Here is a poster for the January Pi jam. If anyone is able to print off or display on their website I would be very grateful as this really helps to promote.
Category Archives: hacking
Exeter Raspberry Pi jam – 1/11/2014
Today was another excellent pi jam up in Exeter, and well attended, the word is getting out there.
Highlights
Tom Brough demonstrated the parity bit trick and also had some coloured cones to demonstrate how a bubble sort works, you can try this take about 8 cones of different sizes and put them randomly in a line now sort them one by one so the line goes from biggest to smallest.
I spent some time, with some help working on getting scratch to talk to the pi liter, once done (not too difficult) we spent some time then creating a program that is the same as the chaser type program written in python. This works really well, further enhancements allows the user to interact, chance speed as well as stop / start the routine.
I also had a chat with another user who showed me his chromebook running lubuntu. This was also connected to the Pi with vnc, the performance was excellent.
Ivan was also showing various projects and we had minecraft running on another pi. In the fab lab was the usual beginner work shop where you can learn to light up leds on a bread (project) board using the raspberry Pi GPIO
So in all excellent, Looking forward to next week as it is the Torbay Pi jam from 1 – 3 at Paignton Library, good news is that the 3 sd cards (well micro + adapters) arrived to day so these are all ready for next week, I may look at preparing at least one with Noobs, as this may save time next week.
Thank you to Simon and Exeter library for hosting another pi jam and everyone who attended.
September Raspberry Pi jam
Torbay Raspberry Pi jam – Write up 13th September 2014
This month we had the usual mix of projects, help and advice.
First off :
Tom Brough brought along freddie and bob, to demonstrate, Freddie now has a user interface, written in python and I guess tkinter. This allows control over features, which colour the web cam detects OR you can control freddies arms with the interface. Again this proved popular and there could be some interest to run a build your own freddie activity at a future event.
Gordon was on hand to demonstrate some of his ever increasing array of add on boards for the Pi, this is now looking rather impressive esp with the pi-moroni kit to look at.
We also had the virtually safe people along in a tie in to advise people on internet safety, while we didn’t get anyone in specifically to see them, they did talk to the 3 young people and discussed issues that concerns them e.g swearing in chat rooms. The young people also showed them their projects, including a minecraft clone in scratch. We also installed minetest which is the free MC clone.
So a big thank you to the two PCSOs from the virtually safe team. I think you gained something from the chat with the young people which is a good thing. I will discuss getting you back in, in the mean time we have some flyers for the next Pi jam.
http://www.torbayvirtuallysafe.co.uk/
The Pi jam now have 3 laptops for people to use, the idea here being that these are extra computers to either run scratch, or perhaps use for remotely accessing a Raspberry Pi.
I helped a young lad and his dad with some advice on what is needed to get started with a Pi, where to buy from and what can be done with a pi, and then left them to have a go with scratch / Python.
A big thank you to everyone involved, and especially Dan S for bringing two laptops and a stack of Maplins flyers down. Thank you also goes to Rob Beard for PAT testing the PSU’s this means they are certified as safe for people to use.
The next Pi jam in Devon is 4th October at Exeter library 10 – 12
The next Pi jam in Torbay is 11th October, this is the same week as European code week, so the Jam is listed on the codeweek website.
Please tell friends, teachers, work colleages, children / young people lets get lots of people to the events in October.
The event is slowly building up, we took positives from today so we are working on a few items behind the scenes.
Next time expect more of the same, I am hoping to demonstrate ToriOS which is a minimal Linux based operating system based on Ubuntu 12.04 (http://www.torios.org/)
There is more to a Pi jam than simply Raspberry Pi. It is also about coding, education, help & advice and keeping safe while coding.
Torbay Raspberry Pi jam
Torbay Raspberry Pi jam – Paignton Library 13:00 to 15:00
Torbay Pi Jam – Call for papers
As I am part of the team that run the Torbay Pi Raspberry Pi jam. This is a call out for anyone who would like to either do a demonstration or do a talk at a future pi jam,.
