Raspberry Pi 3 | CodeDigs

How To Create a Retro Arcade With a Raspberry Pi and Shoe Box

Misty — Sun, 22 Oct 2017 22:26:49 +0000

We periodically do projects and build things with the Raspberry Pi. Our latest adventure was building a Retro Arcade system. Our final goal is to build this into a stand-up table top version made out of wood, but first we wanted to do it on a smaller scale so decided to prototype it out of a shoe box.

Okay, now time to get down to actually building the thing.

1. Prepare The Shoe Box: Draw Circles For Buttons & Controller

First, we drew circles for where we wanted to place the buttons and controller on the show box, like pictured below and then cut those slots out with a razor blade.

2. Place The Buttons & Controller On The Shoe Box

Next, we labelled each button circle with what button should go where, and pushed the buttons through to make sure they fit snug. We also pushed the controller through and screwed it on. Later during the soldering & configuration phase, we unscrewed the controller and easily popped out the buttons. We wanted to make sure everything fit secure before we moved on.

3. Soldering Joystick & Bonnet

When we purchased the Arcade Bonnet Mini Kit, we were hoping we could get away from soldering, but no such luck. We ended up having to solder the Joystick wires and the connector piece to the bonnet like pictured below.

This was our first time soldering, and it was a challenge to say the least. As you can see from our pictures, our soldering job was not the cleanest. Practice makes perfect so hopefully next time it will be a little easier.

The picture below illustrates how the bonnet with the soldered connector piece (came with bonnet) plugs to the Pi.

4. Connecting Buttons To The Bonnet

This is where the bonnet made things much easier. The pieces where the buttons plug into were already soldered into the bonnet. It was as easy as simply plugging the button clips into those slots.

5. Install RetroPi On Your Raspberry Pi

Connect your keyboard to the Pi because you will need it for the OS installation and configurations. Download & install the free RetroPi operating system on your Raspberry Pi. I won’t detail how to install the OS here being that the RetroPi site itself has detailed installation instructions.

6. Configure The Buttons & Controller

Configuring the controller and buttons took some trial and error, but the RetroPi software makes it somewhat easy. View configuration instructions from here. After you configure each, you will want to test them out on an actual RetroPi game to make sure they work. We tested ours on Mario Brothers.

After your buttons and controllers are installed and working, you can now connect the buttons and controller back into your box and start playing.

Following is a sneak peek of the official table top arcade system we are working on. We will post another tutorial that details how we built this after it is complete.

Following is a list of things you will need if you want to build one yourself. We ordered most of our products from Adafruit & Amazon but some of these things you may be able to find elsewhere.

Parts We Used For The Shoe Box Retro Arcade

After the fact, we found this DIY Arcade Game Button and Joystick Controller Kit on Amazon which has a lot of above, but for cheaper. We haven’t tried this kit yet, so I can’t personally recommend it at this time, but we will most likely try this for our next arcade.

Raspberry Pi Water Pump Python Code

Misty — Tue, 24 May 2016 20:37:57 +0000

This post includes Python code that will trigger the water pump to turn on when the soil sensor detects that the soil in the plant is dry.

The pump will turn on pulling water from the tub through water lines up to the plants. The code also detects when the soil sensor is wet and will trigger the pump to turn off. This assures the plants are only watered when the plant soil is dry and not over-watered when the soil is wet. Download Soil Sensor Code

For those reading this who want to make their own Christmas Tree Circuit, following is where you can get the supplies

Foam Christmas tree shapes from Michaels or Amazon has a bunch of foam Christmas tree shapes too if you do not have a Michaels near you.
Battery Holders - you can get these in bulk from a supplier but you can also get them in smaller quantities from Amazon
Copper Tape from Amazon. This will last you for a long time for many, many projects.
Aluminum Tape from Amazon. This will last you for a long time for many, many projects.
LEDs from Amazon. You can get smaller packs too but this is such a good deal especially if you anticipate using LEDs for other projects.
3v Cell Coin Batteries from Amazon
Stickers, pipe cleaners -> dollar store & Michaels.

Raspberry Pi Rain Sensor Python Code

Misty — Tue, 24 May 2016 19:23:33 +0000

In this post we include the Python code that triggers the motor to turn on when the rain sensor detects rain.

The motor will open the top of the tub so rain can be captured in the tub. The code also detects when the rain sensor is dry and will trigger the motor to spin the opposite way to close the top of the tub. This assures the water does not get polluted with outside elements when it is not raining. Download Rain Sensor Code

Note: this is the main script you want to call to run the rain sensor code. This script also imports motor_function.py which controls the motor so you will need to download both files for the rain sensor to work.

For those reading this who want to make their own Christmas Tree Circuit, following is where you can get the supplies

Foam Christmas tree shapes from Michaels or Amazon has a bunch of foam Christmas tree shapes too if you do not have a Michaels near you.
Battery Holders - you can get these in bulk from a supplier but you can also get them in smaller quantities from Amazon
Copper Tape from Amazon. This will last you for a long time for many, many projects.
Aluminum Tape from Amazon. This will last you for a long time for many, many projects.
LEDs from Amazon. You can get smaller packs too but this is such a good deal especially if you anticipate using LEDs for other projects.
3v Cell Coin Batteries from Amazon
Stickers, pipe cleaners -> dollar store & Michaels.

