NEW GUIDE: Adafruit DVI Sock for Pico #AdafruitLearningSystem #Adafruit @adafruit

Wouldn’t it be cool to display images and graphics directly from your Pico or Pico W to an HDMI monitor or television? We think so! So we designed this DVI Sock with a digital video output (a.k.a DVI) that will work with any HDMI monitor or display. Note it doesn’t do audio, just graphics!

The Adafruit DVI Sock for Pico guide has everything you need to get started with using this sock. There’s pages for overview, pinouts, CircuitPython, Arduino and resources for download.

Read more at Adafruit DVI Sock for Pico

Post-Human Dioramas #ArtTuesday

North of Bogotá, Colombia, you can find Parque Jaime Duque. The vintage theme park features include a dinosaur garden, scaled recreations of the Seven Wonders of the World, a medieval castle, and a labyrinthine underground journey through a set of dioramas that take the visitors through the entire history of mankind, complete with a Big Bang, colonial encounters, and the dream analysis of Sigmund Freud. But what if the dioramas depicted not the history of humankind but the future history of a post-human world? That is the work o of Max Hooper Schneider. Here’s more from COLOSSAL:

Schneider’s practice revolves around the idea of the trans-habitat, what he describes as “a relentless onslaught in which bodies…are continuously created, transformed, destroyed, and recreated.” His works imply this cyclical process as otherworldly organisms consume what were once everyday objects, and humans appear displaced from their role as primary actors.

Many sculptures veer toward the grotesque like “Pond Scum Phalanx,” which features a mass of vibrant fishing lures entwined with grimy clumps of slime. Other pieces like “Cereal Cave” and “UNDERTOW MOON” nod to the potential cause of destruction, as neon light cloaks the ecosystems making them appear almost radioactive.

See more!

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Every Tuesday is Art Tuesday here at Adafruit! Today we celebrate artists and makers from around the world who are designing innovative and creative works using technology, science, electronics and more. You can start your own career as an artist today with Adafruit’s conductive paints, art-related electronics kits, LEDs, wearables, 3D printers and more! Make your most imaginative designs come to life with our helpful tutorials from the Adafruit Learning System. And don’t forget to check in every Art Tuesday for more artistic inspiration here on the Adafruit Blog!

A hi-res WAV player for Raspberry Pi Pico

RPi_Pico_WAV_Player is a high resolution WAV file player for Raspberry Pi Pico.

The project features:

• Playback up to Hi-Res WAV format
  • Channel: Mono, Stereo
  • Bit resolution: 16bit, 24bit
  • Sampling frequency: 44.1KHz, 48KHz, 88.2KHz, 96KHz, 176.4KHz, 192KHz
• An SD Card interface (exFAT supported)
• 160×80 LCD display
• UI Control by 3 GPIO buttons or Headphone Remote Control Buttons
• Display Tag information by LIST chunk in WAV file
• Display Cover art images, JPEG files
• Volume Control Function by fully utilizing the 32bit DAC range

Components:

• Raspberry Pi Pico board
• Waveshare RP2040-LCD-0.96 board
• ST7735S 0.96″ 160×80 LCD (for Raspberry Pi Pico board only)
• PCM5102 32bit I2S Audio DAC

See more about this project on GitHub.

Daylight Computer Uses Daylight in Place of LEDs

Başak Tuna used her AIR InSilo Residency to breathe new life into her project Daylight Computer, via InSilo:

It is simply a computer screen that works in front of a window or on a sunny day instead of using the embedded electric light. A desktop screen that is resistant to function at night times. Technically speaking; the computer screen doesn’t need the LEDs inside in order to function. The LEDs are taken out of the screen and another window behind it is opened. The screen’s light source is now the environmental light or daylight.

Read more

PiShrink: a bash script to shrink a Raspberry Pi image

PiShrink is a bash script that automatically shrink a pi image that will then resize to the max size of the SD card on boot, authored by Drew Bonasera.

This will make putting the image back onto the SD card faster and the shrunk images will compress better. In addition the shrunk image can be compressed with gzip and xz to create an even smaller image. Parallel compression of the image using multiple cores is supported.

Check out this MIT licensed feature on GitHub.

