Adafruit | Raspberry Pi

Adafruit WebIDE – new alpha release available

News from across the pond arrived last night, UK time. Our good friends at Adafruit have been working on their web-based integrated development environment (IDE) – hence WebIDE – for the Raspberry Pi, and have made a number of changes based on your requests. This is a big update (“Huge!” says PT), and if you’re already using the WebIDE you’ll notice some changes.

We’re big fans of Adafruit’s WebIDE for the Pi. It offers a nicely structured, easy way to learn how to program, and there’s already lots of support for it (check out Adafruit’s materials or click on the picture above), even though it’s stil in alpha. Beginners should find the visualiser especially helpful; it’s a good way to work out how simple scripts really work, and allows you to see how objects are created, how processes are stacked and so on. We’ve found it’s a real aid to understanding how things fit together, and a great way to explain concepts to people who’ve only just started programming.

Please be aware that because the WebIDE is still a product under development, you may encounter bugs. If you do, please report them using the tool in the editor; user feedback’s really valuable when developing this stuff, and LadyAda, PT, Justin, Tyler and the team want to hear about your experiences.

PT says:

We now have a new offline mode that you can enable with an –offline flag when you install the WebIDE. This mode allows you to bypass using Bitbucket or Github, and should work when not connected to the internet.

We also have a new experimental GitHub mode that allows you to sign in with your GitHub account. This feature is for advanced users that want to use GitHub as their provider. This can be enabled with the –github flag during installation. Please note that GitHub mode does not do some of the automated things (git ssh key setup, etc) that the default installation mode will do.

You can now refresh the left navigator from within the WebIDE, as well as manually update any repositories you have by right-clicking on them, and choosing the option to “Update Repository”.

The full list of new changes for the 0.3.7 version of the WebIDE are as follows:

Github support
• Ability to enable with –github as the default
• Advanced setting
• Requires manual ssh key setup as of yet.
• Most commands are treated as manual mode for now (manual commits, etc).

New Offline mode
• Ability to install with –offline as the default
• need to manually commit, and push changes (similar to the manual git setting)
• Bypasses bitbucket OAuth
• Ability to refresh directories from within the navigator

• New option to clone repositories without updating remote to bitbucket
• New right-click context menu option to update repositories from remote (origin/master for now)
• New Report Bug Link added to footer
• New confirmation dialog for navigating away from unsaved changes…Save Files/Don’t Save/Cancel
• Editor is set to readOnly for any files that shouldn’t change (README, update notes), including empty editor window while navigating.
• Deleting a file or project will now also delete a corresponding scheduled job from the queue.
• Errors cloning repositories are sent to the front-end now.
• Error handling for most git commands now. Notifications visible in WebIDE for failures.
• New Error pages for any issues with the system failing to show pages. Links to ALS WebIDE FAQ for help.
• New Error page specifically for OAuth failures. Adds a button to execute a script to help set the date and time.
• Attempt to set the date on the Pi during installation to prevent OAuth errors.
• Creating files and folders will automatically open them in the editor and navigator.
• Uploaded files will always use the current working directory, instead of uploading to the parent directory now.
• git pull commands are now using the quiet (-q) flag.
• Editor setting for supporting adding a Make link in the editor action bar if a Makefile is detected in the cwd. Not enabled by default.

If you are already running v0.2.0 or higher, you will be able to upgrade (and may already have done) from inside the editor. If you’re running an earlier version, you’ll need to completely remove your old editor and reinstall again. You can find out more at Adafruit. Thanks so much for all your work on this, Adafruit folks – we continue to be bowled over by all the work you’ve been putting into the Pi platform, and we couldn’t be more grateful. We’re looking forward to seeing you when we’re next in NYC!

Ambilight-alike

Watch the video first. We’ll talk about it under the jump.

So, then. Philips have this lovely (and expensive) technology called Ambilight, which extends the lighting environment of what you’re watching on TV into your living room. It’s better watched than described, so if you haven’t hit play on the video above yet, please do!

I saw one of the original demos of this at CES a few years ago. It’s now consumer technology that you can buy in your local department store, and it’s a really impressive, and surprisingly immersive and effective piece of technology. But if, like me, you’re not in a hurry to replace the TV you spent a packet on, you’ll have made a sad decision to live without the flashing neon of CSI inveigling its way into the corners of your living room; and the fires of R’hllor, the Red God, will make no impression on your ceilings. Because this stuff costs money, and we’re all much too busy spending that on new binocular microscopes.

Oscar Andersson has made a Raspberry Pi-powered ambient lighting fix which I can’t distinguish from the Philips product – as you’ll see from the video above, it’s a lovely piece of work, and most importantly, it’s very affordable. You’ll find more pictures, more video and build instructions, using Adafruit’s Occidentalis distro (which is all about the hardware hacking) at Oscar’s Facebook page.

