Your Own Project

THE PI IS DESIGNED as an educational, experimental board. You can use it to follow; there are plenty of projects where others have done the hard work for you. Or you could use it to lead; make something new. Turn that invention in your head into reality.

If this appeals, there’s a pair of addon boards that appeal to the tinkerer. The first is the Sense HAT ($40, www.adafruit.com), a combination of sensors (gyroscope, magnetometer, accelerometer, et al) along with a joystick, and an LED matrix display. This is the board that made it to the International Space Station as part of the Astro Pi project, and includes a Python library to allow you to access everything the board has to offer.

The other, which has been making waves more recently, is the MATRIX Creator ($100, http://creator.matrix. one). Designed to facilitate quick hardware prototyping, it includes libraries in multiple programing languages, an eight-point MEMS mic array, a programmable FPGA, a bunch of 3D sensors, and a waterfall of connectivity options to interface it with whatever hardware you like.