Newcastle Raspberry Jam, Tuesday October 30, 2012

Here at Maker Space we’re keen on the Raspberry Pi, a tiny, incredibly cheap computer that can be used for teaching about computers and coding and used for all sorts of projects, from making a low-cost media box, to building robots that you can control over the internet. It’s pretty spiffy!

We’re helping run a Workshop at Centre for Life for everyone who’s interested and would like to know more!

Here’s the blurb:

“Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard. It’s a capable little PC which can be used for many of the things that your desktop PC does, like spreadsheets, word-processing and games. It also plays high-definition video. It is intended that people all over the world will use it to learn programming.

Raspberry Jams are local user groups for the Raspberry Pi. Jams are held to support hobbyists, developers, teachers, students, children and families – in fact, anybody that would like to put their Raspberry Pi to good use. While Raspberry Jam is not endorsed, sponsored or associated with Raspberry Pi or Raspberry Pi products or services, some of our regular members are volunteers for the Raspberry Pi Foundation. At our meetings we have helpful people who can help you with everything you need to get what you want from your Raspberry Pi.

You do not need to have a Raspberry Pi to come to a meeting. In fact, not having a Raspberry Pi is an excellent motive for coming along. You will discover what you can do with a Raspberry Pi when you get hold of one!”

Get Your tickets here: https://newcastle-raspberry-jam.eventbrite.com

More details here: http://www.life.org.uk/whats-on/events/newcastle-raspberry-jam

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Using the Raspberry Pi from a Google Nexus 7

At last week’s Makers Monday in Maker Space Jon was trying to configure his Raspberry Pi using an Android phone across the network. It was just about working but it was not exactly smooth. This got me thinking so I tried a few experiments to see if there was an easier way of doing the without using the network, and there is.

At this year’s Open Source Hardware Camp I learned that the Raspberry Pi has a serial terminal enabled by default available through the the GPIO port. Clearly it is just a text terminal but is great for using the Raspberry Pi from the laptop without needing to set up a local network to do it. It needs a USB serial adapter that works at 3.3V but these are available as a module online for under £2.

I also learned from a demo by Lewis Baker at Datarama #16 that Android phones can be connected to the Arduino and communicated to over a serial interface. Naturally I wondered if the same could be said of the Raspberry Pi, and the good news if that it can.

You will need a Micro USB Host Mode OTG Adapter in addition to the USB serial module, again costing under £2, but that is it. Another nice little bonus is my serial adapter has a 5V output that can be connected to the 5V pin of the GPIO port and power the Raspberry Pi.

As for software there are many Android terminal apps, but few that recognise the USB adapter that I have. In the end I started using the Slick USB 2 Serial Terminal that has a few issues but was good for the test. I suspect I will end up producing my own app eventually.

After all this I decided to try and USB hub and connect a USB keyboard as well, and that also worked allowing me to use a normal keyboard and my Android based Nexus 7 as a terminal screen. Not the most useful setup in the world but I can see us playing with this in the future.

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