So, If you would like to do a talk or demo or can help in other ways please get in touch,
Fab Lab Taster Courses
DEVON FAB LAB TASTER COURSES
** An Introduction to 3D Printing ------------------------------------------------------------ Saturday 16^th Aug - 11am , 1pm, 3pm. ** An Introduction to Laser Engraving ------------------------------------------------------------ Saturday 23^rd Aug - 11am , 1pm, 3pm. ** Printing Customised Cases and Covers ------------------------------------------------------------ Saturday 30^th Aug - 11am , 1pm, 3pm. ** An Introduction to CNC Routing ------------------------------------------------------------ Saturday 6^th September - 11am , 1pm, 3pm. ** An Introduction to Computerised Embroidery ------------------------------------------------------------ Saturday13^th September - 11am , 1pm, 3pm. ** Bookings via our Eventbrite page: http://fablabdevon.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b8a10c99f56bd80ad9ba5aaa5&id=9846107b4b&e=2c61775a67
Windows 3.1 in Dosbox
Last night I decided to have a go at seeing if Windows 3.1 would run in dosbox. Surprisingly it does, and pretty quick too, you need to download the dos mouse driver and run that before starting windows but other than that it works. The install was pretty quick too.
Windows 3.1 running in DOSbox
I copied the folder i have all my dosbox items in over to the pi and tried this on that, you need to run dosbox through x in order for the keyboard to work properly (or it seems by default you do) so this slows things down, dosbox will run without X but the keyboard mapping was seriously messed up,
I guess this being a more proof of concept idea as I am not really sure what I would need windows 3.1 for, mind you there was an excellent periodic table program with decay trees for elements which was pretty good. Kinda out of date now as since then we have discovered and named more elements, and named beyond their initial Latin numerical names.
http://www.nikeairmaxfreerun.com air max 95
Raspberry Pi jam July 14 – Torbay
For anyone who missed out today, we had another great pi jam, Big thank you to those that turned up and the 4 young people who also made it.
Again today was a good mix, Tom demonstrated his latest project: a face with a built in webcam that can track a coloured ball using OpenCV! This uses both Raspberry Pi and Arduino.
Video
One of the young people showed me the fg and bg commands, so my pi-liter project can now run but be put in the background, while it runs. I showed him the cowsay command, and one of the other young people got cmatrix working. These young people are uber L337.
I attempted to install Skype from Ubuntu software centre, failed, tried to download and then tell the installer to run through software centre, that failed, so just used dpkg and it worked fine without problems! I put a few notes on my website about this.
We could now do with more monitors and Pis, so we can get more people set up with Pis. I think we may have a few laptops at a future jam.
Torbay Pi jam July 14
For anyone who missed out today, we had another great pi jam, Big thank you to those from the Lug that turned up and the 4 young people who also made it.
Again today was a good mix, tom demonstrated his latest project a face with a built in webcam that can track a coloured ball using open CV, this uses both Raspberry Pi and Arduino.
Video
One of the young people showed me the fg and bg commands, so my pi-liter project can now run but be put in the backgroiund, while it runs. I showed him the cow say command, and one of the other young people got cmatrix working.
I attempted to install scratch from ubuntu software centre, failed, tried to download and then tell the installer to run through software centre, that failed, so just used dpkg worked fine without problems.
Pi jam Write up July 14
Just got back from the Raspberry Pi jam in Exeter and have included a few photos below of some of the things on show.
First off is Tom Broughs Excellent Wii remote scratch game, this uses Python to take input from the wii remote via bluetooth and pass it on to scratch, so that the cat can be controlled to move around and catch / eat falling fish.
Still with tom, we had handy (robot arm controlled from scratch) and Bob the robot which as arduino at its heart.
We also had Lego Rovers Devon make an appearance, amazing what you can do with lego and the nxt block
We also helped Chinna out with his buggy made from an old remote control car and raspberry pi.
Chinnas Blog can be found here http://scientistnobee.wordpress.com/2014/07/05/raspberry-pi-spotter/ And a link to github for the code https://github.com/scientistnobee/Raspberry-Pi-Spotter
Scratch game created by one of the young people.
This is the new Raspberry Pi compute module courtesy of Gordon Henderson
Trevor sharp had a Self made IO board on show
Demo of my own Pilte, More info on my website at http://www.zleap.net
Minecraft on the pi
Arduino based distance measuring project using the ultrasonic module HC-SR04
Simons pi powered music chimer.
Fab lab was open, showcasing the range of things that can be made with some of their kit
