Sneak look at raspberry pi model c

Raspberry pi are bringing out a screen that plugs into the dsi socket so to reduce power usage further it no longer needs audio or av socket with rumours that the hdmi socket will go as well.

Of course this is false about the model c this is my A with av and sound removed, but it's true about the dsi screen.

Simply simpie

I recieved a new device at the start of the weekend, it's a SimPie a handheld control that plugs into your pi via the gpio socket.

The SimPie has three buttons, RGB led and a buzzer that reminds me of hearing aid tests and no doubt some clever whizz kid will work out how to pwm it in a way that it's only audiable to kids.

It also comes with stickers so you can change the traffic light colour buttons to actually define things like yes, no or off. In fact you could even make your own stickers and labels for it.

The SimPie works on 8 gpio pins, buttons work on 17, 27, 22. RGB led on 18,23,24. The buzzer 4 and ground on Gnd

There is already being work to control fla pi birds in scratch with it while scratch gpio has been updated for SimPie.

So how hard is it to use? Not at all I was able to get the buzzer and led to light with a simple python script in minutes. There is also a couple of code examples over at www.simpie.co.uk and the possibilities are endless, at the top of my head I'm already thinking game controller, doorbell, twitter notifier/email sender. 

So now I've mentioned the great things what are the negatives? Well there is one negative, might be because its a prototype but a longer lead as I can see a child be holding it and when distracted turn round and send the pi for a fly.

The other thing would be a hook or clip on the back to hang SimPie up and no doubt by the finished design little things like that will be added.

You probably asking yourself is there room for this in an every popular pi assesory market place? Well yes it is large enough for use in a classroom, the buttons can be decorated and programmed for anything it has lights and sound and is ideal for projects that need that, obviously building your own circuit would be better, for learners starting out this could be the stepping platform into electronics. Those who have been into this sort of stuff for a while could use it quickly for a quick project that involves pressing a button etc safely.

This is certainly one to watch over the coming months and with it available in black, orange, purple and green there should be a colour for everyone except the really fussy.

So once again it looks like Cyntech have managed to plug the market with yet another great accessory for the pi.

Building a small robot

With all the stuff for a @pi_borg picy robot I set about building one.

Next up was soldering the wires to the board including the motors ensuring one side was wired opposite to take in that the motor was facing the other way, this way it will ensure both motors run the same way ie driving them both forwards.

The @pi_borg boards.

And together

Notice the wiring

Putting it together I luckily had some extenders so I could place everything within the pi case, however just after this pic was taken I broke the battery pack off so now have it on top.

Now I'm this far I will save the programming side for another blog another day.  But feel free to look at piborg.org for sample scripts for this.

Assembly of AirPi V1.4

Starting from opening up the kit sort out everything into manageable areas so everything is tidy and easy to find. Once your soldering iron is to temperature then we are ready to begin.

First job solder the gpio header on, I for this tutorial have left it till last but for most it be easiest to do this first.

Next is the resistors I have lined them up keeping the first brown stripe to the right to ensure easy reading of the resistors.  As I have placed each one in in the correct part of the board I have bent the legs underneath to hold it in place dns make soldering easier.

A closer look at resistors.

And the back

Next was to trim the wires down with a pair of electrical wire cutters to tidy up the board and prevent short circuiting.

By now if not already you should be confident in your soldering.

The photo resistor and mic were next to be soldered followed by the LEDs. Note the LEDs have a positive a negative positive being the longer leg and negative the shorter one.

Again once soldered cut off the excess to prevent short circuiting to your board.

Now we want to place the chip holders, there are two for this project and if you look carefully at them and the board, one end has an indent this needs to match with the board and later the chip that goes into the chip holder.

When we have soldered them on they should look like this.

The back before soldering, notice how ive slightly bent the legs in on one and out on the other? This is to keep the holders in place and should the solder ever break should still keep connection.

Again when soldered.

Now just a few things left, the dht22, place the legs into the hole and bend into place before soldering , this should then keep in place on the board.

