mission accomplished

100 Pages·2016·21.02 MB·English

YOUR OFFICIAL RASPBERRY PI MAGAZINE
The official Raspberry Pi magazine Issue 47 July 2016 raspberrypi.org/magpi
BLUETOOTH AMAZING
TAGGING OPTICAL
Automate just ILLUSIONS
about anything
Master persistence
with a Pi 3
of vision with Pi Zero
LEARN TO CODE IN C TERRAFORM MINECRAFT
Our latest expert series starts this issue Another amazing Minecraft Pi hack
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
Celebrating Tim Peake & Raspberry Pi’s amazing space mission
Also inside:
PET PROJECTS!
> SKYCADEMY: TAKE YOUR PI TO THE EDGE OF SPACE
> START BUILDING A PI-POWERED ARCADE MACHINE
10 fantastic
> THE ULTIMATE RASPBERRY PI KARAOKE PROJECT Issue 47 • Jul 2016 • £5.99
Pi-powered makes
> THE MOTOZERO ROBOT BOARD REVIEWED
for your furry friends 07
THE ONLY PI MAGAZINE WRITTEN BY THE RASPBERRY PI COMMUNITY
9 772051 998001

Welcome
WELCOME TO
THE OFFICIAL
PI MAGAZINE!
n December last year, British Army
I
Air Corps officer Timothy Nigel Peake
stepped aboard the Soyuz TMA-19M
to start a six-month mission aboard the
International Space Station. It was a small step
across the ISS hatch for Tim, but as the first
British European Space Agency astronaut it
was a giant leap for the United Kingdom and
especially the children that dream of one day
going to space.
Tim wasn’t the only UK-born passenger aboard
SEE PAGE 30 FOR DETAILS
the ISS, though; two Raspberry Pis joined him on
his mission to carry out experiments developed
by British schoolchildren. While Tim returned
to Earth on 18 June, our two intrepid Raspberry THIS MONTH:
Pis, Ed and Izzy, remain aboard to continue their
ongoing mission to inspire and educate children
14 ASTRO PI: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
all over the world via the Astro Pi programme.
We look at this amazing collaboration, but it’s not over yet!
You can learn all about Astro Pi in our massive
cover feature starting on page 14, and how Astro 32 THE ULTIMATE RETRO PHONE
Pi and other educational programmes Tim has
Martin Mander is back with another stunning Pi project
been involved with have touched the lives of and
inspired more than a million schoolchildren. 46 TERRAFORM MINECRAFT
Enjoy the issue! Become the destroyer of worlds in Minecraft Pi
Russell Barnes 72 YOUR PET PROJECTS
Managing Editor 10 amazing community creations for your furry friends
FIND US ONLINE raspberrypi.org/magpi GET IN TOUCH [email protected]
EDITORIAL DESIGN PUBLISHING
Managing Editor: Russell Barnes Critical Media: criticalmedia.co.uk For advertising & licensing:
[email protected] Head of Design: Dougal Matthews [email protected] [phone]
Features Editor: Rob Zwetsloot Designers: Lee Allen, Mike Kay Publisher: Liz Upton
Sub Editors: Laura Clay, Phil King, Lorna Lynch Cover photography: Gareth Halfacree CEO: Eben Upton
DISTRIBUTION SUBSCRIPTIONS CONTRIBUTORS
Seymour Distribution Ltd Select Publisher Services Ltd Sam Aaron, Dan Aldred, Wesley Archer, Mike Cook,
2 East Poultry Ave PO Box 6337 Lucy Hattersley, Richard Hayler, Phil King,
London Bournemouth Simon Long, Alan McCullagh, Matt Richardson &
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This magazine is printed on paper sourced from The MagPi magazine is published by Raspberry Pi (Trading) Ltd., 30 Station Road, Cambridge, CB1 2JH. The publisher,
sustainable forests and the printer operates an editor and contributors accept no responsibility in respect of any omissions or errors relating to goods, products or services
environmental management system which has referred to or advertised in the magazine. Except where otherwise noted, content in this magazine is licensed under a
been assessed as conforming to ISO 14001. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0). ISSN: 2051-9982.
