Raspberry Pi Hardware Projects 2 E-Book

Andrew Robinson

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 163

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Raspberry Pi is a UK Non Profit with the goal of creating a new generation of computer programmers. Observing how the UK Tech Industry was kickstarted by the availability in the 1980s of relatively cheap, very programmable computers such as the ZX81, the Commodore and the BBC Micro, the Raspberry Pi Foundation designed a £15/$25 computer which encourages the user to play and to learn. Although intended for schools, it has also been adopted by hackers and geeks, and a whole ecosystem of software and hardware is being built around the Pi. With a million boards now sold, the goal of the Foundation is well underway.

Leseprobe

Raspberry Pi® Hardware Projects, Volume 2

This edition first published 2014

© 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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ISBN 978-1-118-58890-1 (ePub); ISBN 978-1-118-72390-6 (ePDF)

Set in Chaparral Pro Regular 10/12.5 by Indianapolis Composition Services

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Computer-Controlled Slot Car Racing

Obtaining a Slot Car Racer

Hacking Your Slot Car Racer

Testing Your Slot Car Racer Hack

Getting the Player Input

Making the Joystick Buttons

Boxing It Up

Joystick Testing

The Software

The Game

Over to You

Chapter 2: Facebook-Enabled Roto-Sketch

The Concept

Rotary Encoder Types

The Encoder Output

Posting to Facebook

Using Flickr

The Final Roto-Sketch Program

Creating a Symmetrical Pattern

Over to You

Chapter 3: The Pendulum Pi, a Harmonograph

The Concept

The Hall Effect

Enter the Arduino

Putting It Together

Smooth Swinging

Electronics

Programming the Arduino

The Final Arduino code

Programming the Pi

Using the Pendulum Pi

Over to You

Appendix A: Getting Your Raspberry Pi Up and Running

Getting the OS on an SD Card

Connecting a Display

Connecting to a Network

Booting the Operating System

Powering Up!

Common Problems

If You Need More Help

Appendix B: Introductory Software Project: The Insult Generator

Variables

Strings

Lists

Functions

Conditional Behaviour

Making Your Own Functions

Creating Loops

Introduction

You’ve got a Raspberry Pi — now what? This book has the answer; it’s packed full of fun Raspberry Pi projects to inspire you. From getting your Pi generating comedy insults, controlling slot cars and drawing roto-sketches to building your own harmonograph, prepare to be entertained and amazed by your credit card–sized computer.

One word of warning: After you start you might never stop! Electronics and coding can be addictive; who knows what you might go on to make with the skills you learn from this book.

Appendix A, “Getting Your Raspberry Pi Up and Running”, is a beginner’s guide to your first steps with the Raspberry Pi. If you’ve never coded before, Appendix B, “Introductory Software Project: The Insult Generator”, will get you started programming in Python. Chapter 1, “Computer-Controlled Slot Car Racing”, will get you wiring up a slot car game and using it to keep score in a two-player multiple-choice quiz. Chapter 2, “Facebook-Enabled Roto-Sketch”, will show you how to use rotary controls to draw elaborate designs and automatically post them to Flickr and on to Facebook. Chapter 3, “The Pendulum Pi, a Harmonograph”, shows you how to create a harmonograph for producing intricate patterns using an Arduino to help the Pi with real-time data gathering. Along the way you will pick up the skills you need to develop your own ideas to make projects work exactly how you want them to.

Building and making is incredibly rewarding and satisfying. We want to get more people of the world to become producers of technology rather than consumers. The projects in this book are starting points — step by step, they’re easy to follow so you can get results quickly. But then the real satisfaction can come, that which comes from making the project your own. At the end of each chapter there are ideas and suggestions to extend the project, together with background information to point you in the right direction. The real addictive fun begins when you see your own ideas become reality.

Welcome to the world of digital making.

Chapter 1

Computer-Controlled Slot Car Racing

In This Chapter

• Learn how to use your Raspberry Pi to enable and disable a slot car set.

• See how to make your own illuminated joystick pad.

• Discover how to use an external text file as a question bank.

• Understand the interactions between the software and hardware.

This project isa rather different twist on the multiple-choice quiz theme. Not only does it have a novel way of inputting answers, but it also has a rather novel way of keeping the score.

The idea is that you are going to hack into a slot car game and allow the Raspberry Pi to control when the game can be played. Then players can drive their cars for three seconds at a time, if they are the first to answer a question correctly. If they get the question wrong, their opponent gets the time. The game continues until one player crosses the finishing line after completing a set number of laps. The questions come from a plain text file and can be added to, or the subject of them changed. They are multiple-choice questions with four possible answers, and players indicate their answer by moving a special joystick button. The successful player’s joystick button will light up green, whereas the other player’s button will light up red.