Big Led Panel Incoming

Perlin noise for the win!

I mentioned a while back that you could get 3 8x8 neopixel panels from Amazon for nine quid. You still can (at least until I’ve bought them all). I’ve started building a 24*8 pixel panel with them. I’ve got the box printed and wired up one panel.

Excuse my soldering

I’ve got it working and it turns out that you can get over 30fps driving all the panels flat out. This means that smooth fades are very doable. The next step is to buy six more panels and see how fast I can drive them in a 16*24 array. The plan is to use separate processor output pins to drive each panel which should make for super-smooth updates too. Such fun.

I’m doing this for an article I’m writing for Raspberry Pi Magazine. The article is about device setting storage. I thought I’d make a device which needs setting storage and it seems to have got a bit out of hand……..

Max out your programming skills with Raspberry Pi Magazine

The latest issue of Raspberry Pi Magazine is now out. You can find it here. It’s got a couple of articles by me in it, which is rather nice. The first one is all about maximising your coding skills by learning new things about Python and taking a look at other languages - JavaScript and Rust. The second one describes how to build a Raspberry Pi PICO powered cable release with built in self-destruction detector. The magazine is a great read, and the new layout is really nice. Well worth a read. You can buy it online or you can find it in newsagents.

Baking Circuits in the Raspberry Pi Magazine

If you want to know how to solder surface mount circuits I’ve written a little article about it which is in the latest Raspberry Pi Magazine. There are lots of good articles in there, it is very nice to see that they have really strong maker content in there. Well worth a read.

RFID Drinks Manager in MagPi Magazine

We used RFID cards to manage the free drinks at our Fiftieth Anniversary Celebrations last year. If you want to find out how they work (and how to get free drinks) you can find an article about them in issue 150 of MagPi magazine which is in the shops now.

Python-Ish 2 in The Magpi magazine

The second instalment of my Python-Ish series is available in the latest MagPi magazine which is out today. This one describes how a compiler can convert high-level text into low-level instructions. I had a lot of fun writing it, with luck you might have a bit of fun reading it…

Python-Ish in The Magpi magazine

The latest Magpi + HackSpace magazine is out. It’s lovely to see that the HackSpace ethos is coming through loud and clear, with lots of making articles in there with the Raspberry Pi goodness.

One of the articles is the first in a two part series about Python-Ish, a programming language I created by accident to control Hull Pixelbot robots. I want to take some of the mystery out of how programs get to run. In this article I’m all about the low-level run time part. I think it is worth a read, but then again I am a bit biased..

You can get the magazine in shops or buy a digital copy here.

MagPi Paparazzi Camera Edition

The very latest MagPi magazine is out now. It’s a good read, made even better by the inclusion of lots of maker content now that it incorporates HackSpace. In amongst all the stuff is an article from me about making a Paparazzi Camera. This is one which follows you around the room. I had a lot of run playing with servos and person detectors.

Junked Joystsicks in MagPi magazine

Number one son even made the cover…

In a shocking development I don’t have an article out this month. But number one son does. So at least the family is out there. If you get this month’s MagPi magazine you will discover an article from him describing how to bring junked joysticks back to life.

Leaky Camera in MagPi Magazine

HackSpace and MagPi are now one magazine. And in this month’s edition you can find my article about converting an old Polaroid camera to Fuji Instax film and adding internal leds to make the pictures more interesting (as if I need to do that). You can buy the magazine here.