Using Pi 5 to Set Up RGB Lights

Core Electronics shared this article and video on Youtube!

This is an update to an older guide done so that we can provide you with the fastest, most modern, and best way to set up your system.

Nothing beats bright shiny colourful lights and this guide demonstrates the fastest and most customizable way to have Fully Addressable WS2812B LED (Light Emitting Diode) strips running on any Raspberry Pi Single Board Computer. That way you can enjoy lighting up your home exactly the way you want.

The name WS2812B Strip usually refers to a long length of flexible PCB with many specific RGB LED Nodes evenly spaced and dotted along the top side of the PCB. Furthermore, WS2812B strips are fully addressable. This means each RGB LED node can display a different colour and intensity than its neighbours. WS2812B strips will do everything that non-addressable RGB strips do. In almost all regards WS2812B Strips are better as they allow for more creative LED light shows. Fancier animation/striping/chasing effects become possible when you can decide exactly what each LED Node will do. WS2812B can be referred to as NeoPixels or GlowBit LEDs.

A mini monitor for a Raspberry Pi

Noam Zeise discusses using a small 2 inch display as a monitor for a Raspberry Pi, where it can display tty terminals and X desktops and applications as if it was a normal screen connected over HDMI.

My overall goal is to have a sort of handheld “console” that I can connect a keyboard to and use as a normal computer. I have a 2 inch 240×320 ips tft display sold by adafruit, driven by an ST7789 controller by Sitronix.

For a computer, I’m using a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W. It costs around £15. This has the same processor as the Pi 3, but only 500mb of ram. The software/setup should work with any Pi.

See the video below and more in the post here. The source code is here.

Raspberry Pi Connect: remote shell access and support for older devices

The latest version of Raspberry Pi Connect expands with support for older Raspberry Pi boards , Via Raspberry pi

A month and a half ago, we launched Raspberry Pi Connect, giving you simple, remote access to your Raspberry Pi straight out of the box, from anywhere in the world. Since then we’ve been listening to your thoughts on what you’d most like to see from the service: today we’re excited to announce the latest beta release, bringing Raspberry Pi Connect to even more devices.

Today’s release includes remote shell access and support for all Raspberry Pi computers, whether they’re running Raspberry Pi OS 32-bit or 64-bit, going all the way back to the 2012 Raspberry Pi 1. This includes Raspberry Pi OS Lite, as well as versions of Raspberry Pi OS with the desktop.

Running the Logitech Media Server on a Raspberry Pi @Raspberry_Pi #PiDay #RaspberryPi

Want to stream your own music using a Raspberry Pi? Here’s a primer on running the Logitech Media Server on Raspberry Pi, via PiMyLifeUp:

Logitech Media Server, now known as Lyrion Music Server (LMS), is an audio streaming server for Squeezebox devices that you can run off a Pi. This media server has gone through a few different names over the years, starting off as Squeezebox server. It was called this as it was the key method for streaming audio to the Squeezebox series of network music players.

This audio server allows you to stream music over your network to compatible devices and features support for most audio codecs. With the use of plugins, this Squeezebox server can be extended to stream music from music services and internet radio stations.

Learn more!

Smart bee hotel features 11 Raspberry Pis

Ten Raspberry Pis work with individual live-streaming cameras in this smart bee hotel. The 11th pi powers the weather station, Via Raspberrypi.org

A joint project between ATEA, IBM, and the University in Oslo, Norway has opened a Raspberry Pi-powered bee hotel. Before we get to the Raspberry Pi-powered elements of this excellent conservation project, I need you to read the list of nomenclature afforded to some different parts of this bug bed and breakfast:

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 5 vs Intel N100 PC – Which Is Right For You? #PiDay @Raspberry_Pi

People have commented to Michael Klements that for the price of the Raspberry Pi 5, one should just get an Intel N100 based mini PC instead. Most cite better video encoding and decoding performance, better OS support, more memory & storage options, and additional PCIe lanes as advantages over the Pi 5.

Michael compares the two to see whether an N100 Mini PC is a better option and what the limitations of each of them are.

If you don’t know what an N100 PC is. It’s a PC, often in a mini PC form factor, that is built around Intel’s Alder Lake N family, and in this case the N100 CPU. For a long time, Raspberry Pi’s were substantially cheaper than any newly available Intel hardware, but Pi’s have since crept up in price and this series of processors are now cheap and efficient enough to close that gap to the point whether they’re becoming quite comparable.

If you plan on using the computer for automation or robotics with a reliance on the GPIO pins then the Pi 5 is the better option, but for experimenting with home server projects, running anything reliant on a GPU, or getting started with Docker or Kubernetes then the N100 mini PC is a great alternative.

I think Raspberry Pi have missed the mark a little with the pricing of the Pi 5. If you are just looking for a cheap computer to get into tinkering with electronics projects then you’re probably better off going for a base version of the Pi 4. This still has plenty of CPU power to run projects locally and you’ll have access to a similar set of IO to the Pi 5 but without the additional cost. After all, a big part of the initial attraction to Raspberry Pi’s was the $35 base price.

See the video below and more on the DIY Life blog

A Raspberry Pi based camera with swappable body parts and camera modules #PiDay @Raspberry_Pi

Modular Pi Cam is a Raspberry Pi based camera that can swap body parts and camera modules developed by Jacob David C Cunningham.

This started out as just me wanting to try round displays and the 5D directional pad… but as I worked on the project I realized the body could be modular eg. swap the camera module/front plate or back plate.

The software used by the Modular Pi Cam 2 (mpi cam 2) is mostly the same as the Pi Zero HQ cam with some upgrades like different display and detecting camera.

See GitHub for details + files and there is more documentation on hackaday.io. Check out the video below.