Innehållsförteckning för #156 från Raspberry Pi Official Magazine

Editor This month, editor Lucy's cat has trained her to ‘object detect’ the more expensive cat food in the supermarket. rpimag.co What if your next computer was powerful, incredibly efficient, and saved you a fortune? For years, I've had a Raspberry Pi computer on my desk and it's time you rediscovered why we live and breathe this machine. Raspberry Pi's fast Arm architecture and Linux-based operating system runs liberating open-source software that matches, or exceeds, closed-source equivalents. It runs cooler than traditional fan-powered desktops, its minimal footprint frees up space, and its dramatically lower purchase and operating costs are a game-changer. Whether you prefer a robust local Linux setup, or seamless integration with cloud-based powerhouses like Google Workspace, Windows 365, and other SaaS services, Raspberry Pi handles it with ease.…

Maker When he's not working as a power systems engineer, Tim's cramming loads of complicated astrophysics into home-built projects like this one. rpimag.co/esp32telescope Telescopes come in many shapes and sizes. There are refracting telescopes, which use a series of lenses to make faraway objects seem larger – this is the type of device first used by Galileo to observe the planets. The telescope was improved by Sir Isaac Newton with the invention of the reflecting telescope, which used mirrors to reflect the light to an eyepiece. A larger aperture, and larger mirrors, means more light, and more magnification. Now Tim Ritson has taken Newton's basic design and refined it with the addition of computerised motor control, Wi-Fi, and HTML. “To start with, I really just wanted to see if I…

Maker Rob has been playing with software and hardware since almost before there was software and hardware. robmiles.com In this session we'll take a look at settings storage. We'll consider a device that needs internal storage and build a system to store settings values for it. Along the way we'll discover files, JSON, and how to use web pages to manage device settings. We'll finish with a look at security options for Python programs running in embedded devices such as the Raspberry Pi Pico. The LLP (large light panel) Some technical developments are driven by a burning desire to advance the cause of humanity. The large light panel was developed because the author found a source of very cheap 8×8 pixel boards. By stringing these together, he wanted to create…

Maker Ian's been working in tech and video games magazines for far longer than is healthy. As well as Raspberry Pi, he also writes about other computers, retro gaming, and anything else that pays. ijosborne.bsky.social If you've seen the movies The Imitation Game or Enigma, you already know what the Enigma machine is. If you haven't, put them on your to-do list – they're both great. Enigma was a cypher device used in Germany before and during the Second World War. Used extensively by both the army and the navy, it featured a complicated encryption method that made it very hard to crack. The Enigma machine was unspectacular to look at, resembling an oversized typewriter, but under the hood it boasted incredible technology. Every time you press a key, the…

Maker Ben 3D-prints things that should not be 3D printed. He once had to spend a day with his hands in his pockets because his entirely 3D-printed belt snapped while crawling through a cave. glowingart.co.uk By far the most popular 3D printing technology is Fused Deposit Modelling (FDM). In this process, a print head heats up plastic and squirts the molten material through a nozzle. It moves around the print volume, building up your print layer-by-layer. This is a great, well triedand-tested method that millions of makers use every day. It's (fairly) reliable, (fairly) easy to use, and (fairly) cheap to run. However, while the parts can be great for some uses, if you have demanding requirements, they can fall a little short. In this article, we're going to look…

Elecrow rpimag.co/crowpi3 £168 / $229 SPECS DIMENSIONS 285mm × 185mm × 38mm SCREEN 4.3-inch 800×480 IPS screen COMPATIBILITY Raspberry Pi 5, Raspberry Pi Pico (all models), Arduino Nano, micro:bit Educational and electronics starter kits for Raspberry Pi have been around since, well, Raspberry Pi has existed. We've covered a large variety over the years – from small kits that cover specific use cases, to a newer breed of portable electronics labs. These latter types are always fascinating, cramming as many different functions as possible into a briefcase-shaped computer that looks a little like a prop from a 1990s hacker movie. Unlike its laptop-esque predecessors, CrowPi 2 and L, the CrowPi 3 returns to this lab form factor with more built-in components than you can shake a Sense HAT at. The…

Raspberry Pi | £9 / $12 | raspberrypi.com Coming in red/white or black, the official Raspberry Pi 5 case features the same snap-together design as the ones for other models, with improvements to aid ventilation and cooling. It's very easy to assemble the plastic pieces. While some passive cooling is provided by a metal heatsink to stick onto the SoC, the main cooling method is a fan. It's mounted in a clear insert that can be removed if needed, such as to mount a HAT – although it's probably better to use a GPIO booster header. The case lid fits on top with a gap to aid ventilation. Although cooling performance wasn't as good as the other cases in this roundup, resulting in some minor throttling when overclocked, you could…

