Innehållsförteckning för #137 från Raspberry Pi Official Magazine

I still remember unboxing my Raspberry Pi for the first time. My first encounter with this single-board computer was daunting to say the least. I got the keyboard, mouse, and operating system set up, but didn't get much further. It wasn't until six months later that I got around to building ‘Tyres’, my first beloved Raspberry Pi robot. He's still trundling around here somewhere. What made the difference was a good guide. And that's what we want Start Your Raspberry Pi Adventure (page 40) to be! This feature will walk you by the hand through setting up Raspberry Pi and starting out on a maker's journey. We hope you'll forgive PJ's puns, but isn't Sam's artwork lovely! Rob has also crafted a great Beginner-Friendly Projects guide (page 72). If anybody…

MAKER Dr Tom Wilkes is a lecturer in volcanology at the University of Sheffield, where he has used Raspberry Pi for several monitoring projects. volcanotech.org I celand is currently on standby for imminent eruptions, while Sicily's Mount Etna gave off stunning emissions in late summer. However, most volcanic activity takes place in lesser-known, less touristy and often poorer nations, where preparations for a big blowout are far harder to facilitate. Furthermore, their remote locations can make installing equipment to track seismic activity an expensive challenge. “UV cameras provide invaluable data for both monitoring and research,” explains University of Sheffield volcanologist Dr Thomas Wilkes, “but funding in volcanology, particularly for monitoring organisations, is often limited, prohibiting their widespread adoption.” For his PhD thesis, Tom set about designing low-cost ground-based remote sensing…

MAKER Lee is a technology enthusiast covering Raspberry Pi singleboard computer projects. magpi.cc/leepspvideo L ee, of the Leepspvideo YouTube channel, was having a whale of a time testing out Raspberry Pi 5 using the Dolphin emulator (dolphin-emu.org), as well as running his dualscreen setup (magpi.cc/dualscreensetup). So far, so impressed – but then his mind wandered and landed on the question: “Will a Raspberry Pi 5 fit inside SunFounder's RasPad 3?” RasPad 3 is a tablet designed around Raspberry Pi 4, which has an Ethernet port on the opposite side of the board to Raspberry Pi 5. There were also questions around whether RasPad 3 could power the more powerful Raspberry Pi 5. You can watch the ‘First Raspberry Pi 5 tablet’ build on YouTube (magpi.cc/5tabletYT). Tight fit The project began…

MAKER Csaba's extensive interests cover technical and artistic domains including programming, hardware development, 3D printing, photography, and filmmaking. github.com/CinePI Canadian creative maker Csaba Nagy spent hours during his university course immersed in the world of camera sensors and computer vision, nicely complementing his degree in computer science. Raspberry Pi's ability to connect with so many other devices, plus the possibilities of the camera module, piqued his interest. He subsequently developed CinePI – an open-source project that was “a direct result of the intersections between my passions for programming and filmmaking” – to add cinema camera features to Raspberry Pi. In early 2023 Csaba launched version 2, based around a Raspberry Pi 4 and 12.3 megapixel HQ Camera (magpi.cc/CinePI). Now he's back, with CinePI XL. Big ambitions Csaba says that CinePI…

MAKER Karl is a PhD student at Trinity Hall Cambridge. magpi.cc/piartframegit This excellently simple fractal art display (magpi.cc/piartframe) by Cambridge student Karl Mose is perfectly pitched as a beginner project for someone looking for a geeky desk trinket. What are fractals? Fractals are shapes that contain complex detail however closely you look at them, or however far you zoom in. Often, they are self-similar: if you zoom in on the small-scale detail, you find it resembles the overall shape. Some of the most familiar forms that have fractal features are ones found in nature, like fern leaves and frost patterns, and we bet we're not the only ones who call Romanesco “fractal cauliflowers”. They are also beautiful. Fractal art can be created algorithmically by software, with the results usually represented…

FEATURE LEARN THE DESKTOP If you're completely new to Raspberry Pi, it's important to spend time learning the desktop environment. Raspberry Pi OS comes with some great software. Not only the usual office-type apps but programming environments, media players, and much more. You can add all of these from the Recommended Software app. BLINK AN LED It's hard to explain just how satisfying this first project is. Making an LED blink on and off is commonly everyone's first Raspberry Pi GPIO project and a gateway to greater things. You'll need a few electronic components (see the CamJam EduKit #1 mentioned earlier), then follow the guide at magpi.cc/physcomputing. WRITE A GAME IN SCRATCH If you're new to programming, Scratch is the perfect introduction. It gives you a gentle introduction to the…

