I went to see the Rescue Challenge at Webbs of Wychbold, near Bromsgrove in Worcestershire.

This is an event where various Fire Services from around the UK compete in simulated rescue situations. The most dramatic of which is the two vehicle extraction where one car is positioned on top of another.

I recorded one of the simulations (this was the last one of the day and was not part of the actual competition) where Hereford and Worcester Fire service have to extract two casualties from the vehicles. You can see the video below:

Google and MagPi (the official Raspberry Pi magazine) have released a project in the magazine using the Google API engine. This is known as AIY and was released with issue 57 of the magazine. The finished project is a cardboard box with a button switch on top. It includes a audio card and a microphone, but the thing that makes this all work is software that connects to the Google Cloud Service using voice recognition to add voice control to a Raspberry Pi and whatever program that you write for it.

The instructions for getting started are provided at: AIYProjects with Google.
It explains the setup for a Raspberry Pi 3, but I used a Raspberry Pi 1 B+. The one thing I had to do differently is to use a different computer to setup the cloud configuration through the webpage as on the B+ it was much too slow.

You will need to follow all the instructions down to 3.3 which is where it refers you to the action.py file. This is where you can customize the commands to run code on the Raspberry Pi.

Shutdown

As the box is designed to run without keyboard or monitor, one of the first things that I did was to add a shutdown command which as it’s name suggests shuts the Raspberry Pi down cleanly. This is done by adding the following code snippets to the action.py file which is based on an example provided in the file.

The first part is to add a line to the actor instructions.

actor.add_keyword(_('shutdown'), Shutdown(say))

The command above instructs the Raspberry Pi to call the Shutdown command which is included in the action.py file (it actually creates an instance of a Shutdown object and calls the run method).

This is then implemented using the following code:

class Shutdown(object):

    def __init__(self, say):
        self.say = say
        self.shell_command = "sudo" 
        self.shell_args = "shutdown -h now"

    def run(self, voice_command):
        self.say('Shutting down now');
        subprocess.call(self.shell_command+" "+self.shell_args, shell=True)

Now run the src/main.py command and you should be able to press the button (or clap if you have set that up) and say shutdown. You could create your own version that uses other words like “power off” or “activate self destruct” if you prefer.

Controlling NeoPixels

The other thing that I the AIY project for is to control NeoPixels. This is very much work in progress at the moment, but I was already in the process of converting my NeoPixel GUI application to a client-server model using python bottle and a web control.

You can see this in action on the video below:

The NeoPixel code is on github NeoPixel GUI code on GitHub. I am working in a separate client-server branch but it in a state of change at the moment, so you will probably be better off waiting for it to be merged into the master branch at a later stage.

I have then added individual entries for each of the commands to the action.py file. This then uses wget to request the file (future versions will probably use the python webbrowser or something similar instead):

actor.add_keyword(_('lights'), Lights(say,_('lights')))

and

class Lights(object):

    def __init__(self, say, keyword):
        self.say = say
        self.keyword = keyword

    def run(self, voice_command):
        # Get string
        print ("Keyword "+voice_command)
        getcmd = "wget http://192.168.0.106/"
        command = getcmd+"status"
        if ("off" in voice_command) :
            command = getcmd + "alloff"
        elif ("on" in voice_command) :
            command = getcmd + "allon?colour=white"
        elif ("red" in voice_command) :
            command = getcmd + "allon?colour=red"
        elif ("green" in voice_command) :
            command = getcmd + "allon?colour=green"
        elif ("blue" in voice_command) :
            command = getcmd + "allon?colour=blue"
        elif ("rainbow" in voice_command) :
            command = getcmd + "sequence?seq=rainbow"
        elif ("chaser" in voice_command) :
            command = getcmd + "sequence?seq=chaser"
        elif ("disco" in voice_command) :
            command = getcmd + "sequence?seq=theatreChaseRainbow"
        # Hard coded colours at the moment
        subprocess.check_output(command, shell=True).strip()
        self.say(voice_command)

Note that this is a quick hack (which leaves temporary files in the local folder). I will be looking at cleaning up this code in future, but I’m currently working on the NeoPixel side first.

