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Raspberry Pi Microcomputers Are Powering A School Computing Lab In Rural Cameroon

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The Raspberry Pi microcomputer has already put more than a million Pis in the hands of makers, tinkerers, parents and kids in its first year on sale. Which is an impressive feat for a device that’s designed to get more people dabbling in electronics and thinking about how software works. The Pi Foundation actually wanted to create a device that U.K. kids could cut their coding teeth on. But here’s a sign of how much more potential Pi has, above and beyond its original mission: Pis are being used to power a secondary school computing lab in rural Cameroon.

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In a guest post on the Pi Foundation’s blog, a volunteer from a Belgian group that raised the funds to build and equip the school writes how they took 30 Pis out to Cameroon in their suitcase and used them to create a computing lab — along with screens, keyboards and mice bought locally. This Pi-powered computing class is itself powered by an on-site generator since the school is not connected to the public power network.

The school in question — Saint Marcellin Comprehensive College — is located in a small village called Binshua, close to Nkambe in the Northwest region of Cameroon. At present the Pis are being used for teaching the children how to use office productivity software but the aim is to get the kids coding too, in time:

All of the systems run on the Raspbian image from December, with LibreOffice and CUPS installed. The Pis are currently used to teach the children the basics of working with an Office suite. But we made sure that we gave the teacher a little introduction (and a good book) on programming in Scratch. So, now we are hoping that this will get Scratch introduced in the school curriculum as well.

The school’s lab doesn’t currently have an Internet connection but that’s something the Belgian group is working to change too.

The computers are all connected in a network. The central point of the network is a router that’s ready to be connected to a WAN modem. We hope to be able to provide a connection to the internet in the near future, which would certainly bring a small revolution into this rural area. Even without an internet connection, we believe that we created an advanced computer lab in this underdeveloped area. Giving the children in the area a chance to work their way to a better future. And that is our motivation.

It isn’t a stretch to say this small, low cost, low power microcomputer has the potential to provide a first computing experience for many more people in developing countries. The Pi hardware is cheaper than most mobile phones, let alone most smartphones — the other device touted as the likely first computing experience for the “next billions”. And it’s a lot cheaper than another Linux-based low cost computing project: the one laptop per child’s XO laptop (albeit, the price of the peripherals needs to be factored it).

In the following video, a teacher at the school is shown introducing the Pi to the class, and even though she mentions Microsoft’s Windows OS the reference is not likely to put smiles on many faces in Redmond: ”This small box is not working with Windows operating system… It works with another type of operating system. It’s Linux. It’s also very popular — and it’s for free.”

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Lowest Cost Raspberry Pi Microcomputer Now On Sale In The U.S. – $25 Model A Suited For Battery/Solar Powered Projects

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Author: Mark Jeffries

The Raspberry Pi microcomputer prides itself on being affordable, with its tiny $ 35 price-tag for the original Model B Pi. But now its lowest cost board — the $ 25 Model A — has gone on sale in the U.S. The Raspberry Pi Foundation confirmed to TechCrunch that Model A can now be purchased in the U.S. via reseller Allied Electronics (which currently appears to have 70 units in stock).

What does $ 25 buy you? Enough processing power to use it to run a home media centre if you so desire, according to the Foundation. But the Model A was conceived with lower power consumption projects in mind, perhaps battery or solar powered, as Model A consumes around a third less power than Model B. It also has half the RAM of the second revision Model B, plus only one USB port and no Ethernet connection — to keep costs down.

Model A sales kicked off in Europe in early February, with Asia coming on stream last week. Eben Upton, Raspberry Pi founder, said today that sales of the Model A Pi have been amounting to “a few thousand a week” thus far.

“We burned through the first 20,000 units quite quickly, and are building a few thousand a week at the moment, but we don’t have good visibility of sell through yet,” he told TechCrunch when asked about early sales data, adding: “I’d expect us to dip in and out of availability for the next month or so until we reach a steady state.”

The Foundation passed one million Model B sales in January, less than a year after it launched the Pi in March 2012. The microcomputer was conceived as a tool to get kids learning to code – but has also proved popular with the maker community to power all manner of DIY gizmos and gadgets.