Solar Water Bot Rain Capture Tub

Misty — Tue, 24 May 2016 00:29:23 +0000

For the Solar Water Bot prototype we wanted to keep things simple for the rain capture tub. We ended up finding a small tupperware tub from Osh Hardware that already had a top flap with hinges on the back that easily opened and closed.

We inserted a screw in the front of it and attached a string from the screw loop up to the top of the wooden pole where the motor is.

We then drilled a small hole into the side of the tub towards the top and placed the water line through this hole down to the bottom of the tub where the water is.

The water line from the tub is connected to one side of the pump and another water line comes out of the other side of the pump into the plants. This allows for the water to be pulled from the tub into the plants when the pump turns on.

For those reading this who want to make their own Christmas Tree Circuit, following is where you can get the supplies

Foam Christmas tree shapes from Michaels or Amazon has a bunch of foam Christmas tree shapes too if you do not have a Michaels near you.
Battery Holders - you can get these in bulk from a supplier but you can also get them in smaller quantities from Amazon
Copper Tape from Amazon. This will last you for a long time for many, many projects.
Aluminum Tape from Amazon. This will last you for a long time for many, many projects.
LEDs from Amazon. You can get smaller packs too but this is such a good deal especially if you anticipate using LEDs for other projects.
3v Cell Coin Batteries from Amazon
Stickers, pipe cleaners -> dollar store & Michaels.

How To Connect The Solar Panel & Battery To The Raspberry Pi

Misty — Mon, 23 May 2016 04:54:00 +0000

This part is fairly easy to get setup. We simply purchased a small solar panel that is already wired with ports to charge a battery. We also purchased a small battery pack that fit well with the solar panel pack. The photo demonstrates how to connect the solar panel to the battery back and then plug the Raspberry pi to the battery pack. Following are links to the solar panel and battery pack we used.

Solar Panel With Ports To Charge Battery

Battery Pack

For those reading this who want to make their own Christmas Tree Circuit, following is where you can get the supplies

Foam Christmas tree shapes from Michaels or Amazon has a bunch of foam Christmas tree shapes too if you do not have a Michaels near you.
Battery Holders - you can get these in bulk from a supplier but you can also get them in smaller quantities from Amazon
Copper Tape from Amazon. This will last you for a long time for many, many projects.
Aluminum Tape from Amazon. This will last you for a long time for many, many projects.
LEDs from Amazon. You can get smaller packs too but this is such a good deal especially if you anticipate using LEDs for other projects.
3v Cell Coin Batteries from Amazon
Stickers, pipe cleaners -> dollar store & Michaels.

Parts Used For Raspberry Pi Plant Watering System

Misty — Sat, 30 Apr 2016 19:47:46 +0000

Following is a list of parts we used for the Solar Powered Raspberry Pi Plant Watering System. We will be adding to this list as we accumulate additional parts for building out the project.

CanaKit Raspberry Pi 3 Starter Kit

Solar Panel With Ports To Charge Battery

Battery Pack

Relay Module – needed to turn on water pump & motor for opening tops of water tubs

Raindrop Detection Sensor

Soil Moisture Sensor Strips

Mini Liquid Pump – needed to pump water to plants

Parts Organizer

Stepper Motor 5V – used to open tops of tubs

Disclaimer: Some products link to Amazon using an affiliate link.

For those reading this who want to make their own Christmas Tree Circuit, following is where you can get the supplies

Foam Christmas tree shapes from Michaels or Amazon has a bunch of foam Christmas tree shapes too if you do not have a Michaels near you.
Battery Holders - you can get these in bulk from a supplier but you can also get them in smaller quantities from Amazon
Copper Tape from Amazon. This will last you for a long time for many, many projects.
Aluminum Tape from Amazon. This will last you for a long time for many, many projects.
LEDs from Amazon. You can get smaller packs too but this is such a good deal especially if you anticipate using LEDs for other projects.
3v Cell Coin Batteries from Amazon
Stickers, pipe cleaners -> dollar store & Michaels.

Solar Water Bot – Raspberry Pi Plant Watering System Powered By Solar

Misty — Sat, 30 Apr 2016 18:12:16 +0000

Solar Water Bot is a solar powered plant watering system built with a Raspberry Pi, sensors, motor, pump and Python code. This was created for a 6th grade science project.

Following is a quick breakdown.

Keep in mind that this is simply a prototype. In production this would need all wires, motors, pumps, etc. to be covered with water proofing material. Please check out the Quick Links section below for further details and documentation on how this was built. Not all documentation is completed yet so please check back soon.

Raspberry Pi Plant Watering System Video Demo

For those reading this who want to make their own Christmas Tree Circuit, following is where you can get the supplies

Foam Christmas tree shapes from Michaels or Amazon has a bunch of foam Christmas tree shapes too if you do not have a Michaels near you.
Battery Holders - you can get these in bulk from a supplier but you can also get them in smaller quantities from Amazon
Copper Tape from Amazon. This will last you for a long time for many, many projects.
Aluminum Tape from Amazon. This will last you for a long time for many, many projects.
LEDs from Amazon. You can get smaller packs too but this is such a good deal especially if you anticipate using LEDs for other projects.
3v Cell Coin Batteries from Amazon
Stickers, pipe cleaners -> dollar store & Michaels.