#modmypi

[recantha]

Raspberry Pi re-seller ModMyPi acquired by The Pi Hut

Raspberry Pi re-seller ModMyPi acquired by The Pi Hut

Interesting news in the Pi world today. Official re-seller ModMyPi has been acquired by fellow re-seller The Pi Hut. What this means in the long term is anyone’s guess, but in the official announcement on the ModMyPi website, they have stated that the entire ModMyPi product range will shortly be available at The Pi Hutand that products manufactured by ModMyPi will continue to be manufactured at…

[thenashesizer-blog]

Lewis - Notes from Skype with Mike Cook - 11th Jan

Ableton Live

We agreed the need for the team to each have a working version of Ableton Live that includes Max for Live (M4L) functionality. Lewis reiterated he’d email Ableton asking if they’d be prepared to support the project by providing licences.

Testing the ‘gestural control’ demos

Mike’s demoed a couple of alternative ‘gestural control’ demos for Gemma to try out - but with her being ill we haven’t yet managed to meet up. Lewis to confirm a session at Gemma’s on the afternoon of the 29th January - before the Drake Music Lab North meet up at Eagle Labs.

Testing the Raspberry Pi 7” Touchscreen display

The Nashesizer needs it’s own display - but we’re uncertain how Gemma might manage if it also had touchscreen functionality. Mike has an official Raspberry Pi 7” Touchscreen Display and a range of existing demos that we can use for Gemma to try out and help us decide whether this could be useful for her. The larger size and screen resolution (800x600px) means this option would certainly allow for more info to be displayed and likely make touchscreen interactions less ‘fiddly’ for Gemma.

We agreed that coding a GUI in Processing, which would allow it to be developed on a laptop - rather than having to work directly on the Raspberry Pi - is the way to go. Lewis to investigate and start testing the various Processing GUI libraries that are available.

OSC, MIDI and 2-way comms

We discussed 2-way comms between Live and the Nashesizer, why we’d use OSC in preference to MIDI and various approaches to realising it.

We’ve already agreed that it is pretty essential that the Nashesizer gets updated when a change is made directly in Live. Also that it gets updated when a new project is loaded.

While current testing confirms that the latest LiveGrabber set of M4L devices will do the former - we weren’t sure if they could do the latter (though a subsequent test by Lewis indicates that LiveGrabber does send all Parameter values out on project load). Lewis to work up a new default Nashesizer Ableton Live file to include LiveGrabber M4L devices.

These requirements aside we agreed there are other benefits to using OSC over MIDI…

While Ableton Live has a well implemented MIDI mapping system that makes assigning specific MIDI controller knobs, faders and buttons relatively painless it still means that at the Nashesizer end we’ll have to work with the fairly abstracted MIDI protocol e.g. assigning a particular knob, fader, button, touchscreen interaction and other potential inputs to a specific MIDI channel, Note On/Off, Control Change Number/Value etc. Using OSC we can just address a specific parameter within Live e.g. track3/volume/1.0 which is much more literal to write and read back in the code.

Using OSC ‘future-proofs’ the Nashesizer for more flexible networked setups that Gemma may want to explore in the future.

monome.org’s serialosc acts as a bridge to send OSC via Serial over a USB cable. While monome.org devices use a specific set of OSC messages, serialosc is tried and tested - so we wondered whether it would be possible to use it to send OSC messages between Live and the Teensy 3.6 in the Nashesizer. Unfortunately, we’ve since realised that while it is possible to configure some Arduino boards to use serialosc it requires setting a serial number on the FTDI chip so that the device can be seen once its attached to the computer. Teensy’s don’t have an FTDI chip - so this approach won’t work.

We’ve since decided to programme our own bridge in Processing and Mike has already developed a test app and drawn up an initial specification…

The Nashesizer-Hub - Initial specification document

Scope, the Hub is a program written in Processing to handle OSC messages between the Teensy and Live.

In addition the Teensy can also supply MIDI messages directly into Live. This is done by setting the USB Type to "Serial + MIDI" when compiling the Teensy code. Teensy OSC messages can be sent from the Teensy into the Hub through serial string messages. The Hub will then send the message to Live through OSC. This allows MIDI and OSC messages to be exchanged with Live through the one USB connector.

Any OSC message generated by Live is decoded and a string sent via serial to the Teensy.

The format of the string messages to and from the Hub is yet to be decided but should be designed so that they are easy to decode.

