Pro Cycling Manager 2018 is Now Available on Steam!
Step into the shoes of sports manager and lead your pro cycling team through a challenge-packed 2018 season. Compete in over 200 races across 500 stages around the world, including famous Tours such as La Vuelta and the iconic Tour de France. Website: LINK
Next Up Hero is Now Available on Steam!
Fight. Die. Win! (And probably die some more.) There are no health kits. Sorry! Website: LINK
Hey folks, Rob here with good news about the latest edition of The MagPi! Issue 71, out right now, is all about running Android on Raspberry Pi with the help of emteria.OS and Android Things.
Android and Raspberry Pi, two great tastes that go great together!
A big part of our main feature looks at emteria.OS, a version of Android that runs directly on the Raspberry Pi. By running it on a touchscreen setup, you can use your Pi just like an Android tablet — one that’s easily customisable and hackable for all your embedded computing needs. Inside the issue, we’ve got a special emteria.OS discount code for readers.
We also look at Android Things, the official Android release for Raspberry Pi that focuses on IoT applications, and we show you some of the amazing projects that have been built with it.
If Android’s not your thing, we also have a big feature on building a Raspberry Pi weather station in issue 71!
Build your own Raspberry Pi weather station
On top of that, we’ve included guides on how to get started with TensorFlow AI and on building an oscilloscope.
We really loved this card scanning project! Read all about it in issue 71.
All this, along with our usual varied selection of project showcases, excellent tutorials, and definitive reviews!
You can get The MagPi 71 today from WHSmith, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Asda. If you live in the US, head over to your local Barnes & Noble or Micro Center in the next few days for a print copy. You can also get the new issue online from our store, or digitally via our Android or iOS apps. And don’t forget, there’s always the free PDF as well.
Want to support the Raspberry Pi Foundation and the magazine? We’ve launched a new way to subscribe to the print version of The MagPi: you can now take out a monthly £5 subscription to the magazine, effectively creating a rolling pre-order system that saves you money on each issue.
You can also take out a twelve-month print subscription and get a Pi Zero W plus case and adapter cables absolutely free! This offer does not currently have an end date.
That’s it, folks! See you at Raspberry Fields.
Website: LINK
The Steam Intergalactic Summer Sale continues! For the next eight days, take advantage of huge savings throughout our store on over ten thousand games. You can also help unlock free games by playing our Summer Saliens Game.
Today’s Featured Deals include:
Assassin’s Creed Franchise – Up to 66% off
They Are Billions – 20% off
Hollow Knight – 34% off
Euro Truck Simulator 2 – 75% off
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive – 50% off
Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII – 40% off
Watch_Dogs Franchise – 67% off
Age of Wonders Franchise – Up to 75% off
and many more
Along with the sale is the Summer Saliens Game. Team up with other Saliens to fight The Duldrumz on different planets and free the abducted games. Gain XP as you battle, level up, unlock new abilities, and win cosmetic items to deck out your Salien. Plus, get Summer Sale Trading Cards just for playing.
Choose to battle on a planet that piques your interest and you’ll automatically be entered for a chance to win one of its rewards when it’s conquered. The longer your Salien spends on a planet the higher your chances of winning! The groups with the most tiles when a planet is taken will get to plant their flag as conquerors, undoubtedly gaining Saliverse-wide fame in the process.
The Steam Intergalactic Summer Sale will run until 10 AM Pacific, July 5th. Complete information can be found HERE.
Website: LINK
Fight the urge to chant the Avril Lavigne song as you cruise the streets on Pieter Thomas’s speed- and distance-tracking skateboard.
“That is sweet!” exclaimed Ben Nuttall when I shared this project on the Raspberry Pi Slack channel. And indeed it is — a simple idea, perfectly executed, resulting in a final product that actually managed to coax a genuine and positive response from Ben!
Project creator Pieter Thomas, a student at Howest Kortrijk University, needed to show off his skills by building a ‘something’ for his course. His inspiration?
I came up with this idea because I like to skate and cruise around. While I’m cruising, it would be handy to see how much distance I’ve travelled and see my speed.
So he decided to incorporate an odometer, a speedometer, and an RFID reader into a skateboard to produce this neat build.
