Accessories, Reviews

New Raspberry-shaped USB hub for the #RaspberryPi launched

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PiHub – a robust powered hub, made especially for your Raspberry Pi | Raspberry Pi

Hot off the presses. 5 minutes ago, the new Raspberry Pi USB hub was launched by the Foundation. The new hub, which is manufactured by Pimoroni with assistance from Cyntech, has 4 USB ports and, most importantly, is shaped like the Raspberry Pi logo (see above, courtesy of RasPi.TV).

The announcement has been, amazingly, synchronised and you can now buy it from Pimoroni for £13.95 (for the hub only) or £19.95 including the wall wart power supply. I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t buy one with the wall-wart, but I guess that some people might have the PSU already, so ok, good to have that flexibility.

I was lucky enough to get a look at the hub a few months ago and I have to say, it’s sturdy, as good-looking in person as it looks in the pictures, and a valuable addition to your Pi kit. Given that it’s a) made in the UK b) tested for use on the Pi and c) looks the way it does, I say go get one now.

Read the Foundation article here, see RasPi.TV’s coverage here and buy if from Pimoroni here. You can also view RasPi.TV’s review video here:

PiHub – a robust powered hub, made especially for your Raspberry Pi | Raspberry Pi

Internet of things, Photography

BBC covers the #RaspberryPi InstantWild project

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BBC News - Raspberry Pi aids cyber 'safety net' for African rhinoBBC News - Raspberry Pi aids cyber 'safety net' for African rhino

The InstantWild project, which was instigated by the Zoological Society of London and developed by Cambridge Consultants, has been covered in an article over on the BBC News website.

Cambridge Consultants’ (and fellow Cambridge Raspberry Jam-mer) Jonathan Pallant said, “These cameras are going to be installed in locations where you really don’t want to have to go and change the batteries all that often.”

Read the BBC News article here or head on over to the InstantWild website to view images from all over the World.

Audio, Music, Operating systems

New distro for #RaspberryPi – RaspyFi – reaches version 1

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RaspyFi is an open source linux distribution. According to their site, “it will transform your Raspberry Pi into an audiophile source, in 10 minutes without hassles. It comes ready to play, and it’s compatible with almost every USB DAC available.”

They’ve just reached version 1.0 and you can now download it from their site.

Here’s a video demo of the system:

Arduino, Geeky Techiness, GPIO boards

Build an Arduino compatible device for £5 and connect it to the #RaspberryPi

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Building the Pico PiDuino - A cheap barebones Arduino compatible for your Pi - Raspberry Pi @ Gadgetoid

Phil Howard runs a website called Gadgetoid and runs a Raspberry Pi blog on a Pi itself.

He’s written an extensive guide on creating something called a Pico PiDuino. It’s a little Arduino-compatible device with an ATmega 328 at it’s core. The tutorial thus far takes you through creating your own and connecting it up to your Pi, just to confirm that it works.

Future tutorials will show you what you can do with it and actually make LEDs flash n stuff 🙂

It’s a really great tutorial and, if you’ve got a hankering for doing some hacking and electronics stuff, give it a go.

Read it here