Then the bmp sensor.  I found with my previous airpi kit the heat from the board interfered with it so on this one I'm soldering the extended legs first, then using bluetac to hold the bmp so I can solder it at the top of the legs allowing air flow around it to disapate any board heat.

As I left the legs till last this is the last stage for me, carefully ensuring the extended gpio sits flush u solder each leg on. You don't have to use the provided extended you could use a normal header or cut this one down.  However if AirPi.es do bring out any additional add on boards then you won't be able to plug them onto this board.

You will notice the adafruit gps board location on the board, this is an optional extra to log your location and use UTC time with an extra program like gpsd. 

Although I won't show you how to solder it on its the same as the bmp but can sit as close to the board as possible, here is what it looked like on my v1.2 AirPi board.

Now it's time to head over to http://airpi.es/kit.php and follow links to the software to make all this work.

Should you experience any problems then there is the airpi forums at 

http://airpi.freeforums.net/board/1/general-board

Have fun with the airpi and don't forget to share yours with everyone, you could even add a link at the bottom.  Mine is sat in the conservatory so often seems high but can be viewed at 

https://xively.com/feeds/1002148982 however I do try to in the summer have it outside iron the windows ledge to allow for a more accurate reading.

Raspio breakout board assembly guide

Raspio from cyntech is a breakout board that comes in three types. There is the entrance keyring size that fits over your gpio pins, the breakout board that's the size of the pro and the pro which is the only one to have protection fuses built into the board.

Keyring breakout alt gpio pin side

 Gpio pin side.

The keyring one not only fits over your gpio pins but you could on theory solder it to an extra long gpio header but would lose the ability to swap over sides.

Anyway back to the tutorial, first get all the components out as the solder iron heats up.

First I want to solder the gpio header to the middle.

And underneath:

As you can see the protection fuses come already soldered.

Next upwas the inner breakout pins, once in place I flipped it over and used tweezers to slightly adjust the angle so it sat correct before soldering.

Next wasthe outer pins, these pretty much stayed in place as I turned the board over but you could use blue tach or putty to keep these in place if they move.

After about 15 minutes from the start I was left with the finished product as per next picture.

Colour POV4 light painter

I recieved a nice little package from Adafruit this morning, it's new and is the colour light painting POV

I firstly opened the packet and sorted everything out and so I could see what is there.

This is an ideal thing to do whilst waiting for your soldering iron to heat up, next was to put all the capacitors in the correct holes and the zenor diodes the correct way on the right matching the black line on the diode with the white line on the board.

Once these have been soldered carefully cut off the purtruding legs as we don't want any short circuits.

The capacitors were next the white line on side indicating negative, the negative side also had shorter legs, ensure these go in with the correct polarity.

As you can see we have now added the potentiometer, transistors and just have left the atmega chip the usb socket, LEDs, battery pack and 12mhz clock.

The 12nhz clock goes in just above the LEDs and once in the LEDs have to go in with the flat side to top left as per picture.

Then we have the usb socket and battery pack, I found cutting the wires down to a more manageable length before soldering   Them to the right ensuring red positive black negative. Or left if the board is this way round.

With the sticky pad you want to attach it to the battery pack and circuit board.  Remember you still need to get to the batteries in it and on off switch.

Place the atmega chip in ensuring the indent semi circle matches up as per picture.

A final check will ensure everything is soldered on and connected correctly, now is the time of truth, add the batteries and turn it on.

As you can see all LEDs light up.

Waiting for a few seconds to load the LEDs should go through a red, green and blue light up sequence before flickering white.

The lights should then go off,wave it about from a left to right then right to left wave and it should light up leaving a trail of lights making your pattern or text or whatever you have programmed the light display to display.

All drivers and software needed for this project are on the adafruit site at this address https://learn.adafruit.com/minipov4-diy-full-color-persistence-of-vision-light-painting-kit/upload-images

All that's left is to go have fun with it.

This image of it in action thanks to adafruit (and also copyrighted to them).