Jun 242019
 
Raspberry Pi 4 launches with BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 64-bit SoC running at 1.5GHz with dual 4K display capability

Raspberry Pi 4B launches today. It’s a fresh new generation of Pi with brand new silicon – the Broadcom BCM2711, quad-core Cortex-A72 (ARM v8) 64-bit SoC running at 1.5GHz. The new VC6 GPU is able to drive dual 4Kp30 displays and can handle H.265 decode at 4Kp60. It has true Gigabit ethernet (independent of USB), USB 3.0 and dual 4K HDMI outputs (micro). There’s also 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz 802.11b/g/n/ac wireless and a choice of 1GB, 2GB or 4GB LPDDR4 memory (depending on which model you select). Pi4B is the same form factor as […more…]

Mar 262019
 
Development of a new product - RasPiO Breadboard Pi Bridge (BBPi)

Today I launched the RasPiO Breadboard Pi Bridge (BBPi for short). It’s a PCB that breaks out all the GPIO ports of a Raspberry Pi in order on a half-size breadboard, complete with a Perspex platform to hold it all nicely together. It’s a clean, robust and elegant solution for simple electronics tinkering with Pi. This is what it looks like… If you want to snag one of the last 26 (at the time of publication) early-bird offers, use the code EARLY at the checkout, but be quick. Development Process I thought it would be […more…]

Dec 112018
 
New Raspberry Pi Family Photo including Pi3A+ plus Zero WH

When a new Raspberry Pi model is released, I like to add it to the Pi Family Photo. 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 don’t include prototypes.) What’s New This Time? A few people commented at the last update (Pi3B+) back in March that I hadn’t included the Zero WH. The reason for that was that I didn’t own one. I hadn’t considered it a ‘new Pi’ because it was the same […more…]

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…]

Nov 282017
 
Make a Rain Alert System with Raspberry Pi

You’ve been left at home in charge of the laundry. It’s already washed and hanging out to dry on the line. But you were warned – on pain of death – to bring it in if it starts to rain. The trouble is, you’re totally into whatever it is you’re coding right now and you won’t even notice if it rains. You’ll be toast if it rains and the laundry gets wet. So which is it to be? Code or laundry? That was your choice – until now! Let’s Make a Rain Alert System We’re […more…]

Sep 192017
 
High Visibility Cycle Lights with Raspberry Pi, ESP8266 & RasPiO InsPiRing - Day 3

On day 3 (day 1 here, day 2 here) I wanted to see if I could use a Raspberry Pi (3 or 0W) as the WiFi access point instead of my phone. Knowing I was taking a slight risk (with my time) I flashed a µSD card with the shiny new Raspbian Stretch. I tweaked all the things I normally tweak (e.g. remove Wolfram and LibreOffice, enable SSH, SPI, I2C, camera etc. – I may well add a camera to this at some point WJDK). Then I went through this excellent tutorial here, which I […more…]

Sep 152017
 
High Visibility Cycle Lights with Raspberry Pi, ESP8266 & RasPiO InsPiRing - Day 2

We’ll start with a quick recap of day 1 (which you can find here). By the end of day 1 we had a proof of concept for a phone-controlled, Wemos-driven rear bike light, with indicators (turn signals), tail lights and brake lights. Day 2 started with a bit of real-world testing on the bike. It was determined pretty quickly – within one trip to the gym and back – that mobile phone control was NOT really the way to go. I wasn’t too upset about that because it wasn’t how I originally envisaged things anyway, […more…]

Sep 132017
 
High Visibility Cycle Lights with Raspberry Pi, ESP8266 & RasPiO InsPiRing – Day 1

A few months ago I thought it would be cool to use some of my RasPiO InsPiRing LEDs to make some indicators (turn signals) for my bicycle. But then I got busy completing and shipping the InsPiRing KickStarter, and then went away for the summer. But just as I was coming back, Lorraine Underwood tweeted about her High Visibility Jacket which reminded me of the idea. Obviously I wanted to do it my way and install something permanently on the bike with wireless control. Also I was due to purchase a new bike, which everyone […more…]

Jun 292017
 
How to auto-connect your Raspberry Pi to a hidden SSID wifi network

I have a Raspberry Pi 3B that acts as a web server for my temperature sensing network. I also use the same Pi for my Pi Word of the day tweets. It’s been pottering along fine for a long time. But last week we had a power outage while we had smart meters installed. For ‘network management’ reasons that I won’t go into, I’d recently decided to ‘hide’ the SSID (Service Set Identifier) of the router this Pi was connected to. I had thought it would automatically connect, having been connected before. But it didn’t, […more…]

Mar 272017
 
Parody - Sing a Song of Crowdfunding

Here in the UK it’s Monday morning and yesterday the clocks ‘went forward’, so we’re now in British Summer Time. Everyone could use a bit of ‘good cheer’ on a Monday morning, so I’m releasing a short parody video that I hope you will find amusing. Just Why? Simple answer. For fun. It’s an experiment. I hope it will make you laugh and you’ll want to share it. There’s quite a few geeky jokes buried in the lyrics, but it also tells a story. It took me 8 full takes to get it. I kept […more…]