Innehållsförteckning för #109 från Raspberry Pi Official Magazine

While he admits it doesn’t look much like a musical instrument, Simon Martin’s Synth6581 is a wonderful tribute to the sounds of the Commodore 64, the best-selling 8-bit computer of the 1980s. “I always loved the sound of the Commodore 64 when I was a teenager,” he tells us. “I used to ‘poke’ registers in the MOS6581 SID chip inside the C64 to create strange sound effects.” The C64 was limited to a single SID sound chip and Simon could only program in BASIC at the time, but he thought that one day it would be great to make a MIDI-controlled synthesizer out of it. “Delving deeper, I found that the designer of the SID chip, Bob Yannes, also had ideas of making a polyphonic synthesizer out of it but…

It may not seem like it, but Raspberry Pi Pico came out earlier this year. It feels like it’s been here longer. The $4 microcontroller is a wonderful and deceptively powerful piece of kit that can power projects in a different way to its bigger siblings. If you’re stuck on what you want to do with a Pico, we have you covered. Over the next few pages, we’re going to introduce you to some amazing things that people have made with their Pico, and hopefully spark your imagination in the process……

7. MANDELBROT SET iridis-alpha magpi.cc/picofract It may not look like it at first glance, but Raspberry Pi Pico can actually render video if you program it the right way, and have an appropriate display. Using it you can create cool, animated images from the Mandelbrot set – a set of complex numbers that creates a hypnotic graph for complicated maths reasons. Picofract is a bit of code that allows you to do this and makes use of both cores of Pico. 8. MATRIX TOUCHSCREEN KEYBOARD Dustin Watts magpi.cc/matrixtouch Taking the ability to act as a keyboard and translating it to a touchscreen is a great way to make a more custom interface for your own use, a public access point, or even in a game that interacts with the real…

“Have you got that file? Can you email it to me?” “But it’s 10GB! It’s too big!” We’ve all been there. If you’re in a house full of data-hungry family members, or working in a small business where a single repository of information would be enormously helpful, then a file-sharing device (sometimes called ‘network-attached storage’ or NAS) is what you need. We’re going to take the Argon M.2 Raspberry Pi server we built last month and add file sharing and increase disk capacity so there’s plenty of room for all your stuff. 01 Choose the right model To create our ultimate file sharing device, we need to install some file-sharing software. There are many different protocols and options available to us. It makes sense to choose a protocol that is…

RASPBERRY PI 400 A relative newcomer to the Raspberry Pi line-up, this is a complete 64-bit 4GB RAM computer hidden inside a smart, low-profile keyboard. Just add a mouse and power supply and plug it into any HDMI-equipped screen and you’ve immediately got a space-saving computer that can be used for homework, online learning, and watching 4K video. A £90/$100 kit also comes complete with a mouse, official power supply, and 252-page Beginner’s Guide book. magpi.cc/raspberrypi400 MONITOR You can use any HDMI computer or TV screen with Raspberry Pi. Both Raspberry Pi 4 and 400 have two HDMI ports and support dual screens, so you can do your coding on one display and type up your working on the other. RASPBERRY PI OS This is the free operating system that…

There are lots of great Raspberry Pi events that take place throughout the year that can help you get even more from this amazing little computer. If you’re a big fan of all things space-related, you should definitely get on board the Astro Pi project (astro-pi.org). Run in conjunction with the European Space Agency, it gives students a direct means of sending a message to astronauts aboard the ISS – using code, of course – as well as challenging you and your school to submit an experiment that can be run by them up in space! If action is more your thing, sign up for Pi Wars (piwars.org) and get designing and building your own robot. It’s a Raspberry Pi version of TV’s Robot Wars, with multiple obstacle courses and…

> Pimoroni > magpi.cc/picowireless > £12/$14 While Raspberry Pi Pico is an inexpensive yet powerful microcontroller, one drawback for IoT projects is the lack of built-in wireless LAN. That’s where the Pico Wireless Pack comes in, enabling you to connect Pico to your WiFi network over the 2.4GHz band. The Pack’s wireless connectivity is provided by an on-board ESP32 MCU module via SPI. “The obvious downside is that it blocks access to Pico’s GPIO pins” In addition, the board features a bright on-board RGB LED, tiny tactile switch, and a microSD slot for storing extra data, expanding greatly on Pico’s 2MB of flash storage. To connect your Pico, you’ll need to have male headers soldered on, then you can just plug it into the female headers of the Wireless Pack,…

