52 weeks of pi How to Use an RGB multicolor LED with Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) on the Raspberry Pi If you buy a kit with random LEDs, wires, switches, etc, like this one I purchased from CanaKit, you’re likely to end up with one or two of those funky little LEDs
personal reflection Once I was Afraid Some time ago, I came across a post by Charlie Kindel entitled Once I was Afraid. It’s a brief reflection on what he’s accomplished over the years – some big, others small,
52 weeks of pi Creating a "Simon" Game Clone on the Raspberry Pi Have you been around long enough to remember the popular Simon game from the 70s and 80s? There’ve been plenty of remakes over the years, but I had one of the originals
plugin How to Develop Python in Visual Studio... and Mix it Up with the .NET Framework! I’ve been learning about the Raspberry Pi for a few months, occasionally writing about it. I usually start on a laptop using JetBrains’ PyCharm IDE, which is much faster than the Pi,
quoting Saturday Morning Reads #4 I read so many good articles during the week, stuff that’s so much better than anything I could dream up. Every week or two, I’ll share some of the more thoughtful
52 weeks of pi Creating Music with Sonic Pi on the Raspberry Pi Back in May, I was fortunate to attend the Stir Trek conference in Columbus OH (it sold out in under a minute). There were a lot of great presentations, but one that really
debian How to Create a Raspberry Pi Virtual Machine (VM) in VirtualBox I recently started flipping through The MagPi back-issues, and came across an article where someone talked about setting up a virtual Raspberry Pi environment. At the time he wrote his article, I don’
52 weeks of pi How to Flash an LED on Your Raspberry Pi When You Get New Email This week we’ll create an email notification system using the Raspberry Pi. The idea is to check for new email, and flash an LED when we get one. Connecting to Gmail The
52 weeks of pi Generating Morse Code on the Raspberry Pi Using a Button on a Breadboard Last time, I created a morse code generator. It took user input from the console, translated it into morse code, and blinked an LED to “transmit” the message. I decided to build on
bio Being a Judge for Believe in Ohio 2016 I had the opportunity to judge the Believe in Ohio competition again this year. If you’re unfamiliar with it (it’s only the second year), high school students from around Ohio come
circuit Using PullUp and PullDown Resistors on the Raspberry Pi When you start out creating circuits with the Raspberry Pi and its GPIO pins, there’s an unexpected but important concept to understand, called “floating”. A Simple Circuit Imagine you’re creating a
52 weeks of pi Building a Morse Code Transmitter on a Raspberry Pi Last week, I made the Raspberry Pi blink an LED a few times. As thrilling as that was ;) I almost immediately wanted something more. Note: Source code for this project is available on
realvnc How to Access Your Raspbian Desktop on the Raspberry Pi from Another Computer When I want to play around with the Raspberry Pi, I typically end up on the floor in front of the TV (my “spare” monitor). I’m surrounded by HDMI and LAN cables,
circuit Hello World for the Raspberry Pi (Making an LED Blink) I finally unboxed my Pi a few weeks ago, and since then I’ve been learning some Python, which is the primary language of the Pi. You can do fun things with it
c# A Tail of Recursion in Erlang (a C# developer's observations) A group of us at VHT has been meeting weekly, reviewing some Erlang basics and running through examples. Even though it means giving up a lunch hour, over a dozen people have still
python Learning Python for the Raspberry Pi Once you’ve connected the peripherals, installed NOOBS, and gotten your Raspberry Pi up and running, pat yourself on the back and take a moment to bask in the glow of the large
raspberry pi 2 Getting Started with the Raspberry Pi 2 I got a Raspberry Pi 2 for Christmas, and finally took it for a spin this weekend… just as the community is getting ready to celebrate the Pi’s 4th birthday. After using
engine Building a Model 4-Stroke Internal Combustion Engine (your car explodes gas 50x a second, how cool is that?!) Garage sales are great for finding random, interesting things to do with the kids, usually for dirt cheap. Last summer, I found this “Smithsonian Motor-Works” set for $5, which I figured was a
legos Must... resist the temptation.... oh, for pete's sake just MOVE OVER and let me do it! One of the coolest things about being a parent is getting to teach your kids something new. A new game, a new skill, something they didn’t “get” before. It’s a bit
diy How (and why) I built my kids a bunk bed instead of buying one Last summer, my wife was looking to reorganize the homeschool area of our living room. We had a few smallish book cases lining the wall, all different colors and sizes. They were beat
teaching Yes! My kids are finally old enough to help fix their own toys! When you’ve got kids, every issue is more important than the last, and everything needs immediate attention. A snack, some juice, a game on the top shelf, a stuffed animal left out
quoting Saturday Morning Reads #3 (free stuff, git resources, blogging and public speaking) I read so many good articles during the week, stuff that’s so much better than anything I could dream up. Every week or two, I’ll share some of the more thoughtful
quoting Saturday Morning Reads #2 I read so many good articles during the week, stuff that’s so much better than anything I could dream up. Every week or two, I’ll share some of the more thoughtful
digitalocean HacktoberFest, and Making My First OSS Contributions All last month, DigitalOcean carried out an event called HacktoberFest. In their own words… HacktoberFest is a month-long event encouraging people to contribute to GitHub-hosted open source projects, whether by fixing bugs, creating
quoting Saturday Morning Reads #1 I read so many good articles during the week, stuff that’s so much better than anything I could dream up. Every week or two, I’ll share some of the more thoughtful