Summary

The Google / Raspberry Pi AIY kit has only been available (via The MagPi) for a few days and so this is just an initial look at what it is capable of. I’ll be looking at improving this code in a future version and perhaps adding voice control to even more projects.

In the UK, Year 9 (age 13 to 14) is an important stage which can influence the student’s future career. It is during this year that the students first decide on what subjects to pursue, and in particular whether they will continue to study computer science. I recently attended a computing and IT careers fair for a local school where technology companies and universities were on hand to explain to students what it’s like to study and work in those fields.

I work for a communications company and rather than stand there and talk about working in IT, I created a short hands on networking challenge for the students to interact with. This involved a short multiple-choice quiz on computer networking loosely based around the computing that is in the computing curriculum.

Network patching rack

Instead of answering the questions on paper as they may with a traditional quiz, the students had to connect them up on a patch-panel which would light up green for a correct answer and red for an incorrect answer. As well as interacting with the challenge it gave an opportunity to talk about working in the IT industry and to aspire them to a rewarding career in the field of computing.

The original idea for the patching rack was to wire the ports directly to a Raspberry Pi, but for maximum flexibility and to make sure that I could also detect where a cable has not been connected correctly then it meant that I have to wire up 30 connections (6 questions, 24 possible answers) plus one more for the LEDs (using NeoPixels). This is more than the number of available ports on the Raspberry Pi, whilst it would have been possible to use an I/O expander that would have meant creating a custom circuit. Instead I decided to use an Arduino Mega. The Arduino mega is connected to the Raspberry Pi by a standard USB cable with serial communications over USB used to communicate between the Raspberry Pi and Arduino.

Connecting to the Arduino Mega

The back of the case does look like a bit of a birds nest, but that was due to lack of space within the case; it’s not possible to remove the top or sides, so I had to make the cables long enough to extend out of the case and then push them in along with the Arduino.

The connectors on the Arduino are push-in connectors, but I wanted something a little more secure without having the concern that one of the many connections could come loose. I used a prototyping board with screw terminals. The biggest challenge was trying to line up the pins between the prototyping board and the Arduino, but once connected it worked really well. This was simpler than trying to connect multiple port expanders and also meant that I could offload the work of controlling the NeoPixels to the Arduino.

Source code

The source code for the Arduino and Raspberry Pi is available from github at the link below.

Networking challenge – Raspberry Pi and Arduino Code

At the moment the code is quite basic. It is a non-GUI program which runs on the command line that I controlled using a Pi-Top (Raspberry Pi laptop). The answers to the questions are hard-coded into the Python file. This is fairly easy to edit in the source code, and certainly easier than having to push an update to the Arduino each time it’s updated, but I do hope to replace this with a configuration file in future.

How it went

I thought it went well on the day. I would much rather the pupils have something that they can interact with than just spend the day talking or answering questions. You could see that some of the pupils were generally interested and came over to have a go (despite having to compete with a reaction game on the Army stall next door).

There’s some things I’d like to change for next time in terms of the questions, but I enjoyed it and I hope that they found it useful.

I have now got a 3D printer. I haven’t done much with it yet and it’s a steep learning curve but I’m looking forward to getting into 3D printing.

Choosing a 3D printer

The first decision was which 3D printer to buy. There are a lot of different choices starting from little over £100 and going into several thousands of pounds. The one that I opted for was one of the more expensive budget ones costing a few hundred pounds. It is made by Wanhao, the model is the Wanhao i3Plus Duplicator. At the time of writing this is out of stock on Amazon UK, but they do have the Wanhao i3 V2 Duplicator. The i3Plus integrates the control unit with touchscreen into the main printer instead of needing additional unit, this does mean it takes up less space on the desk.

