The MagPi

It’s 2023, and we’re off to a great start with a brand-new Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3 (page 36). Camera Module is a great way to add vision and image recognition to your projects, and the latest model is packed with new features to discover. A new Raspberry Pi product is also a great sign of things to come. Raspberry Pi’s Eben Upton has given us a supply chain update (page 8), and it’s good news. We’re already seeing lots of stock in stores and you should find it much easier to pick up projects and start that build this year. There are also some great new audio boards (page 10) that can be turned into pro sound systems, and other audiothemed projects. Hidden amongst the bevvy of new products is an amazing…

If you’ve tried to buy pretty much anything recently, you’ll realise that we are in the midst of a global supply chain crisis, affecting everything from cement and fence-posts to jewellery and clothing. Various aspects of this crisis have impacted our business, but persistent shortages of the semiconductor devices we use to build Raspberry Pi single-board computers and modules has been particularly challenging for us (and a lot of other tech businesses) to manage. Happy New Year As a thank-you to our army of very patient enthusiast customers, we’ve been able to set aside a little over a hundred thousand units, split across Zero W, 3A+ and the 2GB and 4GB variants of Raspberry Pi 4, for single-unit sales. These are flowing into the Approved Reseller channel now, and this is already…

Back in 2020, we welcomed the IQaudio family of hi-fi audio products into the Raspberry Pi family. This was the first and so far the only time we’ve acquired electronic products from someone else, rather than developing them ourselves. That we made an exception for IQaudio is a testament to what Gordon, Sharon, and Andrew had built together. The line-up offers you a lot of choice, depending on your preferences and use case. The $20 DAC+, our lowest-cost audio HAT, and $25 DAC Pro, our highest-fidelity HAT, are both designed for use with an external amp. Then there’s the $30 DigiAMP+ with an integrated amplifier on board, which together with a Raspberry Pi offers a complete hi-fi in an exceptionally compact package. Lastly there’s Codec Zero, a low-cost audio I/O board…

KiCad is a free, open-source suite of CAD tools for schematic capture and printed circuit board (PCB) design. It allows you to draw your electronic circuits in schematic form, using graphically represented components and wires, and then transfer this data into a PCB editor which is used to place the components and draw the copper tracks and vias (electronic connections) that join them. The tools know what is connected to what, and also what design rules must be followed (such as what is the smallest width of copper track you can and they help the designer make sure that the design is manufacturable. Once: a design is completed, the tool will spit out data that a PCB manufacturer can use to make a physical PCB. I have long been a fan of…

MAKER raspberryjamberlin.de Star Trek: Lower Decks is a surprisingly faithful The Next Generation-era Star Trek show with a few extra jokes thrown in - and because it’s set in that era, the familiar LCARS computer interface designed by Michael Okuda for Next Gen is seen throughout the show. This interface has been replicated a lot over the years, but this version is a little different. “Ritos is a website LCARS system based off of Star Trek: Lower Decks,” James Mitchell, creator of PiRitos, tells us. “It was created by meWho Rob (@meWho_System47). Basically, it is a pretty screensaver-type site for fans. PiRitos is the extension of the Ritos system, hosted on a Raspberry Pi and has some extra server-based features. For example, connecting to sensors and syncing red alert status to other connected…

MAKER magpi.cc/biomechstan Raspberry Pi always has the potential to put a spring in our step but, in the case of this project, it’s doing so in a literal sense. A research group at Stanford University has designed a robotic exoskeleton - an external frame that aims to support the body - with the aim of helping people with mobility impairments to walk and run more quickly. It’s worn over the lower leg like a boot, and it has the potential to be revolutionary. According to the team, exoskeletons of this nature, while proving effective in reducing the energy required to walk, tend to be expensive. They are also usually tethered which, as you can imagine, would be restrictive. The Stanford Biomechatronics Laboratory’s exoskeleton, however, is neither of those things. And much of that…