Adding a speaker to PocketC.H.I.P. is a great way to start extending its hardware. Jose, one of the NTC electrical engineers, completed the hack in about 5 minutes and got everyone in the office excited about adding a speaker to their PocketC.H.I.P.s.
Modifying a new computer with custom circuitry and solder might seem intimidating or risky, but this project is accessible to everyone. Parts cost around $5.00 and should take about 30 minutes to build if you’re a beginner. If you get stuck or have questions, make sure to post them in our forums and be as detailed as possible.
Playing the PICO-8 game Celeste on Mega PocketC.H.I.P.!
To be completely honest, I didn’t get PICO-8 the first time I saw it back in October of 2015. At first glance, it was difficult to see why I’d love game developer software.
Now it’s June 2016, PICO-8 ships for free on PocketC.H.I.P. and I can’t stop playing with it.
Last weekend we took Mega PocketC.H.I.P. and pockets full of PocketC.H.I.P.s to Maker Faire Bay Area. Attendees got a chance to play PICO-8 games, code them, and even got a peek at the PocketC.H.I.P. user interface.
This is the first time we’ve taken PocketC.H.I.P. to a public event and it did not disappoint. The booth was packed all weekend and Mega PocketC.H.I.P. won two Editor’s Choice Blue Ribbons from Make: magazine.
For those of you who were not able to make it out to the event, you’ll find some photos from the three days we spent at the Faire below. Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth, it’s always a pleasure to meet C.H.I.P.sters and Pocketeers in person.
If you took any pictures of our booth, share them with us in our forums or tweet us @nextthingco.
Come see, use, and learn about, PocketC.H.I.P. this weekend during Maker Faire Bay Area, May 21-22 in San Mateo, CA.! This is your first change to get your hands on PocketC.H.I.P..
C.H.I.P.s come pre-flashed with an operating system because we felt it should be usable out of the box. Installing an operating system can be an arduous process, especially when you’re raring to get started. We’ve definitely felt it ourselves…heck, even our own C.H.I.P. flashing process was arduous…until now!
Howie and Tina took to the challenge of a simple C.H.I.P. flasher and came back with our new C.H.I.P. web flasher for Google Chrome, now available in its Alpha Release. So what’s that mean?
You can now replace the operating system on your C.H.I.P. from your computer directly from the Chrome web browser. Just head to flash.getchip.com, and follow the on-screen instructions. All you’ll need is a C.H.I.P., a micro USB cable, a jumper wire or a paper clip, a computer with the Chrome web browser, and around 7 minutes. Keep in mind, this will replace the ENTIRETY of your C.H.I.P.’s storage. If there’s anything you want to keep, back it up before flashing.
The Flasher has 3 options: the C.H.I.P. boot repair tool, Debian on C.H.I.P. with GUI by Crunch (our most up-to-date factory flashed image), and Debian on C.H.I.P. without GUI by Crunch.
We’re super stoked to release this. It’s a vast improvement over our previous flashing process and the most exciting thing is it only gets better from here! Can’t wait to show you what else we have in store!
Let us know what you think in the forum. What works. What doesn’t work. It all helps us move forward.
Stay Tuned and Get Flashing!
mmmtc
Everyone at NTC especially Howie and Tina (and Barry Allen)