alex

Alex Eames is the founder, owner and main contributor to RasPi.TV more information about him can be found in his Google+ profile.

How Much Power does Raspberry Pi 3A+ plus Use?

raspberry pi, Raspberry Pi Hardware 5 Responses »

Dec 042018

How Much Power does Raspberry Pi 3A+ plus Use?

When a new Pi comes out, I usually publish some power consumption figures, mainly for those people who want to estimate battery durations. So my tests are quite simple. Procedure With just an HDMI screen and a USB keyboard/mouse dongle connected, the Pi is powered using a bench power supply at 5.2V (supply current limit = 3 Amps) wired, via my eMeter’s calibrated 20 Amp shunt, to the µUSB power input on the Pi. Current and voltage are measured using the eMeter (with clamp meter to confirm) and calibrated shunt whilst performing four different activities […more…]

RasPiO Night Light KickStarter Launches

Uncategorized No Responses »

Jul 172018

Today sees the launch of my shiny new KickStarter project, the RasPiO Night Light It uses a passive infrared (PIR) motion sensor to detect the presence of a person and a light-dependent resistor (LDR) to measure light levels. When a person is detected, if it’s dark enough, the RGB LEDs will light to the chosen colour and brightness levels. This provides some transient lighting on-demand. It’s a lot of fun and very useful. Come on over to the KickStarter page and have a look. Here’s the KickStarter Video… Click here to go to the KickStarter […more…]

New RasPiO Portsplus 3 fits all 40-pin Pi – Launch offer FREE + shipping

Electronics No Responses »

Jun 012018

New RasPiO Portsplus 3 fits all 40-pin Pi - Launch offer FREE + shipping

Shortly after the Raspberry Pi 3B+ came out, I realised that the PoE pins prevent the RasPiO Portsplus from fitting on the GPIO header. Here you go: https://t.co/Vq2HP9zLW2. I had to Dremel the end off to accommodate the PoE pins. I'm not sure if @RasPiTV has plans to amend it. — Raspberry Pi (@Raspberry_Pi) March 28, 2018 So I redesigned it so it now fits on ALL 40-pin Raspberry Pis. The video tells the story… What is Portsplus 3? It’s a small PCB which can slip over the header of a Raspberry Pi so that […more…]

Dremel Table Saw Trimming RasPiO GPIO Rulers

Making 7 Responses »

May 182018

Dremel Table Saw Trimming RasPiO GPIO Rulers

In HackSpace Magazine issue 5, I wrote an article on how to “Make a Dremel Table Saw” This week I took delivery of a new batch of RasPiO GPIO Rulers and in QC checking these, I found that they needed a little bit more processing before release. There was a little ‘spike’ in one corner of pretty much all of them, so this needed removing before these could be shipped. I decided this would be an ideal opportunity to make a video of the Dremel Table Saw in action, so here it is. Enjoy… If […more…]

Raspberry Pi 3B Plus Family Photo Update March 2018

Product Launch, Raspberry Pi Hardware 38 Responses »

Mar 162018

Raspberry Pi 3B Plus Family Photo Update March 2018

One of my other little launch week traditions for a new Pi launch is to update the Pi Family Photo. This time we’ve got three new members since a year ago when it was last updated for the Pi Zero W launch. The aim of doing this is to maintain a record of pretty much all of the versions of the Raspberry Pi which could be purchased by the public. I do have some other rare ones which I don’t include because it seems a bit like gloating. Perhaps one day I’ll do a blog […more…]

How Much Power Does Raspberry Pi 3B+ Use? Power Measurements

Electronics, Raspberry Pi Hardware 37 Responses »

Mar 152018

How Much Power Does Raspberry Pi 3B+ Use? Power Measurements

Since the original Pi came out I’ve been interested in how much power it consumes. It’s become something of a launch week tradition to publish a new chart and some data. So much so that several people ask for it on launch day. This time the first was within 7 minutes of launch, which is a new record… Did you test the energy consumption? — El Datavizzardo (@datavizzard) March 14, 2018 Why? The main reason I do this is that, if you are running a Pi on batteries, you need to be able to know […more…]

New Raspberry Pi model 3B+ 1.4 GHz, 330Mbit Ethernet, 802.11ac, PoE

Product Launch, Raspberry Pi Hardware 38 Responses »

Mar 142018

New Raspberry Pi model 3B+ 1.4 GHz, 330Mbit Ethernet, 802.11ac, PoE

It’s Pi day (if you do dates in the illogical MM/DD/YY format) so Raspberry Pi is releasing a new version of the Pi 3B. It’s called the 3B+, which is logical because it has more to offer than the 3B and is also in keeping with previous Pi naming conventions. It contains several incremental improvements, but taken together they provide a substantial upgrade in performance with a faster processor, addition of 5GHz wifi and 330Mbit ethernet and PoE. More detail further down. Here’s the new board… New Chip BCM2837B0 1.4GHz Probably the most significant change […more…]

How to tap a thread in acrylic Perspex, Lucite, Plexiglass using your cordless drill driver

Laser Cutting, Making 15 Responses »

Feb 262018

How to tap a thread in acrylic Perspex, Lucite, Plexiglass using your cordless drill driver

I recently bought a laser cutter (running on a Pi) and started working with acrylic (Perspex). I’ve sawn, routed and drilled Perspex before. It machines beautifully as long as you’re not too ‘greedy’ with your cuts (and if you’re too greedy, it cracks). In exploring the material, I wanted to investigate thread tapping as I’d heard it was possible and it opens up new design options. So I watched a few videos about thread tapping. Some people use a CNC machine on an industrial scale, but others use a small hand tapping set in the […more…]

Run a K40 Laser Cutter from Your Raspberry Pi with K40 Whisperer

Laser Cutting, Making, software installation 28 Responses »

Feb 192018

Run a K40 Laser Cutter from Your Raspberry Pi with K40 Whisperer

I bought a Chinese K40-style laser cutter about three weeks ago and I’ve been spending quite a bit of time playing with it learning how best to use it. It’s an eminently hackable design, and while mine could cut 3mm acrylic OK ‘straight out of the box’, there are many things that can be done to make it better, easier to use and more user-friendly. I’ve had great fun doing a whole host of upgrades and improvements to it, but that’s not what I’m focusing on today. Last week, Les Pounder published a blog article […more…]

Using Wemos D1 mini to control a brushless motor with ESC and servo signals

Electronics, Input and Output, interfacing, Wemos 4 Responses »

Feb 122018

Using Wemos D1 mini to control a brushless motor with ESC and servo signals

I’ve recently become interested in making “machines” of various sorts. I was sorting through some of my RC (radio control) plane “stash” the other day and came across various brushless motors and electronic speed controllers (ESC) like these. In RC, Brushless ESCs are usually connected to a radio receiver which generates servo control pulses. So this morning I thought it would be fun to try and get a Wemos D1 mini controlling a brushless motor. I’ve done similar before. I can remember, back in the dark ages of 2013, using a Guzunty Pi to generate […more…]

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