For fun, Eunice Lee, Matthew Zhang, and Bomani McClendon have worked together to create Waves, an audiovisual project that records people’s spoken responses to personal questions and prints them in the form of a sound wave as a gift for being truthful.

Waves

Waves is a Raspberry Pi project centered around transforming the transience of the spoken word into something concrete and physical. In our setup, a user presses a button corresponding to an intimate question (ex: what’s your motto?) and answers it into a microphone while pressing down on the button.

What are you grateful for?

“I’m grateful for finishing this project,” admits maker Eunice Lee as she presses a button and speaks into the microphone that is part of the Waves project build. After a brief moment, her confession appears on receipt paper as a waveform, and she grins toward the camera, happy with the final piece.

Eunice testing Waves

Waves is a Raspberry Pi project centered around transforming the transience of the spoken word into something concrete and physical. In our setup, a user presses a button corresponding to an intimate question (ex: what’s your motto?) and answers it into a microphone while pressing down on the button.

Sound wave machine

Alongside a Raspberry Pi 3, the Waves device is comprised of four tactile buttons, a standard USB microphone, and a thermal receipt printer. This type of printer has become easily available for the maker movement from suppliers such as Adafruit and Pimoroni.

The trio designed four colour-coded cards that represent four questions, each of which has a matching button on the breadboard. Press the button that belongs to the question to be answered, and Python code directs the Pi to record audio via the microphone. Releasing the button stops the audio recording. “Once the recording has been saved, the script viz.py is launched,” explains Lee. “This script takes the audio file and, using Python matplotlib magic, turns it into a nice little waveform image.”

From there, the Raspberry Pi instructs the thermal printer to produce a printout of the sound wave image along with the question.

Making for fun

Eunice, Bomani, and Matt, students of design and computer science at Northwestern University in Illinois, built Waves as a side project. They wanted to make something at the intersection of art and technology and were motivated by the pure joy of creating.

They have noted improvements that can be made to increase the scope of their sound wave project. We hope to see many more interesting builds from these three, and in the meantime we invite you all to look up their code on Eunice’s GitHub to create your own Waves at home.

Are you tired of having to take selfies physically? Do you only use your GoPro for the occasional beach vacation? Are you maybe even wondering what to do with the load of velcro you bought on a whim? Then we have good news for you: Estefannie‘s back to help you out with her Personal Automated GPS-Controlled Portable Photo Taker…PAGCPPT for short…or pagsssspt, if you like.

RASPBERRY PI + GPS CONTROLLED PHOTO TAKER

Hey World! Do you like vacation pictures but don’t like taking them? Make your own Personal Automated GPS Controlled Portable Photo Taker! The code, components, and instructions are in my Hackster.io account: https://www.hackster.io/estefanniegg/automated-gps-controlled-photo-taker-3fc84c For this build, I decided to put together a backpack to take pictures of me when I am close to places that like.

The Personal Automated GPS-Controlled Portable Photo Taker

Try saying that five times in a row.

Go on. I’ll wait.

Using a Raspberry Pi 3, a GPS module, a power pack, and a GoPro plus GoPro Stick, Estefannie created the PAGCPPT as a means of automatically taking selfies at pre-specified tourist attractions across London.

With velcro and hot glue, she secured the tech in place on (and inside) a backpack. Then it was simply a case of programming her set up to take pictures while she walked around the city.

Making the GoPro…go

Estefannie made use of a GoPro API library to connect her GoPro to the Raspberry Pi via WiFi. With the help of this library, she wrote a Python script that made the GoPro take a photograph whenever her GPS module placed her within a ten-metre radius of a pre-selected landmark such as Tower Bridge, Abbey Road, or Platform 9 3/4.

The full script, as well as details regarding the components she used for the project, can be found on her hackster.io page here.

Estefannie Explains it All

You’ll have noticed that we’ve covered Estefannie once or twice before on the Raspberry Pi blog. We love project videos that convey a sense of ‘Oh hey, I can totally build one of those!’, and hers always tick that box. They are imaginative, interesting, quirky, and to be totally honest with you, I’ve been waiting for this particular video since she hinted at it on her visit to Pi Towers in May. I got the inside scoop, yo!

What’s better than taking pictures? Not taking pictures. But STILL having pictures. I made a personal automated GPS controlled Portable Photo Taker ⚡ NEW VIDEO ALERT⚡ Link in bio.

