The MagPi - July 2018

(^10) July 2018 raspberrypi.org/magpi
News
his year’s Moonhack will
be even bigger than before,
with an estimated 50 000
kids completing challenges and
running projects to explore space
on 20 July.
As Nicola Curnow, national
programme manager at Code Club
Australia reveals, “We’re setting
a world record, inviting every kid
in the world to give coding a go,
or impress us with their skills.
[...] Last year we had 28 575 kids
from more than 50 countries
participating; we’re aiming for
50 000 kids this year.”
You can register for Moonhack
at moonhack.com to get your
school, library, Code Club,
CoderDojo, or your family
involved, but the nature of the
projects is still “top secret stuff!”
says Nicola. However, she tells us
“The whole Moonhack campaign
is designed to be super-accessible,
so there is no hardware required
to participate.”
Moonhack projects are all
space-themed, as the event
celebrates the Apollo 11
moon landing. Stay informed
via #moonhack.
T
MOONHACK 2018 / MODULAR MAKING WITH TIBBO-PI
2018
MOONHACK
Left Join the
anticipated 50 000
Moonhackers
worldwide at
moonhack.com
ibbo Technology’s Tibbo
Project System (TPS)
has been around for four
years, but it’s finally coming to the
Raspberry Pi.
Rather than using breadboards
or soldering, the TPS uses
Tibbit blocks to “implement
an I/O function” by plugging
them into a TPS ‘mainboard’
(motherboard). Announced at
this year’s Computex technology
show in Taiwan, there will soon be
a mainboard that incorporates a
Raspberry Pi 3.
It is unclear whether the Pi 3B+
will be supported, but with 60
Tibbit blocks to add anything from
power relays to audio converters
to real-world sensors, you should
be able to construct almost any
project as quickly as a basic
LEGO model.
Details are still in the process
of translation, but Tibbo confirms
that Node-RED (JavaScript) is
the standard coding language for
Tibbo-Pi, and that C and Python
are alternatives.
An English brochure for Tibbo-Pi
is planned, available through
co‑works.jp/tibbo‑pi, but this site
is in Japanese. However, Tibbo’s
main site lists all the currently
available Tibbits in English –
see tibbo.com.
Help break a coding
world record
A LEGO kit for electronics
WITH TIBBO-PI
MODULAR MAKING
T
Above Connect the modular Tibbits to the mainboard to prototype
your hardware as easily as building a simple LEGO model