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$25 Raspberry Pi Model A Now Shipping In Asia, After Landing In Europe Last Month – Heading Stateside Soon

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Author: Tiffany Shoman

The $ 25 Model A Raspberry Pi has gone on sale in Asia, following its launch in Europe last month – suggesting a U.S. landing can’t be too far off for the most affordable of the Pi Foundation’s two low-cost microcomputers. One of the Foundation’s distributors, RS Components, said today it is now shipping the Model A Pi in Asia.

Speaking to TechCrunch at the end of last month, Raspberry Pi founder, Eben Upton, said the not-for-profit organisation had completed the paperwork required to kick off global sales of the Model A, adding that it and “hope[d] to be able to enable these within the next couple of weeks”.

The $ 25 Model A is the most affordable Pi in the Foundation’s microcomputing arsenal, a full ten dollars cheaper than the original Model B. To get the price down, the unit has half the RAM (256MB) of the second revision Model B, only one USB port and no Ethernet connection. It also consumes less power, making it suitable for remote battery-powered applications — although it can still support a ‘home media centre’ use-case too, according to the Foundation.

Asked about early sales of the Model A Pi at the end of February, Upton said: “Early indications are that we’ve been selling between 5,000 and 10,000 units per week across the two distributors: so, roughly a quarter of the sales rate of Model Bs.”

“It will be interesting to see whether these sales have displaced Model B sales, or have grown the market,” he added.

In January, Raspberry Pi passed the one million Model B sales mark — a far cry from the founders’ original estimates of a few thousand units. The Pi was conceived as a tool to get kids learning to code – but has also proved popular with big kids who like to tinker. And with Google.

As well as being used for powering DIY gadgets, the Pi has had plenty of software ported over to it — including classic first-person shooter Quake, block-building community game Minecraft – and for those who really want to relive the old days of computing: a DOS (PC) emulator, rpix86 (shown below running a benchmark):

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$25 Raspberry Pi Model A Now Shipping In Asia, After Landing In Europe Last Month – Heading Stateside Soon

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Author:

The $ 25 Model A Raspberry Pi has gone on sale in Asia, following its launch in Europe last month – suggesting a U.S. landing can’t be too far off for the most affordable of the Pi Foundation’s two low-cost microcomputers. One of the Foundation’s distributors, RS Components, said today it is now shipping the Model A Pi in Asia.

Speaking to TechCrunch at the end of last month, Raspberry Pi founder, Eben Upton, said the not-for-profit organisation had completed the paperwork required to kick off global sales of the Model A, adding that it and “hope[d] to be able to enable these within the next couple of weeks”.

The $ 25 Model A is the most affordable Pi in the Foundation’s microcomputing arsenal, a full ten dollars cheaper than the original Model B. To get the price down, the unit has half the RAM (256MB) of the second revision Model B, only one USB port and no Ethernet connection. It also consumes less power, making it suitable for remote battery-powered applications — although it can still support a ‘home media centre’ use-case too, according to the Foundation.

Asked about early sales of the Model A Pi at the end of February, Upton said: “Early indications are that we’ve been selling between 5,000 and 10,000 units per week across the two distributors: so, roughly a quarter of the sales rate of Model Bs.”

“It will be interesting to see whether these sales have displaced Model B sales, or have grown the market,” he added.

In January, Raspberry Pi passed the one million Model B sales mark — a far cry from the founders’ original estimates of a few thousand units. The Pi was conceived as a tool to get kids learning to code – but has also proved popular with big kids who like to tinker. And with Google.

As well as being used for powering DIY gadgets, the Pi has had plenty of software ported over to it — including classic first-person shooter Quake, block-building community game Minecraft – and for those who really want to relive the old days of computing: a DOS (PC) emulator, rpix86 (shown below running a benchmark):

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Pi MusicBox weds Spotify and Raspberry Pi, plays your favorite tunes

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Author:

Do you hear Spotify? Do you have a Raspberry Pi? Well, Pi MusicBox might just be the thing for you. It’s a bootable Debian image for RaspBerry Pi that implements Modipy, a songs server which allows playback from local storage space, Spotify streaming and remote-control from any MPD (Songs Player Daemon) client. There are MPD apps for most platforms, consisting of Android, iOS, Windows and Mac OS (see screenshots above). Pi MusicBox additionally supports WiFi, USB sound and AirTunes streaming right from the, err … box. So, if your Raspberry Pi is jonesing to play some tunes, go on and strike those links below.