SunFounder | £60 / $80 | sunfounder.com Pironman 5 turns your Raspberry Pi 5 into a stunning desktop mini PC with an NVMe M.2 slot for SSD storage – or two slots in the Max version (which also has a stylish black colour scheme). On the cooling front, it's equipped with RGB-lit dual fans set into one case wall, plus a third fan on the tower cooler heatsink that sits on the SoC. An adapter board extends Raspberry Pi 5's USB-C power port and converts its micro-HDMI outputs to full-size HDMI ones on the case exterior. An IO expander board extends the GPIO pins, powers the two RGB fans, and connects a mini OLED which shows key stats (or you can view them on a web dashboard). As expected, cooling…

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. Follow along to #MakerMonday each week over on our various social media platforms!…

Missing magazines Where's my magazine got to? It would normally be with me [in the USA] a week or so after it's available to download, but it's still not here. Are you sending it by sailing ship, to reduce your carbon emissions or something? Aaron via email We'd love to claim some environmental credits by shipping magazines around the world on 18th century tea clippers, but the sad truth is that for a time, a pallet of magazines was… mislaid. Not stolen, or damaged, just mislaid, languishing in a warehouse somewhere by accident. We know this because, fortunately, the magazines have since been found and, by the time we've finished spell-checking this reply, they'll be with our readers in the USA and Canada. To everyone affected, thank you for your…

Maker Sergey is an embedded systems engineer specialising in real-time system software and sensor integration for self-driving cars and delivery robots. rpimag.co/rpimidisynth Although it's often considered to be a quaint, old-fashioned instrument in large parts of Europe and North America, the accordion is more popular than you may think. As well as playing a significant role in traditional, folk and ethnic music, it's used to produce jazz, pop and classical tunes. It's also of great cultural importance and a great symbol of musical expression. Sergey Antonovich is certainly a fan and he loves to play the button accordion. He also spends a good chunk of his free time studying music theory and creating digital music instruments and accessories. To that end, he's been working on bringing digital synthesiser capabilities to…

Maker PJ is a writer, software engineer, and maker. The robot arm keeps knocking his coffee over and he's worried it's doing it on purpose. mastodon.social/@mrpjevans Last month we started the process of upcycling the common OWI-535 robot arm into something a bit more internet connected. There's still a little assembly to do and we're yet to tackle the software. Although this is a specific project, the examples given here can be transferred to a multitude of different robotics projects. The actual assembly of the robot arm is irrelevant, as the Raspberry Pi Pico has no idea about that; all it's doing is controlling a series of DC motors. So whatever you can think of that uses motors like these, you can automate with Raspberry Pi. Last time on robot…

Maker A tech writer, programmer, and web developer with a long history in computers, who is also in music and art. about.me/RichardSmedley Now that we can navigate folders and list files, it's time to learn how to create, view, and alter both files and folders. Once more, it's not that the task is difficult, rather that the forms of the commands (particularly when editing) are unfamiliar, coming from an era before Common User Access (CUA) standards were created to ease switching between applications and operating systems. Stick with it: with just the first parts of this tutorial series under your belt, you'll be able to do plenty of work at the command line and start getting comfortable there. We're going to dive straight into working with files and folders Creating…

Businesses have seen the benefits of using Raspberry Pi Although Raspberry Pi was originally designed to teach coding and computer science, it has since taken on a life of its own. Innovative creators have produced a wealth of amazing projects (as we see in each issue of this magazine), but businesses have also seen the potential and benefits of using Raspberry Pi technology in their products. There are loads of devices and projects in the real world doing real things and many of them are making a big difference to productivity, innovation, and people's lives. As well as great support, flexibility, and an ability to interface with sensors and industrial protocols, Raspberry Pi devices are providing cost-effective solutions for bespoke needs. Let's see how it's making an impact.…

The Pi Hut rpimag.co/tripodmount £3.50 SPECS COMPATIBILITY: Official Raspberry Pi Camera Module 1, 2, 3, and AI Camera FEATURES: Tripod mounting plate for Raspberry Pi Camera Modules; slot for flex cable; female tripod fixing built-in; fixings included (including spares) MATERIAL: Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (black), 5 × screws Verdict An simple solution that is great value. 10/10 Sometimes it's the simple things that surprise and delight. For a while we've been putting together various camera-based projects, especially with regards to an AI HAT+ and AI Camera Module. These projects need a quick and easy way to mount a camera on a tripod and point it at something. We've 3D-printed models for camera housings and used Blu Tack for homemade selfie sticks. Eventually, we asked The Pi Hut if they had something…

My first Raspberry Pi was a Model B from 2012. I spent the first few months looking at it, a little lost and confused. It seemed equally bemused. You can still buy a Raspberry Pi 1 Model B+ today (rpimag.co/pi1). This was the final revision of the original board, with a few extra USB ports and the 40-pin GPIO connection we have loved ever since. Right from the start, the question was “what do I do with this incredible thing?” The answer hasn't always been easy. At the same time as I got that first Raspberry Pi, I was doing MITx courses in computer science and computational thinking. So, in the first instance, my Raspberry Pi was a coding machine. A safe development platform that I could use to run…