One of the things I wanted was a 3d printer that was based on the open source Prusa design rather than a proprietary design. This means that it is possible to upgrade or change the printer in future, such as by changing the printer extruder to support different materials. It’s not something that I necessarily plan to do in future, but I like to keep that option open. It also means that if there is an updated version of the file format then I could potentially use that by upgrading the firmware (software) which may not be available with a proprietary printer. Some 3D printers even go so far as only allowing their own plastic being used such as the XYZ Printing Junior. There may be some benefits to using the printer approved materials, but this could also be restrictive.

Another benefit of the Wanhao printers is that the printer is supplied partly or fully assembled, whereas some printers are provided as a kit which involves assembling all the individual components. In the case of the Wanhao i3Plus Duplicator then the main parts of assembly were to attach the vertical assembly to the base and connect several wires by plugging them into the relevant connector sockets. This means that the printer was up and running within an hour of opening the box, whereas with some other printers it may take several hours.

Another consideration is that the mains electrical connections are fully enclosed within the printer. On some of the kit printers this is sometimes in the form of a separate power supply block which is connected directly to the mains. Just looking at customer reviews one 3D printers includes the quote “The power supply has to be wired to mains and the live wire is only covered by a small flap..potential for shocks exist…” – see this review. I haven’t verified this myself, but it is an additional thing to consider if you then need to add an additional enclosure for the power supply.

One feature that this printer doesn’t have that I considered is a dual-head. I can see that there are instances where that may be useful, but I did not think it essential for my first 3D printer. It also doesn’t have a self-levelling base, which some 3D printers do include.

This isn’t the only 3D printer which ticks all those boxes, but it is one that did and I’m happy with the 3D printer I bought.

SD Card included with the 3D printer

The most common way to print on the 3D printer is by saving the print files to an SD card and inserting that into the printer. An alternative is to connect a computer directly to the 3D printer, but that could tie the computer up for a long time.

The 3D printer includes an SD card which includes some free software, but that software is Windows only. It also had one sample 3D object to print (although it said that it should have more than that). It does mean that it’s possible to get up and running with your first test print without first needing to find / buy an SD card or connect to the printer by USB.

3D Printer Slicing Software

If you have a 3D CAD file that you would like to print then it needs to e converted to a GCode file which is used by the 3D Printer. This is through a process known as slicing where the 3D object is split into slices or layers. The slicing software can also add additional things, such as additional support material and can determine how much material is used for solid objects (which are normally printed with a mesh rather than solid material).

The most popular slicing software is Cura, which is open source software. There is a version provided by the manufacturer that includes the specifics about the printer, but that is for Windows only. I used the standard Linux version and then for the printer type choose Prusa i3 which gives reasonable results.

Unfortunately the Cura GUI will not work on the Raspberry Pi as it requires OpenGL, but that is still work in progress on the Raspberry Pi, but it will work on Linux running on a PC. The Cura back-end is provided for the Raspberry Pi, but that is command line only.

An alternative slicer software is slic3r. This is available for Linux including the Raspberry Pi repository. The version that is compiled for the Raspberry Pi is an older version and I’d recommend trying to use an updated version as it is much easier to use.

Slic3r needed some configuration for the printer and the following are the settings I used for PLA:
Model: RepRap
Nozzle: 0.4mm
Filament width: 1.75mm
Extruder temperature: 205 deg C
Bed temperature: 60 deg C

Free 3D object repositories

There are many sites that have 3D objects that you can print on a 3D printer. Usually it is a case of downloading the appropriate file and then using the Slicer Software (discussed above) to create the G-Code. The following are a few sites that have 3D files available.

• Thingiverse
• Yeggi
• PinShape
• Libre 3D
• YouMagazine
• TF3DM

[Please check terms of use etc.]

3D CAD Software

If you are looking to create your own models then you will need some 3D CAD or design software. There are two different 3D design applications that I have used with Linux.
The first is Blender which is a 3D modeller. This is popular for creating 3D visual objects, such as characters used in games and animations. The models can then be exported for use in a 3D printer.

