Raspberry Pi Roundup - LED matrix starfield, the Guild of Makers launch event and the Coolest Projects event for youngsters

Starfield

Instructables user ‘dearner’ has taken a Raspberry Pi, four 32×32 RGB LED matrix boards, an Adafruit RGB matrix HAT, a good extra power supply for the matrices and some smaller parts and created a long LED display. He’s then created some software to generate the starfield effect and put it on the Pi. The effect (which you can see below) is strangely beautiful. The whole thing is written up as a tutorial which you can see here. Beware: some of the inline Python code is not indented, so you might need to figure that out for yourself.

You can see the starfield in action below:

Guild of Makers launch event - 16th March

Dr Lucy Rogers, of Robot Wars fame and founder of the Guild of Makers, has been in touch. Next Friday (16th March), the Guild is holding their launch event at Autodesk in Birmingham. If any of you consider yourselves ‘Makers’, this is a great event to go to, and a great initiative to get involved with.

If you’d like to attend, you can get tickets from WebCollect. The good news is that due to donations and sponsorship, there are 5 tickets to the event available for free if you’re unable to afford it but wish to attend. To find out if any are still available, DM Dr Lucy Rogers on Twitter.

More about the Guild of Makers

If you’ve not heard of the Guild, or need a refresher, keep on reading!

The Guild has the following mission:

To promote growth of the Maker Industry by celebrating & encouraging excellence & by supporting professional Makers and those aspiring to be.

It’s aims are as follows:

• Promote and celebrate excellence in Makers to industry and the public
• Bring together skilled Makers who:
  • share ideas
  • share values
  • share ideals
  • are willing to help other by being open, supportive, positive and constructive at all time
  • are willing to learn from others

The Guild of Makers is a membership organisation and offers:

• Networking face-to-face with people who share the same values and aims of professionalism and excellence
• Networking virtually with people who share the same values and aims of professionalism and excellence
• Support and guidance from other Makers
• Reduced charges for advice, services and/or goods from Maker-friendly companies
• Personalised web pages within the Guild website for full commercial sponsors
• Discount on Guild of Makers events as advised when events are publicised.
• Opportunity to appear in Show and Tell sessions at events and within online elements of the Guild
• Electronic newsletter with a focus on inspirational and innovative makers
• Directory of Makers – a page per member:
  • Links to member’s websites and social media accounts
  • Sharing of members and Guild photographs and video
• (tbc) Accreditation by peers, helping individuals to gain contracts in industry
• (tbc) A brokerage to match individual Makers with industries with requirements
• (tbc) A voice for the Maker Industry

More about the launch event

Speakers at the launch event will be as follows:

• Andy Stanford-Clark, CTO UK and Ireland, IBM,
• Pete Wood, Head Technology Evangelist, RS Components
• Rebecca Steiner, School of Jewellery, Birmingham City University

The event also sports workshops in the afternoon and you can find more info about those here.

So, once again, if you’d like to get tickets, visit WebCollect or DM Dr Lucy Rogers about those 5 free tickets.

Coolest Projects

The Raspberry Pi Foundation and CoderDojo are holding a special event for young people (under 18s only) – it’s called Coolest Projects. From the website:

Coolest Projects is a world-leading annual showcase that empowers and inspires the next generation of digital creators, innovators, changemakers, and entrepreneurs. Young people across the whole Raspberry Pi community, from Dojos, Code Clubs, and Raspberry Jams come to the event to exhibit the cool ideas they have been working on throughout the year.

Coolest Projects will take place at Here East on the Olympic Park from 10am-6pm on Saturday 28th April 2018 and sports free entry all day for ticket holders.

So, if you have a project or a make you’ve been working on and would like to show it off, and you’re 17 or under, head over to Eventbrite to book your ticket or visit the Coolest Projects UK website to find out more.

Here are some highlights from the 2017 flagship event: