NEW!

RASPBERRY PI 400

Issue 100 December 2020 magpi.cc The official Raspberry Pi magazine

The greatest Raspberry Pi projects, people,

and events from 100 issues!

magpi.cc/store
 WELCOME

WELCOME
to The MagPi 100

W
ow! It feels good to be 100 magazines young. And what
a rollercoaster 100 issues it’s been, especially during the
Lucy

EDITOR
past few months. Hattersley
A magazine hitting 100 is special at any time. But at this moment in
Lucy is editor of
time, it’s truly incredible, and we just can’t thank you, the readers, The MagPi and this
month she bought
enough. Every month The MagPi team put out the very best issue a sit-stand desk to
work on the bounce
possible, and I couldn’t be prouder of them or the magazine we make. and practise her
dance moves. She’s
This month, the team sat down and thought of all the things that currently having a
sit-down.
happened in the last eight years. There was no shortage of events
@LucyHattersley
to choose from: from starting as a fanzine, to covering Raspberry Pi
computers in space. The result is 100 moments in The MagPi (page 32).
Being part of the Raspberry Pi community is a humbling experience.
Some of the smartest, funniest, and quirkiest people have made
incredible things with our favourite computer. Thank you for sharing
GET A
your builds with us, and long may
RASPBERRY PI
The MagPi continue.
ZERO W KIT

Lucy Hattersley Editor

PAGE 30

PS. The big thing that happened

this month is Raspberry Pi 400
(page 68). It's wonderful. The
future is bright for Raspberry Pi.

magpi.cc 03
Contents
> Issue 100 > December 2020

Cover Feature

32 100 Raspberry Pi
moments

Regulars
94 Your Letters
97 Next Month
98 The Final Word

Project Showcases
10 ExoMy
14 Guitar Rig 2.0 32
16 Becca Cam SLR Camera
18 Interactive Storytelling Radio 16
24 LED Cube
26 World’s Smallest iMac
28 iPourIt

14

Guitar Rig 2.0 Becca Cam SLR Camera

DISCLAIMER: Some of the tools and techniques shown in The MagPi magazine are dangerous unless used with skill, experience, and appropriate personal protection equipment. While
we attempt to guide the reader, ultimately you are responsible for your own safety and understanding the limits of yourself and your equipment. Children should be supervised. Raspberry
Pi (Trading) Ltd does not accept responsibility for any injuries, damage to equipment, or costs incurred from projects, tutorials or suggestions in The MagPi magazine. Laws and regulations
covering many of the topics in The MagPi magazine are different between countries, and are always subject to change. You are responsible for understanding the requirements in your
jurisdiction and ensuring that you comply with them. Some manufacturers place limits on the use of their hardware which some projects or suggestions in The MagPi magazine may go
beyond. It is your responsibility to understand the manufacturer’s limits.
 54 62

Tutorials
54 Build a handheld console
58 Build a Home Assistant – part 2
62 Santa’s Run – part 1
Build a handheld console Santa’s Run part 1

The Big Feature 80

68

Raspberry Pi 400
Argon ONE M.2

Reviews 88
80 Argon ONE M.2
82 Robot Dog Kit
84 10 Amazing: Festive Projects
86 Learn Raspberry Pi OS

Community
88 Amit Rana interview
90 This Month in Raspberry Pi Amit Rana interview

WIN
50
AN AMAZING SELECTION OF
RASPBERRY PI KIT
 Power armour
for your Raspberry Pi 4

Mini OLED screen

& programmable
buttons

Integrated 1-watt
loudspeaker

5-hour internal
battery
Integrated heat
sink & centrifugal
cooling fan

UPS-style soft shutdown

system prevents SD *
card corruption

USB-C Power
Delivery specification
at 15V for faster
battery charging Full access to Raspberry Pi’s
GPIO pins & ports

The ultimate Raspberry Pi case to go anywhere and do anything!

pi-top [4] DIY Edition is the only Raspberry By installing your Raspberry Pi 4 into pi-top
Pi 4 case with an inbuilt battery and power [4] DIY Edition, it is upgraded into the ultimate
management system. It docks to a family of mobile hands-on computing platform. Build
‘plates’ to connect to our expanding range of anything from rovers to drones: the only
sensors, motors and more. limit is your imagination!

pi-top [4] DIY Edition - from £94.95 / $99.95 - Order early for Christmas delivery!

Raspberry Pi made simple, robust and modular.

Bring the power of touch
to your Raspberry Pi

11.6” Touch
display, full HD
1080p resolution

Gesture support

Compatible with
Raspberry Pi
& pi-top [4]

10-Point Viewing angle HDMI compatible

Capacitive touch monitor

A versatile 11.6” touchscreen monitor for pi-top and Raspberry Pi.

Code and create using the touch of your Connect it to your Raspberry Pi or pi-top [4] to
finger with the pi-top FHD Touch Display. turn it into a tablet, add a visual display for your
Sleek and light, it is compatible with a wide maker projects, or add the pi-top Bluetooth
array of devices, including the Raspberry Pi Keyboard to use it as a laptop. It’s the perfect
and pi-top [4]. Christmas gift present for makers!

pi-top FHD Touch Display - £179.95 / $189.95

Raspberry Pi is a trademark of the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
*Not photoshopped. We really did make a pi-top drone!

© CEED Ltd. 2020

pi-top.com/MagPi In collaboration with

 PROJECT SHOWCASE

ExoMy 3D-Printed
Mars Rover
With a goal of making space robotics accessible for everyone, two European Space Agency
engineers have lofty ideals. They tell Rosie Hattersley how Raspberry Pi fits in

W
hy should space engineers have all the allow for locomotion in very rough terrain and
fun? Wouldn’t it be amazing to design [also mean it’s able to traverse] obstacles larger
a space robot that could be built and than the size of the wheel.” Better yet, ExoMy
assembled by a hobbyist? Such was the thinking can be controlled using a gamepad or a web
behind ExoMy, a Mars rover that can be built for as interface where the video stream from its on-board
little as $250. Raspberry Pi camera is also displayed.
The terrain on Mars is notoriously difficult, so Raspberry Pi 4 Model B is the ExoMy’s main
any vehicle intent on exploring the Red Planet board computer, receiving driving commands via
Maximilian
MAKER

needs to be pretty hardy. Something small and the web interface. Raspberry Pi “converts them
Ehrhardt and agile, powered by a dependable yet powerful into motor positions and velocity, which are sent
Miro Voellmy on‑board computer, is likely to fare best against via I2C to the PWM motor board to make the rover
such unforgiving terrain. Something, perhaps, like move,” reveals Miro.
Robotic engineers a Raspberry Pi.
Maximilian
Ehrhardt and Miro
“The rover is inspired by the ExoMars rover Small and perfectly formed
Voellmy work
Rosalind Franklin, and features its most Max and Miro chose Raspberry Pi for ExoMy
at the European characteristic design features (drill, solar panels, because it “allows the use of a full-fledged
Space Agency’s wheels),” explain ExoMy’s makers Maximilian operating system and provides a wide variety of
Planetary Robotics
Ehrhardt and Miro Voellmy from the ESA’s GPIO pins and a great camera interface.” They
Laboratory in the
Netherlands. As Planetary Robotics Laboratory. “Its triple bogie were also attracted by its low cost, worldwide
well as developing locomotion suspension and six steerable wheels availability – important given their ambition to
ExoMy, they enjoy
bouldering and
making music.

magpi.cc/
exomyinsta
magpi.cc/
exomytwitter

The assembled Mars

rover tackles some
challenging terrain

10 magpi.cc ExoMy 3D-Printed Mars Rover

 PROJECT SHOWCASE

Image credit: ESA

The easily adaptable Python code for

ExoMy allows for customisation, while
the downloadable 3D-printable design
contains several options for facial features

Raspberry Pi 4 controls the

steering motors. ExoMy’s travels
are live-streamed to a webpage by
a Raspberry Pi Camera Module v2 Quick FACTS
> ExoMy underwent
multiple “cuteness
The three bogies give the
reduction
robot stability and the
surgeries”
manoeuvrability to take on
extremely uneven surfaces
> He lost his animated
mouth in a
tragic accident…

> The engineers

accidentally fried it!

> They intend to build

some intriguing
ExoMy add-ons

> ExoMy has siblings

being built in
Australia, the US,
Greece, and Spain

ExoMy 3D-Printed Mars Rover magpi.cc 11

 PROJECT SHOWCASE

Make an ExoMy
View the components list at magpi.cc/exomywiki.
You will need a Raspberry Pi 4, Camera Module v2,
and a way to 3D-print the parts. Help and ideas can
be found at magpi.cc/exomydiscord.

The rover is made from make space robotics more accessible – and the
3D-printed parts and readily
available servo motors and large community surrounding it. “ROS (Robot
screws, plus a Raspberry Pi 4 Operating System) support meant we could use a
and Camera Module v2
lot of available open-source software and ensure
that ExoMy stays very modular,” says Miro.
Both engineers had used Raspberry Pi in
Follow the setup instructions at
01 magpi.cc/exomysoftware. This includes the projects before. Miro used Raspberry Pi to
Docker file containing the full software installation. control a spherical robot at the Automation and
Robotics Laboratory at ESA that floats on air,
and which simulates satellites and spacecraft
control algorithms.
Max, meanwhile, worked on a sounding rocket
project at university for which he created a
Raspberry Pi telemetry logging HAT.

E veryone interested in building ExoMy can

easily order, install, and use it. They can
even use the same software tools as in the
Assemble the robot shell and screw the
02 Raspberry Pi Camera Module into place. Install Planetary Robotics Laboratory
your Raspberry Pi 4 and connect it up.

Building blocks
Although other open-source rovers exist (notably
Sawppy and JPL), these had customised metal
housings and are far more expensive than the
$250 to $500 required to build your own ExoMy.
A well-received prototype had been produced by
trainees in 2018, but it was rather costly and had
reliability issues. At the start of 2020, Miro and
Max set out to design a reliable and reproducible
version that was also far more affordable. They
designed all the mechanical parts at the Planetary
Robotics Laboratory and 3D-printed them, which
Connect up the power and the PWM Servo HAT. took approximately two weeks. Assembly required
03 This fits over the top of Raspberry Pi. another two days. The electronics and screws all
came from commercial suppliers.

12 magpi.cc ExoMy 3D-Printed Mars Rover

 PROJECT SHOWCASE

“The idea was that everyone interested in

building ExoMy can easily order, install, and use it.
They can even use the same software tools as in the
Planetary Robotics Laboratory,” says Max. “We try
to use as much open-source software as possible,”
adds Miro. “ExoMy is, however, designed in
SolidWorks, which is unfortunately not free.”
Details of both the hardware and the
freely available software used can be found
at magpi.cc/exomygit.
Max and Miro encourage others to give
it a try and advocate using Docker, since it
reduces the need to repeat installations and
“allows for a repeatable and reliable software
environment.” Discussing your design challenges
with someone, getting a second opinion, and
inviting different views of a problem generally
leads to the best solutions, they advise. You
can find out more about ExoMy by joining on
ExoMy is intended to be replicable. This US version even
Discord: magpi.cc/exomydiscord. impressed its notoriously inscrutable housemate, Mitchell

Hello
Use this code to get 5% off
your next order over R500!

HiAfrica20

We are now shipping to more countries in Africa:

Angola | Botswana | Burundi | eSwatini (Swaziland) | Kenya
Lesotho | Malawi | Mozambique | Namibia | Nigeria
Rwanda | South Africa | Tanzania | Uganda | Zambia | Zimbabwe

www.pishop.co.za
 PROJECT SHOWCASE

Guitar Rig 2.0

Muiota Betarho’s pitch-perfect electric guitar project certainly strikes
the right tone, as David Crookes discovers

W
Alexander Zolotov’s SunVox (magpi.cc/sunvox)
ant to hear about a project that truly is a popular, powerful portable music studio
rocks? Then give it up for Muiota which allows for the creation of songs

Betarho and his amazing electric

guitar. Converted from an acoustic strummer, it’s
been infused with a humbucker, an LCD display,
an amplifier with speakers, an FX processor, and
internal LEDs that flash during play. And if that
Muiota already sounds good, then listen up: this beauty is
MAKER

Betarho also powered by a Raspberry Pi computer.

Muiota got the idea while he was enjoying a
Muiota Betarho is a short break in the countryside. “We like to take
software developer
a guitar and sing songs, but we were lacking the
from Russia, His
hobbies include appropriate accompaniment,” he says. “Since
inventing, sound we found it was impossible to take heavy musical
design, 3D printing,
equipment with us, I began to work on the concept
DIY electronics,
travelling and, of for the first Guitar Rig.” It’s now on its second,
course, the guitar. “I more refined version, boasting an improved design equipped with lights which are turned on in sync
have also visited the and new automation features. with the rhythm or input signal. This feature adds
North Pole,” he says.
to the show and I do not know anybody having a
magpi.cc/
muiotayt
Plucking up the courage similar one.”
“I had explored different travelling guitars
before making my own, but none seemed totally
convenient,” Muiota explains. “Furthermore,
T o be honest, I am
the second version of my handmade guitar is still shocked by
SunVox’s potential
The project involved cutting into an acoustic
guitar while using the copious amount of space
inside to house the various components. A
Raspberry Pi 4 is used for the complicated task of
digital signal processing and Muiota has installed
the music creation app SunVox, a fast modular
synthesiser with pattern-based sequencer.
“It has low system requirements and it is
adapted for use on small screens,” he notes,
having linked a Raspberry Pi computer to a screen
that sits in full view on the guitar’s side. “To be
honest, I am still shocked by SunVox’s potential
and it’s free.” He says the guitar is able to compose
a custom backing track and make use of bass and
special effects.
“I can switch guitar effects during a song, play
High energy consumption was solved
by using a high-power Li-ion battery with parallel synthesiser parts, use effects such

14 magpi.cc Guitar Rig 2.0

 PROJECT SHOWCASE

There’s a 40-watt subwoofer speaker

made by GHXamp on the back, and two
mid-range speakers punched into the side A Raspberry Pi is fitted inside
the guitar and it’s connected to
the screen mounted on the side
of the instrument, allowing the
SunVox app to be controlled

Quick FACTS
A pickup captures the vibrations
from the strings and converts
> It uses a standard
them to an electrical signal
acoustic guitar

> Flashing LED lights

react to the sound

> A built-in

synth provides
accompaniment

> A recorder is

also built-in

> It cost around

£400 and took two
months to make

as an input equaliser and plug in an external

foot-switch. The guitar has eight digital inputs
and outputs.”

Play it again
The guitar also includes a built-in microphone
input and there’s an HDMI output for synced
background video effects. “The LEDs are timed
to the sound and can sync with the beats,” says
Muiota. “It’s a complicated build, for sure.”
Yet he tells us that he didn’t find it especially
difficult: “The main challenges I faced were the
struggle with the ground loop, screening of the
digital part of the whole system, search of the most
appropriate components’ location, tightening the
bolts inside the guitar, and 3D model design for
some components.”
He was more frightened of spoiling the build in
the final steps but, now it’s complete, he’s reaping
the benefits. “I’ve used a Li-ion battery and the
charge is enough for five to six hours,” he says. “It
means I can play a long concert using the guitar.”
To avoid overheating, Muiota
And that is music to our ears. needed to cool Raspberry Pi

Guitar Rig 2.0 magpi.cc 15

 PROJECT SHOWCASE

Becca Cam
Raspberry Pi
SLR camera
Upcycling projects often catch The MagPi writers’ eyes. This camera build
by a novice Raspberry Pi user particularly impressed Rosie Hattersley

V
ideographer Becca Farsace knew her way whether she could retrofit one with a digital camera
around cameras, but had never used a and use it without the film developing cost. Handily,
Raspberry Pi before deciding to build the the Raspberry Pi Foundation had sent her a High
Becca Cam, an SLR based around one. She didn’t Quality Camera to review.
let lack of experience deter her, preferring to learn
the necessary skills as she went. Learning by doing
Becca approached her first ever Raspberry Becca began with an old toy camera, C-mount
Becca Farsace Pi project with “absolutely zero background in lenses, a Raspberry Pi 4, and a Raspberry Pi HQ
MAKER

computer science,” but had heard about Raspberry Camera. “The goal was to use the camera hardware
Becca worked as a Pi’s High Quality Camera as she reports on camera as a case and as optics, but hide Raspberry Pi and
studio equipment launches for work. When New York City went into the camera module inside of it,” she says. With no
technician at Vox lockdown, she was tasked with creating camera programming experience, she relied on code she
Media before
content without being able to go anywhere and found at the Raspberry Pi Camera Guild and several
becoming a video
host and reviewer. capture the world. “That’s when my inner Victor forums for guidance. “Lack of knowledge was the
Beccam Cam is her Frankenstein was born,” she says. “What if I built
first Raspberry
a camera instead of reporting on everyone else’s?”
Pi project.
She had several film cameras but “no desire to pay
beccafarsace.com to run film through them.” Instead, Becca pondered

This upcycling project offers the ideal excuse for anyone Becca used items she had to hand to keep producing
who’s ever wanted to take apart a camera. Raspberry camera-related articles. Happily, she had a Raspberry
Pi 4 is the ideal size to fit inside the SLR case Pi HQ Camera

16 magpi.cc Becca Cam Raspberry Pi SLR camera

 PROJECT SHOWCASE

Photo capture is triggered by a button

on top of the camera, rather than by
tapping the touchscreen on the back,
as Becca originally planned

Quick FACTS
It can be expensive and inconvenient to get
film developed these days. A Raspberry Pi 4 > Becca hopes to
replaces the film roll and, of course, has a develop her Cam…
handy microSD card for photo storage The Raspberry Pi HQ Camera
board retains the swappable lens
> …So it can be used
approach and can be used with
both C- and CS-mount lenses without terminal
and keyboard

> Several people sent

largest limitation to me. I am a tactile learner with her code for this
mild dyslexia, so thinking in numbers and letters
was not always an enjoyable experience,” she was find someone who knows a bit more than > View a photo gallery
explains. Nonetheless, she persevered, taking her you so when you are falling on your face, they can at magpi.cc/
time whenever she had to enter code, and paying swoop in and save you!” cameragallery
close attention to a similar project by Nick Poole She already plans to take her own advice. New
from SparkFun (magpi.cc/vintagecam). York’s transit authority released an API for its > Try a kaleidoscope
trains a while back. “When I am feeling up to lens adapter:
magpi.cc/kalfilter
 hat if I built a camera
W another Raspberry Pi project, I would really like to
make a train time display for my local train that I
Breaking apart a vintage
instead of reporting on could put by my door. That way I would know the
perfect time to leave the house!”
camera is both terrifying and
so utterly fun, says Becca

everyone else’s?
“Originally I thought I could create a digital button
to trigger my capture, on a 4-inch touchscreen.
When that wasn’t working, I remembered that Nick
had used a microswitch as a trigger and decided to
go that route as well,” she says.