While Pieter has an Arduino manage the onboard RFID reader, he’s put a Raspberry Pi 3 in charge of everything else, including the speed and distance readings taken with the help of a hall effect sensor (a transducer that uses magnetic fields to manage voltage output).
Pieter added the RFID reader to identify different users, with databases allowing for session data collection — perfect for time and speed challenges among friends!
All the electronics live in a Tupperware-like container that Pieter screwed to the bottom of the board. Holes in the deck display an LCD screen, a potentiometer, and a buzzer.
To allow speed and distance calculations, Pieter drilled a hole into one of the wheels and inserted a magnet. Once per wheel rotation, the hall effect sensor recognises the passing magnet. The build records the time taken between passes, computes the speed and distance covered, and shows them on the LCD screen.
Pieter’s Instructables project page goes into a lot more detail of how to build your own skate-o-meter. If you’ve used a Pi for your skateboarding project, make sure to let us know!
Other impressive Raspberry Pi–based board builds include Tim Maier’s motorised skateboard, aka the first blog post I ever wrote for Raspberry Pi, and Matt ‘The Raspberry Pi Guy’ Timmons-Brown’s 30kmph longboard, aka the project that resulted in this video of Raspberry Pi’s Director of Software Engineering:
Sk8r Pi ft. The Raspberry Pi Guy… and Gordon
The Raspberry Pi Guy popped into Pi Towers to show off his new creation. While skating up and down the office on his Pi-powered skateboard, our Director of Software Engineering, Gordon Hollingworth, decided to have a go.
Website: LINK
The Steam Intergalactic Summer Sale continues! For the next nine days, take advantage of huge savings throughout our store on over ten thousand games. You can also help unlock free games by playing our Summer Saliens Game.
Today’s Featured Deals include:
Slay the Spire – 37% off
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands – 67% off
Metal Gear Solid Franchise – Up to 80% off
Mafia III – 65% off
Elite Dangerous – 55% off
Okami HD – 30% off
Hellblad Senua’s Sacrifice – 33% off
Rocket League – 50% off
and many more
Along with the sale is the Summer Saliens Game. Team up with other Saliens to fight The Duldrumz on different planets and free the abducted games. Gain XP as you battle, level up, unlock new abilities, and win cosmetic items to deck out your Salien. Plus, get Summer Sale Trading Cards just for playing.
Choose to battle on a planet that piques your interest and you’ll automatically be entered for a chance to win one of its rewards when it’s conquered. The longer your Salien spends on a planet the higher your chances of winning! The groups with the most tiles when a planet is taken will get to plant their flag as conquerors, undoubtedly gaining Saliverse-wide fame in the process.
The Steam Intergalactic Summer Sale will run until 10 AM Pacific, July 5th. Complete information can be found HERE.
Website: LINK
This week, the ten winning Astro Pi Mission Space Lab teams got to take part in a video conference with ESA Astronaut Tim Peake!
ESA Astro Pi students meet Tim Peake
Uploaded by Raspberry Pi on 2018-06-26.
In 2014, Raspberry Pi Foundation partnered with the UK Space Agency and the European Space Agency to fly two Raspberry Pi computers to the International Space Station. These Pis, known as Astro Pis Ed and Izzy, are each equipped with a Sense HAT and Camera Module (IR or Vis) and housed within special space-hardened cases.
In our annual Astro Pi Challenge, young people from all 22 ESA member states have the opportunity to design and code experiments for the Astro Pis to become the next generation of space scientists.
Back in September, we announced the 2017/2018 European Astro Pi Challenge, in partnership with the European Space Agency. This year, for the first time, the Astro Pi Challenge comprised two missions: Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab.
Mission Zero is a new entry-level challenge that allows young coders to have their message displayed to the astronauts on-board the ISS. It finished up in February, with more than 5400 young people in over 2500 teams taking part!
For Mission Space Lab, young people work like real scientists by designing their own experiment to investigate one of two topics:
For this topic, young coders write code to run on Astro Pi Vis (Ed) in the Columbus module to investigate life aboard the ISS.
For this topic, young people design a code experiment to run on Astro Pi IR (Izzy), aimed towards the Earth through a window, to investigate life down on our planet.
We had more than 1400 students across 330 teams take part in this year’s Mission Space Lab. Teams who submitted an eligible idea for an experiment received an Astro Pi kit from ESA to develop their Python code. These kits contain the same hardware that’s aboard the ISS, enabling students to test their experiments in conditions similar to those on the space station. The best experiments were granted flight status earlier this year, and the code of these teams ran on the ISS in April.
