Innehållsförteckning för #140 från Raspberry Pi Official Magazine

This month is special for me. This month we cover learning to code with Raspberry Pi (page 34). Teaching kids of all ages how to code is what Raspberry Pi, and by extension, The MagPi exists for. Coding is close to my heart, ever since I was pushed in front of a BBC Micro Model B at school. And I’ve written a Python tutorial that shows you how to create a to-do list (page 42). It’s great to go over all the basics of Python all over again. If you are already a coding ninja then there’s plenty of fun to be found in making things with Raspberry Pi and code. In particular, I really enjoyed KG’s exploration of using floppy disk drives and CD-ROM drives with Raspberry Pi (page…

MAKER Metal industry professional and tech experimenter Davide loves being able to take his mobile lab from place to place – on two wheels bagbuilds.com Like many readers of The MagPi, an early fascination with computers led maker Davide Marchetti to teach himself as much as he could about programming and electronics. His fascination with tech was enhanced through hands-on projects such as creating a hydroponic greenhouse system and building an Arduinocontrolled pantograph. Davide recently embarked on projects covering 3D printing and wireless communications, leading him to explore the wonderful possibilities of Raspberry Pi. The Backpack Cyberdeck is a selfcontained, Raspberry Pi 4-powered, portable lab he can take anywhere with him on his bike. “Even when I travel, I want all my stuff with me for all occasions and always…

MAKER Adam helps the Meshnet community and is a maker passionate about all things tech, DIY, and Mazdas. magpi.cc/autospeechrec We’ve had voice assistants appear in The MagPi for a very long time – we even had a kit included with issue 57 you could use to build one yourself! Since then a lot has changed in the voice assistant, voice recognition, and AI chat space. “[It] is my genuine belief that with moderation and caution, AI models are extremely useful,” Adam Frydrych says to us. He’s a Meshnet Evangelist (magpi.cc/meshnet) at Nord Security, and has created his own AI voice assistant using modern tech. “The ability to have a random question answered within seconds is amazing.” With this belief in mind, and inspired by Home Assistant’s Year of the Voice…

MAKER While researching this feature, K.G. ddrescued their first published essay, and still hasn’t stopped cringing about it. Beware that which you might raise up. twoot.space/@owlbear You'll Need > Raspberry Pi 5 > USB disc drive (e.g. Asus SBC-06D2X-U) magpi.cc/asusbluray > USB floppy drive (e.g. DELL MPF82E) magpi.cc/dellfloppy Raspberry Pi 5 distributes enough power via its Universal Serial Bus to run most modern USB disc drives correctly. This is in contrast to our last attempt, in 2020 with Raspberry Pi 4, when we couldn’t get modern dual-USB DVD and Blu-ray drives to power up correctly. Back then, in our CD-ROM console tutorial (magpi.cc/cdromconsole), we used a SATA DVD drive and USB adaptor kit. That approach still has its uses, but for most purposes, a modern external disc drive is now…

Linux Command Line and Shell Scripting Bible AUTHOR Richard Blum and Christine Bresnahan Price: £40/$40 magpi.cc/bashscriptyt For those looking for a serious dive deep into the command line and shell scripting, the Linux Command Line and Shell Scripting Bible is a must-have. This comprehensive guide is packed with detailed explanations, practical examples, and hands-on exercises that cover everything from basic commands to advanced scripting. Whether you’re a beginner aiming to get acquainted with the command line or an experienced user looking to enhance your scripting skills, this book provides valuable insights and tips that can be immediately applied to improve your efficiency and productivity in the Linux environment. Learn Shell AUTHOR Learnshell Price: Free learnshell.org Learn Shell is an interactive web tutorial for those new to shell scripting or seeking…

Over the years we’ve found that however senior you are as a software or hardware engineer, tinkering with a Raspberry Pi or Pico is pretty universal. We’ve featured projects from engineers at Raspberry Pi in the past but it’s true in other companies – like Sandeep Mistry from Arm who works within the IoT Line of Business (LoB). He creates projects that illustrate what folks can do with Raspberry Pi technology. “I’ve been making things from a young age.” Sandeep tells us. “It started off with building things like LEGO, then moving onto higher tech things after getting the opportunity to attend the Virtual Ventures summer camp (carleton.ca/vv). I was very fortunate that the high school I went to offered courses in computer science, so I had the opportunity to…