MAKER KG is a developer and writer who desperately wants lighter-weight applications with worse graphics for less overpowered hardware. twoot.space/@owlbear You'll Need > SQFMI Beepy kit or equivalent beepy.sqfmi.com > 3D printed case (optional) magpi.cc/slimflat If you've ever missed the golden age of palmtop computers, PDAs (personal digital assistants), and phones with physical keyboards, Squarofumi's Beepy might be the kit for you: just add a Raspberry Pi Zero W. We've picked out a suite of software to turn Beepy into a portable productivity powerhouse. Squarofumi is preparing another production run of the Beepy kit, due to go on sale in early 2024, priced at $79. From Step 3 onwards, the applications in this tutorial will also work well on other handheld computer kits, but Beepy's 400×240 mono display combined with…

While there are many questions that have and have not been answered by science and research, the question ‘what do I do with Raspberry Pi?’ largely comes down to… well, what would you like to do with it? Some people have a vision of their first Raspberry Pi project to get themselves started, but other folks need more of a push. This is where we come in. There are a huge number of options for newbie Raspberry Pi owners to choose from, and we've collected an excellent selection that will hopefully inspire you. Let's get stuck in. BY EX-NOVICE…

PROJECT AUTONOMOUS ROBOTICS PLATFORM FOR PICO WHAT YOU'LL LEARN ROBOTICS WITH RASPBERRY PI PICO Similar to the EduKit #3, this is the Pico equivalent that allows you to quickly and easily build your own rover that can be programmed to work autonomously. It even comes with a chassis. Pico is great for robotics even if it it's not as powerful as a full-sized Raspberry Pi. The kit comes with line-following sensors, an ultrasonic distance sensor, and a little buzzer you can use as a horn in case you need the cat to get out of the way. MAGPI.CC/AUTOROBOT Pi Wars Want to get serious about your robotics? Pi Wars is a regular robot competition where people show off just how good their robot is by getting it to avoid walls, survive…

► Elephant Robotics ► magpi.cc/mycobot280 ► From £651 / $799 SPECS FEATURES: 6DOF, 330° rotation range, 280 mm radius, up to 250 g payload, LEGO interfaces on base and head, Raspberry Pi 4 CONNECTIONS: 2 × USB 3.0, 2 × USB 2.0, Ethernet, micro-HDMI, GPIO breakout headers, USB-C, headphone jack, Grove and servo connectors With a working rotation arc of 330° and radius 280 mm from its base joint, the MyCobot 280 is a high-quality robot arm with a long reach. Powered by a built-in Raspberry Pi 4, it has six degrees of freedom (6DOF) thanks to half a dozen joints (equipped with bearings) controlled by large servos, all enclosed in protective plastic casings. Between two horizontal joints for the base and ‘head’ are three vertical ones; by varying the…

LEARN C++ QUICKLY An enhanced version of C, the extensible C++ adds many improvements, plus support for object-oriented programming (OOP). With simple explanations and bitesize steps, this book helps you get to grips with it.. magpi.cc/cplusquickly C PROGRAMMING: A MODERN APPROACH Many C coders swear by KN King's 824-page tome, which serves as a weighty introduction with good examples to follow. Just be aware that it's based on the earlier C99 version of the language, not C11 or C17.. magpi.cc/cmodern AN INTRODUCTION TO C & GUI PROGRAMMING 2ND EDITION The first half of the book is an introduction to C with Raspberry Pi. The second half shows how to use the GTK user interface toolkit create feature-rich GUI applications. magpi.cc/cgui…

Essentially printed Hi, I've been looking for The MagPi Essentials Hacking and Making in Minecraft. It is now sold out and I have the free PDF but would like a physical copy! I have never found a copy of Hacking and Making in Minecraft for sale, so I wonder if it was ever actually printed? I am also interested in Conquer the Command Line 2nd Edition, but I can't find that either! Any help in this regard is much appreciated! Paul via email We did print Hacking and Making in Minecraft, but it was quite a while ago – same with Conquer the Command Line 2nd Edition. While we don't currently have plans to reprint them at the moment, we may reconsider it. You can always get the PDFs printed yourself…

