Grimmett - Getting started with Raspberry Pi Zero get started with the smallest, cheapest, and highest-utility Pi ever, Raspberry Pi Zero

Richard Grimmett has always been fascinated by computers and electronics since his very first programming project that used Fortran on punch cards. He has a bachelor's and master's degree in electrical engineering and a PhD in leadership studies. He also has 26 years of experience in the radar and telecommunications industries, and even has one of the original brick phones. He now teaches computer science and electrical engineering at the Brigham Young University, Idaho, where his office is filled with his numerous robotics projects.

This book is the result of working with the wonderful students at BYU-Idaho. It also wouldn't be possible without the help of my wonderful wife, Jeanne.

David Whale is a software developer living in Essex, UK. He started coding as a schoolboy aged 11, inspired by the school science technician to build his own computer from a kit and quickly progressed to writing machine code programs because they were "small and fast". These early experiments led to some of his code being used inside a saleable educational word game when he was only 13.

He has been developing software professionally ever since, mainly writing small and fast code that goes into electronic products, including automated machinery, electric cars, mobile phones, energy meters, and wireless doorbells.

These days, he runs his own software consultancy called Thinking Binaries and spends nearly half of his time helping to design the next wave of the Internet called The Internet of Things, by connecting electronic devices to it. The rest of the time he volunteers for The Institution of Engineering and Technology, running training courses for teachers, designing and running workshops and clubs for school children, and being busy with his Raspberry Pi, BBC micro:bit and Arduino.

He was the technical editor for the book Adventures in Raspberry Pi and the co-author of the book Adventures in Minecraft , and is a regular reviewer and editor of technical books from a number of book publishers.

I was really pleased to be asked to review this great new book of projects using the Raspberry Pi Zero. The size of the Pi Zero makes it ideal for building into other products. In this book, Richard Grimmett takes us on an amazing journey of circuit bending, coding, and innovating using this tiny computer! But don't stop here; the projects in this book will give you the skills you need and inspire you to come up with many new ideas yourself!

For many years, robots and other advanced electronic wonders could only be seen on the television, movies, or in university or military labs. In recent years, however, the availability of new and inexpensive hardware and also free and open source software, has provided the opportunity for almost anyone with a little technical knowledge and imagination to build these technical wonders. The first wave of projects were fueled by Arduino, an inexpensive and simple-to-program microcontroller. The next wave was carried further by the introduction of the Raspberry Pi, an even more capable processor powered by the Linux operating system.

Now there is an even less expensive, powerful microprocessor: the Raspberry Pi Zero. This little processor packs a processor powerful enough to run Linux into a small and even less expensive package. This capability, coupled with some additional power, inexpensive hardware, and free open source software provides a platform for projects that range from simple wheeled robots to advanced flying machines.