With the recent release of the latest Raspberry Pi (512MB version), I thought it would be fitting to add it the Wishlist. This newest version was announced just this week and I was fortunate enough to snag one before they sold out. If you’ve thought about diving into Linux and physical computing, this beauty would be the perfect gateway. Really, for me it’s become greatly addictive. Also, it would be an awesome gift to get someone started. The minimum requirements for it is a 4GB or greater SD card and a 5v power supply. A monitor or a TV with HDMI isn’t necessary; you could run it headless. You can also get some really cool accessories like cases (like the Pibow below), WiFi cards, USB hubs, or some breakouts for the GPIO. Newark and Adafruit …
Raspberry Pi and Cosm
Over a month ago I decided to give Cosm.com a try instead of using my own MySQL database and graphing in Python. Since this was awhile ago I don’t remember everything I did to get it working but I will post the code and libraries I am using that work. Here is a simple library to making sending to Cosm easy. http://www.netfluvia.org/layer8/?p=175 Here is the full code I am using to log the PIR sensor to Cosm, after the jump. #!/usr/bin/python#PIR LOGGING TO COSMimport RPi.GPIO as GPIOimport sysimport timeimport datetimefrom datetime import timedelta import cosmAPI_KEY=”API_KEY”FEED_ID=”FEED_ID”def writeCosm(status): pfu = cosm.PachubeFeedUpdate(FEED_ID,API_KEY) pfu.addDatapoint(“Pi”,status) pfu.buildUpdate() pfu.sendUpdate() print “Uploaded Motion data to Cosm” return ledPin = 17pirPin = 18motionCount = 0timerMin = 1 #Number of …
Raspberry Pi and Motorola Lapdock
Last month I jumped on the fire sale clearance at Verizon for the Motorola Lapdock 100 (for the Razr). First thing I wanted to do is connect it up to the Raspberry Pi. To do this I had to order some cables and adapters. Here are the cables I ordered plus and the adapter to later use it with an Android stick. HDMI To HDMI Female F/F – For the Android stick or connecting to a regulator HDMI cable. 5FT 1.5m Micro HDMI to HDMI Cable – Convert Micro HDMI to full size. Micro HDMI Type D Female to Micro HDMI Type D Female – Join the HDMI cable to the Lapdock. USB 2.0 A Male to Micro USB 5 Pin B Male adapter cable – Donor for RPi USB …
Raspberry Pi Tour Photos
Here are a few photos from the RPi Tour. I was able to capture them while spending the afternoon at Hackerdojo in Mountain View. It was great getting to meet Rob, from the RPi foundation, as well as the other makers who attended. Fun noodle-thing-a-bob art sculpture The Show after the Tell Gert Board – Raspberry Pi Add-on Sneak peek at my latest setup heartsy, my editor, being silly Raspberry Pi Hands-on The “Apple-Pi.” Ha! Motorola Lapdock using a Blackberry MicroUSB Splitter Rob Bishop from the RPi Foundation Great turn-out! We swapped Pi’s!
Raspberry Pi Tour at Hackerdojo
Quick post! @heartsy and I are at hackerdojo listening to Rob Bishop speak about the Raspberry Pi. It’s great that they are sharing so much with the hacker community. We’re able to bring along projects, so I’ve brought my RPi to show. Thought it would be neat to post from it!
Raspberry Pi Factory pictures from South Wales
A very quick set of photos taken this morning at the Sony factory in Pencoed, Wales, where Raspberry Pis are being built at a rate of around 2500 a day. Pete, Eben, Mike from Farnell and I were visiting the factory to celebrate its 20th anniversary (and the 40th anniversary of Sony in Wales). This is a bit quick and dirty – these were taken with my phone. We’ll have some nicer photos and some video of the line, the automated processes and some pictures of the whole team to show you later on, but I know a lot of you were waiting to see these today: so here they are! Source: Raspberry Pi
Raspberr Pi: htop
In my other posts, I forgot to mention that I use htop instead of top for viewing processes. If you want to install run: $ sudo apt-get install htop and to run: $ htopIt works nicely, it’s colored, and it’s easy to use with the arrow keys.
Raspberry Pi SD Card Backup
Just wanted to post a quick note about backing up the Raspberry Pi. After your hard work of configuring it the way you want it, don’t forget to back it up! It’s also a good idea before making any big changes. I know it’s a pain, but worth it in the end. I didn’t do it for awhile just because I was too lazy to shutdown the Pi and remove the SD card. Since my workstation is Windows 7 Ultimate x64bit, I use win32diskimager, which works really well. https://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer/+download On a side note, I should see if there is a way to do an online backup. Then I can continue to be lazy ;). My backup before switching to Debian Wheezy
Quicknote: Raspberry Pi > Python > Serial (Updated)
Here is a quick note on using USB serial with Python. I hooked up a Sparkfun explorer board with a Xbee series 1. Sparkfun Xbee Explorer https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8687 First you need to install the Serial library: apt-get install python-serial The Sparkfun adapter uses FTDI so it shows up as /dev/ttyUSB0 I found this, it works really well. Simple TCP/IP bridgehttp://pyserial.sourceforge.net/examples.html#tcp-ip-serial-bridge I started with this link:http://www.doctormonk.com/2012/04/raspberry-pi-and-arduino.html I couldn’t get it to show data from the Xbee at first so I used Minicom to test:http://codeandlife.com/2012/07/29/arduino-and-raspberry-pi-serial-communication/#more-859 Somehow it started working once I saw data using Minicom. Here is the final code to test read from serial with Python [xbee_read.py] #!/usr/bin/pythonimport serialser = serial.Serial(‘/dev/ttyUSB0’, 9600)ser.open()try: while 1 : result = ser.readline() print result except KeyboardInterrupt: ser.close() …
Mobilewill on Adafruit Show and Tell
Adafruit’s Show and Tell is a must if you’re looking to get ideas on various projects. Ladyada hosts a Google+ Hangout each Saturday evening in which she invites makers to share their latest projects. This last week, I was able to get on and join in. Check it out below! I showcased my Raspberry Pi Motion Logger which you can read about here http://www.mobilewill.us/2012/08/raspberry-pi-and-motion-graphing.html. Have you watched any or shared projects of your own? I’d be interested to hear about it!