Making a video game is the dream of many young (and some older) people, and it’s never been easier to do so, especially when you throw a Raspberry Pi into the mix. Whether you’re making something entirely digital, or games with a real-world connection, Raspberry Pi can be your gateway to game dev. Quiz game Recycling buzzers These are more controllers than games, but they can be used to create a centralised buzzer system for your next pub quiz party. Everyone does those, right? magpi.cc/quizgame Digital Making at Home: games Foundation fun One of the themes from the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s Digital Making at Home series of livestreams over the last 18 months. In this one, you’ll learn how to make games. magpi.cc/dmahgames Build a retro game with PICO-8 64-pixels…

Every Monday we ask the question: have you made something with a Raspberry Pi over the weekend? Every Monday, our followers send us amazing photos and videos of the things they’ve made. Here’s a selection of some of the awesome things we got sent this month – and remember to follow along at the hashtag #MagPiMonday!!…

OKdo and Sony Pi have worked together on a new scheme to renew Raspberry Pi computers. Raspberry Pi owners can send pre-loved Raspberry Pi 3 and Raspberry Pi 4 boards to OKdo Renew in exchange for £10 vouchers. Raspberry Pi boards will be sent directly to the Sony Technology Centre where they were originally manufactured. These pre-loved boards will be tested, reconditioned, and renewed. OKdo plans to put the restored boards back on sale at a lower price, and will donate to the Raspberry Pi Foundation for each board sold. OKdo’s SVP of Technology Richard Curtin comments: “With the global population predicted to approach nine billion people by 2030, we are using more resources than the planet can provide; our future depends on reusing what we have in a sustainable…

Old-looking tech with futuristic properties is a popular concept in media these days, so much so that we’re surprised this is one of the first projects like this we’ve seen. “My project was taking an old 1988 word processor and repurposing it into a gaming emulator with a Raspberry Pi,” creator Dylan Blake tells us. “I wanted to utilise the floppy disk drive with RFID tags to initiate the software and have a working power button for added effect.” We’ve covered an RFID-based record player that did something similar with vinyls, but it wasn’t built into an old piece of tech like this. “I came up with the idea by realising I didn’t have a cool case to put my emulator in, and I really dig all things retro,” Dylan…

Recycling rates for household waste vary across the world. Germany is the most impressive, recycling 66 percent of its trash – a figure well above the EU average of 48 percent. The UK’s rate is 46.2 per cent, the US is 35 percent, but some countries such as Chile and Turkey barely recycle at all. One of the problems faced by individuals is uncertainty over what can and cannot be recycled. While recycling bins are commonplace in most countries, they can become contaminated with the wrong material and that’s why, in the UK alone, some 525,000 tonnes of household waste ends up being rejected at the point of sorting. This can prove expensive to rectify, but a team of students at Rice University in Houston, Texas, have been working on…

Despite having a fancy motorised sit-stand desk in his workplace, David Kong ended up sitting most of the time. “I have a lot of back and neck pain,” he confides, “and moving between sitting and standing was actually great for me, when I did it. But I just never remembered to.” His solution? A desk that would rise automatically every hour or so, encouraging him to spend more time standing. “One of the most valuable takeaways from behavioural economics is the insight that you’re far, far more likely to do the ‘right’ thing when it’s also the easiest thing, or the default thing,” he explains. Making the connection After opening up his desk’s control box to investigate its workings, he discovered a set of test pins that, when connected correctly,…

PLAY MUSIC WITH RASPBERRY PI Raspberry Pi can be used as a musical instrument or synthesizer that deepens students’ understanding of music theory. You could start with one of the musical challenges on Raspberry Pi’s projects page (magpi.cc/musicprojects), and become a guitar hero or an amazing drummer – all using code, of course. If you’re keen to ensure your sweet sounds directly reference the official curriculum, pop a Sense HAT on your Raspberry Pi and try the Scratch MP3 player challenge (magpi.cc/scratchmp3). You’ll use basic programming constructs and digital, analogue, and electromechanical components to get visual as well as aural feedback on your code-based mixes. For an interactive mixing tool, try the free Sonic Pi (magpi.cc/sonicpi) in which coding is used to create sounds, often using everyday objects for the…

