Raspberry pi Delight!

[muman613]

Chazak!

I cannot wait to get home from work today. My Raspberry Pi was just delivered this morning and I am looking forward to putting the thing together.

For those who are not 'hip' to what Raspberry Pi is I will explain. Here is what Wiki says:

The Raspberry Pi is a series of credit card-sized single-board computers developed in the UK by the Raspberry Pi Foundation with the intention of promoting the teaching of basic computer science in schools.[4][5][6]

The original Raspberry Pi and Raspberry Pi 2 are manufactured in several board configurations through licensed manufacturing agreements with Newark element14 (Premier Farnell), RS Components and Egoman. These companies sell the Raspberry Pi online.[7] Egoman produces a version for distribution solely in China and Taiwan, which can be distinguished from other Pis by their red colouring and lack of FCC/CE marks. The hardware is the same across all manufacturers.

The original Raspberry Pi is based on the Broadcom BCM2835 system on a chip (SoC),[1] which includes an ARM1176JZF-S 700 MHz processor, VideoCore IV GPU,[8] and was originally shipped with 256 megabytes of RAM, later upgraded (models B and B+) to 512 MB.[2][9] The system has Secure Digital (SD) (models A and B) or MicroSD (models A+ and B+) sockets for boot media and persistent storage.[10]

In 2014, the Raspberry Pi Foundation launched the Compute Module, which packages a BCM2835 with 512 MB RAM and an eMMC flash chip into a module for use as a part of embedded systems.[11]

The Foundation provides Debian and Arch Linux ARM distributions for download.[12] Tools are available for Python as the main programming language, with support for BBC BASIC[13] (via the RISC OS image or the Brandy Basic clone for Linux),[14] C, C++, Java,[15] Perl and Ruby.[16]

As of 18 February 2015, over five million Raspberry Pis have been sold.[17] While already the fastest selling British personal computer, it has also shipped the second largest number of units behind the Amstrad PCW, the "Personal Computer Word-processor", which sold eight million.

In early February 2015, the next-generation Raspberry Pi, Raspberry Pi 2, was officially announced.[18] The new computer board will initially be available only in one configuration (model B) and features a Broadcom BCM2836 SoC, with a quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU and a VideoCore IV dual-core GPU; 1 GB of RAM with remaining specifications being similar to those of the previous generation model B+. Crucially, the Raspberry Pi 2 will retain the same US$35 price point of the model B,[19] with the US$25 model A remaining on sale.

I purchased the Raspberry Pi 2 which includes 1G Ram and a Cortex A7 (Quad-Core ARM Cortex 7 CPU). I bought the system in a kit which includes power-supply, wifi dongle, and a GPIO break-out bread-board...

I expect to use this computer on a circuit board to power my new home security system. I also just received a Foscam IP camera to evaluate as the surveillance camera used for my yards (front/back yards).

[muman613]

I've been preparing a development environment on my Home Desktop machine (i7 32gb) using Qemu (arm emulator) and a variety of OS systems (Raspian will be the 1st I try).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QEMU

QEMU (short for Quick Emulator) is a free and open-source hosted hypervisor that performs hardware virtualization (not to be confused with hardware-assisted virtualization).

QEMU is a hosted virtual machine monitor: It emulates CPUs through dynamic binary translation and provides a set of device models, enabling it to run a variety of unmodified guest operating systems. It also can be used together with KVM in order to run virtual machines at near-native speed (requiring hardware virtualization extensions on x86 machines). QEMU can also be used purely for CPU emulation for user-level processes, allowing applications compiled for one architecture to be run on another.

[muman613]

I ordered my 'Canakit' from Amazon, but here is the original mfg site @

http://www.canakit.com/raspberry-pi-starter-ultimate-kit.html

1 x Raspberry Pi2 Model B 1GB
1 x 8 GB Samsung MicroSD Card - Raspberry Pi Recommended MicroSD Card with the new NOOBS
1 x Raspberry Pi 2 Case
1 x CanaKit 2.5A MicroUSB Power Supply specially designed for the Raspberry Pi 2 (5-foot cable)
1 x Premium Quality HDMI Cable (6-foot)
1 x WiFi Adapter/Dongle (Ralink RT5370 chipset)
1 x Set of Heat Sinks
1 x Breadboard
1 x 40-pin GPIO Ribbon Cable
1 x 40-pin T-Shaped GPIO to Breadboard Interface Board
2 x Push Button Switches
1 x RGB LED
2 x Red LEDs
2 x Green LEDs
2 x Yellow LEDs
2 x Blue LEDs
10 x 180 Ohm Resistors
5 x 10K Ohm Resistors
1 x CanaKit General Guide for Beginners to Electronic Components

[muman613]

I also got two books with mine...

