DESIGN

BUILD
3

CODE
Get hands-on with your Raspberry Pi

16 Problems solved

14
PRACTICAL
GUIDES

Plus
Upgrade
your robot
with sensors
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Welcome
There’s one sure thing in life – if
something can go wrong, it will
Get inspired
go wrong at some point. With Discover the RasPi
this in mind we’ve put together community’s best projects
a Fix Your Pi feature for this third issue of
RasPi magazine, where we tackle the most Expert advice
common hardware and software problems Got a question? Get in touch
you will encounter with your Raspberry Pi. We and we’ll give you a hand
also take the robot tutorial from issue two to
a whole new level – adding in microswitches
and sensors to give your creation a set of
Easy-to-follow
senses that will bring it to life. With 87 pages guides
in this issue we have got lots more Raspberry Learn to make and code
Pi inspiration for you too – check out the gadgets with Raspberry Pi
Bioscope film player, tweet wildlife pictures
and make the most of your memory with
Python. Enjoy your issue and have fun!

Deputy Editor

From the makers of

Join the conversation at…

. . .
@linuxusermag Linux User & Developer [email protected]

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Contents Fix your Pi

Common Raspberry Pi problems fixed

Upgrade your Raspberry Pi robot

Now your robot’s moving, it’s time to get it sensing

Bioscope
A film player from the 19th Century, updated

What is a GertDuino?
Essential accessories for making some amazing projects

The tweeting motion sensor

Create a device able to takes pictures and tweet them

Raspberry Pi: not unlimited

What can you do to make the most of memory in Python?

Talking Pi
Your questions answered and your opinions shared

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Fix Your Pi
Troubleshooting – Hardware
A list of common Raspberry Pi hardware problems
and what to do when they occur
“If the picture
We’ve all been there. We’ve come back to
from your
something, and for whatever reason, the
thing we’re trying to do just won’t work! We’ve
Pi is noisy
plugged everything back in where we thought it came (e.g. screen is
from, but there’s nothing. So, what do we do when it shaking) it’s
comes to this? Usually there are a few different solutions probably a dirty
to any one problem – but sometimes there’s only one connection”
way, and finding that one key to victory might not be all
that easy.

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 Maybe you’ve come back to your Pi after several
WorldMags.net“These are
months of it being sat in a drawer. You plug it in and boot
common
it up and… X, Y or Z has happened!
What can we try when it just seems that everything problems for
has completely fallen over and nothing will work? any Raspberry
Well, hopefully your problem will be listed as one Pi user to come
here. These are common problems for any Raspberry across at one
Pi user to come across at one point or another while point or another
using their device. Have a look through and if you’re
while using their
experiencing one of these issues, we’ve got a solution on
hand for you. device”
Some of these things you’ll want to slap yourself in
the face for not thinking of – but that’s all part of the joy
of computers, right? The simplest of things can put you to
the test for the longest of times, just ready for that eureka
moment when it all finally comes together.

Below We’ll soon have

Problem 1: The green LED flashes and your Pi fixed and you
nothing is on screen on your way
Solution: This is more
common than you might
think. It’s likely down to either
a blank SD card, or a lack of
correct data on the SD card
causing a boot failure. First,
check your SD card is fully
inserted. With the latest Pi
firmware, if you have:
3 flashes – start.elf is
missing
4 flashes – start.elf not
launched
7 flashes – kernel.img not
found

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Problem 2: I can’t
see my USB hard WorldMags.net
drive
Solution: This is also
another really common one
and is generally caused
by using a non-powered
portable USB hard drive in
a non-powered USB hub.
The easiest way to fix this
is to power one side or the
other. If using a portable,
USB-powered hard drive, you should really use a Above Is your hard
powered USB hub. drive in an unreadable
format?
If you definitely have power, the hard drive could be in
an unreadable format. Try using FAT32.

Problem 3: Pi shuts down or restarts a

random intervals
Solution: If your Pi is particularly unstable, the first thing to
check is the power supply you’re using. First, swap out the
cable. If you’re still having problems, swap out the power
supply. If your Pi is overclocked, it’s also worth using the
raspi-config tool to set it back to defaults. You may just be
overheating it!
If setting it to default clock speeds helps, increase
again gradually until you find something stable. “If your Pi is
overclocked,
it’s also worth
using the raspi-
config tool to
set it back to
defaults”

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 WorldMags.net“Make sure
the HDMI or
composite
cable is
connected
properly and
Problem 4: The HDMI image from the Pi free from dust”
has noise
Solution: If the picture from your Pi is noisy (.e.g screen
is shaking, dots or green lines moving around) then it’s
probably a dirty connection. Make sure the HDMI or
composite cable is connected properly and free from dust
and other contaminants. If you still have a problem, try
another HDMI cable.
You can also try adding the following to your SD card’s
config.txt:
config_hdmi_boost=4

Problem 5: I broke a part off!

Solution: If the part that broke off happens to be a silver Below Don’t panic if a
piece of your Pi breaks
cylindrical piece near the Pi’s power input, this is easy off – you can fix it
enough to fix – this has
been broken off by many
other people due to
its large surface/small
mount area. This piece
of the Pi reduces noise
and stops power spikes.
You can either reattach
it (depending on your
soldering skills), but you
can use the Pi just fine
without it – with most
power supplies.

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Problem 6: Ethernet stops
working with some USBWorldMags.net
devices
Solution: The first thing that you
should do in this situation is check
your power supply is working! It has
been known for some power supplies
to provide an inadequate source of
power. First, try changing out your cable
(it may just be a poor-quality cable).
Also, try the failing device in a powered
USB hub – rather than plugging it directly into the
Raspberry Pi.

Problem 7: Pi doesn’t (always) boot

Solution: This is likely to either be a bad mount of an SD
card or a power supply issue. Check your SD card: it may “Try a
well be that it’s not seated correctly. Take it out and put it failing device
back in straight – and make sure it goes in all the way it in a powered
possibly can.
USB hub –
If it was definitely in correctly, try cleaning the contacts
and restarting to see if it works. If this fails, try another
rather than
power supply to see if it works there. plugging it
directly into the
Raspberry Pi”

Left Cleaning the

contacts is always a
good starting point

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Problem 8: Red power LED is on, nothing Above The red power
LED is at the top-right
on display of this picture, fourth
Solution: First, check the power cable is properly seated. from the right edge of
the board
Check that your SD card has a valid image on it. Can
you still read the SD card in the PC that the image was
created on?
If you can, try booting your Raspberry Pi with just the
power supply connected. Watch whether the ‘OK’ light
flashes. If it does, add the cables back in one by one.

“ Can you still read the SD card in the PC that

the image was created on?”

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Troubleshooting – Software
A list of common Raspberry Pi software problems and what
to do when they occur
Software can be just as much of a pain “Sometimes
as hardware. The problem with software, the only way
however, is that different configuration options to go is from
can lead to a really bad, frustrating time. Hardware we
the ground up.
have attached can affect the configuration of our system
and lead to further issues – sometimes the only way to go
You have got to
is from the ground up. You have got to think logically about think logically
these things. about these
Some problems will seem to have little to no correlation things”
with their answers, but those scratch-your-head moments
soon go when you realise that actually the thing is working
and doing exactly what you wanted it to again. There’s a lot
you can do from the command line to help with any of this
stuff, but things aren’t always as clear as they seem.
Thankfully there are a lot of helpful tools to start making
a dent in the most common problems. In these pages we
feature a list of the most common software problems with
their solutions.
If the worst comes to the worst then you can always
rebuild it. Due to the Pi’s nature, doing this is a simple
reflash of a single image, rather than painstaking hours
of driver and software reinstalls like some other operating
systems out there.
As always, be sure to keep frequent backups of your
most precious data, though.

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Problem 9: I’m getting
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a kernel panic on every
boot
Solution: If you’re seeing kernel
panic messages each time you
start your Raspberry Pi, the first
thing to try is booting it without
any USB devices in – and adding
them one by one afterwards.
If you’re still getting the
messages, it’s likely that your flash
of the SD card was unsuccessful.
Reflash the card and try again. Make sure you use admin “The first thing
privileges to do it! to try is booting
it without any
Problem 10: My Pi’s Ethernet connection is USB devices
working at 10Mbit, not 100Mbit
Solution: This may or may not be inaccurate. On the
in – and
earlier Pi revision boards, the 100Mbit LED was mislabelled adding them
– it was actually a 10Mbit socket. On newer revision one by one
boards, however, it was correctly labelled on the newer afterwards”
boards that actually have a 100Mbit socket.
You can check your link speed with
cat /sys/class/net/eth0/speed

Left You can easily

check your link speed
via the terminal

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 WorldMags.net“The default
user/password
combination is
pi/raspberry”
Problem 11: I cannot SSH to my
Raspberry Pi
Solution: If you’re receiving a connection time-out error
when you try to SSH to your Pi from another machine, it
probably means that SSH access to it is disabled. You need
to open up the raspi-config tool, then use the option ‘ssh’ to
enable SSH. You should now be able to connect to your Pi.
The default user/password combination is pi/raspberry.

Problem 12: Startx fails to start window

manager
Solution: If you just get errors instead of a working
desktop when trying to use the startx command, you
may be out of disk space. This possibly either means
you need to expand the rootfs using the raspi-config
tool if you have an SD card bigger than 2GB. If not, you
probably need to get a bigger SD card. If you know
there’s space, try renaming the .Xauthority file under your
home directory, temporarily.

Left Have you checked

whether you are out
of disk space?