So many projects, so little time. This is the third thing I’ve blogged or stuck on Facebook this week that I want to make. Let us know if you make your own version – we’d love to hear how you get on! (Incidentally, the day someone makes a video demo that doesn’t reference Avatar is the day we at the Foundation cheer up dramatically.)

Bits and bobs for Sunday

Pimoroni’s first anniversary competition has ended, and the entries have been sifted through: you can read all about the winner (and the entries that got an honourable mention) on their website. Well done all: we had fun looking at your entries with Paul at our birthday party on Friday. (Special shout-out to Sophie, aged nearly-five, who had a really neat butterfly VESA mount idea.)

Paul Clark’s winning entry – congratulations, Paul!

Speaking of that birthday party:

Transatlantic flight + party == no fun noodles.

And that, dear reader, is why there wasn’t a post here yesterday.

What else? There’s a bit of birthday video we filmed in New York with LadyAda over at TechCrunch; their proprietary Flash player won’t let me embed, but if you click the picture here you can visit TechCrunch for the full horror.

And I’ve just been sent copies of the Raspberry Pi Haynes Manual. It’s by Gray Girling, a Friend of Pi who has been involved with the Raspberry Pi project behind the scenes for a long time now. It’s really worth a look; think of the book as a technical manual for people with a little bit of experience who want to learn more. (We’d suggest that kids aged 12 and up who know a a bit about Python and Linux should get a lot out of it – it’s a book that should find a place on the shelves of a lot of grown-ups too.)

The book will lead you through projects in software and hardware (scrape web pages! run an X server! get Bluetooth, LEDs and SPI devices running!) – by the end of the book you’ll be gutting a plush toy and turning it into a device that speaks your tweets, and making an MP3 web server. Hearty recommend, and not just because Eben and I wrote the introduction.

LadyAda, fireside with President Obama

On Thursday, our friend LadyAda, owner of Adafruit and Entrepreneur Magazine’s 2012 Entrepreneur of the Year, is spending part of Valentine’s Day doing something called a Fireside Hangout (this sounds awfully romantic) with President Obama.

The marvellous LadyAda

We wonder what sort of hardware she’ll be talking about. She says:

I was selected to join President Obama in a Fireside Hangout this Thursday 2/14 at 4:50pm EST on Google+!

We’ll discuss issues that are top of mind for citizens, and I’d love you all to help shape this conversation. Submit your questions to http://www.youtube.com/whitehouse and the President will answer questions that are voted to the top.

Don’t forget to RSVP here for a reminder to tune in on Thursday - http://goo.gl/7pxfM.

Please head over, submit questions, vote up the good ones, and RSVP!

Friday grab bag

Adafruit Web IDE

First up, Adafruit’s Raspberry Pi Web IDE is now in Alpha, and they’ve made some improvements which I think you’ll find very helpful. The package now includes:

Python step debugger
Node.js update to 0.8 from 0.6 for faster navigation, and page loads.
Package node binaries with the WebIDE for faster, and easier installs

You’ll need to reinstall to take advantage of the new features.

Web IDE debugger in action – click to visit Adafruit

Crunchies

We’ve been nominated for one of Techcrunch’s Crunchie awards! We’re up for Best Hardware Startup, and you can vote for us here. You can vote once a day; we’d really appreciate it if you could take a minute to show your support!

Pinball

Mark Baldridge is taking a year out between high school and university, and he’s spending that year on hobby projects. This is one of them: a home-made pinball machine with a Raspberry Pi for brains.

Click to visit TechFruits for a tour of the system, and some video

We thought this was a brilliant project. Eben and I have always fantasised about having the time to refurbish an old pinball machine, but we’d never thought of building one from scratch – we’re in awe. Mark is also blogging his progress on his own website – check it out!

Getting Started with Raspberry Pi

O’Reilly have just published a new Raspberry Pi book under the Make banner. Full disclosure: I haven’t actually got my hands on a copy of Getting Started with the Raspberry Pi yet, so I can’t review it here. But I do know Matt Richardson from Make, who wrote it; and I know that he’s a great teacher and demonstrator, and a very engaging writer, so I feel pretty confident in telling you to go and check it out. When I last spoke to Matt, he mentioned that the book would contain a chapter on using the Pi with Arduino, which was something we didn’t include in Eben and Gareth’s The Raspberry Pi User Guide (the two books should complement each other nicely, if you have room on your sheves) – Matt’s book also contains a chapter on working with webcams. Click the image to visit the Getting Started with Raspberry Pi Amazon page.

