Raspberry PI: Linux computer for $35!

Johnboy1951 · 09-05-2012 09:57AM

OSI wrote: »

The board has a micro-USB port that you provide power via. The main idea being you can use any of the modern USB mobile chargers. I've successfully tried an iPhone charger, Galaxy S charger and also booted it off of another PC's USB port (PCeption?)

Is the lack of power for your wireless k/board & mouse, then due to the low spec of the PSU used to power it?

Mobile phone PSUs do not need (normally) to supply much current, and USB2 connections from a PC are also limited.

Which made me wonder if using something better, in terms of power supplied, would be helpful ....... such as a USB3 socket if available on another PC, or a better external PSU.

There are available, cables which plug into two USB connectors on a PC to a single socket, which allws power to be combined from the two USB ports, thus nearly doubling the power available at the cable end.
I recall they became available as an answer to the higher power requirements of some Wifi dongles.

My preference would be an external PSU that supplies sufficient current for the board and peripherals, while having plenty spare capacity.

GreenWolfe · 09-05-2012 10:40AM

I'm running my Pi off a HTC phone charger (5V 1A) at the moment. I don't have a powered USB hub, and it either runs OpenElec displaying video or Debian in console mode only, so in my USB ports there's either

a wired USB keyboard+mouse or
a wired USB keyboard+USB stick/externally powered HDD or
a wired USB mouse+USB stick/externally powered HDD

According to this (under How Can I tell if the power supply is inadequate?), I measured my setup with a multimeter, and it's usually about 4.8V - so its just about adequate, and I've ran it on each setup for at least an hour each continuously and haven't noticed anything weird.

If I wanted to plug in more USB peripherals I'd just get a decent powered USB hub.

USB3 supplies up to 900mA iirc, so it would be just about adequate. A USB2 y-cable should work too, but I haven't tested that with mine. Whatever setup you end up using, just check the voltage between TP1 and TP2 and go from there.

DailyBlaa · 09-05-2012 10:40PM

Got mine on Tuesday

Using Debian "squeeze" on it. Impressed with it so far. Had a small issue with the HDMI output but fixed with a small edit to config file. Thinking of building a weather station with it. Make it web server so I can see the data via my phone over a wifi network. Impressed so far with the device. Will be interesting to see if schools pick up on these.

BopNiblets · 15-05-2012 02:56PM

An hour? Dang, what size is your TV library? (and I assume that it's a once off adding to library time?)

I wonder if the Raspbmc will do better, I don't think they have an image yet unfortunately...
http://www.raspbmc.com

Looking forward to setting it up and connecting my Android remote control app.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.xbmc.android.remote

BopNiblets · 15-05-2012 03:30PM

Could be there's only a few guys on it, but I think the main guy developed Crystalbuntu so at least it's not some noob.

I'd like to hear how some of the other distros perform when just adding XMBC on top of it, like Arch, Fedora, Debian (I guess the latter being what I'd be familiar with coming from Mint/Ubuntu), would there be much more lag for example.

croo · 15-05-2012 03:44PM

OSI wrote: »

it took nearly an hour to add my TV library.

I assume you could stream video from a library too? though I guess that would mean using one of the only two usb ports for wifi.

croo · 16-05-2012 09:04AM

OSI wrote: »

Not sure what you mean?

Are you referring to another box streaming the video to the RPi? I suppose you could, but that kinda defeats the purpose for me.

I already have XBMC on a much more powerful box sitting under my TV in the sitting room, and I've seen a method for centralising the library for multiple XBMC installs within a MySQL database, so I might go that route and put the DB on the NAS that stores the files and free the RPi from any processing beyond actually playing the video.

Hmm yeah I see what you mean. I have my media library on a NAS that has a streaming service ... so I was thinking I might be able to put XBMC on something like the RPi that would allow me to better manage the library - but actually what I (think I) actually need, is for the RPi simply to have access to the NAS itself rather than a stream from the NAS.

Anyway I have a long wait until I get mine I suspect so you guys will have it all worked out by then

Khannie · 17-05-2012 02:51PM

Mmmmmmm. Pi.

Just arrived.....

Hotblack Desiato · 17-05-2012 09:00PM

:eek: they should post these in a plain wrapper. If the posties cop on to how popular they are...

d31b0y · 18-05-2012 08:29AM

Argh, mine still hasn't shipped :-(

PrzemoF · 21-05-2012 12:31PM

http://www.reghardware.com/2012/05/21/raspberry_pi_gets_snappy_with_camera_add_on/

niallb · 28-05-2012 11:18AM

Got mine this morning.
Ordered afternoon of the 3rd March.
Got the free teeshirt too :-)

BopNiblets · 01-06-2012 05:17PM

I have two on order, one from Farnell and one from RS and nothin' yet, I'm racing them!
I'll sell the 2nd one that arrives or give it to a friend as a present or something.

d31b0y · 02-06-2012 12:24AM

Generous, but when you actually get one I think you will want to keep the other too

I can't wait to be able to put a bulk order in.

Stuxnet · 14-06-2012 11:42AM

got mine today finally, 4 months later :-D
t shirt also

BopNiblets · 25-06-2012 10:16PM

Gentlefellas, would a microSD card in an adapter work ok in the Pi? I've seen some forum posts about image writing issues (Raspbmc hopefully).
I have a Sandisk 16GB (class 2) one in my SGSII and if I buy a 32GB one for the phone, I could use the other one in the Pi maybe.