> Pimoroni > magpi.cc/hyperpixel2r > £48 / $56 Circular displays are all the rage in items like smart thermostats and high-end coffee machines. The HyperPixel 2.1 Round is the first one available for Raspberry Pi. Essentially, it’s a square 480×480 pixel display minus the corners. The bezel is a little wide at around 9 mm, but the touchscreen display itself is impressive. Like the standard HyperPixel, it uses a high-speed DPI interface, allowing it to shift five times more pixel data than the SPI interface typically used for other small screens. A Raspberry Pi Zero fits neatly onto the rear, although you’ll need to be careful when mounting it not to crack the screen – it’s best to put it face down on a soft surface. Short standoffs (not supplied)…

LED MATRIX ALBUM ART DISPLAY We’re always amazed how good a 64 × 64 display can be from a bit of a distance. This cool project cycles through album covers broken down into 4096 coloured dots. > magpi.cc/xZfxuq CARDBOARD IS AWESOME For prototyping, there’s not much better than cardboard, as it’s inexpensive and versatile. It’s apparently also good if you need to create a Raspberry Pi robot arm. > magpi.cc/9XNRZl DESKTOP SOLAR SYSTEM This Pico project shows you the exact placement of planets in the Solar System right now – or whenever you set the date to. It’s a very smart use of a small space. > magpi.cc/fK8uwM “For prototyping, there’s not much better than cardboard, as it’s inexpensive and versatile”…

Head here to enter: magpi.cc/win Learn more: magpi.cc/casefan Terms & Conditions Competition opens on 25 August 2021 and closes on 30 September 2021. Prize is offered to participants worldwide aged 13 or over, except employees of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, the prize supplier, their families, or friends. Winners will be notified by email no more than 30 days after the competition closes. By entering the competition, the winner consents to any publicity generated from the competition, in print and online. Participants agree to receive occasional newsletters from The MagPi magazine. We don’t like spam: participants’ details will remain strictly confidential and won’t be shared with third parties. Prizes are non-negotiable and no cash alternative will be offered. Winners will be contacted by email to arrange delivery. Any winners who have…

Who doesn’t love a model railway? Mechatronics student Kushagra Keshari is a big fan, and often combines his love of locomotion with his interest in electronics. Having spotted a YouTube video introducing Raspberry Pi Pico, he decided it was high time he investigated the microcontroller and explored how it might be incorporated into his model railway setup. The result, Pico-Controlled Automated Model Railroad (magpi.cc/picorailroad), builds on his ‘sensored’ track concept that detects a train passing and instructs it to speed up, slow down, or come to a halt. “Electric motors are among my most favourite devices because they connect the fields of electronics and mechanics,” he reveals. “I try to add motors wherever possible.” As someone with experience of Arduino, Kushagra believes Pico has great crossover appeal, lauding its ease…

Tephritid fruit flies can be a huge pest when it comes to agriculture, destroying various crops wherever they go. To try and stay ahead of any swarms, the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) is using Raspberry Pi-powered monitoring stations. The system was designed and programmed by Shinobu Sukenari, a MAFF senior inspector, using the following requirements: they should take a photo of the trap at least once a day and report them over the internet. Secondly, the systems should run for a month without external power. Finally, the system should be protected from the sun, wind, and rain. Fly trapped “We use a [trap] to capture and kill the target,” Soichi Nagasato, CEO of Mechatrax who helped develop the monitoring station, tells us. “Then we photograph the…

When James Wong felt that his workout routine needed a boost due to extended periods of having to work from home, he knew he needed to take action. “First of all, working from home all day long without going to the gym has taken a toll on my health,” he explains. “Secondly, as a machine learning practitioner, doing research on edge devices like Raspberry Pi and microcontrollers has always been fascinating to me, in the sense that the computational efficiency continuously pushes the boundaries of what we can achieve on a $30 computer with ML.” With that in mind, James married his regular HIIT (high-intensity interval training) workout with Raspberry Pi, and the HIIT Raspberry Pi web app was born. It’s a clever idea that uses machine learning on Raspberry…

19. PICO SMARS Kevin McAleer magpi.cc/picosmars SMARS (Screwless Modular Assemblable Robotic System) is a 3D-printable robot created for education. As it’s very modular and customisable, using Pico to control motors and monitor sensors is an obvious choice. Pico interfaces with a motor board for the movement part, but is able to natively read the ultrasonic distance sensor. The video goes through how you can make your own Pico SMARS. “No ‘Dragon Punch’ motions are required to play it: just hammer the buttons linked to your samples or notes to make great music” 20. PICO LINE FOLLOWER ROBOT RoboCircuits magpi.cc/picolinebot Line following is a very simple task that a lot of hobby robots can undertake. This robot uses a custom PCB with a Pico and robot parts mounted to it, including…

