Over the past year, we’ve been trialling a beta of Raspberry Pi OS in glorious 64-bit,” writes Gordon Hollingworth, Raspberry Pi’s Director of Software Engineering. “Now it’s time to open it up to a wider audience.” Some Raspberry Pi computers have had the potential to run 64-bit operating systems for some time. Gordon explains on the Raspberry Pi blog (magpi.cc/64bitblog):“The ARMv8-A architecture, which encompasses the 64‑bit AArch64 architecture and associated A64 instruction set, was first introduced into the Raspberry Pi line with Raspberry Pi 3 in 2016. “From that point on, it has been possible to run a full 64-bit operating system on our flagship products, and many third-party operating systems…

Laying claim to be the first fully-assembled microcomputer with a built-in keyboard and television output, the Sol-20 was launched back in 1976. “It had more in common with the Altair 8800s and IMSAI 8080s of the day, than it did with the Apple and Commodore computers that were soon to follow, despite looking more like the latter”, says Michael Gardi who, a full 45 years later, built his own version, powered by Raspberry Pi, since a version made using only vintage components would be prohibitively expensive. Michael’s home is full of Raspberry Pi computers performing tasks from NAS to OctoPrint server and RetroPie games arcade, so it seemed obvious to use our favourite single board computer for his Sol-20 project. He chose a Raspberry Pi 4 because he needed “the…

To build your own Sol-20 you’ll need a Raspberry Pi 4, a 3D-printed or self-drafted computer case, an 8in 1024 × 768 × GA screen, 3.3 V to 5 V bi-directional voltage level adapter, USB to serial, and TTL adapters and, ideally, a keytronic keyboard.…

Zach Hipps doesn’t like to do anything by halves; some of his past makes have included a giant Arduino board (magpi.cc/giantarduino) and what he describes as the “world’s most over-engineered water rocket!” (magpi.cc/waterrocket). One of his latest creations arguably takes Raspberry Pi to a new level – he has made a giant version of the credit card-sized computer, twelve times larger than the standard, and yes… it is actually fully functional! A monumental make “I have always loved working with microcontrollers and single-board computers,” Zach tells us. “At the end of 2020 I built a large-scale Arduino board and posted a video about it on my YouTube channel. I had lots of suggestions and requests that I build large-scale versions of other DIY electronics components. It wasn’t a far stretch for…

Do you remember Google Glass? They were smart glasses with a bit of augmented reality thrown in. Unfortunately, they never became a full product; however, with advancements in computer vision and miniaturisation of computers, custom smart glass builds never really went away. One maker, Matt Desmaris, recently revisited the idea. “I made PiGlass V1 in 2018,” he explains. “I wanted to try to make a heads-up display wearable and see how far I could take it. I kept running into performance issues with Raspberry Pi Zero when I was trying to add more features, and I made a note to revisit the project when Raspberry Pi Zero 2 came out.” PiGlass V2 has some extra features, like bone conduction earphones. It also makes use of a wearer’s hat. The whole…