Sign Language Translator #piday #raspberrypi

Accessable accesability, We love to see it. These 3D printed spectacles will translate sign language. With a few parts, including a Pi zero 2 W, and some machine learning, you can make your own! From Nekhil on Hackster.io:

The electronic device we’ve created takes the form of wearable spectacles, providing a practical and discreet solution for communication barriers. Designed to be worn by individuals with disabilities, the spectacles seamlessly integrate into everyday life, allowing users to communicate effortlessly with those who do not know sign language. This wearable design not only enhances accessibility but also promotes a sense of independence and autonomy, empowering users to express themselves confidently in various social and professional settings.

See more!

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Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!

Raspberry Pi Synthesizers #piday #raspberrypi @Raspberry_Pi

GEARNEWS shares how the Pi found its way into synths.

Digital synthesizers are essentially computers in specialized housings. Rather than a keyboard with letters and numbers, their keyboards trigger notes. Custom-designed DSP (digital signal processing) systems can be expensive so some manufacturers are turning to ready-made computing systems to run their synths. One that’s been gaining in popularity in recent years is Raspberry Pi. The low-cost mini computer is now in instruments by Korg, Erica Synths and many more.

Read more.

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Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!

NEW PRODUCT – Adafruit PiCowbell Camera Breakout – Autofocus 72 Degree Lens / Adafruit PiCowbell Camera Breakout – Autofocus 120 Degree Lens / Adafruit PiCowBell Camera Breakout – Wide Angle 160 Degree Lens / Adafruit PiCowBell Camera Breakout – Wide Angle 120 Degree Lens

NEW PRODUCT – Adafruit PiCowbell Camera Breakout – Autofocus 72 Degree Lens 

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Ding dong! Hear that? It’s the PiCowbell ringing, letting you know that the new Adafruit PiCowbell OV5640 Camera Breakout with 72-Degree Lens and Autofocus is in stock.

This is a quality OV5640 camera with a 5 Megapixel sensor element, a 72-degree non-distorting lens, and autofocus motor, plus all the support circuitry you need to start taking pictures with your Pico or Pico W. You can grab raw RGB images for image analysis, or use the built in JPEG encoding to save images to an SD card or upload them to adafruit.io.

The RP2040 chip has a fast PIO interface peripheral and enough memory to interface with ‘DVP’ (8-bit parallel digital) cameras. These camera sensors have 8 image data pins, Pixel Clock, H Sync and V Sync signals, plus I2C configuration interface and a Reset plus power Down pin. That does mean a lot of GPIO are used! But we still have 6 GPIO pin available even after adding an SD cart and shutter button.

 

Camera PiCowbell Features:

 

– Interface for OV5640 Camera module

VSync: GPIO 0

Power Down: GPIO 1

HSync: GPIO 2

Pixel Clock: GPIO 3

SDA/SCL: GPIO 4 and GPIO 5

8-bit Digital: GPIO6 through GPIO 13

Reset: GPIO 14

VMotor connected to 3.3V for auto-focus modules

– Micro SD Card

SPI on GPIO 16, GPIO 18 and GPIO 19

Chip select on GPIO 17

Optional SD Detect on GPIO 15

– Shutter button on GPIO 22

– Reset button

– 16 MHz ‘XClock’ generated by onboard oscillator

– Stemma QT port for I2C on GPIO 4 / 5

Note that to use the auto-focusing capability, you need to load a new firmware binary over I2C. The autofocus system is controlled with I2C commands to begin an auto-focus procedure and determine that focus is complete. Otherwise, the camera looks just like any other OV5640 sensor.

Each order comes with an assembled PCB, camera sensor, and two pieces of 20-pin pin header. You will need to solder in the header yourself, but it’s a quick task.

Since this board has the camera pointing ‘up’, it’s best to use our PiCowbell ‘doubler’ to have the Pico on one side with the BOOT button accessible, and then the camera on the other side. Or you can ‘stack’ the camera ‘bell on top, best when you don’t need easy access to the BOOT loading button.

Or, for a compact package, you can…

Use the Pico Stacking Headers if you want to be able to plug into a breadboard or other accessory with sockets. Solder these onto the Pico so that the camera is on top.

Use the Pico Socket Headers if you want to plug directly in and have a nice solid connection that doesn’t have any poking-out-bits. Ditto, solder these into the Pico and plug the camera on top.