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Problem 13: The
visible desktop WorldMags.net
goes off the
screen
Solution: You
probably want to turn
overscan off. Use the
raspi-config tool to
disable overscan.
If you now see
a big black border
round the edges of
your screen, you can
usually use your TV’s settings to zoom in.
“If you now
If not, try setting the overscan manually in the config.
txt using the properties overscan_left, overscan_right,
see a big black
overscan_top and overscan_bottom. border round
the edges of
Problem 14: I don’t know the root password your screen,
Solution: This is probably because the root account in you can usually
many newer Linux distributions is disabled by default – use your TV’s
and as such doesn’t have a password. You can enable
settings to
a password by entering the following command in the
terminal: zoom in”
sudo passwd root
Exercise caution when doing this, however, since
meddling with root accounts can be dangerous.

Left Make sure you

don’t forget your new
root password…

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Problem 15: I can’t install new
software with apt-getWorldMags.net
Solution: If you’re seeing the error
‘Package xx is unavailable’ then you
probably need to update the Apt tool first.
Seeing this error means that your software
list is out of date.
Start by running this command:
sudo apt-get update
Let it update its list of packages (you’ll
need a network connection) – then do: “The Pi’s
sudo apt-get upgrade.
composite
When this completes, try installing your package
over again. output defaults
to NTSC
Problem 16: Composite output is only (American).
black and white Some PAL
Solution: The Pi’s composite output defaults to NTSC (European) TVs
(American). Some PAL (European) TVs may either now
may either
show an image, or display it in black and white. To solve
this, change the config.txt on the SD card to add/modify:
now show
sdtv_mode =x and image,
Where x is: 0 – NTSC; 1 – Japanese NTSC or display it
2 – PAL; 3 – Brazilian PAL in black and
white”

Left If your PI’s gone

greyscale then check
config.txt on your SD

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Upgrade your
Raspberry Pi
robot
Now your robot’s moving, it’s time
to get it sensing and interacting
with the world around it

“Using analogue
sensors, we can
build a robot
that is capable
of following or
avoiding light”

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Installing microswitches
Give your robot the sense of touch and train it to react
when it bumps into something
Caution
In the previous issue of RasPi, we constructed While we’ve carefully
our base robot. Now that we’ve got a robot that constructed this
can move any way we want it to, let’s move on feature with safety in
to the simplest form of interaction: touch. It may not be as mind, accidents can
sophisticated as we experience as humans, but giving happen. Imagine
our robot its first sense will help it to navigate its own path,
Publishing cannot be
giving it a very basic form of intelligence.
held responsible for
Adding a sense of touch can be handled in quite a
damage caused to
few different ways, but the quickest and easiest method
is by adding some ‘antennae’ to your robot in the form Raspberry Pis and
of microswitches. Given their name, they aren’t so much associated hardware
micro but they do have long arms that protrude, making by following this feature.
them perfect for mounting on the front of your robot. If your
switch hasn’t got a lever or it isn’t long enough, you can
always try adding or extending it using a piece of dowel
or a drinking straw.
Adding multiple switches gives our robot a greater
sense of its surroundings and allows a very simple bit of
code to control how it should operate. As it will be mostly
moving forward, we will only need to add switches to the
front. So let’s begin by creating the circuit and testing it. THE PROJECT
ESSENTIALS
Breadboard
Jumper wires
“The motor driver we will use is called an 2x 10K resistors
2x CPC microswitches
L293D, otherwise known as an H-Bridge”

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NO/NC Additional switches
WorldMags.netYou can easily add
Most switches are labelled
with NO and NC; which more switches, not just
stands for Normally Open bumpers, by following the
and Normally Closed. circuit and connecting it to
Open simply means no a free pin
current can pass through

Pull-down Resistors 3v3 Power

As we are dealing with As the Raspberry Pi has no
digital logic, the switch has protection from overvoltage,
to be either on or off, and the we can’t input more than
resistor helps this by weakly 3.3V otherwise we risk
pulling the pin low frying the processor

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Testing your microswitches
Now the switches are wired up, let’s get them working

Wiring them up is nice and simple, but as

mentioned, it is important to remember that
the Raspberry Pi is only 3.3V tolerant when
using inputs, so we are only going to use the 3V3 pin and
not the 5V pin.
The Python code to read inputs is nice and
straightforward. Since we have one switch per GPIO
pin, we just get Python to tell us what state it is in when
we ask. So the first thing we will do is import our usual
libraries and then set the pins to BCM board mode. In
GPIO.setup we are going to tell Python to set pins 15 and
18 as inputs.
Creating a while True: loop will create an infinite loop,
as the condition is always true. While in the loop, we shall
store the current state of the input into a variable, and then
use an if statement to check if it is a 1 for pressed or a 0
for not pressed. All we are going to do is display on the
screen which switch has been pressed; it will also help us
work out on which side to place the microswitch.
“The Python code to read inputs is nice and
straightforward. Since we have one switch per
GPIO pin, we just get Python to tell us what
state it is in when we ask”

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The Code WorldMags.net
TESTING THE MICROSWITCHES

import RPi.GPIO as GPIO “All we are

from time import sleep going to do is
display on the
GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)
screen which
switch has been
GPIO.setup(18, GPIO.IN) pressed”
GPIO.setup(15, GPIO.IN)

while True:
inputleft = GPIO.input(18)
inputright = GPIO.input(15)
if inputleft:
print “Left pressed”
if inputright:
print “Right pressed”
sleep(0.1)

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Completing the
‘bumping’ robot
It’s time to add the switches to the robot and find some
walls to test it with
We’ll mount the switches to the front of the
robot, fixing it down with double-sided tape or
Blu-tack so the levers can stick out enough to
be pressed when it touches an object. Re-using the motor
function code we created before, we can easily add the
microswitch support. So this time if an object presses the
left microswitch, we tell the motors to switch into reverse
for a second then stop. Hopefully this is long enough to
move the robot away from the object so we can now
turn just the left-hand motor on for 2 seconds before
continuing on its new path. This is a big step – we’re
implementing AI and making the robot smart.
Variations can be made to refine our robot, such as
creating a reverse for the right-hand motor and having it
spin on the spot to create a new path to continue on.

“If an object presses the left microswitch, we

tell the motors to switch into reverse for a
second then stop. Hopefully this is long enough
to move the robot away from the object”

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 WorldMags.net Above left Placing the
microswitches takes a
little trial and error

Below left Swipe back

a few pages to see the
Frizting diagram for this

01 Mount the switch

Try to place the microswitches as close to the front of
the robot as possible, spaced far enough apart so we
can work out what direction the robot is facing when it
hits something.

02 Wire it up with the motor circuit

Finding a couple of spare tracks (vertical columns) on
the breadboard, add the GPIO jumper cable to the
pull-down resistor and connect the switch as shown
in the diagram.

“Mount the
switches to the
front of the
robot, fixing
it down with
double-sided
tape or Blu-tack
so the levers
can stick out”

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03 Log in with SSH WorldMags.net“When you
start the script,
As our robot will be starting to run around freely, it is
a good idea to provide the Raspberry Pi with its own the motors will
battery. Using Wi-Fi, we can remotely connect using start turning
SSH to emulate the Pi’s terminal. forward.
Pressing a
04 Create and save your work
As before with the motors, we shall create our script
switch should
using nano. Let’s do this by typing then reverse
nano bumpers.py the motors and
Saving different scripts allows the testing of individual spin one motor
parts. We can also use them as a reference for before going
creating bigger scripts. forward again”
05 Test it in situ
Copying the example script into bumpers.py,
followed by Ctrl+X with a Y to save, we can test it out
and make any hardware modifications. With the script
running, press a microswitch and see what happens!

06 Modify and improve your code

When you start the script, the motors will start turning Below left The script
forward. Pressing a switch should then reverse the you need to copy is on
the next page
motors and spin one motor before going forward
again. Play with the variables and tweak its response Below right We’re re-
using chunks of the
to your preference. movement code here

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The Code WorldMags.net
BUMPING ROBOT

import RPi.GPIO as GPIO Don’t fry

from time import sleep the Pi!
It is important
GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM) to check the
specifications of
any sensor to
GPIO.setup(18, GPIO.IN) make sure it is
GPIO.setup(15, GPIO.IN) compatible with
3.3V power supply.
GPIO.setup(24,GPIO.OUT)
GPIO.setup(23,GPIO.OUT)
GPIO.setup(25,GPIO.OUT)
GPIO.setup(9,GPIO.OUT)
GPIO.setup(10,GPIO.OUT)
GPIO.setup(11,GPIO.OUT)

Motor1 = GPIO.PWM(25, 50)

Motor1.start(0)
Motor2 = GPIO.PWM(11, 50)
Motor2.start(0) “Variations
can be made
def forward(speed):
GPIO.output(24,GPIO.HIGH)
to refine our
GPIO.output(23,GPIO.LOW) robot, such
GPIO.output(9,GPIO.HIGH) as creating a
GPIO.output(10,GPIO.LOW) reverse for
Motor1.ChangeDutyCycle(speed)
the right-hand
Motor2.ChangeDutyCycle(speed)
motor and
def backward(speed): having it spin
GPIO.output(24,GPIO.LOW) on the spot to
GPIO.output(23,GPIO.HIGH) create a new
GPIO.output(9,GPIO.LOW)
path”

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The Code WorldMags.net
BUMPING ROBOT