Build better, Bec

Becca details the process of building her camera
on YouTube: magpi.cc/beccacamyt. She started
with the software, to make sure she could get the
camera to take photos. She then put Raspberry
Pi 4 into the camera body, before going out and
about using it to troubleshoot any issues. “Wow,
it sounds so straightforward when you type it like
that, but there were hiccups at almost every step.”
If you’re thinking of your own Raspberry Pi
project, Becca advises: “The best lesson I learned

Becca Cam Raspberry Pi SLR camera magpi.cc 17

 PROJECT SHOWCASE

Interactive
Storytelling Radio
A Cold War-era radio is at the centre of a Raspberry Pi-based
adventure game. Rosie Hattersley follows the clues

B
ack in the 1980s, an innovative form of Byte. “The radio reads the story to you and when
story, the ‘choose your own adventure’ you need to make a decision, you simply say it out
book, gave readers the chance to become loud and the story continues. Raspberry Pi is the
8 Bits and the protagonist and make crucial decisions control centre of the project, passing the data back
MAKER

a Byte about where the action led. More recently, and forth to all the separate components, making
the idea has been revived for text-based online everything work together.”
Husband and wife adventure games. An extra thrill is that the radio housing the
team Dane and The Interactive Storytelling Radio uses the same clever storytelling setup is a Telefunken Bajazzo
Nicole learned
to program while
idea and asks the listener to decide what happens TS, a West German model dating back to the 1960s
studying, and soon next. The response prompts the built-in Raspberry and the Cold War era – “hence the story’s spy
became enchanted Pi to jump to the appropriate bit of the script and theme!” explains Nicole. They found the vintage
with the magic of
narration to continue. radio for sale in a thrift shop where they live in
making. They love
building all kinds “The aim of the Interactive Storytelling Radio Brussels, adding to the intrigue.
of “tremendously was to recreate the experience of choose your 8 Bits and a Byte is the maker name for husband
terrible tech”. own adventure books, but with voice controls,” and wife Dan and Nicole. Having learnt to code
@8bitsandabyte explain makers Dane and Nicole, aka 8 Bits and a while they were studying, they soon encountered

18 magpi.cc Storytelling Radio

 PROJECT SHOWCASE

8 Bits and a Byte’s Nicole considers

her choices. The next bit of the story
is queued up using Python code and
prompts from Google Dialog Flow

An upcycled 1960s West German radio provides

the ideal housing for the interactive storyteller.
The project uses the original speaker and a
Raspberry Pi 3B+ with AIY Voice HAT

The radio’s original buttons

are used to make selections
when the narrator prompts the Quick FACTS
listener to make a decision
> 8 Bits and a Byte is
a geeky pun at their
own expense…

> They are each 4 bits

Raspberry Pi and quickly incorporated it into
and half a byte!
many of their creations. Even though making
as a spare time endeavour, they’ve posted 47 > The duo specialise
projects in the space of two years! “A Raspberry in left-field tech-
Pi is a great starting point for any project,” says based builds…
Nicole, modestly downplaying their quirky ideas as
“questionable creations”. > Such as Monty
the attendance-
measuring bot…
 erhaps because of its
P > And the Monty
quirks, the Interactive Python-esque
Argument Bot
Storytelling Radio has 8 Bits and a Byte routinely put Raspberry Pi to intriguing uses,
including doing duty as an Argument Bot

caught the imagination of

makers online
Careless talk creates lines
The aim of this particular project was to make
“a voice-controllable, interactive, storytelling
device.” As well as the Telefunken radio’s case,
they were able to salvage the original speaker and
on/off button and to keep the part holding up all The radio’s Cold War
era origins suggested
the buttons. They still needed a microphone, but
the interactive
most of the rest of the setup was accounted for story’s theme

Storytelling Radio magpi.cc 19

 PROJECT SHOWCASE

Tell us a story
Upcycle a vintage radio to house your interactive
storyteller, then get children to decide the
outcome of the tale. Full build details at
magpi.cc/storyradiobuild.

Carefully disassemble the radio, saving

01 speaker, buttons, dials, and any screws The makers carefully
with a Raspberry Pi 3B+ and Google AIY Voice Kit
dismantled a vintage
and connectors. radio and reused some (magpi.cc/aiyvoice). Helpfully, both these were
of the parts
items the duo had already from previous projects.
Assembly-wise, they followed Google’s
setup instructions (magpi.cc/aiyvoicesetup),
substituting the kit’s speaker and button for those
from their vintage radio. Testing involved trying
out some of the examples listed on the AIY GitHub
page (magpi.cc/aiygithub).

T hey followed Google’s setup instructions,

substituting the kit’s speaker and button for
02
Insert and wire up your Raspberry Pi, AIY HAT
microphone, and either the original radio
those from their vintage radio
speaker and buttons, or those from the Google AIY
Voice Kit. Carefully solder and reassemble the radio. Adventure time
They now needed to write the storyline – a spy
story seemed to be obvious, given the host
radio’s Cold War origins – and a decision tree
to plot the flow. After seeing it recommended
in the AIY Voice Kit guide, they used Google

Create or draw a decision tree and

03 then use Google Dialog Flow Dane and Nicole’s
(magpi.cc/dialogflowguide) to direct the storyline Historic Voicebot project
according to the decisions the user makes. lets you chat with your
favourite person from
the past!

20 magpi.cc Storytelling Radio

 PROJECT SHOWCASE

The radio’s buttons

became response inputs
whenever there’s a
crossroads in the story

Dialog Flow chatbot software. Raspberry Pi runs

a Python script which communicates with the
AIY HAT, speaker, microphone, Dialog Flow, and
Google Cloud.
Unfortunately, Dialog Flow “is not actually
made to follow a decision tree!” As a result, one
of the ‘features’ of the Interactive Storytelling
Radio is the ability to jump between storylines.
“For example, if you’ve chosen the lock pick
as the answer to the first question, but later
in the storyline yell ‘drink’, it will bring
you back to the first decision point,” Dane
explains cheerfully.

 ne of the ‘features’ of the Interactive

O
Storytelling Radio is the ability to jump
between storylines
Perhaps because of its quirks, the Interactive
Storytelling Radio has caught the imagination of
makers online, some of who are building their own
to use in teaching and to help with special needs.
Another project by the prolific 8 Bits and a Byte generates
Magnificent stuff! artworks from online comments

22 magpi.cc Storytelling Radio

 PROJECT SHOWCASE

LED Cube The workings within the

three-sided ‘cube’

LED cubes may not be new, but one maker has created a cube with a USP –
using it a status monitor for his PC. Nicola King sees LEDs in a new light

A
t the end of 2019, when Sebastian They are held by a 3D-printed frame, which also
Staacks gave a talk at the annual Chaos holds a Raspberry Pi 2 and an LED Matrix Bonnet
Communication Congress, he found from Adafruit.”
inspiration from fellow makers and hackers who
had created and exhibited their versions of LED
cubes. Sebastian left the conference desperate to T here is a slightly different
Sebastian
make his own cube, and initially just envisaged
crafting a stationary mood light for his living room,
appeal to it as it has some
MAKER

Staacks but explains that his plans soon changed. “When

it did not get living room clearance from my wife,
kind of function
Sebastian is a
I turned it into something useful for my office by
physicist and
developer of the creating a parametric animation reflecting the Glorious graphics
app ‘phyphox’ status of my [PC’s] CPU”, he says. Sebastian arranged the three panels so that they
at the RWTH Sebastian spent some time working on the are daisy-chained to the Matrix Bonnet, which also
Aachen University
design and aesthetic of the cube, although distributes the 50 W from the power supply (5 V,
(Germany). He is a
father of two and ‘technically’ it’s not a cube, as he explains: “Since 10 A). This was the more straightforward element
presents his hobby the cube is designed to be stationary and usually of the whole design, as he tells us. “One could say
projects in his blog.
only viewed from one side, it is not actually a that I mostly put together a few parts that were
there.oughta.be complete LED cube, but only has three sides meant to be assembled just like this. The trickier
with LED matrix panels. Those panels consist of part was software, because I did not just want
64×64 RGB LEDs across a side length of 128 mm. simple pixel graphics or a pre-rendered animation.

24 magpi.cc LED Cube

 PROJECT SHOWCASE

Yellow indicates a higher

Blue indicates a cool CPU temperature, while the bulge
temperature, while the thin on one side of the ring shows a
Here, the CPU temperature is
ring shows its threads are idle single thread under heavy load
very high and all threads are Quick FACTS
being used at full capacity
> The LED Cube
Even at only 3×64×64 pixels, it soon became clear took Sebastian
that the CPU cannot deal with all the pixels in around six months
sequence, but that I had to use OpenGL.” power supply is a bit too weak to handle full white to develop, in his
spare time
The glowing visual element of the Cube is for all LEDs. So, I had to avoid getting too close to a
stunning, with the background colour determined white cube as Raspberry Pi would become unstable
> It cost less than
by his PC’s Ryzen 5 CPU temperature, and the at this point,” he reveals.
€150 (£135) to build
thickness of the ring changing in relation to usage He also made Raspberry Pi’s file system read-
of threads on the CPU. Sebastian achieved these only in order to avoid the possibility of data > The Cube turns
graphics by using OpenGL Shader: “Instead of corruption when unplugging the cube. “This way, on and off
iterating over each pixel, one writes a fragment I could just cut the power at any time without automatically with
shader – a small (and rather limited) piece of code worrying about file corruption. The cube is now his PC
that is executed independently for every single simply plugged into a socket strip which turns off
pixel. With this independent execution, every pixel whenever the PC does not draw any power on a > He has a Raspberry
Pi 4 running his
can be done in parallel as much as the hardware controlling socket.”
home automation
supports this. I did not end up with a particle Sebastian’s colourful creation has garnered
system with
system, but this allows for an animation that much interest from others, which surprised him
openHAB…
covers all pixels and with something going on in initially as he was aware that such a cube was not
every part of the image.” a new concept. “I got extremely positive reactions > And a Raspberry
and a much wider coverage than I expected,” he Pi 2 runs his
Power management says. “I think that my presentation in the video 3D printer
Sebastian had very little fine-tuning to do, once was good and that there is a slightly different
he’d figured out how to use OpenGL. “I had to be appeal to it as it has some kind of function, while
careful about the maximum brightness because the having very fascinating visuals.”

The Cube in action on Sebastian’s desk

– an impressive setup

LED Cube magpi.cc 25

 PROJECT SHOWCASE

World’s Smallest iMac

Michael Pick is so excited to show you his tiny homage to Apple’s
iconic machine, as David Crookes discovers

T
hey say good things come in small sizes working on something more complex, a wiring
and that’s certainly the case with this diagram would also come in handy.”
cute riff on Apple’s iconic iMac. Although
Michael Pick
MAKER

it doesn’t run the macOS operating system, for Making the cut
Michael Pick is a obvious reasons, it makes use of an image called In order to create the smallest possible homage to
keen photographer iRaspbian. Displayed on a 7-inch screen which is the iMac, Michael decided to use a Raspberry Pi 4
and space software
fitted within a well-designed, 3D-printed case, computer from the beginning. But he was mindful
engineer. He aims
to release one build it ensures the build has familiar-looking menus, that the resulting machine still needed to be
video each month icons, and interfaces. This is a mini Mac that any usable, so he opted for a 7-inch screen.
on his YouTube “I knew there were lots of 7-inch displays
Apple fan would love to have on their desk.
channel, The
Casual Engineer. The brains behind it is Michael Pick, whose readily available for Raspberry Pi and I didn’t want
attention to detail is mightily impressive. “I got to go smaller because that would have made it
magpi.cc/
casualengineer the idea after making my first mini computer, the pretty hard to use,” he says. The desire for a slim
World’s Smallest Gaming PC, and I thought the build, however, meant making some amends to his
Apple iMac would make for a fun and interesting Raspberry Pi 4 to reduce some of its height.
build video,” he tells us. Before cracking on with “For this, I needed to break out the rotary tool
the task, though, he spent much time preparing. and the first major modification to Raspberry
“Like all of my builds, I started by modelling Pi involved cutting away the top two USB ports,
all of the components in a 3D CAD program and quickly followed by the removal of the Ethernet
this allowed me to see and deal with any potential port,” Michael explains, carefully marking where
problems before I even started,” he explains. “The the cuts would go before getting stuck in. “I didn’t
Alert! wiring for this build was rather simple, but if I’m need these ports, and eliminating them made the
Cut With Care final build significantly slimmer. But I had to be
careful that I didn’t accidentally cut something I
Wear safety glasses
and gloves when using wasn’t supposed to.”
a rotary tool as a cutter.
Clamp the item when
cutting. Note that cutting
ports on a Raspberry Pi
Another bite
invalidates its warranty. Once Raspberry Pi 4 had been modified, Michael
magpi.cc/rotarytool was able to begin the final assembly, painting the
3D-printed parts and using a low-profile ribbon
cable to connect the screen to Raspberry Pi while
installing iRaspbian as the operating system.

The buttons to the left of the

display can be accessed through
vent holes in the 3D-printed case

M
 ichael cut the double-stacked USB ports in half and sliced the RJ45 Ethernet
connector using a rotary tool

26 magpi.cc World’s Smallest iMac

 PROJECT SHOWCASE

The 3D-printed case has space on the

back for a pusher fan, with cool air pushed
towards vent holes cut into the side
Raspberry Pi 4 is fixed to the back
of the LCD display which draws
5 V of power from the computer

Michael primed and painted

Quick FACTS
the case to match the iMac’s
colour scheme, created a
> It uses a 7-inch
stand, and installed iRaspbian
touchscreen

> A wireless

dongle connects
the keyboard

> Raspberry Pi 4
needed modifying,
so be careful!

> The USB-C power

cord needed
cutting too
I got very lucky with the release of iRaspbian
> Minecraft runs
because it made this project incredibly easy at 1000 fps

“For entertainment purposes, I think iRaspbian

suits this project perfectly,” he says. “I got very
lucky with the release of iRaspbian because it made
this project incredibly easy once I got the hardware
sorted out.”
As part of the build, Michael even made a small
Apple logo to fit on the front of the case and he
stuck to the original colours of black and metal
grey. The only part that doesn’t quite fit the
aesthetic is the keyboard.
“Apple’s keyboard is clean and slim and there’s
nothing that comes close to matching this with
current off-the-shelf mini keyboards,” he notes.
“I could potentially make a keyboard from scratch,
but I didn’t have the time. Maybe in the future, this
is something I can work on.”
For now, Michael is planning some more mini-
computer builds, but he also has plans to take on
much larger and complex builds. He’s also been
able to get some downtime. “I christened my small
Connections for a USB-C power cable and a USB data
iMac with a quick game of Minecraft,” he says. cable have been created on the underside of the display

World’s Smallest iMac magpi.cc 27

 PROJECT SHOWCASE

iPourIt
Keeping up with drinks orders can be a challenge, unless you have
a Raspberry Pi beer dispenser. Rosie Hattersley slakes her thirst

G
etting served at a busy bar can be a The tablet computers iPourit originally used,
maddening experience, so many of us will however, proved a weak link, since their screens
sympathise with the story of how iPourit’s needed to be constantly active, which was costly,
Raspberry Pi self-serve beer dispenser came and they eventually stopped working.
about. IT engineer Brett Jones was fed up after
waiting 15 minutes to get served during a sports Let the good times flow
game, and was not impressed when the waiter Over the past year iPourit has developed a new type
returned some time later to tell him the beer he of self-service beer wall with Raspberry Pi at its
requested had run out. heart. The iPourit system uses Compute Module 3+
The substitute beer was lousy too. “It was time as part of a power-over-Ethernet beer dispenser.
to take things into my own hands,” says Brett, “I The customer gets a highly detailed view of which
could have got my own beer in that time.” beers are selling. “Every single controller, every
Brett set about creating a self-service beer single tap stream on this system is powered and
dispenser in which customers chose and paid communicated by a managed switch. We put a
Brett Jones
MAKER

for their drinks at their table and then went and valve and a meter in the beer line. The network
and Darren helped themselves to it. ID checks and a tab were has one Raspberry Pi 4 for every twelve beer lines
Nicholson organised at the counter, a touchscreen terminal
Software developer is used to select the size and volume, and an RFID
and system engineer, wristband is employed to link the drink dispensed
Brett founded iPourIt
after spotting a need to the customer’s account.
for self-pour beers.
VP of marketing
Darren helps bars
and restaurants
choose a suitable
self-pour setup.

ipouritinc.com

The combined RFID

reader and touchless
tap-key allow for
contact-free
drinks dispensing

28 magpi.cc iPourIt
 PROJECT SHOWCASE

Unfamiliar ales are described on the touchscreen

display, which has a Compute Module 3+ and RFID
reader plugged into the circuit board on the back

Each Raspberry Pi 4 controls twelve beer lines, so

customers get plenty of choice

A Raspberry Pi-controlled
system with a touchscreen
for drinks selection allows
customers to select a beer
A Raspberry Pi
and pour at their leisure
Compute Module 3+
on each beer
dispenser links
to a Raspberry
which controls and measures them,” enthuses Pi 4-controlled system
iPourIt CMO Darren Nicholson. Raspberry Pi works that manages beer
flow and monitors
with their existing .NET shop setup, which is ideal
their availability
for any bug fixes and upgrades and meant they
didn’t need to start from scratch.

iPourit uses Compute

Quick FACTS
Module 3+ as part of a
>  iPourIt knew they needed
power-over-Ethernet a new approach...

beer dispenser >  …When end-of-life

tablet batteries
The beer wall concept had previously offered started exploding

a quirky point of difference for venues. With

> Customers can now
contactless service now the aim of most hospitality
sample several beers first
venues, the idea has struck a different kind of The customer’s drinks tab is set
chord with bars and restaurants. A specially up when they arrive and links to
> Wine and shots can also
an RFID wristband that activates
designed RFID tag – controlled by Raspberry Pi, of be dispensed [party!]
the dispensers at the beer wall
course – unlocks the pump handle to pour the beer
features a hook that allows customers to pull the > Expansion to South Africa
handle without touching it. and Australia is planned

iPourIt magpi.cc 29
 SUBSCRIPTION

SUBSCRIBE TODAY
FROM ONLY £5

Subscriber Benefits
FREE Delivery
Get it fast and for FREE

Exclusive Offers
Great gifts, offers, and discounts

Great Savings
Save up to 35% compared to stores

Rolling Monthly Subscription

Low monthly cost (from £5)
Cancel at any time
Free delivery to your door
Available worldwide

Subscribe for 12 Months

£55 (UK) £90 (USA)
£80 (EU) £90 (Rest of World)
Free Raspberry Pi Zero W Kit with 12 Month upfront
subscription only (no Raspberry Pi Zero W Kit with
Rolling Monthly Subscription)

Subscribe by phone: 01293 312193

Subscribe online: magpi.cc/subscribe
Email: magpi@subscriptionhelpline.co.uk
30 magpi.cc
 SUBSCRIPTION

JOIN FOR 12 MONTHS AND GET A

FREE Raspberry Pi
Zero W Starter Kit
WITH YOUR FIRST
12-MONTH SUBSCRIPTION

Subscribe in print
today and you’ll
receive all this:

Raspberry Pi Zero W
Raspberry Pi
Zero W case with
three covers
USB and HDMI
converter cables
Camera Module
connector
This is a limited offer. Not
included with renewals.
Offer subject to change or
withdrawal at any time.

