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An example of using raspberry. What is No More Woof? Auto dashboard touchscreen

Hello, friends

In my reviews of smart home devices of the Xiaomi ecosystem - I have already mentioned the name Domoticz several times. Finally, I got around to sharing my best practices on this topic, and tell what it is and how it is possible to supplement the standard capabilities of a smart home from Xiaomi using this system. It's impossible to tell within the framework of one review, but you need to start somewhere - let's go ...

Introduction - a few words about Domoticz

1. What is Domoticz?
It is a multi-platform open source software focused on creating a smart home control system. Supports a large number of different devices from different vendors, including works with Xiaomi devices.
2. What Xiaomi devices can be controlled by Domoticz?
I will only talk about those devices that I have personally tested. At the moment, you can control the Xiaomi Gateway - and all the devices it controls - buttons, opening and motion sensors, ZigBee sockets, Aqara switches. Yeelight lighting gadgets are also supported - RGBW and White lamps, Celling Light ceiling lamp.
I read about working with miflora bluetooth sensors.
3. Why do I need Domoticz?
The system has more flexible options for configuring scripts - for example, checking the device's activity, which is not in MiHome, or creating variables - which allow one condition - for example, pressing a key - to perform different actions, depending on the value of the variable.
The scripts created in Domoticz do not depend on Chinese servers and the presence of the Internet.
Domoticz expands the functionality of devices - for example, new actions "free fall" or "alert" for a cube, or "Long Click Release" for a button.
4. If I use Domoticz will I be unable to work with MiHome?
Both systems live perfectly in parallel - the functionality of MiHome is fully preserved, just part of the scripts will live in one system - part in the other. Basically all scenarios can live in Domoticz.
5. Why do I need MiHome if I will be using Domoticz?
At least for adding new devices. The choice is yours - but in my opinion - at the moment Domoticz is best used as an add-on to MiHome
6. What do you need to connect Xiaomi devices to Domoticz?
I want to reassure you right away - you don't need soldering irons, programmers and dancing with tambourines. You also don't need Linux or virtual machines - you can try everything right on your working Windows, and if you like it, it makes sense to allocate a separate hardware platform for it, for example, the hero of today's review.
Literally after the first successful experiments on my desktop PC, I got excited about the idea of ​​a separate hardware base for Domoticz. I stopped my choice, after studying the publics - on a Raspberry Pi Model 3 B - a compact but powerful single-board computer based on a Soc BCM2837 processor with 4 Cortex-A53 cores, operating at a frequency of 1.2GHz, 1GB of RAM and Wi-Fi and Bluetoth 4.1 wireless modules ...

Set

I included 4 items in my order -

Payment screen


Raspberry Pi Model 3 B Motherboard -
Interestingly, the store has two modifications - Chinese and English. At the time of purchase, the Chinese one cost $ 7 cheaper, and I took it. What is Chinese there is, to be honest, a mystery to me.
Case for Raspberry Pi Model 3 B -
Power supply unit HN - 528i AC / DC 5V 2A -
Copper heatsinks for Raspberry Pi -
For a complete set, you will need a microSD card - at least 4 GB and an HDMI cable. I had both a cable and a 32 GB card in my store, so I didn't buy it.

What's in the package

After the due date - just over two weeks, the courier brought a parcel with my order.


Let's take a closer look. Power supply with Type C plug and micro-USB connector.


The declared maximum current is 2A at a voltage of 5 V.


Test turn-on with a load of 2A - shows some voltage drop, but within the permissible range, the power supply is more or less honest.


A set of three copper radiators in a bag, for passive cooling.


All radiators have a square shape, two radiators with pins and a side length of about 12 mm and one flat with a side of about 15 mm.


Dark plastic case with an embossed raspberry image on the lid


Case dimensions - approximately 90 x 65 mm




The case can be disassembled into 5 parts - everything is held by latches, no screws.


The accessories are over - it's time to move on to the most important thing.
RASPBERRY PI 3 MODEL B
The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B is the direct successor to the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B. The board is fully compatible with its predecessor, but is endowed with better performance and new communication tools:
64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor with a clock speed of 1.2 GHz on a Broadcom BCM2837 single-chip chip; built-in Wi-Fi 802.11n and Bluetooth 4.1.
In addition, the processor has an ARMv53 architecture, which means you can use your favorite operating system: Debian Wheezy, Ubuntu Mate, Fedora Remix and even MS Windows 10.


Specifications more
CPU - Broadcom BCM2837, ARM Cortex-A53 Quad Core, 1.2 GHz
The number of processor cores - 4
GPU - VideoCore IV 3D
RAM - 1 GB
Storage - microSD
Networking capabilities
Ethernet 10/100
WiFi 2.4G 150 mb / s
Video Output - HDMI
USB ports - 4
Wireless Capabilities - Bluetooth
Audio Output - 3.5 Jack
85.6 x 53.98 x 17mm, 45 grams


The box contains documentation and a quick installation booklet - by the way, in English, as well as a bag of thick brown paper with a computer.


On one of the long sides of the computer there are micro USB ports for power, a full-sized HDMI port, a CSI-2 Camera port for connecting a camera via MIPI, a 3.5 mm audio jack. Also on the top side there is a processor module and Ethernet / USB Hub lan9514-jzx


On the front side there are 4 USB ports and an Ethernet port


The other side of the motherboard has 40 General Purpose I / O (GPIO) pins


On the second end side - there is a DSI Display Port for connecting a standard display


On the underside of the board there is a LPDDR2 SDRAM memory module - EDB8132B4PB-8D-F


And micro-SD card slot


Copper heatsinks are placed on the USB / Ethernet Hub and the processor on one side


And on the memory chip on the other. This heatsink is flat - does not interfere with the installation of the computer board into the case


Everything fits into the case perfectly, there are no screw connections - it sits on the plastic protrusions.


All cutouts on the case match exactly with the connectors on the computer




To start, we need an external monitor (TV) with HDMI input, a USB keyboard, it will be more convenient if there is also a mouse and power supply. The monitor, keyboard and mouse will be needed only at the time of installation, then only the power supply will be enough.

