Innehållsförteckning för #123 från Raspberry Pi Official Magazine

MAKER Kevin McAleer Kevin makes robots, brings them to life with code, and makes videos about them on YouTube. magpi.cc/kevsrobots With the change of seasons, self-confessed “Raspberry Pi nerd” Kevin McAleer figured his beloved pups could do with some eye-catching outerwear to ensure they'd be seen during their evening walk. After a quick consultation with his chihuahua, Archie, about his modelling fees, Kevin set about designing the NeoPixel-encrusted Cyberdog Smart Saddle, an RGB LED coat that Kevin would be able to control from his phone. Brighter, later Kevin McAleer's work may be familiar: he hosts a popular Sunday YouTube robot design channel (magpi.cc/kevsrobots). Among other intriguing makes, we've recently featured both Kevin's Billy Bass remotely flappable fish (magpi.cc/billybass) and his PIKON DIY camera (magpi.cc/pikoncamera). While both those projects upcycle existing…

MAKER Alasdair Davies Conservation scientist and NatureBytes cofounder Alasdair set up Arribada to provide lowcost, open-source wildlife monitoring hardware. arribada.org Cute creatures rule the internet and social media, which is absolutely as it should be. So it follows that photos of otherwise hardto-encounter, impossibly personable penguins going about their daily business in the depths of an Antarctic winter, are likely to be pretty popular. The challenge, of course, is getting to the extreme south in the first place, and setting up a camera that can snap such shots and withstand temperatures as low as -30°C. Arribada's Alasdair Davies decided he and his Raspberry Pi-based camera kit were up to the challenge of a long-term time-lapse photography project. Penguin Watch (magpi.cc/penguinwatch) takes and posts photos to a website, where citizen scientists…

MAKER Dmytro Panin Dmytro Pannin is a programmer based in kyiv, Ukraine, and he wrote his first line of code aged eight. He workes for a large provider of nearshore software engineering services. magpi.cc/tsmgit At first glance, this ingenious little device appears to be performing a spot of magic. You can see that it's gathering information about a computer's CPU, GPU, RAM, and SSD usage, and it's also discovering details about the machine's network activity and CPU temperature. Yet it only seems to be attached to the MacBook Pro's lid, so how does it gain the relevant info? Well, the secret lies in what you cannot see – a hidden USB cable positioned behind the lid connecting the Pico Display Pack to the computer. This ensures the relevant information can…

MAKER Phil King Long-time contributor to The Magpi Phil is a freelance writer and editor with a forcus on technology @philkingeditor You'll Need RaspberryPiPicoW Anvilaccountfree tier) DHT11sensor 3 male-male jumper wires Anvil's Pico W IoT toolkit enables you to connect easily, and securely, to web apps you create. Using the Anvil UF2 firmware image, you can code programs on Pico W in MicroPython, with a few extra lines to connect to Anvil, then create a web app on the Anvil site which can send and receive data to and from your Pico W program. Last issue, we made an RGB LED mood lamp whose colour was controllable by moving sliders in an Anvil web app. That involved sending data to Pico W; this time we'll explore how to…

Install CircuitPython to your Pico W! Head here for instructions: magpi.cc/circuitpython You'll Need ARaspberryPiPicoW AChristmastreereal or fake) AreelofNeoPixelLEDs (such as Prototypingwire Push-buttonoptional Breadboardoptional DECORATE YOUR TREE 01 Length required If you have some lights for your Christmas tree already, you should be able to learn from them how big a strip of NeoPixels you'll need to cover the tree. Otherwise, get out a tape measure and start calculating! 02 Wrap it around Once you have your NeoPixel strip, wrap it around the tree, starting from the bottom branches. We'll connect to the strip from the bottom, so make sure it also starts at the rear of the tree so it won't be so noticeable. Make sure you know how many LEDs are on your tree for…

Festive PCBs Ben Everard, the editor of our sibling publication, HackSpace Magazine, custom-made this PCB with LEDs and resistors in specific places to give a decorated tree appearance. hsmag.cc/issue50 Snapology tree topper Another style of tree topper, this uses paper origami to create a unique-looking sphere that is both lightweight and shines out a very interesting pattern. It's sure to be the topic of many conversations with guests. magpi.cc/snapology DIY Christmas Fireplace This neat-looking desktop decoration uses a load of PCBs to create a 3D-looking fireplace, with a Pico driving the LED matrix to replicate the flickering flames of a fire. magpi.cc/picofireplace…

The MagPi | INTERVIEW > Name Sophy Wong | > Occupation Artist-in-residence > Community role Maker | > URL sophywong.com One of the coolest people on the wearable side of the maker community is Sophy Wong - she's so cool that we have a book all about her wearable tech (magpi.cc/wearablebook). You'll often find her at cons showing off her amazing cosplays and 3D-printed fabric. However, it wasn't until college for graphic design that she started making. “The great thing about design is that it's a framework that can be applied to any kind of making,” Sophy explains. “So, being interested in lots of different mediums and techniques, I took as many art electives as I could squeeze into my schedule. I took printmaking, ceramics, photography, drawing, sculpture, video media.…

