Raspbian Pixel desktop VNC Viewer

Since September 2016, all Raspberry Pi Raspbian distributions have included the RealVNC Virtual Network Computer server and viewer.

This allows the remote connection to the desktop on a Raspberry Pi machine. This is great if you want to to run your Raspberry Pi "headless" and do not want to use the Secure SHell (SSH).

You can connect to your Raspberry Pi from another (non Raspberry PI) machine by downloading and installing the RealVNC viewer (make your selection from the operating systems shown here https://www.realvnc.com/en/connect/download/viewer/. The RealVNC viewer is available from the Google Play Store (and probably from the Apple store as well). For Raspbian on the Raspberry Pi, wou can just get it from the Raspbian repository using the normal apt-get install (instructions are available from the above link)

Now I have an elderly Samsung Windows Netbook which is having a second life as a Raspbian Pixel netbook. Now this would be really useful to see what is happening on any live Raspberry Pis. Unfortunately, the non Raspberry PI distribution of Raspbian does not contain the RealVNC viewer.

So going back to the RealVNC downloads page, select the Linux option:
https://www.realvnc.com/en/connect/download/viewer/linux/

You need to select DEB x86 from the drop down menu, then click on Download VNC Viewer.

The file will (by default) appear in your Downloads directory. The one I received was called VNC-Viewer-6.18.907-Linux-x86.deb.

In the File Manager, right click and select Package Install. This will request your password to give the installer permission to make changes to the operating system (in the same way that normally you use SUDO to give heightened permissions).

Once it has been installed, the RealVNC viewer can be found in the Internet options on the start menu.

You will need to know either the ip address of the Raspberry Pi, or the network name. A default Raspberry Pi is normally called "raspberrypi", so should appear on the local network under the name "raspberrypi.home".

References:

https://www.realvnc.com/en/connect/download/viewer/

https://www.realvnc.com/en/connect/download/viewer/linux/

https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/get-back-to-my-pi-from-anywhere-with-vnc-connect/

https://www.raspberrypi.org/search/vnc

PIMORONI Breakout Garden

The Pimoroni Breakout Garden HAT is a clever way of allowing the development of sophisticated sensor and display systems without having to do lots of soldering.

 As a HAT, it is fitted with a female 2x20 pin socket so it can be attached to any Raspberry Pi with 2x20 way expansion bus (Raspberry Pi Plus versions to date). Raspberry Pi Zero boards require the headers to be added (the Raspberry Pi Zero WH is supplied with the header already soldered/

This is going to be used with a Raspberry Pi Zero WH fitted into a Pibow Zero W case. To improve stability, a Pibow Breadboard Base was added to the bottom of the stack of laser cut acrylic slices that make up the case. The supplied bolts are long enough to take the additional slice.

Assembly was reasonably straightforward, I did need to ease a couple of the corners with a curved needle file to make the Zero board fit correctly.

To use a Zero with a keyboard and display, you do need to have an On The Go cable for the micro USB (top) and a Micro to HDMI adapter (bottom). I got mine as part of the Pimoroni OctoCam package.

The key feature of the Breakout Gatden HAT is the six large sockets on the top.

These are designed to take the special format breakout board from Pimoroni.

The first breakout board is the BME680 Air Quality Sensor.

Back

The front shows the five connectors. The power and ground connections are diode protected, so if you do plug them in the wrong way round, nothing bad (or indeed nothing at all) happens.

The breakout has temperature, pressure, humidity and air quality sensors built in.

The LSM303D is a combined accelerometer and magnetometer

It can provide X, Y, Z values for acceleration and magnetic field strength (making it suitable for use as a digital compass).

The third sensor is the BMP280 temperature, pressure and altitude sensor.

The last breakout board I have is the 1.12" 128x128 pixel OLED display board.

Next, putting them all to work.