The second is FreeCAD which is a full 3D CAD application. This is particularly useful if you want to create parts that need to interact as you can specify the exact dimensions. Learning FreeCAD is quite a steep learning curve, but well worth it. FreeCAD is available for Linux and works on the Raspberry Pi 3 (although I’ve only tried with small objects, memory will be the main limitation).

If you are looking to learn FreeCAD then I found this FreeCAD Video tutorial by j16out to be useful.

After creating a 3D object then you need to export it as an STL Mesh file which can be opened in the Slicer software.

Summary

I haven’t done much with the printer so far, but I’m happy with the results so far.

The combination of Cura and FreeCAD works well on Linux (except the Raspberry Pi for Cura).

This Christmas we visited the Gloucestershare and Warwickshire Railway for the Santa Special steam train. The train was from Cheltenham Racecourse railway station. The train was fully booked, but there were enough tables for everyone to find a comfortable seat.

We started with a train journey to the “North Pole” station. The carriage was decorated for Christmas and the staff on the train came around to tell us where to go when we passed through the magical tunnel to the North Pole. On arrival of the station we visited Father Christmas in a converted train carriage, where the kids received good quality presents.

We then enjoyed free mince pies and coffee in the station cafe before our journey back home. There was also some Christmas songs at the station. There was a snow machine just before we visited Santa, but the one thing they could have done with is a bit more snow.

After boarding the train home we were told that it was delayed a little, but at least we were on the train in the warmth. The staff were also great and came around to each compartment to let us know what was going on and check that we were all okay [hint to other railway companies – this is how to provide great customer service]. While we were waiting we played a game which had been the present from Santa to our daughter.

The train then took us back to the racecourse. The length of the train ride was just about right. Enough time to enjoy the journey without it getting boring. As an alternative for younger children they also run a diesel rail-car train where Santa visits the children on the train.

We had a great Santa experience.

For more details about this and other train journeys see Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway.

Video and photos from our visit to the Birmingham Christmas Market in 2016.

Around Halloween 2016 Element 14 ran a Costume Competition for wearable tech projects.
Boo! Pi Costume Contest

I was already working on a Wizard of Oz costume so I submitted my project to the competition.

You can find out more about the Raspberry Pi – PiZero NeoPixel bow tie here.

My costume was one of the winning entries and I have now received a bag full of goodies, including a Raspberry Pi 3 and Sense Hat:

A big thank you to Element 14. Find out more on the Element 14 community site including future competitions, projects and forums.

I decided to create a Wizard of Oz costume for Halloween this year. As you probably know The Wizard of Oz wasn’t really a wizard at all. He used a mechanical machine to convince the citizens of Oz about his magical abilities. What you may not know is that he was more than just a charlatan, but also an evil dictator with the truth exposed in the Musical Wicked (based on Gregory Maguire’s novel), so quite appropriate for Halloween.

Rather than go for the traditional costume I created a modern interpretation of what The Wizard may look like if he had access to todays technology. So using a Raspberry Pi and some wearable electronics I’ve created this costume.

How it works

The LED circuitry is based around a NeoPixel circuit that I’ve used several times already (Raspberry Pi NeoPixel Worksheet). I’ll add more details on the extra parts to create the wearable project in future.

Future development

I’m currently working on a smaller version of the circuitry using a ProtoZero board and hope to add the ability to play music files in future.

Boo Pi Costume Competition

For anyone else creating a Raspberry Pi Costume at the moment (2016) then there is a competition run by Element 14 looking for the best wearable tech costumes. If you have a better idea for a Raspberry Pi wearable costume then see the link below:

• Element 14 Boo Pi Costume Competition

These are some of the Halloween Projects I’ve created.

Haunted House

A scary haunted house, using a Raspberry Pi, home automation, electronics and scary music.

