Hundreds of products now powered by Raspberry Pi

There are now hundreds of products with Raspberry Pi, in one form or another, at their centre. This includes consumer kit that promises exciting new project features, HATs and accessories for both hobbyist and industrial users, and specialist hardware versions with a Compute Module at the heart of their DNA. The Powered by Raspberry Pi stamp of approval helps assure you that a product has been thoroughly tested and is guaranteed to work flawlessly using Raspberry Pi computers and microcontrollers.

The latest issue of Raspberry Pi Official Magazine featured half a dozen products from around the world that are helping improve things like driver and passenger safety, drone pilots’ chances of a successful landing, and marine pilots’ navigation accuracy. There are also some treats for fans of vintage computers and gaming, as well as AI photography, in the section below.

BlueSCSI

USA | bluescsi.com

Many of us love embracing older technology to enjoy games and programming experiences from a decade or three ago. Inevitably, the storage formats of the 1980s and 1990s have long been superseded, along with the drivers written to work with them. But that doesn’t mean you can’t run older programs, of course; emulators for popular home computers are incredibly popular. BlueSCSI offers a neat way to access games, applications, and files hidden away on otherwise-obsolete external drives so that you can enjoy them all over again. This modern, open source solution replaces your old SCSI drives — including CD-ROM and magneto-optical — with a simple and reliable SD card, offering a fantastic upgrade for your classic Mac, Amiga, Atari, and more! 

Candera CGI Studio Professional

Austria | cgistudio.at

Any full-size Raspberry Pi computer can be used to run Candera’s CGI Studio Professional HMI (human–machine interface). Its rapid design tools are custom-made for small-to-medium-sized businesses, and include an invaluable Scene Composer and pre-built players for Linux-based devices. Certified for Raspberry Pi, CGI Studio Pro offers Python scripting with data model access, making it ideal for designing user interfaces and customer menus for any number of applications. Version 3.15, launched in spring 2025, extends the IntuitiveHMI design suite with simplified workflows, improved graphics, and added AI options — including SoundHound voice recognition — making it ideal for designers creating interfaces across automotive, medical, and other industries. 

Clickdrive

Singapore | clickdrive.io

Clickdrive is a driving training system aimed at driving schools and public transport companies, who have found it invaluable in improving staff retention rates. A self-install kit with wired and wireless options, GPS, and a HD video camera, Clickdrive makes real-world training more intuitive by recording driving footage, integrating features such as bespoke instructor clips, GPS and motion sensors for location accuracy, object detection, and performance analysis. While driving games and simulators focus on overcoming obstacles and taking turns at high speed, Clickdrive records routes driven for self-improvement rather than fun, using customisable training programmes. The Singapore-based company has a roster of satisfied clients, including the city’s own SBS Transit authority and other public transport companies. The Clickdrive PRO system provides 360-degree video feedback alongside objective driving telemetry analysis, so drivers can receive individual post-drive reviews and tailored improvement advice. 

Landmark Precision Landing System

USA | landmarklanding.com

Flying machines have long caught the imagination of amateur pilots, so when drones arrived on the scene, their success was little surprise. If you’re anything like us, though, the joy of seeing your craft aloft is tinged with anxiety about the seemingly inevitable sudden descent back and the potential curtailment of your new hobby. Landmark specialises in helping PX4 and ArduPilot drone and model aircraft pilots achieve precision landings time after time. (OK, the clue’s in the company name.) Promising centimetre-level landing accuracy, the system works in various lighting conditions, including direct sunlight and at night (with target illumination). The landing module attaches to your Raspberry Pi via a single cable, while a ground station such as Mission Planner or QGroundControl is used for all configuration.

Hat Labs HALPI2

Finland | hatlabs.fi

Raspberry Pi Compute Modules, with their industrial-grade specifications, are becoming an increasingly popular choice for marine applications. Finland’s Hat Labs is a long-established open source and open hardware marine specialist. As well as being a keen sailor, founder Matti is an IoT veteran with many years’ experience with CAN bus and NMEA 2000 products. The Helsinki-based firm’s HALPI2 is a marine plotting platform based around Compute Module 5 and an ITX motherboard in a custom-designed, pre-built, fully functional Raspberry Pi boat computer, protected within a waterproof and ruggedised case. HALPI2 plots and tracks routes and acts as a data acquisition and visualisation device, providing a large degree of boat automation and control.

