Raspberry Pi 101 (read before posting)

[Gert van Loo]

NB Don't spend more than a few quid/dollars on an HDMI cable, no matter what the guy in the shop says

I don't agree with you. I think my $10.000 anti-vibration Ethernet cable is worth every dollar I paid for it.

[Jongoleur]

davidgoodenough said:

... going to use it as a file server (like the SherpaPlug)  ...

I'm going to rename my Sheevaplug right now...... 

3+10  Would you credit it???

Gert said:

NB Don't spend more than a few quid/dollars on an HDMI cable, no matter what the guy in the shop says

I don't agree with you. I think my $10.000 anti-vibration Ethernet cable is worth every dollar I paid for it.

I take it back. I'm going to get this one.

[Gert van Loo]

Ah, the race is on for who can find the most expensive cable.

[Lynbarn]

Gert said:

Ah, the race is on for who can find the most expensive cable.

Better than "my cable is bigger than yours!"

[ukscone]

Gert said:

Ah, the race is on for who can find the most expensive cable.

i wonder how much a bespoke cable made from unicorn hair and diamonds would cost (is unicorn hair a conductor?)

[Jongoleur]

ukscone said:

i wonder how much a bespoke cable made from unicorn hair and diamonds would cost (is unicorn hair a conductor?)

I think the unicorn hair would be the insulator.  Given that diamond is merely compressed carbon, it would have a high resistance and thus it would be an attenuator cable.  Of course, by definition, something made from unicorn hair and diamond would be a Monster Cable, and therefore eyewateringly expensive!

Wet string, thats the best......

scep said:

NB Don't spend more than a few quid/dollars on an HDMI cable, no matter what the guy in the shop says

Actually, I recently bought some cheap 1m HDMI cables and found out they didn't bother to hook up the individual ground pins, instead using the outer shell as a common ground/shield.  Such a cable works fine provided that both ends ground the HDMI shells to circuit ground.  However, one of my HDMI sources didn't ground the shell and it took me quite a while to figure out what was wrong.  It has worked fine with an HDMI to DVI-D cable for years, but that cable does connect the individual ground pins.

I'm assuming that RasPi does ground the HDMI shell.

[jamesh]

John Beetem said:

scep said:

NB Don't spend more than a few quid/dollars on an HDMI cable, no matter what the guy in the shop says

Actually, I recently bought some cheap 1m HDMI cables and found out they didn't bother to hook up the individual ground pins, instead using the outer shell as a common ground/shield.  Such a cable works fine provided that both ends ground the HDMI shells to circuit ground.  However, one of my HDMI sources didn't ground the shell and it took me quite a while to figure out what was wrong.  It has worked fine with an HDMI to DVI-D cable for years, but that cable does connect the individual ground pins.

I'm assuming that RasPi does ground the HDMI shell.

We recently did some testing on the project we are working on and had a particular HDMI cable - not cheap - that simply didn't work properly with one particular monitor. Worked fine on others. It was most odd. Some sort of stranger interaction between the cable the monitor and the phone.

Interesting - thanks gents.

N.B I would like to qualify that I was talking about Currys, PC World etc where they try to flog you a lead for £95 (when your telly only cost £200 ) NOT the RasPi shop

Hello, Raspberry Pi World!

First of all, I'm very excited about the Raspberry Pi project, and wish everyone involved the best luck in the world!

I see that things are starting to move around quite quickly (perhaps due to the launching date getting near?), and this can make us newbies get a bit lost. For instance, the first post in this thread seems like a great way to get started with the project, but unfortunately it already has some dead links:

• Media


• Introduce Yourself


• How you would use a Raspberry Pi device


• Profile Pics


• thread about logos


• What have we Missed

I just wanted to give you some heads up. Besides that, keep up with the great work!

I'm afraid that you aren't going to learn a lot from reading posts from 6 months ago. I know. You're being asked to but things have moved so much in such a short time, your best bet is to start with the FAQ and the wiki

[abishur]

Thanks Ric, I have updated the links to point to the correct location.  I also have updated the post to reflect forum changes since it was initially made.

[abishur]

Grumpyoldgit said:

I'm afraid that you aren't going to learn a lot from reading posts from 6 months ago. I know. You're being asked to but things have moved so much in such a short time, your best bet is to start with the FAQ and the wiki

Actually the FAQ and the wiki were both one of the first links we advised newcomers to visit (every so often we update this post to keep it relevant   There's a reason why this is stickyed after all )

Just an idle thought, but is there any interest in creating a sub-netbook based on the R-Pi? There's a number of such devices out there running Windows CE, which so far as I can tell are the same board (something MIPS-based I think) in a variety of cases, so sourcing the necessary parts wouldn't be terribly difficult.