 

______________________________________________________________________________________________

 

NEW PRODUCT – Adafruit PiCowbell Camera Breakout – Autofocus 120 Degree Lens

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Ding dong! Hear that? It’s the PiCowbell ringing, letting you know that the new Adafruit PiCowbell OV5640 Camera Breakout with 120-Degree Lens and Autofocus is in stock.

This is a quality OV5640 camera with a 5 Megapixel sensor element, a 120-degree slightly-distorting wide angle lens, and autofocus motor, plus all the support circuitry you need to start taking pictures with your Pico or Pico W. You can grab raw RGB images for image analysis, or use the built in JPEG encoding to save images to an SD card or upload them to adafruit.io.

The RP2040 chip has a fast PIO interface peripheral and enough memory to interface with ‘DVP’ (8-bit parallel digital) cameras. These camera sensors have 8 image data pins, Pixel Clock, H Sync and V Sync signals, plus I2C configuration interface and a Reset plus power Down pin. That does mean a lot of GPIO are used! But we still have 6 GPIO pin available even after adding an SD cart and shutter button.

Camera PiCowbell Features:

 

– Interface for OV5640 Camera module

VSync: GPIO 0

Power Down: GPIO 1

HSync: GPIO 2

Pixel Clock: GPIO 3

SDA/SCL: GPIO 4 and GPIO 5

8-bit Digital: GPIO6 through GPIO 13

Reset: GPIO 14

VMotor connected to 3.3V for auto-focus modules

– Micro SD Card

SPI on GPIO 16, GPIO 18 and GPIO 19

Chip select on GPIO 17

Optional SD Detect on GPIO 15

– Shutter button on GPIO 22

– Reset button

– 16 MHz ‘XClock’ generated by onboard oscillator

– Stemma QT port for I2C on GPIO 4 / 5

 

Note that to use the auto-focusing capability, you need to load a new firmware binary over I2C. The autofocus system is controlled with I2C commands to begin an auto-focus procedure and determine that focus is complete. Otherwise, the camera looks just like any other OV5640 sensor.

Each order comes with an assembled PCB, camera sensor, and two pieces of 20-pin pin header. You will need to solder in the header yourself, but it’s a quick task.

Since this board has the camera pointing ‘up’, it’s best to use our PiCowbell ‘doubler’ to have the Pico on one side with the BOOT button accessible, and then the camera on the other side. Or you can ‘stack’ the camera ‘bell on top, best when you don’t need easy access to the BOOT loading button.

Or, for a compact package, you can…

Use the Pico Stacking Headers if you want to be able to plug into a breadboard or other accessory with sockets. Solder these onto the Pico so that the camera is on top.

Use the Pico Socket Headers if you want to plug directly in and have a nice solid connection that doesn’t have any poking-out-bits. Ditto, solder these into the Pico and plug the camera on top.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

 

NEW PRODUCT – Adafruit PiCowBell Camera Breakout – Wide Angle 160 Degree Lens

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Ding dong! Hear that? It’s the PiCowbell ringing, letting you know that the new Adafruit PiCowbell OV5640 Camera Breakout with 160-Degree Wide-Angle Lens is in stock.

This is a quality OV5640 camera with a 5 Megapixel sensor element, a 160-degree wide angle lens, plus all the support circuitry you need to start taking pictures with your Pico or Pico W. You can grab raw RGB images for image analysis, or use the built in JPEG encoding to save images to an SD card or upload them to adafruit.io.

The RP2040 chip has a fast PIO interface peripheral and enough memory to interface with ‘DVP’ (8-bit parallel digital) cameras. These camera sensors have 8 image data pins, Pixel Clock, H Sync and V Sync signals, plus I2C configuration interface and a Reset plus power Down pin. That does mean a lot of GPIO are used! But we still have 6 GPIO pin available even after adding an SD cart and shutter button

Camera PiCowbell Features:

 

– Interface for OV5640 Camera module

VSync: GPIO 0

Power Down: GPIO 1

HSync: GPIO 2

Pixel Clock: GPIO 3

SDA/SCL: GPIO 4 and GPIO 5

8-bit Digital: GPIO6 through GPIO 13

Reset: GPIO 14

VMotor connected to 3.3V for auto-focus modules

– Micro SD Card

SPI on GPIO 16, GPIO 18 and GPIO 19

Chip select on GPIO 17

Optional SD Detect on GPIO 15

– Shutter button on GPIO 22

– Reset button

– 16 MHz ‘XClock’ generated by onboard oscillator

– Stemma QT port for I2C on GPIO 4 / 5

This module does not have auto-focus capability, it is a fixed ‘infinite’ focus module.

