Raspberry Pi Roundup - an animated weather lamp, a parking assistance device and a grandfather clock bar

Weather Lamp

Gosse Adema has created a 12-inch high 3D-printed lamp that tells you the weather forecast. He has used 288 WS2812 addressable LEDs to achieve a stunning effect which combines to tell you the temperature (vertically from blue to red) and other conditions such as rain and wind which are achieved using droplets falling from the top to the bottom, or a sideways movement. The software is written in Python on a Raspberry Pi Zero W.

He’s written the whole thing up as an Instructable, with bill of materials, and you can follow along here.

Parking Assist

Andy Felong needs a bit of assistance when parking in his garage because there’s a ladder sticking out just in the wrong place. A typical bodge-it solution would be to hang a tennis ball from the ceiling so that it touches the car’s glass before a collision occurs. However, Andy decided he wanted a digital solution. So, he took a Raspberry Pi and hooked it up to a USB distance sensor. He then had the Pi audibly inform him the distance between the sensor and the car. He’s done some nifty programming to detect whether the car is moving, or whether it’s stationary. He’s written it all up on his blog which you can read here.

Old (Grand)Father Time

Robert Prest has used a grandfather clock to house his latest project: a Bar Clock. The automated system can pour drinks with up to four spirits and four mixers and is controllable using voice, web GUI or keyboard. The platform onto which you place your glass is belt-driven and comes out via a spring-loaded door. Peristaltic pumps control the flow of the spirits while taps are opened via servos for the mixers. There’s a Raspberry Pi doing all the robotic control with an Arduino to switch on the lighting. You can see a quick run-through of a cocktail being made in the video below.