1,351 Likes, 70 Comments – Estefannie Explains It All (@estefanniegg) on Instagram: “What’s better than taking pictures? Not taking pictures. But STILL having pictures. I made a…”

Make sure to follow her on YouTube and Instagram for more maker content and random shenanigans. And if you have your own maker social media channel, YouTube account, blog, etc, this is your chance to share it for the world to see in the comments below!

It’s time to swap pedal power for relaxed strides with the Raspberry Pi-assisted Draisine from bicyle-modding pro Prof. Holger Hermanns.

A Draisine…

If you have children yourself or have seen them in the wild on occasion, you may be aware of how much they like balance bikes – bicycle frames without pedals, propelled by striding while sitting on the seat. It’s a nice way for children to take the first steps (bah-dum tss) towards learning to ride a bicycle. However, between 1817, when the balance bike (also known as a draisine or Dandy Horse) was invented by Karl von Drais, and the introduction of the pedal bike around 1860, this vehicle was the new, fun, and exciting way to travel for everyone.

Having previously worked on wireless braking systems for bicycles, Prof. Hermanns is experienced in adding tech to two wheels. Now, he and his team of computer scientists at Germany’s Saarland University have updated the balance bike for the 21st century: they built the Draisine 200.0 to explore pedal-free, power-assisted movement as part of the European Research Council-funded POWVER project.

With this draisine, his team have created a beautiful, fully functional final build that would look rather fetching here on the bicycle-flooded streets of Cambridge.

The frame of the bike, except for the wheel bearings and the various screws, is made of Okoumé wood, which looks somewhat rose, has fine nerves (which means that it is easy to mill) and seems to have excellent weather resistance.

Draisine 200.0

Uploaded by ecomento.tv on 2017-06-08.

…with added Pi!

Within the wooden body of the draisine lies a array of electrical components, including a 200-watt rear hub motor, a battery, an accelerometer, a magnetic sensor, and a Raspberry Pi. Checking the accelerometer and reading wheel-embedded sensors 150 times per second (wow!), the Pi activates the hub motor to assist the draisine, which allows it to reach speeds of up to 16mph (25km/h – wow again!).

More detailed information on the Draisine 200.0 build can be found here. Hermanns’s team also plan to release the code for the project once confirmation of no licence infringement has been given.

Take to the road

We’ve seen a variety of bicycle-oriented Pi builds that improve safety and help with navigation. But as for electricity-assisted Pi bikes, this one may be the first, and it’s such a snazzy one at that!

If you’d like to see more cycle-based projects using the Raspberry Pi, check out Matt’s Smart Bike Light, David’s bike computer, and, for the fun of it, the Pi-powered bicycle beer dispenser we covered last month.

The Pi Towers hive mind is constantly discussing fun new ways for its active cycling community to use the Raspberry Pi, and we’d love to hear your ideas as well! So please do share them in the comments below.

The maker of one of our favourite projects from this year’s Maker Faire Bay Area took the idea of an ’embedded device’ and ran with it: Ronald McCollam has created a wireless, completely epoxy-encased Pi build – screen included!

Just encase…

Of course, this build is not meant to be a museum piece: Ronald embedded a Raspberry Pi 3 with built-in wireless LAN and Bluetooth to create a hands-on demonstration of the resin.io platform, for which he is a Solution Architect. Resin.io is useful for remotely controlling groups of Linux-based IoT devices. In this case, Ronald used it to connect to the encased Pi. And yes, he named his make Resin-in-resin – we salute you, sir!

Before he started the practical part of his project, he did his research to find a suitable resin. He found that epoxy types specifically designed for encasing electronics are very expensive. In the end, Ronald tried out a cheap type, usually employed to coat furniture, by encasing an LED. It worked perfectly, and he went ahead to use this resin for embedding the Pi.

Bubbleshooting epoxy

This was the first time Ronald had worked with resin, so he learned some essential things about casting. He advises other makers to mix the epoxy very, very slowly to minimize the formation of bubbles; to try their hands on some small-scale casting attempts first; and to make sure they’re using a large enough mold for casting. Another thing to keep in mind is that some components of the make will heat up and expand while the device is running.

His first version of an encased Pi was still connected to the outside world by its USB cable:

Ronald McCollam on Twitter

Updates don’t get more “hands off” than a Raspberry Pi encased in epoxy — @resin_io inside resin! Come ask me about it at @DockerCon!