Buy now: magpi.cc/subscribe

SUBSCRIBE
on app stores

magpi.cc 31
 FEATURE

The greatest Raspberry Pi moments,

achievements, and events from 100
editions of The MagPi magazine

T
he MagPi magazine has hit 100 Five years ago, Russell Barnes took
issues. An incredible milestone over the reins and turned it into the
for any magazine, but an magazine you see today. Then he
especially important one for us. went on to build a publishing empire
The MagPi isn’t like other magazines. at Raspberry Pi Press. Rob, Phil, and
Originally created by the Raspberry Pi Lucy have been looking after the
community, and backed by Raspberry Pi magazine ever since. It’s been a wild
Publishing. It’s the greatest magazine ride the last 100 issues, both for The
for the world’s best computer. MagPi and Raspberry Pi itself.

32 magpi.cc
 FEATURE

34 Amazing advances in hardware

36 The MagPi’s amazing achievements

38 Influential projects

40 Amazing stories from the community

42 How Raspberry Pi changed education

44 The greatest Raspberry Pi events

46 Raspberry Pi in popular culture

48 How Raspberry Pi made a difference

50 Win something good with our

Raspberry Pi give-away

100 Raspberry Pi Moments magpi.cc 33

 FEATURE

01

06

03

Amazing achievements
for Raspberry Pi hardware
Just what has been achieved with such a tiny computer?

03 Printed antenna
01 First computer for $25
The launch Raspberry Pi was the
When Raspberry Pi Zero W came out, we
were amazed that the wireless antenna from
Model B at $35; just under a year later, the Raspberry Pi 3 was missing – it had been replaced
Model A was released at just $25. with one printed into the PCB itself.

02 First computer for $5

$25 is cheap, but a computer for just $5 is
incredible. That was how the original Raspberry Pi
04 Third best-selling computer ever
In March 2017, Raspberry Pi sales smashed
Zero came to be, and it’s still hugely popular. the 12.5 million mark, making it the third best-
selling computer of all time, and definitely the
best-selling British computer ever.

29/02/2012 05/05/2012

11 Raspberry Pi released 12 The MagPi #1

Raspberry Pi Model B, the first Raspberry Pi, The very first issue of The MagPi, then a fanzine,
is released to the world is published by the community

34 magpi.cc 100 Raspberry Pi Moments

 FEATURE

05

has allowed the computer to be used far beyond

its original purpose.”

04
08 Astro Pi
Getting a Raspberry Pi up to the
International Space Station (ISS) may sound
simple enough – just chuck it in a rocket, right?
Unfortunately, it’s a lot more involved, as two
Raspberry Pi computers with a Sense HAT and
special enclosure went through rigorous testing Astronaut Tim Peake
02 before being carefully placed in a properly with one of the Astro
Pi units sent up to
balanced rocket for launch. the International
Space Station.
These computers are still on the ISS, running Image credit: ESA
experiments programmed by students all over
the world in the many Astro Pi missions. Find out

05 Built in the UK
While Raspberry Pi computers are sold
more at astro-pi.org.

all over the world, most are manufactured in

Pencoed, Wales. Not only is it the best-selling
British computer, it’s one mostly made in the UK.
09 Open-source video drivers
Raspberry Pi has had two video processors
in its lifetime: the VideoCore IV with all the

06 Full circle
Eben Upton often talks about how
Raspberry Pi models up until Raspberry Pi 3B+,
and VideoCore VI on Raspberry Pi 4. VideoCore IV
Raspberry Pi was inspired by the computers documentation and open-source reference drivers
of the 1980s, like the BBC Micro and ZX were released in 2014 thanks to the partnership
Spectrum. Raspberry Pi 400 is the first version between Raspberry Pi and Broadcom. Currently a
of Raspberry Pi built into a keyboard, much like conformant open-source OpenGL ES driver exists
its spiritual predecessors. for VideoCore VI. An open-source Vulkan driver is
in development, and very close to being finished.

07 Winner of the MacRobert Award

The MacRobert Award is an extremely
prestigious prize that recognises innovation
10 Eben Upton, CBE
As you’ll see in this feature, Raspberry
in engineering in the UK. In 2017, Raspberry Pi has broken boundaries on so many levels.
Pi’s accomplishments were recognised by the Hardware, enthusiast, education, enterprise,
MacRobert Award and it ultimately won that even space exploration – the tiny computer has
year’s prize. Dr Dame Sue Ion DBE FREng FRS, done so many things. It didn’t go unnoticed and
Chair of the MacRobert Award judging panel, said in 2016, Eben was awarded with a CBE thanks to
of the award: “What sets Raspberry Pi apart is his services to business and education.
the sheer quality of the innovation, which

18/07/2012 06/09/2012

13 Raspbian released 14 UK production

Raspbian would quickly become the official Raspberry Pi is now made
OS of Raspberry Pi in Pencoed, Wales

100 Raspberry Pi Moments magpi.cc 35

 Issue 000 December 2020
magpi.cc
The official Rasp
berry Pi magazi
ne

THE MAGPI’S

AMAZING
ACHIEVEMENT
15
S
COVER-MOUNTED
COMPUTER RASPBERRY PI 16
The MagPi #40
its free Raspbe
made national
news with DESKTOP (FOR PC
rry Pi Zero
AND MAC)
When Raspberr
y Pi OS
went Intel, we
put a copy
on the cover

17
AIY
PROJECTS KIT WE WENT TO 18
SPACE (AND BACK
)
We teamed up
with Google to
give-away a fre
e voice assista Issue #47’s fre
nt kit e Astro Pi patc
h & poster
celebrated Tim

FREE!
Peake’s safe re
turn

19
The MagPi has
always been av
ailable as a free
PDF download

15/10/2012 14/05/2013

26 Memory upgrade 27 Camera Module released

Raspberry Pi Model B now comes with 512MB The first Raspberry Pi Camera Module is
of RAM, double that of the launch model released, making use of the CSI port

36 magpi.cc
 FEATURE

15
16
17
18

20
20 Going global
The MagPi magazine has been officially launches, we are the first to know,
22
translated into German, French, Hebrew, Italian, and have exclusive access to the
and Spanish. And thanks to our open licence, the engineering team who will tell you
projects have been translated into many more all about it. See our in-depth coverage
languages around the world. of Raspberry Pi 400 in this very issue.

21 Creative Commons
The MagPi is one of the only computer
24 Made by the community
The first edition of The MagPi magazine
magazines licensed under Creative Commons (CC was created by community members: Jason
BY-NC-SA), so it can be shared and remixed. This ‘Jaseman’ Davies, and Tim ‘Meltwater’ Cox, along
means you are welcome to share and adapt the with Ash Stone, and Chris Stagg. You can still
content of the magazine as long as you follow the download the first 32-page edition for free from
licence terms (magpi.cc/about). our website (magpi.cc/1).

25 The birth of Raspberry Pi Press

22 Since May 2012
The MagPi is almost eight years old now,
After 31 issues, The MagPi was brought
into the Raspberry Pi fold. This gave the
starting just a month after the launch of the magazine a shot in the arm. Russell Barnes
original Raspberry Pi. This is a phenomenal became editor and in issue 36 it became the
achievement in magazine years. 100 page print magazine you hold today. This
gave Raspberry Pi its own publishing product.
Russell turned The MagPi into a publishing
empire, with magazines such as HackSpace,

23 You heard it here first

The MagPi has had exclusive reveals on
Wireframe, Hello World, Custom PC, and Digital
SLR; plus amazing books like Code the Classics
Russell Barnes,
Publishing Director
of Raspberry
Raspberry Pi computers, including the 2, 3, 4, and and essential guides to all manner of subjects. Pi Press
Raspberry Pi Zero. Every time a new computer

06/06/2012 07/04/2014

28 NOOBS released 29 Compute Module

The New Out Of the Box Software, NOOBS, makes it easier The original Compute Module releases
for new users to set up their Raspberry Pi as embedded computing demand grows

100 Raspberry Pi Moments magpi.cc 37

 FEATURE

Influential projects
These are the kinds of projects that bring people to Raspberry Pi

W
hen you first learnt about Raspberry of emulation software that are found in such
Pi, we bet you immediately had an idea popular distributions such as RetroPie which very
for a project with it. There are so many easily and quickly turn a Raspberry Pi into a retro
awesome projects built with Raspberry Pi, yet gaming powerhouse. Whether you’re building
some just really stand out and inspire folks. arcade machines, handheld consoles, or simply
another way to play old games on your TV, it’s

30 Easy media boxes never been easier thanks to Raspberry Pi.

One of the earlier, very popular uses for
Raspberry Pi was as a way to create a media PC
31 Info panels
or retro gaming machine. With home theatre For a while, a couple of years ago, you
software like Kodi (then XBMC) available for couldn’t go anywhere on the maker side of the
Raspbian / Raspberry Pi OS, specific OS builds such internet without seeing Raspberry Pi-powered
as Raspbmc and OpenELEC began being released smart mirrors. You voted to give Michael Teeuw’s
to make it easier to set up. Evolving into OSMC original Magic Mirror the greatest project ever
The simple yet and LibreELEC, home theatre Raspberry Pi builds award in issue 50 for good reason – it combines
powerful Kodi has
changed Raspberry haven’t changed much – they’ve just got better. IoT tech with functional, everyday usage that
Pi computers
Retro gaming on Raspberry Pi owes a lot to makes science-fiction reality.
worldwide
into HTPCs RetroArch and Emulation Station, two pieces The concept evolved into info panels displaying
similar information, albeit in a more condensed
format suited for small spaces in kitchens, next to
desks, and more.

C
 heck on your day
while you check
yourself out

14/07/2014 31/07/2014

34 Raspberry Pi Model B+ 35 Raspberry Pi HATs

Raspberry Pi Model B+ refreshes the board Now with 40 GPIO pins, the HAT specification is released,
design, which is still used to this day resulting in a huge number of add-ons over the years

38 magpi.cc 100 Raspberry Pi Moments

 FEATURE

Dialling in securely
from outside your
home allows you to
access files you may
not have while away

32 Network helpers
Raspberry Pi is small, unassuming, and can
be neatly slot behind many things. This makes it a
perfect little computer for adding functionality to
your network and we’d be remiss if we didn’t talk
about the hugely popular and very useful Pi-hole
(pi-hole.net).
Privacy and security online is more important
than ever, and malicious internet ads are not
uncommon. Pi-hole stops ads at the source so
they never reach other devices connected to
the network, increasing home network security
exponentially for the price of a Raspberry Pi.
That’s not the only way Raspberry Pi can be
Present at many
used on a network, though – a simple file server / There are several amazing projects and kits, Raspberry Pi events,
NAS box is a great use for Raspberry Pi, as well as a top ten of which you can find in The MagPi the DoodleBorg is a
crowd favourite
VPN boxes for accessing your files remotely. issue 94 (magpi.cc/94). However, there are two
we think inspired more than others: the CamJam

33 Robotics revolution EduKit 3, the robot starter kit linked with Pi Wars;
When Robot Wars came back a few years and PiBorg’s incredible DoodleBorg,
ago, it was amazing to think that creating a robot a giant Raspberry Pi-powered robot powerful
worthy of entry was now accessible to many more enough to pull a caravan. The PiBorg range of
people due to an explosion in the popularity of kits includes some of the best out there, and
robotics, thanks to Raspberry Pi. DoodleBorg sparked inspiration in many makers.

10/11/2014 02/02/2015

36 A+ released 37 Raspberry Pi 2
This refresh of Raspberry Pi Model A is the first Bringing more memory and a quad-core processor,
time the form factor has been reduced in size Raspberry Pi 2 is a huge update over the originals

100 Raspberry Pi Moments magpi.cc 39

 FEATURE

Community stories
Raspberry Pi is nothing without the community. Here are just
some of the stories from the amazing people who are part of it

38 Mike Cook @Wee_Grumphie

I enjoy exhibitions and letting people have a play with projects. I have fond memories
of many of them. Like the mother who sat with a child on her lap, jiggling it while
she ‘ran’ on Raspberry Pi racer, the way a small girl controlled the animatronic skull
Mulder, and the haematologist who told me the images I got attaching a Raspberry Pi
camera to a cheap microscope gave better pictures than the equipment she had to
work with. Best of all was the way kids loved creating artwork on the Kilido Cam.

39 Liz Upton raspberrypi.org 40 Tim Richardson @Geeky_Tim

When we started Raspberry Pi, I hoped I met most of my current friends through
we’d touch a few thousand kids’ lives the community, starting by helping Michael
in a way that made a difference. Every Horne put up signs at his first two Jams,
year now, I meet, read about, and receive and joining CamJam as co-organiser. The
messages from so many more kids than I rest is history, with 20 Jams, five Pi Wars
ever thought it would be possible to reach. events, and many more since.
It’s a joy, and a huge source of pride.

41 Carrie Anne Philbin @MissPhilbin

My Raspberry Pi journey started as a computing teacher from east London and I initially wanted
a device that would help educate my students in computer science. But what I found was a
member organisation with a community of people working towards a shared mission, to build,
make, educate, and showcase digital making. I have fond memories of visiting Raspberry Jams
across the country, seeing what people had made. It’s amazing how support from enthusiastic
volunteers can help young people achieve outside of formal education!

42 Ben Nuttall @ben_nuttall 43 Max (pi3g/buyzero.de) pi3g.com

The best thing about the Raspberry Pi I love connecting and working with people
community is that anyone can contribute. involved with Raspberry Pi: creators, fans, but
Whether it’s designing hardware, building also people simply using Raspberry Pi! I have
software, organising a Jam, building projects, been lucky to meet many of them and now
or creating tutorials, it all helps make a consider them my friends. It’s inspired me to
difference. Where would we be without all work on PiCockpit.com with the simple goal
this global effort from thousands? of making Raspberry Pi even easier to use.

27/02/2015 26/11/2015

50 The Official Raspberry Pi Magazine 51 Raspberry Pi Zero surprise

The MagPi goes official, giving it unprecedented Launching on the cover of The MagPi, Raspberry Pi
access to Raspberry Pi products Zero revolutionises microcomputers with a $5 price tag

40 magpi.cc
 FEATURE

44 Martin Mander kyliemander.com

The warmth, positivity, and diversity of the community overwhelmed me when I
nervously did my first show-and-tell at Raspberry Pi’s 3rd Birthday event. It was
an amazing day, and introduced me to a friendly group of like-minded individuals
I hadn’t realised even existed. Since then, I’ve created and shared another 20
Raspberry Pi projects, and I was lucky enough to bring some of them to the
Raspberry Fields event in 2018, a truly inspiring weekend we’ll always remember.

45 Michael Horne recantha.co.uk 46 Helene Virolan @helenevirolan

It’s the friendships that I’ve made that have I remember how excited I felt when
endured above the technology. Getting I received the email from Raspberry
to know people like Tim Richardson, Alex Pi announcing I was accepted on
Eames, Cat Lamin, Albert Hickey, David the Raspberry Pi Certified Educator
Pride, Peter Onion, and Daniel Bull has programme. Taking part meant a lot to
been a pleasure. Getting Pi Wars up-and- me and I gained new skills. Seeing my
running and having the community help daughter having fun in this area made
out with judging and marshalling has been me want to learn more and to share my
wonderful, and helping Raspberry Pi to run knowledge. Being part of Picademy meant
two of their Big Birthday Weekends have all being part of the Raspberry Pi community
been event highlights. of makers, learners, and educators.

47 Estefannie Explains It All magpi.cc/estefannie

Being part of the Raspberry Pi community has been amazing – not just because of being
able to collaborate with incredible like-minded people and attend events, but also
because of all the friends I’ve made from around the world! Just recently I got to work with
NASA engineers who built a scale model of the ISS that is controlled by a Raspberry Pi
(they build the real ISS for their day jobs!). Without being part of the community, I’d have
never been able to do that, or film all of my experiences for my channel.

48 Alex Bate @alexjrassic

Raspberry Pi isn’t just a product; it’s a key to imagination, to learning, and to
building a close family around the world. Yes, OK, that sounds corny, but it’s
true. From where I sit behind my monitor, talking to you all through the various
Raspberry Pi social channels, I get to witness the variety of ways in which the
community uses our little green board to explore and improve the world around us.
And what a privilege that is.

49 Avye Couloute @girlsintocoding

Taking part in Coolest Project UK 2018 was amazing. It was an opportunity to see loads of great
projects that young CoderDojo, Code Club, and Raspberry Jam goers had been working on. It
was also fantastic being able to demonstrate my voice command robot to the public and see
some of their faces light up when they interacted with it. I had the added shock and delight
when my robot was announced as the winner of the hardware category. The experience was
empowering and later helped me to take the leap with my Girls Into Coding idea.

29/02/2016 25/04/2016

52 Raspberry Pi 3 53 Camera Module V2

On Raspberry Pi’s birthday, this powerful new model is A newer, more powerful Camera Module
launched, now with on-board WLAN and Bluetooth boasts a huge increase in megapixels

100 Raspberry Pi Moments magpi.cc 41

 FEATURE

Educational

Credit: ESA
achievements
Raspberry Pi revolutionised
computer science and education
55 Digital Making Curriculum
The Raspberry Pi Foundation has

R
aspberry Pi was designed with computer done a lot of work to help educators in the
science education in mind. In fact, the first field of computer science, and part of that
Raspberry Pi board was designed specifically effort has been creating a digital making
to increase the number of students applying to curriculum that anyone can access for free.
study computer science at Cambridge University. “We have a large and diverse community
Ever since then, education has been the heart of people who are interested in digital
and soul of Raspberry Pi, with the Raspberry making,” wrote Carrie Anne Philbin, Director
Pi Foundation set up as a UK-based charity. of Educator Support at the Foundation,
The Raspberry Pi Foundation uses Raspberry Pi when the curriculum was introduced. “Some
computers to put the power of computing and might use the curriculum to help guide and
digital making into the hands of people all over inform their own learning, or perhaps their
the world. children’s learning. People who run digital
making clubs at schools, community centres,
and Raspberry Jams may draw on it for extra
guidance on activities that will engage their
learners. Some teachers may wish to use the
curriculum as inspiration for what to teach
their students.”
The curriculum focuses on progressive
learning over five different concepts:
Design, Programming, Physical Computing,
Manufacture, and Community and Sharing.
You can find out more at rpf.io/curriculum.

54 Code Club
In November 2015, Raspberry Pi joined forces with Code
Club (magpi.cc/codeclub). “Raspberry Pi Foundation and Code Club
were both created as responses to the collective failure to prepare
young people for life and work in a world that is shaped by digital
technologies,” said Philip Colligan, Chief Executive of the Raspberry
Pi Foundation. Code Club has gone from strength to strength,
with its extracurricular computing clubs having been run around
the world.

29/09/2016 16/01/2017

58 The MagPi 50 59 Compute Module 3

We count down the 50 greatest Raspberry Pi projects, Jumping a generation, Compute Module 3 will stay
voted for by the community the premier embedded option for nearly four years

42 magpi.cc 100 Raspberry Pi Moments

 FEATURE

Credit: villavisuals.com
56 CoderDojo
In 2017 Raspberry Pi Foundation to share their passion for computing by
joined forces with the CoderDojo Foundation. setting up a club at the National Software
CoderDojo is a global network of coding clubs for Centre in Cork.
children from 7 to 17. The CoderDojo Foundation still runs out of
The first CoderDojo took place in July 2011, Dublin, supporting the clubs and volunteers
when James Whelton and Bill Liao decided with free online resources.

