Did you miss our surprise? Over the Christmas period we released a special edition of The MagPi… a massive 132 pages of articles from previous issues that we think are great for folks who are new to the Raspberry Pi. You can download it for free from www.themagpi.com.

In this Issue, Olivier LeDiouris demonstrates how the Raspberry Pi can be used to enhance navigation data, sampling sensors over a long voyage. João Matos explains how to produce an electronic tennis game with the GPIO pins, LEDs and numeric LED displays. Philip Munts discusses the basics of controlling a small hobby DC motor with his expansion board. Eric Ptak introduces a new P2P solution that allows a secure connection to Raspberry Pi projects that are not directly available on a public network connection. Finally, Ian McAlpine rounds off the hardware section by presenting the new Raspberry Pi 2.

Programming is part of any Raspberry Pi project. In this Issue, Mubarak Abdu-Aguye introduces the C# programming language with an I2C project. William Bell demonstrates how to use C++ inheritance and interface classes. William also discusses another Scratch arcade game, with a two player air hockey simulation. Finally, Martin Meier rounds off this Issue with a Python maze generator.

The Raspberry Pi is a very versatile computer that can be used to learn a variety of different programming languages, build simple or complicated electronics projects and even control autonomous vehicles. Getting to grips with the Raspberry Pi, in all of its possible applications, introduces many skills that are vital in industry and research. It is also a whole lot of fun for hobbyists!

This Special Edition contains some excellent Scratch and Python programming articles that are suitable for the complete beginner. They introduce concepts that can be expanded and implemented in other programming languages. There are also several hardware projects. We introduce you to the GPIO with simple buttons and LEDs, then explain how to control your garage door and a robot arm.

The Raspberry Pi camera is a popular addition to the Raspberry Pi and we have several articles that show you how to get the best out of this device. Media is another popular topic and we explain how the Raspberry Pi can be used to listen to internet radio, watch TV programmes plus how to ‘get your groove on’ with Sonic Pi.

Since the first issue of The MagPi appeared in May 2012, we have produced over 1,200 pages of content, created by 100+ different authors. There have also been over 50 volunteers who helped layout the magazine, tested the hardware and code plus proof read the text. Hundreds of hours of work goes into creating each issue of The MagPi, for your enjoyment and education… and it’s free!

If you want to know when each issue of The MagPi is available, we invite you to join the 5,000+ other people who are following us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MagPiMagazine.

We hope you enjoy this collection as much as we did putting it together. Thank you, from everyone at The MagPi.

With the Christmas holidays drawing near, what could be better than some new Raspberry Pi hardware. For all those looking forward to building a high altitude capsule or autonomous submarine, the Model A+ provides many great features for a very low power budget. Dougie Lawson presents a whistle-stop tour of the A+, comparing it to other Raspberry Pi Models.

On the subject of robots, computer vision can provide an image cognition solution within many autonomous robotics projects. Derek Campbell sketches out more features of OpenCV (open source computer vision) image recognition software.

The Raspberry Pi is ideally suited as the hub of a sensor array or control unit, since it can be used to propagate information via a web server or other remote protocol. In this Issue, John Shovic’s presents his final article in the Project Curacao remote monitoring series, David Bannon demonstrates how to build and read a simple array of digital temperature sensors, and Brian Grawburg introduces his traffic light extension board.

When developing software or projects, it is important to retain unique files that are part of the build. In this Issue, Alec Clews continues his series on software repositories and using Git, and William Bell discusses the basics of adding external storage to the Raspberry Pi.

Computer programming enables the Raspberry Pi to be used within many different applications. This month, Jon Silvera discusses how to drive a robotic arm with FUZE BASIC, William Bell presents a simple space arcade game in Scratch and Paul Sutton introduces Python graphical user interfaces (GUIs).

The MagPi will be taking a short break over Christmas and the first Issue of 2015 will be published at the start of February.

Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2015.

Expanding the I/O possibilities of the Raspberry Pi is often a first step of electronics projects.  This time, Dougie Lawson presents a review of the Arduberry board from Dexter Industries.  This little board provides an ideal microcontroller interface for more complicated electronics projects.  This month’s hardware articles are rounded off by Karl-Ludwig’s third BitScope article, which includes examples of preamplifier circuits and associated test and measurement.

The Raspberry Pi provides the opportunity to run many different software applications.  Voice over IP (VoIP) allows telephone calls to be carried over an internet connection.  Walbarto Abad continues his mini-series by describing how to setup an Asterisk VoIP server.