[angryChineseKahanist]

Finally you get a pi?
I've been asking if you knew anything about ARM boards for a few years already. Since you work in "embedded" industries.

[angryChineseKahanist]

You should also get the noIR camera for night vision. And of course an infrared LED.

And this case:
https://www.adafruit.com/products/1998?gclid=CjwKEAjw9bKpBRD-geiF8OHz4EcSJACO4O7ToO1j3XDhESP5VYJTR_r3JSNnjlnWvdGt26tF9GO0jRoCkNPw_wcB

[angryChineseKahanist]

One of these displays:

https://www.adafruit.com/category/63

[angryChineseKahanist]

....and you missed out on how miserably slow it used to be.
They now use the GPU for the GUI which makes it very fast compared to what it used to be.
I used to watch youtube videos in a small window at 1 frame every 15 seconds. Now it actually plays. Also you can watch one youtube video in a browser, then if you want to watch another, you'll have to kill the browser and relaunch. Its a known problem they are working on.

[angryChineseKahanist]

For your first project I recommend a super accurate LED clock directly off the GPIO.

[angryChineseKahanist]

Then build yourself a phone:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-Your-Own-Smartphone/

[Zelhar]

What will you actually do with the pi?

I am still using a q6600 based desktop that must be 7 year old now and I can't find a good reason to replace it yet. If I buy a desktop now it will be obselete within a year because DDR4 and usb type C are going to become the new standard and more importantly I expect flash storage is going to finally become an order of magnitude more affordable because of v-nand technology maturing.

As far as pi goes, for me it would be a waste of money as I will just toy with it for a while and have no use for it so I would rather spend such cash on upping the specs of my next desktop.

And another issue is that at least here in Israel the only screens at decent pricing are merely 1080p resolution which won't be a meaningful upgrade for my 1680x1050 current screen, so why buy a new screen either...

[angryChineseKahanist]

What will you actually do with the pi?

I am still using a q6600 based desktop that must be 7 year old now and I can't find a good reason to replace it yet. If I buy a desktop now it will be obselete within a year because DDR4 and usb type C are going to become the new standard and more importantly I expect flash storage is going to finally become an order of magnitude more affordable because of v-nand technology maturing.

As far as pi goes, for me it would be a waste of money as I will just toy with it for a while and have no use for it so I would rather spend such cash on upping the specs of my next desktop.

And another issue is that at least here in Israel the only screens at decent pricing are merely 1080p resolution which won't be a meaningful upgrade for my 1680x1050 current screen, so why buy a new screen either...

Its a toy. Its also wayyyyy slower than your 6600. (I still have a q6900 or 9600 I forget.)

[Yehudayaakov]

Swapping pipi with pi...pi for prime 

[Zelhar]

The only relation I made is that for me, I can't justify buying this toy. There are people who put the pi for good use as media streamer or microcontroller for whatever project.

Its a toy. Its also wayyyyy slower than your 6600. (I still have a q6900 or 9600 I forget.)

[angryChineseKahanist]

The only relation I made is that for me, I can't justify buying this toy. There are people who put the pi for good use as media streamer or microcontroller for whatever project.

hey, if your computer does what you need , keep it. I know people who hate computers who still use win 98.

[muman613]

Finally you get a pi?
I've been asking if you knew anything about ARM boards for a few years already. Since you work in "embedded" industries.

Shalom,

The SoC my company makes includes an ARM core (although some actually use the MIPS engine).

I have waited till now to get the Raspberry Pi 2 because the specs approach what I deem necessary for the application I would like to use it for.

Quad-Core 900MHz is nothing to sneeze at...