57 Issac Computer Science

Raspberry Pi teamed up with the University of Cambridge to
launch Issac Computer Science, an online platform for teachers and
students of A level computer science (isaaccomputerscience.org).
Isaac Computer Science gives students access to a huge range
of online learning materials for the classroom, homework, and
revision. The platform’s resources are mapped to the A level
specifications in England (including the AQA and OCR exam boards).
The project was funded by the Department for Education’s
National Centre for Computing Education programme (NCCE).
NCCE will be giving away 4000 Raspberry Pi kits over the
next three years as part of its Student Rewards Programme –
see magpi.cc/helloissac.

28/02/2017 16/03/2017

60 Raspberry Pi Zero W 61 Third best-selling computer

This important upgrade for Raspberry Pi Zero adds Raspberry Pi sales reach 12.5 million, surpassing the
wireless LAN, just in time for the fifth birthday C64 to make it the third best-selling computer ever

100 Raspberry Pi Moments magpi.cc 43

 FEATURE

Incredible events
T There are several events and he community for Raspberry Pi is huge.
Not just in terms of makers on YouTube or
programmes that have grown social media, but also in terms of people that
congregate together at Raspberry Jams, Code Clubs,
around the work of Raspberry Pi and CoderDojos to learn – and teach – computing.

62 Longest running Raspberry Jam

At the time of writing, #RJam, formerly
Preston Raspberry Jam, has had 105 Raspberry Jams.
It began running in July 2012, a few short months
after Raspberry Pi came out, and was one of the first
events to be called ‘Raspberry Jam’.

2117
NUMBER OF 63 Birthday Weekend
JAMS
As Raspberry Pi was originally released on
29 February, it can’t have a true birthday each year.
That doesn’t stop a concerted community effort to
SINCE 2014 celebrate its birthday each year on the weekend

867
nearest to it. They’ve been running for three years,
and occur in over 40 countries around the world.
INDIVIDUAL JAM
ORGANISERS
SINCE 2014
64 Raspberry Fields
In 2018, a huge official Raspberry Pi event
was held in Cambridge, taking the Raspberry Jam
concept to new heights. With a whole weekend of
panels, stalls, and appearances from people from all
TOTAL NUMBER OF areas of Raspberry Pi, we hope there’ll be another

BIRTHDAY EVENTS one to go to in the future.

2018
BIGGEST 3 86 65 Pi Wars
CamJam is one of the oldest Raspberry
Jams around, and it quickly spawned the annual
Pi Wars robot competition. Unlike the battling bots

BIRTHDAY on TV, these robots compete in less destructive

events, completing obstacle courses, stopping with
WEEKEND precision, and bursting balloons.

04/05/2017 14/03/2018

72 The MagPi #57 73 Raspberry Pi 3B+

This issue comes with a free kit to build a Google The ultimate evolution of the original model is faster
AIY Voice Kit, selling out in shops near instantly still, and offers network speeds three times quicker

44 magpi.cc
 FEATURE

66 Moonhack NUMBER OF
CLUBS
An annual engagement event to get as many
young people coding as possible. Creating space-
themed projects since 2016, the event organised

20,000
by Code Club Australia and Telstra keeps breaking
records: in 2020, 34,170 kids from 70 countries coded
over the week the event was held, smashing the
previous record by 10,000.

260,000
67 Shaun the Sheep:
Mission to Space
In association with Studio Canal and Aardman
Animations, Code Club members were able to enter
a competition for creating the best Scratch animation
in honour of A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon.
ATTENDEES EACH YEAR

183
68 FutureLearn training
You can start a Code Club however you wish,
but if you fancy learning how to make it better, Code
Club offers a free course on FutureLearn that will help
you really make your Code Club special.

69 Coolest Projects
The Foundation now runs three Coolest
Projects events: two regional events in the USA and the
UK, as well as the International edition, which remains
in Dublin, where it originated. Other organisations run
their own regional versions under the Coolest Projects
licence – including Belgium, Bulgaria, and Malaysia!
140

NUMBER OF
DOJOS 70 Coolest Projects in numbers

3,800
The Coolest Projects events have had a

COUNTRIES
staggering 560 entries this year alone from
775 participants across 39 different countries, with
children as young as six taking part.

19,000 71 CoderDojo Girls Initiative

76,000
In March 2017, girls only made up 29% of

VOLUNTEERS
CoderDojo attendees, so the Foundation created the
CoderDojo Girls Initiative with the aim of inspiring
young girls to learn to code. This includes highlighting
female role models so girls can see that they’re

ATTENDEES EACH YEAR welcome in the digital making space. By 2019,

attendance had risen to 33%.

25/10/2018 15/11/2018

74 The MagPi #75 75 Raspberry Pi 3A+

Another big issue, this time with 75 of the greatest The first new Model A in five years brings the power
Raspberry Pi projects voted for by the community of Raspberry Pi 3B+ to a much smaller form factor

100 Raspberry Pi Moments magpi.cc 45

 FEATURE

Redefining 77

computers
in pop culture
Raspberry Pi has had a cameo on countless
TV shows, movies, and videos. Here are our
favourite on-screen Raspberry Pi moments Election Wipe (2015)

R
aspberry Pi bounces on screen in
entertainment all the time. Whenever a 78
hacker needs a small computer to open a
door, spy on enemies, or just do something techie
and futuristic, chances are it’s a Raspberry Pi in
their hand. “You connect your Raspberry Pi… and
Bob’s your uncle,” as they said in Mr. Robot.

Mr Robot ‘eps1.4_3xpl0its.wmv’ (2015) Lost in Space (2018)

79

76
Big Hero 6 (2014)

28/01/2019 07/02/2019

86 Compute Module 3+ 87 Raspberry Pi Store

The board for deeply embedded The first Raspberry Pi retail store is opened in
systems gets the 3+ treatment Cambridge, a short walk from the Foundation offices

46 magpi.cc
 FEATURE

Arrow ‘Crucible’ (2013)

Continuum ‘Second Last’ (2013)

80
81
Revolution ‘The Longest Day’ (2013)
Sense8 ‘Just Turn the Wheel
and the Future Changes’ (2015)

85
83
82

CSI Cyber ‘CMND:/Crash’ (2015) 84

Black Mirror ‘Metalhead’ (2017)

Thanks to RPI Spy for spotting many appearances of

Raspberry Pi: magpi.cc/rpitvshows.

24/06/2019 30/04/2020

88 Raspberry Pi 4 89 High Quality Camera

With up to 4GB of RAM, USB 3.0, Gigabit Ethernet, The latest version of Raspberry Pi camera allows for
and support for dual monitors, this is a huge launch interchangeable lenses and incredible photography

100 Raspberry Pi Moments magpi.cc 47

 FEATURE

Projects
for good
How Raspberry Pi computers and
the Foundation are helping people

R
aspberry Pi was launched in an attempt to
get more UK students into computing. Not
only did it succeed at that, but the hardware
and the Foundation have managed to help people produce machines. Some included Raspberry Pi
in other ways. Zero, with 40,000 sold for ventilator designs.

Direct action Offline learning

The Raspberry Pi Foundation provides free While there’s no global project or standard to say
learning resources for everyone; however, not what an offline internet should contain, some
everyone has access to a computer to learn from educational projects have tried to condense
at home. The Stay Connected scheme 90 funded down enough online content for specific people
by the Bloomfield Trust supplied hundreds of and load it all onto a Raspberry Pi.
Raspberry Pi Desktop Kits and screens through RACHEL-Pi 92 is one such solution. The
The full Desktop Kit,
including a monitor, charities to students most in need, allowing for RACHEL-PI kit acts as a server, hosting a variety
made its way to
families in need
many who wouldn’t have done otherwise to learn of different educational materials for all kinds of
from home and connect to their school. subjects, as well as an offline version of Wikipedia
Digital Making at
Home live streams Elsewhere, a need for more medical equipment with 6000 articles. There’s even medical info
and videos were
around the world 91 resulted in many proposals for helping others, math lessons from Khan
added to the already
free content and projects being considered for cheap, easy-to- Acadamy, and much more.

The RACHEL sites are available in English, French, and Spanish

28/05/2020 19/10/2020

97 Raspberry Pi 4 8GB 98 Compute Module 4

An upgrade to a massive 8GB, only three months With a complete redesign, the latest and greatest
after the 2GB model is reduced to £35 Compute Module has all the power of Raspberry Pi 4

48 magpi.cc 100 Raspberry Pi Moments

 FEATURE

Ladakh is a desert-like
region up a mountain
which can easily shut down
during the winter

A Raspberry Pi lab in
Kuma Adamé, Togo that
Dominique Laloux helped
create and update

The Pocket FM
is far smaller
than traditional
transmitters, and
Pocket FM therefore easy
to move into the
The HAM radio community loves Raspberry Pi country and set up
for amateur radio projects; however, sometimes
people need radio for more urgent purposes. In
2016, German group Media in Cooperation and
17,000 ft 93 is another great project, bringing Transition created the Pocket FM 96 , micro radio
computing to schools high up in the Himalayas transmitters with 4–6 km range. These radios
through a similar method, in an attempt to help allowed Syrians in the middle of a civil war to
children stay in their local communities. connect to free media on Syrnet for more
reliable news.
Education in other countries Raspberry Pi powered these transmitters,
The free resources available to people from the chosen because of how easy it is to upgrade and
Raspberry Pi Projects website are great, but as add components to. Each transmitter is powered
they’re written in English, only a small portion by solar power, and Syrnet is still transmitting
of the world can use them. The Raspberry Pi through them as the war continues into its
Foundation has a dedicated translation team 94 tenth year.
and, with help from volunteers around the
world, has translated projects into up to 32 other
languages. From French and Welsh to Korean and
Arabic, there’s a ton of projects that students
from other countries are able to access.
That’s not all: several charitable groups around
the world have used Raspberry Pi classrooms 95 to
bring computing education to poorer parts of the
world. Many African countries and parts of rural There are a number
of independent radio
India have benefited from these programs, with
stations that transmit
more countries being helped every day. through Pocket FM

02/11/2020 26/11/2020

99 Raspberry Pi 400 100 The MagPi 100

A throwback to computers of yore, Raspberry Pi 400 is a The MagPi issue 100 is released, celebrating
4GB Raspberry Pi 4 fitted neatly into an official keyboard 100 amazing moments in Raspberry Pi history

100 Raspberry Pi Moments magpi.cc 49

 COMPETITION

WIN A RASPBERRY
The MagPi 100
competition
We’ve teamed up with all of our friends from across the community
to bring you a bumper competition. We’ve got prizes galore…

Argon One cases

The Argon One is one of our favourite cases. With passive and
active cooling, a power button for startup and shutdown, and
repositioned sockets, it gives Raspberry Pi 4 a desktop style.
Argon 40 has ten cases to give away.
magpi.cc/argonone

pi-top [4] DIY Edition and Foundation Kit

This stylish case comes with a battery and small OLED
display for powering and using Raspberry Pi on the move. The
Foundation kit clips to the bottom and enables easy click-and-
connect electronic components.
magpi.cc/pitop4diy

Jam HATs RFID HAT

We love the Read the radio-frequency identification
Jam HAT. It information stored on key fobs and
packs LEDs, tags with this super new RFID HAT.
buzzers, and SB Components has ten to give away.
buttons onto a
magpi.cc/rfidhat
simple board on
NESPi 4 cases top of Raspberry
Our friends at The Pi Hut have five of Pi. It makes starter electronics with
these amazing retro-styled console Raspberry Pi a lot easier. Thanks to The
gaming cases to be won. Pi Hut for five of these cracking HATs.

magpi.cc/nespi4 magpi.cc/jamhat

50 magpi.cc
 COMPETITION

PI PRIZE BUNDLE!
SmartiPi Touch 2 DAC2Pro
This fantastic case is designed for HiFiBerry
Raspberry Pi screen-based projects makes
and makes a great interface. SmartiPi some of
has got ten SmartPi 2 cases to give our favourite
away. You’ll need to bring your DACs (digital to
own Raspberry analogue converters). MeArm
Pi and screen, These super DAC2Pro HATs Enter the wonderful world of robotics
though. make it possible to hook Raspberry Pi engineering with the MeArm robot arm
into hi-fi equipment. HiFiBerry has five to Raspberry Pi kit. MeArm has three of
magpi.cc/
give away. these superb robot arm kits to be won.
smartipi2
magpi.cc/dac2pro magpi.cc/mearm

RockyBorg
We love RockyBorg. This three-wheeler by PiBorg is a fast, fun,
and nimble robot with two 20 mm 180 rpm metal-geared motors
and a powerful metal-gear servo for leaning into corners.
PiBorg has two to give away to lucky readers.
magpi.cc/rockyborg

GrowPi
This new Grow HAT from Pimoroni is one for budding green-
fingered hackers. It’s a compact Raspberry Pi-powered
monitoring system designed to help you take the best possible
care of your plants. Pimoroni has ten to give away.
magpi.cc/grow

Enter now: magpi.cc/win100

Terms & Conditions
Competition prizes do not include Raspberry Pi computers; additional components and extra parts may be required to assemble working products. Competition opens on
26 November 2020 and closes on 18 December 2020. Prizes are offered to participants worldwide aged 13 or over, except employees of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, the prize
supplier, their families, or friends. Winners will be notified by email no more than 30 days after the competition closes. By entering the competition, the winner consents to any
publicity generated from the competition, in print and online. Participants agree to receive occasional newsletters from The MagPi magazine. We don’t like spam: participants’
details will remain strictly confidential and won’t be shared with third parties. Prizes are non-negotiable and no cash alternative will be offered. Winners will be contacted by email
to arrange delivery. Any winners who have not responded 60 days after the initial email is sent will have their prize revoked. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or
administered by, or associated with, Instagram or Facebook.

100 Raspberry Pi Moments magpi.cc 51

 200 PAGES OF RASPBERRY PI
Get started with Raspberry Pi, Learn how to code and make
electronics, and more with our step-by-step tutorials

Be inspired by incredible Find out about the top kits and

projects made by other people accessories for your projects

Buy online: magpi.cc/store

 TUTORIAL

Build a
handheld console
Forget the TV, a dedicated handheld is the pinnacle of retro
gaming. Whether you play in bed or in the garden, we’ve got
builds for under £100 and under £200

T
his month, we’re going to build handheld keyboard is properly configured. TAB to Finish on
K.G. Orphanides
MAKER

consoles powered by two different the main menu, press ENTER, and reboot.
Raspberry Pi computers, in two different At the command prompt, type ifconfig to
K.G. is a writer,
maker of odd cases. The Retroflag GPi Case for Raspberry confirm that your wireless network is connected
games and software Pi Zero, supplied by The Pi Hut, has a total of Finally, on a single line, type:
preservation eight buttons plus a digital pad and a 2.8-inch
enthusiast. They will
fight anyone who
320×240 colour screen. It’ll run for hours on three wget -O - "https://raw.githubusercontent.
claims that piracy AA batteries and is small enough to carry in a com/RetroFlag/retroflag-picase/master/
is the only thing generously sized coat pocket. install_gpi.sh" | sudo bash
emulation’s good for.
The PiBoy DMG is more expensive, chunkier,
@KGOrphanides and much more powerful. It has a 3.5-inch This will download and run the safe shutdown
640×480 display, both digital and analogue installer before restarting Raspberry Pi Zero. Power
controls, and a total of ten buttons. You can down and unplug the system.
access all Raspberry Pi 4’s USB ports and there’s
an optional mini-HDMI pass-through. It won’t
run off AAs, so the full kit ships with a 4500 mAh
Add display support
rechargeable battery.
03 Return the microSD card to the system
you’re using to prepare the OS for use. Download
Alert! Copyright
Build 1: Raspberry Pi Zero the patch zip file from magpi.cc/gpicasepatch
Many classic games are and unzip it.
protected by copyright.
Install RetroPie
Stick to homebrew and
legal ROMs. 01 Use the Raspberry Pi Imager for Windows,
The readme file includes instructions for
Windows and macOS – the latter also applies to
magpi.cc/legalroms
Linux, and macOS to download and write RetroPie Linux operating systems including Raspberry Pi OS.
(RPI 1/ZERO) on a microSD card. 8GB capacity From the boot partition of your RetroPie disk,
should be fine for our purposes, as none of the copy config.txt to the original_files directory in
systems we’ll be emulating involve large files. the patch’s folder and replace it with the one that
You’ll Need
Before you install Raspberry Pi Zero in the GPi you’ll find in the patch_files subdirectory.
> Retroflag GPi case Case, you connect it to a monitor, a keyboard, and Similarly, back up dpi24.dtbo from RetroPie’s
(£60) the internet to install Retroflag’s safe shutdown /boot/overlays folder to the supplied overlays
magpi.cc/gpi script. Insert your microSD card and connect your directory, then copy over dpi24.dtbo and
> microSD card peripherals. Allow RetroPie to boot, then press F4 pwm‑audio-pi-zero.dtbo from the patch_files
(8GB+) to quit to the command prompt. subdirectory to RetroPie’s overlays folder.
> Raspberry Pi Imager
magpi.cc/
downloads
Basic config & safe shutdown Prepare the case
> Monitor, USB-to-
micro USB adapter,
02 Type sudo raspi-config. Now go to Network
04 The Retroflag GPi Case comes with a helpful
keyboard (briefly) Options. Go to Wi-Fi and set your country, network illustrated installation guide, a USB power cable,
> 3 × AA batteries name (SSID), and password. In Localization plus the screwdriver and four screws you’ll need to
options, Change Keyboard to make sure your assemble your handheld.

54 magpi.cc Build a handheld console

 The larger screen size and chunkier
The Retroflag GPi will just about dimensions of the PiBoy DMG make it
fit in a jeans pocket, so you can feel like playing a horizontal console
play From Below wherever you go despite its vertical form factor

A micro USB port

Open the battery compartment at the back and under the GPi’s battery
flip the Safe Shutdown switch to the ‘on’ position. cover can provide USB
peripheral connectivity
Make sure the main console power switch is in the via a powered hub, but
reliability varies greatly
off position.
from hub to hub
Remove the ‘cartridge’ – actually a Raspberry Pi
Zero case – from the slot at the top of the console;
turn it so that the sticker’s facing you and gently
but firmly pull it apart.
Remove the microSD card from Raspberry Pi and
the microSD cover from the case.

Power up and configure

Install Raspberry Pi 06
05 Place Raspberry Pi loosely into position on
Flip the power switch at the top right and
RetroPie will boot. The GPi Case registers as an
the four mounting posts in the shell, with the SD Xbox 360 pad, less a few buttons, though left and
slot facing the gap you removed the cover from.
Connect the micro USB extension ribbon
right buttons are hidden on the back of the case.
Hold any button to start configuration. When Top Tip
cable from the I/O conversion board that comes you get to a button that doesn’t exist, press and
The right
installed in shell 2 to Raspberry Pi’s USB port (the hold any button. Skip hotkey configuration and
emulator
rightmost – the other one is only for power). Now allow RetroPie to auto-configure it as Select when
seat Raspberry Pi into shell 1 and position the I/O prompted. You’ll be able to exit to the menu from For improved
board on top of it. Make sure both the posts and games by pressing Start and Select at the same time. Raspberry Pi
GPIO pogo pins are lined up. In the front end, tap A to enter the RetroPie Zero emulation,
Reinsert the microSD cover, clip the cartridge menu, scroll to RetroPie Setup, and tap A. Go to use lr-picodrive
halves back together, and install the supplied Configuration / tools, select Samba, and Install for Mega Drive,
lr‑pce-fast for PC
screws into the holes on the back to secure it. RetroPie Samba share to create a network share
Engine, and lr-
Open the SD card cover, insert your card, close it, so you can easily copy game files over to the genesis-plus-gx
and slide the cartridge back into the main body of console’s ~/RetroPie/roms directory. RetroPie for Master System.
the case. Insert three AA batteries. Setup also allows you to install new emulators.