MAKER Ivan is a systems engineer and hardware hacker. He runs Uptime Industries which has been working on Compute Blade, a 1U carrier board for the Raspberry Pi CM4. uplab.pro Raspberry Pi 5 boards can become hot and, if things become a little too roasty toasty – that is, if the temperature reaches 80°C under a sustained heavy load – the board will begin to throttle the processor. Since this limits the CPU speeds, the device won’t run at its best, so it’s always a good idea to try and avoid such a situation if you can. The easiest and cheapest way to do this is to buy the official Raspberry Pi Active Cooler which costs less than a fiver. This single-piece anodised aluminium heatsink with an integrated blower keeps…

MAKER Lucy is editor of The MagPi and she loves a good to-do list. magpi.cc You'll Need > Raspberry Pi > Raspberry Pi OS > Thonny IDE Python is an incredibly versatile programming language. It’s great for beginners because it is easy to read and understand, yet Python is also powerful enough for data scientists and AI experts. While there are many other programming languages out there, and each has its own merits depending on what you’re trying to do, we think Python is the one to start with. In this tutorial, we’re going to show you how to make a to-do list application in Python. It won’t be the world’s best to-do list. That’s not the point. You’ve made it yourself and will start to understand the fundamental building…

MAKER PJ is a writer, software engineer and tinkerer. He got fed up listening to Rick Astley (bit of a let down) and now plays The Stick Song on repeat. mrpjevans.com You'll Need > Raspberry Pi Smart Speaker build magpi.cc/139 > Installation of Home Assistant (optional) Whether you’re considering converting your Sonos Play:1 or perhaps upcycling a vintage radio, you should have a project in mind by now that’ll fill your room with sound, Raspberry Pi-style. Previously, we walked through the hardware build of our super-smart speaker project but so far we have only been able to play ‘white noise’; where are the tunes? Now that we know the audio is working, we can focus on what we want to listen to and how to control it. We’ve selected some…

▶ EDATEC ▶ magpi.cc/opencnccase ▶ £7 / $8 SPECS COOLING Two large heatsink panels (top and base) with thermal pads attached FEATURES Cutouts/ slots for all Raspberry Pi 5 top-side ports; open sides for the others Verdict Provides an impressive amount of cooling while giving full access to all Raspberry Pi 5’s ports. 9/10 As its name suggests, the Passive Cooling Open CNC Case has an open design, with Raspberry Pi 5 sandwiched between two segments – one on the top and one on the bottom. There are no side pieces, so airflow over the single-board computer is increased – although EDATEC also makes a closed CNC case that also relies on passive cooling. Both parts are made from aluminium and feel solid and weighty. On one side, each features…

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. Remember to follow along at the hashtag #MagPiMonday!…

Security articles I’m a subscriber to your magazine. Do you have a search tool for the articles and/or projects? I’m looking for firewall/security advice, as I’ve recently purchased a Raspberry Pi 5. Mike via email We currently don’t have an official database of our articles for the magazine, although we know some readers have set some up in the past. However we don’t really have many articles on Raspberry Pi software/ network security – although we did cover setting up Pi-Hole in issue 104 (magpi.cc/104). We’ll have a look to see if we can put together some tutorials on other router and firewall solutions using Raspberry Pi. Issues galore I am rather new to the DIY and maker scene and was wondering if there is a way to download ALL…

MAKER Rob Miles has been playing with hardware and software since almost before there was hardware and software. magpi.cc/redtelephone In the 1970s, people either headed for a phone box to make calls or signed a telephone contract with the General Post Office. If they did the latter, they’d invariably end up renting a shiny GPO 746 Rotary telephone available in a variety of colours. Callers would stick their fingers into the number holes, turn the dial anti-clockwise until it reached the finger stop, and let go. After the right number of digits, their call would connect. Until button-press phones arrived this method was standard, and Rob Miles loved it. “The old phones were a huge part of my life when I was younger,” he says. “Everybody had one. And everybody…

MAKER Matt Hough is an ardent Raspberry Pi aficionado and astronomy fan using his recent retirement to focus on ever more complex makes shortbus.blog Warning! Stay indoors This is a tabletop observatory for indoor use and the dome is not weatherproof. (Matt plans one that is). This version should not be used outside as the electrical components will be damaged magpi.cc/electricalsafety Matt Hough’s retirement from the corporate IT world freed him up to return to hobbies that fascinated him many years ago. He studied computing in the 1980s, but had not tinkered much since, other than with software. While astronomy had always been a big draw, Matt rarely had time to pursue it while working. When Raspberry Pi was launched in 2012, Matt was immediately drawn to it because “it…