Raspberry Jam

Alan O’Donohoe led another London Raspberry Jam last week. We’re really excited to see that his message is getting out: every one of these events seems to be larger and more diverse than the last. (Alan has started holding the events at weekends, which makes them much more accessible for kids.)

Around 70 children, parents and teachers came to learn what they could do with a Raspberry Pi at a number of workshops – we sent Rob Bishop, our roving engineer, to join in. Alan has a short post about the event, and a photo album you can have a flick through. He’s looking for sponsorship so he can make the jams even bigger and better – if you can help, please email me at liz@raspberrypi.org, and I’ll pass your message along.

Train times

Finally, here’s a project from Gareth James, a man who lives five minutes from the train station but always seems to get there just as the train is leaving. He’s made a very handsome picture frame which displays train times, powered, of course, by a Raspberry Pi. You can find out how he did it on his website.

Twelve Pis of Christmas: Adafruit

Today’s festive piece of Model A Pi comes to eBay courtesy of our friends at Adafruit. By now, you know what this is about: we’re auctioning off the first 12 pre-production Model A Raspberry Pis with some other goodies to raise money for other charities over Christmas. Engineers without Borders (EWB) USA were chosen as the beneficiaries of today’s auction by LadyAda and PT over at Adafruit. (EWB USA aren’t listed with Missionfish in the UK, so again, this auction looks a little different from the others – although Raspberry Pi are listed as the beneficiary charity, 100% of the money raised will go to EWB.)

LadyAda, in LEGO form. Click to bid on the Adafruit Pi bundle.

Engineers without Borders works in developing environments on sustainable engineering projects, while involving and training internationally responsible engineers and engineering students. You can learn more about them here.

The MagPi Kickstarter

There’s just over a week to go on the MagPi’s Kickstarter. They’ve met their original goal, but they’ve got some stretches to make, and we’d love to see you support them to become even bigger and better in 2013.

Issues 1-8

Regular readers will know that we are big fans of The MagPi, the only magazine in the world dedicated to the Raspberry Pi. It is created each month by a team of volunteers and usually with unique content found nowhere else. You can download each issue for free from the Pi Store or from www.themagpi.com.

Here at the Foundation, we’ve been printing each issue off – which takes time and costs a fortune in ink. (It has been bandied about that perhaps the next world-changing project we need to engage in is an affordable printer ink scheme.) The MagPi folks are often asked to make printed copies of the magazine available. It’s a tricky proposition, as they are volunteers with no capital, so they started a Kickstarter project on 1 December to make all 8 issues available in print. The MagPi team have told me they are blown away by your support. At the time of writing they have ~~nearly 400~~ over 400 (several of you have signed up in the few minutes since this was posted – thank you!) backers and have tripled their financial goal – money which gives them the opportunity to explore the translations into other languages they’ve been exploring, and the ability to make print copies available in the future. They have also seen several schools place orders for the magazine, which we’re very excited about. The money is important for their continued success, but even more important is the number of individuals who support them subscribe to the printed edition: it’s the number of subscriptions which gives them the security to keep doing what they’re doing, so we’d love to see you sign up to their Kickstarter.

What you don’t know is that with every single pledge on their Kickstarter project, The MagPi team is making a donation to the Raspberry Pi Foundation. (We didn’t know this either until they mailed us about it.) The Kickstarter rules do not allow them to mention charitable benefactors – but I can mention it here – and we at the Foundation are really touched and grateful for their support; the MagPi guys already go above and beyond to support this project, and this bit of icing on top of the cake really caught us by surprise. Eben and I are also supporting the MagPi Kickstarter project by making available a limited number of personalised, signed copies of the “Raspberry Pi User Guide” book to people pledging more than £100.

The MagPi stand at the Bristol BCS in a rare quiet moment – spot the floppy-haired interloper.

With only a few days remaining there is still an opportunity to participate in this project. There are a wide range of pledges available and if you want these to be a gift, the MagPi team have created gift certificates that you can download and print at home after you have made a pledge. If you don’t want any magazines or Raspberry Pi hardware, the Fuzzy Glow (£2) and Sticker Madness (£5) pledges will let you show your appreciation for keeping The MagPi free.

We are also very pleased to announce that Pimoroni and Adafruit Industries will be sponsoring The MagPi during 2013. Ian from the magazine mailed me about the news this morning; he says: “We are both humbled and incredibly excited to be supported by these companies. Pimoroni and Adafruit, together with almost 400 other supporters, have all contributed to make our Kickstarter project a huge success for us, our partners and the Raspberry Pi Foundation.”

A quick Model A show and tell from Adafruit

We sent our friends LadyAda and PT at Adafruit one of the first production sample Model A boards – as well as stocking them at Adafruit when we go to full production, we had a feeling that they might like to try to get in there early with some add-on development work. It’s just arrived in New York, and they’ve taken some video and pictures. We thought you’d like to share.