The second application article this month continues the discussion of git (distributed version control system).  Git was originally produced for Linux kernel development, but is now a mainstay of many different development projects and has been adopted by several schools too.  Alec Clews leads us through his second tutorial on the subject.

This month’s programming article demonstrates how to build an arcade game using FUZE BASIC.  Jon Silvera includes instructions, code and images to build a horizontally scrolling game.

We are on the look out for more articles at all levels and on all subjects.  If you are interested in submitting an article, please get in touch with us by emailing articles@themagpi.com.

If you have any other comments, you can find us on Twitter (@TheMagP1) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/MagPiMagazine) too.

Are you tired of controlling your Raspberry Pi with the same old mouse and keyboard? Have you ever wished you could have the ergonomic feel of a console controller in your hands when playing some of those retro games we have written about in past issues? If you answered yes to either of these questions, why not take a look at Mark Routledge’s fantastic article describing how to do just that.

Alec Clews talks us through the use of Git, a free version control software package that we also use here at The MagPi to ensure that all of the team work on the most up to date copy of each issue. This is a great read, especially if you work with any type of document or file as part of a team.

As you can see from our front cover, we return to the popular world of Minecraft in Dougie Lawson’s clever article on building QR code structures inside the game. We also have more physical computing from ModMyPi, and a great father and son story on building and funding a Raspberry Pi project through Kickstarter.

Of course we have not forgotten about programming. William Bell continues his popular C++ series and we also have part three of our game programming series using FUZE BASIC. Start thinking of some game ideas now because in the next issue we will have a game programming competition.

If you want even more from The MagPi this month then why not join us on the 11th October at the SWAMP Fest event (see this month’s Events page) where we will have our own stand. We look forward to seeing you there.

We hope you enjoy this month’s issue and don’t forget to like our Facebook page and leave a comment at www.facebook.com/MagPiMagazine.

This month’s MagPi contains another great selection of hardware, software and programming articles. Michael Giles explains how to turn your Raspberry Pi into a magic wand with a fun hardware project that demonstrates the persistence of vision effect, while John Mahorney from Suncoast Science Center in Florida shows how a Raspberry Pi is used to display dynamic art. Big news this month is the launch of the Model B+ and MagPi writer Aaron Shaw has all the details for you on page 22.

Robotics is always a popular theme and Harry Gee continues on from last month’s article and shows how to add speech, voice control and facial recognition to your robot. Additionally, Rishi Deshpande describes how to use the SmartDrive controller board to easily control high current motors.

Another popular topic is beer and Sebastian Duell explains his hardware and software “Mashberry” project which he uses to optimise the mashing process. Karl-Ludwig Butte continues his series on using a Raspberry Pi and BitScope for electronic measurement plus we have an interesting article by Walberto Abad on how to set up your own VoIP telephone system.

Last, but definitely not least, Jon Silvera continues his series on learning how to program with FUZE BASIC. This is an exciting article with lots to discover. I certainly don’t remember ever being able to control sprites this easily with BASIC!

We try to make sure each issue of The MagPi contains something of interest for everyone, regardless of age and skill level. Have we got the balance right? Let us know by sending an email to editor@themagpi.com or comment on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/MagPiMagazine.

Finally, a big thank you to all the volunteers who work hard behind the scenes to produce The MagPi for your enjoyment and education.

Let’s get started…

This month’s MagPi contains a wealth of different material.  There is a review of Raspberry Pi powered autopilot technology, the first of a mini-series from the PiBot robotics team, data acquisition with BitScope and more automation projects.  We are also very pleased to host a review of the FishDish electronics board, written by our youngest guest author so far.

With standard peripherals such as the Raspberry Pi camera, a lot of interesting projects can be implemented.  For example, time lapse photography is introduced this month.  The Raspberry Pi, installed with Linux, provides many network diagnostic tools.  Following last month’s WiFi sniffing article, some more networking tips and tricks are discussed.

The MagPi is devoted to providing programming articles without the need for additional hardware.  This month, Java classes are introduced and we are please to provide the first in a series of articles on the BASIC programming language.  Completing this month’s programming content, a full Python version of the Pocket Enigma Cipher machine is given.  The Pocket version uses wheels, similar to the original Enigma machine shown on the cover.

