Introduction Recently I ran out of space when using a Virtualbox virtual machine. Normally I use a dynamic disk that allows resizing (typically setting it to be much larger than I expect to use), but in this case I am using a virtual disk provided for me. It’s based on VMDK and Virtualbox does not […]

I have already posted about the Energenie wireless remote control sockets. I’ve now had chance to look through one of their other products – which is an infrared remote control socket. This is a power saving socket allowing a TV and associated equipment to be fully powered off from the mains socket using the normal […]

Git is a version control system. A way of keeping regular backups of files which is particularly useful for creating computer source code. I’ve used other version control systems before (CVS and Subversion) and other tools that provide an element of version control (eg. Dropbox), but so far I’ve only really used them when I […]

I’ve been running XBMC using RaspBMC on a Raspberry Pi for some time. I’ve digitised my music and videos and this allows me to watch them on various TVs around the home accessing from a central server PC. Recently the XBMC project has now renamed itself as Kodi to reflect that it has changed from […]

Having already done some work with LCD displays on the Arduino I had been looking for a project to use one with the Raspberry Pi. Wiring this up was a bit messy until the MyPiFi LCD display board came along. The problem I then had was that I couldn’t fit the MyPiFi LCD onto the […]

I have been a fan of Android since I had my first mobile phone. Since Gingerbread I’ve managed to have every new version (although still running an older version on some of my devices) and it just keeps getting better. So I was very excited when I heard that the latest version Lollipop was available […]

This Halloween I created an indoor halloween light effect using a Raspberry Pi and a PIR sensor. Unlike previous years my children weren’t really involved in making this one, which is because my 9 year old daughter decided to create her own Raspberry Pi based Halloween Project. She has created a Raspberry Pi, Makey Makey […]

It’s useful to be able to turn mains electricity on using a computer program. Whilst it’s not hard to create an electronic circuit that can switch mains voltages, if not done correctly it can be dangerous. This is where the remote control sockets can be used to create a physical barrier between the low voltage […]

This is the second book that I’ve been the technical book reviewer for, the first being Learn Raspberry Pi with Linux. When I was contacted by Apress to ask if I’d do the review then I didn’t hesitate to say yes as from the description this sounded like just the sort of book I would […]

It’s not often that you see a Raspberry Pi workshop, a team from (soon to be???) the worlds fastest car and some llamas in the same room, but that’s what you’d find at this years school’s day at the Malvern Festival of Innovation. I was there as a STEM Ambassador helping out on the Raspberry […]