Les Pounder

microbit monday

micro:bit Monday - Scroll:Bit

This week I would open with a meme such as "They see me scrollin' they hatin'" but that would ultimately lead to me travelling back in time to 2006 when that meme was popular.. Instead lets take a look at another add on board for the

maplin

Using a Displaylink USB3 to HDMI display adaptor with Ubuntu 18.04

phew that title is long and boring... Also from Maplin a USB3 display adapter to HDMI for £8 (was £65!) pic.twitter.com/UgNHY6CSUM — biglesp (@biglesp) May 27, 2018 So I popped in to Maplin, the long standing UK electronics retailer which is sadly closing down, and something caught my

fridayfun

Friday Fun: Being a complete Hidiot!

All it took was to tidy my desk... Back in December 2017 RawHex sent me a Hidiot kit, as they knew of my love for the ATtiny85. (Sorry about the delay RawHex...) All three of these boards use an ATtiny85. From L - R Digistamp, Adafruit Gemma, Generic ATtiny85 clone

microbit monday

micro:bit Monday - pin:bit

This time we head over to Sheffield-on-the-sea to learn about a new product from the Pirates at Pimoroni So what is it? pin:bit is a micro:bit to breadboard breakout board. So you can use cheap / plentiful standard electronic components with the micro:bit without lots of crocodile clips.

micro python

Friday Fun: Adafruit Gemma M0 and Neopixels

Friday Fun has been away for three months! Have I been sat around watching TV? Yes....I mean no, I've been busy with work. But I'm back and this time its a personal project...! */me pauses for laughs* Meet Gemma M0 Last week I was in

tuesdaytooling

Tuesday Tooling - USB Soldering Iron

This is the long awaited review of something that I take for granted...soldering irons. But this one is a little different, it runs from USB power! So what is it? A USB powered "8W" soldering iron... A What? You read that right, this soldering iron is powered

microbit monday

micro:bit Monday - Kitronik Motor Driver Board

Another Monday...another cool micro:bit add on, and this week we have the Kitronik Motor Driver Board...from errr Kitronik Robots are cool... There I said it! But did you know how easy it is to build your first robot? There is a phrase that I have used for

microbit

micro:bit Monday - zbit:toolbelt

Welcome to Monday, new week, spring is here and I thought that I would try out something new. So micro:bit Monday, a semi regular series where I look at an add on, accessory, software for the micro:bit. First up is the zbit:toolbelt. So what is it? The

tuesdaytooling

Tuesday Tooling - Create GUIs for BASH Scripts

This week a handy GUI creation tool for your BASH scripts ![] So what is it? Zenity is a tool that wraps BASH scripts and terminal commands in a lovely graphical user interface. So we have input dialogs, information / warning dialogs, calendars, file open / save dialogs..etc etc. Why do I

tuesdaytooling

Tuesday Tooling - Python Webbrowser

This week a handy Python library that enables us to open a web browser! So what is it? Webbrowser is a Pythonic way to open a web browser on any operating system. Can't I just use subprocess / popen / something else? Sure you can, but using webbrowser we have

kits

All the gear...and lots of ideas!

In mid 2017 I was posed a unique challenge "Would you be interested in creating a Raspberry Pi Zero W based kit?" Obviously I jumped at the chance and here it is! Getting You Started with Raspberry Pi Zero W Kit - MLK001 This kit is based around

fridayfun

Friday Fun: DIY Harry Potter Animated Frame

JK Rowling's Harry Potter is famous the world over, and in her world of wizards, witches and sorcery we have little details that make the world rich with magic and mystery. One of the little details are the animated newspapers and posters dotted around the world. They turn

tuesdaytooling

Tuesday Tooling: Teeny Tiny ATtiny85

A hardware themed Tuesday Tooling this week! So what is it? A tiny microcontroller that is compatible with the Arduino IDE. It comes in many different forms, some connect via micro USB, some direct into your USB port. This version of the ATtiny85 is a clone board connects via micro

Linux

NTP FYI

NTP, Network Time Protocol is the theme of today's post! This isn't the be all and end all, font of all knowledge blog post. Rather an aide memoir. What is NTP? Network Time Protocol (NTP) is a networking protocol for clock synchronization between computer systems over

tuesdaytooling

Tuesday Tooling: Animated GIFs and Code Snippets FTW

Tuesday tooling is back! Sorry for the short break! Scenario 1: Everyone loves a cool animated GIF, and you need to record the steps taken to perform a certain task or action and you would like to save them as a GIF! Solution: For Linux I'm recording Peek,

microbit

Artists, makers, musicians...lend me your ears! Hackpool

Idea! In 2017 I had an idea, and I tried to make it real, but I encountered lots of obstacles. What was my original idea? I'd like to offer a FREE micro:bit workshop for artists / makers / musicians! But why? The micro:bit project has a similar goal

pijuice

PiJuice Review

Recently (ok it was November 2017...end of the year is always busy for a magazine journalist) Pi Supply sent me a PiJuice to play with. Disclaimer Yes Pi Supply sent me this unit free of charge as a loan device. I have not been asked to edit or alter

christmas

Traditional Christmas Neopixel Project 2017 Node-RED Edition!

Get a coffee, put your feet up as this is a long one! A short time ago...in a street not so far away.... For 2016 I decorated our window with lots of neopixels Neopixel Christmas lights! pic.twitter.com/Rdyx47I8HI — biglesp (@biglesp) December 10, 2016 But for 2017 I

arduino

Friday Fun: Hacking a Toy Car With 4Duino

Disclaimer: These boards were provided by 4tronix for the purpose of the blog post. This isn't a "review" as such, but you can be assured that the comments that I make are not influenced in any way. I will point out the good and bad openly

tuesdaytooling

Tuesday Tooling: Making Bluetooth Connections From The Terminal

Yes this is the late edition of Tuesday Tooling...I've been on holiday Scenario: You're connected to your Raspberry Pi / Pocket Chip / Single Board Computer via a terminal session, but you would really like to use a Bluetooth device...no fancy GUI can help us now!

christmas

Invent:Advent

Ho Ho Ho Hacky Christmas! Invent:Advent is an accessible, fun and cost effective hack. Join us in creating new invention using components and stock from pound shops (such as Poundland or Poundworld). The theme for this hack is Christmas, and pound shops have a lot of cool stuff that

tuesdaytooling

Tuesday Tooling: Pastebinit

This week's Tuesday Tooling is a terminal application that can save you time and sanity by sending text to a pastebin. So what is it called? Pastebinit Where can I find it? It is on Launchpad Who made it? Pastebinit is currently written by Stephane Graber. What can

fridayfun

Friday Fun: Get Notifications On Your Desktop

Bit of a personal project this week, created to meet a specific need, but it contains some useful Python libraries for creating notifications and parsing RSS feeds. So I spend a lot of time researching, reading and looking for the latest news, mainly Raspberry Pi news because we all know

tuesdaytooling

Tuesday Tooling: Record / Replay Keystrokes With Python

For this weeks Tuesday Tooling we take a look at a Python library that offers to simulate and record keyboard input! So what is it called? Keyboard : Record and simulate keyboard events on Windows and Linux. Where can I find it? You can find it on pypi Who made it?

fridayfun

Friday Fun: Bluedot Presentation Tool

Presentations...fun aren't they? For the serious presenter a "clicker" remote is a must! You know what I mean, the person at the front, wielding the power of the presentation using a clicker to advance the slides. But clickers aren't cheap, and for most