The Raspberry Pi maker community never ceases to amaze us and today we have a project that's no exception. Maker and developer Yaluke demonstrates with their latest creation how easy it is to create a Raspberry Pi Pico-powered protractor module from scratch. This isn't the same as the static measuring tool you might find in a school but rather is an electronic component that's surprisingly useful in the world of gaming.
This Pi-powered protractor is intended to be used to calculate rotational angles in real time. This particular module is able to convert said measurement into a USB signal which makes it an excellent go to device for simulating steering wheels. If you want to emulate a driving game, this is the sort of setup you could use to make a controller from scratch.
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The project page indicates that the main board powering the operation is a Raspberry Pi Pico but you could likely get away with using the latest Raspberry Pi Pico 2 instead. The Pico is connected to a DFRobot incremental photoelectric rotary encoder along with a Pimoroni Pico Proto Board. Data can be viewed in real-time using a 4-digit 7-segment TM1637 display module. All of the hardware is housed inside of a custom, 3D-printed case.
The software for the protractor was created using C++ for its USB support and extensive compatibility with the PIO (Programmable IO) on the Pico. However, Yaluke mentions experimenting with both MicroPython and CircuitPython before settling on C++.
Yaluke was kind enough to create a build guide for this Raspberry Pi project so you can follow along and make your own. Check it out over at Hackster for more details and an in-depth look at its creation.