rraassppbbeerrrryyppii..oorrgg//mmaaggppii AJpurlyil 22001166 33
Contents
Issue 47 July 2016 raspberrypi.org/magpi
TUTORIALS COVER FEATURE
> PI 3 BLUETOOTH TAG 42
Create automated events with a Pi and a smartphone
> WAKE DINO WITH NODE-RED 44
Email a dinosaur to let people know dinner is ready
> MINECRAFT TERRAFORMING 46
Program Minecraft to change its landscape
> EGG DROP GAME 48
Make a Sense HAT game that uses the tilt sensor
> SONIC PI 50
Create randomised drum patterns with Sonic Pi’s creator
> PI BAKERY 52 14
Build yet another amazing machine with Mike Cook
> ARCADE MACHINE BUILD (PT 1) 58
ASTRO PI
Start building your own arcade cabinet from scratch
> PERSISTENCE OF VISION 60
Tim Peake has returned to Earth; let’s see what he accomplished with Astro Pi
Create an optical illusion with a fast-spinning Pi Zero
> RASPBERRY BERET 64
PI WARS 3 CoderDojo
Put a camera on your head in this Pi-powered Prince tribute
Young people show off their
projects at the Coolest Projects
IN THE NEWS
awards in Dublin
9
6
Pis in the sky
Pi Wars returns in 2017 to give
10
Everyone’s talking about Raspberry Pi in the sky. people more time to make even
Skycademy returns as records are broken with HABs cooler Pi-powered robots
4 July 2016 raspberrypi.org/magpi
Contents
THE BIG FEATURE In association with
72
95
RASPBERRY PI SALES
THE BEST PI PET PROJECTS
Cute critters and the Raspberry Pis that people use to control 8
An amazing 500,000 Raspberry Pis were
them or make them famous on the internet
sold in a single month
YOUR PROJECTS REGULARS
32
>NEWS 06
The biggest stories from the world of Raspberry Pi
>TECHNICAL FAQ 70
Got a problem? Maybe we can help...
>BOOK REVIEWS 86
The best reads for coders and hackers
>THE FINAL WORD 97
More musings from Raspberry Pi’s Matt Richardson
COMMUNITY
ALEXAPHONE
>THIS MONTH IN PI 88
We round up other goings-on in the Pi community
This very Seventies telephone has been souped up with a Raspberry Pi
>EVENTS 90
Get involved in a community gathering near you
Karaoke Box 34
>YOUR LETTERS 92
A tiny karaoke box that lets you belt out
Talk to us about the magazine or Raspberry Pi
your favourite pop song at full volume
Beekeeping Server 36 REVIEWS
Raspberry Pis that bring you honey,
although there are some bees involved >MOTOZERO 80
>PI ZERO MOTOR SHIM 82
Bitcoin Clock 38
A clock that keeps track of Bitcoin stats >RASPIO HAT 83
and can store some money in it as well
>CHICKBOT 84
raspberrypi.org/magpi July 2016 5
News
FEATURE
The balloon reached almost halfway
to the edge of space, and only a few
metres short of the 42km prediction
HIGH-
FLYING PI
Everyone has been talking about high-altitude
ballooning this month; here’s why…
f you’ve paid attention to you don’t want pictures, then a
I
high-altitude ballooning smaller/lighter/simpler AVR or
(HAB) within the Raspberry PIC microcontroller will easily
Pi community, you’ll have no doubt do the job, and with less battery
heard of Dave Akerman. He’s power. I felt that the CSI-less Pi
broken records thanks to Pis in Zero was a missed opportunity.
HABs, specifically ones involving Eben agreed, and said he would
the highest altitude amateur live- try to make it happen.”
transmitted pictures. It’s very
New records
specialised, but still spectacular.
It probably comes as no surprise, On launch day, Dave had to wait
then, to learn that he’s broken the for the weather to clear before
record once again, this time thanks filling up the balloon, contending
to the recently released upgrade with some unexpected gusts of
to the Raspberry Pi Zero. The new wind in the process. The predicted
camera port is a big deal when altitude for the payload before the
you’re doing something like this. balloon burst was 42km (26 miles),
“I’d been pleading with which is about double the altitude
Eben [Upton] since I first saw a of the U-2 spy plane. Predictions
prototype of the original Pi Zero. weren’t far off; the last photo
Its low weight would be ideal for sent from the camera before the
live-imaging HAB applications, balloon burst records an altitude
if only it had a camera port,” of 41,837m. Dave believes this
Dave writes on the Raspberry Pi breaks any previous record he’s
A basic case with the bare essentials needed to make things
blog. “The camera is the entire made, and any others that have
work, which is important when you’re trying to save weight
reason for using a Pi for HAB; if been made since.
SKYCADEMY 2016
Last year, Skycademy helped
teachers around the UK to
learn about performing HAB
experiments in their schools.