The teams received the results of their experiments and were asked to submit scientific reports based on their findings. Just a few weeks ago, 98 teams sent us brilliant reports, and we had the difficult task of whittling the pool of teams down to find the final ten winners!
As you can see in the video above, the winning teams were lucky enough to take part in a very special video conference with ESA Astronaut Tim Peake.
The Dark Side of Light from Branksome Hall, Canada, investigated whether the light pollution in an area could be used to determine the source of energy for the electricity consumption.
Spaceballs from Attert Lycée Redange, Luxembourg, successfully calculated the speed of the ISS by analysing ground photographs.
Enrico Fermi from Liceo XXV Aprile, Italy, investigated the link between the Astro Pi’s magnetometer and X-ray measurements from the GOES-15 satellite.
Team Aurora from Hyvinkään yhteiskoulun lukio, Finland, showed how the Astro Pi’s magnetometer could be used to map the Earth’s magnetic field and determine the latitude of the ISS.
@stroMega from Institut de Genech, France, used Astro Pi Izzy’s near-infrared Camera Module to measure the health and density of vegetation on Earth.
Ursa Major from a CoderDojo in Belgium created a program to autonomously measure the percentage of vegetation, water, and clouds in photographs from Astro Pi Izzy.
Canarias 1 from IES El Calero, Spain, built on existing data and successfully determined whether the ISS was eclipsed from on-board sensor data.
The Earth Watchers from S.T.E.M Robotics Academy, Greece, used Astro Pi Izzy to compare the health of vegetation in Quebec, Canada, and Guam.
Trentini DOP from CoderDojo Trento, Italy, investigated the stability of the on-board conditions of the ISS and whether or not they were effected by eclipsing.
Team Lampone from CoderDojo Trento, Italy, accurately measured the speed of the ISS by analysing ground photographs taken by Astro Pi Izzy.
Well done to everyone who took part, and massive congratulations to all the winners!
Website: LINK
The Steam Intergalactic Summer Sale continues! For the next ten days, take advantage of huge savings throughout our store on over ten thousand games. You can also help unlock free games by playing our Summer Saliens Game.
Today’s Featured Deals include:
Grand Theft Auto V – 67% off
The Surge – 60% off
Human Fall Flat – 50% off
Dark Souls III – 75% off
South Park: The Fractured But Whole – 67% off
Enter the Gungeon – 50% off
Mortal Kombat X – 66% off
Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition – 75% off
and many more
Along with the sale is the Summer Saliens Game. Team up with other Saliens to fight The Duldrumz on different planets and free the abducted games. Gain XP as you battle, level up, unlock new abilities, and win cosmetic items to deck out your Salien. Plus, get Summer Sale Trading Cards just for playing.
Choose to battle on a planet that piques your interest and you’ll automatically be entered for a chance to win one of its rewards when it’s conquered. The longer your Salien spends on a planet the higher your chances of winning! The groups with the most tiles when a planet is taken will get to plant their flag as conquerors, undoubtedly gaining Saliverse-wide fame in the process.
The Steam Intergalactic Summer Sale will run until 10 AM Pacific, July 5th. Complete information can be found HERE.
Website: LINK
The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit is Now Available on Steam!
Have you ever dreamt of being a superhero? Meet Chris, a creative and imaginative 9 year old boy who escapes reality with fantastical adventures as his alter ego, the Awesome Captain Spirit!
Captain Spirit is a free demo set in the Life is Strange universe. Contains links to Life is Strange 2 Website: LINK
Tired of using the same old plastic LEDs in your projects? It’s time to grab a hot glue gun and some confectionary moulds to create your own custom LEDs!
Lighting up an LED is the standard first step into the world of digital making with a Raspberry Pi. For example, at our two-day Picademy training events, budding Raspberry Pi Certified Educators are shown the ropes of classroom digital making by learning how to connect an LED to a Pi and use code to make it blink.
Anastasia Hanneken on Twitter
Blinking LED Light @Raspberry_Pi #picademy! https://t.co/zhTODYsBxp
And while LEDs come in various sizes, they’re all pretty much the same shape: small, coloured domes of plastic with pointy legs that always manage to draw blood when I grab them from the depths of my maker drawer.