Build a handheld console magpi.cc 55

 TUTORIAL

Top Tip
Windows
required
PiBoy DMG kits
coming on sale
in November
2020 should
have the latest
firmware, but
future updates
(magpi.cc/
piboyfirmware)
will require a
Windows PC.

The ‘cartridge’ that slots

into the GPi Case is really
a swappable Raspberry Pi
Zero case, so you could keep
different game collections on
separate systems

You’ll Need Build 2: Raspberry Pi 4 02 Chassis preparation

Experimental Pi’s illustrated online
Image your microSD card
01
> PiBoy DMG – Full assembly instructions for the PiBoy DMG are
Kit ($120) Experimental Pi has its own fork of among the best we’ve seen, so keep them on hand
magpi.cc/
piboydmg RetroPie, tweaked to fully support the handheld’s during this build: magpi.cc/piboydmgbuild.
features. Download and extract the operating The PiBoy DMG Full Kit comes with the battery,
> Optional PiBoy
system image via magpi.cc/piboydmgimage and screws, screwdriver, buttons, and blanking plates
DMG HDMI adapter
($10) flash it to your microSD card using the Raspberry that you’ll need to build it. It’s worth adding the
Pi Imager tool. HDMI adapter to your order, too.
> microSD card
Alternatively, you can install RetroPie – or any Unscrew the back of the case, and then unscrew
(32GB+)
other Raspberry Pi OS / Raspbian-based operating and lift off the fan assembly that’ll keep Raspberry
> Raspberry Pi Imager system – but will have to add Experimental Pi’s Pi cool in situ.
magpi.cc/
safe shutdown and on-screen display scripts,
downloads
available at magpi.cc/piboydmgscripts.
It’s worth enabling Samba
for ease of transferring
software to the console
Install Raspberry Pi
03 Slip the supplied faceplate over Raspberry
Pi’s ports – and, if you’re using it, fit the PiBoy
HDMI adapter to the rightmost micro-HDMI port
and slide its faceplate on.
Gently push the SD card adapter ribbon cable
into Raspberry Pi’s microSD slot, then lower the
computer and HDMI adapter onto the standoffs.
Even on a backlit
colour screen, Screw the HDMI adapter into position. If you’re
modern Game Boy
not going to use this adapter, fit a blanking plate
games feel right on
a handheld in its place.

56 magpi.cc Build a handheld console

 TUTORIAL

Fit the fan The Pi Boy DMG

04 Add the fan board: making sure that it’s Handheld homebrew
case has a built-in
fan, which makes
it a little noisy but
lined up with the GPIO, gently seat it into place – a also means you can
overclock it to run
rocking motion works well for this. Make sure all
To help you find the latest games for your favourite demanding games
cables are correctly lined up and screw the board classic handhelds, here are six more game
down. Line up and gently press into the place the collections on indie platform itch.io.
IPS screen cable.
magpi.cc/itchgb
Place the supplied power switch onto the switch
on the top right of the board and screw the rear of magpi.cc/itchgbc
the case back on. Fit the rechargeable battery – it’ll
magpi.cc/itchgba
only connect one way round, but there are also
polarity markings to help. magpi.cc/itchlynx
Top Tip
magpi.cc/itchpsp

magpi.cc/itchpce
Why HDMI?
Go wireless
05 Slide the microSD card you imaged earlier
Adding the micro-
HDMI adapter to
into position and power up. To add wireless Save the file, unmount the card, return it to your the PiBoy DMG
networking to our handheld build, mount its handheld, and boot. From the RetroPie menu, means you can
microSD hard disk on any other computer. In select ‘Wifi’, then import WiFi credentials from connect it to a TV,
the top-level /boot directory, create a file called /boot/wifikeyfile.txt. add a couple of
USB controllers,
wifikeyfile.txt. It should contain these lines: As with the Retroflag build, it’s worth enabling
and enjoy classic
Samba for ease of transferring software to the
multiplayer
ssid="wifi_name" console (see Build 1, Step 6). Transfer your games, gaming.
psk="password" and you’re ready to play on the move.

Build a handheld console magpi.cc 57

 TUTORIAL

Build a Home
Part 02

Assistant: the
light fantastic
Play with colour and mood, or go completely disco
with Home Assistant’s light controls
PJ Evans
MAKER

L
PJ is a writer, ast month we got our Home Assistant set not only your smartphone to control lights, but
software engineer, up and ready to work. Now it’s time to also Home Assistant. Typically they need a wired
and tinkerer. He
just wants to look at home automation’s most popular connection, so it’s a good idea to have your Home
start his coffee feature; lighting control. Automating lights has Assistant Raspberry Pi computer wired on the same
machine on the first never been easier and cheaper. It’s also a great network switch for reliability. Follow the supplied
morning yawn.
way to find out about some of Home Assistant’s instructions and get set up before moving on.
@mrpjevans great features such as scenes or triggers. We’re
going to use the Ikea Trådfri range in this tutorial,
but you can also use other compatible ranges such
Pair up your lights
as Philips Hue. So, let’s brighten up our day (and
night) without the need for boring light switches.
02 It’s far easier to get your new smart light
setup running as a closed system first: it makes
discovery easier later on. We’re going to cover
a number of different scenarios, such as an
Install your smart light system
01 Like many ‘smart’ light systems, Trådfri uses
automated porch light and a group of lights that
can act as one. These will all need setting up in
direct radio communication using a protocol called the Trådfri smartphone app so they are recognised
ZigBee. To control the lights from a computer, by the gateway. You can also group them if you
the easiest approach is to add a suitable gateway. want to, as that will be helpful later and save
These are normally inexpensive and are often some work. Don’t feel you have to follow our
cross-compatible (as with Trådfri and Philips Hue). setup here – you can use a single light or as many
Once installed, the Ikea Trådfri Gateway will allow as your home can take.

You’ll Need
Integrate!
> Home Assistant 03 Once you’re happy your smart light gateway
setup (see is running, log in to Home Assistant and go to
magpi.cc/99)
Configuration, Server Controls, and then click
> Ikea Trådfri Gateway ‘Restart’ under Server Management. This will
magpi.cc/
cause Home Assistant to rescan the network for
tradfrigateway
new devices. Luckily, Home Assistant is capable of
> Ikea Trådfri spotting a Trådfri gateway automatically and you
light bulb(s),
should get a notification that a new integration
e.g. magpi.cc/
tradfrie27 has been discovered. You can now enable the
T
 he Trådfri system is an affordable entry into smart lighting.
Image credit: Ikea integration and Home Assistant will automatically

58 magpi.cc Build a Home Assistant: the light fantastic

 TUTORIAL

Light colour and brightness can be

controlled individually or in groups. You
can even create custom combinations

You can control lights from any

web browser, your smartphone, or
a swanky Raspberry Pi touchscreen

add all your lovely new lights. Each light will be the bottom right ‘+’ to add a new card. Choose
added as a device, something on your systems, and the ‘Light’ card. Chances are, Home Assistant
an entity – a single thing that can be controlled. will have picked up your bulb and name. If not,
click the arrow to select the entity you need. Click
‘Save’ to add your new card. You should now be
able to tap the card to control your light and the
Nice name
04 Now Home Assistant is aware of your fancy
slider to set brightness (if your light supports it).

new lights, it’s time to make things a bit more

friendly. Each light now has an entity code in the  ome Assistant is capable of spotting a
H
system. These are normally in the form of type-
dot-name, so as the device type is ‘light’, you’ll see Trådfri gateway automatically
entities such as ‘light.tradfri_bulb_1’ listed under
Configuration > Entities. You can click on these
Add an add-on
to give them more meaningful names and place
them in ‘areas’ such as the kitchen or lounge. Once
06 For one of our setups we want many lights Top Tip
you’re happy with all the names and places, you to be controllable together, including dimming.
can add cards to the main control panel. This is a bit trickier and not something we can do Unsupported?
in the interface – we’ll have to edit a configuration
If your favourite
file. To do that, we need to get console access
device isn’t listed
and that means installing an add-on. Add-ons as an official
Card-making
05 Last month, we configured the default
extend Home Assistant’s core functionality.
Click on ‘Supervisor’, then ‘Add-on Store’ to see
integration, get
Googling. Home
dashboard ‘Overview’ and switched off automatic what’s available. Search for ‘terminal’ and install Assistant is an
updates. If you did this, then (surprise!) controls the ‘Terminal & SSH’ add-on. Once installed, open system
and anyone can
for your new bulbs will already be available. ‘Terminal’ will appear on your sidebar. Click it to
add to it, so they
Otherwise, click the three dots in the top-right- get a command-line prompt. Also, you now have probably have!
hand corner and then ‘Configure UI’. Now click SSH access to your installation if you want.

Build a Home Assistant: the light fantastic magpi.cc 59

 TUTORIAL

T
 here are a wide
Configure it out A little light typing
range of cards for
setting up controls,
07 To control our multiple lights with one
08 The virtual light group is a little special, so it
and you can design
your own control, we need to create a single ‘virtual’ light. has to be created in the main configuration.yaml.
This gives us the chance to familiarise ourselves Edit the configuration file as follows:
with Home Assistant’s configuration files. Click on
the Terminal add-on and then enter cd config. In nano ~/config/configuration.yaml
this directory are all the configuration files for the
system. To make our virtual light, we need to edit Now enter in the example shown at the end of the
configuration.yaml. YAML files are text files that file. You’ll need to change the entities to match
use indentation and special characters to convey your installation and, of course, you can change
meaning. The main file is configuration.yaml. the name to anything you wish. If you add any
Any changes made there require Home Assistant further groups, you should add them under the
A
 utomations can be to be restarted. Others, such as groups, can existing ‘light’ section. Save the file with CTRL+X
created with plain
be dynamically reloaded from Configuration > and then restart Home Assistant to pick up the
language and
then customised Server Controls. changes. You should now be able to add a new card
to the dashboard which will use your new bulb and
control everything in sync.

light:
- platform: group
name: Kitchen Lights
entities:
- light.tradfri_bulb_1
- light.tradfri_bulb_2

All in good time

09 Let’s create an automation to switch the
kitchen lights off at 11pm. Click ‘Configuration’

60 magpi.cc Build a Home Assistant: the light fantastic

 TUTORIAL

T
 he add-on store
extends your server
in all kinds of ways

then ‘Automations’. This is the most powerful way. For example, you might want a single button
area of Home Assistant and we’ll go more in-depth that turned off the main light, turned on the mood
next month. For now, click the ‘+’ icon and, when lights, and started playing music on your smart
prompted, enter ‘turn off the kitchen lights’, speaker. This works by adding entities together in a
then ‘create automation’. This will set up a basic scene and then creating a button in the dashboard
automation for you. Go to ‘Triggers’, select a type to trigger that scene. You can also have the scene
of ‘Time’, and enter ‘23:00’. Make sure all your triggered using automations; imagine having the
lights are selected under ‘Actions’ and then click lights and music come on when you enter the
the save icon (yes, it’s a floppy disk). Now your house by using your smartphone app as a trigger.
kitchen lights will switch themselves off every
night at 11pm. Can you get them to switch on? Imagine having the lights and music
come on when you enter the house by
10 Triggered using your smartphone app as a trigger
A key part of automations is the ‘trigger’:
Notifications
the event or change that causes an automation to
run. Triggers are fed by sensors, devices connected
12 Now, it may not be very useful to know
to the system that feed it information, rather that a light has come on, but it does make for
than being something it controls. Examples are an interesting example of how notifications
temperature, humidity, movement (PIR sensors), work. Let’s say you wanted an alert when the
and buttons. Home Assistant automatically adds porch light switches on. You firstly need to add
the sun (!) as an input and knows when the sun
rises and sets, so automations can be triggered. If
a notification provider to configuration.yaml.
There’s an example here for one of our favourite Top Tip
you have a porch light, this is a simple step and the services, Pushover.net:
language parser will accept ‘switch the porch light A bit of colour
on when the sun sets’ and configure everything for notify:
The Trådfri
you. Remember to ask it to switch it off again! - name: pushover
integration adds
platform: pushover fine control
api_key: <YOUR API KEY GOES HERE> over the colour
user_key: <YOUR USER KEY GOES HERE> palette available
Setting the scene for multicolour
11 Another way of controlling groups is to Once added (and with the service restarted), bulbs. Just click
the three dots on
use ‘Scenes’. You’ll find the scenes editor under you can add notifications as an action on any
the card to see a
Configuration. A ‘scene’ is a group of devices that automation. There is support for virtually every colour wheel.
you would want to group together in a particular popular notification system out there.

Build a Home Assistant: the light fantastic magpi.cc 61

 TUTORIAL

Santa’s Run
Make a crazy Christmas game and guide Santa on his
Christmas Eve run, delivering The MagPi magazines

W
ith our 100th issue and Christmas Figure 1
fast approaching (at the rate of one
day per day), we thought we could
combine the two and develop a game that
combines both celebrations. Enter Santa’s Run,
a game where you control Santa’s sleigh to try to
drop The MagPi magazines down the chimneys of
overexcited children of all ages. All played against
Mike Cook
MAKER

a night sky which is exactly as it will look on the

Veteran magazine big night in 2020.
author from the old
days, writer of the
Body Build series,
plus co-author of
The game
Raspberry Pi for
Dummies, Raspberry 01 It’s Christmas Eve, ten to midnight in
Pi Projects, and
2020. The moon is waxing gibbous, at a phase of
Raspberry Pi Projects
for Dummies. 73%, the constellation of Orion stands as high
in the sky as it gets from these latitudes, and
magpi.cc/mikecook
Santa is about to make his overhead pass. He is
propelled through the sky by a mixture of magic
and the energetic shaking of his eager recipients
– that’s you. His mission is to deliver every single
copy of The MagPi magazine to the people waiting
below. He has two passes to the end of the screen
and back. Will he make it, or will some fall into
the soggy snow?
Figure 1 Soldering the tilt switch to the wire

The controller Make your shaker

You’ll Need 02 The hardware controller we are about to
03 We used thin screened microphone wire for
build is about as simple as it gets. It consists of a the connection; it is only 1.6 mm in diameter. This
> A tilt switch tilt switch mounted in a plastic drinks bottle. This makes for a nice neat job, but any sort of wire will
magpi.cc/
then connects to a GPIO pin on Raspberry Pi, and work. First, we drilled a 2 mm hole in the flip-top
tiltswitch
the rest is software. cover, and then threaded the wire through. Then
> One plastic bottle, We first used tilt switches in The MagPi we trimmed the wire on the tilt switch down to
e.g. magpi.cc/
issue 52 (magpi.cc/52) with the sliders game – about 5 mm and soldered a wire on each connector
fruityblasts
coincidentally also a Christmas game, and one (Figure 1). Then we pushed the tilt switch through
> Microphone of our favourites. But this time we only need one into the bottle until the wires were below the level
cable (2 metres),
switch. We used a small (140 mm) flip-top drinks of the rim, and flooded the top recess with hot-
e.g. magpi.cc/
miccable bottle from a discount supermarket, and mounted melt glue, ensuring the tilt switch was vertical, as
the switch in the top. shown in Figure 2 (overleaf).

62 magpi.cc Santa’s Run

 TUTORIAL

Tilt switch in bottle

10-way dual-row
header socket

04 Connecting to the GPIO pins T o connect the other end of

To connect the other end of the tilt
switch to the GPIO pins, we used a ten-pin the tilt switch to the GPIO
dual-row header socket. We connected the
wires to pins 2 and 9 of the header socket; this pins, we used a ten-pin
corresponds to ground and GPIO 3, as shown
in the photograph in Figure 3. We used an I2C
dual-row header socket
pin because of the, already fitted, 1K8 (1.8 kΩ)
pull-up resistor to give it good immunity from before starting on writing any code. We looked
interference. Figure 4 shows the physical layout
diagram for the whole interface. We then ran a
around the net for royalty-free Christmas
animated GIFs of Santa’s sleigh, and found a
Top Tip
short test program, available on our GitHub page good one with seven reindeer. This was too Santa’s height
(magpi.cc/pibakery), to check it worked. many for our needs, so we used a photo editing
package to remove all but the first pair. We split During forward
the GIF into its separate frames and started motion, Santa’s
editing: first removing excess reindeers, then height will slowly
Graphics drop until it
05 One of the major components of this sort
making the background transparent, and finally
adding a Raspberry Pi logo onto the sides of
reaches the level
of Rigel.
of project is the graphics, so we got them together the sleigh.

Santa’s Run magpi.cc 63

 TUTORIAL

Figure 2 The MagPi covers

07 This could have been hard work, going
through all the back issues online and taking
screen grabs, but fortunately the magazine was
planning to put all the covers on the front page
of the 100th issue, so they had gathered them
together already. We only had to scale them, in our
case to 50 pixels wide. The final element was the
star-studded background for Santa to ride across,
but being very keen on astronomy, we wanted this
to be accurate, along with the position and phase
of the moon. So we turned to a great open-source
planetarium package, Stellarium.

Figure 2 Hot-melt glue

Stellarium
fixing the tilt switch
08 Stellarium has been around for at least 15
years and is, by now, a very sophisticated product
Your first dashboard
06 Then we found a chimney and made it a
available free for all three major platforms.
We used it to look at the sky as it would be on
double chimney with a copy and flip of the original Christmas Eve 2020. While leap years keep the
clip art. We also did some retouching on the snow stars in the same place at a specific date from year
line between the chimneys, to make the transition to year, the moon’s position and phase will change.
smooth. Most importantly, we made the snow This year the moon is waxing gibbous, at a phase of
line at either side of the chimneys end at the same 73%. ‘Waxing’ means it is getting fuller day by day,
height. Finally, we made two lengths of just plain ‘gibbous’ means it’s between half and full, and
snow: one the same length as the chimneys, and ‘phase’ is how much of the moon you can see.
the other half the length. In this way, we could mix
and match the graphic elements in the scrolling
ground display.
 e took a bit of poetic
W
licence when it came to the
Figure 3 size of the moon
Poetic licence
09 We took a bit of poetic licence when it
came to the size of the moon. When looking at
it in the sky, we actually perceive it to be bigger
than it really is, so we enlarged the moon to match
our perceptions. Figure 5 shows the negative of
the background image we used. It also includes
constellation lines and star names – note the
position of Rigel in the constellation of Orion, as it
is a key point in the game. Stellarium is much more
than a simple planetarium and can animate all
sorts of events like the analemma of the sun.