Image request I'm interested in using one of the images found on your website in one of our educational modules, and I am writing to ask if this would be possible. What is the process of gaining permission for an image such as this? Sandra via email The MagPi is licensed under Creative Commons, specifically CC BY-NCSA 3.0 (magpi.cc/creativecommons), so this is absolutely possible - this goes for all the editorial content included in The MagPi! This is one of the reasons why we release all our issues as a free PDF. Contact us! Twitter Facebook Email Online Year choice Why is this the Project Handbook 2023? Last I checked we were still in 2022. Will this book still be relevant in 2023? Fanoush via blog Annuals like this are…

MAKER Spencer Hochberg Spencer spent his teenage years inventing unicycle tricks with photography and videography as a side effect. He earned a degree in mechanical engineering from UCLA, and now works with small teams on live shows. polefx.com Billing itself as the world's most advanced dance pole, PoleFX uses thousands of LED lights embedded inside a network-connected pole. On the sidelines, a Raspberry Pi-powered network box is using OpenCV to image match videos and turn them into light-based visual animations. “Our goal is to create functional pieces of art and embed show technology into new places,” explains Spencer Hochberg, inventor and owner of PoleFX. Amongst the dazzle and display, it is easy to overlook the technical requirements of this build. The pole itself needs to be “structurally strong” explains Spencer,…

MAKER Allie Katz Artist technologist, maker, and YouTuber, Allie shoots videos of their creative adventures in a wide array of builder hobbies, Lmagpi.cc/katzcreates If you've ever seen Adventure Time, the strange and cool cartoon that started about twelve years ago, you might remember the sentient gaming robot and friend of the main characters, BMO. This cute retro-inspired, handheld robot has been made many times with Raspberry Pi to be an actual games console or interactive costume. However, Allie Katz, of Katz Creates, did something a little different. “BMOctoprint is the portmanteau of BMO from Adventure Time, and OctoPrint, the 3D printing server for remote access, and that is exactly what he is,” Allie explains to us. “BMOctoprint is a life-sized replica of the beloved cartoon robot, powered by a Raspberry…

The home automation revolution started quietly, mainly with bulbs you could switch on or off from a remote control, and then an app. Soon you could change their colour too. Then door sensors arrived. These were all very closed systems and more often than not, different suppliers’ kits would refuse to talk to one another. Raspberry Pi computers, especially Raspberry Pi Zero, made DIY home automation easier than ever before and platforms such as Home Assistant provided the all-important orchestration layer allowing different systems to interact with each other and with homebrew devices. Now, Pico W brings a new chapter of home automation. Its size, power needs, and low price are all compelling factors, but it's also the ease-of-use that sets it apart from other microcontrollers such as the ESP…

MAKER PJ Evans PJ is a writer, software engineer, and tinkerer. His Raspberry Pi 4 knows more about his house lighting than he does. twitter.com/mrpjevans YOU'LL NEED Automation2040W PIRMotionsensor Lightsensor JST-SHtoJST-SHcable 12V2APSU 5050LEDlightstripwith PSU When starting out making your own home automation devices, one of the first projects you are likely to encounter is the ‘intruder alarm’. It's great because it demonstrates that your device can understand an input and then trigger an output in response. We're going to put a little spin on this and automate an LED light strip for your room based on movement and ambient light levels, then we can use Pico W's internet capabilities so you can receive alerts when the lights have been triggered. Best of all, it's a…

Despite loving all things digital, Mike admits to being a bit of a Luddite, vinyl records and all. If you've dabbled with electronics, you'll know that a transistor is an electronic switch. What we mean by that is that it can turn one electronic circuit on and off by the presence or absence of a voltage in another circuit. You might have done just that, for example, to control a high-voltage or highcurrent device from a Raspberry Pi or Arduino. But the transistor wasn't the first electronic switch. That honour belongs to the valve, aka a tube, as we saw in HackSpace #48 (hsmag.cc/issue48) when we delved into these curious glowing components of old. Well, we now have to admit that even the valve wasn't the first device to act…

Editor Lucy Hattersley lucy@raspberrypi.com Features Editor Rob Zwetsloot rob@raspberrypi.com Sub Editor Nicola King ADVERTISING Charlotte Milligan charlotte.milligan@raspberrypi.com +44 (0)7725 368887 DESIGN criticalmedia.co.uk Head of Design Lee Allen Designers Olivia Mitchell. Sam Ribbits Illustrator Sam Alder CONTRIBUTORS Mike Bedford. David Crookes. PJ Evans. Rosemary Hattersley. Nicola King. Phil King. KG Orphanides PUBLISHING Publishing Director Russell Barnes russell@raspberrypi.com Director of Communications Liz Upton CEO Eben Upton…

MAKER Philipp Hoeler-Lutz Philipp is a NixOS nerd who likes to build mechanical keyboards and small devices with a taste of cyber. nerdbude.com As self-confessed retro nuts, we did a double take when we saw the Clockwork Pi DevTerm (magpi.cc/devterm). It reminded us of the TRS-80 Model 100 portable computer while also showing how attractive a notepad device can be nearly 40 years on, with a full physical keyboard beneath a widescreen display. What's more, we're not alone in thinking this “When I saw the DevTerm, I thought - wow - I need this!,” says Philipp Hoeler-Lutz. And yet the price put him off, prompting a search for a different way of achieving the same result. “I found an affordable Amstrad NC100 and I thought this was the form factor…

