Your free copy of The MagPi, the magazine created by the Raspberry Pi community, is available from today.

This month’s cover star is the camera board; there’s an article from our very own JamesH, who has contributed a huge amount of work to the development of the board, and talks new users through the device. (He’s also extremely modest, and seems to have written the whole thing without mentioning that he worked on it, let alone that we simply wouldn’t have a camera board without him.) JamesH will continue with a second piece on the camera board next month, with more advanced users in mind; if you follow what he’s writing about this month you should be well-prepared for August’s article! I have promised James his choice of drinks for the evening later this week to thank him for all the work on this article – if you’ve got questions for him, leave them below and I’ll pass them on.

There’s lots of hardware besides the camera board to talk about this month: you’ll find a beginner’s tutorial using Python on the Pi to control the famously inexpensive Maplin robot arm, which makes a great starter project for budding roboticists wanting to get their heads around some of the basic concepts of physical computing. For advanced users, there’s the first part of a new input/output processor project, and Derek Campbell walks you through building your own Guzunty, a DIY expansion board. If you built the Pi Matrix from an earlier issue, you’ll learn more about controlling the individual LEDs as well as columns and lines of lights.

If you’re interested in setting up a Raspberry Pi event for families, there’s a article from Dr Mike Bartley and Caroline Higgins, who set up the Bristol Raspberry Pi Boot Camp. The Boot Camps are becoming very popular; there are events of all kinds popping up now, with Raspberry Jams, Raspberry Pint meetups, and much more, so you’re bound to be able to find a template that suits you if you fancy organising something yourself.

On the software side, there’s a continuation of the Charm tutorials, a piece on Java for beginners, and more advanced Python.

This is a packed issue; our huge thanks, as usual, to the MagPi team, who are all volunteers. Congratulations are also due to the MagPi folk for getting their binders full of the first year’s magazines out to their Kickstarter supporters; we’ve got a few of the binders in the office, and they’re really professional-looking bits of kit.

And please check out the ad on page 20; when you buy swag from us, you’re donating directly to the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and helping us to train teachers, and get Pis and learning materials into the hands of kids.