Installing the operating system

To install the operating system, the first step is to download the archive with distributions -. While almost one and a half gigabyte archive is being downloaded, load the utility for formatting the SD card - SD Card Formatter -. This distribution kit is much more compact - only 6 MB, so without wasting time, we install the program


and, after installation, insert the memory card into the card reader (you have a card reader, don't you) and launch the SD Card Formatter. In the Options menu, set “FORMAT SIZE ADJUSTMENT” to “ON”


After waiting for the download of a large distribution kit to complete, open the resulting archive and unpack its contents onto a freshly formatted USB flash drive.
The next step is to start the Raspberry Pi for the first time (of course, install the USB flash drive with the recorded distribution into it). Sorry for the quality of several of the following photos - from the TV screen :(
At the first start, the operating system selection menu starts - what to install, and there is even a version of WIndows 10 for the Raspberry Pi in the list. At this stage, you can select the language (at the bottom of the screen) - there is Russian and will connect to the Wi-Fi network - the Wi-Fi networks button


The option I need - Raspbian based on Linux Debian - comes in two flavors, lite AND full, with a graphical interface. I chose the full version


After that, we can safely go to drink tea with bagels, the installation will take quite a long time.


Periodically measuring the temperature during installation, the maximum that I saw was 38 degrees.
After the installation is complete and the computer is restarted, the Raspbian desktop is loaded


The only thing I did here was to enable SSH in the settings - in order to control the system from a desktop PC, I already did the rest through the terminal.


To control Raspberry from a desktop PC, we need any terminal program, I use good old Putty


The default username and password is pi and raspberry... To change the password, use the command passwd.


I recommend setting a static IP address for your Raspberry right away. You can find out the current addresses using the command ifconfig , where
eth0 is Ethernet
lo is the local interface 127.0.0.1
wlan0 is a wi-fi interface

And in order to edit the file with the settings - enter the command
sudo nano /etc/dhcpcd.conf
and in the file that opens, scrolling to the end, add the necessary settings, depending on which interface we will use.
For example, we want to use the address 192.168.0.222, the mask 255.255.255.0, the gateway and DNS address - 192.168.0.1
For Ethernet, insert
interface eth0

static routers = 192.168.0.1

For wi-fi
interface wlan0
static ip_address = 192.168.0.222 / 24
static routers = 192.168.0.1
static domain_name_servers = 192.168.0.1


To exit the editor, press ctrl + x
To save changes - press "Y" and then enter

Installing Domoticz
Most of the setup work has already been completed, now we need to install the Domoticz system. This is done with one command -
sudo curl -L install.domoticz.com | sudo bash
Which initializes the boot and installation process of the system


During the installation process, the installer will ask questions about the installation location, etc. - I left all these moments by default.


After successful installation, the installer will write the addresses and ports of the web interface of the Domoticz system


But, to work with the Xiaomi gateway, we need a beta version of the system. Upgrading to the latest beta version is done by the commands
cd ~ / domoticz
sudo ./updatebeta



Now the Domoticz system is available via the web interface:

Now is the time to start adding Xiaomi devices. But first -

Preparatory work

So what do you need to start working with Domoticz?
IP address reservation
The first step is to set static IP addresses for the devices that you plan to control - while this is a gateway and lamps. This is done on your home router using a DHCP client table that looks something like this -


and information from the Network info tabs of the gateway and lamp control plugins, where the MAC addresses of the devices are indicated


Using this information, you need to register the issuance of permanent IP addresses to these devices - since they will be controlled by IP, and if the address is changed, Domoticz will lose contact with it. The address reservation table looks something like this -

Developer Mode

Developer mode must be activated. For the Xiaomi Gateway, you need to go to the menu, select the about option, at the bottom of the screen where the version is written (2.23 for me) - click on it until two new options appear in the menu, they may be in Chinese, in my example - on English. Click on the first of the two - local area network communication protocol, activate the top switch in the menu and write down the gateway password.


For lamps, everything is easier - you need to install the Yeelight application, if you have not installed it yet, and for each lamp - go to the menu, developer mode - enable

Adding Devices

To add devices, go to the Settings - Hardware tab
127.0.0.1:8080/#/Hardware (instead of 127.0.0.1 - the address of your Domoticz)
We select the type of Xiaomi Gateway device, call it something, indicate its IP address, which we reserved on the router, write the password received in the developer mode window. Port - it works for me on port 54321. The wiki domotics describes a connection specifying port 9898


To add lamps - just add the YeeLight LED device - you do not need to specify addresses, the lamps will catch up on their own.


The sensors connected to the gateway will not catch up all at once, this process can take an hour or more - you need to wait. This is because ZigBee devices are activated only at the moment of data transfer. You can push the process a little - by opening and closing windows with sensors, breathing on temperature sensors, turning off sockets - in a word, forcing devices to transmit data.

Devices

There will be a LOT more devices added than you expect :) A list of them is available on the Settings - devices tab.
127.0.0.1:8080/#/Devices


For example, each temperature and humidity sensor will be added as three devices, separately the temperature, separately the humidity, and all together. Sockets - separately socket (controlled device) separately - as a power consumption sensor. But the gateway is a separate backlight, a separate alarm siren, a separate alarm clock, a doorbell and a volume control. In order to add a device to the list of used ones, at the end of the line, press the green arrow. Remove from used - blue arrow. We don't add what we don't need.
The devices added to use are arranged in several tabs -

Switches

This tab contains all managed devices
127.0.0.1:8080/#/LightSwitches
Switches, buttons, lamps, and more. Here we can turn on, turn off, and do any actions with devices in manual mode.

For example, choose the sound that will sound on the gateway, or the color of the glow on the RGB lamp or the brightness on the white lamp.

Temperature

Climate sensors are grouped on this tab - humidity and temperature
127.0.0.1:8080/#/Temperature
At first, they are all called the same, you can determine where which one is by their readings and verification with the Mi Home application, after which they can be renamed accordingly.

Subsidiary

The gateway light sensor is grouped here - although its readings are very strange, and the power consumption meters of the outlets.
127.0.0.1:8080/#/Utility

Scripts

To create scenarios - you need to go to the tab - Settings - Advanced - Events. Scripting is available in two flavors - block and lua scripting.

Sample scripts

Learning to work with Domoticz is better to start with blocks. Everything is divided into groups and it is quite easy to write scripts. An example of a simple scenario on the blocks is turning on the light upon motion detection, and turning it off a minute after the motion sensor switches to the off status. After drawing up the script, you need to name it, check the Event active option: - to enable it and save it.