Software
10 All the software and graphics files can be
Figure 3 Photograph
found on our GitHub page. You use the shaker
of Raspberry Pi
computer connection to propel Santa across the sky, and need to keep

64 magpi.cc Santa’s Run

 TUTORIAL

Figure 5 is constant. This adds a bit of realism to what is a

big suspension of disbelief.

The drop
11 While the magazine is dropping, Santa’s
forward speed is transferred to vertical speed,
allowing you to control his altitude. This is
important, because aiming from a low height
is easier but you can only drop magazines if the
runners on the sleigh are above Rigel. If you
attempt a drop and you are at the level of Rigel,
you will be whooshed to the top of the screen.
Figure 6 If the magazine’s bottom-left or bottom-right
corner intersects the hidden capture rectangle on
each chimney, it sticks there and is considered
delivered; if not, then it sinks into the snow
and is lost.

Winning the game

12 Santa makes two runs across the screen:
right to left, then left to right. The objective is
to deliver all 100 issues of The MagPi magazine.
The game stops when either you complete the
two runs or you run out of magazines. You get to
Figure 5 The night shaking to keep him going. When you have see the total delivered at the end, along with a
sky used showing
constellations positioned him correctly, you press the SPACE round of applause. Figure 6 shows Santa on his
and names bar to release a copy of The MagPi magazine, return run adding another magazine to those
Figure 6 Santa in which then drops to the ground. The longer already delivered.
action, delivering one
more magazine
it descends, the faster it drops, as the speed Next month, in part two, we will look at using
increases because of the acceleration due to two shakers. So get another tilt switch while you
gravity. The forward speed of the drop, however, are at it, to make more shaking fun.

Raspberry Pi Figure 4
GPIO
Top Tip Gnd (9)
Santa’s
forward leap GPIO 4 (7)
When a magazine
is successfully
SCL (5)
delivered, Santa
jumps forward
a bit. This is to
SDA (3) Tilt Switch
prevent you
hovering in one
place and just
3V3 (1)
lobbing all the
magazines into
one chimney. Connector pin number Figure 4 Physical diagram
of the whole project

66 magpi.cc Santa’s Run

 Design

Code

Configure

EC TS
Analyze
ROJ
Y ME P

EAS
U D I O : HO

E
P ST ol

D
CD t to

A
lop men

M
eve
ste md e
r hom ries,
rol sy for yo u
bra l li
o nt nt too n source eate
nal c m e e r
i o velop e C++, op d more. C !
es s ar e d e s an re
Prof
u
a t s oftw be rry Pi, OPC UA d do mo
re sp T, an
d i o is a g ms for Ra I2C, MQT ode less
Stu te O,
d sys rt for GPI designer
.C
CD P B u il USE
.
jec t s. u p p o a te d I A L
pro s gr MER
C
f t he box n the inte C O M
out o r faces
i
R NON
-
in te F O
user W FRE E
N O

CDP Technologies AS
Hundsværgata 8, 6008 Ålesund, Norway
Tel: +47 990 80 900 • info@cdptech.com
www.cdpstudio.com
 FEATURE

Raspberry Pi
An all-in-one system, Raspberry Pi 400
is the only desktop you need

W  aspberry Pi 400 packs a

R
hen is a keyboard not a keyboard? When
it contains an entire personal computer.
On the surface, Raspberry Pi 400 marks measurable speed boost over
a return to the early days of personal computing,
when bedroom programmers and office staff Raspberry Pi 4”
plugged all-in-one keyboards directly into their TVs
and monitors for everything from gaming to coding.
Raspberry Pi 400 packs a measurable speed boost
over Raspberry Pi 4, thanks to a clever passive
cooling system which offers enough
headroom for a processor
jump from 1.5GHz
to 1.8GHz.
Join us as we dive into
the latest, and most
impressive, Raspberry Pi
ever made.

Personal
Computer Kit
You can buy Raspberry Pi 400 on its
own, or as part of a Personal Computer
Kit bundle with all the accessories you
need. Inside the box you’ll find:
Raspberry Pi 400 computer
USB mouse
Power supply Raspberry Pi 400
microSD card computers being built
in the Sony factory
HDMI cable in Pencoed, Wales.
Beginner’s Guide book Image credit: Sony UK
Technology Centre,
sonypencoed.co.uk

68 magpi.cc Introducing Raspberry Pi 400

 FEATURE

PLACES TO BUY

400 UK & Ireland

Raspberry Pi
Store
magpi.cc/retail-store

OKdo
okdo.com
The Pi Hut
thepihut.com

SB Components
sb-components.co.uk

Pimoroni
pimoroni.com

North America
OKdo PiShop.us
okdo.com pishop.us

Adafruit Vilros
adafruit.com vilros.com

Micro Center Canakit

microcenter.com canakit.com

Europe
OKdo BuyZero
okdo.com buyzero.de

pi3g Reichelt
pi3g.com reichelt.de

Berrybase Funk24.net
berrybase.de funk24.ne

Kubii Totonic
kubii.fr pi-shop.ch

Rasppishop Welectron
rasppishop.de welectron.com

Asia
Cytron Seeed
cytron.io seeedstudio.com

Hangzhou Beijing iVision

Junroc ivision-tech.world.
junroc.com taobao.com

For a full list of approved resellers, please go to rpf.io/products

Introducing Raspberry Pi 400 magpi.cc 69

 FEATURE

Meet Raspberry Pi 400

O
n the first inspection, Raspberry Pi 400
is deceptively similar to Raspberry Pi
keyboard and hub. The rear of Raspberry
Pi 400 tells a different story, with an array of
sockets and connectors. Inside Raspberry Pi 400
is hardware similar to Raspberry Pi 4, but with a
different design to reposition all the connections.

Specifications
£65 / $70 (Raspberry Pi 400),
PRICE:
£93.00 / $100 (Raspberry Pi 400 A GPIO PINS
Personal Computer Kit) The 40-pin GPIO header is used to connect Raspberry
Pi 400 to electronic devices and to experiment with
Broadcom BCM2711C0
SoC: electronics and coding. Look closely and you’ll see PIN1 and
quad‑core ARM Cortex-A72 PIN40 imprinted on the case next to the first and last pin

(ARMv8-A) 64-bit @ 1.8GHz

GPU: Broadcom VideoCore VI
RAM: 4GB LPDDR4 SDRAM
NETWORKING: 2.4GHz and 5GHz
802.11b/g/n/ac wireless LAN,
Gigabit Ethernet
A
Bluetooth 5.0, Bluetooth
BLUETOOTH:
Low Energy (BLE)
GPIO: 40-pin GPIO header, populated
STORAGE: microSD E USB 3.0
Two USB 3.0 sockets can be used to
PORTS:1× USB Type-C power input,
2× micro-HDMI 2.0, 1× USB 2.0,
connect devices with fast throughput,
such as external storage drives.
F USB 2.0
A single USB 2.0 socket can be
2× USB 3.0, 1× RJ45 Ethernet, used with the mouse
1× Kensington locking slot
COOLING: Built-in passive heatsink
DIMENSIONS: 286 mm × 122 mm ×
23.7 mm, 385 g
UK, US, German,
KEYBOARD LAYOUTS:
Spanish, French, Italian.

70 magpi.cc Introducing Raspberry Pi 400

 FEATURE

D USB-C POWER
Raspberry Pi 400 is powered via
C MICRO-HDMI USB-C using a Raspberry Pi 15.3 W
USB-C Power Supply (included with
Two micro-HDMI connectors are
the Personal Computer Kit).
B MICRO SD CARD used to connect Raspberry Pi 400
to up to two 4K monitors
This push-click microSD socket acts as
the main drive. A 16GB microSD card
with Raspberry Pi OS pre-installed is
included in the Personal Computer Kit

G
F

E
D

C
B

H KENSINGTON

LOCK SOCKET
Secure Raspberry Pi 400 to a table
with the security lock socket
G ETHERNET
Gigabit Ethernet
provides a fast direct
network connection

Using HAT hardware

with Raspberry Pi 400
Raspberry Pi 400 has the same 40-pin GPIO header as all current
Raspberry Pi models. Only now it’s positioned on the rear of the case.
You can connect HAT hardware directly to the 40-pin GPIO header, but
it will be pointing backwards and up. A ribbon cable can be used to extend
the GPIO pins and most will connect to Raspberry Pi 400 and extend with
the pins facing upwards. You can pick up ribbon cables from The Pi Hut and
other stores for around £3. Here we’re using a 40-Pin GPIO Ribbon Cable –
Rainbow 150 mm from The Pi Hut (magpi.cc/ribboncable).

Introducing Raspberry Pi 400 magpi.cc 71

 FEATURE

Inside Raspberry Pi 400

More than a keyboard, Raspberry Pi 400
packs all the power of Raspberry Pi

 uilt entirely into the

B
keyboard, Raspberry
Pi 400 keeps clutter
to a minimum while
simplifying setup – and
if you buy the bundled
version, it even comes
with a Raspberry Pi
OS microSD card
pre‑installed to get
you up and running as
quickly as possible.

 he underside of the case, which clips in place using

T
no screws, includes two ventilated sections to let the
built-in heatsink cooling system breathe. A QR Code
with the serial number is included in case you ever
need to contact support.

72 magpi.cc Introducing Raspberry Pi 400

 FEATURE

Inside Raspberry Pi 400, the custom heatsink takes up almost

the entire casing. Connected to the system-on-chip with a
thermal pad, the heatsink works silently to keep Raspberry Pi
400 from thermally throttling. This enables the processor to run
at a faster 1.8GHz base speed.

 nder the heatsink, the printed circuit board

U Opening
uses a very different layout to previous
Raspberry Pi models. Long and thin, the board
has Ethernet hardware at its left, the USB and
Raspberry Pi 400
HDMI ports, the silver system-on-chip in the Open your Raspberry Pi 400 carefully! There are no screws,
middle, the GPIO and keyboard connectors, and it just clips in place all around the four sides of the body.
and ends at the right with the wireless LAN Put a spudger (or plectrum) between the two halves and
and Bluetooth radio. slide until you feel a clip, then push to release; keep doing it
until all clips have been freed and the two halves are apart.
Remove the four screws to detach the heatsink.

Introducing Raspberry Pi 400 magpi.cc 73

 FEATURE

Eben Upton and

Simon Martin on
Raspberry Pi 400
Raspberry Pi Foundation founder Eben Upton and principal hardware
engineer Simon Martin wax lyrical about the new product

“
I
t’s the most exciting product,” Raspberry Pi
Foundation founder Eben Upton enthuses
of Raspberry Pi 400’s birth. “Every now
and then we do a product which brings together
everything that we’ve learned, about technology
and about business. Raspberry Pi 400 is another
one of those summary products.
“I think it’s important to make beautiful
things, and it’s just beautiful. It’s designed to be
an object of desire. It just looks great.
“It’s faster than Raspberry Pi 4, and it’s
thermally a lot better because it’s got more space
and there’s some clever passive thermal design.
So, although it runs 20% faster, it runs a lot
cooler. That’s cool, but really, for me, it’s just the
feel of it in your hand, the weight. It just feels like
a consumer product, and it’s the first time we’ve
ever made anything that’s like that.” 
Eben Upton, creator of Raspberry Pi and
founder of Raspberry Pi Foundation

Project Gamma
“I was hired at Raspberry Pi to do just such a
product, back in summer 2017,” Raspberry Pi 400
designer Simon Martin explains. “At the time,
Raspberry Pi 3 was the thing and I set about
making a ‘Raspberry Pi 3 in a keyboard’ product.

What’s in a name? I think it’s important to

“Somebody asked me,’Is it named after the Atari 400?’ I mean,” Eben explains,
“it’s a nod to the ‘three-digit number that ends in zero’ as a pretty common make beautiful things, and
naming convention with Atari, both 8-bit and 16-bit with the 520, Amiga with
various hundreds, Acorn with the Archimedes 305s, 310s, 440s, yeah. It was a it’s just beautiful
pretty common naming convention.
“It is obviously appealing that if, in the far future, we do a Raspberry Pi 5, then a
“The project was called the Commodore 64
Raspberry Pi 5 version will be called Raspberry Pi 500, which as an Amiga person
Project, and I thought, ‘Well, it’s a bit risky calling
is quite nice.
“It gives you a natural extension of the name scheme: we can still do plus something the Commodore 64 Project, because
models, we can still do major revisions, and it preserves the ‘if you don’t know everybody knows what we’re doing!’ So I took
anything about Raspberry Pi, get the largest number you can see’ rule.” the letter C, in C64, and replaced it with Project
Gamma, as in alpha, beta, gamma.

74 magpi.cc Introducing Raspberry Pi 400

 FEATURE

“It was clear it was going to be ready in

production after Raspberry Pi 4 was announced,
so we decided to move to Raspberry Pi 4. It was
February last year I started work on making this
Raspberry Pi 4-based Raspberry Pi 400 product.”

Keeping cool
“I spent about six months working on the thermal
side of it,” Simon continues. “That was the key
to getting this thing to be a successful product:
to make something that didn’t need any external
cooling, it was going to deal with it itself. So, I 
Simon Martin, Senior Principal Hardware Engineer at
spent a lot of time doing a thermal solution for it, Raspberry Pi and designer of Raspberry Pi 400

and we came up with this metalwork inside it.

“If you see inside one, there’s a metal plate

Pi Drop
that runs across the entire board and keeps
everything cool. I involved some consultants in
thermal design, and they said that if the power
consumption was, say, under 10 watts, then a “We’ve been doing bits of outreach to help kids who’ve been sent home
from school with no computer,” says Eben. “It’s a programme called Pi Drop,
passive cooling solution would be possible.
that the Raspberry Pi Foundation is running.
“Sure enough, there were some improvements
“Ease of setup is very important to that customer base. It sounds trivial, but
to power draw that went on with Raspberry getting rid of Raspberry Pi, its case, and the cable between Raspberry Pi and
Pi 4 before it was announced, getting it down the keyboard, it takes three things off the table.
to the sort of 6 to 7 watt level. All of those “There’s also much less misconfiguration possibility with Raspberry Pi 400
improvements have kept the power budget to a than there is with Raspberry Pi 4. So we’ll be rolling over all of our charitable
useful level such that we can overclock Raspberry work from Raspberry Pi 4 to Raspberry Pi 400.”

Pi 400 to 1.8GHz.”

Introducing Raspberry Pi 400 magpi.cc 75

 FEATURE

Benchmarking
Raspberry Pi 400
A full-chip redesign, the first in the history of Raspberry Pi,
has unlocked new levels of performance

R
aspberry Pi 400 isn’t just an entirely systems which work on Raspberry Pi 4, and older
new form factor and Raspberry Pi’s first models too.
integrated design: it’s also the fastest It can also use less power: while the extra
Raspberry Pi model ever released. A large metal 300MHz means Raspberry Pi 400 draws more
heatsink, running almost the entire width of the electricity than Raspberry Pi 4 under load, it
casing, coupled with a roomier printed circuit finishes more quickly – and not needing to run an
board means Raspberry Pi 400’s system-on-chip external USB keyboard means it uses less power at
ships clocked at 1.8GHz (one billion eight hundred idle, too.
million cycles per second) – up from Raspberry For the majority of use-cases, Raspberry Pi 400
Pi 4’s 1.5GHz. is now the machine to beat – but those working
The additional speed can be felt in everything on embedded projects will find the more compact
from web browsing and image editing to running Raspberry Pi 4, with its Display Serial Interface
Python programs, and it doesn’t come at the (DSI) and Camera Serial Interface (CSI) ports and
cost of compatibility: Raspberry Pi 400 is fully Power over Ethernet (PoE) capabilities, is still the
compatible with all software and operating go-to model.

2371.62
2037.33

1940.71
Linpack
Linpack (SP, MIPS)

Linpack (DP, MIPS)

Linpack (SP NEON, MIPS)

Originally developed for
Higher is better
supercomputers, this
synthetic benchmark – ported
to Raspberry Pi OS by Roy
Longbottom – offers a look
1124.72

at best-case performance
gains between models. Three
925.47

927.31

900.85

versions of the benchmark are

compared: Single Precision
751.02
748.73

(SP), Double Precision (DP),

and a Single Precision variant
which uses the accelerated Arm
NEON instructions available
536.23

526.75

since Raspberry Pi 2.
460.91

224.89
208.39

209.23
225.9
193.79
179.87
158.35
145.72
298.7
64.47

63.77
50.26

49.99

40.38
37.26
36.88

51.14
51.41

39.51
35.74
35.81
Raspberry
Pi A

Raspberry
Pi B

Raspberry
Pi A+

Raspberry
Pi B+

Raspberry
Pi Zero

Raspberry
Pi Zero W

Raspberry
Pi 2

Raspberry
Pi 3

Raspberry
Pi 3 A+

Raspberry

Raspberry

Raspberry
Compute
Module 4

Pi 400
Pi 3 B+

Pi 4

76 magpi.cc Introducing Raspberry Pi 400

 FEATURE

62.43

Python GPIO Zero (kHz)

GPIO Zero
Higher is better 50.84 50.82

This benchmark demonstrates

how each model reacts to Python
programs in a worst-case scenario: a
simple program which does nothing
more than toggle a GPIO pin on and
off using the GPIO Zero library. The 16.02 16.11

8.307 13.51
faster the toggle, the faster your
Python code can run – or the less 1.301 1.702 1.752
1.201 1.201 1.201
time it’ll spend waiting on the CPU.

Raspberry
Pi 400
Compute
Module 4
Raspberry
Raspberry
Pi A

Raspberry
Pi B

Raspberry
Pi A+

Raspberry
Pi B+

Raspberry
Pi Zero

Raspberry

Raspberry

Pi 3 A+
Pi Zero W

Pi 2

Raspberry
Pi 3

Raspberry
Pi 4 B
Raspberry
Pi 3 B+
File File Compression
339.603

335.179
330.952

(single-threaded, seconds)
310.738

Compression File Compression

280.639

279

(multithreaded, seconds)
Lower is better
This real-world benchmark takes
211.43

a 100MB test file and compresses

it using the bzip2 algorithm, first
135.58

126.207

49.983
49.352
50.36

44.911
using a single processor core and 102.44
25.925
34.33

16.398
29.8

16.051
then using all four processor cores in

15.92
a process known as multithreading.
Compression is also affected by
Raspberry
Pi A

Raspberry
Pi B

Raspberry
Pi A+

Raspberry
Pi B+

Raspberry
Pi Zero

Raspberry

Raspberry

Raspberry

Raspberry

Raspberry

Raspberry

Raspberry
Pi Zero W

Pi 2

Pi 3

Pi 3 A+

Pi 3 B+

Pi 4

Compute
Module 4

Pi 400
storage performance; here, the file is
compressed purely in memory for a
level playing field.