Filed under: MiscCommentsVia: adafruit markets blogSource: Pi MusicBox

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The Raspberry Pi Dynamic Headlight Can Tell You How Fast You’re Cycling

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Author: Mark Jeffries

A Brooklynite called Matt Richardson has actually developed a working prototype of a bike front lights that makes use of a Raspberry Pi to project his existing taking a trip speed as he rides around the city. Richardson calls it the Raspberry Pi Dynamic Front lights, and it’s one of those jaw-dropping DIY tasks that makes you wonder why this isn’t really something you can buy in a shop yet.

The prototype has a little projector mounted to the handlebars of the bike, which is linked to the Raspberry Pi via HDMI cable television. The projector and the Raspberry Pi are both powered by a USB battery pack. The Raspberry Pi and the battery pack appear to be crudely glued to a triangular piece of wood that is strapped onto the center of the bike, but Richardson states in his video that he’s hoping that future prototypes will combine all the elements into one solitary piece that will be mounted onto the handlebars.

The Dynamic Headlight for now only tasks the speed of the bike, however Richardson is wanting to include all types of fascinating functions to future iterations like GPS and various other “animations and visualizations”.

Someone should get him a few of that Veronica Mars Kickstarter cash, stat.

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Even More Raspberry Pi Now Made In The U.K. As Largest Distributor Of $35 Microcomputer Shifts All Production To Wales

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Author: Laura Clark

The Raspberry Pi inexpensive microcomputer is now almost completely made in the U.K., after Premier Farnell/element 14 — the biggest of the Pi Structure‘ s distributors — revealed it has moved all its manufacturing to Sony’s Pencoed manufacturing plant in Wales. The business inked a multi-million pound contract with Sony to manufacture Pis last fall however also hadtwo locations in China producing Pis — meaning that around 70 % of its Pi manufacturing was coming out of the U.K. at the turn of the year. Today, after a “ period of transition ”, Premier Farnell stated the Pencoed manufacturing plant now accounts for 100 % of its Pi output. “ The company mentioned backin September its objective to bring production of the pc back to

its house, the UK, and now after a period of shift we are pleased to reveal that all production is in Wales, ” said Claire Doyle, Global Head of Raspberry Pi at element14, in a statement. “ We are constantly astonished by the need for the Raspberry Pi across the globe and have done every little thing we could to guarantee we keep our supply

chain stocked, ” she added. “We think that a UK production need to be produced in its house nation and because partnering with Sony UK Tec we have been thrilled with the quality and the commitment they have actually received establishing the item.” There is still some non-U.K. Raspberry Pi production, as the Pi Foundation has an additional supplier, but Premier Farnell/element 14 is evidently the larger of the two.(The Foundation has previously

stated it does not reveal exactly the amount of of the Pi pie each of its licensees accounts for.)Since the Pi ’ s launch on 29 February in 2012, Premier Farnell said it has distributed even more than 500,000 Raspberry Pi’s. Back in January, it estimated more than a million Pis had actually been sold – a considerable bump on the Foundation ’

s original projections of a couple of thousand units. The Structure has actually formerly produced this short video revealing some of the production processes occurring at the Pencoed Pi manufacturing plant:

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Even More Raspberry Pi Now Made In The U.K. As Largest Distributor Of $35 Microcomputer Shifts All Production To Wales

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Author: Antonio Pierce

The Raspberry Pi affordable microcomputer is now almost entirely made in the U.K., after Premier Farnell/element 14 — the largest of the Pi Foundation‘s distributors — announced it has shifted all its production to Sony’s Pencoed factory in Wales.

The company inked a multi-million pound contract with Sony to manufacture Pis last fall but also had two locations in China producing Pis — meaning that around 70% of its Pi production was coming out of the U.K. at the turn of the year. Today, after a “period of transition”, Premier Farnell said the Pencoed factory now accounts for 100% of its Pi output.