Current example code simply prints out any message.

Powering the Nashesizer

Mike has already suggested that we use a 12V 4A PSU to power the Nashesizer (the prototype was powered via the USB cable which frequently didn’t supply enough current to drive both the motorised fader and OLED display) and he has several we can use. He also has the required step down switching regulators or buck convertors to convert the 12V supply to values suitable for other components.

More robust USB socket

The micro-USB socket on the Teensy 3.6 in the prototype wasn’t robust enough - so we need a USB-A female to micro-USB male solution so that the Nashesizer get’s connected via a standard printer style USB cable. Mike suggested Pimoroni and/or MODMYPI might stock a convertor board with both connectors on. As it turns out Pimoroni stocks suitable 50cm panel mount extension cables.

Optical Mouse module

We’ve previously suggested the idea of testing an optical mouse sensor as an alternative to a trackball which are really expensive. James has flagged up a project that uses a couple of these sensors and a marble in a custom mount to create a DIY trackball. This ADNS-3050 Optical Sensor Board (Tindie, $20.95 ) may be a good option - but we’ll start by buying and deconstructing a cheap (max £10) second-hand optical mouse and seeing if its usable.

[purcell-engineering]

EW BrightSparks 2017 profile: Jacob Marsh, ModMyPi

In the latest of our series on the EW BrightSparks of 2017 we highlight Jacob Marsh, the young entrepreneur behind the successful ModMyPi.

This story continues at EW BrightSparks 2017 profile: Jacob Marsh, ModMyPi

Or just read more coverage at Electronics Weekly

[evgenychernyavskiy]

EW BrightSparks 2017 profile: Jacob Mars

EW BrightSparks 2017 profile: Jacob Mars

EW BrightSparks 2017 profile: Jacob Marsh, ModMyPi – In the latest of our series on the EW BrightSparks of 2017 we highlight Jacob Marsh, the young entrepreneur behind the successful ModMyPi. This story continues at EW BrightSparks 2017 profile: Jacob Marsh, ModMyPi Or just read more coverage at Electronics Weekly http://ow.ly/KZPW50cvRoJ

[davidegbert]

Raspberry Pi Zero W With Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Connectivity Launched at $10

Raspberry Pi Foundation has announced that the company is launching its new board-based mini-computer Raspberry Pi Zero W at a price of just $10 (roughly Rs. 670). This is the successor to company's original Raspberry Pi Zero, which was launched back in 2015, with added features such as Wi-Fi 802.11n and Bluetooth 4.0 inbuilt connectivity.

Coming to the specifications, just like its predecessor, the new board-based computer features BCM2835 application processor clocked at 1GHz ARM11 core. Other specifications on the Raspberry Pi Zero W include 512MB of RAM, and a microSD card slot for storage. It comes with a mini-HDMI port, Micro-USB on-the-go port, Micro-USB power port, HAT-compatible 40-pin header, composite video and reset headers, and CSI camera connector.

However, the most interesting part is the new additions, i.e. Wi-Fi 802.11n and Bluetooth 4.0, which can potentially improve the productivity from the mini-computer substantially. Product developers have already implemented the original Raspberry Zero to produce interesting low-cost projects and with added Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities, there are several more possibilities that Raspberry Pi Zero W opens up for their products.

Alongside the new mini-computer, the company has also announced that it has developed an official injection-moulded case with Kinneir Dufort and T-Zero. The new case comes in the same design as official case for Raspberry Pi 3 and has interchangeable lids.

Raspberry has added several new distributors including ModMyPi in the UK, pi3g in Germany, Samm Teknoloji in Turkey, Kubii in France, Spain, Italy and Portugal, and Kiwi Electronics in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. The Raspberry Pi Zero W is already available for purchase.

Source link

[sikoko]

Raspberry Pi Zero W is a $10 computer with WiFi and Bluetooth

Although major Raspberry Pi announcements are very few and far between, you know that when there is one, it's worth paying attention. Take for example the Raspberry Pi Zero -- the $5 (£4) board that apparently came out of nowhere in October 2015 and offered 40 percent more computing power than the original Pi. It's been a year since the last major unveiling, when we met the Raspberry Pi 3, but the Foundation is back today with a brand new product that nestles neatly between its credit-card sized computer and its flagship board. It's called the Raspberry Pi Zero W.