Exactly the same scenario in lua

Examples of using

I will pay more attention to specific scenarios in other reviews, here, as an example, I will give a scenario that IMPOSSIBLE implement in Mi Home, namely - the Aqara two-button switch with wire break - the left button will work as intended - break and connect the phase, and the right one - not connected to the line (to power the switch, it is enough to connect only one of the buttons) - will turn on and off Yeelight lamp, which does not have a physical connection to the switch.
In this scenario, the state of the Yeelight lamp will be checked, the value of the switch itself On or Off will not matter. If the state of the lamp is different from Off, then it is working and will be turned off, and if it is off, it will be turned on.

On this, I will finish the introductory part on Domoticz, if the topic is interesting, then I will continue, there are still a lot of interesting things.

Video version of the review (2 parts) -



Thank you for your attention. I plan to buy +164 Add to favorites I liked the review +99 +231

The Raspberry Pi is an innovative product from English developers. Their main goal was to popularize computer education among the general population, make programming a wider and more accessible discipline and encourage more people to create something new with the help of new technologies.

The product name Raspberry Pi stands for "raspberry pie", the manufacturing company has thus emphasized that this computer is intended primarily for children.

What this invention is, and what is the application of the Raspberry Pi in the modern world, we will talk about this below.

Raspberry Pi computer features

A Raspberry Pi device is a small, one-board computer without a case. The developers urge both children and adults to pay attention not only to the use of computers, but also to its study from the inside, and also propose to use imagination and do something of their own on the basis of this computer.

As the developers believe, the Raspberry Pi device should perform such educational goals:

  • motivate students to develop programming skills;
  • assist in the endeavors of young programmers;
  • help experienced computer scientists discover new horizons and make new achievements in the field of programming.

In the home country of the Raspberry Pi device in the UK, the complete kit can be purchased for as little as £ 75. The kit itself consists of the following components:

  • the Raspberry Pi model B mini-computer itself;
  • micro-CD (8 gigabytes);
  • keyboards;
  • optical mouse;
  • micro CD Card adapter;
  • power supply;
  • HDMI and micro USB cables.

The first batch of Raspberry Pi was produced in China, but since the end of 2012, production has been entirely moved to the UK, to a plant in Pencoid (Wales). On average, the plant produces about 40 thousand Raspberry Pi mini-computers per week.

Raspberry Pi Specifications

So what are the specifications of this unique computer without a case, let's find out:

Raspberry Pi Computer Applications for Home

The most common Raspberry Pi mini-computer is Model B with 215 MB of RAM. with Ethernet support... There is also one more modification of the device, in which the components are placed more compactly, it also has four USB ports, the number of GPIO input and output ports in it is significantly larger, in addition, there is no composite video output.

The areas of application of the Raspberry Pi computer are quite wide. Despite the fact that this device is not very powerful, it is also a fully functional computer. If you need a machine for solving simple tasks that do not require the use of powerful resources in terms of computing, then you can safely connect to the Raspberry Pi device standard machine elements:

  • monitor;
  • mouse;
  • keyboard;
  • connection of any Linux distribution kit.

At home, you can use a Raspberry Pi device for the following purposes:

  • creating a home media server;
  • as a storage server;
  • as a "think tank" for automated machines or robots;
  • as a home automation server (or smart home systems).

As we can see, the scope of the Raspberry Pi for private needs can be different. Basically, these are narrow-profile tasks related to the work of programmers or other developers. And if we talk about widespread use, then it is worth familiarizing yourself with the features of using the Raspberry Pi for home automation systems or the so-called smart home... Let's look at the practical side of this issue.

Any home automation system or the so-called smart home is quite complex and multi-structural. In addition to the fact that it is designed to carry out certain scenarios that are set by the user, it tends to make its own decisions in a certain emergency situation. We can safely say that such a system has the makings of artificial intelligence.

Many people today apply the concept of "smart home" to everything, for example:

  • GSM alarm;
  • water flow sensor;
  • light control, motion sensors, etc.

All these phenomena can be part of the structure of home automation, but they cannot be it individually.

A home automation system ("smart home") includes the following components:

  • central server;
  • it is connected through the RS485 interface with controllers that are located in every room and premises of the house;
  • certain control devices are connected to the controllers to protect, control and regulate the operation of the system.

Such a network architecture of this system is good in that the owner of the house does not need to stretch inconvenient wires from each device to the server, but just needs to connect the controllers to which they are connected via a single UTP cable. One pair of its wires is used for the RS485 interface, while the others power the sensors and controllers. It should be noted that the structure of work is provided in such a way that if one of the controllers or several fails, or even the operation of the central server is disrupted, this will not affect the operation of the system as a whole.

A mini-computer Raspberry Pi in this system and is the central server... You need to install a Web server on it, with the help of which any user through his mobile device (smartphone, tablet or laptop) can, through a regular browser, have data about all the processes that take place in the house and manage these processes. The user has access to the server by means of a login and password through a home local network or through a global network, if you enter it through a Wi - Fi device.

To the serial port of the UART device through a matching device through the RS485 interface, controllers are connected, which are equipped with a different set of pins or inputs. You can also connect a GPS model to the same interface and use it to access the system through a mobile or landline telephone connection if the user is in an area where there is no Internet access. Access is also allowed through a password, as in the previous case. Another device on the network is radio module, with the help of which all radio sensors and remote controls can be linked to a common system.

So, the current version of a home automation system based on a Raspberry Pi computer consists of a central server and controllers with an RS485 interface, which are needed to communicate with the server. Their description looks like this:

Now let's find out how the Raspberry Pi was used by the inventors. to create innovative products... Let's take a look at some of them.

Constructor Kano

The Kano construction set for children is not just an ordinary construction set, it is a modular computer, even a child can assemble such a puzzle. The constructor kit includes the following:

Thus, even a child can assemble a computer by himself, which is then connected to a monitor or TV. via HDMI port.

Such a constructor was originally created for children, but has become popular among adults as well. Funds for the development and implementation of this project were raised through a fundraising platform for creative inventions. Thanks to the assembled computer, you can perform the following actions:

  • record music;
  • watch videos in HD format;
  • write programs;
  • create your own games.

Flying device SkyJack

Other inventors based on the Raspberry Pi computer created the SkyJack drone, which is controlled via a Wi-Fi connection. Such a device is capable of taking helicopter altitude, tracking the paths of military helicopters and controlling them, it can also intercept radio signals and create interference with it. However, despite such possibilities, the device is allowed for mass use due to its small range.

Poppy: robot alien

Poppy's robot was 3D printed by the French company INRIA Flowers... The robot is controlled by a Raspberry Pi mini-computer. The design of the robot repeats the biological structure of a person, it has joints, a spine and tendons, its gait is similar to that of a human, it walks, stepping from heel to nose and uniformly controlling the center of its gravity.