So why not do away with the boring and make some new LEDs based on your favourite characters and shapes?
The process of creating your own custom LEDs is pretty simple, but it’s not without its risk — namely, burnt fingertips and sizzled LEDs! So be careful when making these, and supervise young children throughout the process.
I used flexible ice cube trays, but you could also use chocolate moulds. As long as the mould is flexible, this should work — I haven’t tried hard plastic moulds, so I can’t make any promises for those. Also be sure to test whether your mould will withstand the heat of the hot glue!
Before you submerge your LEDs in hot glue, check to make sure they work. The easiest way to do this is to set up a testing station using a Pi, a breadboard, some jumper wires, and a resistor. To save having to write code, I used the 3V3 pin and a ground pin.
Remember, the shorter of the two legs connects to the ground pin, while the longer goes to 3V3. If you mix this up, you may end up with a fried LED like this poor LEGO man.
Everything isn’t awesome.
Once you’ve confirmed that your LED works, bend its legs to make it easier to insert it into the glue.
Next, grab a hot glue gun and fill a mould. The glue will take a while to cool, so you have some time to make sure that all nooks and crannies are filled before you insert an LED.
Tip: test a corner of your mould with the tip of your glue gun to check how heat-resistant it is. One of my moulds didn’t enjoy heat and began to bubble.
Once your mould is properly filled, push an LED into the glue, holding on to the legs to keep your fingertips safe. Have a wiggle around to find the bottom and sides of your mould and ensure that your LED is in the centre.
Pick a colour best suited to your mould. You could try using multiple LEDs on larger moulds to introduce more colours!
You may notice that the LED tries to sink a little and the legs begin to drop. Keep an eye out and adjust them if you need to. They’ll stop moving once the glue begins to set.
These took about ten minutes to cool down.
Don’t rush. The hot glue will take time to cool down, especially if you’re using a larger mould like the one for this Stormtrooper helmet.
Here I used a gumdrop LED, which is larger than your standard maker kit LED.
You’ll know that the glue has set when the shape pulls away easily from the mould. It should just pop out when its ready.
Pop!
Test your new custom LED one more time on your testing rig to ensure you haven’t damaged the connections.
As with all LEDs, they look better in the dark (and terrible when you try to take a photo of them), so try testing them in a dim room or at night. You could also use a box to create a small testing lab if you’re planning to make a lot of these.
What custom LED would you want to make? How would you use it in your next project? And what other fun hacks have you used to augment tech for your builds?
Website: LINK
The Steam Intergalactic Summer Sale continues! For the next eleven days, take advantage of huge savings throughout our store on over ten thousand games. You can also help unlock free games by playing our Summer Saliens Game.
Today’s Featured Deals include:
The Elder Scrolls Franchise – Up to 50% off
Tomb Raider Franchise – Up to 89% off
Battletech – 20% off
The Long Dark – 75% off
Star Trek: Bridge Crew – 50% off
Sid Meier’s Civilization Franchise – Up to 75% off
Mad Max – 75% off
Portal 2 – 90% off
and many more
Along with the sale is the Summer Saliens Game. Team up with other Saliens to fight The Duldrumz on different planets and free the abducted games. Gain XP as you battle, level up, unlock new abilities, and win cosmetic items to deck out your Salien. Plus, get Summer Sale Trading Cards just for playing.
Choose to battle on a planet that piques your interest and you’ll automatically be entered for a chance to win one of its rewards when it’s conquered. The longer your Salien spends on a planet the higher your chances of winning! The groups with the most tiles when a planet is taken will get to plant their flag as conquerors, undoubtedly gaining Saliverse-wide fame in the process.
The Steam Intergalactic Summer Sale will run until 10 AM Pacific, July 5th. Complete information can be found HERE.
Website: LINK
The Steam Intergalactic Summer Sale continues! For the next twelve days, take advantage of huge savings throughout our store on over ten thousand games. You can also help unlock free games by playing our Summer Saliens Game.
