Tag: Gert van Loo

RasPi.tv goes whackadoodle with a Gertboard and a Wiimote

Alex Eames from RasPi.tv has really outdone himself this time: he’s using a Wiimote and a Gertboard to make his Pi control a splendid array of motors and solenoids, complete with little flags and metal teacups that go ping. More flap-whizz-ding-vroom to your elbow, Alex. This is one of the best Gertboard demos I’ve seen so far. You can read more at RasPi.tv.

Gertboard is, of course, produced by Gert van Loo, one of the volunteer engineers who has given a huge amount of his spare time in doing Pi work over the last couple of years; he designed the large beta boards we used to develop the final Raspberry Pi that you’ve got on your desk right now, he works on the camera board, and he knows more about stepper motors than is strictly healthy. (Because Gert is not employed by the Foundation, you’ll occasionally find him in the comments and the forums here saying stuff like: “I am not part of the Foundation! I just help.” This is total nonsense; we wouldn’t have a Pi without Gert, and I’m pretty sure he knows it.)

The Gertboard is an expansion board for physical computing-types, making your Pi a powerful piece of kit in the real world: you can use it to detect and respond to external physical events, detect and output analogue voltages, drive powerful motors, detect switch presses, flash LEDs and drive relays.You can buy one from element14. (It also comes with a very fine manual which you can download for free from the product page.)

I’m hoping to meet Alex from Raspi.tv at Oxford Geek Night on March 13, when Eben and I will be dropping by for beers, a talk, and chat. The guys behind Manuel, the talking moose, and plenty of other Pi hackers will be there – I hope some more of you will join us!

Farnell at Electronica

RS weren’t the only people with Pis at Electronica: Farnell were there too, so we had representation from 100% of our core distributors. Pete Lomas (you should know who Pete is by now) and Gert (ditto) were there with them, and took the time to give some interviews to our good Farnell buddy Mike Powell. Here’s Pete:

Gert’s had a haircut! (And has some interesting stuff to say about the pre-built Gertboard…)

There’s more from Gert at Eetimes – it’s in an unembeddable format, so you’ll have to click through.

Andrew Robinson from Manchester University, who is behind the group making the Pi-Face breakout board was in attendance too:

And there was a Pi-powered talking chicken.

I’m *so* going to have to try to make next year’s event.

Gertboard is here!

If you’re a regular on this website, you’ll be familiar with this name. Gert van Loo, an all-round good egg and upstanding gentleman, designed the original alpha hardware that the Raspberry Pi Model B is based on. Many of you will be aware of the Gertboard, a little add-on board designed by Gert for the Raspberry Pi, which expands the Raspberry Pi’s GPIO pins and will allow you to interface with the outside world.

Gertboard is now available exclusively through element14 (UK link) – you should be able to find it on your local element14 website. For Singapore and other Asia Pacific countries please order here; for Australia, please order here; for the USA please order here.

Gertboard (left) and a Raspberry Pi - photograph courtesy of element14

If you want to use your Raspberry Pi to drive motors to open doors, lift things, or power robotics; if you want to sense temperature and switch devices on and off; if you want to flash lights; if you want to teach it to play the glockenspiel; or if you want to learn about electronics from scratch, then Gertboard is for you. (This is the stuff I’m talking about when I blither on about physical computing here.) It comes with an assembly manual and a user manual (both of the above are direct download links to PDFs), which also act as a pair of teaching guides, bundled with plenty of programs to show you how to put things together.

Gertboard is packaged as a kit. It doesn’t come preassembled; you will have to solder it together yourself. Soldering is easy, as we’ve said before (seriously – if I can solder, so can you), and we encourage you to have a go. If you make mistakes they’re easy to correct, and once you’ve finished building your Gertboard you’ll have a very useful piece of hardware, a new skill, and a lovely warm sense of achievement.

Gertboard isn’t an official Raspberry Pi Foundation product, but it’s designed and produced by someone who’s right at the heart of the Foundation, it fits the Foundation’s goals perfectly, and we endorse it wholeheartedly; we hope to see lots of kids using it as a learning platform along with the Raspberry Pi. Go and preorder one now (lead times should be short); they’re only £30, and I predict they’re going to go like hot cakes.

Gert will be answering questions below later today, so pile into the comments if there’s anything you’d like to ask.