EDATEC CM5 AI Camera Series

China | edatec.cn

EDATEC makes robust hardware based on open source principles, using powerful equipment such as Raspberry Pi. Emerging from the management team at industrial supplier Farnell in 2017, EDATEC was among the very first to recognise Raspberry Pi’s potential as a modular industrial platform — and one of the first to gain Powered by Raspberry Pi accreditation. The 12MP ED-AIC3100 uses Compute Module 5, with its 64-bit SoC platform, to power and control a quad-core AI camera with a 12mm autofocus liquid lens and a C-Mount lens. The 3100-series camera is protected by a bright blue IP65 shockproof metal case that can withstand temperature variations of 0–45°C, and has a mounting bracket to absorb vibrations. Running 64-bit Raspberry Pi OS, the AI camera weighs just 400g and can be triggered remotely or with a single button press, acquiring and processing images at 70 frames per second before efficiently making sense of their contents.

Apply to Powered by Raspberry Pi

Our Powered by Raspberry Pi logo shows customers that your product is powered by our high‑quality computers and microcontrollers. All products licensed under Powered by Raspberry Pi are eligible to appear in our online gallery.

Submit your product for Powered by Raspberry Pi status.

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RP2040-powered 3D printer filament scale

The Raspberry Pi community is big on 3D printing, so in celebration of the first #MakerMonday of the new year, we thought we’d share this RP2040-powered scale that tells you whether or not you have enough filament for a 3D print.

If you’re going to use a 3D printer, you need to be sure that you have enough filament for the job. “Knowing if there is sufficient filament will tell you if you need a standby reel, a new reel, or whether the current reel will do the job,” says maker Chris Forde. One way to determine this is to weigh the filament remaining on the spool and compare it to the weight estimate provided by your slicing software. With this in mind, Chris came up with a solution. 

The beam load cell is suitable for low to medium loads; the device is controlled by switches, and there are reset and boot buttons too

“Normally, when weighing filament, people use a separate scale and a calculator, but I thought it would be more convenient to integrate a filament scale into the printer,” he said. The idea was to replace the printer’s existing spool holder with one that contains a beam load cell. A beam load cell is a cantilever that measures applied force and converts it into an electrical signal, which can then be interpreted as weight.

“I identified a beam load cell with a maximum capacity of 5kg, although the filament reels to be used are 1kg, allowing a degree of overload protection,” Chris says. “My chosen load cell also came with a signal-conditioning amplifier which can be interfaced to a microcontroller.” This enabled him to combine the specialised transducer with an RP2040 microcontroller board, choosing one with an integrated LCD. “It allowed me to reduce the footprint, cost, and build time,” he adds.

Scaling up

With the beam load cell identified, Chris designed a 3D-printed spool holder for an Elegoo Neptune 4 Pro 3D printer. “The spool holder and the case were designed using BlocksCAD, with the screw thread designed using Tinkercad,” he said. Once all the elements were printed, he was able to assemble the scale arm, which also incorporated an HX711 ADC load cell conditioning amplifier designed for weighing scales.

The assembled main unit includes a clear window to protect the RP2040 microcontroller board

Chris also custom-made a PCB onto which he could mount an RP2040 microcontroller board. “I opted for a PCB designed using EAGLE to mount the components, improving repeatability and reproducibility, and creating a robust project,” he explains.

With the main unit assembled, he turned his attention to the software, which he wrote in MicroPython v1.15 using the Thonny IDE.

Weighty issues

To work, the software needs a bunch of information. First, it requires the calibration value. “Calibration is important to ensure the scale displays the correct weight, and this is accomplished using a known weight,” Chris explains. The software also needs the baseline weight, as well as information about the filament material: its density (g/cm³), diameter (mm), and the weight of the empty reel (g).

The PCB is fitted with an HX711 ADC and headers for an RP2040 microcontroller board

“A small list of this information is held internally and within text files, either of which may be edited to extend or amend the lists,” Chris says. “The user needs to select the correct details … and, with all this information, weight and filament length can be calculated.”

The LCD instructs the user to perform any necessary tasks, such as removing the spool to capture the unladen weight. It also displays the required result, including the length in metres and weight in grams. Given the low cost of the parts, it’s already proven to be an efficient money- and waste-saving device. With full instructions and printable files on Hackster.io, it’s a project that many makers are sure to find useful.

This article is from Raspberry Pi Official Magazine #161

You can grab this issue from Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, WHSmith, and other newsagents, including the Raspberry Pi Store in Cambridge. It’s also available from our online store, which ships around the world. And you can get a digital version via our app on Android or iOS.

You can also subscribe to the print version of our magazine. Not only do we deliver worldwide, but people who sign up to the six- or twelve-month print subscription get a FREE Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W!

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Got a Raspberry Pi for Christmas? Welcome to the family!

If you’re not new to Raspberry Pi, don’t run away yet — it would be lovely if you could scroll to the comments and drop your best hints and tips, or maybe even a beginner-friendly project idea. You are part of said family mentioned in the title, after all!

If you’re still reading this, there’s a good chance you’ve just unwrapped a shiny new Raspberry Pi. First of all: welcome! (And yes, welcome to those of you who bought one for yourselves; you are also most welcome). You’re about to enter a world full of tinkering, learning, and creativity.