Each order comes with an assembled PCB, camera sensor, and two pieces of 20-pin pin header. You will need to solder in the header yourself, but it’s a quick task.

Since this board has the camera pointing ‘up’, it’s best to use our PiCowbell ‘doubler’ to have the Pico on one side with the BOOT button accessible, and then the camera on the other side. Or you can ‘stack’ the camera ‘bell on top, best when you don’t need easy access to the BOOT loading button.

Or, for a compact package, you can…

Use the Pico Stacking Headers if you want to be able to plug into a breadboard or other accessory with sockets. Solder these onto the Pico so that the camera is on top.

Use the Pico Socket Headers if you want to plug directly in and have a nice solid connection that doesn’t have any poking-out-bits. Ditto, solder these into the Pico and plug the camera on top.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

 

NEW PRODUCT – Adafruit PiCowBell Camera Breakout – Wide Angle 120 Degree Lens

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Ding dong! Hear that? It’s the PiCowbell ringing, letting you know that the new Adafruit PiCowbell OV5640 Camera Breakout with 120-Degree Wide-Angle Lens is in stock.

This is a quality OV5640 camera with a 5 Megapixel sensor element, a 120-degree wide-angle lens, plus all the support circuitry you need to start taking pictures with your Pico or Pico W. You can grab raw RGB images for image analysis, or use the built-in JPEG encoding to save images to an SD card or upload them to adafruit.io.

The RP2040 chip has a fast PIO interface peripheral and enough memory to interface with ‘DVP’ (8-bit parallel digital) cameras. These camera sensors have 8 image data pins, Pixel Clock, H Sync and V Sync signals, plus I2C configuration interface and a Reset plus power Down pin. That does mean a lot of GPIO are used! But we still have 6 GPIO pin available even after adding an SD cart and shutter button.

Camera PiCowbell Features:

 

– Interface for OV5640 Camera module

VSync: GPIO 0

Power Down: GPIO 1

HSync: GPIO 2

Pixel Clock: GPIO 3

SDA/SCL: GPIO 4 and GPIO 5

8-bit Digital: GPIO6 through GPIO 13

Reset: GPIO 14

VMotor connected to 3.3V for auto-focus modules

– Micro SD Card

SPI on GPIO 16, GPIO 18 and GPIO 19

Chip select on GPIO 17

Optional SD Detect on GPIO 15

– Shutter button on GPIO 22

– Reset button

– 16 MHz ‘XClock’ generated by onboard oscillator

– Stemma QT port for I2C on GPIO 4 / 5

This module does not have auto-focus capability, it is a fixed ‘infinite’ focus module.

Each order comes with an assembled PCB, camera sensor, and two pieces of 20-pin pin header. You will need to solder in the header yourself, but it’s a quick task.

Since this board has the camera pointing ‘up’, it’s best to use our PiCowbell ‘doubler’ to have the Pico on one side with the BOOT button accessible, and then the camera on the other side. Or you can ‘stack’ the camera ‘bell on top, best when you don’t need easy access to the BOOT loading button.

Or, for a compact package, you can…

Use the Pico Stacking Headers if you want to be able to plug into a breadboard or other accessory with sockets. Solder these onto the Pico so that the camera is on top.

Use the Pico Socket Headers if you want to plug directly in and have a nice solid connection that doesn’t have any poking-out-bits. Ditto, solder these into the Pico and plug the camera on top.

In stock and shipping now!

Young Engineers Send Astro Pi Code to the International Space Station @Raspberry_Pi #PiDay #RaspberryPi

Once again, the European Astro Pi Challenge is helping young coders get their work out into space! Here’s more from the Raspberry Pi Foundation:

Young people taking part in the European Astro Pi Challenge are about to have their computer programs sent to the International Space Station (ISS). Astro Pi is run annually in collaboration by us and ESA Education, and offers two ways to get involved: Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab.

