PiHut’s Maker Advent Calendar 2023 – Day Four Project

Now that the mystery of the green LED has been resolved I can move forward safe in the knowledge that I’m not missing anything (other than the ability to properly read instructions of course 🤣). Today’s video makes use of the 5-segment bar graph display from box four with several simple projects to light up the segments before combining them with the buttons from box three.

It’s early days but I wonder where this is all going and whether there will be a way of bringing all the components together in one super-project towards the end. We shall see. … Read the rest

PiHut’s Maker Advent Calendar 2023 – Day Four

I start this post with an apology. I have mentioned in the last couple of posts that I hadn’t been able to get the green LED to work in the block – only red. I reached out to PiHut to find out what was going on only to discover that the only red was the embarrassment on my face when I learned there was no green LED – at least, not in the block. If I’d read the notes more carefully I’d have realised that the green light referred to wasn’t in the block at all but on the Pico! … Read the rest

PiHut’s Maker Advent Calendar 2023 – Day Three Project

In box three of the PiHut Maker Advent Calendar are two switches, one red and one green, clearly to be used with the red and the green LED that was in box two. Unfortunately, I still haven’t been able to get the green LED to work so today’s project has been slightly neutered but does work to a point.

As you can see from the video below I did get one of the switches working … 🤣

I have reached out to PiHut hoping that they can point me in the right direction and get the green LED working. This … Read the rest

PiHut’s Maker Advent Calendar 2023 – Day Two Project

Now that we have two boxes open we can carry out the first project which is to take the supplied Pico, LED block light, breadboards and cables and wire them together.

As with last year’s calendar, the projects come with an excellent set of tutorials which you can find on the PiHut website. These walk you through not only the project but also come with an explanation as to what the components are and how they work. This is useful for beginners and acts as a nice refresher for experts too.

Today’s project was to take the block LED, which … Read the rest

PiHut’s Maker Advent Calendar 2023 – Day Two

Yesterday, I opened the first box from this year’s PiHut Maker Advent Calendar. This next box revealed some simple parts so we can get on and do the first proper project, which I will be covering tomorrow. Take a look at the video 👇 for details of what is in the day two box.

Day two included the following:

  • 1x 15mm diffused ‘blocky’ LED
  • 1x Resistor
  • 2x Male to male jumper wires

Tomorrow I will post a video showing how I got on wiring it all together.… Read the rest

PiHut’s Maker Advent Calendar 2023 – Day One

It’s back! As I trailed a while back PiHut have released what they call the “Maker Advent Calender” for 2023. This year both the original and a new “Let it Glow” versions are available. Given that I did the original one last year, this year I am unboxing the “Let it Glow” version.

Day one included the following:

  • 1x Raspberry Pi Pico H (with headers pre-soldered)
  • 1x 1m Micro-USB cable
  • 2x 400-point solderless breadboards

Not terribly exciting but the foundations on which to build what I hope will be some exciting light based projects.

As last year there is a … Read the rest

ShiftCam SnapGrip & SnapPod Review

MagSafe has been around for the iPhone since the 12 variants released in 2020 and works incredibly well. I carry this Anker MagSafe power bank with me when I am out and about that snaps onto the back of the phone and gives it a bit of a top-up. Other than power banks I haven’t really seen anyone make much of the iPhone MagSafe.

Enter ShiftCam which does a series of accessories that use Apple’s MagSafe in interesting ways. I am taking a look at the SnapGrip and the SnapPop here.

SnapGrip

SnapGrip is a snap-on accessory that adds a … Read the rest

PiHuts Maker Advent Calendar “unboxing” Video 2023

Last year for the first time PiHut released an advent calendar called “The 12 Projects of Codemas!” which included 12 projects based around a Pico covering such things as temperature sensors, switches and the like. I did a series of unboxing and project videos covering their content. I had great fun so I was pleased to see that PiHut have brought them back for this year too.

This time there are not one but two advent calendars to get stuck into. This year alongside “The 12 Projects of Codemas!” is a second one called “Let it Read the rest

Leaving the MacBook at Home

I’ve recently returned from holiday and for the first time in a while, I travelled without a laptop. I wanted to return to the question of whether it was possible to do a trip without one. My requirements while I am away are pretty light: blogging and editing photos to go with the posts – not too much to ask surely?

Heading Out

I left my MacBook Pro at home and in its place I took my iPad Mini, a Bluetooth keyboard with the same footprint as the iPad and a Magic Mouse.

The immediate advantage of this was a … Read the rest