What can I use it for?

Your Raspberry Pi is a small but mighty single-board computer. Don’t let its size fool you — it can run full operating systems, so you can use it as a home computer. This is especially easy if you’ve got a Raspberry Pi 400, 500 or 500+, as those models are pretty much ‘plug-and-play’. You can find details for all of our hardware on our product pages.

The new Raspberry Pi 500+

One of the special things about Raspberry Pi boards is the GPIO pins (the spiky metallic bits running along one side of the board), which can be wired up to lights, servo motors, switches, and more. We’ve seen our boards and microcontrollers flying on the International Space Station, powering robots, performing home assistant duties, monitoring wildlife, and running machine learning models. If you’ve thought of it, someone has probably put a Raspberry Pi in it.

Raspberry Pi 400 with a Sense HAT connected to its GPIO

Where to start

Here are the best resources to use as a Raspberry Pi newbie:

Raspberry Pi Press

Raspberry Pi Press has published loads of books. The best place to start may be The Official Raspberry Pi Beginner’s Guide, as it’s perfect for people needing guidance every step of the way.

The Official Raspberry Pi Handbook is a huge book of tutorials, project showcases, guides, product reviews, and much more from the pages of Raspberry Pi Official Magazine. This edition includes a get-started guide covering every Raspberry Pi model, so it’s also a good choice for beginners.

If you’re a bit more confident in your coding skills and partial to digital nostalgia, Code the Classics should be right up your street. It’s a good-looking book that’ll teach you how to run and edit vintage games, while also sharing game design tips and tricks from the masters.

Have a scroll through our online book store. We’ve been publishing titles for ten years now, so there should be something for everyone, whether you’re interested in creating wearable tech, exploring photography and video on Raspberry Pi, or reading about the computers that made the world.

Raspberry Pi Official Magazine

Raspberry Pi Official Magazine is our monthly publication. It’s stuffed full of tutorials, interviews, and reviews, so it’s a good place to look if you’re thinking of buying an accessory for your Raspberry Pi, or if you simply want to immerse yourself in the community.

You can buy physical issues from some UK supermarkets and newsagents, as well as the Raspberry Pi Store in Cambridge, UK. It’s also available from our online store, which ships around the world. You can get a digital version via our app on Android or iOS, and all of our back issues are available to download for free.

Raspberry Pi Forums

Stuck? Got questions? Got coder’s block? The Raspberry Pi Forums are full of helpful (and extremely nerdy) people, including many of our own engineers, who’ve been exactly where you are now and can help you work through the problem. Don’t be scared — there is literally no enquiry too incidental for the forums; I myself have posted a lot of nonsense, and everyone was very nice to me.

YouTube creators

We love the online maker community, and YouTube is an especially helpful resource if you’re new and looking for a gentler-paced walkthrough, or if you need things explained in beginner-friendly terms.

Some bigger accounts posting content often include DigiKey, element14, Electromaker, and Adafruit.

That’s us on YouTube!

Or, if you’d like to lose a few hours down a digital rabbit hole, take a look at some of the recent videos from accounts we are subscribed to. We have literally too many YouTube friends to mention.

Enjoy the journey and have fun

Every Raspberry Pi owner remembers their first boot-up, their first blinking LED, and their first (and 500th) “Why isn’t this working?” moment — we’re all still learning, no matter how many years we’ve been tinkering. Embrace the process. Play. Explore. Break (software) things. Fix them again. That’s what this community is all about.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Raspberry Pi, and happy making.

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Amstrad PPC 640 cyberdeck gets a Raspberry Pi makeover

A new issue of Raspberry Pi Official Magazine has landed today! A wild guess led us to the conclusion that you would like this article about an Amstrad PPC 640’s Raspberry Pi makeover the best.

When faced with a broken Amstrad PPC 640, Mikey Damager had two choices: return the machine to its former glory or tear it apart and rebuild it using modern parts. He decided to do the latter, turning what was Amstrad’s first portable IBM PC compatible computer, released in 1987, into a cool-looking cyberdeck powered by Raspberry Pi 4. It produced a machine capable of running an interactive fiction project for Mikey’s master’s degree. 

The project is faithful to Amstrad’s original cool-looking case design

“I wanted to explore AI and machine learning to see if I could incorporate some of the tools into a creative workflow in a way that felt somewhat critical and not too detached,” he says. “I ended up making something that uses LLMs to explore what it’s like to be existentially brutalised by an evil corporation which has hidden access to pseudo-sentient technology. It’s supposed to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek and satirical.”

Key to success

Mikey had considered repairing the original machine, but doing so would have entailed a huge amount of work. “The screen was completely smashed and the case was pretty dinged-up. A few bits of plastic had also snapped off.”

