Raspberry PI

[twocvbloke]

Nah, I'd have noticed the agonising pain of eating something like a RaspberryPi without looking if it was in the fridge...

[DavePEI]

Hi Everyone:

As mentioned, my Raspberry PI arrived the other day, and I have been having a great time with it. No, its not a phone, but there are a very large number of phone related applications it can run, Asterisk, PBX, Web Servers etc. etc. All on a $35.00 computer smaller than a package of cigarettes, even when housed in a case.

This is the B version with 512 meg of RAM, built in 10-100 Ethernet, and dual USB ports.
The A version has only 256 meg of RAM, no ethernet, and only a single USB port.

I just put mine in a case tonight, and installed a heat sink on the CPU, and just wanted to post a photo I took of it.

These also have a reputation of being excellent as a HD Multi-media server. See the list posted earlier in the thread.

Dave

[twocvbloke]

What you labelled as DVI Video is actually HDMI [Corrected], though it is backwards compatible with DVI, it's best used with an HDMI interface as you can also pipe sound through it to a TV too...

I still need to get my Pi a case, and a power supply, and a decent HDMI TV to use it on, at this rate I'll probably just get the 512MB version with the complete kit (I had ordered that from RS, but obviously never got it cos I cancelled the order!!)...

And I did find it, it was hiding down the side of my Olivetti P75 computer, don't recall putting it there, but oh well...

[DavePEI]

What you labelled as DVI Video is actually HDMI [Corrected], though it is backwards compatible with DVI, it's best used with an HDMI interface as you can also pipe sound through it to a TV too...

Thanks for pointing that out. I rushed to do the photo and to label it - that was the result of the rush! I have corrected the labelling.

Dave

[DavePEI]

Just thought I would post a photo of the PI in operation and with the silicon flexible keyboard... Great fun!

Dave

[DavePEI]

One of the things you will want to do if you purchase a PI is to create a system SDHC card for it. I just made 4 spare cards for my two, and though the process looked daunting at first, really the process was quite simple.

The first thing of note, is to use a good class 4 or above SDHC card - cards lower than class 4 won't work correctly. SanDisk cards are a good choice. Cards of from 4 to 32 gigabytes are the best choice.

Download a copy of Raspbian "wheezy", the operating system image from:
http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads

Download a copy of Win32DiskImager from:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/

Install Disk Imager. Make a shortcut to the file from your desktop.

Unzip the "Wheezy" zip file, and place a copy of the image file within on your desktop.

Format your SD card (hint, it will format much faster if you format it using your camera.)

Run Win32DiskImager, select the image file, then double check to make sure it is showing the correct drive for its output.

Click on write.

The progress bar will show the progress of the disk write.

When done, you have a fully operational PI operating system disk.

More detailed instructions may be found at:
http://tinyurl.com/cxbncqf

While you can purchase fully prepared disks, you can produce your own using this method at a much lower price.

If you wish, you can have a card prepared with Asterisk, one for another program, etc. and change from one specialized purpose by merely swapping cards.

Dave

[twocvbloke]

I bought a pair of 8GB Class 6 SDHC cards for £12 shortly after I ordered my initial Pi (the one that never came), got one loaded up with Raspbian & worked perfectly when my 2nd attempt Pi arrived, of course I botched the 1st time setup cos I couldn't read anything on the 9" screen on my TV, but I just reflashed the card and everything was all fine once I got through the setup...

Haven't put the 2nd card to any use yet, but having them specific to certain tasks is a smart idea, I just have to work out what the first task is before I come up with a 2nd task for the other card...

[DavePEI]

I bought a pair of 8GB Class 6 SDHC cards for £12 shortly after I ordered my initial Pi (the one that never came), got one loaded up with Raspbian & worked perfectly when my 2nd attempt Pi arrived, of course I botched the 1st time setup cos I couldn't read anything on the 9" screen on my TV, but I just reflashed the card and everything was all fine once I got through the setup...

I guess I am greedy - my second PI finally came from Allied, and I put it in another case I ordered from eBay - much prefer this case to the clear first one. I have a media player set up on the first one, and goodness knows what I will use this one for - probably just for playing with Linux....

Dave

[DavePEI]

My little $25 3 inch TFT monitor arrived today by slow boat from Singapore. With a 12 volt power supply I had here, it works great. There is a published modification for it which will allow it to run off a 5 volt supply.

Now, as I already knew, in order to see it easily, I will have to increase the font size, but it will be great for using the PI in the car! The monitor was designed for use with a back-up camera, and works great with the PI!