MAKER Tod Kurt Tod has decades of experience as an embedded engineer, hardware hacker, Arduino guru and, latterly, a MicroPython/ CircuitPython aficionado. todbot.com/blog Embedded systems and hardware hacking hold no fear for Tod Kurt, who has years of experience with both. Tod shares expert tips on Arduino and MicroPython (magpi.cc/circuitpytricks), and recently unveiled this PicoStepSeq MIDI sequencer based on our favourite microcontroller board. Prior to his adventures in Raspberry Pi Pico programming, Tod's company, ThingM, had launched a “simple but popular” USB LED notification light known as blink(1) (blink1.thingm.com). This provides a visual indication that you've received a message, email, retweet, and so on. The idea behind the PicoStepSeq is also visual: using GPIO pins, Tod planned to program Pico to light a series of LEDs at varying intensities when…

MAKER Christian Lo Christian is a Canadian software engineer who develops and creates experimental mechanical keyboards in his free time. Lmagpi.cc/sporewoh Everyone needs a keyboard and the range available is ever-growing, but keyboard enthusiast Christian Lo decided to make his own portable version he could take with him on the go. The result is Keezyboost40, an ortholinear keyboard that also incorporates an LCD screen. At the time, he didn't have the electrical engineering experience to design a circuit for an embedded microcontroller (like an RP2040), so instead opted to create a keyboard shield for Raspberry Pi Pico. The main issue was that there was no room to place Pico behind the keys. “I then had the idea to hide the microcontroller behind an LCD as a way to reduce dead…

MAKER Sean O'Steen A software engineer, focusing on performance and reliability for a multinational supply chain software company, In his spare time, he does a lot of making. magpi.cc/picoberet Way, way back in The MagPi 47, Alan McCullagh built a very special Raspberry Pi-powered beret, complete with a hidden camera and Prince symbol in an homage to the then recently-deceased pop icon. The Raspberry Beret joke has been around since even before Raspberry Pi came out, and with cosplayers and makers congregating in San Jose for Silicon in August 2022, Sean O'Steen decided to do his own take. “While not prepared for a full cosplay presentation like many other attendees at the convention, I certainly wanted to let my geek flag fly,” Sean tells us. “Knowing that Raspberry Pi would…

MAKER K.G. Orphanides KG is a writer, developer, and software preservationist with a particular interest in projects that allow everyone to get hands-on with their own games and technology. magpi.cc/kgorphanides You'll Need Rotarytoolwith cutting disk and 2 mm drill Solderingstation Flatfacecutters Wirestrippers Optional3D printer PartsSee list YouMakeTech's Vincent Mistler has produced some of our favourite Raspberry Pi Pico builds. This month, we're going to take a step-by-step look at building the ‘Raspberry Pi Pico GameBoy’ - a MicroPython-based handheld console that provides huge scope to develop your own games. Vincent details the equipment you'll need and provides a video of the assembly process at magpi.cc/buildpicogb that you'll definitely want to look at. We've made a few tweaks and broken down some undocumented steps to make the build extra easy, even…

Over the years, we've introduced many ways for folks to make use of Raspberry Pi to power their Christmas decorations – from tree lights, to a star, and even the cover of the magazine as if it were a Christmas card. This year, it's the turn of Raspberry Pi Pico W, and we think that Pico W is much more suited to the task than a full Raspberry Pi. Using a Raspberry Pi 4 is a bit ‘overkill’ in our opinion. There aren't too many parts to this project, so it should be achievable by anyone, and you've got plenty of time before the big day too… Let's get festive.…

Books to read to explore the OS THE LINUX COMMAND LINE As well as using Raspberry Pi OS's desktop GUI, you can input a host of useful and t powerfut Linux commands in the Terminal. This 500+ page tome tells you all you need to know to become a power user. magpi.cc/linuxclbook LIBREOFFICE GETTING STARTED GUIDE This official guidebook (also available as a free PDF download) from the makers explores the fulty-fledged office suite – included in Raspberry Pi OS – in detail to help you get the most out of it. magpi.cc/librebooks LEARN TO CODE BY SOLVING PROBLEMS The Thonny IDE in Raspberry Pi OS lets you write Python programs, Learn more about the language (and coding in general) with this excellent book, suitable for complete beginners, magpi.cc/zingaropython…

The MagPi | THE FINAL WORD As I write this, Maker Faire Rome has just concluded, and it was yet another event that the team from Raspberry Pi attended to show off Raspberry Pi Pico and what you can make with it. Apparently tens of thousands of people visited the event, and reports back from the team claimed “every single one of them visited the booth.” They were probably exaggerating though. While we haven't run an event calendar in The MagPi for a while now, this, and other recent tech events and online interactions, have reminded me just how much Raspberry Pi tech is used around the world, and how differently it can be used as well. Cultural differences As you may know, American English and British English have some…