“The business stated back in September its intention to bring production of the computer back to its home, the UK, and now after a period of transition we are delighted to announce that all production is in Wales,” said Claire Doyle, Global Head of Raspberry Pi at element14, in a statement.

“We are constantly amazed by the demand for the Raspberry Pi across the world and have done everything we can to ensure we keep our supply chain stocked,” she added. “We believe that a UK creation should be produced in its home country and since partnering with Sony UK Tec we have been delighted with the quality and the commitment they have shown in developing the product.”

There is still some non-U.K. Raspberry Pi production, as the Pi Foundation has another distributor, but Premier Farnell/element 14 is apparently the larger of the two. (The Foundation has previously said it does not disclose exactly how much of the Pi pie each of its licensees accounts for.)

Since the Pi’s launch on 29 February last year, Premier Farnell said it has distributed more than 500,000 Raspberry Pi’s. Back in January, it estimated more than a million Pis had been sold – a considerable bump on the Foundation’s original projections of a few thousand units.

The Foundation has previously produced this short video showing some of the manufacturing processes taking place at the Pencoed Pi factory:

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Even More Raspberry Pi Now Made In The U.K. As Largest Distributor Of $35 Microcomputer Shifts All Production To Wales

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Author: Matthew Baker

The Raspberry Pi affordable microcomputer is now almost entirely made in the U.K., after Premier Farnell/element 14 — the largest of the Pi Foundation‘s distributors — announced it has shifted all its production to Sony’s Pencoed factory in Wales.

The company inked a multi-million pound contract with Sony to manufacture Pis last fall but also had two locations in China producing Pis — meaning that around 70% of its Pi production was coming out of the U.K. at the turn of the year. Today, after a “period of transition”, Premier Farnell said the Pencoed factory now accounts for 100% of its Pi output.

“The business stated back in September its intention to bring production of the computer back to its home, the UK, and now after a period of transition we are delighted to announce that all production is in Wales,” said Claire Doyle, Global Head of Raspberry Pi at element14, in a statement.

“We are constantly amazed by the demand for the Raspberry Pi across the world and have done everything we can to ensure we keep our supply chain stocked,” she added. “We believe that a UK creation should be produced in its home country and since partnering with Sony UK Tec we have been delighted with the quality and the commitment they have shown in developing the product.”

There is still some non-U.K. Raspberry Pi production, as the Pi Foundation has another distributor, but Premier Farnell/element 14 is apparently the larger of the two. (The Foundation has previously said it does not disclose exactly how much of the Pi pie each of its licensees accounts for.)

Since the Pi’s launch on 29 February last year, Premier Farnell said it has distributed more than 500,000 Raspberry Pi’s. Back in January, it estimated more than a million Pis had been sold – a considerable bump on the Foundation’s original projections of a few thousand units.

The Foundation has previously produced this short video showing some of the manufacturing processes taking place at the Pencoed Pi factory:

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Adafruit’s new Internet of Things Printer goes wireless, uses Raspberry Pi (video)

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Author: Buck Howard

Adafruit’s just outed a new Internet of Things Printer kit that’s traded in its ethernet connection for WiFi. Instead of using an Arduino Uno like its wired sibling, the new DIY hardware is built with a Raspberry Pi Model B running Raspbian Linux. Programmed in Python, the software on the box wields the Python Imaging Library, which gives folks flexibility when it comes to typography and graphics, and can leverage the language’s raft of libraries. If you’re not in the mood for coding, however, the contraption brings a few sample applications that’ll print out daily weather reports, sudoku puzzles, tweets and images on 2.25-inch wide receipt paper. The project rings up at $ 189 — $ 100 above its predecessor — but it isn’t up for sale quite yet.

Filed under: Misc, Peripherals

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Source: Adafruit Blog, Adafruit

Posts Tagged ‘Raspberry’

Raspberry Pi Microcomputers Are Powering A School Computing Lab In Rural Cameroon

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The Raspberry Pi Dynamic Headlight Can Tell You How Fast You’re Cycling

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Even More Raspberry Pi Now Made In The U.K. As Largest Distributor Of $35 Microcomputer Shifts All Production To Wales

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Even More Raspberry Pi Now Made In The U.K. As Largest Distributor Of $35 Microcomputer Shifts All Production To Wales

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