Innehållsförteckning för #157 från Raspberry Pi Official Magazine

Raspberry Pi has made the firmware for its superb Build HAT (rpimag.co/buildhat) add-on board fully open source. Build HAT is Lego Education-compatible hardware that enables Raspberry Pi to control Technic motors and sensors (like those found in the Lego Education SPIKE Prime sets). “We're delighted to announce that the Build HAT firmware, together with its signing keys, is now open source and available under the permissive BSD 3-Clause licence,” says Gordon Hollingworth, CTO (Software) at Raspberry Pi. According to Hollingworth, the decision to release the firmware source reflects a broader commitment to enabling users to “understand and take control of the technology they use where we can.” “When we launched the Build HAT, the firmware that runs on its on-board microcontroller was released in binary form only,” Hollingworth wrote in…

rpimag.co/WordClock We've seen word clocks previously in several configurations, including laser-cut, 3D-printed, and one intriguing version that used servos to bring the projected words in and out of focus, rather than revealing them through a grid like usual. However – and this is strange, given that we live in a big, varied world – we've never seen a word clock in a language other than English. At least, not until now. Reddit user Reputila built this example with their first 3D printer, a Bambu Lab P1S. The electronics are based on a Raspberry Pi Zero W that they had lying around, which enables the time to sync over Wi-Fi while the clock is in range of the internet, and there's a DS3231 realtime clock to make sure that the device…

About a decade ago, we were inspired by a workshop at Liverpool Makefest where an organisation called the Dark Water Foundation made all manner of water monitoring devices. Dark Water Foundation got attendees to make miniature palm-sized underwater rovers using Lego, 35mm film canisters, and some small brushed DC motors. “DC motors?” I hear you cry. Well yes, the revelation on seeing this workshop was that small 3–6V DC motors run really well in fresh water without any attempts to waterproof them. The caveat being you are probably shortening their life somewhat, and you need to do a little work to dry them out after each mission. Many of the original links to this workshop are now missing; so, with absolute respect for the original project, we decided to make…

Pimoroni | £19 / $21 | pimoroni.com There are adapters that enable Pico to output video to a monitor, but for most projects you'll want a much smaller display. While it's relatively straightforward to connect the relevant GPIO pins to an I2C or SPI mini LCD, Pimoroni's Display Pack is a much neater solution with no wiring required: just plug your Pico into the female headers on its rear. Three screen sizes are available: the original slimline 1.14inch (240×135 pixels), along with the later 2.0-inch and 2.8-inch models (both 320×240). All feature four tactile buttons, an RGB LED, and an IPS LCD that looks very sharp with vibrant colour. Another major plus is that Pimoroni has created C/C++ and MicroPython libraries, along with a few example programs such as bouncing…

Pimoroni | £15 / $17 | pimoroni.com While it is now possible to get Raspberry Pi Pico W to output audio wirelessly via Bluetooth, Pico boards lack a wired audio port. One of the first Pico accessories to appear on the market, the Audio Pack solves the problem. It provides not one but two standard 3.5mm jack outputs: line-out (for external amp or powered speakers) and headphones. Crucially, it delivers high-quality audio: up to 32-bit, 384kHz stereo sound through the line-out connector, thanks to the on-board PCM5100A DAC. It also packs a PAM8908JER mini amplifier to output a louder signal from the headphone jack – switchable between high or low gain. A MicroPython audio player example is now available (rpimag.co/audiopackmp) if you're not au fait with C/C++. The I2S audio…

Argon ONE UP The Argon ONE UP Kickstarter is in the final stretch of its campaign for this Raspberry Pi (Compute Module 5) powered laptop that we've previewed in this issue. It's probably the most complete Raspberry Pi laptop we've ever seen, designed for both regular computer use and hardware development. Lovely. rpimag.co/oneup H.I.R.O. A modular robot kit for students and makers powered by Raspberry Pi Pico, H.I.R.O. stands for ‘Highly Interactive Robotic Organism’. We're pretty sure that's a backronym, but it does come with motors, various sensors, and can be easily built upon. rpimag.co/hiro…