It'd require a new Model C board with connectors for the built-in screen, peripherals and batteries, but I can't imagine it would be that much bigger or more expensive to make. There seems to be quite a bit of demand for a small, cheap devices that bridge the form-factor gap between smartphones and netbooks, but most of the examples on the market right now are hampered by poor performance and a horrible OS. A version based on the R-Pi would probably attract enough sales from the general public to nicely subsidise the units destined for the educational and hobbyist markets.

Hi new to the raspberry pi, but really interested.
But something that is not mentioned any where does the rasberrypi come with a power supply or will that be sold separate.

caspi said:

Hi new to the raspberry pi, but really interested.
But something that is not mentioned any where does the rasberrypi come with a power supply or will that be sold separate.

It's not mentioned anywhere except in the product descriptions, FAQ and numerous time in the forums...

What will I get when I buy one?

A Raspberry Pi. Leads, a power supply or SD cards are not included but can be purchased at the same time from Farnell and RS. You will be able to buy preloaded SD cards too. The first batch (February 2012) will not have a case.

Sooo no duel core Proc for the Pi? How about the new 8 core from AMD?

I know this is for kids to learn how to code, but man you can do some cool stuff with this.

I became aware of the Pi project in early January and wrote a News Article on it , which can be found here-  http://ppci.me/b/FXsS

My very brief introduction can be found at- http://ppci.me/b/FXzt

Liz, should I post the above article in your news article section?  Do you wish to have it there also?

[abishur]

Nice little article go ahead and put it in the article and news section if you would please :-0

Hi

I am absolutely new here. The idea is fantastic. I pre-? ordered one already.

A question, why do you use such big Linux distributions ?

I use often Puppy Linux which is small and very good

Bernhard

[mahjongg]

These -are- especially lean Distro's, using frugal desktop managers instead of gnome.

Puppy linux is worked on and is coming too.

We also ask that you remember that the Raspberry Pi is ultimately a charity project. As much as we'd like to put a dual core processor with 2 GB of RAM, 6 sata ports, and USB 3.0, we can"t. We certainly want to hear what you"d like on future boards, but please don"t be rude or unrelenting on demanding it if the response is "not at this time." Our first priority needs to be to the getting the Raspberry Pi into the hands of children who need them and we ask for your understanding if that need means we chose a item you disagree with or don't chose an item you really desire.

I'd hope the spec remains static for some time to provide a stable development platform.
Ok there's still some work on the arm linux distros and a lot of work on software side but without hardware changes, in 18 months Rasberry Pi could develop into something.

If I did have an idea for a model C it would be more a PI squared: Take 4 raspberry PI's and slap them all on the same board with power supply and network connections between the 4. For people who want more than one PI they could buy 4 together like this. They could experiment with networking, and client server, active/passive.Configured the right way 4 regular spec PIs could be better than an uprated PI. If wanted 4 individual PIs for diferent projects could just snap the board both ways along perforation and solder on NIC connector (+ HDMI if required) as only one of the 4 connected PIs would need a HDMI socket. Only issue with this I see: you really need a hub for 4 PIs networked together or can the broardcom chip run 2 nics so each PI is connected to 2 others? (would be little expense as no need for nic sockets) (OK im introducing changes running 2 nics, maybe there's a cleverer solution over USB? maybe someone can dwell on that?)

Regarding the original model B spec. I think its as good as could be done with today's technology. more speed would have meant more power and keeping power down to 500-700ma is something that had to be done. Only thing I don't much like (although this contradicts my PI squared comment). Shape of board ....Would have been nicer if the PI were round and CD shaped inc central hole so an old CD spindle could have been used as a case rather than a cigarette packet. ......Well you did ask about future boards...

I received my Rpi last week, since then I have been on a learning curve...infuriating at times, however enjoyable non the less! I hope to learn more about this amazing piece of (forgive me) 'electronics'. So far Ive been able to rewrite the operating system twice through the assistance of this forum...and by watching tutorials on Youtube (Raspberry Pi tutorials). Get the audio/video working, programme (sudo is a word

is word I will always remember) but the point is great stuff...keep it going!