Diving Deeper into Raspberry Pi

After a lot of trial and error, my Raspberry Pi 3 and Pi Zero are both up and running on wifi.  The biggest obstacle ended up being that our router was using a WEP key instead of a WAP key. While I don't fully understand how these differ, the router was the root of my difficulty.  I originally attempted to change the pi's configuration with code, but I was unsuccessful.

After changing a setting on the router itself (from WEP to WAP), writing a clean image of Raspian (via NOOBS), followed by running updates (via Ethernet), was enough to work on my Pi3.





I used the following updates:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade -y
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -y
sudo rpi-update

Afterwards, I rebooted the Pi, took out the Ethnernet cable, and re-typed my wifi key.

While I wasn't able to directly replicate these results using the Pi Zero on its own, moving the SD card from my Pi3 to the Pi Zero did the trick.

Being new to Raspberry Pi, I'm excited that I've gotten this far.  It's challenging to wade through all of the information available online, because so much of it is outdated or too complex.

At this point, I know enough to be dangerous.

For example, I can use sample code to make a Pimoroni Scroll Phat blink.

E-textile Fun: Sound Reactive Hat

Flora Sound Reactive Hat

I just put the finishing touches on a sound reactive hat that uses a Flora, a tiny microphone, and surface mountable RGB LEDs. This project is an adaptation of Lina Wassong's Sound Reactive Equalizer Skirt, shared on Instructables under a Creative Commons (CC BY NC SA) license. This is a perfect party hat.

Lessons Learned:

1.  I love Adafruit silicone stranded-core wire!
2.  Soldering RBG LEDs is tedious.
3.  A glue gun is a great tool for strengthening solder joints and diffusing light.
4.  Hand held rivet pliers may be harder to work with than standard spot setters.

I used a leather punch and a hand rivet fastener.

The Flora and a microphone are hidden inside the hat.

I went a little crazy with the glue gun!

Adding Creative Commons Video Footage to DoInk Videos

I've recently had people asking how to get Creative Commons licensed video footage downloaded, for use with the DoInk Green Screen app on their iPads.  I haven't had time to create a screencast or attractive visual that answers the question, but here is one process that has worked well for me. I'll be posting a Job Aid here within the next few weeks.

1.  Go to https://search.creativecommons.org

2.  Type in a search term for the background you seek (ex. Ocean)

3.  Uncheck the box for "commercial use" and leave the box checked for "modify, adapt, build upon"

4.  On the right, toggle advanced settings and uncheck the box next to "Photos," while leaving "Videos" checked.

5.  IMPORTANT:  On the left, next to "Safe Search On," toggle the left-most arrow to select one of the following:  

•   Modifications Allowed
•   No Known Copyright Restrictions or 
•   US Government Works

6.  View footage with the play arrows.  

7.  Click on a video to select it.  Scroll down to view and jot down the attribution information (or use the ImageCodr or Flickr CC Attribution tools to generate an attribution that you can add to your video).

8,  When you find footage with the Creative Commons license you want, select the download symbol (a downward pointing arrow) on the right and save the video to your PC. 

9.  Convert the file to a .mov  (I'm not sure why the .mp4 format was not working in the DoInk app on my iPad, since it is a supported format, but it wasn't).

10.  Upload the .mov file to Google Drive or DropBox.  From there, you can open the video directly from the DoInk Green Screen app by selecting the "video" option (the icon of a filmstrip), "locations," and either Google Drive or Drop Box. 

Transmediated Story-Telling

A friend and I are currently teaching students about transmediation as part of a research project we are working on. The basic idea is to see how students engage with the writing process, if they are allowed to create prototypes of their narratives using more than just text.

We've been playing around with a few tools that are age-appropriate for students under 13, including Scratch, PiZap, Pixlr, PowToon, ThingLink, DoInk Animation and Drawing, and Piktochart. Here are few examples I made using a story I wrote a few years ago.

Puttering with Raspberry Pi Zero

Today I took the plunge and got my Pi Zero up and running for the first time!  I haven't gotten it connected to wifi yet, but that's my next step.

First, I need to get a USB hub, because I don't have enough ports to accommodate a wireless keyboard and a mini wifi module.

Although I haven't created anything useful yet, I was able to create a silly Scratch program and experiment with Pi's version of Minecraft.  The biggest challenge, so far, has been using the tiny keyboard!

Thanks to a couple of blog posts by Lucie deLaBruere, I knew that I could hook the Pi up to a projector as a display output.

Since my projector was old, I needed to use an additional VGA to HDMI adapter, but it worked like a charm.

Lucie's advice to plug the projector in first and the power to Pi last allowed me to get up and running on the first attempt!

Light Blue Bean and Neopixels

Adding more than three neopixels may require the addition of a voltage regulator, 
a transistor, and resistors.

Using the Blue Bean app, I can control LEDs from an iPad.

I've been experimenting with neopixels, using a Gemma, an ATtiny85, and most recently the Light Blue Bean.  While I am most excited about the potential of the ATtiny85, because of its smaller size and cost, I am also intrigued by the idea of controlling a gadget wirelessly.

Using the code from the Smartphone Controlled Mood Light project, modified to accommodate fewer LEDs, I'm able to control the color of three neopixels soldered to wire. So far, I'm only able to change the color of all the neopixels at the same time, rather than being able to customize each one individually.

If I changed the code to accommodate two LEDs, I could use this to control two glowing eyes, which would be a much easier way to do this than the Evil LED Goat project.  If I wanted to be able to remotely change the color of a hat or other wearable, this could also be useful, although doing so seems like a waste of a $30+ microcontroller.

My next step is to try to modify the code to make use of the accelerometer and or the buzzer. While I like the idea of being able to change the color of a project remotely, I'm interested in using the Bean for something a bit more useful.  I have a lot more to learn first.

Running Neopixels on an ATtiny85

ATtiny85 controlling sewable neopixels

Today, I am learning how to use an ATtiny85 to program sewable neopixels, with the goal of moving toward using surface-mounted RGB LEDs in paper circuitry.  The reason that this is so exciting is because the ATtiny85 is an inexpensive, low-profile chip, making it useful for notebook hacking and art projects!  If I can figure out how to make this entire process happen on a Chromebook, it would be a huge breakthrough for classroom instruction.


At the time I was working on this project, there was still one step that required the use of a PC: the process of burning a boot loader/ changing the fuse timing on the ATtiny85.  To use neopixels, the ATtiny85 needs to run on an 8 Mhz internal clock, rather than the default of 1 Mhz. As of 11 January 2016, this issue has been fixed, making it incredibly easy to do this type of thing with students using Chromebooks!

Once I converted the chip to 8 Mhz, I was able to use CodeBender and a Chromebook to program it with neopixel sample code (with only a couple of small tweaks).

My next step was to see if I could apply this new learning to building a paper circuit with copper tape and surface mounted RGB LEDs.  The photos demonstrate a prototype using the surface mounted RGB LEDs soldered to wire!

Since I was able to get the LEDs to do what I wanted with wire, I am 100% convinced that this can be replicated with copper tape!  Stay tuned!

ATtiny85 controlling SMD RGB LEDs

Updated 19 Dec 15:
I've created my first paper circuit with neopixels!  To learn more, visit BlingtheBook.blogspot.com.