Raspberry Pi has introduced new variants of its RP2350 microcontroller chip under the A4 stepping (rpimag.co/rp2350). These replace the launch model, which was designated A2, and feature fixes for issues found during Raspberry Pi's Hacking Challenge. Alongside RP2350, Raspberry Pi is launching two RP2354 models. These are pin-compatible variants of the 60-pin RP2350A (with 30 GPIO pins) and 80-pin RP2350B (with 48 GPIO pins) and add 16Mbit/2MB of flash memory in-package. RP2354 contains a Winbond flash die in-package, providing an elegant solution for developers who require a modest amount of storage. Each RP2354 part costs just 20 cents more than the equivalent RP2350 part. RP2350 has found its way into countless third-party products Fixes from the Hacking Challenge The new variants also address issues found during Raspberry Pi's Hacking Challenge…

rpimag.co/DualScreenCyberdeck We love a nice cyberdeck build, and this one by Sector 07 has everything we want from one. It's built on a Raspberry Pi 5, it's fully 3D-printed, and all the design files are on GitHub for anyone to come along and have a go themselves. Three custom circuit boards, designed in KiCad, break out the GPIO pins from the Raspberry Pi. These boards were made by PCBWay – if you need a tutorial or three on how to design and get boards manufactured, you're in luck, as we've featured getting designs fabricated by an external service in this and the previous two issues. The maker has added a few unique touches to make this cyberdeck more useful than just a laptop. There's a linear slider, which can be…

rpimag.co/PETmachine The doom and gloom over climate change and ecological collapse does have one silver lining: the high numbers of plastic bottles that we're currently throwing away into landfill, or rivers and seas, are a brilliant potential source of 3D printing filament. Polyethylene terephthalate, or PET as it's abbreviated, is strong, light, non-reactive, and is a barrier to oxygen, which is the molecule that among other things enables bacteria to turn beer into vinegar. It's an incredibly useful material in food packaging for all these reasons, and in its modified form of PETG, it's also widely used in 3D printing. Igor Tylman has built a machine that can reliably turn empty PET bottles into 3D printing filament, potentially turning rubbish into gold. There's no place on Earth that doesn't have…

It's no secret that Raspberry Pi products are a popular component in commercial products, as well as in our favourite hobbyist projects. Whether it's the full-board version, such as Raspberry Pi 5, or its smaller embedded partner the Compute Module 5; or the even smaller form-factor Raspberry Pi Zero, Pico, or the tiny-but-mighty RP2040 and RP2350 range of microcontroller chips; you'll find them all sitting inside some of the best products around. Raspberry Pi technology sits behind over 350 professional products: from underwater rovers to washing machines. We're incredibly proud that our computer hardware helps developers bring their industrial ideas to life. The Powered by Raspberry Pi programme is a distinguished mark of quality for products built on Raspberry Pi technology. It's our way of recognising the professionalism of others.…

Cytron / The Pi Hut | £15 / $20 | cytron.io / thepihut.com This feature-packed robotics board includes screw terminals to connect two DC motors (or single stepper motor), and a twelve-pin header for up to four servos. Cytron has crammed in no fewer than seven Grove connectors (for sensors, mini OLED, etc.), along with a ‘maker’ JSTSH port. Add to that two on-board RGB LEDs, a reset button, two user buttons, and a piezo buzzer (with mute switch). A nice touch is the presence of four test buttons for the motors, plus status LEDs for these and 13 GPIO pins – easily accessible via extra female headers next to Pico. There are three ways to supply power: via Pico's USB port, a terminal block for voltage in (3.6–6V), and…

Pimoroni | £8 / $9 | pimoroni.com Why use just one Pico add-on when you can use two? That's where the Omnibus comes in, expanding Pico's GPIO headers into two ‘decks’ with 40 male pins each, all clearly labelled. So, with Pico inserted in the middle, you could have a Display Pack on one side and either another add-on board on the other side or use jumper wires to connect other electronics. One minor issue is that it's designed with Pimoroni's range of Pico Packs in mind, which have Pico mounted on their rear. For other boards, to avoid them being mounted upside down, you may need to use male-female jumper wires to connect them. Another thing to consider is possible data pin conflicts between two boards, so you need…

Raspberry Pi has announced an upgrade to Raspberry Pi Connect – its software designed to enable you to remotely access a Raspberry Pi with screen sharing and remote shell via a web browser. Connect for Organisations features an improved audit log designed to improve operational oversight. Administrators can review activity from the past 90 days. “With the most recent events first, you can see every screen sharing and remote shell session, the creation of access tokens, the addition and removal of devices, and any changes to users and their roles,” says Paul Mucur, senior principal software engineer at Raspberry Pi. What's new? New features also include: Country tracking: see where events took place and spot suspicious activity Download CSV: download detailed logs for auditing and security reviews Filtering: focus on…