…

Mission Zero is an exciting activity for kids with little or no experience with coding. We invite young people to create a Python program that displays an 8×8 pixel image or animation. This program then gets sent to the ISS, and each pixel art piece is displayed for 30 seconds on the LED matrix display of the Astro Pi computers on the ISS.

See and learn more!

Pi Clock @Raspberry_Pi #PiDay #RaspberryPi

Super fun build from maker Mike Hirst that incorporates both Pi (raspberry) and Pi (3.14…). It features some Adafruit products well. See more details here on instructables!

I made a clock from the digits of Pi. Here’s a demo!

What is Sacred Geometry? #ArtTuesday

What is sacred geometry? While the term may sound like an oxymoron, there’s a lot to mine in the long history of art created from sacred geometry for those with a curious mind or a taste for outsider art. Sacred geometry explores metaphysical notions through geometric shapes and proportions. And UFOs! For Tuscon-based artist Daniel Martin Diaz, sacred geometry both a jumping off point and a guiding principal for his complex pieces. Here’s more from JUXTAPOZ:

Diaz’s diagrammatical compositions draw from a wide range of sources, tapping into an aesthetic we often associate with early scientific or medical publications, filled with detailed black-and-white illustrations. Charts, geometry, astronomical phenomena, architecture, and the human body are just a few of the subjects he combines into orderly, sometimes surreal visual structures.

The artist describes his work as “a quest to articulate the ineffable,” juxtaposing references to technology with the unseen forces of the universe through which everything—and everyone—is connected. Through his vivid, illustrative pieces, he ponders “the implications of technology on humanity’s future and our collective responsibility towards the world and each other.”

See more!

 

 

Young people’s Astro Pi code is sent to the International Space Station

Young people taking part in the European Astro Pi Challenge whose computer programs have passed a rigorous testing process, are about to have their programs sent to the International Space Station, Via Raspberrypi.org

This year, over 25,000 young people from across Europe and eligible ESA Member States are getting their programs ‘uplinked’ to the Astro Pi computers aboard the ISS, where they will be running over the next few weeks.

Mission Zero is an exciting activity for kids with little or no experience with coding. We invite young people to create a Python program that displays an 8×8 pixel image or animation. This program then gets sent to the ISS, and each pixel art piece is displayed for 30 seconds on the LED matrix display of the Astro Pi computers on the ISS.

A Raspberry Pi Pico digital audio SPDIF recorder

User Elehobica on GitHub has made a clever project using a Raspberry Pi Pico / Pico W.

spdif_recorder can record high resolution digital audio from S/PDIF Coaxial or TOSLINK connections (coaxial or optical) to WAV files.

16bit or 24bit (2 channel) can be recorded at sampling frequencies of 44.1 KHz, 48.0 KHz, 88.2 KHz, 96.0 KHz (, 176.4 KHz, 192 KHz).

The Pico is controlled via a simple serial interface. Time is recorded when using a Pico W.

Check out the details on GitHub.

tape-deck: a user-unfriendly cassette playing design

tape-deck by Jarek Lupinski is a rather a user-unfriendly design:

To play music, just give it a tape. tape-deck plays to end of the tape,
reverses, and plays the other side.

HOW DOES ONE PAUSE / STOP THE TAPE?
you should finish what you started.

HOW DO I MAKE IT LOUDER OR QUIETER?
listen to louder or quieter albums.

CAN I FASTFORWARD OR REWIND AT ALL?
the artists who recorded this album
want you to listen to it like this.

It looks like it uses a Raspberry Pi Pico but like the rest of the project, it’s vague.

Check it out on GitHub.

The Art of Retro-Futurism in Jack Wang’s TVA Computer Design #ArtTuesday

The design aesthetic for Marvel’s Loki and the TVA does an incredible job of capturing a sci-fi future that could have been. Take a look at the immaculately rendered TVA Multifunctional Computer. Via Beautiful life:

At the heart of this design is a conscious effort to capture the essence of retro-futurism, a style that harks back to the technological dreams of the 1960s. The computer is distinguished by its spherical upper section, a nod to the classic design ethos of the past century. This element is seamlessly integrated with an array of retro components, creating a machine that feels both familiar and otherworldly. The TVA Multifunctional Computer is equipped with features reminiscent of traditional technology, such as a reel tape recorder and volume toggle buttons. It also includes modern functionalities like forward, rewind, play, pause, and record buttons, alongside a robust full-size QWERTY keyboard for mechanical input, representing a bridge between eras.