What is No More Woof?

The No More Woof is an underdeveloped device based on the Raspberry Pi. With his help, the owner will understand what his dog wants. So, the device will be attached to the head of the animal and work on the principle of an electroencephalograph, that is read information from a dog's head and transfer it to the owner via the Raspberry Pi. It is not yet known when such a device will be ready and how it will be used exactly, but such headsets, albeit not so perfect, have already been used by professional dog handlers.

Everyone can see that with the advent of the new millennium, the interest in computers among the new generation and not only is exclusively consumer. Children do not want to learn to program and create something new, but want to be exclusively "users". The Raspberry Pi developers are confident that their device will restore people's former interest in the study of computational sciences and force them not only to use new technologies, but also to create them.

This article, long enough even for a blog, describes the first steps of an already middle-aged "IT specialist" on the path of mastering the newest approach to information education in schools and universities of developed countries - physical computing on the devboard Raspberry Pi, in order to make it accessible to his beloved child and native school.

Along the way, for the first time in my life I had to get acquainted with an alternative "Wintel" hardware platform (Raspberry Pi 3 based on an ARM processor), learn to work in an unfamiliar operating system (Rasbian OS based on Debian Linux), make friends with a new programming language (Python ), remember the basics radio electronics.

As a result, for only 3.5 tr. and a month of waiting, my child has a powerful enough tool that is unique in its educational capabilities, combining a quiet 4-core computer the size of a credit card, a web server, a media center, a control center for smart home sensors, a laboratory for mastering the basics of programming, robotics and radio electronics is an almost ideal solution for a school computer science circle.
At the same time, all programs on it are initially free and are available in a wide variety from online repositories, and viruses do not exist in principle.

An excursion into the history of teaching computer science at school and university

Since the late 90s, in one way or another, I have been taking part in the development of the process of informatization of education in schools and universities.
In the late 80s, being a high school student, he "hooked" the beginning of the introduction of computers into school education. Then these were computer classes based on the BK 0010 microcomputer and the DVK-2 teacher's computer. I learned basic programming with enthusiasm. There were practically no books on it then. Together with the teacher, I had to study everything from brochures and "by the method of a scientific poke". Before leaving school, the IBM Pilot Schools project came to Chuvashia. Fortunately, a computer class based on IBM PS / 2 was delivered to one of the schools in Novocheboksarsk (No. 14). Then it was like a miracle - a real "IBM PS" computer with a "mouse", floppy drive and a gorgeous 256-color screen! The teacher's computer had a 286 processor, 1 megabyte of RAM, and a 40MB hard drive (which seemed so big compared to a floppy drive that we didn't know if it could be filled to capacity at all). Everything was accompanied by a dot matrix printer - "a miracle of hostile technology."
Then there were 5 "perestroika" years of study at the university, where during the educational process I got acquainted with the Cuban SM computers (the same ones with coils for data recording and heavy metal keyboards). But just in those very years, universities in Western grats began to receive modern computers IBM PC-XT 286 and IBM PC / AT 386. Again I was shocked while studying Pascal, working in Norton Commander and mastering the LaTex hypertext typesetting environment.
Working for several years at school after graduating from the university, I had the good fortune to observe how in the computer science classrooms BC 0010 are gradually replaced by new, much more powerful Pentium computers with a graphical Windows operating system and office programs "on board". But children continue to learn Basic and Pascal on them ...
By occupation, he was one of the first in his hometown to go to the Internet and immediately realized that he was the future. He began to create websites, develop Internet projects, got acquainted with Linux - the main operating system of the Internet and Perl - then the most popular programming language for Internet applications.
For some period of time, he moved away from school education. Approximately 10 years later, I found the time and desire to organize a computer astronomy circle in my native school (now a gymnasium). Almost before my eyes, the old Pentiums and Celesrons in the computer class, thanks to a presidential grant, were replaced by powerful dual-core laptops. The curriculum already included office suites and graphic editors, the basics of working on the Internet and familiarity with HTML. But the old Basic and Pascal also remained ...
And now the second decade of the new millennium is already in the yard. My daughter grew up to take computer science lessons. From her I learned that in schools they still learn the basics of working in Windows and ... programming in Borland Pascal ...
Meanwhile, all over the world, children of primary school age are already writing programs for Android, creating Internet services in the super popular Python language and controlling smart homes based on Linux-devboard "s with SoC processors from smartphones ...
Asked questions to representatives of the education system, what is the problem of stagnation with the introduction of teaching modern technologies in schools? I have not heard a monosyllabic answer to this question. I understood only one thing, that due to the unpopularity of the profession of a teacher of computer science among advanced youth, the lengthy process of writing curricula and manuals, retraining the teaching staff and refurbishing computer classes, in the near future nothing will shine for my child at school if ... technologies, at least as extracurricular or Olympiad work, will not be taken up by enthusiasts. Luckily for me, I am an enthusiast myself, and my first computer science teacher is also one of them. You just need to help start somewhere ...

Arduino vs Raspberry Pi


After googling a little, I found out that physical computing, the basis of IoT technology (Internet of Things), has become the most modern area of ​​information education all over the world in the last couple of years. This topic began to develop rapidly thanks to the emergence of an inexpensive but powerful enough Raspberry Pi hardware platform and associated infrastructure - a huge community of teachers and ethnosians, countless starter guides and tutorials, thousands of developers of various libraries, a wide range of ready-made extensions and sensors. Prior to the Raspberry Pi in school education abroad, the topic of mastering the basics of cybernetics and physical computing based on Arduino microcontrollers was actively promoted. As a result, there is now a rich selection of different sensors for Arduino, allowing children under adult supervision, for example, to construct robotic platforms in order to arrange primitive "robot races". In principle, the Arduino topic is relevant to this day, but as an initial part of the process of teaching physical computing, programming and cybernetics. The Raspberry Pi is the next, much more advanced, virtually unlimited level ...

You can understand how the Raspberry Pi and Arduino differ, in their own way, by comparing their capabilities.

Arduino- this is not a full-fledged computer single-task single-core microcontroller with a small amount of RAM, low processing power, lack of multimedia and network capabilities, but low power consumption and high reaction speed in time-critical projects. To control the Arduino, a computer or laptop with a USB port is required, which significantly increases the starting budget for one training place. To program the Arduino, you will need to learn a C-like language. The Arduino is enough for a quick reaction to a signal from the sensor, for example, to turn the wheel of the robot in the other direction. But the Arduino will no longer be able to control the robot via the Internet and process the route.