GPIO.output(10,GPIO.HIGH) Digital
Motor1.ChangeDutyCycle(speed) switches
Motor2.ChangeDutyCycle(speed) A switch is a
perfect digital
def left(speed): signal, as it can
GPIO.output(24,GPIO.HIGH) only be one of two
GPIO.output(23,GPIO.LOW) states: on or off.
Motor1.ChangeDutyCycle(speed)

def right(speed):
GPIO.output(9,GPIO.HIGH)
GPIO.output(10,GPIO.LOW)
Motor2.ChangeDutyCycle(speed)

def stop():
Motor1.ChangeDutyCycle(0)
Motor2.ChangeDutyCycle(0)

while True:
inputleft = GPIO.input(18)
inputright = GPIO.input(15)
if inputleft:
print “Left pressed”
backward(100)
sleep(1)
stop()
“Creating a
left(75)
sleep(2)
while True: loop
elif inputright: will create an
print “Right pressed” infinite loop, as
backward(100) the condition is
sleep(1)
always true”

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The Code WorldMags.net
BUMPING ROBOT

stop()
right(75)
sleep(2)
else:
forward(75)
sleep(0.1)

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Line-following sensors
Give your robot a track to follow using masking
tape or inked paper

So far the robot can decide its own path, which

is a great thing for it to do, but it could end up
in trouble. Let’s help it follow a set path.
One solution is to add some line sensors to the
underside so we are able to control it by using some
masking tape on a dark floor (or some dark tape on a light
floor). This can be used in a number of different ways.
By marking a line on the floor, we can get the robot
to follow it obediently; even by throwing in a few curves, it
should be able to navigate a set path. Or it is possible to
tackle it another way by adding a perimeter around the
robot, allowing us to restrict the robot to a box or set area.
Line following is best achieved with two-wheeled
robots as their ability to quickly change direction is
important. The principal is that as a sensor is triggered
we can stop a corresponding motor, allowing the robot to
swing around to stay on the line.

THE PROJECT
ESSENTIALS
“Add some line sensors to the underside so we Breadboard
Jumper cables
are able to control it by using some masking 2x 2N3904 transistors
tape on a dark floor (or some dark tape on a 2x 1K resistors
2x Line detector sensors
light floor)”

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Lower the current WorldMags.net Safety first
The transistors only need a small
Thanks to the transistor,
amount of current to actually work; we have a much safer
a resistor helps to smooth out the voltage going back into
sensors’ output the GPIO pins when
using 5-volt electronics

Line sensors Power

Sensors come in a Most sensors are only Making voltage safer
variety of shapes and available in 5-volt Transistors work just like a
sizes, but most have form; we need a switch, being able to turn
a common set of pins; transistor to switch the power on and off. Using it to
the important one is the voltage to a Raspberry switch the 3.3V power to the
OUT pin Pi-safe level GPIO is a much safer method

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 WorldMags.net
Testing the line sensors
Now you’ve given your robot eyes, let’s try them out

“This Python
With the line sensors wired up and the script is very
Raspberry Pi switched on, we can now test
similar to the
them. This Python script is very similar to the
microswitch test code because we are just reading the microswitch
GPIO pin’s status, checking if it is high (a 1 or on) or if it is test code
low (0 or off). because we
As some sensors work differently to others, we need are just reading
help to understand the output. Displaying the current the GPIO pin’s
sensor data on the screen allows us to work out how the
status”
sensor responds on black and white surfaces and plan
the code accordingly.

01 Start your project

Log in via SSH or start a terminal on your Raspberry
Pi and create the linefollow.py script with nano
linefollow.py. This will be our test script for the
finished line-following robot.

02 Read the sensors

Copy the test script into the file. As each sensor is
slightly different, we may need to tweak the code
slightly to suit, so test what you have and interpret
the output.

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 WorldMags.net

03 Print to screen “Displaying the

Save the file as before. You’ll notice the code we’ve current sensor
supplied has print statements to show if the sensor is data on the
picking up any difference between light surfaces and
screen allows
dark surfaces.
us to work out
04 We have data how the sensor
If everything is wired up correctly, the screen will start responds on
filling up with sensor data, letting us know if it can see black and white
black or white. Put some paper in front of the sensor surfaces”
to try it out.

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The Code WorldMags.net
TESTING THE LINE SENSORS

import RPi.GPIO as GPIO “If everything

from time import sleep is wired up
correctly, the
GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)
screen will
Input1 = 7 start filling up
Input2 = 8 with sensor
data, letting us
GPIO.setup(Input1,GPIO.IN)
know if it can
GPIO.setup(Input2,GPIO.IN)
see black or
white”
while True:
Sensor1 = GPIO.input(Input1)
Sensor2 = GPIO.input(Input2)

if Sensor1 == GPIO.HIGH:
print “Sensor 1 is on White”
else:
print “Sensor 1 is on Black”

if Sensor2 == GPIO.HIGH:
print “Sensor 2 is on White”
else:
print “Sensor 2 is on Black”

print “------”
sleep(1)

GPIO.cleanup()

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Finalise your
line-following bot
It can see! Now put its new eyes to good use…

By now we should be used to controlling the

motors, so building on that knowledge we
can start to concentrate on the sensors. Most
line followers use the same convention as microswitches,
giving a high output to signal the sensor is over a black
surface and a low output (or off) to signal that it’s over a Big business
white surface. Some manufacturing
When using a white masking tape line, we want the plants use lines to
motor to stop when the sensor is touching the line, giving guide robots around
the other side a chance to turn the robot in order to correct warehouses in an
its position. identical way to our
The code is nice and simple, so it can be easily
robot, but on a much
modified to suit your own situation.
larger scale.
01 Mount the sensor
Using the hexagonal
mounting rods, mount
the sensors at about
10mm to cope with
uneven floors. Most
sensors will be sensitive
enough at that distance;
if not, there will be a
potentiometer to adjust
the sensitivity.

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 WorldMags.net

02 Adding to your breadboard Above Fix the sensors

securely, so they don’t
There should be plenty of room on your robot’s get knocked off
breadboard, but make sure you use all the available
‘tracks’. Keep your different types of sensors in their
own little areas – get to know them so you can debug
the hardware easily.

03 Add the sensor circuit

Place the two transistors and resistors on the
breadboard, checking each pin is in its own column.
Add the jumper cables from the sensors and power
lines, and then to the GPIO pins.

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04 Power up and log on
Connect the batteries for the motors and add power
to the Raspberry Pi. Now log in using SSH on your
computer so we are able to create our motor-
controlled line sensor code.

05 Creating the script

As you can see on the next page, the code for the
line-following robot is similar to our previous code.
While True: ensures the code loops until we stop it,
and we’ve kept print statements in for debugging.

06 Testing your new script

All being well, your robot will now scoot off and find a
line to follow. There are plenty of ways to improve and
add to this code to make the bot’s movements along
Below Nano the new
the line smoother. It’s also quite trivial to build this into file and add the code
your existing code. from the next page

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The Code WorldMags.net
BUMPING ROBOT

import RPi.GPIO as GPIO Sudo Python?

from time import sleep Prefix with
sudo to elevate
GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM) a program’s
permission level
to a superuser. It’s
GPIO.setup(7, GPIO.IN) required to control
GPIO.setup(8, GPIO.IN) the GPIO pins from
Python, so don’t
GPIO.setup(24,GPIO.OUT) forget it!
GPIO.setup(23,GPIO.OUT)
GPIO.setup(25,GPIO.OUT)
GPIO.setup(9,GPIO.OUT)
GPIO.setup(10,GPIO.OUT)
GPIO.setup(11,GPIO.OUT)

Motor1 = GPIO.PWM(25, 50)

Motor1.start(0)
Motor2 = GPIO.PWM(11, 50)
Motor2.start(0)

def forward(speed):
GPIO.output(24,GPIO.HIGH)
GPIO.output(23,GPIO.LOW)
GPIO.output(9,GPIO.HIGH)
GPIO.output(10,GPIO.LOW)
Motor1.ChangeDutyCycle(speed)
Motor2.ChangeDutyCycle(speed)

def backward(speed):
GPIO.output(24,GPIO.LOW)
GPIO.output(23,GPIO.HIGH)
GPIO.output(9,GPIO.LOW)

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The Code WorldMags.net
BUMPING ROBOT

GPIO.output(10,GPIO.HIGH) “The code is

Motor1.ChangeDutyCycle(speed) similar to our
Motor2.ChangeDutyCycle(speed)
previous code.
def left(speed): While True:
GPIO.output(24,GPIO.HIGH) ensures the
GPIO.output(23,GPIO.LOW) code loops until
Motor1.ChangeDutyCycle(speed) we stop it”
def right(speed):
GPIO.output(9,GPIO.HIGH)
GPIO.output(10,GPIO.LOW)
Motor2.ChangeDutyCycle(speed)

def stop():
Motor1.ChangeDutyCycle(0)
Motor2.ChangeDutyCycle(0)

while True:
sensor1 = GPIO.input(7)
sensor2 = GPIO.input(8)
if sensor1 == GPIO.LOW:
print “Sensor 1 is on white”
stop()
else:
left(60)
if sensor2 == GPIO.LOW:
print “Sensor 2 is on white”
stop()
else:
right(60)
sleep(0.05)

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 WorldMags.net
Ultrasonic sensing
Now that the robot can touch, and it can see beneath its
wheels, what about a new type of sight?

THE PROJECT
Let’s start making things a little more complicated ESSENTIALS
Dagu pan & tilt kit
by adding an ultrasonic sensor and placing it Jumper cables
onto a pan-and-tilt mounting. Ultrasonic sensors Seeed Studio ultrasonic
are used in different ways to judge distance by emitting an sensor
2x 2K2 resistors
ultrasonic pulse and counting how long it takes to bounce 1x 10K resistor
off an object then back to the receiver. Cars that come with
reverse parking sensors work in the same way to give an
audible tone depending on how far away an object is.
Using an ultrasonic sensor on your robot will give it a
chance to take action as it approaches an object such as a
wall, with enough time to evaluate and choose a new path.
Ultrasonic sensors come in two varieties, based on
the number of pins. Both types work in a very similar way.
Since we would like to use the same Python code for both,
we would wire the 4-pin sensor to act like a 3-pin ultrasonic
sensor. However, we will focus on the affordable 3-pin model
from Dawn Robotics.
As we only require one GPIO pin, we will first need to set
it as an output and send a 10ms pulse to trigger the sensor
to start and begin counting. Next we switch to an input to
wait for the pin to go high, at which point we stop timing
and calculate how long that took. The last thing needed is to
convert the time in sound into a measurement we can read,
in this case centimetres.

