Raspberry Pi Official Magazine #127

Every March we ask the Raspberry Pi community to join us in our #MonthOfMaking (page 68). This year, Rob has asked some of the biggest names in the maker community for advice on building incredible things with computers. The result is a wonderful feature that is packed with advice. Armed with a little knowledge, your Raspberry Pi can become lots of big things! This month, the team also shared 50 Hacks & Hints (page 34). These are our favourite tips for making with small computers, and they will make a huge difference to your builds. This issue is packed with the best builds, expert advice, and enough inspiration to get you determined to make that project. Don't forget to show us what you make. Lucy is the editor of The…

Raspberry Pi Debug Probe is a new USB Device designed to enable debugging of Raspberry Pi Pico, and other Arm-based microcontrollers, with a non-Raspberry Pi computer (that lacks GPIO pins). Resembling a tiny Raspberry Pi inside a clear plastic case, the probe has a USB connection to your computer on one side and two JST connections on the other. The probe is designed for easy, solderless, plug-and-play debugging. It features a USB to Arm Serial Wire Debug (SWD) port and USB to UART bridge. Increasing compatibility Debug Probe is compatible with the CMSIS-DAP standard (magpi.cc/cmsisdap) and works with OpenOCD (openocd.org) and other tools that support CMSIS-DAP. Raspberry Pi Debug Probe is designed to make it easy to use a Raspberry Pi Pico on platforms such as Windows, Mac, and Linux-based…

New York-based Aviv loves designing robots and has turned this passion into a career as an industrial designer and engineer. magpi.cc/deserteyerobotics MAKER I magine a robot that could traverse the unforgiving sands of the desert in the darkness of night, covering many miles at a time and stopping at given waypoints to surveil. It could collect video at these stoppoints from a front-mounted controllable zoom camera equipped with infrared LEDs invisible to the naked eye, but illuminating for camera visibility. Then, it could beam this video data over an encrypted wirelessly connection to a distant location. Possible dangers surveilled, soldiers or explorers would be briefed on whether it was safe to proceed, potentially saving lives as well as time and money. This is the concept robot enthusiast and engineer Aviv…

01 DesertEyeRobotics.com details the hardware needed to create your own surveillance robot, along with CAD STL files. You need a Raspberry Pi 4, two DC motors, stepper motor, jumper wires, and a motor controller – and, optionally, a Desert Eye PCB. 02 Complete construction and house it in a suitable chassis, then download and install the VIAM control software: magpi.cc/viamsetup. The VIAM app (app.viam.com) is used to connect and control the robot. It also has links to the documentation for more detailed instructions. 03 Once you've connected everything and installed VIAM, press the button on the PCB to turn the robot on. It will connect automatically to the VIAM server, ready for you to control your robot.…

Carter is an artist inventor, and automotive sensing engineer who runs a small YouTube channel documenting PC and robotics projects. carterhurd.com MAKER When Carter Hurd was approached by a company and asked to review one of its products, he accepted on one condition: that he wouldn't actually review it, but instead pull it apart. Given Carter is an engineer and inventor, this was perhaps to be expected. The result was a Bluetooth speaker that ended up being turned into an attractive miniature PC, powered by a Raspberry Pi computer (magpi.cc/minipc). “I have a YouTube channel (magpi.cc/carteryt), and a company called Divoom sent me a Bluetooth speaker to review,” Carter explains. “Unfortunately, I'm not a product reviewer, so I decided to make a project with it. Initially, I was hoping to…

Ronin is an embedded systems engineer who enjoys making robots and microprocessorbased projects. github.com/byronin MAKER The first indication that Ronin (aka byronin) would grow up to be an enthusiastic maker and technical engineer came at the age of to when he bought his first soldering iron; at 15 he built his first mini sumo robot, winning first prize in the very first competition he entered. An embedded systems engineer in his native Turkey, Ronin loves designing his own projects. Although his Raspberry Pi Proto Shield and Snake Game is his first appearance in The MagPi (and his first Pico project), his prodigious output means it's unlikely to be his last. Ronin built his first prototype circuit board six years ago and discovered Raspberry Pi a year later. He usually programs…