INTRODUCTION
WELCOME TO RASPBERRY PI PROJECTS FOR KIDS, WHICH WILL SHOW YOU HOW TO HARNESS THE POWER OF THE RASPBERRY PI COMPUTER AND PYTHON CODE TO CREATE 12 AWESOME PROJECTS. YOU CAN THEN TAKE THE NEW SKILLS AND TECHNIQUES YOU LEARN HERE AND APPLY THEM TO YOUR OWN PROJECTS. THIS BOOK IS AIMED AT BEGINNERS TO USING THE RASPBERRY PI AND BUILDING HACKS, AS WELL AS AT THOSE MORE EXPERIENCED WHO MAY BE LOOKING FOR A LITTLE INSPIRATION FOR THEIR OWN NEXT GREAT BUILD.
WHAT IS THIS BOOK ALL ABOUT?
Over the years, I’ve gained a lot of enjoyment from the Raspberry Pi, a small but versatile $35 computer. In my role as a computer science teacher at a large school, I’ve been fortunate to witness firsthand the positive and life-changing impact of Raspberry Pi–based learning. Using the Pi develops programming skills and hones thinking skills, building confidence along the way. The Pi is enormously successful as an educational tool, and the key to this success is that the Pi is fun!
Coding is no longer about just typing out line after line of instructions. Instead, you can learn to code by hacking Minecraft, making an MP3 music player, or building a spy cam. When using the Raspberry Pi, you’re not just building and coding a distance sensor— you’re creating a friend- or enemy-tracker.
It’s this combination of fun and learning, and the Pi’s versatility, that makes it such a great tool for education.
In my spare time, I research, tinker, and create many of my own Raspberry Pi projects, which I build and share on my website www.tecoed.co.uk. I wrote this book because I want to share my passion for making. Most important, I wanted to write a book that lets you develop relevant skills through exciting and useful hacks.
WHAT’S IN THE BOOK
In each chapter of this book, you’ll learn Python programming skills through building cool, inspiring, and useful hacks that can be deployed around your home. Each chapter is divided into simple step-by-step instructions, with plenty of diagrams to build the project. I’ll also encourage you to test your skills by developing your hacks further on your own.
This book requires no previous Raspberry Pi coding or experience.
I hope that you have as much fun building the projects as I did when writing this book. Here’s a quick breakdown of the content in each chapter:
Chapter 1: Getting Started with the Raspberry Pi
This first chapter provides all the information required for you to get started with your Raspberry Pi. It covers setting up the hardware, installing the operating system, accessing your Pi from another computer, and other useful skills. If you already know your way around the Pi and the Python programming language, you can jump straight into one of the hacks.
In this chapter, you’ll become familiar with the basics of the Python programming language. This primer will prepare you for the projects in the book. Each of the following chapters features a standalone hack with all the instructions and code required. You can use this chapter as a reference guide whenever you need it and to learn more about how to use Python.
Chapter 3: Hot Glue Night-Light
This is a simple but exciting hack. You’ll take a glue gun, like the ones you’ve probably used in school, and fill a silicone mold of your choice with hot glue. Then you’ll add an LED and let it set. When you wire up the LED, you’ll create your own custom glue light. You’ll then combine this with a light sensor to create a light that gets brighter as the environment gets darker.
Chapter 4: The Pi Camera: Selfie Snapper
Here you’ll master the Pi Camera and learn how to take pictures, apply Instagram-style filters, and edit your photos. You’ll then build your own selfie snapper, which will automatically take your picture for you, as well as a time-lapse camera. Lastly, you’ll learn how to capture video and share it with your friends and family.
Chapter 5: Pi Spy Part 1: Hacking Webcams for Secret Surveillance
With this project, you’ll hack an old webcam and combine it with the Raspberry Pi to stream a live video feed to your mobile or tablet device. This is a great project for spying on your family, keeping watch on your pets, or monitoring your secret stash of sweets.
Chapter 6: Manipulating Minecraft
Here you’ll take command of the Minecraft world and manipulate it with code. You’ll create a trampoline out of grass, build a game where you dodge deadly falling blocks of sand, and even use Minecraft to control the glue light that you made in Chapter 3. In this chapter’s final hack, you’ll build a Pi Camera remote control that will enable you to record a video by hitting a block of melons in Minecraft!
