The Raspberry Pi makes a nice compact platform to attach an indicator light to for all sorts of projects—weather notification, new emails, etc. Read on as we show you how to hook up an LED module to your Pi and set up some basic notifications.
Why Do I Want to Do This?
Because it’s fun. Unlike many of our tutorials where we include a little blurb at the top outlining exactly what benefit you’ll derive from the project, the blurb is pretty short in this case because the benefit is simply having fun.
The Raspberry Pi is a perfect device to play around with, experiment with electronics, and learn some programming. Nobody needs an ambient rain indicator in their kitchen, for example, but building one is a fun exercise and a great reminder to bring your umbrella with you on potentially storm days.
What Do I Need?
To follow along with out tutorial you’ll need a few things. First, we assume that you’ve already followed our previous tutorial: The HTG Guide to Getting Started with Raspberry Pi (and thus have a the basics covered up to installing Rasbian on our Raspberry Pi).
In addition to having a functional Pi unit with Raspbian installed on it you’ll need the following things:
- 1 LedBorg module (~$7.50 with $4 shipping from the UK to US)
- 1 Clear Raspberry Pi Case
Note: The clear/frosted Pi case is entirely optional but if you’re currently using an opaque case then your LED indicator will be hidden inside. You’ll either need to cut a hole in your case to let the light out or use a GPIO extension cable with a breakout kit—like this one from Adafruit Industries—to tether the LedBorg to your Raspberry Pi. While using the breakout cable adds about $8 to the expense of the project it does offer more potential for customizing the end product in that you can more easily place the LED inside things or under something you want to illuminate.
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by Jason Fitzpatrick via How-To Geek
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