EDITORIAL Editor Lucy Hattersley lucy@raspberrypi.com Features Editor Rob Zwetsloot rob@raspberrypi.com Sub Editor Phil King ADVERTISING Charlotte Milligan charlotte.milligan@raspberrypi.com +44 (0)7725 368887 DESIGN criticalmedia.co.uk Head of Design Lee Allen Designer Sam Ribbits Illustrator Sam Alder CONTRIBUTORS Alasdair Allan, David Crookes, PJ Evans, Ben Everard, Rosie Hattersley, Phil King, KG Orphanides, Stewart Watkiss, Ashley Whittaker PUBLISHING Publishing Director Brian Jepson brian.jepson@raspberrypi.com Director of Communications Liz Upton CEO Eben Upton…

THE FINAL WORD I've definitely written before in this column about setting goals for a new year and what I had planned. Problem is, I'm very good at not always doing them. Yesteryear's goals become half of this year's goals – like perpetually saying at new year you'd go to the gym more, but based around hobby stuff. I've learned to live with it. On the one hand, stuff happens and life can be unpredictable. I might have had time to work on a script or a model one evening, but then a friend hits me up to hang out or a parent calls or I'm very sleepy and need a nap. Should probably work a bit on that last one, to be honest. I'm lucky that I get a…

MAKER Rob is a professional computer programmer, VR flight/space/ racing SIM enthusiast, amateur videographer and general lover of gadgets, including old ones. magpi.cc/robfisher Buying a used Amiga 1200 – a computer launched by Commodore in 1992 just two years before it filed for bankruptcy – is sure to leave a dent in your wallet. The 32-bit machine in its most basic form tends to sell for upwards of £300. Add a hard drive, memory expansion or an accelerator card and you may want to arrange a meeting with your bank manager. You may then need to splash out more replacing the capacitors which are prone to leaking, potentially causing damage to the circuit board. Beyond that, you may find some keys don't work or the disk drive is broken too.…

Tanay is an undergrad student pursuing a bachelor's degree in Software Engineering. He's enthusiastic about hardware and software technologies. magpi.cc/verticalfarm MAKER Farmers always need lots of land, right? Well, not necessarily. There is a practice called vertical farming which involves cultivating crops in stacked, tower-like layers. When using this method, the environment is carefully monitored and controlled, lending factory-style precision to the process of growing plants. It has the potential to revolutionise food production, but it's also quite expensive. Recognising the costs involved, Raspberry Pi enthusiast Tanay has produced his own version. In creating a smart vertical farming system powered by a Raspberry Pi 4 computer, he's enabling plants to be monitored and precisely watered with minimal human intervention while taking into account numerous environmental factors to optimise their growth.…

When not on epic journeys and slaying dragons (actually befriending them), PJ is a writer, software engineer, tinkerer and level-15 wizard. mastodon.social/@mrpjevans MAKER You'll Need > Another computer for writing the OS to a microSD card (16GB or more) magpi.cc/microsdcard > Official power supply magpi.cc/powersupply > USB keyboard and mouse magpi.cc/keyboard magpi.cc/mouse > HDMI TV or monitor > Micro-HDMI to HDMI cable magpi.cc/microhdmi To the initiate, a Raspberry Pi can look a little intimidating. It lacks some of the friendliness of a traditional desktop. You've got a bare circuit board with little else, and that can seem a bit strange on your first encounter. Don't worry: everything can be explained and we can have you adventuring in no time. We'll get the software sorted out, the hardware plugged in, and…

HOW TO GAIN REMOTE ACCESS VNC allows you to see and control your desktop on a remote computer. You need to use SSH to connect your Raspberry Pi and enable VNC in Configuration. You can access Raspberry Pi OS desktop with TigerVNC (tigervnc.org). See The MagPi issue #136 (magpi.cc/136) for the in-detail solution! HOW TO GET A HISTORY OF COMMANDS When using the terminal, you often have to enter long commands. Press TAB to autocomplete commands and file names, use the UP arrow to cycle through your history; enter ‘history’ to view everything, and CTRL+R allows you to search history and rerun a command with one keypress. BACK UP YOUR OS You can use SD Card Copier in Raspberry Pi OS to backup your Raspberry Pi to a second SD…

