Raspberry Pi

1858 Articles

Contest Results: Raspberry Pis Put On A Show

October 12, 2018 by 1 Comment

Some of the most satisfying projects of all are the ones that do something visual. All the network routers, data loggers, and thermostats are great. But we are visual creatures and even a humble blinking LED is enough to give you a little rush even compared to finding a large prime number. We wanted to see what our community could do visually with a Raspberry Pi so we challenged you with the Visualize it with Pi contest.

As always, the competition was brisk, with a lot of great projects. This contest showed off the trend towards using LED modules and assemblies to add visuals to projects. Why not? They are cheap enough and a well-integrated module can make a project simple to wire and integrate.

We didn’t see as many media-related projects as you might expect, although there was one tied into Stranger Things, one to Tron, and the virtual reality lighting project did have some Star Wars images. Projects ranged from the practical storage box labels to the whimsical lemonade bottle that strobes to the beat of the music. If none of that is hardcore enough for you, there was even a Raspberry Pi-controlled radio telescope. You can find all the entries over on Hackaday.io. Now let’s see which entries managed to turn the head of the judging panel.

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Dirty Video Mixing With The Raspberry Pi Zero

October 9, 2018 by 32 Comments

Don’t get too excited now, we aren’t talking about that kind of dirty video. There’s plenty of other places on the Internet you can go to find that sort of thing. No, this video mixer is “dirty” because it combines two composite video streams into one garbled up mess that’s best viewed on an old CRT TV. Why, you may ask? Because rock and roll, that’s why.

Created by [Luke Blackford] as a visual for his band’s performances, the “Dirty Pi” is an exceptionally simple way to create some wild imagery with two Raspberry Pi Zeros. It might not be the most practical of devices, but if you want so throw some creepy looking video up on screens all over the house (say for an upcoming Halloween party), this is a fantastic way to do it on the cheap.

The idea is simple: connect the oft-forgotten composite video outputs of two Pi Zeros to a potentiometer, which then leads to the display. Play different videos on the Pis with the media player of your choice, and twiddle the potentiometer to create ghosting and interference. If you want to get that true 1980’s retro feel, put the whole thing into an old VHS cassette like [Luke] did, and you’re ready to rock.

Those who’ve been around the block a few times might recognize this trick as a variation of the [Karl Klomp] Dirty Video Mixer, and [Luke] tells us he likes this project because he was able to pull it off without writing any code or even doing any complex wiring, though he does imagine a future version where he adds some remote control functionality.

If you like your video mixers with more smarts and less dirt, we’ve covered a very slick build using the LM1881 in the past.

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Another Drawbot Uses A Pi And Web Sockets

October 8, 2018 by 9 Comments

There’s something about art. Cavemen drew on walls. People keep programming drawing robots. One we’ve seen recently is [Andy’s] Drawbot that uses WiFi and WebSockets to draw on just about any flat surface. What’s more, the Johnson County Library has a great write-up about how they built one and if you want a go at it, you’ll find their instructions very helpful. The video below is pretty inspirational, too.

What makes this build especially interesting is that it uses a drive system with two fixed points attached with suction cups.  There are a variety of 3D printed parts — some just for the build and some are older parts repurposed.

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Hack My House: Running Raspberry Pi Without An SD Card

October 8, 2018 by 62 Comments

Many of us have experienced the pain that is a Raspberry Pi with a corrupted SD card. I suspect the erase-on-write nature of flash memory is responsible for much of the problem. Regardless of the cause, one solution is to use PXE booting with the Raspberry Pi 3. That’s a fancy way to say we’ll be booting the Raspberry Pi over the network, instead of from an SD card.

What does this have to do with Hacking My House? As I discussed last time, I’m using Raspberry Pi as Infrastructure by building them into the walls of every room in my house. You don’t want to drag out a ladder and screwdriver to swap out a misbehaving SD card, so booting over the network is a really good solution. I know I promised we’d discuss cabling and cameras. Think of this as a parenthetical article — we’ll talk about Ethernet and ZoneMinder next time.

So let’s dive in and see what the Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) is all about and how to use PXE with Raspberry Pi.

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Perhaps The Ultimate Raspberry Pi Case: Your PC

October 5, 2018 by 31 Comments

One of the great joys of owning a 3D printer is being able to print custom cases for boards like the Raspberry Pi. What’s more, if you are using a desktop PC, you probably don’t have as many PCI cards in it as you used to. Everything’s moved to the motherboard. [Sneekystick] was using a Pi with a PC and decided the PC itself would make a great Pi case. He designed a bracket and it looks handy.