Today’s Featured Deals include:
Kingdom Come Deliverance – 30% off
Darkest Dungeon – 70% off
The Witcher III: Wild Hunt – 60% off
Far Cry Franchise – Up to 66% off
Bayonetta – 66% off
Project Cars 2 – 60% off
Nioh: Complete Edition – 40% off
and many more
Along with the sale is the Summer Saliens Game. Team up with other Saliens to fight The Duldrumz on different planets and free the abducted games. Gain XP as you battle, level up, unlock new abilities, and win cosmetic items to deck out your Salien. Plus, get Summer Sale Trading Cards just for playing.
Choose to battle on a planet that piques your interest and you’ll automatically be entered for a chance to win one of its rewards when it’s conquered. The longer your Salien spends on a planet the higher your chances of winning! The groups with the most tiles when a planet is taken will get to plant their flag as conquerors, undoubtedly gaining Saliverse-wide fame in the process.
The Steam Intergalactic Summer Sale will run until 10 AM Pacific, July 5th. Complete information can be found HERE.
Website: LINK
The Steam Intergalactic Summer Sale continues! For the next thirteen days, take advantage of huge savings throughout our store on over ten thousand games. You can also help unlock free games by playing our Summer Saliens Game.
Today’s Featured Deals include:
Tom Clancy’s The Division – 80% off
Prey – 50% off
Warhammer: Vermintide 2 – 34% off
Planet Coaster – 55% off
Just Cause 3 – 85% off
Sudden Strike 4 – 65% off
Undertale – 50% off
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series – 50% off
and many more
Along with the sale is the Summer Saliens Game. Team up with other Saliens to fight The Duldrumz on different planets and free the abducted games. Gain XP as you battle, level up, unlock new abilities, and win cosmetic items to deck out your Salien. Plus, get Summer Sale Trading Cards just for playing.
Choose to battle on a planet that piques your interest and you’ll automatically be entered for a chance to win one of its rewards when it’s conquered. The longer your Salien spends on a planet the higher your chances of winning! The groups with the most tiles when a planet is taken will get to plant their flag as conquerors, undoubtedly gaining Saliverse-wide fame in the process.
The Steam Intergalactic Summer Sale will run until 10 AM Pacific, July 5th. Complete information can be found HERE.
Website: LINK
Using motion detection and a Raspberry Pi Zero W, Lukas Stratmann has produced this rather creepy moving eye in a jar. And with a little bit of, ahem, dissection, you can too!
Floating Eye in a Jar With Motion Tracking
Made for an Arts seminar I attended for my General Studies, i.e. classes not organized by the faculty for CompSci: “Interaktive Exponate entwickeln mit dem RaspberryPi” (translation: Development of interactive exhibitions with the RaspberryPi). Music: Rise by Meydän: CC-BY http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Meydan/For_Creators/Rise_1709 I embedded some neodymium magnets in a ping-pong ball that I’d cut open.
We hear you. Among the Raspberry Pi projects we’ve shared on this blog, Lukas’s eye in a jar is definitely one of the eww-est. But the idea and the tech behind it is quite fascinating.
Lukas hasn’t shared the code for his project online. But with a bit of sleuthing, we’re sure the Raspberry Pi community can piece it together.
What we do know is that the project uses a Raspberry Pi Zero W, a camera, some magnets, a servo, and a ping pong ball, with a couple of 3D-printed parts to keep everything in place. Lukas has explained:
I embedded some neodymium magnets in a ping-pong ball that I’d cut open. The magnets and weights (two 20 Euro cent coins) are held in place by a custom 3D-printed mount. Everything is glued in with hot glue, and I sealed the ping-pong ball with silicone sealant and painted it with acrylic paint.
Beneath the jar, a servo motor is connected to a second set of magnets. When the servo moves, these magnets cause the eyeball to move in tandem, by magnet magic.
Using this tutorial by Lukas incorporated motion detection into his project, allowing the camera to track passers-by, and the Pi to direct the servo and eyeball.
The best skill of makers is their ability to figure out how things work to recreate them. So if you’re up for the challenge, we’d love to see you try to build your own tribute to Lukas’s eye in a jar.
And why stop there? Using magnets and servos with your Raspberry Pi opens up a world of projects, such as Bethanie’s amazing Harry Potter–inspired wizard chess set!
How would you use them in your builds?
Website: LINK
The Steam Intergalactic Summer Sale is here! For the next fourteen days, take advantage of huge savings throughout our store on over ten thousand games. You can also help unlock free games by playing our Summer Saliens Game.