Deciding an upgrade was preferable, he opened the case and detached the screen and keyboard. “The chassis is basically a plastic suitcase with a screen and a keyboard attached,” Mikey says. “Once inside with a screwdriver, the motherboard practically leapt into my arms. I was left with a big empty box that I could fill up with new gadgets.”

The original innards have been replaced, but Mikey has retained the motherboard in case someone wants it

The screen was replaced with an eight-inch 4:3 LCD panel connected to an HDMI driver board. Mikey used screen repair tape to fix this panel to a sheet of 2mm acrylic for protection, and he connected the display to Raspberry Pi 4 before wiring the PPC 640’s original LEDs and switches to the new hardware, allowing the system to be easily powered up.

Replacing the keyboard proved straightforward too. “One of the best things about the PPC is that it has a full-size keyboard, which means that if you just remove the little plastic tangs where the Fn key should be, you can grab pretty much any random full-size mechanical keyboard, de-glove it, and there’s a good chance that it will fit almost perfectly.” 

Black is the new grey

The floppy disk drive was also retained, even though it was disconnected. “I wired the write-protect switch from the floppy drive to an Arduino to turn on a small screen when a disk is inserted, but it doesn’t read any data,” Mikey says.

The biggest challenge was the development of the front end. “I needed what’s running on the screen to look and feel suitably cyberdeck-y,” he explains. “The piece is built around a React app that’s styled to look like an OS. Raspberry Pi is running FullPageOS, so it’s just a kiosk that boots straight into a web page over Wi-Fi, with the back end running either from my laptop or in the cloud.”

Mikey says the PPC 640’s plastic had become brittle over time, so care was needed when working on the case

It means the Raspberry Pi is just handling the display and user input, ensuring that the cyberdeck does the intended job. As a finishing touch, Mikey sprayed the grey computer black and added colour to some of the keys, but he’d like to go further. “There are a few cosmetic improvements I’d like to make, such as new badges and branding,” he says. “I’m also planning a better power solution, because currently it’s running from power banks that I’ve hidden inside, and I’d like something a bit more elegant.” 

Raspberry Pi Official Magazine #161 out NOW!

You can grab this issue from Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, WHSmith, and other newsagents, including the Raspberry Pi Store in Cambridge. It’s also available from our online store, which ships around the world. And you can get a digital version via our app on Android or iOS.

You can also subscribe to the print version of our magazine. Not only do we deliver worldwide, but people who sign up to the six- or twelve-month print subscription get a FREE Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W!

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Sustainable solutions: A year in review

As we round out the year at Raspberry Pi, we’re reflecting on the work we’ve done to become more sustainable. Guided by our principles for sustainability, this year has seen us try new solutions and even gain some industry recognition, bolstering our commitment to making high-performance, low-cost computing products in an environmentally responsible way.

Laying the foundations: a year to build on

Improvements to our operations have been significant. Since January, we’ve detailed how intrusive reflow soldering has boosted our manufacturing efficiency, directly reducing our carbon footprint; how our ongoing efforts to reduce packaging continue to minimise waste, ensuring that our physical impact is as low as possible; and how expanding our carbon removal initiative through our partnership with UNDO is helping to permanently remove CO₂ from the atmosphere. Here, we introduced a new product, Raspberry Pi Carbon Removal Credits. Each credit mitigates the emissions associated with the manufacture and disposal of one modern Raspberry Pi.

We have also continued to celebrate receiving the London Stock Exchange’s Green Economy Mark, a prestigious award recognising that over 50% of our revenue comes from products and services with a positive environmental impact. The mark underscores how our dedication to accessible technology goes hand in hand with being environmentally conscious.

Underpinning all these efforts is our ongoing commitment to longevity. Designing products that last longer amplifies the impact of our other work to reduce electronic waste, and provides sustainable (not to mention functional) advantages to our industrial and home users.

What comes next

Our work is far from finished. With plans to improve our lifetime carbon analysis in the new year, we’re aiming to be more transparent as we become more sustainable, sharing our progress on the recently launched Raspberry Pi sustainability portal. This will serve as the main repository for information about our sustainability going forward. We encourage anyone who would like to stay up to date with our work in this area to take a look.

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Designing patterns for your Christmas lights

There’s still time to squeeze in a festive make before the big day, and luckily for you, the latest issue of Raspberry Pi Official Magazine is stuffed full of them. In this tutorial, Ben Everard explains how to balance brightness, colour, and movement to achieve the perfect pattern for your Christmas lights.