PrzemoF · 26-06-2012 01:39PM

I just ordered mine RPi - delivery time ~10 weeks.

BopNiblets · 29-06-2012 10:49AM

Mine is in the country! I have no wifi or USB hub for it, completely unprepared, noooo!

RS won the race btw, Farnell just shipped theirs too.

Edit: I found a really tiny and cheap Wifi dongle if anyone is looking for one (eBay seller in Hong Kong)
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/170839608006

pseudofax · 01-07-2012 02:03AM

Thought about buying one, but you can get a Allwinner A10 tablet from China for about 50 euro, which includes a more powerful Cortex A8 processor, twice as much RAM and 4GB of storage, not to mention the Mali GPU which is being reverse engineered for open source drivers. Nearly all the drivers on the Pi are closed source, that is a deal breaker for me. I don't trust closed source drivers running in anything below ring 3.

This company is going to struggle with the influx of ARM and MIPS computers from China. An avalanch of these devices is going to seriously hamper their profits I think. I know the drivers are the sole reason for not buying one myself.

Stuxnet · 01-07-2012 12:45PM

pseudofax wrote: »

This company is going to struggle with the influx of ARM and MIPS computers from China. An avalanch of these devices is going to seriously hamper their profits I think..

the raspberry pi foundation that designed and have these made are a non-profit charity organisation

GreenWolfe · 01-07-2012 12:46PM

pseudofax wrote: »

Thought about buying one, but you can get a Allwinner A10 tablet from China for about 50 euro, which includes a more powerful Cortex A8 processor, twice as much RAM and 4GB of storage, not to mention the Mali GPU which is being reverse engineered for open source drivers. Nearly all the drivers on the Pi are closed source, that is a deal breaker for me. I don't trust closed source drivers running in anything below ring 3.

This company is going to struggle with the influx of ARM and MIPS computers from China. An avalanch of these devices is going to seriously hamper their profits I think. I know the drivers are the sole reason for not buying one myself.

They'd be more useful if you could run proper Linux distributions on them, rather than Android.

BopNiblets · 01-07-2012 02:52PM

Does the Pi have trouble with self powered USB drives?
I've tried two and neither are mounting in Raspbmc (a 500GB WD and a 1TB WD), yet a 1GB flash drive mounts.
In the other USB port I have a mini Unifying Logitech receiver for mouse an keyboard.

pseudofax · 01-07-2012 03:44PM

EarthlyPangaea wrote: »

They'd be more useful if you could run proper Linux distributions on them, rather than Android.

I would not have bought one if it didn't run a proper Linux distro, none of this Android crap. If you choose the right system, you can boot Linux from a microsd card without rooting or hacking anything.

PrzemoF · 01-07-2012 06:18PM

pseudofax wrote: »

Nearly all the drivers on the Pi are closed source, that is a deal breaker for me.

I never checked that, but I assumed that it's an education "PC", so they should be open... Hopefully it's just a matter of getting enough market saturation to get a reverse engineered version or make vendors release the specs...

Khannie · 02-07-2012 02:32PM

BopNiblets wrote: »

Does the Pi have trouble with self powered USB drives?
I've tried two and neither are mounting in Raspbmc (a 500GB WD and a 1TB WD), yet a 1GB flash drive mounts.
In the other USB port I have a mini Unifying Logitech receiver for mouse an keyboard.

Could be that your charger isn't feeding it enough juice for the external drive + pi. Flash drive would definitely use less power.

BopNiblets · 02-07-2012 05:14PM

I was also reading there is a bottleneck with the USB design of the RasPi

http://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/vu3os/rpi_does_8000_interruptss_due_to_inefficient_usb/

pseudofax · 02-07-2012 06:43PM

BopNiblets wrote: »

I was also reading there is a bottleneck with the USB design of the RasPi
http://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/vu3os/rpi_does_8000_interruptss_due_to_inefficient_usb/

In short, it's all a bit pants. Any company that bases it's product availability in such a way that there is a constant shortage, isn't going to last very long. The Chinese will force this company to either reconsider their market, or simply shut shop. There is no incentive to develop and manufacture these devices at their current price point. No point whatsoever. Now alot of these chinese tablets break the GPL, but then again, the Chinese aren't known for giving a ****e about copyrights and intelectual property rights.

Khannie · 03-07-2012 10:42AM

pseudofax wrote: »

In short, it's all a bit pants. Any company that bases it's product availability in such a way that there is a constant shortage, isn't going to last very long.

Ah they have the name and the community support at this stage that would be difficult for some random Chinese manufacturer to compete with. They handled the marketing very well but the roll out very badly IMO. Overall though I think they're here to stay.

timbyr · 04-07-2012 06:25PM

Khannie wrote: »

pseudofax wrote: »

In short, it's all a bit pants. Any company that bases it's product availability in such a way that there is a constant shortage, isn't going to last very long.

Ah they have the name and the community support at this stage that would be difficult for some random Chinese manufacturer to compete with. They handled the marketing very well but the roll out very badly IMO. Overall though I think they're here to stay.

I had been under the impression that all the manufacturing was being handled by a Chinese manufacturer anyway. And that Farnell and RS were just acting as distributors on behalf of the Pi Foundation.

Khannie · 04-07-2012 06:47PM

But with the backing of the Raspberry Pi foundation (some of whom work for ARM). It's not the same as some unbranded piece of kit trying to break into the market.

edit: Though I do think there is room for a better piece of kit at a similar price point.

Raspberry PI: Linux computer for $35!

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