Maker Daniel enjoys creating robots and mechatronic projects and is a big advocate for using them as an educational tool. rpimag.co/vexrobots Younger years absorbed in various sci-fi films and TV shows such as Forbidden Planet, Silent Running, Star Wars, Star Trek, and Lost in Space led to embedded software engineer Daniel Ramirez's abiding interest in robots and his first forays into electronics. When he chanced upon an R2-D2 shell in his local hypermarket, Daniel saw a chance to combine his technological know-how with his sci-fi dreams. At first, the R2-D2 toy sat in his room “looking expectantly at me like Pinocchio looked at Geppetto, wondering when it could start moving around on its own”. Feeling “a little bit guilty”, Dan began looking for suitable parts with which to animate R2-D2.…

Maker A long-time Raspberry Pi user and tinkerer, Phil is a freelance writer and editor with a focus on technology. He loves a good jukebox. philkingeditor.com YOU'LL NEED: Raspberry Pi (4 or 5 recommended) microSD card Fruitbox software Music tracks USB thumb drive Touchscreen (optional) Push-buttons and connector wires (optional) Joan Jett may have advised us to put another dime in the jukebox (baby), but these traditional mechanical music-playing marvels are not quite as commonplace as they once were, largely thanks to many bars and venues now streaming music instead. While some classic jukeboxes are now collector's items that can cost tens of thousands, there is a much less expensive option: build your own digital jukebox using a Raspberry Pi. The free and open-source Fruitbox software (GitHub repo at rpimag.co/fruitboxv2)…

Maker Andrew is a specialist maker and fabricator, and is the owner of the Andrew Lewis Workshop. lewiswork.etsy.com QUICK TIP Most hole-punching flange jogglers are badged imports and have the same basic spec: a 10mm flange with 5mm hole punch. If you're riveting the panels, that hole will fit a 4.8mm blind rivet. Aside from its glorious name, the hole-punching flange joggler is actually one of the most useful tools that you've probably never heard of unless you work in a sheet metal workshop. Available as a manual tool or as an air tool, it takes the pain out of working with large panels and literally stops you from ending up with your butt on the line when you're joining multiple flat sheets. Joining together flat sheets of metal is…

Maker Nicola is a freelance writer and sub-editor. She's also the gardener in the family, trying to create a very tiny slice of Kew Gardens in deepest Dorset. @holtonhandmade QUICK TIP When choosing flowers, make sure they are at their peak and close to full bloom, and ideally pick them in the morning on a dry day. Avoid any which have any blemishes or have started to wilt. At this time of year, our garden is bursting with flowers, and we sometimes wish we could preserve just a little bit of that colour and beauty to look back on later on. Aside from taking some snaps, there is a way… flower pressing or, more grandly, botanical preservation. This is another very traditional craft, but one that will always be relevant…

With the weather hotting up in the UK, it's a good time to look at how to keep your Raspberry Pi 5 cool. While this shouldn't be an issue during normal usage, a heavy continuous load will cause things to heat up. To prevent overheating, all Raspberry Pi computers start to throttle the SoC at 82°C. Between 82°C and 85°C, Raspberry Pi reduces the clock frequency by 100MHz per degree over 82°C. If the CPU temperature reaches 85°C, Raspberry Pi greatly throttles the Arm CPU frequency, along with the GPU. Naturally, this reduces system performance, so cooling solutions aim to keep the temperature below this point. We've gathered some of the best cooling cases and devices around to try them out. Two main cooling methods are used: passive and active.…

DeSalvo | £60 / $80 | desalvoinc.com This is one amazing-looking case, featuring aesthetically pleasing wavy fins on the top to aid passive cooling. Weighing in at 298g (without Raspberry Pi), the solid case is fully CNC machined from 6061T651 aerospace aluminium. If you want even greater luxury, a stunning copper version of the case is available for £226 / $300. While the Galactic's design prevents access to Raspberry Pi 5's internal connectors and CAM/DISP ports, there is a slot for the PCIe connector. There's also a slot to thread a GPIO 40-pin cable through to the header, although it's a very tight fit. A sticky thermal pad connects Raspberry Pi 5's PMIC circuitry to a riser in the case, while thermal grease is used for the SoC. Despite the…

Name Andrew Lewis Occupation Craft seller Community role Guide writer URL lewis-workshop.com Long-time writer for HackSpace Magazine, and now a regular here in the pages of Raspberry Pi Official Magazine, Andrew Lewis has been programming and making for his whole life. “I started programming computers when I was about four years old, on a ZX81 that my parents brought for my older brother,” Andrew says. “I was always fascinated with how things worked, and by the age of nine or ten I had a healthy collection of Forrest Mims project books and a pile of things I'd taken apart for spares and never quite put back together. I was largely bored by the lack of practical computers or electronics during my school years, and I left at 18 intending to…