Not satisfied with this, he went on to incorporate an inductive charging coil as a power source, so that the Pi could be totally insulated in epoxy. The Raspberry Pi Foundation’s Matt Richardson got a look the finished project at Maker Faire Bay Area:

MattRichardson🏳️‍🌈 on Twitter

If you’re at @makerfaire, you must check out what @resin_io is showing. A @Raspberry_Pi completely enclosed in resin. Completely wireless. https://t.co/djVjoLz3hI

MAGNETS!

The charging coil delivers enough power to keep the Pi running for several hours, but it doesn’t allow secure booting. After some head-scratching, Ronald came up with a cool solution to this problem: he added a battery and a magnetic reed switch. He explains:

[The] boot process is to use the magnetic switch to turn off the Pi, put it on the charger for a few minutes to allow the battery to charge up, then remove the magnet so the Pi boots.

He talks about his build on the resin.io blog, and has provided a detailed project log on Hackaday. For those of you who want to recreate this project at home, Ronald has even put together an Adafruit wishlist of the necessary components.

Does this resin-ate with you?

What’s especially great about Ronald’s posts is that they’re full of helpful tips about getting started with using epoxy resin in your digital making projects. So whether you’re keen to build your own wireless Pi, or just generally interested in embedding electronic components in resin, you’ll find his write-ups useful.

If you have experience in working with epoxy and electronic devices and want to share what you’ve learned, please do so in the comments!

Note: There’s been concern over encasing a battery in epoxy resin, so please do not try it at home – let’s leave that to Ronald.

In a Manhattan gallery, there is an art installation that uses a Raspberry Pi to control the lights, nourishing an underground field of lavender. The twist: the Pi syncs the intensity of the lights to the activity of a dozen or so Twitter accounts belonging to media personalities and members of the US government.

In May 2017 I cultivated a piece of land in Midtown Manhattan nurtured by tweets.

204 Likes, 5 Comments – Martin Roth (@martinroth02) on Instagram: “In May 2017 I cultivated a piece of land in Midtown Manhattan nurtured by tweets.”

Turning tweets into cellulose

Artist Martin Roth has used the Raspberry Pi to access the accounts via the Twitter API, and to track their behaviour. This information is then relayed to the lights in real time. The more tweets, retweets, and likes there are on these accounts at a given moment, the brighter the lights become, and the better the lavender plants grow. Thus Twitter storms are converted into plant food, and ultimately into a pleasant lavender scent.

Until June 21st @ ACF (11 East 52nd Street)

39 Likes, 1 Comments – Martin Roth (@martinroth02) on Instagram: “Until June 21st @ ACF (11 East 52nd Street)”

Regarding his motivation to create the art installation, Martin Roth says:

[The] Twitter storm is something to be resisted. But I am using it in my exhibition as a force to create growth.

The piece, descriptively titled In May 2017 I cultivated a piece of land in Midtown Manhattan nurtured by tweets, is on show at the Austrian Cultural Forum, New York.

Using the Twitter API as part of digital making

We’ve seen a number of cool makes using the Twitter API. These often involve the posting of tweets in response to real-world inputs. Some of our favourites are the tweeting cat flap Flappy McFlapface, the tweeting dog Oliver Twitch, and of course Pi Towers resident Bert the plant. It’s interesting to see the concept turned on its head.

If you feel inspired by these projects, head on over to our resource introducing the Twitter API using Python. Or do you already have a project, in progress or finished, that uses the API? Let us know about it in the comments!

Inspired by the tempescope, The Modern Inventor’s Storm Glass is a weather-simulating lamp that can recreate the weather of any location in the world, all thanks to the help of a Raspberry Pi Zero W.

The lamp uses the Weather Underground API, which allows the Raspberry Pi to access current and predicted weather conditions across the globe. Some may argue “Why do I need a recreation of the weather if I can look out my window?”, but I think the idea of observing tomorrow’s weather today, or keeping an eye on conditions in another location, say your favourite holiday destination, is pretty sweet.

Building a Storm Glass

The Modern Inventor, whose name I haven’t found out yet so I’ll call him TMI, designed and 3D printed the base and cap for the lamp. The glass bottle that sits between the two is one of those fancy mineral water bottles you’ve seen in the supermarket but never could justify buying before.

The base holds the Pi, as well as a speaker, a microphone, and various other components such as a Speaker Bonnet and NeoPixel Ring from Adafruit.