Raspberry Pi (v3 Model B)- a full-fledged 4-core single-board computer with 1GB of RAM and the ability to connect external drives via USB, running a modern Linux system, with advanced multimedia (Open GL, HD-Video) and communication (WiFi, Bluetooth, Ethernet) capabilities. With some reservations, the Raspberry Pi can be successfully used as a full-fledged student / student computer, on which, in addition to the main task of physical computing, you can listen to music, watch HD videos, surf the web, work with documents in office editors, and read e-books and so on ... And at the same time, apart from the monitor (which can be a regular LCD TV with a VGA / HDMI connector), USB keyboards and mice, the cost of one training place based on Raspberry Pi starts from 2, 5 tr. On the Raspberry Pi, you can learn the basics of programming in any language. By default, Python, Scratch and Node-RED are preinstalled on it, but nothing prevents you from installing LAMP with PHP, Ruby, Java and other popular development environments through the convenient interface of the Debian program repository. Also on the Raspberry Pi, as a full-fledged Linux computer, you can install a lot of useful free and useful programs for mastering, including the Apache web server, the basis of the modern Internet, the Blender 3D design environment, The Gimp graphic editor, Xara-X vector editors and Inkscape, Scribus publishing system. In addition, the Raspberry Pi has a GPIO interface for controlling sensors originally designed for Arduino. Moreover, if you need instant response to events and ADC conversion of the signal, you can connect an Arduino to the Raspberry Pi and control the sensors through it!
As a result, the Raspberry Pi is the most affordable personal computer for students and at the same time an advanced hardware and software platform for the "Internet of Things".

1. Purchase a Raspberry Pi starter kit

So, having figured out that bypassing the Arduino stage it is worth starting right away with the Raspberry Pi, I came to the decision to buy a starter kit for initial acquaintance, mastering the basics of work and the basics of physical computing in Python, in order to then demonstrate all this at school and interest the enthusiastic teachers. as well as advanced learners. Thus, my epic with the Raspberry Pi began.

Fortunately for Russians, all Raspberry Pi models, including the most advanced v3 Model B, as well as the necessary components for it, can be ordered with delivery on aliexpress.com.

At a minimum, you can only order the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B board itself with delivery at a price of 2200r. To get started, you will need a power supply (charger for cell / tablet) with a miniUSB connector, giving an output current of 1A-1.5A, an LCD monitor or TV with an HDMI connector, a USB keyboard and mouse.

I decided to add 1.2 tr. and buy the necessary set of components with which the Raspberry Pi will become more convenient, productive, compatible and efficient. First of all, it is worth buying a set of heatsinks to remove heat from the SoC processor and memory, so that they do not overheat on complex tasks and do not reduce the system performance by sequentially disconnecting the processor cores and reducing the clock frequency.
It is also highly recommended to buy some kind of inexpensive case to avoid inconvenience and to keep children out of trouble. I took the original Model R1 case in crimson white.
To start mastering the basics of physical computing with the Raspberry Pi, you should immediately order a starter kit of sensors and a circuit board with a loop for the GPIO interface, which you cannot buy in local stores. On aliexpress.com there are ready-made kits consisting of sensors, a circuit board with a ribbon cable and an adapter, connecting wires, LEDs, buttons and resistors. But they seemed a little expensive to me ... Therefore, I took almost everything separately, and I decided to buy LEDs, buttons and resistors in the nearest radio car.

My online shopping list:
1. Raspberry Pi 3 Model B with a 2.5A power supply and two heatsinks for the processor and memory - 2412r.
2.bredaboard with 40-wire cable and adapter - 282r.
3. HDMI2VGA adapter - 233r.
4. Case, model R1 - 280r.
5. A starter set of 16 sensors - 510r.
6. A set of connecting wires - 186r.
Total: 3900r. (at prices for February 2017 at the ruble exchange rate of 57.70)

After about a month of waiting, all ordered components arrived safe and sound.

2. Preparing the Raspberry Pi for work


Before turning on the Raspberry Pi for the first time, there are a few mandatory procedures that must be done. Attention! Before removing the board from the ESD bag, be sure to discharge static electricity from your hands by touching the water faucet or exposed radiator, or you could burn sensitive electronics.
First you need to glue the heatsinks on the processor and memory chip. It is not difficult: first, peel off the protective film from the radiator, then carefully place it over a microcircuit corresponding to it in size and lower the radiator onto it without effort. It is not necessary to press the radiator against the microcircuit, it will hold on well anyway.
Then you need to assemble the case from the parts and place the board in it. When assembling the case, we install the top cover and the side with cutouts for USB connectors after inserting (with some effort) into the slots of the Raspberry Pi board.

3. Installing Rasbian OS

Since the Raspberry Pi comes without a preinstalled operating system and its own storage medium by default, you will need to buy it, and download and install the system yourself.
A microSD card of at least class 6 (write speed 6MB / s) with a volume of at least 8MB is used as a system disk for the Raspberry Pi. On the Internet, they advised to immediately buy a class 10 card in order to avoid possible problems with the installation of the OS and the operation of the Raspberry Pi.
At a nearby computer stand I bought a Sundisk grade 10 microSD card with an 8GB capacity.
Then I downloaded the Raspbian operating system (based on Debian Jessie) from https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/. Opt for Raspbian Jessie with PIXEL, a graphical distro with a bundle of software to get you started.
As it turned out, the downloaded image, when unpacking from the archive, expands to 4GB and cannot be written on a disk with the FAT32 file system due to restrictions on the maximum size of single files.
I had to connect an external USB drive with NTFS file system and unpack the Raspbian OS image onto it.
To write an image to an SD card, it was required to download the Win32DiskImager program at the address and connect the microSD card to the computer via a USB card reader.
The program interface is outrageously simple: in the "Image File" line you need to specify the Raspbian OS image on the disk, select the microSD card in the "Device" drop-down list and press the "Write" button. By the way, from time to time the same program should make a backup copy of the microSD card by inserting it into the card reader, choosing the path to save the image in the "Image File" field, specifying the name of the disk in the Device drop-down list under which the microSD card was defined and selecting the command "Read ".