See more!

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Every Tuesday is Art Tuesday here at Adafruit! Today we celebrate artists and makers from around the world who are designing innovative and creative works using technology, science, electronics and more. You can start your own career as an artist today with Adafruit’s conductive paints, art-related electronics kits, LEDs, wearables, 3D printers and more! Make your most imaginative designs come to life with our helpful tutorials from the Adafruit Learning System. And don’t forget to check in every Art Tuesday for more artistic inspiration here on the Adafruit Blog!

Mixed-Media Masks Made from Found Objects

These beautiful and innovative masks are made by Kenyan artist Cyrus Kabiru. Made from found objects collected around his hometown of Nairobi, Kabiru creates work of all forms.

Ranging from mechanical parts and cooking utensils to plastic caps and beads, Kenyan artist Cyrus Kabiru fashions dazzling eyewear and helmets from salvaged and found objects. The futuristic forms often obscure the eyes like an ornamental veil, and motorbike helmets provide a fitting canvas for fins and frills.

Read more and check out their Instagram.

Monitor Drone Flights in Real Time With #raspberrypi #piday @Raspberry_Pi

Tom’s Hardware shares how a Raspberry Pi FPV monitor shares drone flights in real time.

If you’re a maker with your head in the sky, you’ve got to check out this Raspberry Pi FPV monitor project put together by Seii-FPV. Instead of searching the market for an existing product, Seii-FPV opted to make a device from scratch using open-source tools. In addition to working as an FPV drone monitor, the Raspberry Pi comes with all the benefits of a desktop PC.

Read more.

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Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!

Star Trek: Voyager Sound Box @Raspberry_Pi #PiDay #RaspberryPi

Scale models are great. And they’re even better with sound effects! Michael Horne used a Raspberry Pi to create a Star Trek sound box to augment a scale model of the USS Voyager. Here’s more from Raspberry Pi Pod:

A friend of mine volunteers for a non-profit organization called Models for Heroes which aims to give Armed Forces veterans a focus for their free time by helping them get into scale modelling. He also builds his own scale models and this time it’s a model of the USS Voyager from Star Trek. He asked for some help to give the project an extra “zing” by providing sound effects. I did some research and, to start with, I was going to use the Raspberry Pi Pico to do it. However, I wanted really good sound this time. My last project for Steff was to provide effects for a Lancaster Bomber model. This time, it was simpler but I wanted something that wouldn’t sound too strained when playing the Voyager main theme.

See project!

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Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!

I Spy, with my Little Pi… #Raspberrypi

Jeff Geerling shared this project on Youtube!

Build a free and open source NVR that’s better than most commercial NVR’s.

I used Frigate, a Raspberry Pi, a Coral TPU, and Axzez’s Interceptor 1U chassis.

Axzez sent me the 1U chassis and the required accessories (not including hard drives or the Raspberry Pi) for this build, but they did not pay any money, nor did they have any input into the content in this video.

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Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!

Arduino vs. Raspberry Pi – Electronics with Becky Stern | DigiKey

DigiKey shared this vide on Youtube!

Which should you use for your project, Arduino or Raspberry Pi? In this video, Becky Stern shows you the primary differences and explains why you would choose a microcontroller or single board computer (SBC) for your project.

See more!

The RP2040 ZX Spectrum emulator has just been released

The ZX2040 is a port of Andre Weissflog ZX Spectrum emulator to the Raspberry Pico RP2040, packed with a simple UI for game selection and key mapping to make it usable without a keyboard.

This project is specifically designed for the Raspberry Pico and ST77xx based displays. The reference device is the Pimoroni Tufty RP2040 display board, but actually the code can run into any Raspberry Pico equipped with an ST77xx display and five buttons connected to five different pins. The buttons work as inputs for the four gaming directions (left, right, top, bottom) and the fire button.

