MORE ABOUT Raspberry Pi

Using the PiJuice from PiSupply you can use your Raspberry Pi without a mains power adapter. Or for a while anyway. It has been designed as a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) and can ride through several hours. The PiJuice is configured as a HAT for the Raspberry Pi and plugs without any problems onto the 40-pin RPi header.

Possibly due to a synergetic effect of crossbreeding a real stomper like the Raspberry Pi with the fine art of high-end audio design, the publications RPi High-end Audio DAC [1] and the subsequent Volume Control for RPi Audio DAC [2], were both raving successes. But with success come queries.As with any good audio DIY project disseminated through a publication on paper and/or online, users not only flock to buy the boards and play music, but in good engineering spirit also respond with useful feedback. Here is some — be warned, it goes at terrific speed.

The video chosen for you by Elektor TV this week describes the experimenter’s Google AI Voice Kit, with which Google attempts to put “his” intelligence to the service of voice communication between man and machine. One has to wonder about the deeper motives of Google’s “generosity” in this, but it is certainly worthy of our attention. A cardboard box to talk to Big Brother, now that’s unusual.

The pi-top [3] is an all-in-one portable solution in the shape of a kit that transforms a Raspberry Pi into a laptop computer with a 14” 1920 × 1080 high-resolution TFT display, a keyboard with mouse pad, and a battery. An RPi 3 model B+ is included. Read on to find out what you can do with the pi-top.

In a few minutes this video gives a summary of the differences (and similarities) between the 3B and 3B+ versions of the Raspberry Pi from the point of view of a reasonably well informed and hopefully impartial user. This information is often seen or heard, but to do a comparative test, with simultaneous starts of the two versions, is a real dogfight!

With the Raspberry Pi based Capturing-Remote-Controller you can record and transmit control codes of a remote controller based on both infrared and radio signals.

A Wide Area Network connects far remoted devices to the Internet through gateways. LoRa is such a subscription-free communication standard, supported by many companies. There is no overlap between LoRa and WiFi or Bluetooth. The latter have a very short range, LoRa a very narrow bandwidth. Since it is used mostly with sensors, the traffic can be slow and mainly unidirectional. LoRa also supports peer-to-peer communication.

We’ve had some surprises over the past several days. We learned about an anti-drone market — and it's big. We heard rumors that Qualcomm might drop its ARM-based server chip business. And the Wi-Fi alliance announced a standard that could soon give us new options for how we deploy our mesh router systems. Let’s review.

The new Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ contains a Cypress Semi CYW43455 chip, which can operate 802.11ac Wi-Fi at 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, as well as simultaneous Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Older Raspberry Pi’s used the firm’s CYW43438 802.11n 2.4-GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth combo. The RPi 3 Model B+ was designed after speaking with professional users, according to Farnell – which along with RS Components makes and distributes Raspberry Pi boards. “The 802.11ac transmissions enable superior network performance, faster downloads and better range,” claimed Cypress.

Distributor Farnell element14 has created a list of hardware and software products which they believe are highly relevant for teachers and educators. The latest Raspberry Pi 3 model B, Keysight instruments and 3D printers are key items suggested now to equip schools and colleges in the teaching of electronics, presumably in the UK.