Dave

[MDK]

How totally cool. I received mine today and plugged it in, and it works great! I had already set up an SD card with OpenELEC. Did a video calibration, set up a few plugins and started listening to NPR news immediately.

I got it from Newark, and it took about 2 weeks, but worth the wait.

[DavePEI]

How totally cool. I received mine today and plugged it in, and it works great! I had already set up an SD card with OpenELEC. Did a video calibration, set up a few plugins and started listening to NPR news immediately.

I got it from Newark, and it took about 2 weeks, but worth the wait.

Aren't they neat! It is amazing what you can get them to do. I haven't tried Open ELEC yet on mine, but do intend to.

Having fun playing with the little monitor on the PI.

Dave

[DavePEI]

Hi All:

I came across a truly neat TNC designed for packet radio on a PI. It is called a TNC-Pi and consists of a board you stack on yout PI making it a full fledged Ham radio packet TNC, capable of multi.band use. Two TNCS can be stacked and run from one PI. The best thing is the full TNC costs only $50.

http://www.tnc-x.com/TNCPi.htm

I have ordered one to use with one of my PIs.

"TNC-Pi is a special version of TNC-X designed to interface directly with the Raspberry Pi computer. It can connect to the Pi either via the Pi's serial port, or via the I2C protocol. In the latter case, a single Pi can support multiple TNC-Pi's at the same time, since each TNC-Pi can be given a unique I2C address.

The firmware for TNC-Pi was based on the original TNC-X open source code by John Hansen, W2FS as modified by John Wiseman, G8BPQ to support the I2C protocol as well as the original serial port connection.

There are lots of potential applications for TNC-Pi. Here you see the APRS program Xastir running on the Pi driving a TNC-Pi via the serial connection. With this setup you've got most of the functionality of a D700/Avmap combination at less than a quarter the cost.

A Linux version of the WinLink program Paclink is currently under development. Imagine how small your WinLink station can be if you build it around a Raspberry Pi/TNC-Pi combination?
   
Imagine running a pair of TNC-Pi's with a single Raspberry Pi to create a dual frequency digipeater. G8BPQ has created a new version of his venerable BPQ multi-port packet program that will support this."

Dave, VY2AC.

[DavePEI]

Just a note of interest. Yesterday, Jeffery set up an XBMC Media Server on one of my Raspberry PIs.

This is set up in the living room, and allows me to view video files set up on two drives on my main machine, two are 2 TB drives, and the other, a 500 GB drive containing various video and musical items.

While currently set up with a keyboard for selection, a remote control has been ordered for the system.

The end result is my wife can be watching a video in the LR, while I can be watching a TV show here in the office. Connection is via our home network.

It works incredibly well, considering it is set up on a $25 computer!

I can also access it from any computer on the property making it a great system, far better than the former dedicated media player I used! The greatest thing is that the XBMC player on PI cost a quarter of what the system formerly used did, and works much better, plus allows viewing from the TV, or from any computer set up on our network.

It took Jeff about 20 minutes to set up the SD card containing the operating system plus XBMC.

http://xbmc.org/

Dave

[DavePEI]

I can also access it from any computer on the property making it a great system, far better than the former dedicated media player I used! The greatest thing is that the XBMC player on PI cost a quarter of what the system formerly used did, and works much better, plus allows viewing from the TV, or from any computer set up on our network.

It took Jeff about 20 minutes to set up the SD card containing the operating system plus XBMC.

http://xbmc.org/

Dave

Now with a couple of weeks using this system, I am still amazed by how well it works.  I can access the videos from my main computer, or any computer set up on our home network, even over in the museum, via the network we have set up between both buildings.

We have received a remote control for the living room, a HP Media Center MCE Remote Control and Philips Receiver, which give us full control of the media server in the living room. No longer any need to use a keyboard.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/251301372480

HD files up to 720P run perfectly - there is a bit of lag on higher resolution files when viewed through XBMC,  chiefly caused by the speed of the PI.

However, it far out-performs the hardware media server previously in use there, and allows the HDs which store video files to remain resident on out main computer, a total of 4.5 TB of video offering instant access from anywhere in the house.

Including the remote control, Raspberry PI, and XBMC, power supply, case, and memory card,  total cost was about $65 - hard to beat! The remote and receiver are shown below. The remote gives control of all features of XBMC, The receiver plugs into one of the USB ports on the PI.

Dave

[Babybearjs]

now, if it only supported a VGA monitor...