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Articles & Books From Sean McManus
A recipe for having fun and getting things done with the Raspberry Pi The Raspberry Pi makes it easy to learn about computers and computer programming, and Raspberry Pi For Dummies makes it even easier! Using this extremely affordable and compact computer, you can learn to code in languages like Scratch and Python, explore how electronics work, create computer-generated buildings in Minecraft and music in Sonic Pic, become Linux-savvy, make Internet-of-Things devices, or just play around!
Article / Updated 11-08-2017
The Raspberry Pi can play back full HD 1080p video, which makes it ideal as the heart of a cheap and low-powered media center. The NOOBS software includes two Linux distributions, both based on Kodi, that turn your Raspberry Pi into a media center. The choices are OSMC and LibreELEC.Because they’re both based on the Kodi core, they have many similarities.
Article / Updated 11-08-2017
There’s a new kid on the block when it comes to accessing the GPIO pins in Python on your Raspberry Pi: the GPIO Zero library. Don't confuse this with the Pi Zero — the two are not related. The GPIO Zero library takes the class method approach to control, as opposed to the function method approach of RPi.GPIO and other, similar libraries.
Article / Updated 11-08-2017
The Kodi screen on your Raspberry Pi looks like what you see here. LibreELEC uses Kodi’s simple interface, which is designed to work with only a remote control. If you’re using a remote control, you should find the interface intuitive. The main menu on the left and the empty library area on the right. This shows how Kodi appears before media is added.
Article / Updated 11-08-2017
Need to do some tweaking? You can change the settings on your Raspberry Pi easily enough. The cogwheel at the top of the main menu gives you access to the settings for Kodi, divided into several sections. They include, among others:
Player settings, covering options such as whether the next song or video plays automatically, whether there is cross-fading between songs, and the use of subtitles.
Article / Updated 11-08-2017
You can access GPIO pins on your Raspberry Pi with Python. Unlike Scratch's graphic-based program blocks, Python uses entirely text-based instructions. Its great power is that the basic Python language can be extended to do more things by the use of libraries. These are functions that can be written in Python or any other language to extend what Python can do.
Article / Updated 11-08-2017
You can use your Raspberry Pi to compose your own tunes or Sonic Pi can also use samples, which are snippets of music that you can manipulate, such as by changing their speed or adding effects to them. Sonic Pi includes a wide range of samples, and you can see a list of them by showing the Help pane and then using the Sample button in the bottom left.
Article / Updated 11-07-2017
Sonic Pi enables you to use proper note names instead of MIDI numbers to play music on the RaspberryPi by using the name of the note (a letter from A to G), plus the number of the octave it’s in.For example, to play a middle C, you can useplay :c4To play the B one note before it, which is in the next lowest octave, you would useplay :b3The Log shows that Sonic Pi plays notes 60 and 59 respectively.
Article / Updated 11-07-2017
There are basically two types of ready-made boards for the Raspberry Pi: those designed for making it easy to get access to the GPIO pins and those with components that have already been soldered up.Since the introduction of the Raspberry Pi in 2012, many companies have produced ready-made boards with all sorts of components already built on.
Article / Updated 11-07-2017
Your Raspberry Pi can perform all the tricks when it comes to music. One of the best features of Sonic Pi is the live loop, which enables you to change your music while it repeats.The following program modifies the previous example by turning it into a live loop and adding tempo (BPM is short for beats per minute), synth, and option choices.