In last month’s issue of Raspberry Pi Official Magazine, we looked at different forms of WS2812B LEDs (also known as NeoPixels) that you can use to make Christmas lights. Now, let’s take a look at how to customise them. We’re not going to dwell on the software too much — there are libraries available for just about every language you’re going to come across, and you can control them on a Raspberry Pi, a Raspberry Pi Pico, or most other platforms that you can physically access a GPIO on (we’ll use CircuitPython on Pico, but you could translate it into another language or platform fairly easily). Instead, we’re going to think about what we want them to do. In other words, rather than looking too much at how to make them work, we’re going to focus on how to make them look good. 

The basic circuit for testing NeoPixels

Balancing act

In our experience, getting a good-looking light pattern is about creating balance across three different things:

Movement: There’s a common joke in the maker community that things need more blinking lights. However, harsh on-and-off blinks can be really garish, distracting, and rarely look good. Instead, we usually want our movement to be more fluid. There is a balance to strike between fluidity of movement and speed.

Colour: You can create almost any colour with WS2812B LEDs. However, that doesn’t mean you can just mash every colour together and end up with something that looks good. A well-thought-out colour palette is probably the single most important part of creating a good-looking Christmas light display.

Brightness: WS2812B LEDs often come in large blocks — strings of hundreds of them. Each one may not be that bright, but lots of them together quickly get very vivid. Just because you have all the LEDs doesn’t mean that they all have to be on at the same time. Black is one of the most powerful colours in an LED pattern. You can move patches of colour around, or simply create a pattern that users can look at without hurting their eyes.

Our pattern in action on some NeoPixel fairy lights

Colourify

First, let’s take a look at colour. Obviously, the most classic Christmas combination is red and green — and it’s a classic for a reason. Colours are complementary if, when you combine them, you get grey. They contrast strongly with each other, but in a way that feels balanced.

Colour theory is often shown using a colour wheel that has all the hues around the outside. Complementary colours are opposites. The hue is often given as the number of degrees around the outside of the colour wheel that you have to travel. 

You can continue the basic principle of building a palette out of colours that combine to make grey with more colours. With three colours, you’re looking for hues that are 120 and 240 degrees apart. You can continue to work upwards with more colours, ensuring they are evenly spaced around the wheel.

However, the distance around the outside of the colour wheel only defines the hue, and this is only one part of colour. For example, you won’t find pink on the outside of the colour wheel because pink is the same hue as red, but with less saturation. Saturation defines how ‘pure’ a colour is. You reduce saturation by mixing in white. If we’re defining our palette by hues spaced around the colour wheel, we usually want to make sure they all have the same saturation. 

Our NeoPixel Pico has two connectors (though we’re only using one on this project); the cable tie helps relieve strain on the soldered connections

There is also a slightly unusual take on this that can work: an infinite-range colour palette. If you pick hues at random, but always have the same saturation, you can make a balanced palette. This works best at lower saturations; otherwise, it can get a bit too garish.

You don’t have to balance your colours like this. Another option is to use a string of colours that are close to each other on the colour wheel. This is known as an analogous palette.

There are many ways to build a palette that you can use, and we’ve only looked at a few here. These are the ones we like to use, but that’s partly down to personal preference. We should end this by saying that there is no perfect theory of colour (despite there being many things called a theory of colour). There are lots of ideas — like the ones we’ve given above — many of which have a track record of looking great. However, these are just things that people have found tend to look good. If you prefer something that doesn’t fit into anyone else’s theory of colour, then it doesn’t matter. They’re your lights, and what you like matters more than what some theory says.

Perhaps the key thing we’d like you to take away from this is that there are methods for building palettes to create different effects in the pattern, and if you build your pattern with a changeable palette, it lets you experiment and find one that works for you.

Theory into practice

Let’s now take a look at all of this in action. Last month, we looked at a range of options for connecting LEDs to Pico, so we won’t go into too much detail here. We’ve connected our string to GPIO 0, but that’s easy to change if you want to connect yours in a different way.

We’ve written our code in CircuitPython, so you’ll need to install that. You’ll also need the ‘neopixel’ and ‘adafruit_fancyled’ modules, both of which are in the CircuitPython Library Bundle. You can get all of this from circuitpython.org. You’ll also need a computer with the Mu code editor installed, which you can download from codewith.mu. If you’ve not used CircuitPython before, we’d recommend having a quick look at the beginner’s guide so you know how it all works.

We’ve devised a test pattern that lets you play with all of these variables to see how they affect the pattern — see the ‘test_pattern.py’ code listing. Once you’ve figured out your preferences for the balance of movement, colour, and brightness, you’ll be in a great place to design your own pattern.

CircuitPython is really well documented — if you need any help, head to circuitpython.org

This will build a palette in two different ways: either a balanced palette (evenly spaced around the colour wheel) or an analogous one (clustered around one point). These aren’t the only ways to build a palette, though; you could write your own function to build a palette, or create one by hand and paste in the values. Either way, you can select the number of colours, the root colour, and (in the case of analogous) the variance (i.e. the distance between adjacent colours in your palette).