Main features

• Pico -> Spectrum key mapping with each pin mapped up to two Spectrum keys or Kempstone joystick moves. Each game has its own key map, taking advantage of mapping to make games easier to play on portable devices: for instance Jetpac maps a single key (down key) to up + fire. Key macros are used in order to automatically trigger key presses when given frames are reached, to select the kempstone joystick, skip key redefinition, and other things otherwise impossible with few buttons available on the device.
• A minimal ST77xx display driver is included, written specifically for this project. It has just what it is needed to initialize the display and refresh the screen with the Spectrum frame buffer content. It works both with SPI and 8-wires parallel interfaces and is optimized for fast bulk refreshes.
• The emulator has an UI that allows to select games into a list, change certain emulation settings and so forth.
• Multiple games included, with a script to easily added more (see section about adding games). Important, I included copyrighted games hoping that’s fair-use, since these games are no longer sold. If you are the copyright owner and want the game to be removed, please open an issue or write me an email at antirez at google mail service.
• Real time upscaling and downscaling of video, to use the emulator with displays that are larger or smaller than the Spectrum video output. The emulator is also able to remove borders.
• Crazy overclocking to make it work fast enough  Warning: the code must run from the Pico RAM, and not in the memory mapped flash, otherwise it’s not possible to go at 400Mhz. This is achieved simply with pico_set_binary_type(zx copy_to_ram) in CMakeList.txt. There are no problems accessing the flash to load games, because the code down-clocks the CPU when loading games, and then returns at a higher overclocking speeds immediately after.

See more on the project GitHub page. Under an MIT license.

Environmental Waste Transformed into Art

In an American town devastated by toxic draining, a partnerships between university professors, conservationists, and artists, toxic waste is being transformed into pigments. Here’s more from COLOSSAL:

In southeast Ohio, toxic drainage from abandoned coal mines has devastated streams and rivers. The acidic sludge, which is filled with heavy metals, leaches into waterways, destroying ecosystems and turning what should be clear, bluish waters into murky, rust-colored runs. In Athens, home of Ohio University, a Hocking River tributary known as Sunday Creek is a prime example of mining’s harmful effects, with more than two million pounds of iron oxide pouring into the stream each year  A new documentary directed by Jason Whalen visits the area and the team vowing to clean it up.

“Toxic Art” follows an unconventional pairing of two Ohio University professors who have teamed up on a project that turns sludge from the stream into pigments for oil paint. A project of the global conservation organization Rivers are Life, the short film shares the story of artist John Sabraw and Guy Riefler, the chair of the Civil Engineering department, who have spent six years developing pigments using iron oxide they collected from the creek.

See more!

Bringing KITT from Knight Rider to life using ChatGPT and a Raspberry Pi 4

The Knight Rider Historians’ YouTube channel recently showed off an excellent KITT replica that uses a Raspberry Pi and ChatGPT to work as an interactive prop.

This KITT prop is designed to resemble the voice box from the car. It listens for audio input and processes it using speech-to-text so that the data can be parsed to ChatGPT. From there, ChatGPT generates a response in the way KITT would speak. This text is then transposed into audio played while the LEDs flash to mimic how they would flash on the original show.

They use a Raspberry Pi 4 to control the operation. It’s connected to a USB mic and USB speaker for audio input and output.

See the video below and more on Tom’s Hardware.

Custom Handheld Pi Zero HQ Camera @Raspberry_Pi #PiDay #RaspberryPi

If you’ve ever run around at the magic hour snapping shots with a Pentax K1000 or a Canon AE-1, then you know the great low-fi analog feel of an old timey camera. Today’s version of that might be something like this design from Jacob Cunningham. Here’s more from hackaday:

Inside the 3D printed enclosure is a Raspberry Pi Zero, a Pi HQ Camera module, an 1.5″ OLED display, a lithium-ion battery pouch cell, and the charging and voltage regulation boards necessary to keep everything powered up. There’s also a handful of tactile buttons to work through the settings and menus, and a 10-axis IMU to help you keep your horizon level.

…

The hardware side of things looks more or less complete, at least for a first version, and [Jacob] has provided everything you’ll need to build one of your own. But the software is still a work in progress, with the latest push to the Python code in the project’s GitHub repository just eight hours old at the time of this writing. If you’ve been looking for a DIY camera project to really sink your teeth into, this could provide a great starting point.

