STICKY: Pictorial Buying Guide for the Raspberry Pi

[bobc]

I think it would be useful for newbies to state that the keyboard and mouse should be USB. I am sure I saw a post where someone said he had ordered a PS/2 mouse and keyboard for his R-Pi.

[SN]

I"m also hoping that a growing set of "compatible devices and drivers" gets published the wiki too

[mahjongg]

JeremyF said:


Paraphrased you a lot, but

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/ ... pWaN8/edit

A quick guide I made as a presentation (if was easiest), if you have a Google Account I'll share it with you so you can edit it if you desire to.


I like it, although the first picture is a bit dark.

However, your remark that "some wireless and WiFi dongles contain drivers" won't help users, as these drivers are windows drivers, not Linux drivers!

I think that when using such dongles extreme caution must be applied, as only very few of them are actually supported, and in theory support depends on the distro used. But because all these distro's share the same kernel (and thus have the same drivers built in) this might not be a problem.

At the moment there is only a short list of three Wifi adapters that have been tested on the R-PI wiki, and no bluetooth adapters have been tested at all.

[JeremyF]

mahjongg said:


JeremyF said:


Paraphrased you a lot, but

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/ ... pWaN8/edit

A quick guide I made as a presentation (if was easiest), if you have a Google Account I'll share it with you so you can edit it if you desire to.


I like it, although the first picture is a bit dark.

However, your remark that "some wireless and WiFi dongles contain drivers" won't help users, as these drivers are windows drivers, not Linux drivers!

I think that when using such dongles extreme caution must be applied, as only very few of them are actually supported, and in theory support depends on the distro used. But because all these distro"s share the same kernel (and thus have the same drivers built in) this might not be a problem.

At the moment there is only a short list of three Wifi adapters that have been tested on the R-PI wiki, and no bluetooth adapters have been tested at all.



When I said built in to the operating system, I did mean the kernel, not the internal workings of the adapter...and at least according to Wiki, some drivers will be built into the kernel (which one, I don't know)

[Kernel]

EXCELLENT!

An excellent and simple to understand guide - thanks for making it Abishur.

[Bad Wolf]

Abishur,

Some up to date info which you might like for your guide


Effective January 1, 2012, HDMI products cannot make any reference in the labelling, packaging, or promotion of any cable product to HDMI version numbers.(for example, HDMI 1.4a, 1.3a, etc.)

HDMI Licensing, LLC announced that cables would be tested as “Standard” or “High-Speed cables”.

Cable products that refer to version numbers are considered non-compliant and subject to trademark enforcement actions.


So in your guide, to help avoid any mix-ups, as both the cable and packaging cannot reference HDMI version numbers any more, would it be better to state that the cable to use is a “Standard HDMI®Cable” and maybe add the Packaging logo for the cable as a quick visual identification of the cable type.

[abishur]

Bad Wolf said:


Abishur,

Some up to date info which you might like for your guide


Effective January 1, 2012, HDMI products cannot make any reference in the labelling, packaging, or promotion of any cable product to HDMI version numbers.(for example, HDMI 1.4a, 1.3a, etc.)

HDMI Licensing, LLC announced that cables would be tested as “Standard” or “High-Speed cables”.

Cable products that refer to version numbers are considered non-compliant and subject to trademark enforcement actions.


So in your guide, to help avoid any mix-ups, as both the cable and packaging cannot reference HDMI version numbers any more, would it be better to state that the cable to use is a “Standard HDMI®Cable” and maybe add the Packaging logo for the cable as a quick visual identification of the cable type.





To be fair, that is referring to new manufacture of cables and as a result mostly specifically referring to HDMI 1.4 and beyond.  However, places like Amazon and eBay still do advertise the revision number, and the point of the guide is that I hope people will go and order second hand parts for a fraction of the cost rather than paying through the nose for a pre-assembled kit in which case the 1.3a would still be directly relevant

In fact, considering that the HDMI Standard/High-Speed will be referring to 1.4(+) I really want to leave the guide as is to make sure they don't end up buying something they don't need

[dr.watt]

Finding a suitable power-supply is probably not so difficult really. Most mobile phones use the micro-usb connector.....notably anything Android. This is a global standard so most of the world has already complied....not sure about the USA of course!

