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<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nOn a fresh (read: a bit chilly) Saturday morning, I\u00a0drove up the A1 to Peterborough to attend the Peterborough Raspberry Jam<\/a>, organised by Hannah Mills & Mike Mills (no relation!). It had been a while since I attended a Jam that I hadn’t organised, so I was really looking forward to it. I was not disappointed!<\/p>\n TL;DR: I had a great time, there were lots of people there and plenty of fascinating projects and products as well as great talks and workshops.<\/strong><\/p>\n Once I’d eventually found the right building (my sense of direction got it wrong!) I was warmly greeted by Hannah who let me have a timetable and some extra times to cover various duties and a Jam Maker badge. I proudly wore it all day! So nice to be helping out at someone else’s event!<\/p>\n To start with, I browsed around the foyer which was host to their Show and Tell exhibits and Marketplace. While not as large as the facilities at CamJam’s\u00a0Institute of Astronomy, this was a great space filled with Pi-related\u00a0stuff\u00a0<\/em>and helped to generate a real buzz.<\/p>\n First up was Steve Upton and his awesome LED display screen. This has lots of bright LEDs in strips which make up a pixelated screen onto which various messages and games can be\u00a0displayed. Here’s Steve (left) and Hannah (right) as she plays Space Invaders!<\/p>\n Hannah playing Steve Upton’s Space Invaders<\/p><\/div>\n Next was Pi Top<\/a>. Jesse was introducing a child to the wonders of the Pi Top’s operating system and multi-player online game designed to educate children in algorithms and coding with exploratory play.<\/p>\n Pi Top<\/p><\/div>\n Next along was Ragworm. It was great to see Connor and Stacey again and their selection of circuit boards.<\/p>\n The FUZE<\/a> team was here with their rugged all-in-one keyboard\/Pi solutions. They’ve got some exciting things coming up soon (which I can’t tell you about) so keep an eye on the blog for more about that in the next couple of weeks.<\/p>\n Fuze<\/p><\/div>\n David Saul was next in line. He was displaying some of his great display add-on boards for the Pi but what really caught my eye was the multi-language word clocks controlled by the Raspberry Pi Zero.<\/p>\n David Saul’s word clocks<\/p><\/div>\n The major vendor at the Jam was Rapid Electronics<\/a> (The Pi Hut<\/a> were unable to attend due to a family emergency). I was impressed by their selection of products and their friendly manner. I particularly liked the bargain bins down the bottom full of hackable goodies. I picked up a make-it-yourself mobile phone kit that I’d wanted for ages<\/em>.<\/p>\n Rapid Electronics Marketplace stand<\/p><\/div>\n Robin Newman<\/a>, who attends lots of Jams and always has something new to show, was next. He had a Pimoroni Flotilla robot to try out. I’m still not sure about all the cables, but it was great to see it ‘in action’.<\/p>\n Robin Newman’s Flotilla robot<\/p><\/div>\n He also had his Sonic Pi demonstration equipment (although I didn’t get a chance to find out what it was all about – he was very busy!)<\/p>\n Robin Newman’s show and tell<\/p><\/div>\n Next around the room was Digital People in Peterborough<\/a>, an organisation that tries to bring technological people in the city and surrounding towns together. As part of their display, Stuart Elmore<\/a> was displaying his voice-activated, talking mirror project. This used the Google Voice API to analyse vocal commands and provide responses. At the moment, it’s a few phrases but Stuart hopes to expand it to have some kind of artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n Stuart Elmore’s voice activated talking mirror<\/p><\/div>\n Just inside the entrance, there were two large Show and Tell exhibits. The first, which I didn’t get a photo of (doh!) was a set of\u00a0real full-size, traffic lights using salvaged parts which would otherwise have been headed for land-fill. A Pi detected the pedestrian button-press and then activated the traffic lights sequence. Great stuff!<\/p>\n I’ve left the most fun exhibit until last. Taking inspiration from Pi Wars 2015, maker Brian Corteil<\/a> has created “Micro Pi Noon”. In it, teams use mini robots to fight each other and burst a balloon attached to their competitor. You can see Brian explain the rules and a (very) quick duel between two house robots in the video below:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>