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Voltage divider WorldMags.netWe’re using a 3-pin 3-Pin sensor
As again we are dealing with 5-volt
sensors, we need to lower the voltage sensor which has a
to 3.3 volts to make it safer for use with combined Echo/Trig
the Raspberry Pi pin. The functions
perform the same as
on the 4-pin

4-Pin sensor? Just one GPIO pin

The most common is the 4-pin To save on GPIO pins, one pin
HC-SR04, capable of calculating will switch quickly between
distances up to 4 metres. Aside output and input to send and
from the power and ground, it receive a pulse. This will work
contains Trig and Echo pins with 4-pin models too

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Add a pan-and-tilt kit
Wouldn’t it be great to take readings from different angles?
Here’s how…

Pan-and-tilt mounts are very useful since they

can be combined with any sort of sensor, giving
the robot an ability to ‘move its head’ around and
sense what is around it without physically moving its body.
The panning and tilting is controlled by two special motors
called servos.
Servos allow very precise movement within their range,
typically between 0 and 180 degrees. They do this by using
some very precise timing to send a pulse. The time between
the pulses tells the servo its angle.
Typically the Raspberry Pi, being a not-so-great real-time
device, would sometimes struggle maintaining a steady
pulse, as it could forget what it was doing and go off to check
some emails, for instance. Therefore Richard Hirst wrote a
kernel for Linux called ServoBlaster, which handles the timing
required perfectly, regardless of how much is happening. The
kernel takes control of some of the timing registers to provide
an accurate clock. All that is required is to send the angle you
need to /dev/servoblaster and the servo will spring to life!

“Servos allow very precise movement within

their range, typically between 0 and 180
degrees. They do this by using some very
precise timing to send a pulse”

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Installing your pan & tilt
It’s a fiddly job, but well worth the trouble

Now we’ve taken care of the circuit, let’s set

them up; first we need to get the kernel so let’s
download that now. Type the following into your
RasPi terminal:
wget https://github.com/Boeeerb/LinuxUser/raw/
master/servod
And make it executable:
chmod +x servod

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 WorldMags.netWhat are
Lastly, run it – remember, every time you reboot or switch
on your Pi, you will just need to type this line: servos?
sudo ./servod If the robot doesn’t
The pre-compiled kernel is already configured to use act like it should,
pins 4 and 22 as servos, so let’s hook everything up. or the servo goes
The servos will need to be powered separately as they the wrong way, just
are at heart just motors with a little bit of circuitry. swap the servo data
The code we have (listed just after this section) will
pins around. Double-
combine the wheel motors, servos and ultrasonic. The end
check your code and
result will involve the robot moving forward until it senses an
give it another try.
object less than 30cm away, stop, then turn the pan-and-
tilt left, check the distance, then turn the ultrasonic on the
pan-and-tilt right and pick whichever direction has a further
distance until the next object.

01 Assemble the kit

The pan-and-tilt mount allows a full view of 180
degrees from left to right, up and down – great for
adding ultrasonics or even a camera. The servos give
the perfect control for this.

02 Connect the servos

The servos are still a motor, so it is advisable to give
them their own power separate from the Raspberry
Pi. Take note of the voltage required; most allow up to “The code we
6 volts, some less. It can share the same batteries as have (listed
the motors. just after this
section) will
03 Don’t forget the kernel
To get full control over the servos, we need servod
combine the
(ServoBlaster) running. So download this and make it wheel motors,
executable with chmod +x servod and run it with servos and
sudo ./servod. ultrasonic”

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 WorldMags.net“The
04 Create your script screen
should fill
Now we can create the test script. Swipe to the next
page to see the full code listing and then start typing with distance
it in – there’s a fair bit, but it’s a great way to get your data so we
code-writing muscle memory working! can see what
is happening
05 And she’s off…
When you set off the script, the screen should fill with
and check on
distance data so we can see what is happening and the direction it
check on the direction it decides to take. It may pose decides to take”
a challenge if it gets stuck in a corner - see if you can
debug it.

06 Debugging problems
If the robot doesn’t act like it should, or the servo goes Below Test each
the wrong way, just swap the servo data pins around. function to ensure all
motors and servos
Double-check your code and give it another try. work as planned

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The Code WorldMags.net
THE COMPLETE ULTRASONIC CODE

import RPi.GPIO as GPIO “As we only

from time import sleep require one
from time import time
GPIO pin, we
import os
will first need
GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM) to set it as an
output and
GPIO.setup(24,GPIO.OUT) send a 10ms
GPIO.setup(23,GPIO.OUT)
pulse to trigger
GPIO.setup(25,GPIO.OUT)
GPIO.setup(9,GPIO.OUT) the sensor to
GPIO.setup(10,GPIO.OUT) start and begin
GPIO.setup(11,GPIO.OUT) counting”
Motor1 = GPIO.PWM(25, 50)
Motor1.start(0)
Motor2 = GPIO.PWM(11, 50)
Motor2.start(0)

Echo = 17
Pan = 22
Tilt = 4

def forward(speed):
GPIO.output(24,GPIO.HIGH)
GPIO.output(23,GPIO.LOW)
GPIO.output(9,GPIO.HIGH)
GPIO.output(10,GPIO.LOW)
Motor1.ChangeDutyCycle(speed)
Motor2.ChangeDutyCycle(speed)

def backward(speed):
GPIO.output(24,GPIO.LOW)

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The Code WorldMags.net
THE COMPLETE ULTRASONIC CODE

GPIO.output(23,GPIO.HIGH) “Next we
GPIO.output(9,GPIO.LOW) switch to an
GPIO.output(10,GPIO.HIGH)
input to wait for
Motor1.ChangeDutyCycle(speed)
Motor2.ChangeDutyCycle(speed) the pin to go
high, at which
def left(speed): point we stop
GPIO.output(24,GPIO.HIGH) timing and
GPIO.output(23,GPIO.LOW)
calculate how
Motor1.ChangeDutyCycle(speed)
long that took”
def right(speed):
GPIO.output(9,GPIO.HIGH)
GPIO.output(10,GPIO.LOW)
Motor2.ChangeDutyCycle(speed)

def stop():
Motor1.ChangeDutyCycle(0)
Motor2.ChangeDutyCycle(0)

def get_range():
GPIO.setup(Echo,GPIO.OUT)
GPIO.output(Echo, 0)
sleep(0.1)
GPIO.output(Echo,1)
sleep(0.00001)
GPIO.output(Echo,0)

GPIO.setup(Echo,GPIO.IN)
while GPIO.input(Echo) == 0:
pass
start = time()

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The Code WorldMags.net
THE COMPLETE ULTRASONIC CODE

while GPIO.input(Echo) == 1: “ServoBlaster

pass handles the
stop = time()
timing required
elapsed = stop - start
distance = elapsed * 17000 perfectly. All
return distance that is required
is to send the
angle you
while True:
need to /dev/
distance = get_range()
if distance < 30: servoblaster”
print “Distance %.1f ” % distance
stop()
string = “echo 0=10 > /dev/servoblaster”
os.system(string)
sleep(1)
disleft = get_range()
print “Left %.1f ” % disleft

string = “echo 0=360 > /dev/servoblaster”

os.system(string)
sleep(1)
disright = get_range()
print “Right %.1f ” % disright

if disleft < disright:

print “Turn right”
left(100)
sleep(2)
else:
print “Turn left”
right(100)
sleep(2)

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The Code WorldMags.net
THE COMPLETE ULTRASONIC CODE

os.system(“echo 0=160 > /dev/servoblaster”) “If the robot

doesn’t act like
else:
it should, or the
forward(80)
print “Distance %.1f “ % distance servo goes the
wrong way,
sleep(0.5) just swap the
servo data pins
GPIO.cleanup()
around”

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 WorldMags.net
Use analogue sensors
Open your robot up to a new world of input

THE PROJECT
As we’ve already shown using microswitches ESSENTIALS
and ultrasonic sensors, the Raspberry Pi is 1x MCP3008
very capable of taking inputs and performing 2x Light-dependent
resistors (LDRs)
actions based on the outside world. Inputs also come 2x 10K resistors
in a variety of different types. Most common are digital Jumper wires
sensors such as buttons and switches, but there are
also analogue sensors which can be used to read
temperatures or brightness. These sensors give their data
in the form of a voltage.
The Raspberry Pi is unable to read an analogue
signal natively, so a little help is required and this
comes in the form of a microchip called an MCP3008.
This chip is commonly referred to as an ADC (analogue-
to-digital converter). It can communicate with the
Raspberry Pi via serial and is capable of reading eight
analogue inputs at once and giving their voltage in the
form of a number: 0 will correspond to the lowest, while
1023 is the maximum voltage.
Using analogue, we can build a robot that is capable
of following (or avoiding) bright light – perfect if you wish to
have a plant pot follow the sun during the day.

