Science Projects

After that, though, it looks just like I'm cheating, doesn't it?

Pierre Villeneuve shares a great Raspberry Pi powered Lego project: I have always wanted to control something interesting involving little servo motors. That’s somewhat of an ill-defined dream, isn’t it? But it has all been made possible by using my handy dandy Raspberry Pi computer. I spent quite a bit of time this past year on another project that involved reading signals from almost a dozen temperature-humidity sensors and reporting status details to a remote web server. That project is now unfortunately stuck on the backburner, but at least it got me started doing interesting things with my Raspberry Pi. In this post I report on my current side project, which involves my Raspberry Pi, five servos, my son’s Lego blocks, and synchronized groovy music. Let’s get right to it: the final result is a video hosted on my YouTube channel. I recommend watching it full screen on a device with decent speakers. Enjoy! Check out the full blog post here! Featured Adafruit Products Adafruit 16-Channel 12-bit PWM/Servo Driver – I2C interface – PCA9685 – You want to make a cool robot, maybe a hexapod walker, or maybe just a piece of art with a lot of moving parts. Or maybe you want to drive a lot of LEDs with precise PWM output. Then you realize that your microcontroller has a limited number of PWM outputs! What now? You could give up OR you could just get this handy PWM and Servo driver breakout. (read more)

Raspberry Pi Swag. Every purchase you make goes to fund the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s educational activities, so you’re not just making yourself look swanky; you’re directly helping kids.

Mark at marks-space.com shows how to automatically log into a Raspberry Pi: Below I will outline how to automatically log into your Raspberry Pi from a Windows PC using Putty. This requires the setup of SSH keys, which is very easy to do. Learn how to do it here! Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit, be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Have you tried the new “Adafruit Raspberry Pi Educational Linux Distro”? It’s our tweaked distribution for teaching electronics using the Raspberry Pi. But wait, there’s more! Try our new Raspberry Pi WebIDE! The easiest way to learn programming on a Raspberry Pi. We now have Raspberry Pi Model B with 512MB RAM in stock and shipping now!

Oyvind from Build Electronic Circuits sent in his latest project. It’s a 1937 Philips AM Radio Hacked into an iPhone Dock, the project is basically using the nice old housing since all of the internals were discarded. He is using a module that the iPhone plugs into to grab the audio line out from the phone which is fed into the a small amp. A newer speaker was installed since the original one was not working well anymore. He build a custom display module which is controlled by an Arduino and displays the source selected and volume of the system. The result looks much better than a plastic docking box from the store and from what I can tell from the video it also sounds great.

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Via Mario Klingemann: This one has an adapter that allows me to attach my lensbaby lenses. And a standard tripod screw hole at the bottom. Original post here.

Via raspberrypi-spy.co.uk: Having played around with the Pi camera I quickly realised I needed to make some sort of stand for it. The module weighs almost nothing and is tiny so it can be quite hard to keep in one place when you are experimenting. The Raspberry Pi Foundation apparently recommends Blu-tack, based on cost, simplicity and plain, old fashioned versatility. I thought it would be best to create a template that I could print out and use to create a camera holder without using the real module. That way I could get all the dimensions correct without worrying about squashing or dropping the module itself. So here is a diagram showing the main module measurements. Check it out here! Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit, be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Have you tried the new “Adafruit Raspberry Pi Educational Linux Distro”? It’s our tweaked distribution for teaching electronics using the Raspberry Pi. But wait, there’s more! Try our new Raspberry Pi WebIDE! The easiest way to learn programming on a Raspberry Pi. We now have Raspberry Pi Model B with 512MB RAM in stock and shipping now!

Gordon writes: Part of my testing of wiringPi v2. was to make sure that some of the existing libraries code would work with GPIO expanders – and the Adafruit RGB LED Plate was an ideal candidate. So I ordered one, took a few moments to solder it together and plugged it in – and 5 minutes later I had my LCD test program working without any real issues. So if you want to drive one of these from C/C++ or anything else that uses wiringPi, then be assured that it’ll just work! Full details of how to make it work here! Featured Adafruit Products Adafruit RGB Negative 16×2 LCD+Keypad Kit for Raspberry Pi – This new Adafruit Pi Plate makes it easy to use an RGB 16×2 Character LCD. We really like the RGB Character LCDs we stock in the shop. (For RGB we have RGB negative and RGB positive.) Unfortunately, these LCDs do require quite a few digital pins, 6 to control the LCD and then another 3 to control the RGB backlight for a total of 9 pins. That’s nearly all the GPIO available on a Pi! (read more)

manekinen @ mdiy.pl builds a simple symmetrical power supply based on LM317 and LM337. Design is Eagle and includes PCB so you can build it your own. This time, simple project that i made from simple need. Simple, cheap and functional regulated power supply 1,25V to 15V, two separately regulated positive lines and two negative. This power supply uses LM317 and LM337 integrated circuit stabilizers – or their stronger versions. Galvanically separated lines can be connected in various configurations. 1.25V to 15V Simple Dual Symmetrical Power Supply - [Link]