Pcb colour ideas for my mypifi led board

Here are some ideas for my board let me know what ones you like.

Mypifi led board back from ragworm

Got my first prototype back today and already one snag, the button resets the pi :( meaning I need to solve it or remove it. So I think I will go with the option of removing it.

However a quick play and all the LEDs work, so do I add an extra led or just make the board simpler with just three LEDs ? 

Without switch and a forth led in its place.

Update.

Since posting I've found that the packet I bought as 220 ohms was not that so have since re soldered two boards with correct ohms and now solved the reset problem, so I'm very happy with it now.

Hapi robot kickstarter

Although no kits are available at time of writing this blog, I have backed a great budget robot kit all British made by the guys at the little British robot company.  

It's ideal for beginners and schools, a kit that's cheap enough to not worry if anything happens to it, but more importantly a kit a child could take home to show his family what he or she is doing at school.

The kickstarter for this is at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tlbrcandkre8/case4-kits-and-happi-robot-for-the-raspberry-pi

As soon as I can get a kit to review please be ensured I will post all about it on this blog, for the moment take a look at the link and back this great little British project.

Arduino Uno + Display countdown timer

After making the arduino into a timer with the previous script, I decided it was time to try and make it countdown instead, also was to make it more dramatic with the tenth of a second showing for a faster count down look.

Below  is the code I have used, so enjoy

/*
  LiquidCrystal Library - Hello World

 Demonstrates the use a 16x2 LCD display.  The LiquidCrystal
 library works with all LCD displays that are compatible with the
 Hitachi HD44780 driver. There are many of them out there, and you
 can usually tell them by the 16-pin interface.

 This sketch prints "Hello World!" to the LCD
 and shows the time.

  The circuit:
 * LCD RS pin to digital pin 12
 * LCD Enable pin to digital pin 11
 * LCD D4 pin to digital pin 5
 * LCD D5 pin to digital pin 4
 * LCD D6 pin to digital pin 3
 * LCD D7 pin to digital pin 2
 * LCD R/W pin to ground
 * 10K resistor:
 * ends to +5V and ground
 * wiper to LCD VO pin (pin 3)

 Library originally added 18 Apr 2008
 by David A. Mellis
 library modified 5 Jul 2009
 by Limor Fried (http://www.ladyada.net)
 example added 9 Jul 2009
 by Tom Igoe
 modified 22 Nov 2010
 by Tom Igoe
 Modified by www.mypifi.net/blog May2014

 This example code is in the public domain.

 http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/LiquidCrystal
 */

// include the library code:
#include <LiquidCrystal.h>

// initialize the library with the numbers of the interface pins
LiquidCrystal lcd(8,9,4,5,6,7);

void setup() {
  // set up the LCD's number of columns and rows:
  lcd.begin(16, 2);
  // Print a message to the LCD.
  lcd.print("Secs Remaining:");
  delay(100);
}
 
void loop() {
  // set the cursor to column 0, line 1
  // (note: line 1 is the second row, since counting begins with 0):
  lcd.setCursor(0, 1);
  // print the number of seconds since reset:
  lcd.print(270000-millis()/100);
}

Mypifi back to basic boards

Over the coming weeks I intend to start a kickstarter project for my first pcb board aimed at people with no soldering skills and new to the pi.  The board is also ideal for schools too as it's not expensive, no noisy buzzers and with a button plus three LEDs, makes an ideal small cost efficient teaching tool.

It's a simple 3 led board with a button and if funding is successful will sell them with the bits for a rrp of £9.99 I will do an early bird for those fast enough for £6.99 and if I can secure over a thousand orders will add a stretch goal of a free pcb for each order, just source the parts for the second board yourself.

I already have code on its way and a uk board manufacturer in place for when we are funded.

Once ready to go I will post back and let you all know, just watch and tweet on twitter and follow me @smstextuk

Assembly of the pi crust board

I started off with the gpio header using the extended version this had to be done first as it would be impossible later on.

I then started from the middle soldering the breakouts section by section using a tiny blob of solder to hold it in place before checking it was straight.

Next up was the gpio heads on top of the board I wanted to have extras, and them being male in case I needed a male connection on top of what I already had, I also slightly angled them away from the gpio port.

Then it's all complete ready for you to use in your projects.