Today’s Featured Deals include:
Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds 33% off
Fallout Franchise up to 50% off
Dead Cells 40% off
Grim Dawn 70% off
Everspace 67% off
Tyranny 66% off
Nino Kuni II 40% off
Dark and Light 50% off
and many more
Along with the sale is the Summer Saliens Game. Team up with other Saliens to fight The Duldrumz on different planets and free the abducted games. Gain XP as you battle, level up, unlock new abilities, and win cosmetic items to deck out your Salien. Plus, get Summer Sale Trading Cards just for playing.
Choose to battle on a planet that piques your interest and you’ll automatically be entered for a chance to win one of its rewards when it’s conquered. The longer your Salien spends on a planet the higher your chances of winning! The groups with the most tiles when a planet is taken will get to plant their flag as conquerors, undoubtedly gaining Saliverse-wide fame in the process.
The Steam Intergalactic Summer Sale will run from now until 10 AM Pacific, July 5th. Complete information can be found HERE.
Website: LINK
Save up to 95% on Steam Hardware as part of the Intergalactic Summer Salel*!
*Offer ends Thursday, July 5th at 10AM Pacific Time Website: LINK
On Monday, we welcomed TheWaveVR to Oculus Rift. Since then, we’ve seen rave reviews (pun intended), with members of the Rift community calling it “my favorite VR experience” and “some next level sh1t.” And now, this immersive music platform takes another innovative step forward with the release of See Without Eyes—a brand-new album and live show from cutting-edge electronic artists The Glitch Mob you can experience on Rift for free, starting today at 7:00 pm PT!
“We are excited to present the See Without Eyes VR Experience in partnership with TheWaveVR and Strangeloop Studios,” The Glitch Mob says. “This is a completely new way to experience music. We cannot wait for you all to take this journey with us.”
During a 20-minute custom mix of the band’s third studio album, you’ll explore a number of shifting environments while interacting with other people on both Rift and HTC Vive. Those without VR headsets can also join in the fun with Facebook Live. Once the live show is complete, fans will be able to revisit a looped version of the experience in TheWaveVR at any time.
“Imagine being able to fly through fantastical dreamscapes made from The Glitch Mob’s music alongside your friends- or meet people from around the world,” explains TheWaveVR CEO and Co-Founder Adam Arrigo. “In The Glitch Mob VR experience, players literally embody the cosmos while they create parts of the light show as the audience. Part concert, part film, part rave, part art installation, the only way to understand it is to put on the headset and take the trip.”
Clear your living room and get the dance party started when The Glitch Mob drops the bass in TheWaveVR, tonight at 7:00 pm PT on Rift!
— The Oculus Team
Website: LINK
Arduino is officially brilliant. It’s the perfect companion for your Raspberry Pi, opening up new possibilities for robotics, drones and all sorts of physical computing projects. In HackSpace magazine issue 8 we’re taking a look at what’s going on on planet Arduino, and how it can make our world better.
This little board and its ecosystem are hugely important to the world of digital making. It’s affordable, it’s powerful, and it’s open hardware so you know that if you embed one of these in a project and the company goes bust tomorrow, the hardware will always be viable.
Arduino has helped power a new generation of digital makers, and now with a new team in charge, new boards and new software, it’s ready for the next generation.
We get to speak to loads of fascinating people, but this month marks the first time we’ve ever met a science busker. Meet Stephen Summers, a former teacher who makes a mess with cornflour, water, and sound waves, all in the name of sharing the joy of physics.
While we love messing about with digital technologies, we’re also a big fan of good old-fashioned craft skills. And you can’t get much more old-fashioned than traditional glass-blowing. Join us as we attempt to turn red hot molten glass into a multicoloured object without burning ourselves or setting anything on fire.
People are endlessly clever, inventive, and all-round brilliant. A fantastic example is Björk, the Icelandic musician whose work defies categorisation. Another is Matt Bradshaw, who has made a synthesiser that you play by strumming six metal strings with a plectrum to complete a circuit. Oh, and named it after Björk. Read all about it and get inspired to do something equally bonkers.
Do you have children? Do they leave the lights on all the time, causing you to shout, “THIS ISN’T BLACKPOOL FLAMING ILLUMINATIONS, YOU KNOW!” Well, now you can replace those children with an Arduino. With a bit of machine learning, the Arduino can train itself to turn the lights on and off at the right time, all the time. Plus they don’t cost as much as human children, so it’s a double win!