Speedometer Speedometer 2.0 Browser

19

2.0 Benchmark (runs per minute) 16.91 16.5

Higher is better

Many Raspberry Pi computers are

used as desktop workstations, and
Raspberry Pi 400 excels in the role. 8.55
This benchmark tests how well a 7.56
6.35
browser-based application – a simple
4.138
to-do list – runs on each model, with
0.667 0.596 0.623 1.04 0.961
higher run rates representing a more
responsive web app.
Raspberry
Pi A

Raspberry
Pi B

Raspberry
Pi B+

Raspberry
Pi Zero

Raspberry
Pi Zero W

Raspberry
Pi 2

Raspberry
Pi 3

Raspberry
Pi 3 A+

Raspberry

Raspberry

Raspberry
Pi 4

Compute
Module 4

Pi 400
Pi 3 B+

Introducing Raspberry Pi 400 magpi.cc 77

 FEATURE

USB Storage

363

362
USB Storage Throughput

323

325
Throughput
(Read, MBps)
USB Storage Throughput
(Write, MBps)
Higher is better
Although Raspberry Pi 400 doesn’t
need a keyboard, that doesn’t mean
you can’t connect peripherals. The
two blue-coloured USB 3.0 ports at

36.54
34.28

33.24
38.21
32.96
30.35

29.55
26.89
27.52

26.78

31.79
31.75
27.96
27.76

33.7
25.06
25.52
25.67

34.5
26.18

34.1

34.1
the back accept the same range of
accessories as Raspberry Pi 4, and here
are tested to the limit by transferring

Raspberry
Pi A

Raspberry
Pi B

Raspberry
Pi A+

Raspberry

Raspberry
Pi B+

Raspberry
Pi Zero

Raspberry
Pi Zero W

Raspberry
Pi 2

Raspberry
Pi 3

Raspberry
Pi 3 A+

Raspberry
Pi 3 B+

Raspberry
Pi 4

Compute
Module 4

Pi 400
data to and from a high-performance
USB solid-state drive (SSD).

86.6
Storage Storage Throughput (Read,
MBps)

75.9
Throughput
Storage Throughput
(Write, MBps)
Higher is better

Raspberry Pi 400 benefits from the

45.7

45.6
same switch to Double Data Rate
(DDR) operation on its microSD slot as

23.5

23.5
22.8

22.8
22.7
23.1

31
21.3
21.3

21.2

21.1

27.7
17.8
Raspberry Pi 4, boosting how quickly

17.5
16.9

17.4
13.7

13.7
13.6
13.5

13.6
13.5

it can load data from and save data

to the microSD card as proven by
this benchmark – though the eMMC
Raspberry
Pi A

Raspberry
Pi B

Raspberry
Pi A+

Raspberry
Pi B+

Raspberry
Pi Zero

Raspberry

Raspberry

Raspberry

Raspberry

Raspberry

Raspberry
Pi Zero W

Pi 2

Pi 3

Pi 3 A+

Pi 3 B+

Pi 4

Raspberry
Compute
Module 4

Pi 400
storage on the recently launched
Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 takes
the performance crown.

943
942
943
Ethernet Throughput

Ethernet WiFi Throughput (2.4GHz)

Throughput
WiFi Throughput (5GHz)
Higher is better

For top performance, a wired Ethernet

connection always beats wireless.
237

Here data is transferred from a

95.4

115
93.7

97.6

113
114
80.8

95
65.8

49.2

58.3

57.9
58.8

57.2

central server to each Raspberry

59
24.4

Pi model on test and the speed

measured in megabits per second –
Raspberry
Pi B

Raspberry
Pi B+

Raspberry
Pi Zero W

Raspberry
Pi 2

Raspberry
Pi 3

Raspberry

Raspberry
Pi 3 A+

Pi 4

Compute
Module 4
Raspberry
Pi 3 B+

Raspberry
Pi 400

aiming at the theoretical maximum,

never truly reachable, of 1000Mb/s.

Wireless LAN Throughput,

Wireless LAN
2.4 GHz (Mbps) 114 113 115
Wireless LAN Throughput,
5 GHz (Mbps) 97.6

Throughput
93.7
Higher is better

Wired Ethernet is fast, but wireless

58.8 59 58.3 57.9
is more convenient. Despite the 57.2
49.2
enclosed casing and large metal
heatsink, this benchmark – which
24.4
places each Raspberry Pi on a 2.4GHz
and a 5GHz wireless LAN network in
turn – proves that Raspberry Pi 400
Raspberry
Compute
Module 4

Pi 400
Raspberry
Pi Zero W

Raspberry
Pi 3

Raspberry
Pi 3 A+

Raspberry
Pi 3 B+

Raspberry
Pi 4

can keep up with its younger sibling.

78 magpi.cc Introducing Raspberry Pi 400

 FEATURE

Power Draw Power Draw Idle (watts)

6.9
6.5
6.4

6.2
Power Draw Load (watts)

5.9
The less power a computer draws,

5.4
the better it is for the environment, Lower is better

your electricity bills, and the

4.2

3.7
temperature in your room. Here

3.2

2.9
each Raspberry Pi on test has its

2.6

2.4
2.1
power draw measured at idle, sat at

2
2
0.9
0.9
1.8

0.8
0.8
1.7

1.6

1.6
0.7

1.5
Raspberry Pi OS desktop, and under

1.2
heavy sustained load for a worst-
case loaded figure.

Compute
Module 4
Raspberry
Pi A

Raspberry
Pi B

Raspberry
Pi A+

Raspberry
Pi B+

Raspberry
Pi Zero

Raspberry
Pi Zero W

Raspberry
Pi 2

Raspberry

Raspberry
Pi 3

Pi 3 A+

Raspberry

Raspberry
Pi 3 B+

Pi 4

Raspberry
Pi 400
GIMP Image
492.178
Editing 486.239
459.899

GIMP Image Editing (seconds)

419.946

411.685
Lower is better

396.08
Image editing is another common
real-world use-case for a desktop
computer, and in this test each
model is given a 4K-resolution
image to edit in the popular open-

82.49

67.01

47.633

41.679
126.22

47.35
source GIMP image editor. As with

119.775
the compression benchmark, the
file is stored in memory to level the

Compute
Module 4

Raspberry
Pi 400
Raspberry
Pi A

Raspberry
Pi B

Raspberry
Pi A+

Raspberry
Pi B+

Raspberry
Pi Zero

Raspberry
Pi Zero W

Raspberry

Raspberry

Raspberry

Raspberry

Raspberry
Pi 2

Pi 3

Pi 3 A+

Pi 3 B+

Pi 4
playing field.

Thermal Raspberry Pi 4

Throttling
1600 95

Temperature (Degrees Celsius)

1350
All computers include a ‘thermal
Frequency (MHz)

75
throttle’ which protects the
processor from getting too hot by
1100
reducing its speed. Here, Raspberry
Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 400 go head- 55
to-head running a torturous worst- 850

case-scenario synthetic benchmark

designed to heat the processor
as much as possible – and Simon
200 400 600 800
Martin’s heatsink proves its worth. Time (Seconds)

CPU Temperature Raspberry Pi 400

CPU Clock 1600 95

CPU Clock (Moving Average)

Temperature (Degrees Celsius)

1350
Frequency (MHz)

75

1100

 imon Martin’s
S 55

heatsink proves 850

its worth
200 400 600 800
Time (Seconds)

Introducing Raspberry Pi 400 magpi.cc 79

 REVIEW

Argon ONE M.2

Argon 40 magpi.cc/argononem2 £43 / $45
SPECS

DRIVE TYPE: Add a super-fast M.2 SATA SSD to Raspberry Pi 4 along with dual full-sized
M.2 SATA SSD
with Key-B or
Key-B&M
HDMI sockets, a power button, and fan cooling. By Lucy Hattersley
DISPLAY

T
PORTS: he Argon ONE M.2 case for Raspberry Pi 4 The aluminium alloy lid acts as a heatsink and
Dual full-size has been on the radar for many Raspberry a 30 mm fan provides active cooling. The fan
HDMI
Pi power users. We’re glad to report that is controlled via a script provided by Argon 40.
FEATURES: your anticipation has not gone unrewarded. Default settings start at 10% power when the CPU
UASP support, The marquee addition here is support for an temperature is at 55ºC, increasing to 55% at 60ºC,
power M.2 SATA SSD drive (the blade drives commonly and 100% at 65ºC.
management,
found in laptops). This sits snugly in a bottom
active and
passive cooling compartment and is connected to Raspberry Pi Putting it together
using the USB 3.0 connection (via a U-shaped Your M.2 SATA SSD clips into the lower part of
adapter). It features UASP (USB Attached SCSI the case and is held in place with a single screw.
Protocol) support to increase performance. The two halves are then screwed together and a
In the spirit of things, we tested it with a U-shaped USB adapter is used to bridge the lower
Raspberry Pi 4 8GB RAM and Raspberry Pi OS (64- part of the case the port on the upper part.
bit) still in beta testing (magpi.cc/64bitbeta). It’s an ingenious solution, but you lose a USB 3.0
An internal board repositions the ports to socket in the final build. More importantly, the
the rear, and converts the micro-HDMI ports of microSD card socket is sealed inside the case,
Raspberry Pi 4 to two full-sized HDMI sockets. requiring disassembly to access it.
GPIO remains accessible via a removable flap with Raspberry Pi EEPROM recently provided USB
a pin guide printed to the side. boot support in the default ‘critical’ firmware,

Gnome Disk Utility

benchmarking the
rootfs partition of
our SSD

80 magpi.cc Argon ONE M.2

 REVIEW

and a recent update (still currently in beta but due

soon) improves USB boot performance.
Once booted into Raspberry Pi OS, we installed
Imager and used that to flash a clean install of
Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit) onto the SSD drive.
Remove the USB thumb drive and Raspberry Pi
boots straight from the SSD.

Benchmarking the Argon M.2

We used a Samsung 850 EVO SSD supplied
by our friends at Custom PC magazine The two halves of the
case connect together
(magpi.cc/custompc) and installed Gnome Raspberry Pi remained cool under stress, maxing with a U-shaped USB
Disks for its benchmarking test. out at 53ºC – not even high enough for the fan 3.0 connector bridging
the M.2 SSD SATA drive
The M.2 did not disappoint, with an average to kick in, with the passive case doing all the to Raspberry Pi 4
read rate of 367.1MB/s compared to 45MB/s for our cooling. We took our Raspberry Pi clock speed up to
microSD card. That’s an 800% speed increase. 1800MHz (magpi.cc/overclock) and, after leaving
Raspberry Pi to recover, ran the test again. This

Y ou get unrestrained time the board got a little more stressed, maxing
out at 73ºC – enough for the Argon fan to kick in
performance with an at 100% speed, but below the critical 80ºC point
where Raspberry Pi OS begins to throttle back the
overclocked Raspberry Pi 4 CPU speed.
So at all times you get unrestrained performance
coupled with an ultra-fast with an overclocked Raspberry Pi 4 coupled with an
ultra-fast SSD storage solution. If that’s not nifty,
SSD storage solution we don’t know what is.
We did also install Ubuntu, but we could not Verdict
Overjoyed with our SSD throughput rate, we set install the scripts for the fan in this case (as it
about testing CPU speed and thermal performance depends on GPIO Zero, magpi.cc/gpiozero), so the If you want to
take Raspberry
(the two are related as Raspberry Pi OS throttles fan was on permanently. Raspberry Pi OS remains
Pi 4 performance
performance if the CPU temperature exceeds 80°C). our preferred operating system at any rate. as far as it can
We performed a similar test to the one Gareth We spent a delightful couple of days knocking go, this is the
Halfacree uses when thermal-testing Raspberry Pi together the scripts for testing in Visual Studio way to do it.

10
boards (magpi.cc/thermaltesting). We ran stress- Code and creating graphs of the results in
ng and glxgears for ten minutes while monitoring LibreOffice, all while doing browser research and

/10
CPU speed and temperature recordings, followed writing up the results. Our Argon ONE M.2 build
by a five-minute cool-down period. remained a joy to use throughout.

Argon ONE M.2 magpi.cc 81

 REVIEW

Robot
Dog Kit Even with seemingly flimsy
feet, it moves just fine

Freenove freenove.com £120 / $130

SPECS

SERVOS:
12 × ES08MA Ⅱ, This Raspberry Pi-powered robot kit can do it all, and walk on all four legs.
1 × SG90
Rob Zwetsloot looks to see if it’s more than just a gimmick
SENSORS:
Ultrasonic

U
distance,
sually, robot kits that move on limbs however, it has a huge range of movement. Beyond
camera,
accelerometer, come as bipedal, movie-style robots, or how it moves, it comes with a suite of sensor types,
gyroscope six-to-eight-legged spider-bots that are example code, and smartphone/desktop control
a little too close to their arachnid inspirations. apps so that you can learn plenty about robotics.
CHASSIS:
The Robot Dog Kit from Freenove bucks this trend
Acrylic parts
by walking on four legs, much like the (in)famous
Boston Robotics machines. It can be modified to do many
It’s a kit in the truest sense of the word. Coming
as several sheets of acrylic and a load of separate things even some of the
sensors and motors, you’ll need to build it nearly
entirely from scratch. It’s not a quick build either, more established Raspberry
and we spent a few hours putting it together
just right as we followed the downloadable
Pi robot kits cannot
PDF manual.
A robot dog kit might just stop at being able to Smart dog
walk forward. With a ton of cleverly placed servos, Once built, the dog has multiple functions: walking,
self-balancing, ball tracing, face detection, live
Verdict video, and ultrasonic ranging. Freenove’s GitHub
page has a range of code and applications for you
A really great to explore (magpi.cc/robotdoggit). You’ll also find
robot kit once datasheets and calibration graphs on GitHub.
you get through You’ll have to supply a Raspberry Pi and specific
the building
(button-top 3.7 V 18650) rechargeable batteries
process,
although you will – which can be tricky to find in the UK – but this
need to supply does mean that all the code is very hackable.
some extras. With computer vision, ultrasonic sensors, gyros,

8
and so on, this Robot Dog can be modified to do
many things even some of the more established

/10
Raspberry Pi robot kits cannot…
The mobile app lets you see what the dog is seeing,
as well as fully control its motion Although we do feel like it looks more like a cat.

82 magpi.cc Robot Dog Kit

 Raspberry Pi
goes industrial
PWR

USR

232

485

CAN

IONO PI MAX

Long term availability, high reliability and support

Tailor-made embedded solutions

Our range of Raspberry Pi-based devices is wide. Really wide.
But what if your project needs something more?
StratoPi R. 3.0

We can put all of our expertise into your custom OEM design.
Don’t hesitate to contact us to explore every possibility!

Visit our website www.sferalabs.cc

 REVIEW

10 Amazing:
Festive
projects Our Giant Raspberry Pi Menorah
Eight nights of lights
Ben Forta could have just had a series of lights that looks like a menorah, but he
Get into the holiday spirit with these went one step further and made the flames flicker. He even added an animation
incredible Raspberry Pi projects whereby the centre candle ‘lit’ all the other candles as the days went on. Clever!

magpi.cc/menorah

L
ast issue we showed you
how to decorate your
home for Christmas. As IoT Festivus Pole
the season draws near, however,
you may be interested in what For the rest-of-us
else you can do to celebrate.
Alert! Invented for the sitcom Seinfeld,
High voltage Raspberry Pi is used all around
Festivus on 23 December includes
the world, so we sought out
a meal, the airing of grievances,
Be careful when working some alternative holiday projects
with mains electricity. feats of strength, and labelling any
as well. We hope you’re able to innocuous happening a Festivus
magpi.cc/
electricalsafety have a good time. miracle. A Raspberry Pi is connected
to the pole and illuminates an LED
when someone mentions Festivus on
Twitter, causing everyone in the room
to yell, “It’s a Festivus miracle!”

magpi.cc/festivus

Secret Santa
Babbage
Covert present
organiser

Perpetual Yule Log

Upgrade your office secret
Santa (when people can be
in the office again) by having
a cute mascot Babbage
Eight nights of lights
Bear decide who is gifting
Burning a yule log is an ancient tradition related to the winter whom through the use of
solstice. Not everyone has a fireplace these days, though, so technology. A printout is
creating a virtual one that both looks nice and won’t fill your home created so that you won’t
with smoke is a great alternative. forget names.

magpi.cc/yulelog magpi.cc/santababbage

84 magpi.cc 10 Amazing: festive projects

 REVIEW

Smart gingerbread house

Electronic sweets
A motorised house you just want to eat… mainly because (most of) it is edible.
Estefannie built this with lots of tech running through it, so doors open, lights
shine, and marshmallows mysteriously disappear when no one is looking. Christmas tree
magpi.cc/gingerbread
Virtually real
Minecraft Pi can interact with Python. Python on Raspberry Pi

2018 Christmas can control real things. So this digital Christmas tree created in
Minecraft can be used to control a corresponding real Christmas
Light Show tree. Truly a Festivus miracle of tech.

magpi.cc/minecrafttree
Deck your house
A huge 4000 lights and tree are synced to
music outside of this very brightly lit house.
It’s all controlled by lightshowpi to make the
Ornament
music syncing easy, but be careful if you
choose to replicate this – it will require access TV on a tree
to a lot of dangerous high voltage wiring.
Christmas adverts are an
magpi.cc/2018lightshow interesting beast, with certain
ones invoking nostalgia in the
right people. It’s almost a part of
Christmas itself! So why not have
Naughty or Nice Machine them playing throughout the
season on your Christmas tree?

Morality checker magpi.cc/xmasornament

This machine will check to see if you’re getting presents or coal for Christmas
by assessing your hand. According to Brian Corteil, it basically checks how big
your hand is, but we believe it’s linked to a database at the North Pole. LED
magpi.cc/naughtynice Christmas Tree
Smart tree
Smart/IoT Christmas tree
lights are great and we’ve done
several tutorials that show you
how to make your own – this
one goes a bit further and
has a video projector that can
display your festive faves over
your presents.

magpi.cc/ledxmastree

More Christmas ideas!

Looking for more Christmas inspiration?
Check out our feature Holiday Projects
for a Festive Home in The MagPi #99
(magpi.cc/99).

10 Amazing: festive projects magpi.cc 85

 RESOURCES

Learn Raspberry Pi OS
Raspberry Pi OS is the official operating system and the brains of Raspberry Pi.
It pays to learn to use it. By Lucy Hattersley

Raspberry Pi Help
Raspberry Pi For many people, Raspberry After you’ve finished the
CREATOR

Pi OS is their first taste of a course, click on the menu

Price: Linux operating system. Don’t icon, then choose Help >
Free fret! It’s built on top of Debian, Help. This webpage has more
raspberrypi.org/help and many aspects of it are comprehensive information,
similar in design and function to including Documentation
Windows and macOS. But Linux and Troubleshooting.
is much more fun when learning
how computers work.
Your first port of call should
be to visit Raspberry Pi’s Help
section. Click on the Raspberry
Pi menu icon at the top left of
the screen and choose Help >
Get Started. This online course
will walk you through the basics
of installing software, keeping
Raspberry Pi up to date, using
the terminal, and configuring
Raspberry Pi OS.