“The rain maker is a tiny 5V centrifuge pump I got online, which pumps water along some glass tubing and into the lid where the rain falls from”, TMI explains on his Instructables project page. “The cloud generator is a USB-powered ultrasonic diffuser/humidifier. I just pulled out the guts and got rid of the rest. Make sure to keep the electronics which create the ultrasonic signal that drives the diffuser.”

With the tech in place, TMI (yes, I do appreciate the irony of using TMI as a designator for someone about whom I lack information) used hot glue like his life depended on it, bringing the whole build together into one slick-looking lamp.

Coding the storm

TMI set up the Storm Glass to pull data about weather conditions in a designated location via the Weather Underground API and recreate these within the lamp. He also installed Alexa Voice Service in it, giving the lamp a secondary function as a home automation device.

Code for the Storm Glass, alongside a far more detailed explanation of the build process, can be found on TMI’s project page. He says the total cost of this make comes to less than $80.

Create your own weather device

If you’d like to start using weather APIs to track conditions at home or abroad, we have a whole host of free Raspberry Pi resources for you to try your hand on: begin by learning how to fetch weather data using the RESTful API or using Scratch and the OpenWeatherMap to create visual representations of weather across the globe. You could even create a ‘Dress for the weather’ indicator so you’re never caught without a coat, an umbrella, or sunscreen again!

However you use the weather in your digital making projects, we’d love to see what you’ve been up to in the comments below.

To replace his iPad for live performance, Colorado-based musician Toby Hendricks built a looper, complete with an impressive internal sound library, all running on a Raspberry Pi.

Raspberry Pi Looper/synth/drum thing

Check out the guts here: https://youtu.be/mCOHFyI3Eoo My first venture into raspberry pi stuff. Running a custom pure data patch I’ve been working on for a couple years on a Raspberry Pi 3. This project took a couple months and I’m still tweaking stuff here and there but it’s pretty much complete, it even survived it’s first live show!

Toby’s build is a pretty mean piece of kit, as this video attests. Not only does it have a multitude of uses, but the final build is beautiful. Do make sure to watch to the end of the video for a wonderful demonstration of the kit.

Inside the Raspberry Pi looper

Alongside the Raspberry Pi and Behringer U-Control sound card, Toby used Pure Data, a multimedia visual programming language, and a Teensy 3.6 processor to complete the build. Together, these allow for playback of a plethora of sounds, which can either be internally stored, or externally introduced via audio connectors along the back.

This guy is finally taking shape. DIY looper/fx box/sample player/synth. #teensy #arduino #raspberrypi #puredata

98 Likes, 6 Comments – otem rellik (@otem_rellik) on Instagram: “This guy is finally taking shape. DIY looper/fx box/sample player/synth. #teensy #arduino…”

Delay, reverb, distortion, and more are controlled by sliders along one side, while pre-installed effects are selected and played via some rather beautiful SparkFun buttons on the other. Loop buttons, volume controls, and a repurposed Nintendo DS screen complete the interface.

Raspberry Pi Looper Guts

Thought I’d do a quick overview of the guts of my pi project. Seems like many folks have been interested in seeing what the internals look like.

Code for the looper can be found on Toby’s GitHub here. Make sure to continue to follow him via YouTube and Instagram for updates on the build, including these fancy new buttons.

Casting my own urethane knobs and drum pads from 3D printed molds! #3dprinted #urethanecasting #diy

61 Likes, 4 Comments – otem rellik (@otem_rellik) on Instagram: “Casting my own urethane knobs and drum pads from 3D printed molds! #3dprinted #urethanecasting #diy”

I got the music in me

If you want to get musical with a Raspberry Pi, but the thought of recreating Toby’s build is a little daunting, never fear! Our free GPIO Music Box resource will help get you started. And projects such as Mike Horne’s fabulous Raspberry Pi music box should help inspire you to take your build further.

If you use a Raspberry Pi in any sort of musical adventure, be sure to share your project in the comments below!

 

 

This weekend saw my first anniversary at Raspberry Pi, and this blog marks my 100th post written for the company. It would have been easy to let one milestone or the other slide had they not come along hand in hand, begging for some sort of acknowledgement.

So here it is!