MAKER Also known as Penguin Tutor. Maker and YouTuber who loves all things Raspberry Pi and Pico. Author of Learn Electronics with Raspberry Pi. penguintutor.com twitter.com/stewartwatkiss Warning! Electrical Safety Whilst 12 V will not cause electrocution, it can cause a fire. Ensure power supplies have over-current protection and consider adding a fuse. magpi.cc/electricalfires This tutorial will provide guidance on how to design your own circuit using KiCad. It will show how you can design a circuit that can be used with Raspberry Pi Pico. This will include choosing suitable components and designing a schematic diagram. This will then lead to creating your own custom printed circuit board (PCB) in the next tutorial. This circuit is to control three sets of lights using buttons on the PCB or through a web…

PROJECT ADA'S POETRY GENERATOR WHAT YOU'LL LEARN SCRATCH PROGRAMMING Ada Lovelace is a computing pioneer – and using this block programming language, you can have her tell you different poems from her Analytical Engine. It's a perfect way for younger folks to get their heads around the flow of coding by using variables it compares and filling up lists to use at random. This project can also be completed in the browser from scratch.mit.edu, and can be used between Raspberry Pi and another computer. MAGPI.CC/ADAPOETRY Projects website Our colleagues over at the Raspberry Pi Foundation have a site full of beginner-friendly programming (and electronics!) projects for Raspberry Pi and standard PCs. Head to magpi.cc/projects to see more. PROJECT PASSWORD GENERATOR WHAT YOU'LL LEARN PYTHON, INFOSECURITY A good password is essential these days,…

C PROGRAMMING FOR BEGINNERS Subtitled ‘Master the C Language’, this wellstructured Udemy course is one of best resources for C newcomers, taking you through all the fundamentals. Everything is covered in great detail and you can learn at your own pace. magpi.cc/udemyc LEARN C FROM SCRATCH Aimed at complete newcomers, this free Educative course covers all the fundamental concepts, as well as some advanced topics, with clear explanations and editable code examples that can be run in the browser. magpi.cc/cfromscratch C FOR EVERYONE Subtitled ‘Programming Fundamentals’, this free UC Santa Cruz course is aimed at beginners and takes around 15 hours to complete. Its six modules cover aspects such as data types, functions, plus arrays and pointers. magpi.cc/cforeveryone…

01. Microprocessor Showdown with Raspberry Pi 5 Thursday 21 December Ann Arbor District Library, Ann Arbor, MI, USA magpi.cc/ms137 In this self-guided demo, you can try out basic coding and physical computing on several different platforms, including the brand-new Raspberry Pi 5. Try your hand at making wearable tech, solar-powered Morse code transceivers, blackout poetry, computerised object detection, animation with Scratch, live-coding dance music, and much more. 02. Riverside Raspberry Jam Monday 8 January 2024 ExCITE Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA magpi.cc/rrj137 This month's topic is open, so if you have a topic you would like to discuss, feel free to let them know in the comment section on the event page. 03. Cornwall Tech Jam Saturday 13 January 2024 FibreHub, Pool, UK magpi.cc/ctj137 Cornwall Tech Jams are run by volunteers…

MAKER Rusty started out with a solar-powered surfboard trying to autonomously head from LA to Hawaii and Blue Robotics grew to develop hundreds of low-cost marine components. bluerobotics.com BlueROV2 is an underwater ROV that surveys the darkest depths – well, the really very gloomy depths anyway – with the help of a Raspberry Pi 4 wearing its bespoke Navigator Flight Controller as a HAT. What is an underwater ROV? If you're not sure what an underwater ROV is, the short answer is: a Remotely Operated Vehicle you chuck in the sea. But if you're our favourite kind of geek and wish to feast on a much longer answer, Blue Robotics has shared a short history and explanation of how they work, including the excellent tidbit that the first ever ROV…