In this project, you’ll take over the radios in your house to broadcast your own messages, music, or even gossip to local listeners. You’ll hack into the radio waves and program a slick interface so you can control the radio with a simple click of a button.
Chapter 8: The Automatic Texting Machine
This project teaches you to safely hack your mobile phone and send messages from your Raspberry Pi. You’ll combine these skills to create a personal text-reminder assistant that sends you texts at particular times to let you know when to do something—like walk the dog, take out the trash, or meet your friend!
Chapter 9: Pi Spy Part 2: Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Tracking
In this project, you’ll discover the basics of tracking devices that are connected to your home internet or have Bluetooth enabled. You’ll access the make and model of the connected devices as well as find out their IP and MAC addresses. The end goal is to create a physical status board that lights up whenever a particular person enters your house with their device.
If you like music, you’ll love this project. With just a few push buttons, some wires, a speaker, and a small box, you’ll build your own MP3 player. You’ll learn how to assign actions to each button press so you can change the song or turn up the volume. You’ll embed your music player within a small box that you can customize and decorate.
Chapter 11: Nature Box: Motion-Sensing Camera
This hack pairs the Pi Camera with an infrared sensor to automatically capture pictures of wildlife. Wire up the parts, write up the code, secure it all in a box, and you can deploy your nature box in your yard or around your local area. The sensor will alert the Pi when something moves nearby, and the Pi will take a picture. You’ll even rig this hack to upload your images to Dropbox so you can view them remotely without disturbing shy wildlife visitors.
Chapter 12: Smart Plugs for Smart Home Hacks
In this project, you’ll use smart plugs and your own code to safely hack the power in your home, giving you the ability to remotely turn lights on and off, boil a kettle, or turn on the TV—all with your phone or tablet. This is a great project for pranking people.
Chapter 13: Mirror, Mirror: The Social Media Status Mirror
How can you check your social media updates and get other stuff done at the same time? You build a social media mirror, that’s how. This useful hack turns your mirror into a set of flashing lights that notifies you when you receive messages from particular users, when you get retweets, or when particular keywords come up on your feed. The mirror even relays the messages via a speaker so you don’t have to stop what you’re doing to read them.
Chapter 14: Computer Games with the Sense HAT
Here you’ll use the same space-age technology that was sent to the International Space Station to expand on the classic rock, paper, scissors game and create rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock. You’ll play against the Raspberry Pi by using the built-in joystick, LED matrix, and code on the Raspberry Pi Sense HAT.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED FOR THIS BOOK
This is a list of all the components you’ll need to complete every project in the book. Each chapter will also let you know the required materials for just that project, if you don’t want to get everything all at once. Where I haven’t specified a quantity, I recommend you get a bag or set so you have a few on hand.
The following are Raspberry Pi–related components you’ll need for the projects:
- 1 Raspberry Pi (I recommend getting the latest model available, which is the 4 at the time of writing, although the program code has all been tested on a range of models.)
- 1 Raspberry Pi Zero W (recommended for Chapter 7)
- 1 Pi Camera v1 or v2
- Alligator clips
- 1 USB portable battery
- 1 USB webcam
- 1 USB microphone
- A range of assorted jumper wires (male to male, male to female, female to female)
- Assorted LEDs
- 1 breadboard (400 pin)
- 1 photoresistor (LDR)
- A range of resistors between 220 and 330 ohms
- 1K ohm resistor
- NPN transistor
- 1 passive infrared sensor (PIR)
- 1 0.1 uF capacitor
- Push buttons
- 1 Energenie smart plug
- 1 Pi-mote
- Android phone or tablet
- FM-enabled radio (digital or analog), preferably with two speakers or built in
- Bluetooth speaker or audio jack speaker
- Set of battery-powered LED strings
- Small speaker
- 1 Raspberry Pi Sense HAT
These are other tools you’ll need:
- A hot glue gun
- Silicone mold (like a novelty ice cube tray)
- Scissors
- Tape
- Small Philips screwdriver
- Glue sticks for a glue gun
- Soldering iron or conductive paint
- Mirror
- Drill
- Dropbox account
- Twitter account
- Small clear plastic box
- Small wooden box
- Small piece of cardboard
- Images or photos