How to make a standalone camcorder from your Raspberry Pi and RasPiCam

 Electronics, Raspberry Pi Camera, Raspberry Pi Hardware  3 Responses »
May 172013
 
How to make a standalone camcorder from your Raspberry Pi and RasPiCam

On day 2 of Raspberry Pi Camera ownership I decided it was time to make the new RasPiCam into a camcorder that could be taken anywhere and used to shoot video. Hold on, there’s issues with that aren’t there? Sure there are, but there’s ways round ‘em too ;) So here’s how I did it. I’ll be taking this to the Cambridge Jam tomorrow. :) Ingredients 1 Switching regulator 1 Bluetooth serial adaptor 1 Raspberry Pi with latest updated Raspbian 1 Raspberry Pi Camera Connectors for battery, reg and Bluetooth adaptor 1 power source (I’m [...more...]

Review of ISO-TECH IDM99III Digital Multimeter

 Electronics, Review  No Responses »
May 112013
 
Review of ISO-TECH IDM99III Digital Multimeter

A multimeter is the Swiss Army Knife of electronics. You really do need one to debug your circuits when things aren’t working. GRRRRRR! Where is that dodgy connection? I’ve managed for years with a very cheap multimeter, but recently RS Components sent me this ISO-TECH IDM99III for review. Could it be “the one”? My brief is “an honest video review”. I receive no payment or kickback for doing this, but I do get to keep the product. I’m getting quite a lot of stuff in for review at the moment, from lots of different sources. [...more...]

How to use soft PWM in RPi.GPIO 0.5.2a pt 2 – led dimming and motor speed control

 Electronics, Input and Output, interfacing, python programming, Raspberry Pi Hardware  5 Responses »
Apr 212013
 
How to use soft PWM in RPi.GPIO 0.5.2a pt 2 - led dimming and motor speed control

In part 1 of this series, we looked at the basic commands for using software pulse-width modulation (PWM) in RPi.GPIO 0.5.2a and higher. In this article we’ll get a bit more hands-on and into some practical applications for it. It’s all very well being able to make nice square-wave pulses on an oscilloscope, but what’s it actually useful for? Our servo said? EEEEH AAAAH I tried using RPi.GPIO soft PWM with servos in response to a query after the last article, but, although it did change the servo positions, it was jittery. Servos require quite [...more...]

DesignSpark and RasPi.TV flying the flag in China

 Electronics, Input and Output, interfacing, Raspberry Pi Hardware  7 Responses »
Apr 122013
 
DesignSpark and RasPi.TV flying the flag in China

Mike Brojak from DesignSpark, whose voice you can hear in the video, asked me to put together a Wii controller flag-waving demo (plus other bits) on their new PiGo board. You may remember catching a glimpse of it in the flag waving video I produced a few weeks ago? This demo was destined for the Electronica exhibition in Shanghai, and I’ve just received a link to a little video the guys shot while they were there. (Thanks Yan :) ) Apparently it was well received, worked really well and only needed rebooting once in three [...more...]

Guzunty Pi – Open Source CPLD board for the Raspberry Pi

 Electronics, Input and Output, interfacing, Raspberry Pi Hardware, Review  50 Responses »
Mar 282013
 
Guzunty Pi - Open Source CPLD board for the Raspberry Pi

The Guzunty Pi board is an open source Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD) add-on for the Raspberry Pi. Derek Campbell is behind this project, and has clearly spent a lot of time and effort putting it all together. He describes it… “a CPLD is like several large breadboards laid out on your desk, full of every combination of logic devices you are ever going to need. It is waiting to be told what to do. It doesn’t need a host of jumper wires like a breadboard would. It can be reprogrammed again and again (even [...more...]

How to make your own Raspberry Pi flag-waving demo

 Electronics, Input and Output, interfacing, Raspberry Pi Hardware  14 Responses »
Mar 112013
 
How to make your own Raspberry Pi flag-waving demo

After the recent call for items for the demo table over at Raspberry Pi HQ, I thought I’d send over a flag-waving set. It’s not a product for sale, but it’s one of the most eye-catching and memorable Raspberry Pi demos I’ve made. People mention it more than any of the others when I don’t take it along to Jams. There’s a video, at the end of the page, showing three Pis all waving flags together (based on three different drive systems). Making the flag So I set about making a flag. It’s pretty easy. [...more...]

Controlled shutdown duration test of Pi model A with 2 cell lipo

 Electronics, Input and Output, interfacing, python programming, raspberry pi, Raspberry Pi Hardware  21 Responses »
Mar 052013
 
Controlled shutdown duration test of Pi model A with 2 cell lipo

Lithium polymer batteries are light and powerful, but they can’t be run completely flat or they are ruined. I’ve been using them for several years to fly model planes, so I have plenty of them around. I’ve also been using them at Raspberry Jam meetings to power some of my Pi demos. I thought it would be fun to make a circuit so the Pi could monitor its own battery voltage. I used an analog to digital converter (mcp3002) and had the Pi check the battery voltage every minute and shut down when the battery [...more...]

Using a Wii controller with your Raspberry Pi, Gertboard, Bluetooth and Python

 Electronics, Gertboard, Input and Output, interfacing, python programming, Raspberry Pi Hardware  23 Responses »
Feb 122013
 
Using a Wii controller with your Raspberry Pi, Gertboard, Bluetooth and Python

Matt Hawkins from Raspberry Pi Spy has done the leg-work enabling Pi users to use a Wii controller – along with a Bluetooth USB dongle to send inputs to the Raspberry Pi. It uses a Python library called “CWiid” (I imagine this is pronounced “seaweed”). This is awesome because the Wii controller has 11 different digital inputs. When you consider combinations of inputs, that gives you a lot of extra possible “input commands” to play with. Theoretically*, with 11 buttons, there are 55 different 2-button combinations (11C2). That should be enough for most uses. If [...more...]

HDMI to VGA converter part 2 – VGA projector

 Electronics, raspberry pi, Raspberry Pi Hardware, Review  6 Responses »
Feb 032013
 
HDMI to VGA converter part 2 - VGA projector

This is part 2 of my review of the HDMI/VGA 1080 Ultimate HD Video Converter. It covers comparison of VGA and HDMI in the GUI; use of an old 1024 x 768 VGA monitor with the Pi; using a VGA projector to show a video; trying out an MHL adaptor with a phone and VGA monitor. If you haven’t seen part one yet, you can find that here. To complete the review, I set myself the following tasks… see if I can get it to go full-screen in GUI by tweaking settings do some side [...more...]

RasPi RepRap 3d printing on the Raspberry Pi

 Electronics, interfacing, Raspberry Pi Hardware  6 Responses »
Feb 012013
 

Alex Gibson, co-host of the Oxford Jam impressed us all with his RepRap 3d printer controlled by a Raspberry Pi. I hadn’t seen one of these up close and personal before. I’d really like one now, but I have a feeling it requires a large investment in time to build, calibrate and use. Check out the 4 minute video. Most impressive indeed! :) Background Alex told us he’d joined the Thames Valley build group, which is a bunch of people who get together to help each other make RepRaps. The reel of poly-lactic acid (PLA) [...more...]

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