[slackline]

Raspberry Pi B+ now available   

Less power consumption and 4 USB ports are major positives.

[Paul B]

Shame there's still no WOL support or power switch.

Still, now that it's been around for a while RaspBMC is very stable and it's the cheapest, most-functional media center I can think of!

[slackline]

Shame there's still no WOL support or power switch.

Part of that is down to the fact that there is no power switch and you can't suspend them.  If its plugged in its "on" until its powered down.  There is a post on this stackexchange discussion suggesting that the wired ethernet does support WoL though (based on the hardware specification).

Still, now that it's been around for a while RaspBMC is very stable and it's the cheapest, most-functional media center I can think of!

  They're certainly strong contenders, would/will be great when more streaming services are supported under GNU/Linux and you can get NetFlix/Lovefilm/etc. working on them.

[SEDur]

Slightly OT, but has anyone come across FPGA for RPi in the wild yet?

[slackline]

A short time after the Raspberry Pi B+ was released came the Raspberry Pi 2.

I was looking for a dedicated audio streaming system rather than playing music through my TV and being a cheapskate didn't fancy the pricey Sonos systems and others.  I came across the iQaudio DAC+ for the Raspberry Pi 2 (and Pi B+) and set about installing and configuring Volumio a dedicated GNU/Linux distribution that uses Music Player Daemon to stream all your audio.

You can plug USB drives straight into the Pi, but since I have all my music on my server I just export the directory as Network File Shares and mount them on the Pi, it makes a database of everything and there is a nice WebUI and Android Application for controlling it.  Now its set up its simple and easy to use (a crucial feature for my wife to be able to use it).

I've written it all up along with some tweaks that I find useful should anyone else be interested in doing this.  You can read about it here.  There are a couple more things I need to do, like adding all of the BBC radio station streams (not as straight-forward as normal mp3 streams), and I'll write up how to port-forwarding shares so you can stream your own music over the internet, but for the most part its done.

In time I intend to get a second unit for a different room and (hopefully) have them synchronised so I've multi-room audio.

Now all I need to do is by some half-decent active speakers from Gumtree/Fleabay and I can ditch the ancient stereo thats taking up space in the living room

[slackline]

Got my new speakers to go with the Pi2, some Behringer MS40 sound great, but intend to move them out from under the TV when I get some shelves stuck up, should improve the listening experience a bit.




Wife can use it too with almost no problems....I had to point out that the reason the Android client wasn't connecting to the Pi2 was because she didn't have WiFi turned on and wasn't connected to the home network. 

Considerably cheaper (and vastly more flexible since its streaming) than this £3000 high-res audio player (/via Obi Wan on Twatter).

[slackline]

Innovative use of  Pi Zero...

[dave]

Any of you geeks used a Raspberry Pi for stuff with kids? Trying to suss out if it's suitable for a smart 7yr old. I know fuck all about these things.

[slackline]

Nope but given they're designed for kids to learn programming there is a ton of shit out there for them to learn programming with them.  No real idea what age group things are suitable for but this is the official repository...

https://www.raspberrypi.org/resources/learn/

Google will find you shit loads more.

I've one of the original PiB+ I'm not using you can have if you want, but its fairly old/lowly spec and its a whole ~£30 for the latest model Pi3B which has on-board WiFi, more RAM, faster CPU etc..

There is a Sheffield based company called Pimoroni if you want to scrimp on postage.

[slackline]

Would a 30km/h Pi Zero powered electric skateboard be of suitable interest.

[dave]

Cheers word will have to do some reading up.

[Muenchener]

My eight year old niece's birthday and Christmas lists have undergone a radical transformation in the last twelve months from Lego elves'n'fairies to Raspberry Pi accessories.

Since she's in a different country I'm only vaguely informed as what she's up to with them, I suspect Ruling The World may feature in the plan somewhere.

[dave]

Good stuff, that's what I like to hear.

