Hello from a new 100% Beginner: Buying the bits

[RaspberryPicker]

I've been excitedly tracking Raspberry Pi for ages now, seeing that it would be used in schools as a way to teach school children how to programme. I remember learning a very little BASIC at school and since then, I've picked up some VBA. I always seem to get stuck because online tutorials tend to either cover what I already know, or alternatively, online forums become too advanced too quickly and I'm never quite sure about what software to download. I'm hoping to learn to programme (in Python???) with lots of others at school child pace, but I'm sort of presuming (from gleaning info. from the RaspberryPi site) that it will be possible to code in other languages too. Not sure.

I signed up to the RaspberryPi page, received the email about when to order, ordered early(ish) from RS Online and then finally today (very excitedly) received the signup code and have bought the bits. I am one of the absolute beginners discussed in one of the sticky threads, and I'm still wondering whether I made a mistake because even the absolute beginners forum seems to contain topics where the English is comprehensible, but the topics aren't! (I had to to Google for "kernel" and I'm not too sure what it means to compile anything.)

Anyhow, I think I've got the right stuff. I bought the RaspberryPi (version B), a UK power adapter, a cable to connect the Pi to my TV (I hope the TV has the relevant connector as it's quite new, but I could maybe connect to an existing computer monitor if not), a 3.5mm Stereo to twin RCA plug cable (this sounds like the sound part, but it might be a useless cable) and finally an SDI card with RaspberryPi operating system (??). I don't yet have the USB keyboard and mouse, but I'll pick them up soon.

So, I thought I'd say "hi" to other beginners as I'm thinking the RaspberryPi probably won't have Plug and Play and it will be useful to talk to other beginners, or at least to talk to other people who don't mind talking to other beginners. Internet forums can often be very hostile to beginners, often due to our failure to read manuals etc. but I thought a friendly "hi" wouldn't go amiss.

[abishur]

If you're using an HDMI cable to connect to the TV, you don't need a 3.5mm to stereo cable as HDMI does sound as well as video.

You say SDI card... did you mean SD card?

When getting the keyboard and mouse make sure the keyboard is very plain, light keyboard or keyboard LCD display will draw far too much current and cause stability issues with the pi (unless you plug them into a powered USB hub and then you can ignore me )

[Bungle]

Hi RaspberryPicker, I'm pretty much in the same boat, I'm well versed in all flavours of Windows and have been using Ubuntu recently, I'm hoping that might make using the Debian OS a little less daunting - I guess I'll have to see.

I have just recently got some bits myself, I went for a wireless mouse and keyboard both connecting via 1 tiny usb dongle (plug and play)so that'll free up the other usb port, also as they're wireless they have there own batteries so hopefully won't be a power hog as last poster suggested.

Hoping to learn a little programming aswell, I used to do a little with basic - but that was 20 years ago, I'm guessing things will be a little different now.

[JonB]

Not necessarily, Bungle. You can download a BASIC interpreter for it if you really want to go retro!

Welcome to the world of Rasberry Pi, RaspberryPicker. You will find much to challenge you but stick with it; the reward makes it worthwhile, and you will learn all sorts of new and cool things.

[Bungle]

Thanks for the info JonB, I may try that, for the nostalgia if nothing else - pull out a few 'while-wend' loops, or was that pascal? I feel old lol.

But anyway, looking forward to learning python, when the Pi arrives I'll probably be hitting the forum much more often asking dumb questions.

I'm sure I read the OS has some tutorials on python, is that correct?

[DiggerDan]

... I went for a wireless mouse and keyboard both connecting via 1 tiny usb dongle...

@Bungle - What model keyboard/mouse combo did you go for? I'm looking for a similar setup for similar reasons.

Do you have your Pi yet? Does it supply enough power to the dongle to run it? Other posts on these forums suggest a hub might be needed anyway.

Generally can anyone offer advice on keyboads/mice. Ideally I'd like a single dongle direct into the Pi if possible. Just ordered my Pi this morning and I'd like the other hardware ready for when it arrives.

[gornyjw01]

Just wanted to say ello, I'm a completely new user with absolutely no programming knowledge / history.

I'm hoping to use the PI (at first) as a bit of a media hub. Anywho, the keyboard / mouse I've bought is - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wireless-Keyboa ... 18&sr=8-10

Certainly no good for programming. But I've been using as a remote control for my partners laptop to let us watch netflix on her TV. If you want the same thing I'd recommend it, I've had no problems and you can just about type an email.

[adamagogobaby]

Hello All,

Apparently I should be getting my Pi at the end of June, so I'm eagerly anticipating that whilst also feeling a little hesitant, and hoping there is a lot of development activity over the next few months by the pros.

I'm hoping to use the Pi for a bit of (very basic) games emulation and to play video files on the big screen. Once it's up and running, I'd like to take a dip into the programming side of it and see what I can make. Small steps. The reason I wanted to get the pi wasn't to fulfil a specific purpose, but to help me learn more about computing in general. It looks very fun to tinker around with once you know the basics.

