Raspberry Pi Official Magazine #125

With any luck, you found a Raspberry Pi gift under the tree this Christmas. If you're new: welcome to the party! Pull up a chair, pick up a copy of this magazine, and get ready for a wonderful world of making. You'll find our Starter Guide on page 28, and a Raspberry Pi OS Guide on page 36. Newcomers to Linux should check out our Terminal Starter Guide (page 48). Meanwhile, veterans looking for inspiration really should read our Arts & Crafts guide (page 70), and we have some wonderful tutorials this month: from putting a Raspberry Pi camera in an aquarium (page 56) to building a display kiosk (page 60). I've loved putting together this issue. It's great to be reminded of just how exciting it is to pick…

MAKER magpi.cc/hobbyview Like many millions of us, “maker/tinkerer” Fitz Walker holds classic Doctor Who in very high regard. As an electrical engineer and computer scientist, he was better placed than many Whovians to show off his love of the show by building his own replica K-9, giving it “modern components” with Raspberry Pi. Keeping the ‘use whatever you've got to hand' ethos of the original Doctor Who sets, a loo roll holder disguises an unexpected K-9 defence mechanism. The K-9 project helped Fitz fulfil an ambition to build a film replica of one of their “favourite companions to my favourite Doctor” [Tom Baker, naturally] and “to experiment with Raspberry Pi and other microcontrollers, and electronics to see how well they might replicate all the animatronic and visual features of the…

01 Download templates for K-g's body and an electronics schematic from magpi.cc/kgbodyconstruction to either 3D-print or laser-cut. You will need at least a Raspberry Pi 2, plus plenty of servos, and a fair amount of mechatronics knowledge. 02 If you want to add the Al camera feature, you can adapt code from this photo booth project: magpi.cc/photoboothdiy. You'll need a thermal printer to output K-9's ‘human or alien' verdicts. 03 Fitz used Python on his Raspberry Pi 3 to control the camera/printer and eye lights in K-9's head, and to play video clips on K-9's side monitor.…

MAKER magpi.cc/makaniu It would seem there are few limits to where Raspberry Pi can go. The computer has been used in the Antarctic and on the International Space Station. It has also, as this project proves, plunged deep underwater - in this case, furthering scientific knowledge and enabling more people to explore the world's oceans. Indeed, without Maka Niu - a small, lowcost, deep-sea image and data collection system that has Raspberry Pi at its heart - Katy Croft Bell, president of the Ocean Discovery League, says such exploration could continue to be the exclusive domain of the wealthy. “By making this technology open and available to anyone,” she says, “we hope to bring more equity to this important field.” This has far-reaching benefits. Less than one percent of the…

MAKER veeb.ch Sourdough baking, getting a pet and decluttering your home before filling it with houseplants to make it Instagram-worthy all had their moment during the Covid pandemic. Of these three trends, acquiring indoor plants appears to have had the most longevity. If you're off to visit friends and family over the festive break, or jumping on the long-vacation-toavoid-winter-and-heating-bills bandwagon, it might be time to consider how your plants will fare while you're away. This Pico Plant Waterer saves you bothering a neighbour to pop in and do the honours. For Vanessa Bradley and Martin Spendiff, collectively known as VEEB, the scenario came up because their “lovely” neighbour sometimes watered their houseplants, but the plants didn't always survive the experience. To save any more plants dying, they designed a carefully…

01 Aside from a Raspberry Pi Pico and a capacitive moisture sensor, you will need AA batteries, a pump, a large water container, a relay switch, and some clear tubing. 02 You can download the MicroPython setup code from magpi.cc/sploosh or view the demo video at magpi.cc/youwatertheplant. Once set up, fasten the tube to the edge of the plant pot. 03 The water source needs to be kept some distance from the plant to ensure it doesn't just decant the jug's contents straight into the plant pot. If all goes well, you should have a healthy plant, even after a week away from home.…