You can also adjust the movement in the pattern in two ways: by changing the number of steps (i.e. the number of brightness shades between fully off and fully on), or by altering the sleep time. Increase one or both numbers for slower, smoother animations, or decrease them for faster, more blinky animations. There is also the ‘new_colour_prob’ variable, which changes both the movement and the brightness. In each loop, it picks a pixel at random and either lights it in a new colour or turns it off. Increasing this number increases the chances of the pixel going black. A higher number means a darker pattern — but within that darker pattern, there’s more scope for movement.

Exploring the various options for this pattern should give you an idea of the sorts of things you like to see, which will put you in a really good place to build your own.

Download the full code: rpimag.co/github

Raspberry Pi Official Magazine #160 out NOW!

You can grab this issue from Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, WHSmith, and other newsagents, including the Raspberry Pi Store in Cambridge. It’s also available from our online store, which ships around the world. And you can get a digital version via our app on Android or iOS.

You can also subscribe to the print version of our magazine. Not only do we deliver worldwide, but people who sign up to the six- or twelve-month print subscription get a FREE Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W!

The post Designing patterns for your Christmas lights appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

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How to add your own images to Imager

Are you an image vendor or a hobbyist looking to distribute your own custom Raspberry Pi OS image through Raspberry Pi Imager? If yes, then this guide is for you. In this post, we’ll take a deep, technical look at how Raspberry Pi Imager discovers and lists operating system images, and how the repository JSON format works under the hood.

With the release of Raspberry Pi Imager 2.0, a number of improvements have been made to the user interface, the imaging process, and internal configuration handling (for more details, see the Raspberry Pi Imager 2.0 announcement post). One of the more interesting changes is the updated JSON schema used to define available OS images. This update is particularly relevant to the introduction of cloud-init support in Raspberry Pi OS, including a new cc_raspberry_pi module that enables configuration features like enabling SPI automatically.

How Imager knows about images

Raspberry Pi Imager and Raspberry Pi OS are not released on the same schedule. The operating system might receive several updates before a new version of Imager is published. Releasing a new Imager build for every OS update would be inefficient — not to mention inconvenient for users.

To solve this, Raspberry Pi Imager doesn’t ship with a fixed list of operating system images. Instead, it fetches this information dynamically from a remote JSON file, known as the ‘repository JSON’. This allows us to update the list of supported devices and available operating system images separately to Imager releases. Users get the latest options automatically, without needing to reinstall or update the application.

The current version of this format — used by Imager 2.0 and beyond — is formally encoded as Repository JSON V4.

Why keep the repository separate?

Hosting the image metadata externally opens up some powerful possibilities. For example, you can maintain multiple repositories — one for official stable releases, another for nightly builds or testing images, or even a private repository for internal deployments or classroom environments.

To make this more accessible, Imager 2.0 introduces a new option in the app settings, allowing you to switch between the official repository and a custom JSON file, which can be loaded from either a local file or a URL.

When you change this setting, Imager resets the current session and reloads the interface using the contents of the selected repository JSON. This feature is intended for advanced users and maintainers — typical users will never need to change this.

For power users or automation scenarios, the classic method still exists: you can pass a custom repository using the --repo command-line option. This can point to either a URL or a local JSON file, making it ideal for scripted workflows or provisioning setups.

Understanding the repository JSON structure

A Raspberry Pi Imager repository file follows a predictable structure, and is built around four main configuration elements:

• The latest Imager version
• A URL where users can download updates
• A list of supported device profiles
• A list of available operating system entries

Here’s the basic structure:

{
  "imager": {
    "latest_version": "2.0.0",
    "url": "https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/",
    "devices": [
      /* Device objects go here */
    ]
  },
  "os_list": [
    /* OS objects go here */
  ]
}

imager.latest_version and url

The latest_version field is used by Imager to determine whether a newer version is available. When a user launches the application, it compares its own version against this field. If the repository indicates a newer version, Imager displays an update prompt and links to the URL provided in the url field.

The devices list

The devices array contains a list of supported hardware profiles. These profiles allow Imager to filter OS entries based on the selected Raspberry Pi model. For example, an image may be restricted to Raspberry Pi 5 only, or marked as compatible with all boards.

You’ll also see a special entry called ‘No filtering’. When this option is selected, all OS images are displayed without applying any device compatibility filters. This mode is often used for testing or when working with generic images. It behaves like a virtual device profile that supports every feature. That means all configuration options are available, even when no specific Raspberry Pi model is selected.

The os_list

This is where the real action happens. The os_list contains all operating system entries that Imager displays to the user. Each entry can represent a full OS, a subgroup with multiple variants, or even reference nested JSON files for modular repositories.

