Practical Raspberry Pi Projects 2nd ED

164 Pages·2016·15.93 MB·English

Welcome to
Practical
Raspberry Pi
Pro ects
J
For a device that can fit in the palm of your hand, the Raspberry Pi has had
a pretty colossal impact since its launch in 2012. In just a few short years it’s
changed the way computer science is taught in schools, it’s been used in some
amazing projects at Raspberry Jam events across the world, and it’s inspired
a new generation of coders to create and craft new gadgets. No matter your
age or experience level, there’s a Pi project for you, and in Practical Raspberry Pi
Projects we’re giving you everything you need to fire up your imagination and
unleash your creativity. From hardware-based projects like building a Raspberry
Pi-controlled car, through software projects like coding a simple synth, all the way
to advanced electronics projects that will see you transforming your Pi into a retro
NES, alarm clock robot or quadcopter, we’ve got plenty here to keep you busy. All
you need is your favourite $35 computer and a passion for making things!

Practical
Raspberry Pi
Pro ects
J
Imagine Publishing Ltd
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The publisher cannot accept responsibility for any unsolicited material lost or damaged in the
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Raspberry Pi is a trademark of The Raspberry Pi Foundation
Practical Raspberry Pi Projects Second Edition © 2016 Imagine Publishing Ltd
Part of the
bookazine series

Electronics
106 Build a Raspberry Pi
car computer
Make your own touchscreen navigator
Software
H ow I made: Ras Pi
114
Terrarium controller
72 Supercharge your Pi Investigate an environmental control system
Get the most out of your Raspberry Pi
116 Make a Ras Pi sampler
76 Create your own digital Build your own looping drum machine
assistant, part 1
120 Transform your Pi into a
Tell your computer what to do
micro oscilloscope
78 Create your own digital Transform your RasPi with BitScope Micro
assistant, part 2
124 How I made: Pi Glove 2
Continue this project by decoding audio
Control lights, send texts and more
80 Create your own digital
assistant, part 3 126 Assemble a Minecraft
power move glove
Run the commands you’re giving your Pi
Enhance your game with this cool hack
82 Run science experiments
on the Expeyes kit 130 Build a complex
LED matrix
Make use of this digital oscilloscope
Program your own light system
86 Monitor CPU temperature
134 Add gesture control to
with Dizmo
your Raspberry Pi
Access the Internet of Things
Easily add touch controls to your projects
90 Talking on the I2C bus
138 How I made: Joytone
Talk to the world with the I2C bus
A new type of electronic keyboard
92 Print wirelessly with your
140 Build a Connect 4 robot
Raspberry Pi
Try your hand at outsmarting a robot
Breathe new life into an old printer
142 Program a quadcopter
94 Remotely control your
Take to the skies with this gadget
Raspberry Pi

148 20 Raspberry Pi
Employ your Pi as a media centre
hacking projects
96 Turn your Pi into a motion
sensor with SimpleCV Repurpose everyday items
Implement facial recognition into your Pi
98 Code a simple synthesiser
Write a simple synthesiser using Python
7
10 PRACTICAL RASPBERRY PI PROJECTS
Still haven’t done anything with your Raspberry Pi? Follow
along with our expert advice and kick-start your own amazing
Raspberry Pi projects
8
10 PRACTICAL RASPBERRY PI PROJECTS
Build a RasPi
Make a stop web server
motion animation
Create a voice
synthesiser
From our time covering this incredible credit card-
sized computer, it’s become clear there are two types
of Raspberry Pi owners: those that use theirs and those
that don’t. Whether it’s fear of the unknown, a lack of time
or inspiration, when we ask people what they do with their
Pi we’ll often hear that it’s still in the box. If that’s you, then
you’re in the right place. In this feature we’ve handcrafted ten
Raspberry Pi projects practically anyone can enjoy.
These aren’t just a random selection of side-projects, though.
These are practical ideas designed to help kick-start bigger
and better things. Knowledge gained from one project can also
be applied to another to create something completely new. For
example, you could combine our Twitter and three-colour lamp
tutorials to create a desk lamp that changes colour as your
Twitter account is retweeted. You could go on to make Pong in
Minecraft-Pi or use a button attached to Scratch to take photos
with your Raspberry Pi camera module. The list goes on.
All these projects are open source, so you’re encouraged to
tweak and develop them into something entirely new. If you
share your tweaks and changes with the community, you’re sure
to start benefi tting from doing things the open source way…
Code your own
Twitter bot
10 PRACTICAL RASPBERRY PI PROJECTS
Make music with
the Raspberry Pi
Program your own melodies using Sonic Pi and create
musical cues or robot beeps
One of the major features of Scratch is 01 Getting Sonic Pi
its ability to teach the fundamentals If you’ve installed the latest version of Raspbian, Sonic
What you’ll need of coding to kids and people with no Pi will be included by default. If you’re still using a slightly older
computing background. For kids, its version, then you’ll need to install it via the repos. Do this with:
(cid:3)(cid:81) Portable speakers especially appealing due to the way it $ sudo apt-get install sonic-pi
allows them to create videogames to
(cid:81) Sonic Pi
interact with as part of their learning. In
www.cl.cam.ac.uk/projects/
raspberrypi/sonicpi/teaching.html this kind of vein then, Sonic Pi teaches
people to code using music. With a
simple language that utilises basic logic
steps but in a more advanced way than
Scratch, it can either be used as a next
step for avid coders, or as a way to create
music for an Internet of Things or a robot.
(cid:3)(cid:81)(cid:3)Sonic Pi is a great way
to learn basic coding
principles and have fun
10