4. First launch


After successfully completing the recording process, insert the microSD card into the corresponding slot of the card reader on the Raspberry Pi, connect the monitor via an HDMI cable or HDMI2VGA adapter, connect the keyboard and mouse to the lower USB connectors, and only then connect the power supply. Since the Raspberry Pi does not have a power button, plugging / unplugging the power supply turns the device on and off. Just in case, I'll write in advance that before turning off the power on the Raspberry Pi, it is advisable to correctly shut down the OS so that there are no errors at the next startup.
To my deep regret and horror, after connecting the power to the Raspberry Pi, the screen saver of the Pixel graphical shell did not light up on the monitor, but a tirade of text "curses" popped up, ending with the line "kernel panic" with an error number.
Googling on my smartphone, I immediately found out that, apparently, the Raspberry Pi does not like my microSD card (as it later turned out, the read / write speed is not enough for the normal operation of the Raspbian OS). While re-writing the Raspbian OS image to the SD card, I noticed that the write speed does not exceed 4MB / sec (corresponds to the 4th class of an SD card).
When I turned on the Raspberry Pi again with the ill-fated card, I saw "kernel panic" again. I had to go to the stall and change it after some explanations to the less "branded" Prestigio microSDHC 8GB class 10 (U1). On a "freshly bought" microSD card, the OS image was written twice as fast at a speed of about 9.5 MB / s. When turned on with it, the Raspberry Pi immediately displayed a welcome window and after a few seconds of loading, I was happy to see the X-Windows interface on the display with a beautiful screensaver in the form of a deserted road heading towards the rising sun.
Apparently the Sundisk card turned out to be fake ...

5. Acquaintance with Debian Linux, initial setup of Raspbian OS, installation of useful programs


Armed with a couple of manuals in Russian and English, downloaded from various geek resources, I decided to devote a weekend evening to the initial setup of a convenient working environment on the Raspbian OS.

First of all, a few words about the Debian Linux console are worth saying. It is accessible via the LXTerminal button on the top panel of the Raspbian OS interface.
In the Linux console, commands are entered for operating the OS, installing, starting and removing programs, making manual edits to the settings of the OS itself and its individual components. Most commands require administrator access (root access) to run successfully. To do this, type "sudo" before the command.
Some operations in Raspbian OS are only accessible from the console.
First of all, this is access to the raspi_config system configuration program. It is in it that the initial configuration of the Raspbian OS is made.
To start the system setup program, open LXTerminal and enter the command in the console:
sudo raspi-config

First of all, you need to select the "Expand Filesystem" command to expand the OS file system to the entire available space of the microSD card.
Then you should definitely change the default root password to access the system via the console and via SSH using the "Change User Password" command. From kosoli it is given by the command "sudo passwd root".
Then it is worth starting the SSH server in order to be able to log into the Raspberry Pi via the SSH terminal protocol from another PC using the "SSH" command in the "Advanced Options" window.

It is very important to immediately change the locale (interface language) to Russian and add a Russian keyboard layout.
This is done in the "Internationalization Options" window. The locale is changed by the "Change locale" command.
You must select the locale ru_RU.UTF-8 UTF-8. Changing the keyboard layout is done by the "Change keyboard layout" command. Next, you will have to select the desired layout in a new window (ru_RU.UTF-8), in the next window set the hotkeys for changing the layout, each time confirming the selected actions by clicking the "Tab" key of the keyboard to the "Enter" button of the program window and pressing "Enter" on the keyboard ...
It is also worthwhile in the "Advanced options" window to go to the "Audio" menu item and select in the new window the default sound output option to the internal 3.5mm jack in order to listen to sound through headphones connected to the standard Raspberry Pi audio connector.
After completing the settings, select the "Finish" button and agree to reboot the system.

The next step in configuring Raspbian OS is to update its program base and installed components.
To do this, we sequentially enter the following commands in the console, waiting for the completion of each of them until a green prompt for console input appears.
Updating the program base:
apt-get update
Updating installed programs
sudo apt-get upgrade
Removing the libraries remaining after uninstalling programs, accompanying programs, etc.
sudo apt-get autoremove
The second command usually takes 10-15 minutes to complete.
Remembering my previous experience in Linux, I hastened to install the file manager Midnight Commander.
sudo apt-get install mc
Without it, navigating through the system folder structure with the "cd" command is slow and inconvenient.

To be on the safe side, a beginner should always have a quick reference guide to basic Unix commands at hand ...

Ctrl + C - exit an open console program (if no other keys are provided)
Shift + Ins - paste text into the console
Ctrl + Ins - copy the selected text from the console
sudo - comes before a command and runs it as root
- shutdown
sudo shutdown -h now - immediately shutdown the system and start the shutdown process
sudo shutdown -h 21:55 - system shutdown and shutdown at 21:55
sudo shutdown -h now - shutdown Raspberry Pi
sudo su - open command prompt as root
sudo -i - open command prompt as root
sudo cp - copy a file (with the -r switch, recursive copy)
sudo mv - move file
cat - output the contents of a file / files
cd - Go to the desired folder. For example cd / home / pi
chmod - change the rights to use the file; u (means the user who owns this file), g (group of files) and o (other users), as well as r (read), w (write), and x (execute)
chmod u + x - sets permission to the owner of the file to execute it
sudo chown pi: root - change the user and / or group of users who own this file, for example, the user to pi, and the group to root.
dir - will show the contents of the current folder
pwd - will show your current location
date - will show the time and date
cal - will show the calendar for the current month
cal -y - will show the calendar for the current year
wget - download a file to the current directory. For example wget http://mysite.com/myfile.deb
sudo apt-get update - will update the list of packages from the repository
sudo apt-get upgrade - will update installed packages
sudo apt-get install<название> - program installation<название>from Debian repository
sudo apt-get remove<название> - uninstalling the program<название>
info<название>-display of information about the program
apt-cache search<запрос> - search in the Debian-repository database for a program or utility with a description<запрос>
apt-cache search screen capture- search for programs to create screenshots
sudo apt-get install mc - install file manager Midnight Commander (Mc)
sudo apt-get install links - installation of the Links text browser
udo apt-get install scrot - installation of the utility for screenshots
scrot -d5 - create a screenshot after 5 seconds
sudo apt-get install synaptic - Install the Synaptic Package Manager
sudo apt-get install x11vnc - install VNC server
x11vnc -desktop: 0 - start a VNC server for remote control via a VNC client, for example realVNC (http://www.realvnc.com/download/viewer/)
top - start the task manager
sudo nano - edit a file
sudo nano /boot/config.txt - edit the Raspberry Pi startup settings file
ifconfig - utility for configuring network interfaces
iwconfig - View information about wireless devices
sudo iwlist wlan0 scan - Wi-Fi scan
cat / proc / cpuinfo - see information about the processor
cat / proc / meminfo - Displays detailed information about the Raspberry Pi memory
cat / proc / partitions - shows the size and number of partitions on your SD card or HDD
cat / sys / devices / system / cpu / cpu0 / cpufreq / sca ling_cur_freq- information about the frequency of the processor
<имя_программы>--help- displaying help for the program
vcgencmd measure_temp - Shows CPU temperature
free -o -h - will show how much free system memory is available
vcgencmd get_mem arm && vcgencmd get_mem gpu- will show the distribution of memory between the processor and GPU
lsusb - list of connected devices
mkdir newDir - create directory newDir
rmdir oldDir - remove empty oldDir directory
rm<имя_файла>- deleting a file / folder (with the -r switch, recursively deleting the contents of a folder)
& - runs a command in the background
curl - downloads a file either from the server or to it
grep "pattern" * .txt - search in files by mask and given pattern
ping<имя_сервера>- checking server availability
df -h - free and used disk space on connected devices
scp myfile.txt [email protected]: - copying the file myfile.txt to the device [email protected] via SSH to the / home / pi / folder
scp [email protected]: myfile.txt.- copying the file myfile.txt from the device [email protected] to the current folder via SSH
scp * .txt [email protected]: - copy all text files from device [email protected] to the current folder via SSH
dd if = / dev / sdd of = backup.img - create a backup image of an SD card or USB drive (/ dev / sdd)
dd if = / dev / sda of = / dev / sdb bs = 4096- byte-by-byte copying of data from device to device (dd if = / dev / zero of = / dev / sda bs = 4k - sda disk cleanup)
dd if = myfile of = myfile conv = ucase- converting the file to upper case
dd if = myfile of = myfile conv = lcase- converting the file to lower case
ls -l | dd conv = ucase - Convert command output to uppercase
apt-mark showauto> autopackagelist.txt- creating a list of preinstalled applications
apt-mark showmanual> manualpackagelist.txt- creating a list of manually installed applications