See project!

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Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!

Raspberry Pi Foundation Research Seminars #Raspberrypi

The Raspberry pi research foundation hosts monthly free online seminars about computing education research that you can participate in! You can catch up on past seminars on the Rasperrypi.org blog and on their previous seminars and recordings page. Last months seminar was all about understanding the impact of AI tools in the classroom. Via Rasperrypi.org

Educators around the world are grappling with the problem of whether to use artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the classroom. As more and more teachers start exploring the ways to use these tools for teaching and learning computing, there is an urgent need to understand the impact of their use to make sure they do not exacerbate the digital divide and leave some students behind.

Sri Yash Tadimalla from the University of North Carolina and Dr Mary Lou Maher, Director of Research Community Initiatives at the Computing Research Association, are exploring how student identities affect their interaction with AI tools and their perceptions of the use of AI tools. They presented findings from two of their research projects in our March seminar.

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Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!

Raspberry Pi NAS #RaspberryPi #PiDay

Great build and tutorial from Frank Bernhardt.

When I decided to replace my old NAS with a new one, I didn’t want to spend too much money on this. So I looked around and found that there are many NAS kits based on a Raspberry Pi. Now you may ask what was my motivation to create another one instead of choosing one of the existing NAS models? This is quite easy to answer. None of these available models matched my requirements for 100%. And I also enjoy developing new things …

See full details here on Instructables.

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Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!

The Strange Creatures in the Work of Spencer Hansen #ArtTuesday

Some art galleries feel as sanitized as hospitals, as quite as libraries, and as devoid of fun as an SAT test room. But any museum filled with the work of Spencer Hansen will feel a lot more like F.A.O. Schwartz at its playful heights. Here’s more from COLOSSAL:

Sporting pinecone-esque suits or masks with gilded antennae, the alien creatures that surface in Spencer Hansen’s Bali workshop appear to be both of this world and not. The artist…recycles familiar, natural materials like wood, fur, and bone, envisioning mysterious but friendly characters with skeletal features and chiseled bodies. Ranging from a few inches high to life-sized, the uncanny sculptures are part of an ever-growing universe salvaged from the scraps of waste materials…. A statement about the exhibition describes his childhood as a major influence on this body of work, explaining:

Spencer was born in rural Idaho, the youngest of eight children. As a child, he found solace in daydreaming. His imagination offered relief from the confusing stories that knit together his family’s deep religious beliefs. He formed his own narratives in a world he belonged to, an internal landscape inhabited by creatures. His world shaped by stories, so closely tied to his identity, is the foundation of his sculptural works.

See and learn more!

Xylem Arbor #ArtTuesday

Nervous System is a generative design studio located in Palenville, NY. They have created their first large scale public artwork composed of over 200 unique lasercut aluminum leaves. Via the Nervous System blog

We recently created our first large scale public artwork. Soaring to a height of 120′, Xylem Arbor is an aggregation of bent metal leaves that climb up the atrium walls of the TEN30 corporate campus in Charlotte, North Carolina. The shape and pattern of the metal leaves evolves as the sculpture ascends. Each leaf features an intricate perforated pattern which is algorithmically generated based on simulations of natural processes.

The Xylem Arbor explores patterns of circulatory systems in plants and throughout the biological world through the lens of science and computation. The sculpture is composed of 224 unique aluminum panels which span the 120’ atrium space. As you travel up the building, the patterns, shapes, and colors morph, evoking different structures from the natural world from lily pads to coral and leaf veins to dragonfly wings.

In nature, the closer you look, the more you can discover, and we want our designs to convey that same sense of wonder. This piece expresses our fascination with multi-scale structures, combining fabrication with geometric logic, and exploring new computational techniques.

See more!

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Every Tuesday is Art Tuesday here at Adafruit! Today we celebrate artists and makers from around the world who are designing innovative and creative works using technology, science, electronics and more. You can start your own career as an artist today with Adafruit’s conductive paints, art-related electronics kits, LEDs, wearables, 3D printers and more! Make your most imaginative designs come to life with our helpful tutorials from the Adafruit Learning System. And don’t forget to check in every Art Tuesday for more artistic inspiration here on the Adafruit Blog!