When the sun comes out in Blighty, it doesn’t hang around for long. So why wait for your domestic fridge to freeze your tasty dairy-based desserts, when you can add some solid carbon dioxide and freeze it in a flash? Follow our tutorial and you too can have tasty treats with the ironically warm glow that comes from using chemicals at -78°C.
We’ve filled the rest of the magazine with a robot orchestra, watch restoration, audio boards for Raspberry Pi, magical colour-changing wearables, and more. Get stuck in!
If you like the sound of this month’s content, you can find HackSpace magazine in WHSmith, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and independent newsagents in the UK. If you live in the US, check out your local Barnes & Noble, Fry’s, or Micro Center next week. We’re also shipping to stores in Australia, Hong Kong, Canada, Singapore, Belgium, and Brazil, so be sure to ask your local newsagent whether they’ll be getting HackSpace magazine.
And if you can’t get to the shops, fear not: you can subscribe from £4 an issue from our online shop. And if you’d rather try before you buy, you can always download the free PDF. Happy reading, and happy making!
Website: LINK
For a limited time, get Swords & Soldiers HD free!* Add the game to your Steam account now, and keep it forever!
Rewrite history as you take control of the brutal Vikings, the devious Aztecs or the crafty Chinese in their global quest to win the favour of the Gods! Swords & Soldiers is a side-scrolling strategy game that lets you control an entire army and lets you wield devastating magical abilities.
Love the original? Check out Swords & Soldiers II Shawarmageddon coming to Steam this Fall!
*Offer ends June 20 at 10AM Pacific Time
Website: LINK
With the recent announcement of the 2019 Pi Wars dates, we’ve collected some essential online resources to help you get started in the world of competitive robots.
Before you can strap chainsaws and flamethrowers to your robot, you need to learn some basics. Sorry.
As part of our mission to put digital making into the hands of people across the globe, the Raspberry Pi Foundation creates free project tutorials for hardware builds, Scratch projects, Python games, and more. And to get you started with robot building, we’ve put together a series of buggy-centric projects!
Begin with our Build a robot buggy project, where you’ll put together a simple buggy using motors, a Raspberry Pi 3, and a few other vital ingredients. From there, move on to the Remotely control your buggy tutorial to learn how to command your robot using an Android phone, a Google AIY Projects Voice Kit, or a home-brew controller. Lastly, train your robot to think for itself using our new Build a line-following robot project.
Put down the chainsaw — we’re not there yet!
For issue 51, The MagPi commissioned ace robot builder Brian Cortiel to create a Build a remote control robot feature. The magazine then continued the feature in issue 52, adding a wealth of sensors to the robot. You can download both issues as free PDFs from The MagPi website. Head here for issue 51 and here for issue 52.
To test robot makers’ abilities, previous Pi Wars events have included a series of non-destructive challenges: the balloon-popping Pi Noon, the minimal maze, and an obstacle course. Each challenge calls for makers to equip their robot with various abilities, such as speed, manoeuvrability, or line-following functionality.
Tanya Fish on Twitter
Duck shoot, 81 points! Nice one bub. #piwars https://t.co/UCSWaEOJh8
The Pi Wars team has shared a list of hints and tips from Brian Corteil that offer a great place to start your robotics journey. Moreover, many Pi Wars competitors maintain blogs about their build process to document the skills they learn, and the disasters along the way.
This year’s blog category winner, David Pride’s Pi and Chips website, has a wealth of robot-making information.
If you’d like to give your robot a robust, good-looking body, check out PiBorg, robot-makers extraordinaire. Their robot chassis selection can help you get started if you don’t have access to a laser cutter or 3D printer, or if you don’t want to part with one of your Tupperware boxes to house your robot.
Robot-building is a great way to learn lots of new skills, and we encourage everyone to give it a go, regardless of your digital making abilities. But please don’t strap chainsaws to your Raspberry Pi–powered robot unless you are trained in the ways of chainsaw-equipped robot building. The same goes for flamethrowers, cattle prods, and anything else that could harm another person, animal, or robot.
Pi Wars 2019 will be taking place on 30 and 31 March in the Cambridge Computer Laboratory William Gates Building. If you’d like to take part, you can find more information here.
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