rpimag.co/FlexiblePCBWatch Like too many of us, YouTuber Sahko has tons of components sitting around waiting to be used. To this end, he found a load of tiny HCMS2901 displays and thought he'd turn them into a watch, mounted on a flexible PCB so you can wear it around your wrist. It's a very cool idea: rather than a strap that holds a display, the whole thing is a continuous display, and it threw up some unusual engineering challenges. The first of these was the choice of microcontroller; although he used a Raspberry Pi Pico in the prototyping stage, the RP2040 was just too big to incorporate in the final build, so he used the snappily named STM 32 UO 83KCU6 instead. The other big challenge is that at full brightness,…

rpimag.co/3DPrintCrochet Crochet is not only a mindful way of active relaxation and a way of making nice woolly garments to keep yourself and your loved ones warm (or giant woolly resistors if you so wish – see HackSpace Magazine issue 40 for more) – it's also intensely mathematical. As Nicola King discovered in HackSpace Magazine issue 81, there's a whole world of equations wrapped up within every piece of crochet – it's just numbers and yarn, after all. While it's a bit of a stretch of the imagination, we think that there's something reassuringly mathematical about the way a crochet pattern lends itself to being 3D-printed. Think of it like G-code for your fingers, if you will. If you squint, we hope you can see the influences in this 3D-printed…

The ocean is a vast subject: mysterious to humans, both physically and technically. It's striking how much more we know about space than our own ocean floor. We have mapped the Moon, Mars, and Venus more than our own oceans. The ocean is physically challenging, with high pressure, total darkness, and extreme cold adding mechanical considerations on top of the usual project build requirements. Salt water is tough on equipment, and opaque to light. Radio waves do not travel well underwater, especially those at higher frequencies like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or standard radio communication. The oceans are huge! It's no surprise to find Raspberry Pi equipment working under the ocean Well-engineered Raspberry Pi hardware is at the forefront of this challenge. It's no surprise to find Raspberry Pi equipment working under…

Pimoroni | £25 / $28 | pimoroni.com This versatile Pico breakout board even features a mini colour LCD screen (240×240 pixels), ideal for viewing/charting data from sensors, surrounded by four tactile buttons. Alongside the display are clearly labelled female headers (24 pins in all) that break out a selection of Pico's GPIO pins, including I2C, SPI, and ADC. An audio pin is connected to an on-board piezo speaker. A major bonus is the inclusion of four motor pins linked to the built-in DRV8833 dual H-bridge motor driver chip, which can deliver 1.5A RMS current output to control two DC motors. In addition, there are two slots for Pimoroni's extensive range of Breakout Garden sensors and add-ons. A mini 170-point breadboard is also crammed onto the board for electronics prototyping, making…

Waveshare / The Pi Hut | £16 / $22 | waveshare.com / thepihut.com Verdict A simple blackand-white display with a very low power drain. If you just need a small screen to show data periodically, an e-ink display is ideal. The main advantage is that it doesn't use any power to keep showing the same info, only when changing what's shown on the screen. So it's perfect for battery-powered IoT projects. There's a range of Waveshare e-ink displays for Pico, varying in size – all the way up to 7.5 inches. Some have a limited colour palette. This 2.13-inch model is purely black and white, but that does mean its screen refresh is faster (about two seconds) than on colour e-ink displays. It also supports partial refresh, which is useful…

We're British, so we do love a nice well-kept garden, or back yard as you might call it in other English dialects. We're also fans of automation and data, so using a Raspberry Pi to help improve our gardening is an exciting prospect. Here's just a few excellent ways to do so… 01. Watering and time-lapse See it grow rpimag.co/waterlapse This very simple project uses a moisture sensor to make sure the plant has enough water. And a camera for the time-lapse video. 02. Szerafin mushroom farm Fungi optimisation rpimag.co/szerafin Temperature and humidity are measured by this system to keep the environment perfect for the mushrooms to grow. 03. Freight farms Professional hydroponics rpimag.co/freightfarms There have been a few Raspberry Pi farm ideas in the past, but none have been…

01. Gitex Nigeria 2025 Monday 1 September to Thursday 4 September Eko Hotel Convention Centre, Lagos, Nigeria rpimag.co/gitex2025 Raspberry Pi is delighted to be visiting Gitex in Abuja and Lagos, Nigeria, this September. There, you'll be able to meet a member of the team and discover how Raspberry Pi can help you with your own solutions. You'll also be able to discuss how local partners can help with your projects, and hear about the technical, product, and compliance support services Raspberry Pi can offer to industrial customers. 02. Melbourne Raspberry Pi Makers Group Meeting Sunday 7 September Docklands Makerspace and Library, Melbourne, Australia rpimag.co/mrpmgm157 This meetup is open to everyone with an interest in electronics, robotics, home automation, 3D printing, laser cutting, amateur radio, high-altitude balloons, space tech, etc. Makers…