Bookmark these
Make sure you keep these websites to hand
DEBIAN REFERENCE CARD RASPBERRY PI OS
Raspberry Pi OS is a flavour of DOCUMENTATION
Debian Linux, so it makes sense to The official Raspberry Pi OS
keep the reference card to hand. documentation pages have
magpi.cc/debref information on installing,
upgrading, and working with
LINUX CHEAT SHEET Raspberry Pi OS-specific services.
There are hundreds of cheat It also includes info about
sheets for Linux, but this one is terminal applications such as
our favourite. OMXPlayer and raspistill.
magpi.cc/linuxcheatsheet magpi.cc/raspberrypios

86 magpi.cc Learn Raspberry Pi OS

 RESOURCES

Understanding
Computer Systems
Raspberry Pi If you want something Google. This course explains
CREATOR

Foundation
Further
more in-depth than the in detail what goes on when
Raspberry Pi Help section, you turn on a computer. It
Price:
Free
FutureLearn has you covered.
Understanding Computer
covers booting up, hardware
and software systems, input
reading
magpi.cc/
computersystems
Systems is developed by
Raspberry Pi and supported by
and output, and the history
and function of operating
on Debian
systems. It’s even accredited
by CPD Certified so you can Read these books to
prove you’ve learned the get an understanding
information. There’s a follow- of Debian
up course that covers computer
architecture, binary logic,
and data processing if you
want to get under the hood of
computer science.

The Official Raspberry Pi

Beginner’s Guide 4th Edition
Gareth The Official Raspberry Pi the installation of Raspberry
CREATOR

Halfacree Beginners Guide book has Pi OS, and working with THE DEBIAN
always been a fantastic book. the graphical interface and ADMINISTRATOR’S
Price:
£10
This official guide has 252 pages command-line environment. HANDBOOK
of information about Raspberry Plus, this book also features The official source on all things
magpi.cc/
beginnersguide4
Pi computing, and the all of those aspects that make Debian. This book is available
4th Edition is fully Raspberry Pi special: projects, as a free download, or you can
updated for the brand electronic components, using purchase a print edition copy.
new Raspberry Pi 400. Raspberry Pi GPIO pins, and debian-handbook.info
It takes you through much more.
THE LINUX BIBLE
When we say complete,
we mean it. This is the
most comprehensive Linux
resource around.
magpi.cc/linuxbible

LINUX POCKET GUIDE

This comprehensive guide
provides critical information
in as compact a form as
possible. With information
sorted by function, it’s handy to
keep around.
magpi.cc/linuxpocketguide

Learn Raspberry Pi OS magpi.cc 87

 INTERVIEW

Amit Rana
An engineer turned trainer and teacher, Amit transitioned
from helping college students to students of all ages

> Name Amit Rana > Occupation Trainer and consultant

> Community role Educator > url kitflix.com

A
mit Rana didn’t have the start a training centre.” In What kind of things do
usual path into teaching. the beginning, he was mostly you teach?
Graduating in 2008 teaching engineering students, I mostly teach Internet of
with a master’s in Electronic training them with practical Things, embedded systems and
Engineering, he had to wait hands on with microcontrollers PCB design. I use Raspberry Pi,
a year for his job to start. and Raspberry Pi. Azure IoT Hub, AWS IoT Core,
During that time, he started “Slowly we started conducting AVR / ARM7 microcontrollers,
working as a lecturer for an training for school students, PIC microcontrollers, and EAGLE
engineering college. teaching them how to build and KiCad for PCB design.
“This developed my interest robots, how to make apps
in the teaching industry,” he using App Inventor, Python How did you find out about
Originally, Amit trained tells us. “After quitting my programming, and Arduino,” Raspberry Pi?
older students, but
job quite early in my career, Amit says. “For a couple of years When Raspberry Pi was to be
he’s since trained
schoolchildren the first thing I did was to we also ran a Code Club, which launched, I was getting
was an activity where we used to newsletters from element14 and
visit schools and teach Python had read a few posts on social
and HTML.” media, so I ordered it first thing
when it was launched in India. I
still have my first 256MB board
with big SD card slot, and it’s
working just fine.

What is Kitflix?
Kitflix is an e-learning website
which hosts online courses on
electronics, embedded systems,
IoT, and programming, using
recorded self-paced and live
online sessions.

How has Kitflix been received?

As said, I also had a training
institute (Vidya Robotics) which
is closed now. Kitflix is a brand

88 magpi.cc Amit Rana

 INTERVIEW

Amit’s training courses

cover IoT with Raspberry Pi
and microcontrollers

A robot built in a training

course – it uses a mix
of technology!

we chose for our online course

platform which sounds a little
 e have about
W
catchy. So far, we’re doing good:
we have more than 17,200
1000 visitors
students across 150 countries for each day to
our online courses through
Kitflix and other partner sites, our website
like Skillshare and Udemy. And
we have about 1000 visitors each
day to our website. Anything else you’d like
to add?
Any student success stories I am a person passionate towards
you can share? spreading the education in
There are many. Some of them electronics, embedded systems,
are listed on our home page and IoT, which is a field often
(kitflix.com). Many of my considered [to be] under the
students are now working in a umbrella of IT skills, but still
variety of industries across the it’s excessively big and all-
globe. Many went on for higher encompassing. My vision
education in countries abroad; is to create a kind of ‘Khan
many are working for elite Academy’ for electronics and Amit also used to run a
institutes, like IIT, in India. programming education. Code Club

Amit Rana magpi.cc 89

 THIS MONTH IN RASPBERRY PI

This Month in
Raspberry Pi
MagPi Monday
Amazing projects direct from our Twitter!

E
01
very Monday we ask the question: have you
made something with a Raspberry Pi over
the weekend? Every Monday, our followers
send us amazing photos and videos of the things
they’ve made.
Here’s a selection of some of the awesome things
we got sent this month – and remember to follow
along at the hashtag #MagPiMonday!!

01. 
It’s always nice to see people still using the
ol’ AIY projects kit from issue 57
02. Halloween occurred during the production
of this magazine, so we got to see some
fun spooky builds
03. 
We like the simplicity of this
Halloween project 02
04. Jitesh has been updating us with cool
videos of their web-controlled robot
05. 3D scanners always seem like dark tech
magic, but we appreciate that they’re fun
to make
06. Upgrading a 26-year-old project is very
cool in our book
07. These 3D-printed cases are really nice, and
great for specific environments
08. This solar-powered robot remains a
mystery to us. What does it do? Is it
actually called Solarboi?

90 magpi.cc MagPi Monday

 THIS MONTH IN RASPBERRY PI

03

04

05
06

07

08

MagPi Monday magpi.cc 91

 THIS MONTH IN RASPBERRY PI

Best of the rest!

A bumper-sized best of the rest section to fit in everything from this month

RASPBERRY PI IMAGE MANAGER RASPBERRY PI VIRTUAL KEYBOARD

Benn emailed us about his project called sdm (magpi.cc/sdm) KeyMusician is software that lets you play a virtual (musical instrument)
which is a tool for creating custom versions of Raspberry Pi OS with keyboard with your (computer typing) keyboard. Aere emailed us about
all the localisation and security settings you’d want to edit, along how they’d been testing it on Raspberry Pi 4 with great results. You can
with extra software installed. find the full guide here: magpi.cc/keymusician.

It requires you to be running Linux, but it will copy relevant location “After downloading the KMK Debian package (installer), I installed it using
and connection settings from your current system and update the the system default package installer with no problems, along with the
packages on the image. You’ll be able to write to a microSD card normal dependencies,” Aere writes. “Running KMK the first time, out-of-
immediately from here, or you can do more customisation – see the the-box, worked fine, with no problems and no audio glitches.”
GitHub page for more details. He has some upgrade ideas in the article as well.

magpi.cc/sdm magpi.cc/keymusician

BMO PAINT WITH LEDS

This BMO from cartoon Adventure Time was 3D-printed and runs
on a Raspberry Pi 4! “They currently run the DIY Hue Sync, Audio
Sync, and General LED Control of my room,” says reddit user Using an old iPad, a Raspberry Pi, and an LED matrix, reddit user
huragok_in_disguise. Gorse212 created this very cool, interactive painting app.

magpi.cc/bmopi magpi.cc/ledpaint

92 magpi.cc Best of the rest!

 THIS MONTH IN RASPBERRY PI

Crowdfund this! Raspberry Pi projects you

can crowdfund this month

CROWD
A PROFJUNDING
If you
ECT?
’ve launc
Raspb hed a
erry P
projec i-relate
t, let u d
magp s know
i@ raspb !
errypi.
c om

Clover drone PiZ-SuperCap

The ‘Cap’ part of the title is a multilayered pun: Cap
This drone is powered by a Raspberry Pi, which means being like HAT and short for capacitor. Very nice. It
it’s extremely hackable and customisable. In fact, that’s acts a bit like an uninterruptible power supply so that
the angle for this on the Kickstarter campaign, boasting if your Raspberry Pi Zero loses power, this will keep it
how it can be modified and used for aerial photography going for a bit. 15 seconds, apparently. It can help with
and cargo delivery, etc. reducing microSD card corruption.

kck.st/36uEg9c kck.st/3oKX9Mb
 YOUR LETTERS

Your
Letters
Multiple shutdown
I saw the letter in the magazine from Jonathan.
[Ed – from issue 84.] A great solution for those who need a laptop
version of Raspberry Pi
This will run "init 0" on everything in ${LIST}:

#!/bin/bash Laptop Pi
LIST="192.168.1.101 192.168.1.102 ..."
for RPI in ${LIST} I wish to buy a Raspberry Pi system that I can
do use as a laptop, primarily indoors at home.
If you’re an educator ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o I have read much of the documentation
who teaches computing, TCPKeepAlive=yes -o ConnectTimeout=10 -l root and articles on the subject, but would much
then you may be
interested in our sister ${RPI} "init 0;" 2>&1 appreciate your advice on the following points:
magazine Hello World done I want a Raspberry Pi set up like a laptop,
(helloworld.cc)
i.e. all-in-one motherboard plus screen, plus
I use a longer version of this to perform all kinds keyboard, plus batteries as one unit.
of tasks to update medical practice management How can the screen be incorporated into the
systems every week. The key is to have your local device so that it works like a laptop, i.e. not as
SSH public key installed in all of the Raspberry a separate unit, so that I can use Raspberry Pi
Pis’ /root/.ssh/authorized_keys. on my lap?
What is the best battery pack which will
Larry via email integrate into the unit so that I don't have two
items to carry instead of one?
Jonathan was originally asking about running Are there any packages which will fulfil all
scripts at boot. However, we appreciate getting my above requirements?
this letter as telling multiple Raspberry Pi to shut
down is something we’ll need sooner or later. Peter via email
If anyone else has any other automated, simple
tasks they use, we’d love to hear. There are two options we think fit this best. First
of all, our Build a Laptop feature from issue 74
(magpi.cc/74) has a great guide on creating your

Contact us! own personal laptop using a Raspberry Pi.

As you’ve mentioned you’re a beginner,
though, perhaps a pi-top (pi-top.com) might
> Twitter @TheMagPi be better suited to your needs – it’s an all-in-
> Facebook magpi.cc/facebook one laptop solution that comes pre-built, with
> Email magpi@raspberrypi.com keyboard, screen, and built-in battery as well.
> Online raspberrypi.org/forums It will allow you to learn all about Raspberry Pi
without having to go through extra setup.

94 magpi.cc Your Letters

 Homework assignments
I write homework assignments for
schoolchildren and teachers and parents. I
recently decided to use Raspberry Pi as my
new inspiration for what to write for reading
comprehension activities. I decided to
purchase a Raspberry Pi 400 and write about
my experiences as homework assignments. I
just thought I would let you know I am reading
past issues, and watching videos, and reading
books to prepare for my new computer
to arrive.
My dad was a mechanical engineer
working for the Department of Defense and
I know he did his own wiring for years. So
I want to make some projects to give me a
glimpse of what he used to do. I took my
first programming class at age twelve with
my grandma, so I would have a ride to the
other side of town. The streets were too busy

We’ve got your electronics

for me on my bike. Because I took that class
and enjoyed it, my dad bought us a family
computer that my mom, my brother, and
I all used for writing school papers. I also
typed out word searches for extra credit in an
covered
English class.
Fully configurable universal case
All programmers started as children, so
it is wonderful you support children using system to meet your design needs
computers for programming and engineering. You can customise every panel on the
Thank you for existing. Maybe some more
UCS enclosure range enabling you to
people in the United States of America will
join in on the fun to help keep everyone up create your own unique design easily.
and running. We are all part of one world. The Raspberry Pi version scored 8 out of
Children and parents are saying the kids
10 in a recent MagPi review.
don’t have enough to do. I have suggested
writing journals for daily writing and the Available in 2 colours, 4 sizes & 2 heights
Raspberry Pi hobby to keep them busy with with optional wall, desk & DIN rail
educational activities.
mounting adaptors

Janine via email

Janine sent us some examples of questions she
sets and they’re all excellent. We very much
appreciate you spreading Raspberry Pi and our For additional information call 0845 881 2222 or visit
magazine in this way, Janine. Hopefully the phoenixcontact.co.uk/UCS
free PDFs on the website will help with your
students as well!
 E-Learning with iiyama:
achieve more together

iiyama's smart 4K touchscreen series ProLite TExx03MIS

SHARE
enables teamwork without a PC. results.

YOUR VISION
In order to make the ProLite 03 Series the ideal solution for
meeting and classrooms, the most advanced components and
features have been combined. The large-format smart displays
use infrared 20-point touch technology, which offers a decisive
With the displays of the 03 Series, you can bring advantage compared to typical film overlays and touch substrates:
your visions to life interactively. The new models the display can be operated by several people at the same time
from IIYAMA enable seamless and effective teamwork and is not subject to wear and tear. Four millimeter thick safety
and effective results. glass doesn't give scratches a chance, regardless of whether it
is operated with the fingers or the supplied stylus pens.
Share, stream and edit your data from any device directly
on the screen and turn any team meeting or training In addition, the anti-glare screens score with their razor-sharp
into a simple, fast and hassle-free interactive session 4K display, brilliant colors and an excellent contrast ratio. Even
with the Android operating system, the integrated WiFi in suboptimal lighting conditions, content remains perfectly legible.
module and the ScreenSharePro App.
Technical hurdles were eliminated and tailor-made solutions were
Available in sizes 55”, 65", 75”, 86” and 98” integrated. Thanks to the WLAN module and iiWare 8.0, you don't
even need a PC to work together on a screen. The installed
software makes modern teamwork really easy. This includes a
digital whiteboard app, web browser, file manager with cloud
connection and WPS Office for Microsoft Office files. In addition,
via ScreensharePro, all content from external sources can be
transmitted wirelessly to the screen without tangled cables. In
short: iiyama’s devices of the 03 Series transform classic team
meetings and teaching units into interactive sessions that encourage
all participants to engage.

Find your match at www.iiyama.com

 NEXT MONTH
EDITORIAL
Editor
Lucy Hattersley
lucy@raspberrypi.com

Features Editor
Rob Zwetsloot
rob.zwetsloot@raspberrypi.com

Sub Editors
Phil King and Nicola King

ADVERTISING
Charlotte Milligan
charlotte.milligan@raspberrypi.com
+44 (0)7725 368887

DESIGN
criticalmedia.co.uk

Head of Design
Lee Allen

Designers
Sam Ribbits, James Legg

Illustrator
Sam Alder

CONTRIBUTORS
Mike Cook, David Crookes,
PJ Evans, Gareth Halfacree,
Rosemary Hattersley,
Dave Hazeldean, Nicola King,
KG Orphanides
ESSENTIAL PROJECTS FOR PUBLISHING
Publishing Director
THE NEW RASPBERRY PI 400 Russell Barnes
russell@raspberrypi.com

COMPUTER Director of Communications

Liz Upton

CEO
Eben Upton

DISTRIBUTION
Seymour Distribution Ltd
2 East Poultry Ave,
London EC1A 9PT
+44 (0)207 429 4000

SUBSCRIPTIONS
Unit 6 The Enterprise Centre
Kelvin Lane, Manor Royal,
Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 9PE
+44 (0)1293 312193
magpi.cc/subscribe

THE MAGPI #101 magpi@subscriptionhelpline.co.uk

ON SALE 17 DECEMBER This magazine is printed on paper sourced

from sustainable forests and the printer
operates an environmental management
system which has been assessed as
conforming to ISO 14001.

DON’T MISS OUT! The MagPi magazine is published by

Raspberry Pi (Trading) Ltd., Maurice Wilkes

magpi.cc/subscribe Building, St. John’s Innovation Park, Cowley

Road, Cambridge, CB4 0DS. The publisher,
editor, and contributors accept no
responsibility in respect of any omissions
or errors relating to goods, products, or
@TheMagPi services referred to or advertised in the
magazine. Except where otherwise noted,

Plus!
content in this magazine is licensed under
fb.com/MagPiMagazine a Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike
3.0 Unported
Projects for 2021 magpi@raspberrypi.com (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).
ISSN: 2051-9982.
 THE FINAL WORD

An education in computing
Raspberry Pi Press Publishing Director, Russell Barnes,
on milestones and recaptured youth…

A
s a publisher, there’s little But while I was trying to reverse- the next, Raspberry Pi was just
more satisfying than seeing engineer conversational bots, copy ‘there’. That was when the last few
one of your titles hit triple code listings, and understand how of paragraphs of my childhood found
figures. I’m super-proud of the pokes (cheats) worked in my favourite their perspective. I loved this stuff
magazine team, new and old, for games between classes, in them I was when I was a kid. As such, Raspberry
this achievement. While what being taught how to write letters and Pi clicked with me in really quite a
follows could be construed as the life organise simple data in a spreadsheet. profound way. After courting both
story nobody asked for, I hope my Eben and Liz to within an inch of
ramblings go some way to explaining Window of opportunity my life, a project to reimagine and
why the magazine and this milestone OK, fast-forward too many years relaunch a beloved community
means so much to me. to mention and it turns out that I magazine cropped up.
I was essentially one of the young write letters and organise data in For me it presented a genuine
people that fell through the computer spreadsheets as a full-time gig these opportunity to make a computing
education cracks that Eben often
speaks of when recounting the
humble beginnings of Raspberry Pi. I loved this stuff when I was a kid
The situation in my school wasn’t
completely dire – we had a computer days (so the education system didn’t magazine that I’d want to read cover-
room lined with systems and we completely drop the ball), but my to-cover. And not just old, paunchy
had computer classes, just not the frustration at the time was tangible me, but the younger, sleeker me
right type. and – starved of the encouragement too. Not many publishers get that
It was all the more frustrating my younger self yearned for – my love opportunity. Thanks for reading the
considering my tutor room – where of code-based computing withered magazine – here’s to another 100
we’d take register and congregate away. My window of opportunity to be issues of The MagPi.
between classes – was that very pulled into computing – as a child at
heaven of classic computers. I’d least – had passed.
Russell Barnes
AUTHOR

arrive early most mornings to load But then it happened. One minute
Wolfenstein from one of my floppy I was editing a now defunct Linux Russell is the Publishing Director of Raspberry
disks, or coax it to beep the Axel F and open-source magazine at a Pi Press, a part-time frustrated racing driver,
tune to the amusement of my peers, now defunct publishing company and full-time frustrating sci-fi bore.

among other things. on the south coast of England, and @another_russell

98 magpi.cc An education in computing

3 ISSUES FOR £10
+
FREE BOOK

magpi.cc/freebook
Subscribe to The MagPi, HackSpace magazine, or Custom PC. Your first three issues for £10, then our great value rolling subscription
afterwards. Includes a free voucher for one of five fantastic books at store.rpipress.cc/collections/latest-bookazines
UK only. Free delivery on everything.
 ...
ASP8£RftY Pl
MflMENTS