Project 366 #61: 010316 I Only Speak The Truth
I should start by saying that I didn't choose this text!
I mentioned yesterday that there was another soldering job, and this is the fruit of it.
'Fruit' is a good word to use, as this display is interfaced to a Raspberry Pi! They've had quite a week at the RPi foundation, as sales have now overtaken the Amstrad PCW and it's become the biggest selling British computer. They've also launched a new model this week, the Pi3, incorporating a more powerful 64 bit processor and very useful built in bluetooth and wifi.
Because these computers are so cheap, it's easy and affordable to embed them in devices.
One popular application is to use a pi to recreate a Squeezeplayer. I got into Squeezeplayers pretty much on the ground floor, owning two classic Slimp3 players from the original Slim Devices company. They're very beautiful and high quality network music players that allow you to access your local music library without firing up a computer.
Slim Devices evenutally got bought out by Logitech, and they've had to follow the market trend which is for streaming music from the internet rather than local servers. This means they make very nice internet radios and spotify players, but have essentially dropped the squeezeplayer line, much to the sadness of those with a lot of love for the system and a lot invested in it. This has resulted in original squeezeplayers going for stupid money that most people aren't prepared to pay.
Into the light steps the Raspberry Pi, which can masquerade as a squeezeplayer for about thirty quid. Score! The problem is that it needs to be controlled remotely (which is no problem if you're packing a phone) but it doesn't give any details about what you're playing unless you plug a monitor in. That's bulk and hassle that most people don't need for just a line or two of text. That's where we get into one of these.
This is a 2 line, 16 character LCD display with built in controller circuitry. It's backlit with a nice blue LED and the characters are formed by a 40 pixel grid which makes them look nice. It's dead easy to program and interface using the GPIO pins on the Raspberry Pi.
Here it is running, showing some text that demonstrates how Dave feels about me buying two of these displays rather than just one, as I knew he'd be wanting one as well! :)
In truth it wasn't a particularly grand gesture. Would anyone like to hazard a guess on the cost of this device, including shipping? Hint: no, it's probably cheaper than that.
Project 366 #61: 010316 I Only Speak The Truth
I should start by saying that I didn't choose this text!
I mentioned yesterday that there was another soldering job, and this is the fruit of it.
'Fruit' is a good word to use, as this display is interfaced to a Raspberry Pi! They've had quite a week at the RPi foundation, as sales have now overtaken the Amstrad PCW and it's become the biggest selling British computer. They've also launched a new model this week, the Pi3, incorporating a more powerful 64 bit processor and very useful built in bluetooth and wifi.
Because these computers are so cheap, it's easy and affordable to embed them in devices.
One popular application is to use a pi to recreate a Squeezeplayer. I got into Squeezeplayers pretty much on the ground floor, owning two classic Slimp3 players from the original Slim Devices company. They're very beautiful and high quality network music players that allow you to access your local music library without firing up a computer.
Slim Devices evenutally got bought out by Logitech, and they've had to follow the market trend which is for streaming music from the internet rather than local servers. This means they make very nice internet radios and spotify players, but have essentially dropped the squeezeplayer line, much to the sadness of those with a lot of love for the system and a lot invested in it. This has resulted in original squeezeplayers going for stupid money that most people aren't prepared to pay.
Into the light steps the Raspberry Pi, which can masquerade as a squeezeplayer for about thirty quid. Score! The problem is that it needs to be controlled remotely (which is no problem if you're packing a phone) but it doesn't give any details about what you're playing unless you plug a monitor in. That's bulk and hassle that most people don't need for just a line or two of text. That's where we get into one of these.
This is a 2 line, 16 character LCD display with built in controller circuitry. It's backlit with a nice blue LED and the characters are formed by a 40 pixel grid which makes them look nice. It's dead easy to program and interface using the GPIO pins on the Raspberry Pi.
Here it is running, showing some text that demonstrates how Dave feels about me buying two of these displays rather than just one, as I knew he'd be wanting one as well! :)
In truth it wasn't a particularly grand gesture. Would anyone like to hazard a guess on the cost of this device, including shipping? Hint: no, it's probably cheaper than that.