The micro:bit version 2 is now available. This is a significant upgrade on the original micro:bit with a better processor, more memory, a speaker, microphone, touch sensitive area and more. What is a micro:bit The Micro:bit (or sometimes referred to as microbit) is a small electronic programming tool designed to teach coding to secondary school […]

My new book is now available. Learn Electronics with Raspberry Pi (2nd Edition). This is an update on my first book which is now over 4 years old. My first book sold well and was even translated into Chinese. This new edition is a significant rewrite, bringing it up-to-date, but also improving the educational style, […]

Each year, I normally attend a service at the local war memorial to remember members of the armed forces who have died in the line of duty. This has usually been in uniform as a member of the Scouts or in the past as a member of St. John Ambulance. Due to the Covid-19 situation […]

Blender is well known as a 3D modelling tool, but it is also good for creating 2D animations. It includes the ability to create timeline based animations using Keyframes with automatic tweening and fine control over all the objects. If you don’t know what that means then hopefully this video for beginners will provide a […]

This is a review of the PowerUP 4.0. This is a successful Kickstarter campaign which completed in 2020. I’ve received my bundle of airplane related goodies and had a few builds and test flights. The video below goes through an unboxing, the first builds, test flights and important information on flying the plane such as […]

Kdenlive is a free open source non-linear video editor. I used to regularly use Kdenlive for editing my videos, but I switched to a commercial mid-price video editor a couple of years ago. This is because I found Kdenlive to have a number of bugs and was difficult to get the effects that I wanted. […]

In the UK the coronavirus / covid-19 lockdown is starting to ease. Most recently Zoos have been amongst the list of attractions that are now allowed to reopen. This is our first visit to a zoo since lockdown and our first experience of a post lockdown day-out, other than visiting a local park / woodland. […]

On top of my job, family and computing interests I’m also an assistant Cub Scout leader and a member of the District Executive Committee (Charity Trustee of the Scout District). During the current Coronovirus / Covid-19 pandemic we are unable to meet face-to-face but scouting is still happening through virtual conference sessions I am running […]

As a STEM ambassador, I’ve done quite a lot of practical science lessons with my children and primary age school children. There are lots of science books that you can get full of experiments that you can do at home. When they reach secondary school it’s a little more difficult without having a science lab […]

As a parent I understand how important it is to keep children entertained. This is now even harder with the country in lockdown over a sunny Easter holiday. Here are some links to useful activities. Scouts – The Great Indoors Scouts is normally considered an outdoor organisation. In fact during leader training Scout leaders are […]