If you’re building your own custom repository, this is typically the only section you’ll edit. The top-level imager block — which includes device metadata and update information — is managed by Raspberry Pi and tightly integrated with how the official application works.

A JSON device object — defining hardware profiles

Before Raspberry Pi Imager can decide which operating systems to show for which device, it needs a way to understand the identity and capabilities of each Raspberry Pi model. That’s where the device object comes in.

Each entry in the devices array represents a device profile — not necessarily a single board, but often a group of compatible models. For example, there may be a single profile representing ‘Raspberry Pi 4 / 400’, rather than separate entries for every board variant.

Here’s what a device object can contain:

Key	Type	Description
name	string	Display name shown in Imager (e.g. ‘Raspberry Pi 5’)
tags	string[]	A list of identifiers that OS objects can reference to declare compatibility
default	boolean (default: true)	Only one device should have this set; Imager will auto-select it when no manual filter is applied
icon	string (URL)	A small PNG icon displayed next to the name in the device selection dialogue
description	string	Optional text listing supported models or giving extra context
matching_type	"inclusive" | "exclusive"	Defines how OS entries that do not declare device tags should behave: • inclusive → show them anyway • exclusive → hide them, unless explicitly tagged for this device
capabilities (new in Imager 2.0)	string[] (e.g. “usb_otg“)	Acts as feature flags — used to hide or enable UI options depending on whether the selected device supports them

Device capabilities are especially useful because they allow Imager to only surface configuration options that make sense. For example, the USB gadget mode toggle will only be shown if both the selected device and the selected OS list usb_otg in their capabilities. This avoids confusing users with options that won’t work on their hardware.

Objects inside os_list: categories vs. operating systems

The os_list section can contain two different types of objects, each serving a different purpose:

1. Category object

A category is a container used to organise multiple OS entries or even subcategories. It cannot be selected for download and does not contain a url or image metadata.

A category object supports only the following keys:

Key	Type	Description
name	string	The category title shown in the UI
description	string	Optional text shown under the name
icon	string (URL)	Icon displayed next to the category name
random	boolean (optional)	If true, randomises the order of the entries inside subitems
subitems	array	Contains operating system objects and/or nested category objects

Think of a category as a folder in the UI — you click it to reveal what’s inside.

2. Operating system object

An operating system object defines a selectable image. These are the entries that are installable. They do not contain random or subitems.

The supported keys for an operating system entry are:

Key	Type	Description
name	string	Display name of the OS
description	string	Short explanation or variant info
icon	string (URL)	Icon to display next to the entry
url	string (URL)	Direct link to the compressed image file (.img.xz, .img.zip, etc.)
extract_size	int	Uncompressed image size (used for UI space estimation)
extract_sha256	string	SHA256 hash of the extracted image
image_download_size	int	Size of the compressed download
image_download_sha256	string	SHA256 hash of the compressed file
release_date	string (date)	Displayed date for version/build identification
init_format	"none" | "systemd" | "cloudinit" | "cloudinit-rpi"	Declares what kind of customisation Imager can offer; cloudinit-rpi enables the Raspberry Pi–specific cc_raspberry_pi module
devices	string[]	A list of device tags (from device objects) that this OS supports
capabilities	string[]	Indicates which features this OS image supports (e.g. usb_otg or rpi_connect)

Tip: For development or internal testing, you can omit the checksum and size fields. However, for public repositories, providing them helps Imager give accurate progress information and allows for checksum validation.

Rule of thumb:

• If it contains other items → it’s a category object
• If it downloads something → it’s an operating system object

Capabilities — feature matching

Here’s a clearer explanation of capabilities that applies to both device and OS objects:

Value	Applies to	Meaning
usb_otg	Device and OS	Only shown if the selected device and OS both support USB gadget functionality (requires rpi-usb-gadget in the OS and OTG-capable hardware)
rpi_connect	OS image only	Indicates support for Raspberry Pi Connect connectivity features in the UI

Image requirements

If you want your image to offer customisation options in Raspberry Pi Imager, especially with the new cloud-init integration, there are a few technical requirements your image must meet.

Supporting cloud-init customisation

To enable cloud-init–based configuration (like setting your hostname, Wi-Fi credentials, or SSH keys during first boot), your image must:

• Support cloud-init’s Network Config Version 2 — typically implemented through Netplan with the correct network renderer
• Include cloud-init with support for the NoCloud data source via the bootfs partition (Imager writes configuration files into bootfs, and the OS must detect them on first boot)

cloudinit-rpi — advanced Raspberry Pi integration

If you declare init_format: "cloudinit-rpi" in your OS entry, Imager will also expose Raspberry Pi–specific options, such as enabling SPI or I2C automatically. To support this mode, your image must:

• Have the cc_raspberry_pi cloud-init module enabled
• Include the raspi-config-vendor package (modified for your distro), which provides integration hooks for the cloud-init module during first boot

More details, including a template setup, can be found here.