PROJECT SHOWCASE A visual artist, musician, and engineer whose art explores obsolescence, nostalgia and rebirth by deconstructing, enlarging and twisting the forms of early handheld gaming systems. connorg.ca MAKER There have been a discussions for decades now on whether or not video games can be considered art. The short answer in our minds is; yes, they can be. Unfortunately the longer answer isn't really relevant to this magazine, but what is relevant is three-foot-tall Game Boy (and other handheld) replicas powered by Raspberry Pi that are displayed as fine art themselves. “I had been working building large format fine art using canvases, paint, and paper and had just started exploring using Coroplast [corrugated plastic – Ed] to add a three-dimensional element to my work,” creator Connor Gottfried tells us. “I…

MAKER An engineer and electronics hobbyist who likes to experiment with the latest hardware and technologies, he also builds retro gadgets around 1980s tech. magpi.cc/fixgalaga When you get to your early 40s like 1981’s Galaga, you may find that everything doesn't quite work as well as it used to. Maker Nick Bild's mini Galaga arcade machine is significantly younger than the original cabinets, but still found itself in a position for repairs. They wouldn't be easy, so Nick came up with a very creative solution. “I came up with an elaborate way to ‘fix’ it involving robots, Raspberry Pis, computer vision, and more,” Nick tells us. “I first created a first-person view robot that streams data to a Raspberry Pi 4 that I put in the arcade cabinet. Using the…

PJ EVANS GRABS HIS FOAM SWORD We're not going to labour the Dungeons & Dragons metaphor (OK, maybe just a bit) but just like anyone setting out on an adventure, you may have little idea of how to start. If you did, it wouldn't be an adventure, and where's the fun in that? If you're completely new to Raspberry Pi, these pages will take you from the beginning and guide you through your first experiences with this little marvel. We'll cover using it as a desktop computer as well as the fun of physical computing and connecting your Raspberry Pi to the outside world. So, grab your knapsack of essentials (snacks) and let's go.…

FEATURE As amazing as a Raspberry Pi 5 is, on its own, it won't do much. At the very least you need power. After that, there is a seemingly endless range of accessories so you can customise to your heart's content and build a perfect project. Considering its small size, you have a surprisingly wide range of connectors to make use of including USB 3.0, the versatile GPIO header, and for the first time, PCI Express. The choice can be overwhelming, so here are some of the most important accessories you should consider for your Raspberry Pi adventure. PROTECT YOUR TREASURE Your Raspberry Pi is going to need some protection from the elements, so a case should be your number one purchase. A change in the layout of Raspberry Pi…

MAKER Alasdair Allan is a scientist, author, hacker, and journalist. In the past, he has mesh-networked the Moscone Center, caused a US Senate hearing, and contributed to the detection of what was – at the time – the most distant object yet discovered in the universe. magpi.cc/docs You'll Need > A Raspberry Pi computer magpi.cc/products > A microSD card and card reader magpi.cc/microsdcard magpi.cc/microsdcardreader > A computer running an operating system: Linux, Windows, macOS, or a Raspberry Pi with Raspberry Pi OS working To use your Raspberry Pi, you'll need an operating system. By default, Raspberry Pi computers check for an operating system on any microSD card inserted in the microSD card slot. Depending on your Raspberry Pi model, you can also boot an operating system from other storage devices,…

Ben's house is slowly being taken over by 3D printers. He plans to solve this by printing an extension, once he gets enough printers. Most microcontroller programming environments have a way of making beeps, and even if there's not an in-built method, it's a pretty simple thing to do – just flick a pin on and off quickly (but not too quickly) and you have an audio signal that you can send to a speaker, headphones, or other audio devices. CircuitPython, however, has just gained a complex audio synthesis module called synthio. This lets you not just create beeps and boops, but control these sounds in a variety of ways. Let's take a look. You'll need a board that supports synthio. RP2040 boards, such as Pico and Pico W, are…

INTERVIEW > Name Allie Weber > Occupation Student, content creator > Community role Content creator > URL @RobotMakerGirl Allie Weber is 18, which means that she was about seven years old when Raspberry Pi came out. While Raspberry Pi probably can't take all the credit for her incredible success, it's an interesting milestone to keep in mind when considering her many accomplishments. “Ever since I was little, I always had the desire to make things and be creative,” Allie says. “I won the science fair in first grade with a robot made out of recycled materials and continued coming up with invention ideas as I got older. After basically running out of science fairs in my hometown, I started entering online engineering competitions. My inventions include my patented Frost Stoppers,…