“The Raspberry Pi is very capable of taking

inputs and performing actions based on the
outside world”
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3.3V Power WorldMags.net Data cables
Make sure the chip is hooked up to
The MCP3008 communicates via
the 3V3 pin and not the 5V pin on a serial protocol called SPI, Serial
the Raspberry Pi, otherwise it will kill Peripheral Interface. More than one
the processor can be used at the same time

Pull-down resistors
The sensors To give a stable reading,
MCP3008 The light-dependent we have to give it a basic
The heart of the resistors (LDRs) change reference point for the
analogue-to-digital their voltage based on the voltage, so a pull-down
conversion amount of light they receive resistor is required

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 WorldMags.net

Test, test and test again

Like good computer scientists we’ll check it works first

Now we have wired the ADC, we need to make

sure it works. So before we add it into our robot
we shall use Python to read the values and
display them on the screen. Doing this will help get an
overall idea of what to expect when the sensor is in bright
light, and how different the numbers will be when they are
in the dark.

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 WorldMags.net“From
Before we can interface with the MCP3008, we need
left to
enable the serial drivers and install a Python library called
right on the chip
spidev, so let’s do this before anything else.
Open up a terminal, or connect to your Raspberry Pi, the channels
and then type in the following commands: start at 0 and
sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/raspi-blacklist. go all the way
conf to 7”
And add a # to the start of each line in the file, then…
sudo apt-get install python-pip python-dev
sudo pip install spidev
sudo reboot

Once this is done, we are now free to start reading

some analogue sensors!
The first two lines in our test code is to tell Python what
libraries we need. Now we need to tell Python to create a
new instance and tell it what channel our MCP3008 chip is
on, this is handled by the next two lines.
We are nearly ready, so we’ll define a function which
will handle communication and returning it to our script so
that we can act upon its value called ‘get_value’.
From left to right on the chip the channels start at 0
and go all the way to 7, so using this we combine with the
get_value function to retrieve our value.

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The Code WorldMags.net
TESTING THE ANALOGUE-TO-DIGITAL CONVERTER

import spidev “Make sure the

import time chip is hooked
up to the 3V3
spi = spidev.SpiDev()
spi.open(0,0) pin and not
the 5V pin on
the Raspberry
def get_value(channel): Pi, otherwise
if ((channel > 7) or (channel < 0)):
it will kill
return -1
the processor”
r = spi.xfer2([1,(8+channel)<<4,0])

ret = ((r[1]&3) << 8) + (r[2] >> 2)

return ret

while True:
print “Chan 0: “ + str(get_value(0))
print “Chan 1: “ + str(get_value(1))
time.sleep(0.3)

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Sensing light with the
Raspberry Pi
With everything connected up, let’s go chase some light

Hopefully we have a set of numbers scrolling “It is best to

down the screen, and have tested it by covering place the LDRs
a sensor or shining a torch to see how it affects
apart, pointing
the readings. Now we can mount the LDRs to the front of
the robot to allow it to sense the level of light. The aim now
outwards”
is to tell the robot to move forward at a slower pace, using
a speed of 75. As the LDRs are constantly checking the light
levels, if one should rise above 600 (by a torch shining at
it, for instance) it will prompt the opposite wheel to speed
up to turn towards the light. As each lighting situation will
be slightly different, perform the test script to get an idea
of the values that will be expected from the LDRs. These
will fluctuate depending on the
ambient light levels.

01 Mount the LDRs

It is best to place them apart,
pointing outwards, to get a
good idea of the different
lighting available. If the wiring
on the breadboard starts
getting difficult, add another
breadboard to separate the
two ICs.

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02 Change the motors Above Wiring can get

confusing at times – if
As we are using the SPI serial bus for the MCP3008 you need to, you can
communication, we will need to move the motor always add another
breadboard
driver pins to a different set of GPIO pins, so we shall
switch pins 8, 9 and 10 to 22, 27/21 and 17.

03 Double-check everything
As we have a lot of power types – we are using
3V3 for the MCP3008, 5V to the L293D and also the
batteries – it is best to check they are all correctly
wired up. Once it looks good, add some power and
log into the Pi.

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04 Create the scriptWorldMags.net
Once everything is connected, we shall use nano to
write our Python script: type
nano analog.py
…to create the file. Copy the code. Exit nano with
Ctrl+X and then Y and Enter to save the file. It should
be second nature by now!

05 Run the script

All that is required is to type
sudo python analog.py
…to run the program. The robot should start to follow
the brightest light source. If not, check your code and
connections or go back to the testing code to debug.

06 Something is wrong
If you’re sure it’s working properly, it could be that
a tweak to the value may be needed. Run the test
script again to get a suitable number to replace the
600 currently used. Remember – testing at different
times of day may require you to change some of
your variables.

Left If things aren’t

working the way they
should, always go
back and check your
code and connections

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The Code WorldMags.net
THE COMPLETE ANALOGUE CODE

import spidev Experiment

import time Try stopping the
bot when the light
spi = spidev.SpiDev()
goes below a value;
spi.open(0,0)
or if a torch shines
GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM) on an LDR sensor,
spin around for 5
GPIO.setup(27,GPIO.OUT) seconds.
GPIO.setup(17,GPIO.OUT)
GPIO.setup(22,GPIO.OUT)
GPIO.setup(9,GPIO.OUT)
GPIO.setup(10,GPIO.OUT)
GPIO.setup(11,GPIO.OUT)

Motor1 = GPIO.PWM(22, 50)

Motor1.start(0)
Motor2 = GPIO.PWM(11, 50)
Motor2.start(0)

def forward(speed):
GPIO.output(27,GPIO.HIGH)
GPIO.output(17,GPIO.LOW)
GPIO.output(9,GPIO.HIGH)
GPIO.output(10,GPIO.LOW)
Motor1.ChangeDutyCycle(speed)
Motor2.ChangeDutyCycle(speed)

def backward(speed):
GPIO.output(27,GPIO.LOW)
GPIO.output(17,GPIO.HIGH)
GPIO.output(9,GPIO.LOW)

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The Code WorldMags.net
THE COMPLETE ANALOGUE CODE

GPIO.output(10,GPIO.HIGH) MCP3008/
Motor1.ChangeDutyCycle(speed) MCP3004
Motor2.ChangeDutyCycle(speed) A smaller ADC chip
called the MCP3004
def left(speed):
is also available, it
GPIO.output(27,GPIO.HIGH)
GPIO.output(17,GPIO.LOW) only has 4 analogue
Motor1.ChangeDutyCycle(speed) channels as
opposed to 8 with
def right(speed): the MCP3008.
GPIO.output(9,GPIO.HIGH)
GPIO.output(10,GPIO.LOW)
Motor2.ChangeDutyCycle(speed)

def stop():
Motor1.ChangeDutyCycle(0)
Motor2.ChangeDutyCycle(0)

def get_value(channel):
if ((channel > 7) or (channel < 0)):
return -1

r = spi.xfer2([1,(8+channel)<<4,0])

ret = ((r[1]&3) << 8) + (r[2] >> 2)

return ret

while True:
ldr_left = get_value(0)
ldr_right = get_value(1)

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THE COMPLETE ANALOGUE CODE

“As each
if ldr_left > 600: lighting situation
print “Turn right”
will be slightly
right(100)
elif ldr_right > 600: different,
print “Turn left” perform the
left(100) test script to
else: get an idea of
forward(75)
the values that
time.sleep(0.25) will be expected
from the LDRs”

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 WorldMags.net

What next?
So you’ve finished building our project robot and you’re
wondering what’s next…
There are loads of choices, which is one of the “With a bigger
attractive things about robotics, and really you’re platform, you
only limited by your time and imagination. You could also
could choose to expand your robot’s hardware, add an arm to
adding more sensors as your knowledge and confidence
your robot so
improves, so that your robot can learn more about the world.
Gas, light and sound… for practically any stimulus you can it doesn’t just
imagine, there’s the corresponding sensor that you can add sense the world
to your robot. With a bigger platform, you could also add an – it can also pick
arm to your robot so it doesn’t just sense the world – it can up bits of the
also pick up bits of the world and move them around. Here world”
are a couple of ideas you could try…

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 WorldMags.net

“The Raspberry
Facial recognition
With the simple addition of the Raspberry Pi’s camera Pi comes with
module and OpenCV software, face detection and an audio output.
recognition is possible. You could do this by replacing the So combining
ultrasonic from the pan-and-tilt mount with the camera; this with a
this will then allow the camera to move about and follow travel speaker
your movements.
will unlock a
Learning to talk new world of
The Raspberry Pi comes with an audio output. So communication”
combining this with a travel speaker will unlock a new
world of communication for your robot. Using a Python-
friendly speech module like eSpeak, you can teach your
robot to talk, sing or simply report readings for debugging

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 WorldMags.net

purposes. This can add another human element to your

creation, but adding speech recognition with a USB
microphone, or similar, can take it to a whole
new level.

Spatial analysis
Using the ultrasonic sensor with the pan-and-tilt kit
on your robot, you can effectively measure every wall “Adding speech
and every object in a room – a popular specialism in recognition
computer science. So by taking a series of measurements with a USB
in different directions, controlled by the servos in the pan- microphone, or
and-tilt mount, it is possible to make a map. With another similar, can take
sprinkling of code and gadgetry, you could teach your bot
it to a whole
to navigate your house. PID is an excellent field that can
certainly help with this.
new level”

WorldMags.net
Swarming WorldMags.net“Using just
a little more
Swarming is an interesting branch of computer science.
Using just a little more code than we already have, we code than we
can create behaviour similar to that of a swarm of bees, already have,
or ants. A swarm of robots could discover an area quickly, we can create
or be used to scientifically model traffic-calming measures. behaviour
You could even create your own synchronised routines, or similar to that
build a robot football team.
of a swarm of
Robot arm bees, or ants”
Everyone would love a robotic helper, perfect for
performing tasks around the house. Unfortunately we
aren’t there yet, but we can come close. By mounting a
small gripper arm to the front of the robot, it can fetch
lightweight items. With the help of the Pi camera module,
or an RGB colour sensor, you could colour-sort LEGO bricks
or entertain a pet.

