Raspberry Pi

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Raspberry Pi

Postby PMC » Sat Jan 19, 2013 4:55 pm

I could write pages of info on this little device, but others have done that, so I am pointing to some links.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/about and this http://elinux.org/RPi_Hub

If you enjoy, or want to learn about micro electronics, this is the device to play with. It is the premium techie toy that all can love. It has kept me amused for many months :lol:

The operating system is `Raspian' and has the (linux) lxde for a graphical front end. If you are familiar with Linux, then the Pi device is the same in many ways.

After the original boot up from the SD card, do `apt-get install synaptic' and you can then select what software to install for your use. The device can be set to auto boot to a graphic environment, but it is better to have it boot to a command line login, and then type `startx' to boot the graphical front end.

What you do with the device is up to your creativity. Because the operating system lives on an SDHC card, then you can have multiple SD cards with the OS installed in different ways (as a boot image), and then choose the SD card that you want to use. This being done from a tool concept. Using `apt-get install gnome-system-tools' will give you android on reboot as example.

The device can be powered from a switched USB hub. The power does need to supply a constant amp rate or strange things can/will occur.

This fellow has a website running on a Pi device http://www.arrowsmith.net.au/
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Re: Raspberry Pi

Postby PMC » Sat Mar 30, 2013 9:07 am

I laughed when I saw this, but Amazon will let you browse it via their online Kindle. A great text for those starting into the technology.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/3599
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Re: Raspberry Pi

Postby PMC » Mon Oct 14, 2013 4:58 pm

A couple of Pi bits...

There is a new version of NOOBS 1.3 and this is the simple way to get the operating system installed on an SD card... which should be atleast 4 gigabyte in size, and better at 16 or 32 gigabyte if you want some file storage space.

https://github.com/raspberrypi/noobs/bl ... /README.md

The above page will give you images of the installer and display other OS's that can be installed to the Raspberry Pi device... Pidora which is the Pi fedora as example. The latest NOOBS can be downloaded there or at the Pi site.

NOOBS is simple in that you download the zip archive and then unzip it to the SD card... the SD card then boots a menu for install.

Oracle 7 JDK is now part of `raspian'. If you use Windows or iOS there is software from the SD card association to specificly format the card, if you don't have it already etc.

https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/

If you already own a Pi device and have not done an upgrade then do so. There are many new things, more device drivers etc.

sudo apt-get upgrade

or no sudo if logged in as root etc.
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Re: Raspberry Pi

Postby PMC » Fri Oct 25, 2013 6:27 pm

This link to the Pi site is about a Radio Lollipop project all done by volunteers. It also displays more of the creativity that is occuring with the device.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/5099
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Re: Raspberry Pi

Postby PMC » Wed Nov 06, 2013 12:46 pm

This project is one of best that I have seen thus far with the Pi device. Creative fellow this David Conroy etc.

http://www.daveconroy.com/turn-raspberr ... languages/

David Conroy Raspberry Pi Translation Tool

I get many requests from people who are still looking for cheap, easy, and fun project ideas for their Raspberry Pi’s, so I wanted to share this translator project I’ve been working on. With very little effort, we can turn this 35$ mini-computer into a feature rich language translator that not only supports voice recognition and native speaker playback, but also is capable of translation between 60+ languages, FREE! Even if you are not interested in building this exact translational tool, there are still many parts of this tutorial that might be interesting to you (speech recognition, text to speech, Microsoft/Google translation APIs).

The GitHub link is here

https://github.com/dconroy/PiTranslate
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Re: Raspberry Pi

Postby PMC » Wed Nov 13, 2013 4:04 pm

Another great concept with the Pi device, and its all FM radio

http://artica.cc/blog/2013/11/07/fm-str ... eport.html

There are other things these guys have put together...
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Re: Raspberry Pi

Postby PMC » Wed Mar 05, 2014 9:32 am

Was at the Pi blog today and found this. Interesting from the educational use of point and see. The page has an image of the Pi board, and placing the mouse cursor over the components on the board, pops a small window saying what it is. http://raspmap.tsar.in/

The Pi foundation has sold two and half million of these devices in the first year. If you haven't seen what can be done with these things, there are plenty of videos. See some of the above links etc.
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Re: Raspberry Pi

Postby PMC » Sun Apr 27, 2014 10:00 am

A nice DIY project...build your own GSM cell phone using a Raspberry Pi and some other off the shelf components... no soldering required. The fellow uses a programming language called Python, and he is releasing the source code for it. See the piece for the details.

http://www.davidhunt.ie/piphone-a-raspb ... martphone/

Don't know if Telus or Rogers would give you a SIM card for it... anybody ?
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Re: Raspberry Pi

Postby jon » Sun Apr 27, 2014 12:08 pm

Lest the Raspberry Pi be written off as "maybe they'll sell a thousand of these to a few eccentrics", I was really surprised when the fellow who manages warranty service for the builder of my current house told me that he had one. Got it to update his 10 year old specialized, and short, computer training program.