In the case of the Raspberry Pi Zero W, the W signifies exactly what is new: wireless connectivity. It boasts exactly the same specifications (1GHz single-core Broadcom BCM2835 CPU, 512MB of RAM, 40-pin header) as its predecessor but the Zero W adds both 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 to the existing Zero design. If you had a cool idea for a low-cost maker project that was scuppered by the Zero's lack of wireless connectivity, now might be the time to revisit the idea.

The Zero W's new features do come at a cost, however. The Zero will stay at $5 (£4) but the Zero W is priced at $10 (£9.60) plus tax. The Raspberry Pi Foundation is also offering new injection-molded cases with interchangeable lids that are smaller versions of the official Raspberry Pi case that went on sale almost two years ago.

At $10 (£9.60), the Zero W is still fantastic value for money. Makers have already used the DIY board to create homemade security cameras and build their own retro gaming machines, but with WiFi and Bluetooth now on-board, those projects might become even easier to build and maintain.

Source: ModMyPi (UK), Pimoroni (UK), Pi Hut (UK), Adafruit (US), CanaKit (US)

Source: http://ift.tt/2mzDQFd

[novadroid]

Nouveau Raspberry Pi Zero W : Wifi & Bluetooth en plus… pour un montant de 10$

Aujourd’hui c’est le cinquième anniversaire de Raspberry Pi. L’occasion pour la fondation Raspberry Pi de nous dévoiler une surprise : la sortie d’un petit nouveau qui va agrandir la famille des Raspberry Pi.

Si vous ne savez pas ce qu’est un Raspberry Pi, ne vous inquiétez pas : j’ai déjà préparé le terrain. Retrouvez ci-dessous les liens vers deux articles de présentation :

Présentation du Raspberry Pi – Partie 1

Présentation du Raspberry Pi – Partie 2

Ce nouveau Raspberry Pi se nomme :

Raspberry Pi Zero W (pour Wireless)

Je vous propose une petite vidéo de la fondation, afin de le découvrir :

Ce nouveau produit est équipé du Wifi et du Bluetooth 4.0, et c’est une grande nouvelle. En effet ayant déjà acheté le Raspberry Pi Zero simple, j’ai dû sacrifier le seul port USB pour un dongle Wifi. Ce qui est contraignant. Maintenant, tout est intégré, et les concepteurs ont mis la même puce CYW43438 Wifi/Bluetooth que celle du Raspberry Pi 3. Et je peux vous le dire, pour l’avoir utilisé : la connexion marche plutôt bien.

L’autre information sympa, c’est qu’il ne coûte que 10$. C’est le double de son petit frère mais ça reste tout à fait raisonnable.

Ce qui est important à retenir, c’est que ce nouveau Raspberry Pi est toujours aussi petit. Et qu’il possède le Wifi et Bluetooth permettant de réaliser des projets toujours aussi fun, sans se préoccuper de la place que peut prendre un simple dongle Wifi. Je vois déjà pas mal de projet réalisables ! Par exemple, contrôler ma cafetière sans avoir plein de câbles au milieu, et surtout un Raspberry Pi qui prend de la place. Vous pourrez aussi fabriquer un outil connecté à votre télé. Ou encore un capteur qui allume les ampoules dans votre maison (beaucoup moins cher que celui vendu par Philips).

Si vous avez envie de vous lancer dans le monde Raspberry à moindre coût, je pense que le Raspberry Pi Zero W est une bonne solution pour vous. N’oubliez pas d’acheter les éléments de base, comme : le boîtier, la carte micro-SD, le convertisseur Mini-USB vers USB pour brancher un clavier/souris  et le convertisseur mini-HDMI vers HDMI pour voir ce qui se passe.

Autant vous le dire directement, j’ai craqué ! Je viens de le commander sur ModMyPi qui en a encore en stock, alors que notre fournisseur français Kubbi est déjà en rupture de stock. La dernière fois où j’ai voulu acheter le Raspberry Pi Zero, j’ai dû attendre un an et demi. Alors cette fois-ci je n’ai pas hésité et je l’ai commandé sur ModMyPi. Voici le lien si vous êtes intéressé.

En preuve de mon achat, voici une petite impression d’écran :

Je devrais le recevoir d’ici 3 à 12 jours. Bien entendu, je vous ferai une démonstration, ne vous inquiétez pas !