6. Testing the Raspberry Pi as a desktop

So, after half an hour of tweaks and updates, the Raspberry Pi is ready to go. What do we have "on board" by default?
In addition to software development tools, a basic set of necessary applications is installed on the Raspberry OS.
Libre Office and PDF viewer are preinstalled for working with documents. For productive work on the Internet with the Raspberry OS comes the Chromium browser and the Claws Mail mail client. For remote control from desktop and mobile devices, VNC Connect is installed on the Raspberry Pi.
Unfortunately, by default, the system does not include a GUI media player for video and audio playback, but from the console, multimedia playback can be started through the omxplayer program, which supports hardware video acceleration in full screen mode.
The system has a graphical file manager Xfce, which allows you to navigate through folders with the mouse, perform file operations, open documents with a double click of the mouse. As practice has shown, in terms of convenience and principles of operation, it practically does not differ from the usual Explorer.
Opening the menu and navigating through the folders in the Raspbian OS interface is surprisingly fast, livelier than on my old dual-core Celeron.
After taking an inventory of the installed software, curiosity prompted me to check the speed of work on the Raspberry Pi on the Internet. I opened it in Chromium and first of all went to my home portal cheboksary.ru: pages open quickly and without brakes. In the second tab, I opened the VK social network. I started scrolling my feed with the mouse wheel - I didn't notice any unpleasant loading delays. The social media feed scrolls smoothly in the browser, without jerking. In the third tab, I opened Youtube, and in it - a popular video clip. The video is played back without delays and jerks with a fairly good resolution and sound quality enough. I expanded the video to full screen - playback continued without jerks. I noticed the only thing - a slightly slowed down reaction to mouse clicks on the video playback interface. We can say that the Raspberry Pi Internet performance test passed.
Checked the rendering speed of e-book pages in the built-in PDF viewer Xpdf. To do this, I decided to plug a "flash drive" into the USB connector and ... the system immediately recognized it by opening a file manager window in a couple of seconds on the / media / pi / usb / folder with the contents of my removable media! A pleasant surprise - in Raspbian OS, USB-drive auto-mounting is implemented! As it turned out later, to dismantle the "flash drive" before disconnecting, click on the arrow in the upper right corner of the screen and select it from the list.
Having quickly selected the desired PDF file, I simply clicked on it and saw the contents in the viewer window. When scrolling, the pages of the e-book were rendered with a delay of about one second, which can be considered a completely acceptable result. The only unpleasant moment - the viewer was unable to display Russian letters in the table of contents of the book.
To test the playback of music and video from the "flash drive", I decided not to use the console and installed a graphical shell in Python for the omxplayer system player. Of course, the tk-interface of the shell does not shine with beauty and design, but it still allows you to select the desired files with the mouse and create playlists. Although they wrote on the network that hardware accelerated video cannot be played in the window on the Raspberry Pi, as it turned out, this is quite possible via omxplayerGUI! The video was displayed on the screen at its original resolution in a window without a frame, but it was possible to drag the window, moreover, without stopping the playback.
In a word, the Internet on the Raspberry Pi works without restrictions, music and videos are played, flash drives are auto-mounted, office documents are edited, photos are shown. What else do you need to be productive?

The Raspberry Pi mini PC has quickly become a popular platform for all sorts of projects, both commercial and non-commercial. There are several reasons for this, among which are the low price of a computer, its relative versatility and openness.

As a result, interesting projects began to appear with enviable regularity, and some of these projects are presented in this collection. There are quite serious systems here, and projects that can be called entertaining, from the series “why not?”.

Supercomputer based on Raspberry Pi and Lego

One of the more interesting Raspberry-based projects is the 64 Raspberry Pi supercomputer. As elements for creating "server cabinets" served as a regular Lego constructor.

As a ROM for this system, SD memory cards with a volume of 16 GB were used. Such cards were installed in every "raspberry".

How do you do something like this? Detailed instructions from the creator, University of Southampton professor Simon Cox - follow this link.

Pi based weather probe

Computer enthusiast Dave Ackerman decided to use his own mini-PC to create a weather balloon, with the ability to take photos from the stratosphere. Detailed.

After a few months of work, Dave was actually able to launch his probe, which flew over 30 kilometers, worked at temperatures of -50C in a very rarefied atmosphere (1% of the standard).

The probe recorded all the necessary parameters, including temperature, humidity, density, altitude. Coordinates were also recorded. Among other things, a camera was also used, with which it was possible to obtain many excellent pictures.

