Raspberry Pi Roundup - 26th June 2015

Pi Wars

Following the success of last year’s event, the Pi Wars team have announced that there will, indeed, be a Pi Wars 2015! The exact date and venue have yet to be confirmed, but it is expected to be in early December in Cambridge, UK.

The announcement was made at the recent Cambridge Raspberry Jam by Michael Horne and Tim Richardson. You can see a video of the announcement here:

More details, including a list of this year’s challenges, are available on the Pi Wars website.

Here are the important dates:

• Register your team– 1st July-1st August
• Final teams selected– 14th August
• Competition rules finalised – 1st September

More information, such as general rules, will be made available this week on the Pi Wars website. You might want to sign up for the mailing list to get notifications of updates.

Skycademy

The Foundation is running a two-and-a-half day free CPD session for teachers and anyone who works with youngsters (such as scout leaders etc) on the subject of High Altitude Ballooning. The event, which runs from 24th-26th of August, will enable groups of individuals to come together to learn about HAB, plan their project and then actually launch a payload. More information, including how to apply, can be found on the Foundation blog.

Cube

Young Jacob from Coventry Makerspace has taken 27 LEDs and soldered them together as a cube. He’s then hooked up each of the 9 columns of LEDs to GPIO pins and also to ground, via transistors. The transistors are also hooked up to GPIO pins in rows so that by combining the columns and rows you can ‘address’ each LED individually. You should use resistors with the LEDs if you replicate it, to prevent them from drawing too much power from the Pi. Read it here.