The bracket just holds the board in place. It doesn’t connect to the PC. The audio, HDMI, and power jacks face out for access. It would be tempting and possible to power the board from the PC supply, but to do that you have to be careful. Connecting the GPIO pins to 5V will work, but bypasses the input protection circuitry. We’ve read that you can find solder points near the USB plug and connect there, but if you do, you should block out the USB port. It might be nice to fill in that hole in the bracket if you planned to do that.

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The Magic Flute Of Rat Mind Control Aims To Mix Magic And Science

October 3, 2018 by 16 Comments

Well this is unusual. Behold the Magic Flute of Rat Mind Control, and as a project it is all about altering the response to the instrument, rather than being about hacking the musical instrument itself. It’s [Kurt White]’s entry to the Musical Instrument Challenge portion of The Hackaday Prize, and it’s as intriguing as it is different.

The Raspberry-Pi controlled, IoT Skinner box for rats, named Nicodemus.

[Kurt] has created a portable, internet-connected, automated food dispenser with a live streaming video feed and the ability to play recorded sounds. That device (named Nicodemus) is used as a Skinner Box to train rats — anywhere rats may be found — using operant conditioning to make them expect food when they hear a few bars of Black Sabbath’s Iron Man played on a small recorder (which is a type of flute.)

In short, the flute would allow one to summon hordes of rats as if by magic, because they have been trained by Nicodemus to associate Iron Man with food.

Many of the system’s elements are informed by the results of research into sound preference in rats, as well as their ability to discriminate between different melodies, so long as the right frequencies are present. The summoning part is all about science, but what about how to protect oneself from the hordes of hungry rodents who arrive with sharp teeth and high expectations of being fed? According to [Kurt], that’s where the magic comes in. He seems very certain that a ritual to convert a wooden recorder into a magic flute is all the protection one would need.

Embedded below is something I’m comfortable calling the strangest use case video we’ve ever seen. Well, we think it’s a dramatized use case. Perhaps it’s more correctly a mood piece or motivational assist. Outsider Art? You decide.

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A New Take On Building A Portable N64

October 2, 2018 by 5 Comments

When home consoles go mobile, whether in the form of modded original hardware or emulation, they usually take a pretty standard shape. A screen in the middle, with buttons either on the sides or below it. Basically the same layout Nintendo popularized with born-handheld systems such as the Game & Watch series and original Game Boy. Like the saying goes, if it ain’t broke…

But [Le Nerdarto] had a different idea. He came across a broken N64 and wanted to turn it into a portable console, but not necessarily a handheld one. Noticing the cartridge was about the perfect size to contain a small LCD and in an ideal position, he set out to make what is arguably the most literal interpretation of “portable N64” we’ve ever seen. It might not be the most practical iteration of this concept, but it definitely gets extra points for style.

After he stripped the N64 of its original hardware, he installed a Raspberry Pi 3 and an RC battery eliminator circuit (BEC) to get 5V out of the internal 6200 mAh 7.4V battery. [Le Nerdarto] says this provides power for the Pi, the LCD, and the various lighting systems for up to 10 hours. He’s also added USB ports in the front of the system for controllers, and an HDMI port on the back so he can still connect the system up to a TV when not on the move.

The 3.5 inch LCD in the cartridge is arguably the centerpiece of the build, and while it might be on the small side, we can’t deny it’s a clever idea. [Le Nerdarto] had the good sense to tilt the it back a few degrees to put the display at a more comfortable angle, but otherwise it looks stock since he was able to fit everything in without cutting the back of his donor cartridge out. For those who might be wondering, the “cartridge” can’t be removed, but we’ll admit that would have been a killer feature to add especially with the HDMI port on the back.

Of course, since it’s running emulators on a Raspberry Pi, this isn’t only a portable N64. The front mounted USB ports allow him to plug in all sorts of controllers and emulate classics from pretty much any console that’s older than the N64 itself. Ironically the Raspberry Pi 3 isn’t exactly an ideal choice for N64 emulation, but a good chunk of titles are at least playable.

If you’re more of a purist and want a true portable N64, we’ve covered plenty of those over the years to get you inspired.

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