Joining the crew

Prior to my position in the Comms team as Social Media Editor, my employment history was largely made up of retail sales roles and, before that, bit parts in theatrical backstage crews. I never thought I would work for the Raspberry Pi Foundation, despite its firm position on my Top Five Awesome Places I’d Love to Work list. How could I work for a tech company when my knowledge of tech stretched as far as dismantling my Game Boy when I was a kid to see how the insides worked, or being the one friend everyone went to when their phone didn’t do what it was meant to do? I never thought about the other side of the Foundation coin, or how I could find my place within the hidden workings that turned the cogs that brought everything together.

… when suddenly, as if out of nowhere, a new job with a dream company. #raspberrypi #positive #change #dosomething

12 Likes, 1 Comments – Alex J’rassic (@thealexjrassic) on Instagram: “… when suddenly, as if out of nowhere, a new job with a dream company. #raspberrypi #positive…”

A little luck, a well-written though humorous resumé, and a meeting with Liz and Helen later, I found myself the newest member of the growing team at Pi Towers.

Ticking items off the Bucket List

I thought it would be fun to point out some of the chances I’ve had over the last twelve months and explain how they fit within the world of Raspberry Pi. After all, we’re about more than just a $35 credit card-sized computer. We’re a charitable Foundation made up of some wonderful and exciting projects, people, and goals.

High altitude ballooning (HAB)

Skycademy offers educators in the UK the chance to come to Pi Towers Cambridge to learn how to plan a balloon launch, build a payload with onboard Raspberry Pi and Camera Module, and provide teachers with the skills needed to take their students on an adventure to near space, with photographic evidence to prove it.

All the screens you need to hunt balloons. . We have our landing point and are now rushing to Therford to find the payload in a field. . #HAB #RasppberryPi

332 Likes, 5 Comments – Raspberry Pi (@raspberrypifoundation) on Instagram: “All the screens you need to hunt balloons. . We have our landing point and are now rushing to…”

I was fortunate enough to join Sky Captain James, along with Dan Fisher, Dave Akerman, and Steve Randell on a test launch back in August last year. Testing out new kit that James had still been tinkering with that morning, we headed to a field in Elsworth, near Cambridge, and provided Facebook Live footage of the process from payload build to launch…to the moment when our balloon landed in an RAF shooting range some hours later.

Having enjoyed watching Blue Peter presenters send up a HAB when I was a child, I marked off the event on my bucket list with a bold tick, and I continue to show off the photographs from our Raspberry Pi as it reached near space.

Spend the day launching/chasing a high-altitude balloon. Look how high it went!!! #HAB #ballooning #space #wellspacekinda #ish #photography #uk #highaltitude

13 Likes, 2 Comments – Alex J’rassic (@thealexjrassic) on Instagram: “Spend the day launching/chasing a high-altitude balloon. Look how high it went!!! #HAB #ballooning…”

You can find more information on Skycademy here, plus more detail about our test launch day in Dan’s blog post here.

Dear Raspberry Pi Friends…

My desk is slowly filling with stuff: notes, mementoes, and trinkets that find their way to me from members of the community, both established and new to the life of Pi. There are thank you notes, updates, and more from people I’ve chatted to online as they explore their way around the world of Pi.

By plugging myself into social media on a daily basis, I often find hidden treasures that go unnoticed due to the high volume of tags we receive on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and so on. Kids jumping off chairs in delight as they complete their first Scratch project, newcomers to the Raspberry Pi shedding a tear as they make an LED blink on their kitchen table, and seasoned makers turning their hobby into something positive to aid others.

It’s wonderful to join in the excitement of people discovering a new skill and exploring the community of Raspberry Pi makers: I’ve been known to shed a tear as a result.

Meeting educators at Bett, chatting to teen makers at makerspaces, and sharing a cupcake or three at the birthday party have been incredible opportunities to get to know you all.

You’re all brilliant.

The Queens of Robots, both shoddy and otherwise

Last year we welcomed the Queen of Shoddy Robots, Simone Giertz to Pi Towers, where we chatted about making, charity, and space while wandering the colleges of Cambridge and hanging out with flat Tim Peake.

Queen of Robots @simonegiertz came to visit #PiTowers today. We hung out with cardboard @astro_timpeake and ate chelsea buns at @fitzbillies #Cambridge. . We also had a great talk about the educational projects of the #RaspberryPi team, #AstroPi and how not enough people realise we’re a #charity. . If you’d like to learn more about the Raspberry Pi Foundation and the work we do with #teachers and #education, check out our website – www.raspberrypi.org. . How was your day? Get up to anything fun?