Maze solving
Path finding and maze solving are other exciting branches
of computer science you can attempt with your RasPi
robot. Competitions are held around the world to be
the fastest to solve a maze, using lines on the floor or
ultrasonic sensors. All you need is a mechanism to recall
past movements and a scientific approach to the robot’s
attitude to maze solving.

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 WorldMags.net
Bioscope
A hand-cranked film player from the 19th Century,
updated for the modern era. How and why was
the Bioscope created?

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 Where did the idea for the Bioscope initially
WorldMags.net
come from?
Jon Stam: I was on vacation in Italy. I went to
a flea market and I came across an old Mupi, which was
the name of the toy company that produced this 8mm
movie viewer. In the States, most people know it as a
Fisher Price toy that already existed, but I actually never
ever saw it before in my life. I knew the View-Master but Simon de Bakker
never this movie viewer. I was watching an animated has a background
movie, thinking how it was amazing to see this, and then in interactive
wondered about putting your own content on the device. design and has
What if your own home movies could be played in this been working
way, where you can actually stop at the most beautiful for ten years at
part and speed up through the more boring parts. As the V2 Institute in
soon as I came back, I went to Simon’s and we agreed Rotterdam, at the
to do it, thinking it would be even more exciting than the V2 Lab.
View-Master.

How did you two meet and create your own

company?
Simon de Bakker: I met him when he was looking for
technical help for one of his projects, the Imaginary
Museum. It’s a digitised View-Master, basically, and sort
of a predecessor for the Bioscope. I did the technical part Jon Stam has
for that project. It worked quite well, actually, and we studied both
decided to continue on that basis. industrial and
JS: I started working with Simon on a few projects, and product design
after a couple of them finished we actually realised that in Canada and
we work perfectly together. We have complementary skill the Netherlands
sets and we got along, becoming really good friends. We respectively. In the
Netherlands his
design work was
“The Raspberry Pi ended up just fitting exactly more artistically
in the case we wanted. And it had a composite focused .

output, which we also needed”

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realised if we teamed up then we could start working on If you like
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more ambitious projects. One of the side-
projects resulting
What influenced your decision to use the Raspberry Pi from the Bioscope
in the project? is the Raspberry Pi
SdB: When we started the project, the Pi wasn’t out Power Shield, an
yet. It was just before it really came out, so it had been extremely portable
announced at that point. I actually had two on pre-order and rechargeable
and we were just waiting for them to come in. We had the power supply for
idea for the Bioscope and we applied for residency at the the Raspberry Pi.
V2 Institute where I was working at that time. And we got
accepted to do this project, where it was made during the Further reading
summer sessions. We were looking for some hardware To learn more
to actually build it – most of the boards are pretty square. about the Bioscope
The Raspberry Pi ended up just fitting exactly in the case and the Power
we wanted. And it had a composite output, which we also Shield, visit
needed. In the end, we started the project two weeks www.simbits.nl
before it was supposed to be delivered. Good timing!

Left The Raspberry Pi

fits perfectly within
the Bioscope’s case,
which is one of the
reasons they decided
to use it

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 WorldMags.net

Above The Power

How has it been working with the Raspberry Pi? Shield is an essential
SdB: We’re not even pushing it that much. It only displays part of the Bioscope,
small video in a custom format, so we can also go and a side project in
its own right
backwards and forwards. We’re not demanding a lot
from it. The biggest problem we had from it is that it’s only
USB powered. And we wanted to have a mobile device, a
battery-powered device. What I did was design a shield
with a Lithium-ion charger, a few SMPSs (switch mode
power supplies) and some extras. So we could finally “We wanted to
power it from one Lithium-ion cell, and also recharge and have a battery-
monitor the battery and things like that. powered device.
What I did was
Have you considered releasing it as a product? design a shield
SdB: We’ve been thinking about that, and actually we’re
pretty still a bit indecisive on that part. It’s very difficult to
with a Lithium-
get it into production; it looks like a simple thing, but there ion charger, a
are a lot of different components in there. few SMPSs and
JS: We feel that there is a potential to actually produce it in some extras”

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larger quantities. However, the way that we’re producing
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it now ends up with it being a rather expensive device.
We’re still actually curious and open to the different
possibilities, and we’ve been talking to some people that
actually want to commercialise it. We’re not 100 per cent
sure exactly where that’s going or not.

So then, what are your future plans for the Bioscope?

JS: Right now, we’ve been getting requests to get it into
exhibitions, and also some companies are interested in
just using unique ways to show their content. We’re still
trying to figure out where this project is going. We each
have one on our shelves, but we don’t want it to be a
shelf project. Still, the reality is we’re making actual, fully
finished working products. They’re not prototypes. But
the whole market for the Bioscope is still in question. The
bigger installations that we’re doing with other projects
seem to be a bit easier to get off the ground because
they’re is budget for them in a specific place. As it stands,
we do have a few projects lined up for the near future,
and right now we’re working on some new stuff too. We’re
still interested in letting everyone be able to actually have
access to the things that we’re making.

“We do have
a few projects
lined up for the
near future, and
right now we’re
working on
some new
stuff too”

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 WorldMags.net
What is a GertDuino?
A Raspberry Pi accessory with an odd
name, it’s essential for making some
amazing projects

“The GertDuino is capable of

all of the functions that similar
Arduinos can perform”

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Q The GertDuino is an accessory. That’s a bit of a What
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vague term. Can you be a little more specific? makes up
A The GertDuino is basically another circuit board that you GertDuino?
can attach to the Raspberry Pi, extending its functionality The individual
beyond the original chips and ports and such. components that a
GertDuino replaces:

Q A circuit board connected to another circuit board. I

see. What’s with the name, though? Sounds familiar.
A Well it’s named after two things. Firstly, Gert is the
name of the guy who invented it – Gert van Loo. He’s a
hardware engineer who’s been working on the Raspberry
Arduino Uno
Pi since the alpha boards, and currently still volunteers at The crown
the Foundation. He’s an active mod on the forums, and jewel of Arduino
worked on the Raspberry Pi camera board as well. microcontrollers right
now, it’s used by a lot
of people to power a
Q Oh yeah, didn’t he release another circuit board lot of Arduino-based
projects. It uses the
with his name on? ATmega 328 chip, the
A That’s correct: Gert also invented the Gertboard, another same as can be found
on the GertDuino.
Raspberry Pi accessory.

Q So how is that different from the GertDuino? Is the

GertDuino a Gertboard upgrade?
A Not exactly. The Gertboard extends the functionality of
the GPIO ports on the Raspberry Pi, allowing you to power
motors, detect switches, illuminate LEDs and generally
Real-time clock
enable it to interact with the physical world. The GertDuino Using an ATmega 48
does a bit more than that. chip, the GertDuino
can offer the extra
functionality of
Q So the Gert part I now get, what’s with Duino? a high-precision
A Duino as in Arduino, the open source microcontroller clock, infrared data
association (IRDA, used
platform. GertDuino uses an Arduino microcontroller. for remote controls)
and even a backup
battery to help keep
Q That sort of answers my question, but what exactly the memory and the
is a microcontroller? clock alive.
A A microcontroller is a bit like a CPU; however, it

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has specific inputs and outputs that are specifically What
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programmable for the task at hand. It’s a lot more cost- makes up
and space-efficient than an entire computer system GertDuino?
built up to do it, as it manages to do all the operations
on a single chip. The type of microcontroller used in the
GertDuino has a lot of physical circuits, which means that
people do not need to build the physical board up around
the microcontroller.
Gertboard
In some ways a very
Q That sounds pretty neat. What’s the deal with it basic version of
being Arduino then? the GertDuino, the
Gertboard is one of
A Well, as we said, it’s open source. Open hardware. the first add-ons that
The specs are there for everyone to use, so it’s easily allowed the Raspberry
Pi to do some physical
implemented into the GertDuino with no licensing fee. computing. The
Arduino is also extremely popular as microcontrollers GertDuino board
manages to take this
go, making it easier for people to pick it up if they’ve got to another level.
experience with it.

Q Experience with it? Is there anything particularly

special about their operation?
A Arduinos can be controlled with the Arduino IDE, a
cross-platform language that is designed to be slightly
easier to use for people who don’t have any formal
training in coding. Even if you do write code in C, either
way it allows you to upload programs, or a sketch, to the
Arduino board itself.

Q Okay then, that also sounds pretty good. So the

GertDuino adds an Arduino chip to the Raspberry
Pi. Isn’t the Raspberry Pi already programmable and
small anyway?
A It’s not quite that simple – yes, the Raspberry Pi is a
full computer on a chip. However, it lacks the necessary
functions and I/O ports to be used the same way as an
Arduino chip/board. It’s sort of like trying to print because

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you have all of the software, but you still don’t have an
actual printer. WorldMags.net“Itchiphasonaitspecial
called
Q I’ll take your word for it. How does the GertDuino an ATmega 48,
connect to the Raspberry Pi? which offers
A Like the Gertboard and most other major add-ons, infrared signal
it’s connected via the GPIO ports. These are the major support, a
expansion ports for the Raspberry Pi, and it allows the Pi very precise
to properly speak with the Arduino chip. This allows you to
real-time clock
actually then program the Pi, which will then program the
Arduino to do the work you want it to do. as well as a
form of spare
Q Can you not connect a normal Arduino up to a battery”
Raspberry Pi then?
A Actually, you can. People have been using the
Raspberry Pi to help power Arduino boards since it first
came out.