Simple beginners lcd timer with arduino and lcd shield

Playing with the example scripts on arduino ide and my arduino uno r3 with a DF Robot LCD Keypad shield i have managed to get a simple timer working which shows the time since plugged into power. the simple script is below and with playing around with it i guess you could make it count down from a certain number to zero and flash as it reaches 0.

/*
  LiquidCrystal Library - Hello World

 Demonstrates the use a 16x2 LCD display.  The LiquidCrystal
 library works with all LCD displays that are compatible with the
 Hitachi HD44780 driver. There are many of them out there, and you
 can usually tell them by the 16-pin interface.

 This sketch prints "Hello World!" to the LCD
 and shows the time.

  The circuit:
 * LCD RS pin to digital pin 12
 * LCD Enable pin to digital pin 11
 * LCD D4 pin to digital pin 5
 * LCD D5 pin to digital pin 4
 * LCD D6 pin to digital pin 3
 * LCD D7 pin to digital pin 2
 * LCD R/W pin to ground
 * 10K resistor:
 * ends to +5V and ground
 * wiper to LCD VO pin (pin 3)

 Library originally added 18 Apr 2008
 by David A. Mellis
 library modified 5 Jul 2009
 by Limor Fried (http://www.ladyada.net)
 example added 9 Jul 2009
 by Tom Igoe
 modified 22 Nov 2010
 by Tom Igoe

 This example code is in the public domain.

 http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/LiquidCrystal
 */

// include the library code:
#include <LiquidCrystal.h>

// initialize the library with the numbers of the interface pins
LiquidCrystal lcd(8,9,4,5,6,7);

void setup() {
  // set up the LCD's number of columns and rows:
  lcd.begin(16, 2);
  // Print a message to the LCD.
  lcd.print("mypifi.net/blog");
}

void loop() {
  // set the cursor to column 0, line 1
  // (note: line 1 is the second row, since counting begins with 0):
  lcd.setCursor(0, 1);
  // print the number of seconds since reset:
  lcd.print(millis()/1000);
}



Here is a quick video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGqfLWKtlo0

Starting off with an arduino uno

Last few weeks I've been getting involved with the new raspioduino like other raspberry/duino boards like gertduino there is only so much you can do that arduino IDE will allow or maybe it's cos I'm a beginner on the arduino.

However after dusting off my old uno r3 which I've never got any further than blinking an led I was able to play with the various boards. Still not enjoying gertduino just don't seem to gel with it. However raspio duino apart from the lack of adding boards to it (please make one I can add boards/shields to) ;) I was able to make a colourful array http://youtu.be/5Vq9tOulb6M now I felt I was getting somewhere.

So next up was to get the uno working and found it was actually more simpile than it looks, however the LCD plate I got seemed not to work till I came across the coding by Simon monk in his arduino sketches book where he uses the same LCD keypad shield as me.

So changing the LiquidCrystal section to 8,9,4,5,6,7 and I was soon up and running, shame I just ordered another LCD shield but figuring they only a few quid from Hong Kong and China that it's no loss and have since ordered an Ethernet shield led shield and a few others to tinker with. If I can get an understanding this end then I might get further with the atmega m328p chips on the gettduino and even further on the raspioduino.

 

Raspio duino more progress

I've been trying out the duino board from raspio and although it's mainly been trying out example scripts and building the lights up to make them work, it's certainly further than I got with gertduino which did make an appearance today but sadly I still got no where even following someone's blog, so it was back to beta testing this great raspio duino, here's a video of the colourful array I made.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Vq9tOulb6M&feature=em-upload_owner

Sugru best invention since superglue?

I got some sugru this week to try out on some raspberrypi projects.  

Sugru comes in small packets and feels like putty and similar to the putty I used as a kid to make models etc when I used to be into games workshop stuff like space marines and adaptus titanicus however it was spelt.

But this stuff is different it can bounce and absorb shock too, so I decided what can I make with it within the 30 minutes of opening that I can leave over night to form?

First up was some feet formula pitft screen the plastic screws would always stick out so decided to add feet to protect what it stood on and give it some grip.

Next was my robot project that needed to turn a bit more red so carefully used it to model some shape into the robot and add some more red to it.

And with the remaining black sugru I decided to make some nuts for the ir sensors on the bottom like so.

On checking on this a day later it had formed a hard seal and the sensors were going nowhere.

Looks like now I have a contender for the gorilla glue but not so messy.