Raspberry Pi Official Magazine #142

This month the sun is shining on a couple of new Raspberry Pi productions. We've got Raspberry Pi Connect (page 12) and new Compute Module 4 boards with up to 16GB of RAM (page 14). Raspberry Pi 5 now has super-fast SSD storage, and PJ has celebrated by making an all-new media player (page 36). This one is much faster than its predecessor, and is perfect for video streaming, movie file playback, and high-quality audio. It truly is the best media player you can build. Because the sun has got its hat on, we've got a range of summer projects to share with you (page 72). Everything from bird smart bird feeders, machine learning cameras and tide and weather trackers, to portable computer backpacks. There's even a rain detector that…

ASIC Engineering Director Tammy has worked with Raspberry Pi for nine years and is responsible for the tiny Raspberry Pi logo on the silicon. ASIC Technical Director Nick has been with Raspberry Pi for seven years and has worked on RP1 and RP-2040. Alongside building single-board computers and microcontroller boards, Raspberry Pi is heavily involved in silicon design. For nearly ten years now Raspberry Pi has been building an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) team in Cambridge to design and produce custom silicon chips for its products This intricate process involves designing integrated circuits on a silicon wafer. We sat down with Tammy Julyan, ASIC Engineering Director and Nick Francis, ASIC Technical Director to chat about Raspberry Pi's ASIC team, and how they go about designing silicon chips. It's a fascinating…

We're pleased to announce the beta release of Raspberry Pi Connect (magpi.cc/connect): a secure and easy-to-use way to access your Raspberry Pi remotely, from anywhere on the planet, using just a web browser. It's often extremely useful to be able to access your Raspberry Pi's desktop remotely. There are a number of technologies which can be used to do this, including VNC, and of course the X protocol itself. But they can be hard to configure, particularly when you are attempting to access a machine on a different local network; and of course with the transition to Wayland in Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm, classic X remote desktop support is no longer available. We wanted to be able to provide you with this functionality with our usual ‘it just works’ approach.…

Since 2014, we have provided the power of Raspberry Pi in a flexible form factor designed specifically for industrial and embedded applications, and we've been surprised and delighted to see the incredible variety of ways in which industrial customers use Raspberry Pi Compute Modules. We are pleased to announce that we have expanded our Compute Module 4S offering (magpi.cc/cm4s): these industrial boards are now available with additional SDRAM, and as well as the original lGB variant, you can now choose from 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB options. Compute Module 4S is based on Raspberry Pi 4’s architecture. We designed it for industrial customers who are migrating from Compute Module 3 or Compute Module 3+ (magpi.cc/cm3plus), and who are looking to retain the same form factor but would like greater computing power…

MAKER niemannross.com Warning! Water & Electricity Running water and electrical currents can seriously damage your beloved tech hardware! Follow Mark's lead and encase your plant irrigation device in a waterproof housing such as a sealed glass jar. magpi.cc/electricalsafety Automatic watering systems that tend to your plants’ irrigation needs cost only around £30 and work perfectly well. As maker Mark Niemann-Ross points out, they reliably turn on and off, sprinkling thirsty crops when the season demands. Unfortunately, they score far less highly for longevity: replacing a worn-out system every year or two soon becomes an uneconomical chore. Such a system can be made smarter with internet connectivity, but this adds roughly $100 to the cost, and the system invariably still falls foul of harsh winters. Mark's DIY irrigation project uses Raspberry…

MAKER magpi.cc/audiophilepi Audio streamers don't come cheap. You could easily spend between £500 and £1,000 for a decent high-end model. But, as Alan Boris has found, there's a far less expensive alternative that won't look out of place in a standard audio system. By snapping up an old FM radio stereo tuner - a Sony ST-JX411 dating back to 1991 - and making use of a Raspberry Pi 4, he's been able to create his own, modern network music streamer that can be controlled by buttons on the front panel. As someone interested in giving old tech a new lease of life, the idea came naturally. “I was inspired by the many high quality network audio streaming devices sold by the major stereo component brands such as Sony, Cambridge Audio,…