M4All microscope

Reading Time: 3 minutesThe team, the NanoBioPhotonics group at the University of Strathclyde, have been using their imaging expertise to “investigate the mechanisms that macrophages (a type of immune cell in the body) employ to remove respiratory pathogens”, pathogens that, among other things, can lead to pneumonia or meningitis. “From my experience using research microscope facilities to image […]

Raspberry Pi hardware hacks

Reading Time: 3 minutesPortable power One of the easiest ways to take Raspberry Pi portable is to use a mobile phone charging bank. These sticks typically use a USB connection to hold power, and you can plug them into Raspberry Pi just like your phone charger. It’s a hack though – if you want a more secure solution, […]

REVIEW: Tiny 2040

Reading Time: 2 minutesYou can flash it with the Pico firmware and program it with MicroPython, C/C++, or CircuitPython. So it’s very versatile and easy to get started with. To achieve a smaller footprint, a few compromises have been made. Most notably, the Tiny 2040 only has a total of 16 pins versus Pico’s 40, plus a debug […]

Penkesu Computer

Reading Time: 3 minutesPenk was looking to build upon his work with mechanical keyboards. “I’d learned not only how to build them from scratch, or mould and cast my own key caps, but also how to use a laser engraver to melt pigment onto key caps to print my own legends,” he says. “I recall staring at those […]

OPINION: Rubber Soul

Reading Time: 2 minutesThis makes sense. Raspberry Pi is ideal for rediscovering retro classics; its modern processor is capable of faithfully emulating just about every beloved computer of our generation. And like many computer geeks of our generation, we loved many different 8- and 16-bit computers. My beloved computer of this month is the ZX Spectrum. Which is […]

REVIEW: Badger 2040

Reading Time: 2 minutesThe device comes fully assembled, so all you need to do is turn it on and load up the latest version of the software from Pimoroni’s GitHub page. Installation is a case of holding down the BOOT button to mount RP2040 onto the destkop, and copying the UF2 file to the mounted storage. There’s an […]

Retro barcode scanner

Reading Time: 3 minutes“It felt a shame to go to so much effort in restoring and repairing these classic machines only to hide them away in a cupboard,” he says. “A pipe dream began to form that I might one day be able to open an exhibition space for retro fans to come and enjoy them and, through […]

INTERVIEW: Mike Cook

Reading Time: 3 minutes“I am addicted to making stuff,” Mike tells us. “Now retired, but I was a university lecturer for 21 years and an electronic engineer in a mass-production consumer electronics company for the rest of my career.” What is your history with electronics and programming? My first electronic kit was called Trans Tronic. I got it […]

ZX Spectrum Raspberry Pi Cassette

Reading Time: 3 minutesStuart’s first computer, a ZX Spectrum, has a special place in his heart, so a Raspberry Pi project based around one seemed ideal. “They’re still great machines!” he says of the beloved computer which celebrates its 40th birthday this April.  Stuart loves repairing and running real hardware as well as emulations and thought “it would […]

Hidden Hacks for Raspberry Pi in The MagPi magazine issue #116

Reading Time: 3 minutesHidden Hacks for Raspberry Pi Get even more from your computer with our Hidden Hacks feature. We’ve got tips for the terminal, hacks for headless and hostnames, physical hints for the hardware, and Raspberry Pi OS software secrets. In short: there is a massive collection of tips & tricks that every Raspberry Pi owner should […]

Win! One of five 8BitDo Pro 2 controllers

Reading Time: < 1 minuteSave 37% off the cover price with a subscription to The MagPi magazine. Try three issues for just £5, then pay £25 every six issues. You’ll save money and get a regular supply of in-depth reviews, features, guides and other PC enthusiast goodness delivered directly to your door every month. Subscribe

Case study: XOGO digital signage

Reading Time: 2 minutesXOGO successfully launched its first bespoke media hardware – the XOGO Mini – in 2019. For its follow-up, XOGO founder and CMO Justin Miller knew price would be critical, especially as the company was aiming for growth along with the thriving digital signage market. He says that the choice of Raspberry Pi 4 for the […]

REVIEW: Argon EON

Reading Time: 3 minutesThe EON is a full network-attached storage (NAS) enclosure for your Raspberry Pi 4. Whereas previous NAS projects often involve a USB hub and cables to external drives, the EON fits up to four drives in an enclosure with a single power source. This allows you to build your own multi-drive storage solution for a […]

REVIEW: Argon EON

Reading Time: 3 minutesThe EON is a full network-attached storage (NAS) enclosure for your Raspberry Pi 4. Whereas previous NAS projects often involve a USB hub and cables to external drives, the EON fits up to four drives in an enclosure with a single power source. This allows you to build your own multi-drive storage solution for a […]

Speech-to-text badge

Reading Time: 3 minutesKevin’s idea was to transcribe everything he said in real-time and display it on a screen that could be worn as a badge. Since he works at Deepgram – which offers a deep learning speech recognition system – he already knew what software he was going to use. One of Kevin’s friends, Bevis, then suggested […]

Pica and Dot

Reading Time: 3 minutesThis effort used two motors, a DRV8833 motor driver, and a 70 mAh lithium-polymer battery. It moved along on three 8 mm wooden beads acting as wheels. To make it as small as possible, Kaisar decided to saw away Raspberry Pi Pico’s lower section. “I had a number of these boards, so I took the risk to […]

REVIEW: Trilobot

Reading Time: 3 minutesThe standard Base Kit includes everything you need, apart from a Raspberry Pi 4, microSD card, USB-C power bank, and optional Raspberry Pi Camera Module v2. Note, however, that you could use any full-size Raspberry Pi model and/or power bank by substituting the supplied USB-C cable with one for the connections you need. Easy assembly […]

Arbitrary waveform generator

Reading Time: 3 minutesWolfgang had made a hardware-based arbitrary waveform generator before, but having researched the capabilities of the RP2040 microcontroller and its support for DMA and PIO, he realised Raspberry Pi Pico would be ideal for amplifying waveform signals. MicroPython, which Pico natively supports, also happens to be Wolfgang’s preferred programming language. He decided to add an […]

Fancy Octopus Arcades

Reading Time: 3 minutesWhen Shonee documented their work on Instagram, people began to take notice. Their bespoke gaming arcade business, Fancy Octopus Arcades, “just sort of took off from there.” Bijou is beautiful Brooklyn resident Shonee started following a few Reddit and Facebook pages where he “saw folks making huge gaming rooms, loading them up with arcade cabinets, […]

REVIEW: 8BitDo Pro 2 Controller

Reading Time: 3 minutesReminiscent of a PlayStation DualShock, the Pro 2 controller has two analogue sticks, a D-pad, four buttons, four triggers, two Pro-level back buttons, Select, Start, Star, Heart, and Profile button. It’s certainly not short of a button or two. If all that wasn’t enough, there is an ‘SADX’ Mode switch underneath that swaps between four different […]

REVIEW: 8BitDo Pro 2 Controller

Reading Time: 3 minutesReminiscent of a PlayStation DualShock, the Pro 2 controller has two analogue sticks, a D-pad, four buttons, four triggers, two Pro-level back buttons, Select, Start, Star, Heart, and Profile button. It’s certainly not short of a button or two. If all that wasn’t enough, there is an ‘SADX’ Mode switch underneath that swaps between four different […]

PiGlass V2

Reading Time: 3 minutesOne maker, Matt Desmaris, recently revisited the idea. “I made PiGlass V1 in 2018,” he explains. “I wanted to try to make a heads-up display wearable and see how far I could take it. I kept running into performance issues with Raspberry Pi Zero when I was trying to add more features, and I made […]