Q So what’s the upside of using a GertDuino over a

standard Arduino board?
A Well for one, it’s actually pretty cheap compared to
an equivalent Arduino board, although it’s tied a bit
to the Raspberry Pi as a result. Secondly, it offers the
same functionality as one of the major Arduino boards,
the Arduino Uno. It’s also completely compatible with
everything that works with the Uno, and offers a few more
features on top of all that.

Q A few more features? Sounds promising. What

would those be then?
A Well, it has a special chip on it called an ATmega 48,
which offers infrared signal support, a very precise real-
time clock as well as a form of spare battery. The main
chip is called the ATmega 328, by the way. It can also
be unplugged from the Raspberry Pi once you’re done

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programming it, and it will work on its own thanks to the
ATmega 48’s battery.WorldMags.net“Arduino
powers a lot
Q So it sounds pretty nifty, but what can I use it to do? of physical
A Arduino powers a lot of physical hobby projects. Garage hobby projects.
door openers, robots, home breweries and even some Garage door
of the Makerbots. The GertDuino is capable of all of the openers,
functions that similar Arduinos can perform. Gert van robots, home
Loo himself has suggested that you can use it to time the
breweries and
opening of a chicken coop in the morning, or as a remote
for opening and closing curtains. even some of
the Makerbots”
Q Just for hobby projects? What about full commercial
projects?
A While Arduino boards are fantastic for rapid-prototyping
and tinkering with low financial risk, when your product
is complete it is usually a lot cheaper to start making
custom chips. For everyone else, though, it’s the most cost-
effective for both prototypes and final products.
Below The GertDuino
is designed to sit on
Q All right then, I think it’s time to get one. My Rube top of the Raspberry
Pi, so you’ll be able to
Goldberg alarm clock needs upgrading. Where do I fit both into a case if
get one of boards? you want to
A You can buy a board from
element14, which coincidentally
is one of the four major
distributors of Raspberry Pis.
The manual for the board
is also available there,
along with some basic
guides on how to use it,
and more useful information
on the board itself.

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 WorldMags.net

The tweeting motion sensor

Create an Internet of Things device able to takes pictures of
wildlife before tweeting them to the web

This project uses lots of the skills and

THE PROJECT
technology we’ve covered in RasPi so far and ESSENTIALS
raises the bar to include things like automated tweepy
Twitter updates and event detection. We’re going to create Internet connection
HC-SR501 PIR Infrared
our own little Internet of Things device that incorporates a sensor
simple PIR sensor (just £2.99/$5 from modmypi.com), the Camera board &
picamera library
Raspberry Pi Camera board and the power of the internet

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 WorldMags.net“We
to let us automagically capture images of birds (and other
don’t want
wildlife) before tweeting to a Twitter account of our choice
to send millions
whenever activity occurs.
of accidental
01 Configure the infrared sensor tweets to
Twitter, so
we should do
some pretty
extensive
testing”

Since this an automated device, we need a way to

trigger the camera when movement is sensed in our
camera’s target area. One affordable and easy-to-
configure solution is the HC-SR501 Infrared Motion
Sensor. The device itself has three pins – VCC (5V),
Ground and a signal pin that sits in the middle.
We’ve configured our script for the pir pin to trigger
GPIO pin 17 (it sits opposite the PWM pin). The VCC
pin is connected directly to the 5V power pin and
the Ground to the same Ground pin we’ve used
throughout the tutorials.

02 Test the PIR

We don’t want to send millions of accidental tweets to
Twitter, so we should do some pretty extensive testing
with the PIR first, using simple print statements to
show when motion has been detected. Visit github.
com/linuxusermag/tweety-pi and find the pir_

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 WorldMags.net
testing.py script. Copy it onto your Pi and run it with
your PIR connected. You’ll probably find that it’s over-
“You’ll find two
tiny adjustable
sensitive for your needs by default. You’ll find two tiny screws on the
adjustable screws on the PIR. Gently adjust them to PIR. Gently
the left to lower the sensitivity and test thoroughly until
adjust them to
you get the desired result.
the left to lower
03 Set up the project the sensitivity”
With the camera connected as per our previous
camera project, we need to tie the camera, motion
sensor and Twitter code together to make a tangible
project that can be left to do its job. We’ll walk through
the script, but it’s worth looking around our project by
cloning it from GitHub. In the terminal type:
git clone https://github.com/linuxusermag/
tweety-pi.git
Enter the project with cd tweety-pi to take a look
around. It’s been set up as a full (if a little basic)
project with a readme, licence and even a folder for
our pictures to sit in.

04 The callback function

One of the big changes in this project compared to our
previous ones is that we’re using the GPIO as an input,
instead of an output. Since we want the PIR sensor to
alert us to movement, we really want the PIR to interrupt
our script to let us know – that’s where our callback
function motion_sense() comes in. Looking further
down the script to the main program loop you’ll see a
GPIO.add_event_detect. Whenever the assigned
GPIO pin gets pinged, the script will stop what it is
doing and jump to the named callback function (in this
case motion_sense). This simple function then calls
the take_picture function below it.

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05 Simple chain WorldMags.net“After we call
our GPIO event
The entire chain of main functions that make up the
meat of the project are laid out in trigger order and detect line, we
all initiated from that initial callback function. Once create a simple
motion is detected the take_picture function is infinite loop
called. As soon as the image has been saved to the
/pics folder we call the update_twitter function.
to ensure the
Here, we’re loading our previously saved image and script keeps
using the Twitter API’s update_with_media method running”
to allow us to tweet our picture to the outside world.
We can set our status from within this line, but instead
of repeating the same phrase we use the random
module’s choice method to pick from a list of three
we’d assigned to the variable tweet_text earlier in
the script.

05 Main program loop

As we’ve done before, we’re placing our main
program loop in try, except, finally blocks to
ensure we can cleanly quit the program or clean up
should it crash for any reason. After we call our GPIO
event detect line, we create a simple infinite loop to
ensure the script keeps running. Pressing Ctrl+C
will break this loop, causing the program to end, but
not before finally calling the methods that close the
camera and shut-off the GPIO pins. If you don’t do
this, all kinds of issues can arise the next time you
run the script. And that’s all there is to it! Be sure to
use your knowledge on experimenting with other
Raspberry Pi projects – and have fun!

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The Code WorldMags.net
THE TWEETING MOTION SENSOR

#!/usr/bin/env python “The entire

import RPi.GPIO as GPIO chain of main
import random, time, os
import tweepy
functions that
import picamera make up the
meat of the
pir = 17 project are laid
GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM) out in trigger
GPIO.setup(pir, GPIO.IN)
order and
### TWITTER SETTINGS ### all initiated
# Set your access keys via https://apps.twitter.com from that
api_key = ‘your_api_key_number’ initial callback
api_secret = ‘your_api_secret_number’ function”
access_token = ‘your_access_token_number’
token_secret = ‘your_token_secret_number’
auth = tweepy.OAuthHandler(api_key, api_secret)
auth.set_access_token(access_token, token_secret)
api = tweepy.API(auth)
my_twitter = api.me()
print my_twitter.name, “is connected! Press CTRL + C to quit.”
# Three statuses. We’ll pick one at random to go with our pic
tweet_text = [‘Another shot taken with tweety-pi!’,
‘Just spotted with my Raspberry Pi’,
‘Snapped automagically with my Raspberry Pi camera!’]

### CAMERA SETTINGS ###

camera = PiCamera()
cam_res = (1024, 768)
camera.led = False # Turn off LED so we don’t scare the birds!
pics_taken = 0
time.sleep(1)

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The Code WorldMags.net
THE TWEETING MOTION SENSOR

### MAIN FUNCTIONS ###

def motion_sense(pir):
print “Motion detected... Taking picture!”
take_picture(cam_res)

def take_picture(resolution):
global pics_taken
camera.resolution = resolution
# Capture a sequence of frames
camera.capture(os.path.join(
‘pics’, ‘image_’ + str(pics_taken) + ‘.jpg’))
pics_taken += 1
print “Picture taken! Tweeting it...”””
update_twitter()

def update_twitter():
api.update_with_media(os.path.join(
‘pics’, ‘image_’ + str(pics_taken -1) + ‘.jpg’),
status = random.choice(tweet_text))
print “Status updated!”
#We don’t want to tweet more than once per minute!
time.sleep(60)

### MAIN PROGRAM LOOP ###

try:
GPIO.add_event_detect(pir, GPIO.RISING, callback=motion_sense)
while True:
time.sleep(60)
except KeyboardInterrupt:
print “\nQuitting”
finally:
camera.close()
GPIO.cleanup()

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 WorldMags.net
Raspberry Pi:
not unlimited
Memory is a limited resource on the Raspberry Pi.
What can you do to make the most of it in Python?

“With most basic In the first issue of RasPi, we

object types, the started with a quick look at Python
objects, including an introduction
getsizeof function to creating your own. One thing that we only
will give you the saw in passing was just how ubiquitous
total amount of objects are in Python. Pretty much everything
memory used” in Python is an object. If you have gigabytes
of memory, how these objects get stored
is not a major issue. On a Raspberry Pi,
however, you are limited. This month, we will
look at how Python stores and references
objects. We will also look at
some code that you can use
to interrogate your
own code to see
what is happening
with RAM
usage.