[JeremyF]

dr.watt said:


Finding a suitable power-supply is probably not so difficult really. Most mobile phones use the micro-usb connector.....notably anything Android. This is a global standard so most of the world has already complied....not sure about the USA of course!



Here in the US, basically all new-non-Apple phones use MicroUSB, but there are still an abundance of MiniUSB chargers and various other proprietary chargers floating around that are a few years old.

[kevlar2010]

Not sure if these have been tested against the RPi, but buy.com is selling 2 8GB Kingston Class 4 SD cards for $10 with free budget shipping.

http://www.buy.com/prod/kingst.....98543.html

I put in an order for a pack.  Now I just need my RPi.  :)

[mahjongg]

Regardless of which one you end up going with, just remember to ensure that it says it can output 5V with at least 300mA for the model A and 700 mA for the model B.


Not to be pedantic, but this sentence almost implies that its still possible to use the miniUSB, why else would you "end up with it" if it really wasn't useable.

Well, maybe I'm nitpicking here, but it just looked wrong to me to phrase it that way.

[abishur]

mahjongg said:



Regardless of which one you end up going with, just remember to ensure that it says it can output 5V with at least 300mA for the model A and 700 mA for the model B.


Not to be pedantic, but this sentence almost implies that its still possible to use the miniUSB, why else would you "end up with it" if it really wasn't useable.

Well, maybe I'm nitpicking here, but it just looked wrong to me to phrase it that way.



It's referring to going with the PSU that has the wire attached, or just buying one that has the usb port available

[mahjongg]

Perhaps I'm missing something, (English is not my native language) but this is the section I'm talking about:


The miniUSB (on the left) is the wrong one. It’s larger and looks like a trapezoid with its sides pinched in.  The microUSB (on the right) is the correct one.  It is smaller and also looks like a trapezoid except it’s sides are rounded outward

Regardless of which one you end up going with, just remember to ensure that it says it can output 5V with at least 300mA for the model A and 700 mA for the model B.


If I'm not mistaken therefore the "which one you end up with" refers to the actual connector, either mini USB or micro USB. Thus suggesting that whichever one you end up with somehow is still useable, regardless of the text preceding it (some people skip over text, and read only what looks like the "summation").

[mole125]

Having a quick re-read of it, I think the "which one you end up with" refers to the style of wall plug you are using (discussed in the paragraph before) - either one which just has a USB socket on it to plug in your own cable, or one where the cable is hard wired. It isn't refering to the subject just discussed (mini/micro connector). I totally agree though that this isn't at all clear particularly if you are skim reading.

[Stateside]

A vendor list of " tested successfully to work with Raspberry Pi " components would be helpful.
Similar to the " Approved hardware " lists the Linux community has had for years.

[navdroid]

Just one suggestion, I am sure using a 5V and 700mA power supply is recommended but I am running my pi on 5V and 570mA sony bluetooth headphone charger and it's running just fine.

[abishur]

Just one suggestion, I am sure using a 5V and 700mA power supply is recommended but I am running my pi on 5V and 570mA sony bluetooth headphone charger and it's running just fine.

Is that with two usb devices, a network connection and hdmi? If so they must be some really low powered usb devices. We say 700 mA (and even then it's becoming obvious that 1A is even better) because anyone who wants to use the pi to it's fullest will probably be using 700 mA and trying to get by on a lower powered PSU will create stability problems.

[DemonJim]

The OP and any Pi-setup guide people might want to update any sections regarding converting video from HDMI into something else, particularly any bit about how VGA requires an expensive active video converter:

The same thing applies if you wanted to use DisplayPort. I found out the hard way that a simple HDMI-to-DisplayPort adapter will not work with the Raspberry Pi (or anything else that outputs HDMI for that matter).

This of course is only relevant to those with a DisplayPort input (e.g. trying to use an iMac as a monitor in Target Display Mode, or in my case, wanting to use the DisplayPort socket on my Dell monitor for the Pi because the only HDMI-in was already being used). Basically, you cannot do this with a simple adapter, even though such adapters seemingly exist*

* You can convert from a DisplayPort output to HDMI just fine hence the existence of the adapter, just not both ways like you can with HDMI and DVI.

