Little Touch Cool Factor

screen_handMost of you are probably looking for 65″ or more inches of screen these days.  And you are probably looking to kick your feet up and enjoy watching it from several feet away.  But I’ve been looking for something a little smaller and something that I can put my fingers on.  Say in the 7″ range to fit inside my Star Wars lunchbox.

7inch

The Waveshare 7″ is exactly what I need for the project. 800 X 480 resolution might not be as nice as my Google Nexus 6P 1440 X 2560 screen but it will work for what I need it to.

screen_board

Here is a pic of the back of the board.  Couple things to point out.  In the upper left corner is the HDMI display connector, right below that is the USB connector to pass the Touch data back to the Raspberry Pi and then right below that is an on / off switch for screen backlight.

Looking forward to assembling the Star Wars Pi in the old Sandeen sweat factory.  I’ll probably employee my 10 year old daughter, Talia, so that I can take advantage of cost of child labor to keep my cost per unit affordable (she’s really excited to help me on this.)

Mini Keyboard

Santa was very good to me this Christmas!  One of the many wonderful things he gave me was the Rii Mini Wireless Keyboard / Mouse.  Santa may have brought mine to me but you can pick yours up from Amazon.

Rii_unboxed.jpg

This is going to go perfect with my Raspberry Pi Star Wars lunchbox build. I love the size (look at the pic below), love that it has a trackpad, charges with USB (no batteries), has an on/off switch and a cool, hidden place to store the USB dongle (you have to buy one to see it, I’m not going to share that secret here).

Rii_in_hand

But the ultimate cool factor to this keyboard is the fact that I can add another title to my long list of titles.  My new title is “Owner of the World’s Most Mini!”  Yep, it says it right here on the box!  Right next to the Registered Trademark.

Rii_worlds_most_mini

Now I have to find the time to put my awesome box together.

2016 Projects: Raspberry Pi, Python, Kettlebells and Audible

Time to ring in the new year! And what goes better with the new year than new projects.

This year I have a couple new projects in mind. Raspberry Pi Star Wars lunchbox mod, learn some basic Python, do 300 kettlebell swings in a day (and walk the next day), listen to 24 business books on Audible and I’m sure I’ll throw in a few more as the year progresses but this is a good list to start.

I picked up a Raspberry Pi a couple months back and Santa brought me a cool 7” touch screen for it. Before Christmas I bought a cool Star Wars lunchbox with R2, C3PO and BB8 on it and thought it would be cool to see if I can get everything setup inside the box. I did a little Linux work years ago, so this will totally be back to basics for me. I plan to get all three of my kids involved in this action too, so this will be a family event.
Why Python? Well python.org says ‘Python is a programming language that lets you work quickly and integrate systems more effectively.’ And Raspberry Pi says ‘Python is a wonderful and powerful programming language that’s easy to use (easy to read and write) and with Raspberry Pi lets you connect your project to the real world.’ I plan on using Code Academy to jump start my Python Learning. I’ve never touched Python (the coding language before, I’ve owned a couple of python snakes though) but I have done quite a bit of Java and other coding. Again, I’d like to get the kids involved with this but maybe first I complete the tutorials. I have all sorts of other ideas for what I’d like to do with my little Pi box and Python, but let’s get it all put together first.

300 kettlebell swings. Sounds extremely painful. I lost almost 50 pounds in 2015. Left my old stressful job, started sleeping at night, drank a ton of water, started tracking what I was eating and worked out a ton. Mostly walking, elliptical and some weights. I picked up a couple kettlebells a few months back. I saw some pins on Pinterest about a 300 Kettlebell Swings per day challenge. I can tell you that I’m definitely not up to that at this time but I am going to start focusing on this now. The first time I tried to do 100 swings, I was sore for days! Seriously! I figure if I’m sitting on my butt all day playing with a Pi and learning Python, I better do something physical.

24 Business Books on Audible. I love Audible! Freaking love it! I have 96 titles in my library today. My goal is to read (listen) 24 new business books in 2016. I signed up for a new Audible plan that gives me 24 credits (books) all up front for $229.50 (or $9.56 / book). I love to read and learn and I’m excited to get this kicked off. Maybe I’ll even listen as I’m cranking out kettlebell swings!

This is just the start of my crazy aspirations for 2016. Love to hear your ideas!