If you have a Raspberry Pi, it would be great to hear how you have used it.  We are looking for feedback or contributions, from young authors to seasoned professionals.

This month’s issue is packed cover to cover with something for just about everyone!

We kick off with Daniel Pelikan’s ‘Raspberry Pi Scope’, an article which describes in detail how to use the Raspberry Pi as a 10 MSPS scope.  We follow this with the concluding part of Micheal Petersen’s Weather Balloon series, where he looks at the code used in their Multi-Sensor Array before moving onto a great article looking how to build a spectrophotometer using the Raspberry Pi and Wolfram language.

John Shovic shares with us his penultimate article, part five, of Project Curacao.  John describes actually deploying the monitor and also reveals some results from within the first 8 weeks of it’s data collection.  He finishes the article with some suggestions of future upgrades and we look forward to part six to see how this project has evolved further.

We have a MagPi exclusive interview with Carrie Anne Philbin from the foundation on the first Picademy at Raspberry Towers and we pay homage to 1980’s LOGO with an article looking at the use of Python with the module ‘Turtle’ to produce similar graphics.  Allen Heard, Head of IT at Ysgol Bryn Elian High School describes his fantastic Tech-Dojo events inspiring tomorrow’s programmers and we start a new series looking at improving our understanding of Wi-Fi in Richard Wenner’s education article ‘Raspberry Spy’.  We finish off by returning to C++ cache looking at object-object communication.

We had better begin…

It’s party time here at The MagPi towers, celebrating our second birthday!  To mark this milestone, The MagPi is pleased to provide another massive chance to get your hands on some fantastic Raspberry Pi goodies, with over £2000 worth of tasty treats for our readers to win!  Thank you to all our sponsors who have kindly given towards this massive collection of prizes.  See pages 18-19 for more information.

This month you’ll find us in the club with Sonic Pi.  The MagPi has an exclusive of Samuel Aaron’s brand new release of Sonic Pi v2.0 and how it is aiding build the underground music movement of Live Coding.  Samuel describes what is new to v2.0 along with some basics to get you up and mixing in no time.

Jacob Marsh from ModMyPi is back with another great tutorial on physical computing, this month describing how to use 1-Wire temperature sensors.  We look at how to build your own XMPP chat server in Gianluca’s Chat Room article, then Bernhard Suter provides the next article in our Linux tool shed series where he describes the bash shell.

Michael Petersen begins his two-part series on using the Raspberry Pi to study atmospheric pollution.  In this article he introduces us to the main subsystems involved in the multi-sensor array used in the research balloons which are sent into the lower stratosphere of Utah.  We also take a look at stackable hardware with Sai Yamanoor’s article about GrovePi.

Our very own William Bell has been working overtime this month with no less than three articles. First, he shows how to interface BrickPi with Scatch, then he describes how to bring Minecraft to the real world and finally the C++ Cache series makes a welcome return with an explanation of classes.

Why not head over to our Facebook page www.facebook.com/MagPiMagazine and let us know your favourite article over the last two years, or even what you want to read about over the next 12 months!

Enjoy.

We kick off this month’s issue with an article on solar tracking.  Nathan and Nicholas introduce their amazing project, the ‘Reflective Solar Tracker’, a solar cell with the brains of a Raspberry Pi, capable of chasing the sun to improve energy capture by up to 140%!

Andy Baker returns following his successful quad-copter series and this time he is featuring his intelligent night light.  Andy describes building this project to reassure his son at night and banish those ‘under-bed monsters’. It’s a great mix of both the PiBow case and PiGlow add on-board.

Following its recent success on Kickstarter we examine the Laika Explorer, a digital Input/Output board for the Raspberry Pi with the genius additions of USB and expansion ports.

We welcome back Richard Wenner for his second article for The MagPi, where he continues his tutorial on using SQL by explaining how to insert and view stored data.  Another welcome return is Philip Munts where he describes how to interface the Raspberry Pi to LEGO® Power Function motors. We also have more upcoming Raspberry Pi events from around the world and more book reviews to sink your teeth into.

To finish up, we go out with a bang with three great articles. There is a home automation tutorial on controlling your garage door over the internet, we show you how to remotely program your Raspberry Pi using the superb Wyliodrin platform and finally we show you how to control Input/Output devices using Scratch.  What more Raspberry Pi themed goodness could you possibly want?

To follow our progress why not like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MagPiMagazine to keep up to date and give us more of your valued feedback.