PT also took some pictures which are a bit better than the wobbly cell phone one we showed you a couple of weeks back:

Model A product sample. Click to embiggen.

Model A, back view. Click to enlarge.

In other news, Eben picked up his IT Pro IT Leader of the Year award yesterday. We refused to follow him back to the station because we thought it was funny.

Updated to add: Pete Wood from DesignSpark, who we also sent a board to, sent me some video of his own about 45 minutes after I’d first published this post. His video is below; he’s also written a post about the Model A with some comparison photos over at DesignSpark.

Adafruit’s new Raspberry Pi breakout kit: the Pi T-Cobbler

I have a recurring dream where I am ensconced in the Adafruit warehouse, rocking gently to and fro in the semi-darkness and occasionally reaching out to stroke some random electronics. And mewling. Is this normal? Why yes; yes, I think it is.

Adafruit keep on making great stuff for the Raspberry Pi and their latest product is a funky little breakout board called the Pi T-Cobbler.

The Pi T-Cobbler. T-shaped for clarity of labelling and overall friendliness

It’s based on the original Cobbler but is less compact and, well, T-shaped to make it easier to read the labels. It will break out GPIO, I2C and SPI pins from the Raspberry Pi header onto a solderless breadboard and looks the business if you fancy connecting your Raspberry Pi to the outside world.

Friday grab bag

MagPi

The November edition of the MagPi is out! The MagPi is a community magazine produced by Raspberry Pi owners, and is now available in print as well as as a free download. If you’d like to see the MagPi have a future in print, please buy a copy. They’re not expensive at £2.49, and if the team are to raise enough cash to be able to offer the back issues in print as well (which I know many schools have expressed an interest in), they need your support.

This month’s issue has an interview with Mike Thompson, the man behind Raspbian, a tutorial on getting your Pi talking to an Arduino, a really nice piece from Jaseman on the evolution of the Pi since February, an introduction to C++, a competition, and plenty of hardware and software projects for you to get your teeth into. Download a PDF at the MagPi’s site, or buy a printed copy at Mod My Pi (not available at the time of posting, but it should be soon – I’ll amend this post when it is).

Picade

After less than two days on Kickstarter, the Picade project, which was set up to build a gorgeous arcade cabinet around the Raspberry Pi, has reached its initial funding goal! There’s still time to jump on the funding wagon so the boys at Pimoroni can reach their stretch goals if you’d like to be part of the UK’s first ever Kickstarter (and happen to like retro games, slammin’ style and Raspberry Pi); head on over if you’d like to take part.

Ken (Jon) and Ryu (Paul) realise that they are perfectly matched. This could be the start of a long session.

Bletchley

If you’re in a pledging mood, we’d also encourage you to take a look at this book by Dr Sue Black, a Friend of Pi and an exceptional educator and advocate for women in tech. It’s on a subject very dear to us – saving Bletchley Park – and we’re really pleased to see it’s reached its funding goals too (like Picade, it got to its goal blisteringly fast). You can still donate, and importantly, a proportion of profits go to Bletchley Park. Sadly, the donation tier that involved Sue knitting a pair of socks for the donor has now sold out. But there’s still some good stuff left.

Stuff

We won another award! Raspberry Pi won Innovation of the Year at the Stuff Gadget Awards last night, and Alex B went along to the ceremony to pick it up. At the moment, our search for offices involves careful consideration of just how much shelving we need for these things.

Adafruit

Adafruit, who carry a lot of Raspberry Pi-related gear as well as selling Raspberry Pis themselves, have been unfortunate enough to find themselves right in the middle of Hurricane Sandy. I had mail from PT and Lady Ada earlier this week and an update this morning: they’re in the part of NYC which was hit the hardest and are still without power. UPS haven’t been sending anything in or out of Manhattan since the storm, but Adafruit hope to be able to start stocking and shipping again this weekend or early next week. It’s a pretty rough time for them; this happened right in the middle of a move to new premises, and we’ve been thinking about them a lot this week. We hope you can support them by ordering some cool Pi stuff from Adafruit the next time you feel like tinkering with something new.

Limor “Lady Ada” Fried in a Manhattan that looks as if it ought to be populated by zombies.

Guest posts

We’ve had a lot of interest from our call for guest posts. We’d like to see even more! If you’d like to write a post for this blog about your adventures with Raspberry Pi, your ideas about computing education, your project ideas, or your thoughts on low-cost computing, please email blog@raspberrypi.org. I’m away for a couple of weeks from Monday, and this blog will be being curated by the lovely Clive, who will be selecting the very best articles and posting them here.