Raspberry Pi Geek 20

We are living with an embarrassment of choice. Small-board computers (SBCs) are getting smaller and faster, with many inexpensive options for the hobbyist and problem-solvers and more powerful, usually pricier, options for inventors, innovators, and CPU-guzzling consumers. New SBCs are entering the market continuously, it seems.

The DVD enclosed with this issue comes with a collection of some of the best and most popular Raspberry Pi distributions.

Arduino’s “Invent Your Future” Contest; Fedora for Rasp Pi; New Raspberry Pi Kits for Windows IoT Core; micro:bit Education Foundation.

Thanks to the avNav free software, the Raspberry Pi becomes a control center for electronics on a yacht.

The number of ARM-based small computers is growing on a daily basis. FriendlyARM introduced the NanoPi NEO, a computer that is even smaller than the Pi Zero and just as inexpensive. We take a look at the NEO and its brother, the NanoPi 2 Fire.

Combine great hardware projects that use the Raspberry Pi GPIO pins and a Node.js web server that interacts with the underlying operating system and hardware, and you have a winning team.

A Raspberry Pi directs data collection from a network of weather stations in the Caribbean, processes the data, and makes it available on a web page.

MQTT messaging controls multiple Pi music players from a smartphone.

The inexpensive Display-O-Tron HAT has a three-line LC display, making it perfect for projects that need a display but not a bulky monitor.

The standard Raspbian is too bulky for some projects. You can use Netinstaller to set up a pre-defined customized version.