With a few exceptions that we’ll cover later, nearly all coding is done using text-based programming languages. There are many, many different languages out there, and we’ll cover some of the most popular ones here. Why isn’t there a single language? Two reasons: firstly, some languages are designed for specific tasks, such as R for data analysis, while others are known as general-purpose languages. Secondly, the people who design these languages rarely agree on anything and are forever trying to improve things by creating new ones. Languages are typically text-based as that’s the easiest way to get information into a computer. All languages have three basic structures: sequential, conditional and iterative. Let’s look at these by writing a programme (code that does a specific task) that makes a cup of…

MAKER Gareth is a freelance technology journalist, writer, and former system administrator in the education sector with a passion for open-source software and hardware. freelance.halfacree.co.uk Warning! Power supply Raspberry Pi 5 needs a 5V power supply capable of delivering 5A of current, and a suitable E-Marked USB C cable. If you connect a lower-current power supply, including the Official Raspberry Pi 4 Power Supply, Raspberry Pi 5’s USB ports will be limited to low-power devices only. magpi.cc/power Raspberry Pi is designed to be as quick and easy to set up and use as possible, but – like any computer – it relies on various external components called peripherals. While it’s easy to take a look at the bare circuit board of Raspberry Pi – which looks significantly different to the…

Rob Miles has been playing with hardware and software since almost before there was hardware and software. You can find out more about his so-called life at robmiles.com. Find out how to create a little robot you can program from your PC browser. Along the way, we’ll dig into the deepest recesses of computer interrupts, build a programming language that has angry and happy commands, and use a webbased robot development environment. The Hull Pixelbot is a little robot with a pixel on the top. Figure 1 shows the very first one. The author wanted to find out just how much you could do with a robot powered by an Arduino Uno, a very popular (if somewhat limited) microcontroller. Version 1 just moved around the desk. Version 2 had a…

Computing and making may usually be indoor-based hobbies, but that doesn’t mean you have to abandon your Raspberry Pi when you go out to touch grass. In fact, taking a Raspberry Pi with you might make the outdoors all that much better – and here are ten of our favourite ways of doing that. NatureBytes Spying on critters What beasties live in your garden? Find out with this (non-invasive!) camera set up that will help you find out if any hedgehogs bless your lawn in the middle of the night naturebytes.org Roboat Pico-powered sailing Raspberry Pi Pico is perfect for outdoor projects, especially budget-friendly ones like that use recycled bottles to make a boat hull. It’s all controlled from a smartphone app. magpi.cc/picoroboat Tiny 4WD robot Robot and rover A…

INTERVIEW > Name Sara Parodi > Occupation Graphic designer > Community role The MagPi designer > URL raspberrypi.com If you read last issue’s Final Word page, or checked the credits in our flannel panel, you’ll know that we have moved the design for The MagPi in-house. While the whole design team does little bits and pieces here and there, Sara Parodi has been doing most of the work to turn our words into something that looks pretty. “Growing up, I went to art school in Italy,” Sara says. “It felt like the right path for me to undertake, and through the years I pushed myself to try different things; I would find myself at events drawing on walls or floors, other times I would be at home testing lino printing…

01. Computer Vision-Based Electric Vehicle Charging Occupancy Detection Tuesday 9 April Messezentrum 1, Nürnberg, Germany magpi.cc/cvbev140 As part of the ‘Embedded Vision & Edge AI’ track at Embedded World 2024, Arm’s Sandeep Mistry is sharing a case study on computer vision-based electric vehicle charging occupancy detection, a project which uses Raspberry Pi Pico. 02. Easter 2024 Hythe CoderDojo Thursday 11 April Hythe Library, Southampton, United Kingdom magpi.cc/ehcd140 We’ll be exploring (subject to change): HTML/CSS, Scratch, Python, Astro Pi, Coolest Projects submissions, or bring your own project. At this event we are expecting Tom from CoderDojo to join us to award some prizes. 03. Raspberry Pi Jam Hyderabad Saturday 20 April Nirmal Vihar Apartment, Hyderabad, India magpi.cc/rpjh140 Celebrating Raspberry Pi’s birthday a bit late so as to accommodate for friends having…

THE FINAL WORD We live in what the Chinese reputedly referred to as ‘interesting times’! LLMs (Large Language Models) such as GPT, LLama and MMLU have shaken the world, and the world of computing in particular. It’s worth remembering that the “T” in GPT stands for “transformer” (Generative Pre-Trained Transformer in full). GPT isn’t creating its own words, it’s transforming your input into a response through a highly educated guess based on its training model. It does not – yet – seem to understand what it’s saying. And it’s often misguided. But let’s not dwell on that and look at the positives. In the case of ChatGPT this training model is huge. GPT-4 is trained on 13 trillion tokens (parts of words) and around 10 trillion words. The training set…