RasPi.TV

Review ISO-TECH IPS 3303D DC benchtop power supply

Jul 222013

This is a video review/tutorial of the ISO-TECH IPS 3303D DC bench power supply from RS components. It has 2 variable outputs (30V, 3 Amps) which can be connected in series or in parallel to double up the voltage/current. It also has one fixed output with three settings (2.5V/3.3V/5V – up to 3 Amps). I used it on 5V to power a RasPiCamcorder while I filmed this video. You can also control it with a computer via USB, but I haven’t tried that (yet). But this is meant to be a video review, so that’s […more…]

RPi.GPIO basics 7 – RPi.GPIO cheat sheet and pointers to RPi GPIO advanced tutorials

Electronics, Input and Output, interfacing, python programming, raspberry pi 14 Responses »

Jul 192013

RPi.GPIO basics 7 – RPi.GPIO cheat sheet and pointers to RPi GPIO advanced tutorials

In the previous six articles, we’ve covered the basics of RPi.GPIO. I hope the series has been useful. While I was doing the “recap” for part 6, I decided to make myself a quick reference “cheat sheet” with all the common RPi.GPIO stuff in it. I figured this would be useful and save me having to look things up on the web and in previous Python scripts I’ve written. I made it as a text file that I can just copy and paste snippets of code from to make RPi.GPIO Python coding easier. Then I […more…]

RPi.GPIO basics 6 – Using inputs and outputs together with RPi.GPIO – pull-ups and pull-downs

Input and Output, interfacing, python programming, raspberry pi 34 Responses »

Jul 172013

RPi.GPIO basics 6 – Using inputs and outputs together with RPi.GPIO - pull-ups and pull-downs

Today, it’s time for us to combine inputs and outputs into the same script. It’s nothing scary and it’s not new either. It’s simply a case of doing what we’ve already done in the last two days’ of GPIO basics, but combining them. To make it super-easy, we’ll even stick to the same port numbers we used for the last two days. We’re going to make a new program which takes parts from both the “read a button press” and the “flash an led every half second” programs. We’re going to make a simple new […more…]

RPi.GPIO basics 5 – Setting up and using outputs with RPi.GPIO

Input and Output, interfacing, python programming, raspberry pi 13 Responses »

Jul 152013

RPi.GPIO basics 5 – Setting up and using outputs with RPi.GPIO

Today is output day. I’m going to show you how to switch things on and off using RPi.GPIO to control the output ports of the Raspberry Pi. Once you can control outputs, you can, with a few additional electronic components, switch virtually anything on and off. Given the Raspberry Pi’s excellent connectivity, this means you can switch things on and off through the internet, using any computer, smartphone or tablet from anywhere in the world. You can also use a local network, Bluetooth etc. for short-range control. Setting up is very similar to the way […more…]

RPi.GPIO basics 4 – Setting up RPi.GPIO, numbering systems and inputs

Input and Output, interfacing, python programming, raspberry pi 18 Responses »

Jul 142013

RPi.GPIO basics 4 - Setting up RPi.GPIO, numbering systems and inputs

Well, today is the day we actually get to use RPi.GPIO a little bit. But, before we get to that, you should know about the two different numbering systems you can use with RPi.GPIO. If you take a look at the main GPIO header (P1) of the Raspberry Pi, you’ll see that there are 26 pins. The top left pin (as we look at this photo) is called pin 1, the one to the right of it is pin 2. So the next row is 3, 4 etc. and on down to 25, 26. This […more…]

RPi.GPIO basics 3 – How to Exit GPIO programs cleanly, avoid warnings and protect your Pi

Input and Output, interfacing, python programming, raspberry pi 46 Responses »

Jul 132013

RPi.GPIO basics 3 - How to Exit GPIO programs cleanly, avoid warnings and protect your Pi

You might think I’m going about this series in a funny way. You’d be right! I am. That’s because I’m trying to highlight the bits that people don’t read about in other tutorials/documentation/manuals/books. These bits are useful, important and often overlooked. If I covered inputs and outputs first, you might not get to the rest because you’d already “know all I need”. That’s only partially true though. Although you can get away with not knowing or using this stuff, it’s much better and safer if you know it and use it. So today we’re focussing […more…]

RPi.GPIO basics 2 – how to check what Pi board Revision you have

Input and Output, interfacing, python programming, raspberry pi 27 Responses »

Jul 122013

RPi.GPIO basics 2 – how to check what Pi board Revision you have

It all started in September 2012. The Raspberry Pi Foundation went and made some improvements to the Pi. How dare they!! ;) Seriously, though, there were some significant improvements to the Pi and a Rev 2 version was launched with double the RAM and some other changes/additions/improvements. This threw up some minor headaches for developers because some of the GPIO pinouts were changed and some new GPIO ports were made available on a brand new “solder it yourself if you want it” header called P5 (see the leaning header of Pi5a) GPIO 0 became GPIO […more…]

RPi.GPIO basics 1 – how to check what RPi.GPIO version you have

Input and Output, interfacing, python programming, raspberry pi 15 Responses »

Jul 112013

RPi.GPIO basics 1 - how to check what RPi.GPIO version you have

It struck me the other day that I’ve published some fairly advanced RPi.GPIO tutorials, (e.g. interrupts and PWM) but not done anything more basic, apart from the Gertboard examples. So here’s an attempt to remedy that situation. Over the next few days, we’re going to have a walk around Ben Croston’s RPi.GPIO, which is now at version 0.5.3a. Some of this stuff may be new to you even if you’ve been using RPi.GPIO’s more advanced features, so it’s worth having a look. What is RPi.GPIO? It’s an easy way of controlling the Pi’s General Purpose […more…]

Announcing RasPi Videos Google+ Community

raspberry pi No Responses »

Jul 032013

I’d like to introduce a new Raspberry Pi related Google Plus community. It’s called RasPi Videos and it’s for sharing and discussing videos about the Raspberry Pi. It’s very small at the moment – there’s just 10 of us at the time of publication, but amongst those 10 we’ve got some fabulous Raspberry Pi bloggers and vloggers… Who? Matthew Manning – Raspberry Pi Beginners. A top Raspberry Pi vlogger. Carrie Anne Philbin – Geek Gurl Diaries. Teacher extraordinaire, vlogger and blogger, champion of getting more girls into coding. (This is much needed! If you could […more…]

FLIRC – a programmable USB Media centre controller receiver

Review 13 Responses »

Jun 272013

FLIRC - a programmable USB Media centre controller receiver

Jamie from the Pi Hut sent me a FLIRC controller for review. What is it? It’s a USB dongle that can be programmed to receive signals from pretty much any infra-red remote control that you may have lying around. And you can then use this to control your Raspberry Pi based* media centre (XBMC, OpenELEC, RaspBMC). Simple Setup Programming the remote controller needs another computer. But once programmmed, FLIRC works perfectly with the Pi. It can’t currently be programmed on the Pi itself, but there are setup utilities for Windows, Linux (x86) and Mac. So, […more…]

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