Si vous avez besoin de plus de détails avant la parution de mon article spécial, je vous propose d’aller faire un petit tour sur le site du Raspberry Pi.

  from Nouveau Raspberry Pi Zero W : Wifi & Bluetooth en plus… pour un montant de 10$

[fortu]

La segunda vez en mi vida que me pongo a soldar algo. #RaspberryPi #Adafruit #ModMyPi

[recantha]

Get a head-start on New Year's Eve with ModMyPi's fireworks tutorial for the Raspberry Pi and SenseHAT

Get a head-start on New Year’s Eve with ModMyPi’s fireworks tutorial for the Raspberry Pi and SenseHAT

Claire Pollard, who recently started work for Pi retailer ModMyPi has started to write some tutorials for their website. On 5th November, she published a great tutorial that uses the Raspberry Pi, together with the SenseHAT, to create a fireworks display. Now, obviously this was for the UK’s ‘Guy Fawkes Night’ celebrations, but it seemed a good idea to point it out to everyone now so that you…

[purcell-engineering]

EW BrightSparks 2017 profile: Jacob Marsh, ModMyPi

In the latest of our series on the EW BrightSparks of 2017 we highlight Jacob Marsh, the young entrepreneur behind the successful ModMyPi.

This story continues at EW BrightSparks 2017 profile: Jacob Marsh, ModMyPi

Or just read more coverage at Electronics Weekly

[kimondo]

Raspberry Pi + ModMyPi case + Motorola Atrix Lapdock = Raspberry Pi Laptop

Much has already been written about using the Motorola Atrix Lapdock (essentially a portable HDMI monitor with a built in powered USB keyboard, trackpad and hub) coupled together with a Raspberry Pi. The Pi being powered by a micro USB makes it a suitable candidate for using it as a low powered portable computer.

You can still pick up a Motorola Atrix Lapdock for a lot less than it's original £300 or so selling price, although I've noticed that prices have started to creep up - expect to pay between £60-£80 for one. There is a newer Motorola Razr Lapdock available which I believe uses the same ports, so hopefully these very useful devices will continue to be produced and supported in the future.

This week my ModMyPi case finally arrived - it's an injection moulded click together case which is beautifully made -

I have already hacked together a cable to connect the lapdock and pi together - but I wanted to make a more portable and neater version. Plus using an HDMI micro adapter would provide a mount to hold the Pi in place, in the same way that a phone would be docked:

The lapdock provides a USB micro male, and HDMI micro male connector (note - micro not mini!). The USB provides power and data over 4 wires, and the HDMI video and sound. To marry this to your Pi you'll need to take the power connection to a male micro USB plug, and data to a male USB plug. Most people who've done this modification have also broken the power connection to the data plug as a precaution. In my version, I've included a power switch to make it easy to turn the Pi on and off - opening the lid of the Lapdock also cycles the power. Obviously this is all entirely at your own risk.

Here's my wiring diagram:

To do this you'll need:

A micro HDMI female to HDMI male adapter / MicroHDMI = HDMI "D type"

A micro USB female to male adapter (these are surprisingly difficult to find - ebay is often your friend here)

A regular USB female to Male cable (or you could use a micro USB male to USB male cable - I wanted the flexibility to use different lengths of cable)

A switch (Maplin or ebay) two or three pin on / off - just not momentary.

Something to use as a wiring box - the HDMI adapter holds the Pi in place quite nicely, so you could just wrap a bit of insulation tape round everything. I made a box out of a plastic screwdriver holder that came from poundland)

A wire stripper - these 'automatic' wire-strippers work well

Soldering iron and solder (soldering isn't too hard, but a lot of people are put off by the idea of it - a bulkier but soldering iron free alternative would be to use terminal blocks)

Craft knife

Epoxy glue

 First off you need to get the two micro adapters to fit together - check with the lapdock and carefully trim away the surrounding plastic until they both fit together. Then glue the two adapters together, whilst they're plugged into the lapdock. Be very careful not to glue them to the lapdock itself. Then expose the wires from the micro USB adapter - you might have to trim into the plug itself to do this. USB cables consist of red, black, white and green cables sometimes with a metal sleeve around them - you can cut the sleeve away and discard it. Be careful not to go through any of the wires themselves.

Here's the underside of the adapter - showing the two trimmed plugs side by side, glued together with epoxy - the wires from the USB adapter on the left feed into the box where all the connections are made:

Then cut your usb cable in half and expose the individual wires. Strip the ends of all your wires together. Then solder them together as per the diagram above. The power USB cable needs red and black connected - the data USB cable needs white, green and black connected. Put the switch on the red wire between the lapdock and USB power cable.