Other init modes

init_format value	Imager behavior
"none"	No customisation is offered to the user — simple download and flash workflow
"systemd"	Enables the legacy bootfs-based firstrun.sh customisation mechanism
"cloud-init"	Enables standard cloud-init (NoCloud) with generic options
"cloud-init-rpi"	Enables extended, Raspberry Pi–specific options through cc_raspberry_pi

If your image does not support any customisation mechanism, use init_format: "none" to explicitly disable the customisation step in the UI.

Getting included in the official Raspberry Pi Imager repository

If you’re maintaining a high-quality image and would like it to appear alongside official images in Raspberry Pi Imager (under one of the community categories), you can submit it for review by filling out the following application form.

Our team will review your submission, verify its compatibility, and get in touch if any adjustments are needed. Once approved, your image can be distributed to thousands of Raspberry Pi Imager users worldwide through our main repository infrastructure.

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A new documentation team and a new documentation process

As a company that began with a mission to empower people by making computing accessible, it’s no surprise that we view our technical documentation as an important part of our products. To that end, we are powering up our documentation team. This year, we have added two new Documentation Specialists to our staff: Jeunese Payne, who comes from a psychology and UX background, and Kat Shann (that’s me — hello!), with 15 years’ experience as a technical author with a background in software.

Jeunese and Kat

We’re looking forward to making lots of additions and improvements to our documentation. One of the first improvements we are making is to how we manage our repositories. Our documentation is open source, located on GitHub in raspberrypi/documentation, and we license it under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence — meaning you can take it, remix it, and translate it, as long as you give us credit for the original. Previously, we would build our documentation site directly from this repo; now we are moving our development work to a private internal repository and setting up raspberrypi/documentation to mirror it. 

Why are we making this change?

With the rapid pace of documentation updates and new product releases (we’re often working on documentation for several new products at once), maintaining multiple branches in our private repository, as well as all the rebasing and merge-conflicts that ensued, was becoming a bit unmanageable. Our new process allows us to spend more time writing quality documentation and less time wrangling with git! At the same time, our documentation gets to stay open source, and the public repository remains open for issues and pull requests from the community.

Community contributions — keep ’em coming!

We have a rich history of docs contributions from the Raspberry Pi community: almost 10% of the pull requests merged to the documentation repository in the last year came from you, not us. We want to keep those contributions flowing. Keep raising pull requests against our docs and letting us know what changes you’d like to see, including any mistakes that have slipped through the net. Our new process ensures that you’ll still get credit for your changes, whether we pull them in as a patch or use the co-author feature in GitHub.

Beyond these changes, the docs team is still growing; we’re planning to add another Documentation Specialist in the new year, preferably someone with a hardware background. If that sounds like you, check out the job listing on our website.

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Sustainable solutions: Our environmental, social, and governance metrics

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics are non-financial information used by stakeholders — particularly investors — to assess a company’s sustainability and ethical impact. They cover a firm’s interaction with the planet, its relationship with people and the community, and its corporate leadership. As a publicly listed company, transparency on these issues is critical for Raspberry Pi; investors increasingly use these data points to evaluate businesses’ long-term value, risk, and social license to operate. The absence of ESG reporting is often considered more concerning than poor metrics, as the lack of visibility makes companies seem riskier and less accountable.

Raspberry Pi’s approach to ESG metrics

While our core mission to democratise technology by providing access to tools and education has always been inherently ESG-positive, our formal reporting on ESG metrics has been somewhat lean since listing on the London Stock Exchange last year.

As a newly listed company, we were awarded the London Stock Exchange’s Green Economy Mark, which recognises that at least 50% of our revenue comes from products and services that have a positive environmental impact. To take this even further, we are improving our reporting process and committing to a more transparent approach, starting with the release of a focused number of ESG metrics in our 2025 Annual Report. 

The initial set will concentrate on areas we already report on under the TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures) and SECR (streamlined energy and carbon reporting) regulatory frameworks. This will help us to establish a baseline for the future. We can then make more comprehensive disclosures as we come to better understand how to demonstrate the work we do while adhering to our guiding principles for sustainability.

Why ESG reporting is crucial for Raspberry Pi

Formalising our ESG disclosure is vital for several reasons. Firstly, it helps our shareholders gain a clear, evidence-based understanding of the work we do, demonstrating that our commercial success is intrinsically linked to our positive environmental impact. And beyond this, providing this data to the market enables investors, analysts, and customers to quantify and assess the work already being done, whether that’s the energy efficiency of our single-board computers or our efforts to ensure that our manufacturing is as environmentally sustainable as it can be. This increased visibility will generate data that builds trust and strengthens our position in the global technology market.

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