Do more with your Raspberry Pi with Raspberry Pi Projects for Dummies
With all the choices you have, it’s not always easy to figure out what you want to do with a Raspberry Pi once you have one. Some people may have a purpose in mind, whether it’s a simple utility or a ridiculous robot; however, if you’re not sure what you want to do with it, the sheer range of possibilities can be paralysing. It’s like how sitting down to watch some Netflix can result in ten minutes of indecision before settling on Pokémon again.
Raspberry Pi Projects for Dummies is a great start. With lots of projects to choose from and try out, it’s great for supplying some inspiration and direction for how you want to learn with Raspberry Pi. As a Dummies book, it does begin by letting you know exactly what the Raspberry Pi is and the basics of how to use it. While not as comprehensive as other guides in that respect, it’s still a good start.
There are some LEGO tutorials that make use of the BrickPi
The rest of the book is hardly dumbed down, though. With some real hardware projects to dig into, you’ll be breaking out your components catalogue and soldering iron very quickly to make games inside empty ketchup bottles, interactive light boards, Breakout clones, and even cloud-based sensors with live data logging.
If you have some LEGO Mindstorms lying around, there are plenty of projects that integrate the Raspberry Pi with LEGO’s robotics platform. There’s even a section on how to do some physical computing with the often overlooked RISC OS on Pi.
With all this and more, it’s a good second book to have on top of another guide to Raspberry Pi for beginners, whether it be articles from The MagPi or the original Raspberry Pi for Dummies book. You can grab it from Amazon with Prime delivery now.
See you next time!
14 comments
ghodan
Your profile pic (and Eben’s profile pic) in what profile pic generator are they made in?
Helen Lynn
Those are from the Sam Alder app. It’s really powerful ;-)
L Welsh
Looks like a good addition to the Pi literature. Feeling queasy about the two direct links to Amazon and the endorsement of their paid for Prime service though. Was this a conscious decision to promote Amazon, or just an unthinking reflex in pursuit of the path of least resistance? Perhaps a better policy would be to link to the publisher’s website, or better yet, some of the myriad independent retailers that support the Pi community. Perhaps everyone else is totally comfortable with Amazon and its business practices, and I’m just an old fashioned curmudgeon.
Rob Zwetsloot
Ah, just unthinking reflex
L Welsh
Well, that’s ok! And tho’ I’m not really wishing to chide, raspberrypi.org is now very powerful, with a long reach, and a massive audience, as you know! And with great power comes …….
Toby
I need to install ffmpeg on my raspberry pi a+ for the infrared bird box on the raspberry pi resources (not working please help)
paddyg
@Toby, I’ve put ffmpeg on a couple of Raspberry Pis and had to compile it to get it fully functional (aka fast) I followed Owen Ashurst’s instructions here http://owenashurst.com/?p=242 The last time I did it some of the links were a bit out of date but there are comments (by me and other users) at the bottom.
Toby
Does it work with a+?
Shannon
Hey, now! My robot’s not ridiculous… It’s just grown “organically” into its current form. Hey! I checked that book out from the library not that long ago. Time to kick back and give it another read with a cup of “Earl Grey, Hot”. (If someone could invent a way to have the Pi brew the tea, I’d be set.)
Rob Zwetsloot
… yeah OK I’m actually now totally up for making that
skspurling
maker.io pi zero contest project? Voice controlled tea brewer in the form of a TNG replicator?
Leo
Bit concerned looking inside the book on Amazon, it seems to feature the Old models A & B with 26 pin GPIO.
How up to date is it?
Rob Zwetsloot
Ah yeah it has the pictures of them but the text recognises there are new Raspberry Pi’s, and covers them a little later. For what they do in the book, it doesn’t really matter which Pi you use.
pd
I’d like to do more with MORE units but I can’t!
Why is supply of the Pi 2 months behind demand in Australia?
Is it prioritizing the Pi Zero over other models?
Have the Pi Zero and recent additions like he compute unit taken manufacturing capacity away from other models?
I’d post this question elsewhere but I really don’t know where it should go.
I order Pi 2 units in January. Element14 happily took my money yet failed to deliver the actual Raspis but rather jsut the accesories. The delivery note says STOCK AVL WEEK COM 28/03/16.
Meanwhile I’m twiddling my thumbs!
What are Sony Wales doing?