Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Raspberry Pi 2 with Ubunutu 15.04 Mate

I hear a lot about Ubuntu on the Raspberry Pi 2 and thought I'd give it a try.

I downloaded the image from https://ubuntu-mate.community/t/ubuntu-mate-15-04-for-raspberry-pi-2/517

Unpacked on a Windows machine using 7ZIP and then used Win32DiskImager to burn the image to the SD card.

I put the SD card into the Pi2 and crossed my fingers.
There was no need. It booted up cleanly and gave me a nice GUI login screen.

From first testing it feels quite fast and even runs the Pi edition of Minecraft http://pi.minecraft.net/

So, initial experience is very positive.
I still have to figure out how to configure wifi but wired worked straight away.

Since I've been using Ubuntu on at least one of my home computers since 7.04 it feels very natural to me.  Really looking forward to seeing how this develops.





Monday, April 13, 2015

List of online resources to assist in learning to code

The final session of the robot club at my kids school was Easter break and I promised them a handout detailing resources that are free they can use to continue to learn to code.  The kids were aged 10-12 and most were very new to coding so wanted to give a range of resources.  
They've spend the last term building small robots with an Arduino as the main controller so included Arduino as well as general programming resources.

As per the sheet a great combination for new people starting out if they don't have any hardware is the Earthshine Electronics guide and the AtuoDesk 123D Circuits online electronics and Arduino emulator.  The guide gives 14 projects of varying degrees of complexity from an electronics and programming standpoint and the AutoDesk 123D Circuits gives you a free resource to do your coding. The electronics pieces is done on a breadboard and is very visual. Reminds me of Fritzing.


https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B23BvTk93HRYSmZzU2RnclhhRlU/view?usp=sharing


If you'd prefer not to download the handout here is the list of links

Websites



BBC Dr. Who programming game - http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/games/doctor-who-game




Books and Reading Material

Invent with Python - https://inventwithpython.com/

Earthshine Electronics – Arduino Starter Kit Manual - http://thearduinoguy.org/?page_id=100

YouTube Channels

Jeremy Blum, Tutorial Series for Arduino - http://bit.ly/1xrxqvr

Kevin Durrah - https://www.youtube.com/user/kdarrah1234/featured

The New Boston - https://www.youtube.com/user/thenewboston/featured

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Raspberry Pi camera and overlaying image

Getting ready for the Egham Raspberry Jam on the 26th April. (http://eghamjam7.eventbrite.com)
Putting together a tweeting camera so people can take pictures at the event. 

It's going to be a 2 step process as there is no internet at the venue. So, the pictures will be taken onsite and stored with unique names. 
Then when I get home the Pi will batch upload the ages with the watermark for the Jam. The watermark isn't really needed just want to do it for the fun of it. 

Below is an image with the winkleink name in a white strip across the bottom. 


Thursday, April 2, 2015

Try Sonic Pi and Minecraft Programming at the Egham Raspberry Jam on the 26th of April


Come and try out Sonic Pi and Minecraft/Python programming.

Sonic Pi is a great way to create music by programming. You can even do Live Coding giving you the ability to compose music as you playing. 

Sonic Pi is such an amazing way to learn about music and programming that the Raspberry Pi Foundation recently ran a competition for Sonic Pi compositions.
The 10 finalists are amazing.  Be a composer by coding.

Minecraft on the Raspberry Pi is a great open world environment where you can program what happens.  Build a Giant Clock or how about a Town Square 

How about mixing the two and creating music using Minecraft. See the Minecraft Piano

Now's your chance to try them out on the 26th April at the Egham Raspberry Jam.

The event is free to attend all you have to do is register on Eventbrite.

http://eghamjam7.eventbrite.com 
Places are limited to 100 and last time we sold out and had a waiting list for the final week and it's looking like it will be the same again this time.

So, if you're interested in trying Sonic Pi and Minecraft then get yourself registered and come along.

To see more of what happens at the Egham Jams checkout the write up and some pictures from the Jam we had on had in January. http://winkleink.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/egham-raspberry-jam-25th-of-january.html