Raspberry Pi Roundup - 15th February 2016

By Michael HorneFeb 15, 20160 comments

Analog

Alex has written a tutorial to show you how to use the MCP3008 analog-to-digital converter chip and sensors to display temperature readings. The tutorial features the use of the GPIO Zero library and I think this is the first practical example of the MCP3008 functionality I’ve seen, so it’s well worth taking a look. Read the tutorial and see the code here. Graphic: Alex Eames

Coding Evenings

Cat Lamin, who recently appeared on the big stage at the Bett conference during the TeachMeet (pictured), has announced lots of news surrounding Coding Evening, the brilliant initiative to bring together teachers and IT professionals and hobbyists. Here’s the roster of upcoming events:

Pi-Top Special Event Thursday 25th February
Southend Coding Evening Thursday 10th March
Peterborough Coding Evening Tuesday 15th March
West Berks Coding Evening Thursday 17th March
Twickenham Coding Evening Wednesday 23rd March

So, if you’re a teacher eager to learn about teaching computing or an IT professional or hobbyist willing to share their time and knowledge with these teachers, book onto one of these events.

You can read up about the events, and the initiative, by heading over the Coding Evening website.

Twitterbot

Trevor Appleton has written a really good walk-through tutorial on using the Twitter API and the tweepy Python library to send tweets out from your Pi.Take a look here.

Hot Tub!

Ted Hale has improved upon his Hot Tub Controller. The latest iteration is mounted directly next to the tub and does the following:

Monitor the water temperature
Turn a circulation pump and heater on to heat the water as needed
Respond to buttons that increase/decrease the desired temperature
Respond to buttons that turn the water jets on and off
Display the current temperature
Detect various failure modes and place system in safe modeListen for commands from a smart phone app to control hot tubUpload data periodically to an Internet of Things service