Internet phone

On the basis of the "raspberry", a conventional landline telephone with a rotary dial was improved. Instead of a regular board, the developer installed a Raspberry Pi.

After a series of manipulations, the developer managed to create a Skype phone as a stand-alone device, without having to use a connection to a regular computer.

Here's how it looks and works:

Play station

This is a habrapuser project. An interesting device that allows you to play a number of old games for a large number of consoles, including NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, PlayStation, as well as SCUMMVM, zxspectrum.

The author wrote that "the whole system is based on the RetroArch port, based on the libretro library, which allows using emulators of various set-top boxes." As for the graphical shell, we used EmulationStation, also RetroPie.

Raspberry based tablet

This tablet has an interesting name - PiPad, and wood was used as the material for the case. It all looks like this:

The diagonal of the display of the tablet is 10 inches. Well, all other characteristics coincide with the characteristics of the "raspberry" itself. True, there is no longer a couple of hours of work, but solid work. Detailed instructions for creating a tablet based on the "raspberry" inside.

The OS is Raspbian Linux with XBMC.

Wall calendar organizer

Instructables user Piney created a useful gadget for himself - an interactive wall calendar with the ability to add tasks and events.

The software platform is the usual Google Calendar, all data from which is transmitted via WiFi to this wall device.

Detailed instructions on how to create something like this - here.

Own radio station

I don't know how legal it is, but the project is really interesting. Dedicated to those who have always wanted to become a DJ at their own radio station.

True, the coverage of such a radio station is relatively small: an area equal to the area of ​​the stadium.

DVD changer

The person who created this thing just got tired of constantly changing DVDs. The result was this project, which was made simply because it could be done. Why not?

Lighting system for Christmas

There is not much time left before the New Year and Christmas, therefore, if there is an extra "raspberry", you can create a lighting system for your own house or apartment. How to make such a system is described. And below is a video showing how it works.

In general, the scope of use of the Raspberry Pi is very wide, much broader than the creation of photo frames and laptops. The developers are trying to improve their device by releasing new, updated versions of the mini-PC and additional modules for it. For example, the Raspberry Pi B + came out in the summer, the company recently introduced. And after a while (unfortunately, it is impossible to say more definitely) it is planned to release the Raspberry Pi A +.

This single board computer, which was first introduced in 2011, is gaining momentum and has surpassed all expectations in popularity. Today we will try to figure out what a Raspberry Pi and single-board computers are in general, why they are needed, what are their advantages over traditional computers, what is needed to start working with a Raspberry Pi and where to buy Raspberry Pi... And then you will find a series of Raspberry Pi tutorials for beginners and interesting ideas for using the device in robots and robotics.

Raspberry Pi- a single-board computer, that is, various parts of a computer, which are usually located on separate boards, are presented here on one.

The first project of the future Raspberry Pi was presented in 2011, industrial production began in 2012. The product name combines Raspberry - raspberry and Pi - the number of pi. The image of a raspberry became the logo of the project.

Initially, the project was created as an educational one, the Raspberry Pi is great for learning the basics of electronics - everything is visible, affordable and the price is not great. On the website of the project there is a weighty one with detailed instructions and methods. The Raspberry Pi Foundation is constantly focusing on the learning capabilities of the computer, in their official twitter you will find a huge number of young happy owners of the device and their achievements.

What are single board computers for?

Single board computers are usually small, energy efficient, and relatively inexpensive. All of this applies to the Raspberry Pi as well. Many users use the Raspberry Pi as a server, because it consumes little power and is completely silent. Due to its small size, it can be built into various housings and used, for example, as a brain for a robot. Therefore, the project "Entertaining Robotics" and turned to the consideration of this device. In general, with the Raspberry Pi, you can do the bulk of everything that you do on a regular desktop computer, but with some specifics, mainly related to incompatibility with many operating systems.

The Raspberry Pi looks like this, the board size is similar to a credit card:

Raspberry Pi board

Today, the Raspberry Pi is popular not only in education, but also among adults and quite serious guys who sometimes create such crazy projects - just some 64 Raspberry Pi, a few parts and a super-computer is ready!

Some technical details of the Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi dimensions: 85.6x56x21 mm, weight 45 g.

RaspberryPi comes in two versions - A and B. Version B is more popular today.

Comparison of versions and main characteristics of Raspberry Pi:

  • ARM11 processor, Broadcom BCM2835,700 MHz;
  • RAM - 256 MB for A, 512 MB for B;
  • USB inputs / outputs - 1 at A, 2 at B;
  • SD input;
  • RCA output ("tulip");
  • HDMI output;
  • Ethernet input / output - only V has;
  • Audio output;
  • GPIO pins.

As you can see, the Raspberry Pi only has RAM. SD cards are supposed to be used as permanent memory.

Cost and where to buy a Raspberry Pi?

An official dealer and some other online stores in Russia sell model B in the region of 2300-2500 rubles + shipping.

The most economical way to buy a Raspberry Pi in Russia is still large Chinese online stores (I do just that myself).

As of this writing, Model B costs $ 44 on AliExpress, and $ 49 on DealExtreme. Both there and there are free shipping. If you don't have time to wait for a package from China, we recommend online stores and DESSY.

The prices of these stores are constantly changing, there are some discounts and special offers. I myself recently ordered on DealExtreme for $ 54 and then it was the best deal. Therefore, if you are thinking about buying, then the current option on AliExpress is very profitable.

As for the work of the post office and customs, it took me a little less than a month from ordering to receiving this time. Previous parcels from China arrived in three weeks. Those. the timing is quite adequate.

The board was packed in a cardboard box, the online store additionally packs it in a shockproof bag, so nothing should break on the way.

What else do you need to get started with the Raspberry Pi?

To get started with the Raspberry Pi, in addition to the board itself, you will need:

  • SD card from which you boot the operating system; the manufacturer recommends using a card from 8 to 32 Gb, they actually work on smaller cards;
  • a monitor or TV with HDMI, DVI or RCA ("tulip") connectors (VGA is not suitable), and, accordingly, an HDMI-HDMI, HDMI-DVI or RCA-RCA cable;
  • USB keyboard;
  • USB mouse.

I connected the Raspberry Pi to a 24-inch TV, it looks like this (the Raspberry Pi itself is outlined with an oval):

Raspberry Pi connected to a TV

The Raspberry Pi comes without an OS, it needs to be downloaded from the manufacturer's website and loaded onto SD, which we will describe in more detail in the next article. SD-cards with the OS already uploaded there are also sold. I don't see much sense in this.

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