Issue #18 — Infrared

Hi everyone

This week Ben visited the Raspberry Pi Foundation at their offices in Cambridge – where he got to meet Liz, Clive, Lance, Gordon and the team. This weekend he’ll be meeting up with resident artist Rachel Rayns at free culture unconference Oggcamp in Liverpool, where he’ll be running Raspberry Pi demos and attending free software talks. Ryan has been working with David Whale to train some students on how to use the Raspberry Pi as well as working on a new project alongside RPiDNS.

Pi community superstar and Google certified teacher Carrie Ann Philbin has had her new book Adventures in Raspberry Pi released – you can preorder on Amazon – and we highly recommend you do! It’s a bargain at £8.25!

The Foundation just announced a new product – the infrared camera. It’s something people have been asking for, for projects such as wildlife photography – and now the Foundation are committed to making them!

Also, one of Ben’s friends from the Manchester tech community, Dave Jones, has developed a pure Python interface to the Raspberry Pi camera module. It’s a really nice, really simple way of using the camera – you just import the picamera module and you can control the camera settings with simple Python commands. An easy install – so give it a try!

Enjoy!

Ben & Ryan

Picture of the week

One of the world’s biggest displays being powered using a Raspberry Pi to display race data at Greenpower by David Whale

News

• Infrared Camera (raspberrypi.org)
  The Camera Board now available without the infrared filter
• Adventures in Raspberry Pi (amazon.co.uk)
  Carrie Ann Philbin's new book available for pre-order now
• A Raspbian Wrapper for WiringPi (pi.gate.ac.uk)
  The WiringPi library is now packaged for Raspbian
• Ten Women in Tech You Need to Meet (theguardian.com)
  Top ten women in tech - featuring Liz Upton from the Foundation
• Sonic Pi tutorial with Miss Philbin (raspberrypi.org)
  Carrie Ann has written a comprehensive set of teaching materials for Sonic Pi

Projects

• RPi Step Sequencer / Drum Machine Project (pi.hardwiredonline.co.uk)
  A step sequencer in development with videos of the device in action
• Picamera (pypi.python.org)
  A pure Python interface to the camera board
• Low Cost HD Surveillance Cam (codeproject.com)
  Christoph Buenger's notes on making a CCTV camera with his Pi
• Scampering Halloween Rats (raspberrypi.org)
  Control LEDs inside a rubber rat to scare people this halloween

Articles & more

• Building the World’s Biggest Raspberry Pi Display (blog.whaleygeek.co.uk)
  David Whale explains how he helped make the large display work
• Remote Fireworks Ignition Box (fireworks-forum.org.uk)
  Details of a DIY fireworks ignition box built using a Raspberry Pi
• Computing Conversations: Eben Upton on the Raspberry Pi (youtube.com)
  A video of Charles Severance's interview with Eben
• Producers Not Consumers (wired.co.uk)
  Eben Upton: we need to create a generation of producers not consumers
• Raspberry Pi Bears Fruit for Engineer (telegraph.co.uk)
  Jacob Marsh of ModMyPi turned over nearly £1m in his first year
• A Pi for the Internet of Things (gigaom.com)
  Raspberry Pi didn’t intend to start a hacking revolution, just educate kids

Thanks to our sponsor

Pimoroni are a company of Makers and Educators.

They make the Pibow case, the PiGlow and PiHUB in their workshop in Sheffield, UK.

At weekends they strap motors onto their laser cutters and race them around the workshop.

Contact & Submissions

This newsletter is curated by @ben_nuttall. Tweet links to @rpf_weekly or email weekly [at] raspberrypi.org