He just wanted something to run Ubuntu Linux on.

Sounds like some of his friends have one, too.

Although I'm not thrilled by the idea of leaving an open circuit board running fully powered on my desk, you can actually buy one in Canada for less than $45. Assuming you have a spare micoUSB cable (for power), spare SD card (takes the place of a hard drive), and spare Ethernet cable (Internet access). For example:
http://www.amazon.ca/Raspberry-Pi-Model ... 00AKQA0X6/
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Re: Raspberry Pi

Postby Toomas Losin » Sun Apr 27, 2014 12:35 pm

My next hardware "upgrade" may be to a Pi.

All of my personal Internet services (web and mail) run on home servers via my DSL connection. Currently my web server is a D-Link DNS-323 repurposed as a general purpose Linux server. That upgrade saved a ton of cash; capital cost was an order of magnitude less than the machine it replaced and the operating cost is peanuts. The next upgrade, if it is to a Pi, would save some more cash and replace a spinning-rust drive with an SD card.
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Re: Raspberry Pi

Postby PMC » Sun Apr 27, 2014 5:40 pm

jon wrote:He just wanted something to run Ubuntu Linux on.


Ubuntu has a nice phone that becomes a desktop when you put it in the charger.

http://www.ubuntu.com/phone/ubuntu-for-android

jon wrote:Although I'm not thrilled by the idea of leaving an open circuit board running fully powered on my desk, you can actually buy one in Canada for less than $45.


Local electronic shops sell the Pi device, with plastic cases. The cases sell for $10 to $15. The Pi with a micro to regular usb cable can plug into the back of a regular computer if the computer has atleast USB 2.0 for a power supply. The Pi can run off of a switched USB hub. This is how I run them.

As for the DIY project phone above, it has a very short battery life... but a great learning project.
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Re: Raspberry Pi

Postby PMC » Wed Jul 30, 2014 8:03 pm

Great geek news...

The Pi Foundation has released a new model B+. Two more USB ports are added and the GPIO now has 40 pins. Details are here.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/introducing- ... el-b-plus/

The other model B will continue to be manufactured, as will the model A.
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Re: Raspberry Pi

Postby PMC » Sat Aug 16, 2014 12:23 pm

If you have considered running a Pi from your cell phone, this code project may interest you, or someone near you.

https://code.google.com/p/webiopi/

There are now several GPIO boards to use for switching purposes. The above site has the GPIO pinouts on display etc.
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Re: Raspberry Pi

Postby jon » Sat Aug 16, 2014 2:02 pm

To come full circle from my earlier comments, I have now run a Raspberry Pi for several months quite happily with basically no issues. For about $15, I added a fan and one of the cases the fan had been tested in, to avoid my concerns about running a "bare board".

Great machine but I discovered that web software like WordPress is just too processor-intensive for the Pi to be a good web server for my testing purposes. I confirmed that was the problem by watching the processor utilization sit at 100% for at least 7 seconds, often twice that, whenever I clicked the mouse on the WordPress test site.

Intel makes an equivalent with a much faster processor, but lacking some of the things that the Pi has built in. After adding what I would need, it was so close to the price of the cheapest Dell desktop, so I bought the Dell instead. It is amazingly fast. And because it includes a license for Windows 8.1, I'm actually keeping it as a backup against the day when my existing 5+ year old Dell desktop bites the dust.

I also switched from Raspbian (Linux written for the Pi) to Ubuntu when I switched to the Dell from the Pi.

The Pi was a wonderful and cost-effective way to get my feet wet running my own Linux machine. And, for most people interested in Linux, the ideal computer to do the job. My brother-in-law wants my Pi now that I'm finished with it. Surprising since he originally questioned my decision to buy a Pi given the availability of VM (Virtual Machine) software that lets you run Linux and Windows on the same computer at the same time.

Admittedly, my past (ultimately disastrous) experience running this site on Linode's VPS service, where you install Linux yourself, gave me the confidence to try the Pi. The Pi folks actually make it a lot easier than Linode did. How much LInux knowledge you need depends totally on what you plan to do with a Pi.

As for my insistence on getting a fan, I'm glad I did, as the processor would have got really hot the few times I did things that kept the processor busy for several hours.
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Re: Raspberry Pi

Postby PMC » Mon Sep 08, 2014 5:21 pm

The add ons keep coming for the Pi.

This one is for a digital music box. The basic Pi audio is limited for audiophile demand and this add on would improve it.

http://www.hifiberry.com/dacplus
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