CamJam Edukit 3 Robotics Kit

 Electronics, Raspberry Pi Hardware, Review  15 Responses »
Nov 132015
 
CamJam Edukit 3 Robotics Kit

CamJam Edukit 3 robotics kit is launched today. It’s an entry-level robotics kit aimed at beginners, but I’ve had quite a lot of fun with it, and haven’t even used all the bits yet. It’s been put together by Jamie Mann from the PiHut, and Mike Horne and Tim Richardson from CamJam. As with other CamJam Edukits, there is a progressive series of worksheets to help guide you through how to make the various pieces do what they’re designed for. You can find those here. Here’s what the kit looks like straight out of the […more…]

CamJam June 2015

 raspberry pi  4 Responses »
Jun 102015
 
CamJam June 2015

There’s something special about the Cambridge Raspberry Jam. Firstly it’s in Cambridge, the birthplace of Raspberry Pi. Secondly it’s run by two of my good friends Mike @recantha and Tim @Geeky_Tim. Thirdly it’s held at the Institute of Astronomy, which is a brilliant venue for such an event. Fourthly, there’s always a lot of prominent Pi people there. It’s great to meet people from the community and find out what they’re up to. The June 6th Jam was a “normal” jam. There was no specific theme, but there was a full programme of talks in […more…]

Raspberry Pi Birthday Party Weekend

 raspberry pi  6 Responses »
Mar 022015
 
Raspberry Pi Birthday Party Weekend

Well that was a wonderful, but tiring, weekend. Last night I got back from a weekend in Cambridge where 1300 people got together to celebrate all things Raspberry Pi. There were two lecture theatres, two large workshop areas, a large marketplace area and a show-and-tell area. The facilities were perfect, with plenty of space at the Cambridge Computer Laboratory. I took part in two discussion panels and gave a short talk on PCB Design for Beginners. I also managed to take in talks by Eben Upton, Dave Honess, Pete Lomas and Dave Akerman and I […more…]

CamJam PiWars

 Electronics, raspberry pi, Raspberry Pi Hardware  6 Responses »
Dec 082014
 
CamJam PiWars

On Saturday was the first PiWars competition at Cambridge Raspberry Jam (#CamJam). It was an excellent event. I was one of the judges, which proved to be quite difficult, but a lot of fun. The whole day went very well, there were several competition events… Sumo – Robots trying to push each other beyond the boundary Obstacle course – negotiate a range of different obstacles, some of which were positively evil Speed test (straight line) Line following – following a twisty, turny course Golf – try to direct the ball into the hole as efficiently […more…]

CamJam Edukit 2 Launches at PiWars

 Electronics, Product Launch, python programming, raspberry pi  6 Responses »
Dec 062014
 
CamJam Edukit 2 Launches at PiWars

Today the CamJam Edukit 2 is being launched at the first Cambridge Raspberry Jam PiWars event. I’ll be judging the smallest robot and the best non-competing robot categories at PiWars, but today’s blog is about the kit. This is the second kit in the series, which adds some sensors (temperature, light and PIR) into the bundle. The full kit contents is shown and described below. What’s in the Kit? A 400 point bread board including dual power rails Immersable DS18B20 temperature sensor Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) Passive InfraRed (PIR) sensor Piezo buzzer 4 male-male blue […more…]

Cambridge Raspberry Jam

 Electronics, raspberry pi, Raspberry Pi Hardware  8 Responses »
Dec 132013
 
Cambridge Raspberry Jam

Last Saturday (7th December) there was a Raspberry Jam at Cambridge Institute of Astronomy. This one was a bit different from previous jams because we had some beginners’ Scratch workshops for children in the morning. I was tasked to lead the workshop. The support was tremendous. There was a small army of people setting up ~20 Raspberry Pi systems when I arrived. Another small army assisted with the workshop itself, intervening when the children needed a prod in the right direction. Thank you to all these helpers. It couldn’t have been done without you. We […more…]

Cambridge Raspberry Jam 21 September 2013

 Input and Output, interfacing, python programming, raspberry pi, Raspberry Pi Hardware  7 Responses »
Sep 252013
 
Cambridge Raspberry Jam 21 September 2013

I had a very busy time at the Cambridge Raspberry Jam last Saturday. I was speaking and demonstrating the prototype RasPiO® baseboard that I designed. More on that in a bit. Because I was speaking, I decided not to do a show and tell as well. I was glad about that, as I tend to get stuck next to my show and tells, which stops me from going around and seeing what other people are doing. Since Mike “Recantha” Horne had asked me to judge the show and tells competition, I had to have a […more…]