Raspberry Pi Haunted House

Raspberry Pi MotionSensor Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkin

My son’s Motion Sensor based Light Up Pumpkin project

Halloween Motion Sensor Pumpkin

Wizard of Oz Costume

A Wizard of Oz Costume with light-up bow tie.

Wizard of Oz costume using wearable electronics and a Pi Zero

Scary Pi-ano

A Makey Makey based touch Piano, programmed in Scratch.

Halloween Scary Pi-ano – musical piano with Makey Makey

Indoor Halloween Haunting

A motion sensor based flashing light sequence.

PIR based Halloween Lights

My 8 year old son has now completed another Raspberry Pi project. This project is a Halloween Pumpkin, or jack-o’-lantern, which is triggered whenever someone comes near.

It uses a PIR motion sensor to detect someone entering the room and then lights up a sequence of NeoPixels. In this case these are static green and blue NeoPixels, although with a few changes to the code they can light up in any colour, flash or run in any sequence you could wish for.

You can watch my son demonstrating it on the video below.

The project uses GPIO Zero for the PIR Motion Sensor and a simple voltage level shifter to control the NeoPixels.

Lighting up the NeoPixels

I used a long strip of NeoPixels that I happened to have, but you can also use a small strip or large ring for a similar (though less bright) effect.

The NeoPixels do need a little setting up, so I suggest getting these working first before adding the code for the motion sensor. The NeoPixels require a simple electronic circuit and some libraries to be installed which drive the LEDs. This is explained in the worksheet below which covers creating your own circuit on a breadboard. You can also use a PCB such as the MyPiFi NeoPixel board or by creating your own HAT / add-on board for the Raspberry Pi.

• Raspberry Pi NeoPixel worksheet

I hope to add details of an add-on board in future.

Using the PIR motion Sensor

The motion sensor used goes under a number of different product names including “D-SUN PIR” and is also the one included in the CamJam Raspberry Pi kit. This sensor has 3 pins to connect to the Raspberry Pi: Ground, 5V supply and a Data Out. Although the sensor uses a 5V supply it only gives out a 3V signal so this is directly compatible with the GPIO ports. This has been connected to GPIO 26, which is the physical pin 37. This was chosen to avoid the first 26 ports which were blocked due to the add-on board used.

The motion sensor is easily controlled using the GPIO Zero library which is now standard on the Raspberry Pi.

Source code

The source code to bring this all together is shown below.

from gpiozero import MotionSensor
from neopixel import *
import time

delay = 10
PIRPIN = 26

LEDCOUNT = 150
GPIOPIN = 18
FREQ = 800000
DMA = 5
INVERT = True
BRIGHTNESS = 255


pir =  MotionSensor(PIRPIN)
strip = Adafruit_NeoPixel(LEDCOUNT, GPIOPIN, FREQ, DMA, INVERT, BRIGHTNESS)
strip.begin()

while True:

    pir.wait_for_motion()
    print ("you can't hide")
    for i in range (0,LEDCOUNT,2):
        strip.setPixelColor(i, Color(255,0,0))
        strip.setPixelColor(i+1, Color(0,0,255))
    strip.show()
    time.sleep(delay)
    for i in range (LEDCOUNT):
        strip.setPixelColor(i, Color(0,0,0))
    strip.show()

The code should be placed in a file (eg. pumpkin.py), which then needs to be executed using sudo so that it runs as the root user (adminstrator):

sudo python3 pumpkin.py

Modifications

You will see that when triggered the code sets the NeoPixels to two colours, one for the odd pixels and one for the even ones. You could modify this to use any colour that you wanted and you could even add some code to make the LEDs flash etc. If you create a colour sequence or flashing lights then you can remove the time.sleep entry and have the sensor usable once the light sequence has completed.

You may also want to look at having the program run automatically on startup. This is explained in the following guide under the section “Adding to systemd startup”: TightVNC startup with systemd
Note for this you want to change the ExecStart entry to run the above command (without the sudo prefix) and set the user to root.

More Halloween Projects

• More Halloween Electronics / Raspberry Pi projects