You will also need power, we recommend one of these:6-AA Battery Holder,Rechargeable battery PackSome weeks ago, a mysterious package arrived at New Pi Towers, from Spain. It made its way to my desk. It began to attract a lot of visitors. RaspiPC.es is a Raspberry Pi and accessories retailer in Spain, with a bricks-and-mortar shop as well as an online store. They’re the creators of the wonderful NesPi, a LEGO case that is a tender homage to the 1985 Nintendo Entertainment System. NesPi’s 108 pieces come with a 30-page instruction booklet, and once you’ve spent a happy quarter of an hour or so re-living contented moments from your childhood, you get this: RaspiPC have been careful to stick as closely as they possibly can to the original NES design, while maintaining access to the Pi’s ports and to the SD card. It’s a thoroughly pleasing object. If you’d like one too, you can buy one from RaspiPC.es.Third-party sensor manufacturer, Dexter Industries, has produced a small printed circuit board with sockets for sensors and motors to allow LEGO NXT (and some EV3) parts to operate using the increasingly popular and affordable Raspberry Pi credit card-sized motherboard.
The kit, known as BrickPi, acts as an interface between the Raspberry Pi unit and LEGO Mindstorms motors and sensors. The BrickPi can operate as many as four NXT or EV3 motors and up to five NXT sensors. Once the operating system is set up between the Raspberry Pi and BrickPi, users have a choice of what software to program the robot with, including Python, Scratch, C and BlockyTalky.And for only around US$65 for the BrickPi, it would seem a no-brainer. Well, before you rush out and buy one, let me first give you a warning and a few tips to help make the journey as painless as possible. Firstly, having gone through the process myself, I must advise that it is not a ‘plug-and-play’ item. Being used to graphical interfaces and iconic picture blocks when programming with ROBOLAB, NXT-G or EV3 software, I did find typing raw characters on a command line, during set up, a little daunting at first. My first piece of advice is to buy the right pieces of hardware to avoid making unnecessary modifications to any existing items you may have lying around, such as SD cards and Wi-Fi dongles.
So if you decide to buy yourself a BrickPi (and a Raspberry Pi board if you don’t already have one), the easiest method to get the two working together with fewer steps is to buy the SD card and Wi-Fi dongle from Dexter Industries. (The “Buy!” link on the website below lists all available items for purchase). The supplied SD card will already be configured to work and their recommended Wi-Fi dongle has already been successfully tested on the BrickPi. The BrickPi Starter Bundle would be the way to go, costing only around US$140 for all the essential hardware, including the Raspberry Pi! Note for Australian readers: Although Dexter Industries is based in the US, they do have reasonable shipping rates to Australia. They are also looking into aligning themselves with a local distributor, so keep an eye out on your local suppliers if you prefer to wait and not pay extra delivery costs. The next thing I would recommend is to buy yourself a wireless (Wi-Fi) keyboard with touchpad, such as the Logitech K400r.
That way you can be more mobile AND you won’t have to buy a separate USB hub when you run out of USB sockets on the Raspberry Pi when fitting a separate mouse. The rest is ‘simply’ following the seven “Getting Started” steps on the BrickPi website: Some of their steps I found were a little redundant, since it seemed I already had some items that the steps were meant to take me through to obtain. Nevertheless, it is probably best to work through their long list of text and video instructions listed under each step. In the end I chose to program my hybrid robot using Scratch. I soon discovered however that although I had experience programming with Scratch using LEGO WeDo motors and sensors in the past, programming the Raspberry Pi and BrickPi with Scratch was not as straight forward as I had hoped. Whatever programming language you choose to operate your Raspberry Pi robot, you will find sample programs to get you going, like I discovered using Scratch. They are fun and you will learn the basics.
EV3 Simulator using RobotC: First glance at QEV3BotSim Programming Bluetooth on EV3 Building with RCX/NXT lamps and EV3 piecesNow that you have your Raspberry Pi Model B+ or Pi 2 - it's a good idea to protect it. And while our beautifully designed B+ / Pi 2 Case is great for showing off your Pi, you might want an enclosure that's a bit more versatile. Luckily, there's the SmartiPi Kit - LEGO® Compatible Case for Raspberry Pi B+ / Pi 2 by Smarticase!This case comes in a basic two piece contruction, top and bottom, that can be screwed together with the included hardware. The top part comes with LEGO-compatible dots on top so you can easily connect it to your robotic project, or just get creative. There's access to all inputs and outputs so you can easily build out your Pi with accessories. The SmartiPi Kit even comes with a case designed for the world famous Pi Camera!Kit includes:Raspberry Pi case, two piecesRaspberry Pi camera case, two pieces4 screwsStandard camera mount attachment (GoPro® compatible)This case only works with the Raspberry Pi 1 Model B+ or Pi 2 Model B. Raspberry Pi computer, tripod and lego versions of PT and Lady Ada are not included
LEGO fans can create their own programmable robot with a new device that works with the Raspberry Pi computer. If you have a Raspberry Pi, the BrickPi system lets you convert the tiny PC into a LEGO robot, as explained in the video above. Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized, Linux-based PC that arrived in the U.S. earlier this year. The BrickPi system includes a board that slides over your Raspberry Pi and a plastic case that connects LEGO pieces. Once you attach a 9-volt battery, you can hook up LEGO motors (three ports) and sensors (four ports), connect some USB gadgets (e.g. webcam, WiFi, keyboard, mouse), load an example program and start modifying and hacking. SEE ALSO: Add Wi-Fi to Practically Anything With This Arduino-Compatible Chip The Raspberry Pi controls the motors and sensors, and you can program using Python libraries. Additionally, the BrickPi's firmware is hackable, since it's open-source Arduino. BrickPi's creators, Dexter Industries, has launched a Kickstarter project to raise funds to lower the device's price to about $35, polish their Python programming libraries and develop for the Scratch programming language.