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The first thing to realise is that everything in Python is an
WorldMags.net“Since
object, of one type or another. You can find out the type
everything is
of an object with the command type(). If you were to
create a list of integers with the command a=[1,2,3], an object, what
running the command type(a) would return that list. But are variables?
it goes even further than that. What happens if you run Variables are
the command type(1)? Does the integer 1 have a type? simply labels,
In this case, you will get the result ‘integer’. This makes pointing to the
sense. But it goes even further. The integer 1 is actually
objects that
an object. Integer objects have a function named bit_
length(), which gives the number of digits needed they represent”
to represent this integer in binary. If you have num1=1,
you can find the bit length with num1.bit_length().
But the interesting thing is that, since the integer 1 is an
object, you can also execute (1).bit_length(). This is
very different behaviour from most other programming
languages you’ll encounter.
Since everything is an object, what are variables?
Variables are simply labels, pointing to the objects that
they represent. This means that you can have more than
one variable pointing to a particular object. If we take
the list we defined above, we can create a new label
pointing to it with the line b=a. Now both variables, a
and b, point to the same object. You can prove this to
yourself by adding something to the end of b. If you run
b.append(4), typing in a will give you the list [1, 2, 3,
4]. This is good to know. You can create new references
to objects without accidentally creating extra copies and
using up memory unnecessarily. But this also means that
if you actually wanted to make a copy, you need to do it
explicitly. For lists, you can do this with slices.

Slicing lists
Slices are used to get a subset of the contents of a list
and return them in a new list. The format is [start:end],

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where ‘start’ is the beginning index of the slice and ‘end’
WorldMags.net“One of the
is the finishing index of the slice. If you leave out ‘start’,
modules that
then the implied index is 0, and if you leave out ‘end’, the
implied index is the length of your initial list. Knowing is included
this, you can get a copy of a with b = a[:]. Now if you with Python is
alter b, you will not be affecting a. But, if it is so easy sys. Once you
to generate references to objects, how can you keep import it, you
track of how many there are? One of the modules that have a set of
is included with Python is sys. Once you import it, you
functions that
have a set of functions that allow you to interact with and
query the system that the Python engine is running on. allow you to
The specific one that will help us here is getrefcount(). interact with
If we run sys.getrefcount(a), we should see a result and query the
of 2 – one for the variable a, and one for Python’s system”
reference to the object that a points to. If you were to add
another reference with the command c=a, re-running
getrefcount() would give a result of 3. It is interesting
to run sys.getrefcount(1). You will likely see several
hundred, or even several thousand, references to the
object 1. Yet more evidence that even raw integers are
actually objects.

Memory matters
The other thing that is concerning to Raspberry Pi users is
how much memory is being used by all of these objects.
Since we already have the sys module imported, we can
use that to check this out. Another function available is
sys.getsizeof(). This function will return the number
of bytes being used by the object in question. On your
advisor’s system, the size of an integer is 8 bytes. You
can check this with sys.getsizeof(1). With most basic
object types, getsizeof will give you the total amount
of memory used. So, for example, if you have an empty
list with a=[], sys.getsizeof(a) gives an answer of
72. Adding an entry with b=[1] gives a size of 80. A

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list with two elements takes up 88 bytes. So, the basic
WorldMags.net“Whenever you
size of a list with all of the required metadata is 72
have the ability
bytes, and each additional integer adds 8 bytes to the
size. Unfortunately, getsizeof doesn’t work as well if to reference
the object in question is compound. If you have a list an object with
of strings rather than integers, this becomes evident more than
very quickly. Executing sys.getsizeof(‘a’) gives 38 one label, you
bytes. But, if we stick this string in a list first and then need to keep
run getsizeof, it seems to only take 8 bytes. Obviously,
track of those
what getsizeof is measuring is actually the size of the
variable pointing to the string. To get the complete size of references”
the list, you will need to loop through all of the elements
and get the size of each individually.
The other measure of RAM is how much is being
used by the Python interpreter as a whole. You can get
this by importing the resource module. In the sample
code, you will find a function that uses this module to get
the total amount of RAM being used. Unfortunately, this
method gives you the maximum amount used up to this
point, so you can’t see what happens if you try to clean
up your memory usage. In order to do this, you will need
to use a different module, such as guppy.

Taking out the trash

When dealing with memory and object oriented
programming languages, one thing that comes up is
the concept of garbage collection. Whenever you have
the ability to reference an object with more than one
label, you need to keep track of those references. The
system can’t free the memory until all references have
been removed. In Python, you have control over how
garbage collection is done. To get this control, you will
need to import the gc module. You can turn garbage
collection on and off with the functions gc.enable()
and gc.disable(). If you want to see how many objects

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are being tracked by the garbage collector, you can
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use the function gc.get_count(). Normally, garbage
collection is handled automatically by an algorithm that
is meant to maximise memory usage with minimal
impact on runtime. But, if you want to force a garbage
collection, you can do so with the function gc.collect().
The number of objects cleaned up is returned. You can
set the threshold levels used by the garbage collector
Below With projects
with the function gc.set_threshold(). You can always like a Pi-powered
check what objects are about to be cleaned up with the buggy, the memory
freed up by garbage
variable gc.garbage. With the gc module, you get a lot collector can make all
more control over your system than in most languages. the difference

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The Code WorldMags.net
MANAGING MEMORY

# First, you will need to import the module sys Sizing

import sys things up
It’s possible to check
# What is the size of an integer?
the size of any
sys.getsizeof(1)
given variable in
# A string?
Python using the sys
sys.getsizeof(‘a’) module’s ‘getsizeof’
method. See
# How about lists? www.python.org/
a = [] doc for more details.
sys.getsizeof(a)
a.append(1)
sys.getsizeof(a)
a.append(‘abc’)
sys.getsizeof(a)

# Can we count references?

b = []
sys.getrefcount(b)
c = b
sys.getrefcount(b)
# Do you get the same from the other variable?
sys.getrefcount(c)

# How much RAM are you using

import resource

def memory_usage():
rusage_denom = 1024.
mem = resource.getrusage(resource.RUSAGE_SELF).ru_maxrss / rusage_denom
return mem

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The Code WorldMags.net
MANAGING MEMORY

memory_usage()
list1 = range(10000)
memory_usage()
list2 = range(1000000)
memory_usage()
# Do we use up more RAM if we make another reference?
list3 = list2
memory_usage()

# Don’t forget to cleanup when you are done

a = b = c = []
list1 = list2 = list3 = []

import gc
# How much garbage?
gc.garbage
# Go ahead and cleanup
gc.collect()

Short memory
The RasPi’s size and
price point dictates
that it doesn’t have a
lot of memory. How
frugal are you with
your code?

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Join the conversation at…

. . . . . k
@linuxusermag Linux User & Developer [email protected]
as p

The Raspberry Pi encourages

a lot of hands-on work and
this means it doesn’t quite
work like – or as easy as – your laser
focus-tested smartphone interface,
or even a normal computer. So we’re
answering your burning Raspberry Pi
questions each issue – get in touch with
us on Twitter, Facebook or by email.

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I heard there’s a WorldMags.net
Yes, the new Epiphany-based
new browser for
the Raspberry browser for the Raspberry Pi is
Keep up with the
Pi, how do I go an excellent piece of software latest Raspberry Pi
that is much faster than the news by following
about getting it? @LinuxUserMag on
current offering included with Twitter. Search for the
Alistair via
the Raspberry Pi. The latest hashtag #RasPiMag
Facebook
version of Raspbian contains
the browser, so if you’re setting
up or doing a fresh install you will already
have the brand new browser. Otherwise,
you can install Epiphany in the browser by
updating the software and performing a
AverageManvsPi:
distribution upgrade by using the following #RasPiMag pic.
three commands in the terminal: twitter.com/
dUMaecOpHA
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
$ sudo apt-get install epiphany-browser

I don’t really like

the Epiphany If you’re using a slightly older
browser on version of Raspbian then you
other operating don’t need to worry – simply
updating the software won’t
systems, can I
remove Midori or even install
still use Midori?
Epiphany at all. If you’re creating
Jill Burton
a new Raspbian SD card from
via Facebook
the downloads on the Raspberry windfallprophet:
Pi site then it won’t have Midori Twitter activated
shot dispensing bot!
but you can re-install it if you #RaspberryPi +
wish. Do this with the following: #Bartendro project
made for a friends bar.
$ sudo apt-get update #ShotBot #RasPiMag
$ sudo apt-get install midori pic.twitter.com/
Kk4cdEPUqR

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I like the idea WorldMags.net
Yes you certainly can. There are
of the Kano
computer a couple of things that make
system but I up the Kano system and that’s
the hardware and software.
already have a
The hardware is cool but the
Raspberry Pi.
operating system is what really
Can I make one?
makes it useful; luckily that’s free
John Hogan via theuberchad:
for everyone to use and you can
email Almost ready to
grab it straight from the Kano have the scorpion bot
website, kano.me. controlled by its
#RaspberryPi brain.
Write it to an SD card like any other #raspimag pic.twitter.
image, get PDFs for how to use it and you’re com/cqtwafgpxM
on your way.

Am I stuck
to only using You can use Wi-Fi on the
an ethernet Raspberry Pi like just about any
cable on my other PC or Laptop, although
artekw: Wireless
you’ll need to buy a USB Wi-Fi
Raspberry Pi Home Automation
dongle to do this. It’s easier on Base station with
to go on the RaspberryPi & Arduino
the Model B+ as there are more #RasPiMag pic.twitter.
internet?
USB ports, but on the original com/hSm90i5KZr
Dan Chan via
Raspberry Pi’s you may need to
Facebook
get a powered USB hub if you
want to have mouse, keyboard
and wifi connected at once.
Not every wireless dongle works
though. A full list of tried and tested dongles
can be found online here: http://elinux.org/ CodyErekson: Meet
@RoboPaulLives,
RPi_USB_Wi-Fi_Adapters my #raspberrypi
powered robotic psychic
octopus. :) pic.twitter.
com/KxDaxZ9OIl

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Get inspired Expert advice Easy-to-follow guides

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