So that's me. Hi everyone.

[Bungle]

... I went for a wireless mouse and keyboard both connecting via 1 tiny usb dongle...

@Bungle - What model keyboard/mouse combo did you go for? I'm looking for a similar setup for similar reasons.

Do you have your Pi yet? Does it supply enough power to the dongle to run it? Other posts on these forums suggest a hub might be needed anyway.

Generally can anyone offer advice on keyboads/mice. Ideally I'd like a single dongle direct into the Pi if possible. Just ordered my Pi this morning and I'd like the other hardware ready for when it arrives.

I went for this keyboard and mouse set. At £20 it's pretty cheap and pretty much no thills, no leds even for the Caps lock, just one that I think indicates when batteries are weak.

Works perfectly well on my pc, but no pi to test on yet

[mahjongg]

when Abishur said you should use the simplest and plainest keyboard and mouse you could get, he implicitly meant the simples "wired" keyboard and mouse. With a wireless keyboard there is no knowing what amount of power the wireless transmitter/receiver is using, if you are unlucky it will draw more than 100mA, and you might stumble over the "fuse problem". and your keyboard might be unresponsive repeats keys, or ignore keys.

Hopefully you have chosen an unproblematic one, but with a wireless set its a gamble, it might be that it will only work behind a powered USB hub.

Maybe in some time you can look up in the Wiki if your keyboards will work well with the pi.
There are a few entries now, but the list is still small.

[Bungle]

when Abishur said you should use the simplest and plainest keyboard and mouse you could get, he implicitly meant the simples "wired" keyboard and mouse. With a wireless keyboard there is no knowing what amount of power the wireless transmitter/receiver is using, if you are unlucky it will draw more than 100mA, and you might stumble over the "fuse problem". and your keyboard might be unresponsive repeats keys, or ignore keys.

Hopefully you have chosen an unproblematic one, but with a wireless set its a gamble, it might be that it will only work behind a powered USB hub.

Maybe in some time you can look up in the Wiki if your keyboards will work well with the pi.
There are a few entries now, but the list is still small.

Hopefully I'll find out soon. No biggie if it doesn't work though, a powered hub it'll have to be.

[bonelifer]

Nice keyboard. For me the powered hub won't be a problem. I bought three 7 port powered hubs from Woot not to long ago for fairly cheap. I never buy a usb hub unless it's powered, why bother with the hassle when new modern devices often use a lot of power.

[colincoach]

As an absolute beginner as far as, obviously, the Pi and less obviously Linux, and with my Pi arriving a couple of weeks ago, I set about getting all the bits I would need. The last piece of the puzzle arrived yesterday - the HDMI-DVI-D lead, so last night I connected it all up and powered up the Pi. Having followed this forum since ordering day, and reading about so many variations of problems - USB 'overload', PSU/Charger issues, SD Card issues, Kernel Panic etc I had low expectations for some reason!! Well it fired up first time, lots of nice meaningful (and slightly bamboozling) lines of messages on the screen, until a prompt for user name appeared.

Bottom line - it all seems to be working brilliantly using an old PC Monitor. I have written my first python program and run it - the standard 'hello world'. I managed to get Midori to surprisingly fast load the BBC website. I tried Youtube but it complained about lack of Flash/HTML5, so looking around for something else to do, I downloaded and installed the Chromium web browser and successfully looked at BBC website and Facebook.

To help others - here are the links to the various bits I purchased to get it all up and running.

Powered USB Hub - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/380417130275? ... 1423.l2649
Pi Accessories kit - Debian Squeeze populated SD card, keyboard, mouse, PSU, cabled etc - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/320896381552? ... 1423.l2649
HDMI to DVI-D cable - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/170807807138? ... 1439.l2649

Hope this helps.

Colin

[bigsi111]

Colin

Some good links there, although you could have saved some money and probably had more "fun" if you'd prepared your own SD card and popped down to tesco for a super cheap Keyboard.

However, we're all different and it's good to see that there's some enterprising E-Bayers supplying kits.

What's you next program in Python going to be?

[HangFire]

Thanks Colin,

I've just received your recommended eBay HUB and looks a good choice.

My Raspberry Pi seems stuck in the despatch stage at the moment. (Parcel Force has advised a despatch, but no tracking yet.. for two days) But I have tried the hub on my laptop and desktop.

Interestingly it powers from the laptop/desktop fine, when no power cable attached. Something I wasn't expecting, as the hub is designed to be powered. For me, this makes the unit very useful for non Raspberry Pi use, simplifying switching keyboard+mouse between my two computers. One USB plug to move instead of two. (My screen has analogue and digital cables, so one to each).

(The other way to go, a keyboard with USB port for mouse seem rare and usually expensive. I've also avoided the WiFi option, as working from home and long hours of use.)

(I just hope my Raspberry Pi hasn't got lost in the despatch stage... )

Ray

[Bungle]

this wireless keyboard and mouse worked fine (received pi this morning)