It was a huge success, so the
Raspberry Pi Foundation is
launching a new Skycademy
course. The course will take place
over three days, with the second
day dedicated to launching and
tracking a HAB. You can find out
more information, and apply,
online: magpi.cc/28J5Vma
6 July 2016 raspberrypi.org/magpi
News
HIGH-FLYING PI
A glimpse of Earth from
space as Sam’s SkiPi reaches DAVE’S FLIGHTS
high into the atmosphere
Pi in the Sky
The reason we didn’t name this news story ‘Pi in the
Sky’! Dave Akerman came to the community’s attention
when he originally broke that altitude record, using a Pi
and a webcam, in July 2012.
The Pi Camera Module went as other members. Completing
missing as the balloon burst, so his research, Sam built his
if you have a very thorough search SkiPi on the provided budget,
around Shropshire, you might just using the skills in electronics
find the highest-flying Pi camera and programming that he had
ever/so far. developed for the task.
After two months of work, Sam
A boy and his Pi
took his payload and balloon to a
While Dave might be breaking field and filled it up with helium
more records, a 17-year-old for its ascent over Monmouth.
student from Monmouth School, Dave even came down to spectate
Sam Sully, was taking his first and give a hand if needed. Babbage’s big jump
steps into Pi-powered ballooning “I programmed the camera to You may remember Felix Baumgartner, who managed
with his own HAB project. After take a picture every minute,” Sam to fall with so much style he broke the sound barrier.
seeing Dave’s original Pi in the Sky says. “These were stored on the Pi Dave tried to recreate this feat at a greater altitude,
blog in 2012, Sam was eager to give Zero. Then the Pi selected the best but with a Babbage bear as a passenger.
it a go, but didn’t have the skills to photos and transmitted them back
do so at the time. to us. But my focus was on making
“Now, four years later, I’ve sure I couldn’t lose it.”
gained many more skills,” Sam The balloon reached a very
tells us. “Last year I received respectable altitude of 32km
an Arkwright Scholarship, in about an hour, before falling
giving me £300 to spend on back down to Earth. It took some
anything to further my interests finding, but Sam managed to
in engineering and computer retrieve the payload and the rest
science. I decided after a while of the photos.
that I could now do this project, “The pictures are beautiful,”
and so I started my research.” effuses Sam. “I’ve already shared
His research brought him to them with people and set one
the forums of the Raspberry Pi as my desktop background. Heston Blumenthal’s potato
Foundation and to members of It’s an amazing view from up As part of top chef Heston Blumenthal’s Great British
the UK High Altitude Society there. People have reacted with Food episode on pies, Dave launched a Heston-esque
(UKHAS), where unsurprisingly amazement: they are really potato from a HAB. The potato survived its descent,
he bumped into Dave as well impressed that it actually worked.” but not Heston’s plans to mash it up for dinner.
raspberrypi.org/magpi JJuullyy 22001166 77
News
FEATURE
RASPBERRY PI 3
SELLS 500K

IN FIRST MONTH
Biggest monthly sales of Raspberry Pi ever, following the Pi 3 launch
hen the Raspberry Pi 3 achieved in four years, with the
W RECORD TO BEAT
was launched in February, vast majority of these Raspberry Pis
one of the topics that was built in the UK as well.
The eight million number for
discussed at the press conferences It seems the talk of sales during
the Raspberry Pi was a big
was that the Raspberry Pi had the launch of a new product didn’t
milestone, confirming that the
reached eight million sales. jinx anything, as the Raspberry
Raspberry Pi was the bestselling
This makes it the bestselling Pi 3 went on to sell almost 500,000
Below 2,000 of British computer ever. The
the original batch British computer of all time, units in March; the previous record
next record to beat is the
of Raspberry
overtaking the Amstrad PCW line was in March of last year, which
Pis as they were Commodore 64, which has sold
delivered in 2012 of computers. All of this has been saw the release of the Raspberry
anywhere between 12 million
Pi 2. Looking at combined sales
and 17 million units, depending
of all Pi models in March 2016, it
on what data you believe. Actual
was the bestselling month for the
sales data seems to suggest
SoC computer in its history. You
the 12 million number, whereas
may remember that it took about
Commodore itself used to
a year for the Raspberry Pi to sell
insist that the C64 sold 400,000
a million units, so this shows the
units a month consistently
increased reach the Raspberry Pi
for a few years.
and its educational mission has
achieved in the last three years.
With the possibility of different
models of the Pi 3 coming out,
it will be interesting to see how
these exponential increases in
sales affect the Raspberry Pi.
