1940s television, resurrected

Andy Brown has been working on a project to re-create a 1940s TV using a set he found in a barn a few years ago, and a Raspberry Pi. The TV plays period programs from a USB hard drive (it can also stream content from the internet), and will be part of a display at Making the Best, the Brown family’s shop in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire. Video first from different stages in the project’s development, then some explanatory notes from Andy.

The Original Television Set – Probably built by Pye or Invicta, this 405-line, black and white television set was made between 1939 and 1947. The original tube is a Mullard MW22-7. This tube was used in a number of different television sets of the wartime era.  This particular set, was rescued from a barn in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire in 2004.

Original Condition – The television set itself was in remarkably good condition and has been retained, possibly for future restoration. Much of the veneer on the cabinet was peeling and the cabinet, overall, was beyond both economic repair and my veneering abilities.

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint – Annie Sloan Chalk Paint is ideal for painting wooden furniture. The paint is very easy to work with and it is not usually necessary to strip or prepare pieces before panting. With Annie’s range of paints and waxes, it is possible to create a wide range of finishes with the minimum of fuss.

My concept was to re-create a 1940’s-style ‘television’:

*By replacing the original CRT with a modern flat screen
*Use a Raspberry Pi computer in place of the original television receiver
*Re-produce a cabinet style, using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, to compliment that of the original
*Use a light distressing technique to give the impression of ageing
*Producing a working unit, capable of playing period programmes from the internet and/or stored on a USB memory stick
*Produce a working internet ‘television’, mimicking the original set.

Thanks so much for sharing this, Andy – it’s looking great. Send me a note letting me know where your shop is so I can direct people here to it; my parents live quite near you, and I’d love to drop in too some time. (And maybe buy some paint.)

Controlling a 7-segment display from half a world away

I am kind of in two minds about posting this little bit of frivolity from Jeremy Blythe: it’s the sort of ingenious, silly project that made me laugh when I saw it and I wanted to share it with you; but it’s hosted on a Raspberry Pi, and Raspberry Pis are not built for the sort of traffic that the things that get posted here tend to get. In short, once I’ve hit the publish button, it’s likely that this particular project will get knocked over – so if you can’t see it, wander over instead to Jeremy’s Raspberry Pi page for more inspiration, and try again later.

What Jeremy has done here is to use a Raspberry Pi to stream content from a webcam on a webpage. So far, so run-of-the-mill, you say. But the content he’s streaming is the output from a 7-segment LED display, also driven by the Raspberry Pi, which gets its instructions via the Raspberry Pi’s network connection from people like me with nothing better to do on the internet.

The entry from Santa Ana, California at the top (and the choice of number) is me. I'm in America again, bigging up the Raspberry Pi to anyone who will listen, and making Raspberry Pis 5000 miles away display numbers *because I can*. Click the image to visit the cam and to add your own number.

Raspberry Pi smart glasses translate in real time

Will Powell read about Google’s Project Glass, and decided he’d have a go at a DIY attempt to try to achieve something similar. And what he’s come up with is downright remarkable. Here’s his automatic translation system, which uses a couple of Raspberry Pis, a 3d headset, some microphones, a TV and an iPhone to display real-time subtitles in your glasses as you have a conversation.

Beginning Raspberry Pi Game Programming

Beginning Raspberry Pi Game Programming consists of 18 Chapters and explains how to create games on your Raspberry Pi device. Each chapter builds upon the previous, starting with Python Programming which leads into Pygame.

The book does not dwell on the details but focuses on getting the reader to do more practical hands on programming. The theory is explained along the way as and when is needed. This allows the reader to visually learn by example. The images used throughout this book will help the reader rapidly progress with creating their game.

The reader will create a game from the very beginning, starting with the game design document and will go on to program game concepts which include graphics, music, audio effects, player movement, keyboards controls and more.


/Me
Me and a few students have been following this book to get us programming the Raspberry Pi. This book allowed us to start programming with the use of a game design document. This was a guide for creating the game. The game progressed building up the program and only explaining what we needed when it was used. When game design was updated, the author explains why the change is taking place. We have tried to follow books before but most of them bog you down with variables, integers and too much detail even before you have typed a line. At the end of the book we had a simple working game.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is starting out programming.

Kindle Price:

$11.99 includes free international wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet

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Raspberry Pi [Paperback]

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The Raspberry Pi is a single-board computer developed in the UK by the Raspberry Pi Foundation with the intention of stimulating the teaching of basic computer science in schools. The design is based on a Broadcom BCM2835 system on a chip, which includes an ARM1176JZF-S 700 MHz processor, VideoCore IV GPU, and 256 megabytes of RAM. The design does not include a built-in hard disk or solid-state drive, instead relying on an SD card for booting and long-term storage. The Foundation's goal is to offer two versions, priced at 25 and 35 US$. The Foundation started accepting orders for the higher priced model on 29 February 2012.

BUY NOW

Beginning Raspberry Pi Game Programming [Kindle Edition]

Beginning Raspberry Pi Game Programming consists of 18 Chapters and explains how to create games on your Raspberry Pi device. Each chapter builds upon the previous, starting with Python Programming which leads into Pygame.

The book does not dwell on the details but focuses on getting the reader to do more practical hands on programming. The theory is explained along the way as and when is needed. This allows the reader to visually learn by example. The images used throughout this book will help the reader rapidly progress with creating their game.

The reader will create a game from the very beginning, starting with the game design document and will go on to program game concepts which include graphics, music, audio effects, player movement, keyboards controls and more.

BUY NOW

Raspberry Pi smart glasses translate in real time

Will Powell read about Google’s Project Glass, and decided he’d have a go at a DIY attempt to try to achieve something similar. And what he’s come up with is downright remarkable. Here’s his automatic translation system, which uses a couple of Raspberry Pis, a 3d headset, some microphones, a TV and an iPhone to display real-time subtitles in your glasses as you have a conversation.

Attack of the Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi’s effect on creativity among kids still has the capacity to surprise us. Owen Herbert wrote and starred in this short horror movie alongside his Raspberry Pi, directed by big brother Luke. I am removing the SD card from the slot of my Raspberry Pi before I turn the lights out tonight.

Beginning Raspberry Pi Book Review

Beginning Raspberry Pi consists of 15 Chapters that will guide you through setting up, installing and using the Raspberry Pi computer. You will learn your way around the console by using basic commands and then move on to the graphical user desktop, where you will learn more about applications and going online.

You will also learn more complex tasks such as using administration and networking tools, which will arm you with the knowledge to move on to tweaking your Raspberry Pi.

The book will also teach you the basics of programming starting with scratch, python, c and c++, before moving onto game programming using PyGame.

The final chapter of this book contains helpful information on troubleshooting your device.

The book contains screenshots, so that the reader is able to see a visual representation of what is taking place, making it easier to follow.

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Chromium for Raspberry Pi BETA

Well known ChromiumOS developer Hexxeh has been fiddling around with the Raspberry Pi since its debut and his latest experiment is a beta version of the Chromium browser, ready to run on Raspbian images. While it's not the full Chromium OS (that's still under development) it should help ease the pain of browsing the web on one of the $35 Broadcom-powered units. It still requires quite a bit of horsepower however, so overclocking your Raspberry Pi and using a fast USB stick or SD card for storage is advised, hit the source link below for more instructions on downloading and running the 35MB~ package.