MARTY THE ROBOT V2 Marty V2 (£314) is a personality-packed coding companion that helps its owner learn how to program him to walk, talk, and interact with people, even shaking hands. An online portal provides tutorials on adding motion detectors to help Marty sense the world around him. magpi.cc/marty PI-TOP [4] ROBOTICS KIT This modular robot kit (£188) works with a pi-top [4] to become an artificially intelligent motorised vehicle to which – thanks to the expansion plate – you can add a wide-angle camera as an all-seeing eye, servos, and motors. Easy to set up, it has a versatile rivet system for building different robots. Powerful with easy-to-use classroom integration. magpi.cc/pitoprobotics ROCKYBORG This speedy three-wheeler (£100) corners like a dream and is an ideal vehicle [sorry!] for learning how…

IMPACT FORCE MONITOR Just how many Gs does that gymnastics routine involve, and how hardcore is that super-scary new roller-coaster? SparkFun’s Helmet Impact Force Monitor uses Raspberry Pi Zero to investigate just how dangerous adrenaline-inducing activities can be. Once your helmet monitor is ready to use, try it out next time you’re cycling or skating, or lash it to a skateboard or something else that’s sturdy enough to withstand a deliberate crash. A great way to get the message about the importance of helmets across, it’s also an excellent physics experiment. Note that we don’t recommend this project for anyone who tends to worry. magpi.cc/impactforce AMAZING IMAGE IDENTIFIER It’s fascinating to explore the world around us and share enthusiasm for it with others. AI (artificial intelligence) can be helpful in…

> Monk Makes > magpi.cc/airqualitykit > £23 / $32 This Air Quality Kit board is a new addon for Raspberry Pi 400 that measures the quality of air in a room and the temperature. The kit can also be used with other Raspberry Pi computers via the GPIO pins using the supplied jumper cables and the supplied Raspberry Leaf GPIO template. “The Air Quality Kit starts working the instant you plug it in” It’s simple to set up. Thanks to an ATTINY1614 microcontroller (not RP2040, unfortunately). Air Quality Kit starts working the instant you plug it in and power it up. The six LEDs on the board (green, orange, and red) light up to indicate the air quality in the room. Fresh air Things get more interesting when you start…

CODE CLUB: PYTHON MODULE 1 The first of two modules in Code Club’s Python course, it introduces the basic elements via a series of fun projects including a turtle racing game and secret messages program. > magpi.cc/python1 PROGRAMMING FOR EVERYONE Created by the University of Michigan, this highly rated Python course breaks everything down into easy-to-digest chunks and will give you a thorough grounding in the language. > coursera.org/learn/python LEARNPYTHON.ORG Featuring a built-in code editor and interactive exercises to complete, this site covers all the Python basics along with more advanced topics, such as regular expressions and decorators. > learnpython.org…

Last issue we showed you some highlights from the recent Astro Pi Mission Space Lab. Since then, the winners for that competition were announced, with some incredible experiments to show for their efforts. Zeus Tudor Vianu National College of Computer Science Romania > magpi.cc/astrozeus With the theme of Life on Earth, the team used previous Astro Pi data along with IR photos of clouds to try and predict weather patterns. Atlantes Niubit Coding Club A fun project that uses weather data from the location of the ISS and sensor data from Astro Pi to create music using sonification. Spain > magpi.cc/astroatlantes Mag-AZ Escola Secundária Domingos Rebelo Portugal > magpi.cc/astromagaz The Portuguese team studied the Earth’s magnetic field to create a model of it, including the poles. Their results were a…

Apparently a lot of people got into cycling over the last couple of years, including Camilo Sanchez who emailed us about a little DIY speedometer he created called the S-Pi-Dometer. “Keen to keep track of my rides, I thought of developing my own speedometer,” Camilo says. “Raspberry Pi Zero W is the perfect tool for this project: it’s fast, easy to program, and with an incorporated Bluetooth module! The principle of the speedometer is to count the number of wheel rotations and the time between them. To acquire this data, a digital Hall effect sensor module is used, then all this information is passed to Raspberry Pi and calculations are made for speed and distance, which are then handed to an Android app via serial data communication using Bluetooth RFCOMM,…