MILESTONES JAN OCT FEB
1 MILLION 2 MILLION SALES 5 MILLION SALES
2013 2013 2015
SALES AND A MOVE TO THE UK AND A RECORD
The Raspberry With news that Premier Farnell Nine months after breaking Near the Raspberry Pi’s third
Pi has been had sold 500,000 Raspberry Pis the million mark, the birthday, the Foundation received
selling ever itself, estimates for sales from Raspberry Pi hit two million figures that confirmed the
faster since RS Components suggested that a sales in the last week of Raspberry Pi had sold five million
its release million had been sold in all, which October. 1.25 million of these units, becoming the fastest-selling
was confirmed later. With the Pis had been made in the UK British computer of all time. From
Raspberry Pi only launching in at this point, eclipsing the a million in one year to four million
February of the previous year, it overseas production of the over two years: the sales have
was an impressive achievement. original run. been impressive.
88 JJuullyy 22001166 rraassppbbeerrrryyppii..oorrgg//mmaaggppii
News
PI WARS RETURNS!
PI WARS
RETURNS!
The popular robot rumble is confirmed for
another outing, but you’ll have to wait until 2017
he past two Decembers instead of doing robot building
T
have borne witness to during curriculum time (how naive
tremendous robotic was that?!), they were doing it in
competitions of skill and power after-school clubs, and September
as part of the CamJam’s Pi to December didn’t give them
Wars. Mighty robots built by the enough time. So, we hoped that
community proved their worth we’d get more schools interested
through gruelling challenges such by giving them more time. We’ve
as following lines, bowling, and so far had over 80 teams register
stopping at the right time. It’s their interest in competing and
a huge amount of fun for those about a third are schools, so it
competing and spectating, so it’s would appear that the change
no surprise that a new Pi Wars has of date has been successful –
been announced. at least it has to the extent that
Missing its usual December slot, there’s interest!”
Pi Wars 3 will be taking place on You can register your interest by
Saturday 1 April 2017. This change heading to the Pi Wars site here:
of date has been made for a very magpi.cc/25UHMEp. With new
good reason, though. challenges such as the Minimal
“We decided to move it a few Maze, Pi Noon, and Slightly
months to allow more schools to be Deranged Golf, it should be a lot
able to compete,” Michael Horne, of fun. Check out our motor board
co-organiser of the CamJams and reviews this issue if you’re looking
Pi Wars, tells us. “We found that for some inspiration.
PREVIOUS CHALLENGES
Here’s some
of the things
the robots
had to do in
Pi Wars 2
ROBOT DUEL OBSTACLE COURSE STRAIGHT-LINE SPEED TEST
Taking a page out of Mario Kart’s A classic test of manoeuvrability and Your robot’s gotta go fast in this
book, these Pi-powered robots skill as the robots needed to navigate speed challenge, testing out all its
duelled to the pop in this non- a testing obstacle course, including power in a sprint to the finish. More
destructive battle to see which was the giant rotating platform created motors and wheels and a bigger
the victor. The full details were kept by PiBorg. It was more fearsome than chassis mean a heavier robot,
secret until the day. it sounds. though, so build wisely.
raspberrypi.org/magpi July 2016 9
News
FEATURE
SEE
CODERDOJO’S
COOLEST
PROJECTS
This Pi-vision system was designed to help blind Young people convene in Dublin
people, using an ultrasonic distance sensor
to show off their best projects
n Saturday 18 June 2016, impressed by both the projects and
O
Raspberry Pi Foundation their presentation.”
CEO Philip Colligan and There were a lot of Raspberry
community manager Ben Nuttall Pi projects on display, including
headed to Dublin for the CoderDojo websites, Sonic Pi demos, robots,
Coolest Projects awards. Here, and even an arcade machine:
loads of young people gathered to “We arrived at a beautiful Pi-
show off their excellent projects powered retro gaming console and
for everyone to see. Philip gave a spoke to the maker’s dad. He was
Pi-based presentation to start the excited for his son to be able to
morning, and then it was time to show his project to people from
A bigger
see the displays. the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and
arcade
cabinet than “As we walked around the asked if we could stick around
most people
venue, we grew more and more to wait for him to return.” Ben
make with a
Pi, you can impressed by the projects on requested Mega Drive classic
just see a
show,” Ben mentions in his blog Golden Axe, which was quickly
cheeky Pi
sticker above about the event. “We asked each loaded up for him to play. On this
the screen
exhibiting group to talk us through page are some of the amazing
their project, and were genuinely projects that Philip and Ben found.
Where there
are Raspberry
Pis, you’re sure
to find robots.
This one is
controlled
Using mirrors and good code, a group managed to make a 3D with a Wiimote
experience in Minecraft Pi, with Sonic Pi linked up to it as well
10 July 2016 raspberrypi.org/magpi