[abishur]

The OP and any Pi-setup guide people might want to update any sections regarding converting video from HDMI into something else, particularly any bit about how VGA requires an expensive active video converter:

Er... the OP does say you need an active video convertor for going to VGA (It's even in bold), why exactly would you want it changed to?

[DemonJim]

The OP and any Pi-setup guide people might want to update any sections regarding converting video from HDMI into something else, particularly any bit about how VGA requires an expensive active video converter:

Er... the OP does say you need an active video convertor for going to VGA (It's even in bold), why exactly would you want it changed to?

Er... did you not read the next paragraph? I added a colon at the end to help lead people to read it all. I maybe should have worded it better, but I worded it like this because to a techy it's obvious that you need a converter to go to analog from HDMI, so to-VGA will be present in many setup guides, but to-DisplayPort is not so obvious given digital-to-digital HDMI-DVI is totally compatible (DisplayPort is more common than you might think).

[ait]

Sorry if someone posted it already:
in Europe all TV-sets have a scart connector
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCART).
You can use the RPI with a RCA -> Scart adaptor
(http://www.amazon.de/mumbi-SCART-AV-Ada ... 702&sr=1-2).

[DemonJim]

Sorry if someone posted it already:
in Europe all TV-sets have a scart connector
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCART).
You can use the RPI with a RCA -> Scart adaptor
(http://www.amazon.de/mumbi-SCART-AV-Ada ... 702&sr=1-2).

Indeedy - or alternatively fellow Europeans could use a readymade SCART lead like this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hama-Phono-SCAR ... 492&sr=1-6

Although to connect the audio to the Pi you would also need an RCA-to-3.5mm adapter:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Phono-Female-3- ... -1-catcorr

[abishur]

The OP and any Pi-setup guide people might want to update any sections regarding converting video from HDMI into something else, particularly any bit about how VGA requires an expensive active video converter:

Er... the OP does say you need an active video convertor for going to VGA (It's even in bold), why exactly would you want it changed to?

Er... did you not read the next paragraph? I added a colon at the end to help lead people to read it all. I maybe should have worded it better, but I worded it like this because to a techy it's obvious that you need a converter to go to analog from HDMI, so to-VGA will be present in many setup guides, but to-DisplayPort is not so obvious given digital-to-digital HDMI-DVI is totally compatible (DisplayPort is more common than you might think).

Ah, I see now. Even with the colon, I didn't make the connection that you wanted to add that bit. The truth of the matter though is that this guide, while possibly helpful to techies in some minor way, is for the complete novice, those who wouldn't understand that a bare cable doesn't magically convert a digital signal to analog

The displayport thing is something that should be noted. I'm reluctant to edit the first post right now since it will be a huge ordeal. I made it before the forum was swapped over to phpBB and when I go to edit it, all the photos vanish!

[DemonJim]

Ah, I see now. ... The truth of the matter though is that this guide, while possibly helpful to techies in some minor way, is for the complete novice, those who wouldn't understand that a bare cable doesn't magically convert a digital signal to analog

Actually you misunderstood me again - I didn't mean that. I was actually saying needing an active VGA converter is obvious to the techy people who write setup guides (therefore they think to include it), not that needing one is obvious to a reader! Never mind anyway, you understood the important bit

[michele.x]

I'm sure you know, but for anyone reading this...if you have a super-old / super-basic TV you can plug a VCR with additional composite inputs into the coaxial/antenna connector and then plug the RPi into one of the VCR's inputs. just to make sure no one gets confused
Not sure if my clarification was necessary, but I feel helpful.

You could also use a stand alone TV modulator. These are normally used to inject the signal from a satellite receiver and see the single channel on all the tv sets of the home.
The cheaper ones tend to cost at least 30 €. The DIY route is a bit cheaper, but you still need to encase them in a fully shielded metal box so the price is still in the 30 € range.

Beware that on some old transistor TV sets, even in B/W it's possible to bypass the RF section, cutting some jumpers and downgrade them as monitors: the circuit bord was designed at dual use. Of course to do this you must be a trained tv technician and have the schematics and the pcb layout of the tv set.