Discover award-winning makes in The MagPi magazine issue #108

Reading Time: 3 minutesAward-Winning Makes A good project can change the world for the better. And we like to think the projects we cover in The MagPi make a difference. Discovering the projects that have won awards is a great way to pick your next make. There are lots of awards and medals for influential makes. These are […]

Win a Marty the Robot V2!

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

Tiny Polapi-Zero

Reading Time: < 1 minute01: Print This project uses a custom 3D-printed camera chassis that works using the exact parts listed. It will fit the classic Raspberry Pi Camera Module, the buttons, and the screen, as well as a Raspberry Pi Zero to power it all. 02: Download and install The creator, Pierre Muth, has done some great programming […]

GrowLab

Reading Time: < 1 minuteIt requires a really simple set of hardware to oversee your plants – namely a Raspberry Pi and a Camera Module. With it, you can track the growth using the camera, and you can easily add extra sensors to try to help automate the growing. “Everyone is welcome to join #growlab,” Alex says on the […]

Pip-Boy

Reading Time: 2 minutes01: Prototype As you’re making a lot of parts from scratch, prototyping with cardboard or paper on each step is a great way to make sure your patterns and cuts and modifications will work in real life. Remember: gluing stuff back together ranges from ‘a big pain’ to ‘impossible’. 02: Test As with most projects, […]

Become a Raspberry Pi Genius

Reading Time: 3 minutesYou’d be forgiven for wondering what all these new terms are, but read on and you’ll not only learn what they mean, you’ll become a Raspberry Pi genius in the process! Identify your Raspberry Pi hardware With a range of Raspberry Pi computers to choose from, the first step to becoming a Raspberry Pi genius […]

Plant Rotator

Reading Time: 3 minutes“My wife was getting tired of having to turn her plant and I needed a project to work on for my ‘Introduction to Making’ class [at MIT],” he recalls. The bud of an idea formed and, after about a month of finessing his make, the Plant Rotator was the very practical and ingenious result. Innovate […]

Build an arcade machine: Decorate your cabinet

Reading Time: 8 minutesOur vinyl decals, bought from Omniretro, arrived on a roll and had to be cut out, but some firms will die-cut vinyls for you. We’ll use a wet application process, which makes it easier to remove and reposition decals for a short while after initial placement, to help you get a perfect alignment. 01: Flatten […]

Thonny Online Collab

Reading Time: < 1 minuteOne of the emails we got this month was from a group of students graduating from Calvin University in Michigan, USA. Brad Ritzema, Samuel Zeleke, and Enoch Mwesigwa created a live collaboration plug-in for the Thonny Python IDE. It basically allows you to code with other people. Their paper addresses the issues with teaching industry […]

RUHAcam

Reading Time: 3 minutesDesigned by Ruha Cheng and constructed by her husband Penk Chen, the retro-styling comes courtesy of a 3D-printed case brought to life with the addition of faux leather patches wrapped around the body. “The look was inspired by Tokyo’s old camera shops,” Penk reveals. “Ruha is an illustrator and designer and has experience with film […]

Review: micro:Pi

Reading Time: 2 minutesIn this case, micro:Pi uses a Raspberry Pi 3A+ as its base, making use of the smaller footprint of the square A+ range. All the extra bits and bobs are neatly stacked on top, only increasing its vertical size in the process. It has an impressive array of components attached as well, including lights, IR […]

Review: Marty the Robot V2

Reading Time: 3 minutesAll of this movement is controlled by a custom RIC (Robot Interface Controller) based upon an ESP32 microcontroller. It has built-in Bluetooth, wireless LAN, an accelerometer, and a speaker. It’s powered by a rechargeable battery with a built-in USB-C charger. With his big blue head and various accessories, Marty is a good-looking piece of kit, […]

Interview: Al Pemartin

Reading Time: 2 minutes“I usually just describe myself as a ‘content creator’,” Al tells us. “But to [be specific], I’m not only a music producer, but a DJ, a sound engineer, a streamer, and I have a radio chain, and two stores: one for clothing and one for headbands.” Al was on the stream for only a short […]

FINAL WORD: Compatibility

Reading Time: 2 minutesIt got me thinking about how I use/have used older Raspberry Pi in the past. Up until recently, I was using a Raspberry Pi 2 as my in-home file server with no problems. I still have a NES controller that I use for NES emulation, that has a pre-production Raspberry Pi Zero inside it. I […]

Pico Pong

Reading Time: 3 minutes“I love playing old games in RetroPie on my Raspberry Pi 4 with my son Luke,” he tells us, “so when I realised what a perfect fit Pico’s PIO would be for generating a VGA signal, my mind went to a reimagining of one of the greatest games of all time.” It took Nick about […]

MiniSplitPi

Reading Time: 3 minutesIt’s a remote-control device powered by Raspberry Pi that controls a mini-split heat pump, which is a kind of heating and cooling unit used in some homes. “Mini-split heat pumps use a lot of energy when it is really cold out, and are the one home device we have that may continue to run unnoticed […]

Apple iPad Magic Mirror

Reading Time: 3 minutes“My iPad was so old that apps didn’t really work any more and the Safari browser wasn’t performing well with modern websites,” he says. “The glass was also cracked and the batteries didn’t charge, so it was heading to the bin.” Or at least it was until Chris decided to use it as the basis […]

Temperature monitor

Reading Time: 3 minutesAt Philip’s workplace, a laser eye surgery, employees would need to get their temperature taken and then fill out a paper form to confirm that they could work. “I was given the assignment to digitise this process using a touchscreen device,” he tells us. “I thought that it would be nice to combine the process […]

Become a Raspberry Pi Genius – boost your knowledge in The MagPi magazine issue #107

Reading Time: 3 minutesBecome a Raspberry Pi genius Wes and Lucy have been poring over Raspberry Pi’s engineering documentation and pooling the team’s knowledge. In this month’s lead feature we look at a whole range of techniques, and tricks, that can be used to get an errant Raspberry Pi working properly. You’ll gain a deep understanding of Raspberry […]

Win a THine Cable Extension Kit!

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

Raspberry Pi Ri

Reading Time: 2 minutes“I was using Raspberry Pi 400, and I had a small problem with the placement of the GPIO,” he tells us. “I couldn’t reach it without turning the entire thing, and it would stop my workflow to plug things in. The lack of labelling on a breadboard is also a problem for me. I keep […]

Smart Buoy

Reading Time: 3 minutes“We wanted to create a solution,” she tells us, “that would be cheap to build, easy to run, and provide meaningful data. In the bigger picture, it feels really important that we’re able to build continuous datasets so we can get a more thorough picture of what’s happening at our coasts.” It was also important […]