[Jim]

i'd be interested in this as well Dave if you want to let us know how you get on please?

[dave]

Will do. Sounds like my sister is buying MiniDave#1 one for xmas, so will see how it pans out.

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

RPis are actually pretty powerful now, it can do all sorts. A 7 year old will be able to use many things on it, but may struggle with some of the setup etc and the programming in something like SonicPi is probably suited to older kids. It runs Minecraft pretty well.

If they have started with Scratch etc at school the next logical step is something like a Codebug or Microbit. Both very similar, great for simple drag and drop block programming tasks with fast and satisfying results. Flashing shapes, messages, movement sensors etc.

From there you could go to something like a Crumble Robot (yeah, i know!) which is also easier to use than RPi

Codebug = 6 FAs
Microbit = 5.2FAs
Crumble Robot = 16.8 FAs
RPi 3 = 12FAs

For all of these although the boards are cheap, you'll need various accessories to make the most out of them.

If you're getting a RPi make sure it's a RPi3, it's got onboard WiFi and bluetooth which is essential and using plug in dongles can be a pain.

http://www.codebug.org.uk/shop/

https://redfernelectronics.co.uk/product/crumble-robotic-vehicle-full-kit/

https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/microbit

[Jim]

good knowledge Toby, cheers

[colin8ll]

I used a pi and LEDs to pimp my training board

[tomtom]

I've read the links and am very confused by all this... I've a 9yo nephew for who this could be a really good idea - but it's really not clear what's a good idea to start with... :-/

Anyone able to help?

[SEDur]

I used a pi and LEDs to pimp my training board

That looks great! Are you driving the LEDs off a cape and external PSU? Have you thought about making a 'random' route maker using a search algorithm?

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

[colin8ll]

Thanks  .

Are you driving the LEDs off a cape and external PSU?

No, I'm just driving the LEDs (WS2801 string) through the Pi's power pin. I did think I would need to use an external power supply for the LEDs but I did a test and was able to drive all 138 LEDs just using Pi's power and as I normally only drive >10 for a route I'll just stick with this.

Have you thought about making a 'random' route maker using a search algorithm?

That would be cool. Something like this did cross my mind but it's a bit of a step above my level at the moment. I'm planning to put the code on github and blog the set-up process so if you fancy collaborating just let me know 

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

I've read the links and am very confused by all this... I've a 9yo nephew for who this could be a really good idea - but it's really not clear what's a good idea to start with... :-/

Anyone able to help?

Buy him a code bug (or bundle if your feeling generous)

http://www.codebug.org.uk/shop/

or an Essentials or Complete Microbit kit

https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/microbit

Codebug works from a on-board watch cell battery, where as the Microbit needs an external battery or power input. But the Microbit has movement sensors the Codebug doesn't. At 9 he's likely to have used Scratch at school so won't struggle with the block based programming for either which is very similar to Scratch.

[SEDur]

Thanks  .

Are you driving the LEDs off a cape and external PSU?

No, I'm just driving the LEDs (WS2801 string) through the Pi's power pin. I did think I would need to use an external power supply for the LEDs but I did a test and was able to drive all 138 LEDs just using Pi's power and as I normally only drive >10 for a route I'll just stick with this.

Have you thought about making a 'random' route maker using a search algorithm?

That would be cool. Something like this did cross my mind but it's a bit of a step above my level at the moment. I'm planning to put the code on github and blog the set-up process so if you fancy collaborating just let me know 

Sorry thought I replied to this already.
Yes, I am up for this!

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

[Johnny Brown]

That looks great! Are you driving the LEDs off a cape and external PSU? Have you thought about making a 'random' route maker using a search algorithm?

I'll be well impressed if anyone can manage this without just creating a game of vertical Twister.

[tomtom]

Cheers for the advice all. We got our nephew a pi3 basic kit (power sd case and hdmi cable). Two days later... still going strong.
 His sister had used slack at school so they had a load of fun with that first, before it was hooked up to the web.