597 Likes, 3 Comments – Raspberry Pi (@raspberrypifoundation) on Instagram: “Queen of Robots @simonegiertz came to visit #PiTowers today. We hung out with cardboard…”

And last month, the wonderful Estefannie ‘Explains it All’ de La Garza came to hang out, make things, and discuss our educational projects.

Estefannie on Twitter

Ahhhh!!! I still can’t believe I got to hang out and make stuff at the @Raspberry_Pi towers!! Thank you thank you!!

Meeting such wonderful, exciting, and innovative YouTubers was a fantastic inspiration to work on my own projects and to try to do more to help others discover ways to connect with tech through their own interests.

Those ‘wow’ moments

Every Raspberry Pi project I see on a daily basis is awesome. The moment someone takes an idea and does something with it is, in my book, always worthy of awe and appreciation. Whether it be the aforementioned flashing LED, or sending Raspberry Pis to the International Space Station, if you have turned your idea into reality, I applaud you.

Some of my favourite projects over the last twelve months have not only made me say “Wow!”, they’ve also inspired me to want to do more with myself, my time, and my growing maker skill.

Museum in a Box on Twitter

Great to meet @alexjrassic today and nerd out about @Raspberry_Pi and weather balloons and @Space_Station and all things #edtech 🎈⛅🛰📚🤖

Projects such as Museum in a Box, a wonderful hands-on learning aid that brings the world to the hands of children across the globe, honestly made me tear up as I placed a miniaturised 3D-printed Virginia Woolf onto a wooden box and gasped as she started to speak to me.

Jill Ogle’s Let’s Robot project had me in awe as Twitch-controlled Pi robots tackled mazes, attempted to cut birthday cake, or swung to slap Jill in the face over webcam.

Jillian Ogle on Twitter

@SryAbtYourCats @tekn0rebel @Beam Lol speaking of faces… https://t.co/1tqFlMNS31

Every day I discover new, wonderful builds that both make me wish I’d thought of them first, and leave me wondering how they manage to make them work in the first place.

Space

We have Raspberry Pis in space. SPACE. Actually space.

Raspberry Pi on Twitter

New post: Mission accomplished for the European @astro_pi challenge and @esa @Thom_astro is on his way home 🚀 https://t.co/ycTSDR1h1Q

Twelve months later, this still blows my mind.

And let’s not forget…

• The chance to visit both the Houses of Parliment and St James’s Palace

• Going to a Doctor Who pre-screening and meeting Peter Capaldi, thanks to Clare Sutcliffe

There’s no need to smile when you’re #DoctorWho.

13 Likes, 2 Comments – Alex J’rassic (@thealexjrassic) on Instagram: “There’s no need to smile when you’re #DoctorWho.”

• Going to VidCon!

We’re here. Where are you? . . . . . #raspberrypi #vidconeu #vidcon #pizero #zerow #travel #explore #adventure #youtube

1,944 Likes, 30 Comments – Raspberry Pi (@raspberrypifoundation) on Instagram: “We’re here. Where are you? . . . . . #raspberrypi #vidconeu #vidcon #pizero #zerow #travel #explore…”

• Making a GIF Cam and other builds, and sharing them with you all via the blog

Made a Gif Cam using a Raspberry Pi, Pi camera, button and a couple LEDs. . When you press the button, it takes 8 images and stitches them into a gif file. The files then appear on my MacBook. . Check out our Twitter feed (Raspberry_Pi) for examples! . Next step is to fit it inside a better camera body. . #DigitalMaking #Photography #Making #Camera #Gif #MakersGonnaMake #LED #Creating #PhotosofInstagram #RaspberryPi

19 Likes, 1 Comments – Alex J’rassic (@thealexjrassic) on Instagram: “Made a Gif Cam using a Raspberry Pi, Pi camera, button and a couple LEDs. . When you press the…”

The next twelve months

Despite Eben jokingly firing me near-weekly across Twitter, or Philip giving me the ‘Dad glare’ when I pull wires and buttons out of a box under my desk to start yet another project, I don’t plan on going anywhere. Over the next twelve months, I hope to continue discovering awesome Pi builds, expanding on my own skills, and curating some wonderful projects for you via the Raspberry Pi blog, the Raspberry Pi Weekly newsletter, my submissions to The MagPi Magazine, and the occasional video interview or two.

It’s been a pleasure. Thank you for joining me on the ride!

In October last year, with the European Space Agency and CNES, we launched the first ever European Astro Pi challenge. We asked students from all across Europe to write code for the flight of French ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the Proxima mission.