Once everything is soldered together, you can give it a quick test by plugging in the Pi to the lapdock. If everything goes ok, once the lid is open and you can boot and test the keyboard. If it doesn't work, check the connections and that the HDMI adapter is fully plugged in.

The final result is the Pi sitting on the lapdock behind the screen.

For extra neatness you could always mount the switch on the case itself and route all the cables internally, but there you go - a practical portable Pi Laptop you could just chuck in a bag and take with you, and that doesn't alter the lapdock in any way.

Thanks to Chipmonger on the Pi forums for the source of the cables and Arc Software for the wiring diagram.

Original Article

[raspberry-n00b]

Starting stuff

So for anyone interested, these are the things that I ordered as a start believing it is all I need.

Raspberry Pi 2 Model B SBC 1GB Ram  Case - Black Raspberry Pi Modell B+ and RPI2- Multicomp  RPI Power Supply 2A - 5V Kingston 8GB microSD-kort Class10 WiFi USB dongel - for Raspberry Pi - WiPi RPI Noir Camera Lab package ModMyPi YouTubeX Camera house in black plastic

I’m in Sweden so these might not be available everywhere, or more likely there are more options everywhere else.

The only thing in the package that is not directly related to the camera project is the lab package which I bought in the belief that it will help me build some basic knowledge about the system.

[tinkersnippets]

Choosing the first project

So, I had the Raspberry Pi set up and running Raspbian. Now what?

Going back to my original crazy thought of being able to control a robotic hand from my smartphone for the purpose of squeezing squaky toys, I started abstracting the specific idea to being able to control an external, motorized device from a smartphone. In order to make progress toward that goal, I started breaking down the problem into manageable chunks.

One piece of the puzzle was the communication between a smartphone (in this case a Windows Phone) and the RasPi. Both are WiFi-enabled, so that solves basics. After a bit of searching, I found Brian Dorey's blog, where he describes a central heating control system, implemented with RasPi and Windows Phone. His solution was to use HTTP and run an Apache server on the RasPi, and having previously worked with both, it seems like a nice & simple solution. Since this part seemed straightforward, I decided to defer working on it to focus on areas I'm less familiar with.

Then there's the issue of a connection between the RasPi and an external device. This is where one of RasPi's exciting features, the GPIO (General Purpose Input/Output) connector, comes into play. Like the name suggests, you can plug external devices and move data in and out between them and RasPi through this interface. Thus, learning how to use the GPIO became a priority. Also, using the GPIO brings me to the area I'm most unfamiliar with: building component-level electronic systems, i.e. real hardware hacking.

There are tutorials available about the details of GPIO on Adafruit and a wonderful GPIO cheat sheet on ModMyPi, but I felt I needed a simple, practical project to really get my hands dirty with GPIO and circuitry. Thankfully, through ModMyPi I found the perfect thing to get started with: the BerryClip by Matt Hawkins. The BerryClip is a simple add-on board which plugs into the GPIO connector on the Raspberry Pi, and includes 6 LEDs, a buzzer and a button. The best part: assembly required. The kit ships as components, which need to be first soldered onto a printed circuit board, a PCB. So, the BerryClip would give me something to use through the GPIO, and also require me to get some soldering practice. With a cost of £5.99, I ordered one from ModMyPi.

A few days later, this hit my mailbox. Next post, assembling the BerryClip.

[recantha]

Black Friday deals for the Raspberry Pi and Maker community

Black Friday deals for the Raspberry Pi and Maker community

Hi everyone. I’ve gone through my big list of Pi and Maker companies and put together a list of those offering Black Friday deals. Find them below!

ModMyPi– Up to 50% off a range of products & FREE Pi Zero Wireless on orders > £100 with discount code 100ZERO. Some great stuff here with decent discounts, including the pi-top Raspberry Pi-powered laptop and robotics kits from Pi Borg, and that’s…

[recantha]

PiBorg and ModMyPi form partnership to bring out new Raspberry Pi boards

PiBorg and ModMyPi form partnership to bring out new Raspberry Pi boards

Jacob from ModMyPi (behind) and Tim from PiBorg(in front) along with Dexter (the dog) have just announced that they are moving forward in partnership. PiBorg will design new add-on boards while ModMyPi will handle manufacture and distribution. This is great news – PiBorg design some truly lovely boards and ModMyPi are well-placed to do the making and sending. For more, including some quotes from…