Reviewing the Basics Helps Us See the Light

I enjoy finding the occasional online mooc to participate in, as time permits, even if it’s something I’m already familiar with. Hearing or reading about an old concept in a slightly different way can bring new insights, make us rethink something we’ve been taking for granted, or just help us make a new connection. “Don’t assume that just because you can get something to work once, there’s nothing more to understand.” - Bob Frankston— Programming Wisdom (@CodeWisdom) September 1, 2016 For the last few weeks, it’s been an intro to computer science on »

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 that appears to be white, and has 4 wires instead of 2. I had set mine aside and made a mental note to figure it out later… well, I’m bored with regular LEDs so that time has come! It’s a special kind of LED that consists of 3 separate LEDs… red, green and blue. By adjusting each color independently, you can create any color (similar »

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, then move everything over when it’s done and I need to run it against the GPIO pins. But Visual Studio was my main coding environment for years, and I got really comfortable with it (well, when they weren’t moving my cheese), so when I realized it could support Python I had to check it out. If you’re doing dev in Python, and are familiar »

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 stood out for me was one on Sonic Pi. Scott Fradkin live-coded Sonic Pi for nearly an hour, not only explaining what it was capable of, but showing us too. He kept building it up as the session went on, and everyone in the theatre had a chance to see and hear what he was creating. By the end of the session, he had a good beat »

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 on your Raspbian desktop. Whee. Okay, that’s enough gloating, ya narcissist. So now what? Choosing a Language After getting my first Raspberry Pi 2 up and running last weekend, and taking some cursory glances at the sample apps, I wanted to get into some actual development. After all, if we can’t tell it to do anything, then it’s not much more than a »