The winners were announced back in March, and since then their code has been uploaded to the ISS and run in space!

Code from 64 student teams ran between 28 April and 10 May, supervised by Thomas, in the European Columbus module.

Astro Pi on Twitter

We can confirm student programs are finished, results are downloaded from @Space_Station and teams will receive their​ data by next week 🛰️📡

On 10 May the results, data, and log files were downloaded to the ground, and the following week they were emailed back to the student teams for analysis.

Ecole St-André d’E on Twitter

On vient de recevoir les données enregistrées par nos codes #python depuis l’ #iss @CNES @astro_pi @Thom_astro . Reste à analyser tout ça!

We’ve looked at the results, and we can see that many of the teams have been successful in their missions: congratulations to all of you! We look forward to reading your write-ups and blogs.

In pictures

In a surprise turn of events, we learnt that Thomas set up a camera to take regular pictures of the Astro Pi units for one afternoon. This was entirely voluntary on his part and was not scheduled as part of the mission. Thank you so much, Thomas!

Some lucky teams have some very nice souvenirs from the ISS. Here are a couple of them:

Until next time…

This brings the 2016/17 European Astro Pi challenge to a close. We would like to thank all the students and teachers who participated; the ESA Education, Integration and Implementation, Ground Systems, and Flight Control teams; BioTesc (ESA’s user operations control centre for Astro Pi); and especially Thomas Pesquet himself.

Thomas and Russian Soyuz commander Oleg Novitskiy return to Earth today, concluding their six-month stay on the ISS. After a three-hour journey in their Soyuz spacecraft, they will land in the Kazakh steppe at approximately 15:09 this afternoon. You can watch coverage of the departure, re-entry, and landing on NASA TV.

Astro Pi has been a hugely enjoyable project to work on, and we hope to be back in the new school year (2017-18) with brand-new challenges for teachers and students.

 

In our newest resource video, Content and Curriculum Manager Laura Sach introduces viewers to the basics of soldering.

Getting started with soldering

Learn the basics of how to solder components together, and the safety precautions you need to take. Find a transcript of this video in our accompanying learning resource: raspberrypi.org/learning/getting-started-with-soldering/

So sit down, grab your Raspberry Pi Zero, and prepare to be schooled in the best (and warned about the worst) practices in the realm of soldering.

Do I have to?!

Yes. Yes, you do.

If you are planning to use a Raspberry Pi Zero or Zero W, or to build something magnificent using wires, buttons, lights, and more, you’ll want to practice your soldering technique. Those of us inexperienced in soldering have been jumping for joy since the release of the Pimoroni solderless header. However, if you want to your project to progress from the ‘prototyping with a breadboard’ stage to a durable final build, soldering is the best option for connecting all its components together.

I promise it’s not hard to do, and the final result will give you a warm feeling of accomplishment…made warmer still if, like me, you burn yourself due to your inability to pay attention to instructions. (Please pay attention to the instructions.)

Soldering 101

As Laura explains in the video, there are two types of solder to choose from for your project: the lead-free kind that requires a slightly higher temperature to melt, and the lead-containing kind that – surprise, surprise – has lead in it. Although you’ll find other types of solder, one of these two is what you want for tinkering.

In order to heat your solder and apply it to your project, you’ll need either Kryptonian heat vision* or, on this planet at least, a soldering iron. There is a variety of soldering irons available on the market, and as your making skills improve you will probably upgrade. But for now, try not to break the bank and choose an iron that’s within your budget. You may also want to ask around, as someone you know might be able to lend you theirs and help you out with your first soldering attempt.

Safety first!

Make sure you always solder in a well-ventilated area. Before you start, remove any small people, four-legged friends, and other trip hazards from the space and check you have everything you need close at hand.

And never forget, things get hot when you heat them! Always allow a moment for cooling before you handle your wonderful soldering efforts. I remember the first time I tried soldering a button to a Raspberry Pi and…let’s just say that I still bear the scars incured because I didn’t follow my own safety advice.

Let’s do this!

Now you’re geared up and ready to solder, follow along with Laura and fit a header to your Raspberry Pi Zero! You can also read a complete transcript of the video in our free Getting started with soldering resource.

If you use Laura’s video to help you complete a soldering project, make sure to share your final piece with us via social media using the hashtag #ThanksLauraSach.

 

 

*spoiler alert!