Raspberry Pi 3B+ on Amazon 33 euro delivered.

Tom Mann Centuria · 14-05-2019 8:03pm #1

So, I know it's not going to go down as bargain of the year (or even day), but this is the cheapest delivered price I've seen for the newest Raspberry Pi 3, the B+

Even from Chinese sites, where you're risking customs and a few weeks wait its 34 euro. The two big Pi stores in UK it's 34 pounds, plus 4 pounds delivery. They do come up occasionally from Arrow in the US for very cheap, but dealing with couriers can often be a balls.

£28.75 and fulfilled by Amazon.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Raspberry-Pi-Model-64-Bit-Processor/dp/B07BDR5PDW

Sorry in advance if you don't think this is a bargain, and the waste of 2 minutes of your time.

evolving_doors · 15-05-2019 12:07am

Good find... any good projects page that would go with this?
For beginners is there a kit to get you started?

Is there a Pi 4 due out soon?

Tom Mann Centuria · 15-05-2019 6:54am

evolving_doors wrote: »

Good find... any good projects page that would go with this?
For beginners is there a kit to get you started?

Is there a Pi 4 due out soon?

For projects, and maybe this is another bargain. You can download pdf version of every issue of the Mag Pi magazine (the official Raspberry Pi Magazine) for FREE. The specials they release from time to time are also free.

There's probably well in to the hundreds of projects suggested within those issues. (home automation, games, learning projects etc etc)

https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/issues/

Hours of reading, for free.

Depending on what project you choose, the Pi Hut or Pimoroni (UK based pi shops who deliver to Ireland) may well have the kit you need, or if you don't mind the wait Chinese sites like Aliexpress have big kits of bits and bobs.

What you'll definitely need is a decent power supply. It needs 5v 2.5a output micro USB, a bog standard phone charger doesn't always give enough, and you get a little lightning bolt icon that warns you you're underpowered.

Keyboard, mouse, micro sd, the usual stuff you probably already have are also needed. Cases can be got for a couple of euro from China, or not much more

If you're into retro gaming retropie is a good thing to Google, or ask the friendly folk over on the Arcade and Retro emulation pages here on boards (the Pi emulates a lot of 8 bit systems really well, but don't expect to be able to play many of the newer systems without issues) (but the zx spectrum works fine so you can relax!) A lot of the retro gaming set ups for sale on ebay etc are just a pi in a nice case, software you can get for free and a couple of very cheap knock off controllers. For 3 times what the whole set up would actually cost.

https://retropie.org.uk/

https://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057867178/32/#post110142737

No hard proof there's a pi 4 on the way, that I've read, but wouldn't be surprised, the 3b+ is only out a few months though. I think they'd try very hard to keep it the same form factor if they could.

coffee to go · 15-05-2019 10:43am

We run a Plex music server on an aging netbook at home for our chromecast audios. I’d like to replace it.

Is it easy enough to get Plex running as a server on a Pi? Anyone here running one (or has ported a music collection from one server to another)?

15-05-2019 12:51pm

evolving_doors wrote: »

Is there a Pi 4 due out soon?

They confirmed a few months ago they are planning a Pi 4, however they have said they "don't have a route" to do it in 2019.

Models tend to just appear without any solid rumours beforehand. They don't really talk about release dates in advance and sometimes they have released things despite saying they wouldn't.

You could look at the typical gap between models to get a rough idea.

Skylinehead · 15-05-2019 3:24pm

coffee to go wrote: »

We run a Plex music server on an aging netbook at home for our chromecast audios. I’d like to replace it.

Is it easy enough to get Plex running as a server on a Pi? Anyone here running one (or has ported a music collection from one server to another)?

I ran a Plex Server on my Pi for a while, seemed grand for serving 1080p content, but I'd worry about transcoding. Moved it to my Shield which is more ideal with 3GB of RAM and a Tegra chip for transcoding.

Cyrus · 15-05-2019 4:55pm

pihole is worthwhile

coffee to go · 15-05-2019 6:28pm

Skylinehead wrote: »

I ran a Plex Server on my Pi for a while, seemed grand for serving 1080p content, but I'd worry about transcoding. Moved it to my Shield which is more ideal with 3GB of RAM and a Tegra chip for transcoding.

Cheers. I’d imagine just using it for music without any need for transcoding etc. would be just fine.

evolving_doors · 15-05-2019 6:42pm

Thanks OP although I upgraded to £60 for a starter kit instead.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B07BR61P39/ref=ya_aw_od_pi?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Ordered the pi for dummies book too .

Thanks to bargain alerts I'm broke again

Tom Mann Centuria · 15-05-2019 6:57pm

evolving_doors wrote: »

Thanks OP although I upgraded to £60 for a starter kit instead.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B07BR61P39/ref=ya_aw_od_pi?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Ordered the pi for dummies book too .

Thanks to bargain alerts I'm broke again

Nice kit, great to get up and running in one go.

FastFullBack · 15-05-2019 7:35pm

evolving_doors wrote: »

Thanks OP although I upgraded to £60 for a starter kit instead.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B07BR61P39/ref=ya_aw_od_pi?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Ordered the pi for dummies book too .

Thanks to bargain alerts I'm broke again

What are you planning to do with it? I had an old one lying around that I've now put to use as a torrent box that I can load torrent files into using Web interface. It then downloads then directly to a nas. Pretty neat.
Next plan is to put Hass Home Automation on one.

evolving_doors · 15-05-2019 9:01pm

FastFullBack wrote: »

What are you planning to do with it? I had an old one lying around that I've now put to use as a torrent box that I can load torrent files into using Web interface. It then downloads then directly to a nas. Pretty neat.
Next plan is to put Hass Home Automation on one.

I have absolutely no idea :pac:

Probably go through the beginners book with the kids over the summer, and then in true parent fashion tell em get out into the garden while I do very important work.

My friend made an arcade box thing but I wouldn't have the space or woodworking set up for that.

Zimmerframe · 15-05-2019 10:32pm

evolving_doors wrote: »

I have absolutely no idea :pac:

Volumio is a great headless audio player on the pi, well worth a try if you looking for ideas.

Cavey · 15-05-2019 10:51pm

Cyrus wrote: »

pihole is worthwhile

Second this. Installed pihole on my home network and the reduction of ads across all devices is amazing. Ads on mobiles, desktop/laptops, gaming, tablets are all drastically reduced, especially if you take the time to add additional block lists.

https://pi-hole.net/

Simple to setup too, a really great pi project.

TheQuietBeatle · 15-05-2019 11:48pm

Pi is great for Kodi but I find the wifi to be absolute crap on the pi 3.

Linoge · 16-05-2019 7:27pm

For any Amiga lovers - you can load Ultimate Amiga on to a Pi and play every Amiga game ever made. Works perfectly

Toast · 16-05-2019 10:27pm

TheQuietBeatle wrote: »

Pi is great for Kodi but I find the wifi to be absolute crap on the pi 3.

Dunno if it is your problem but people should be aware that WIFI / Ethernet and USB all share the same bus which has about 300mb/s bandwidth. The upshot of this is if you've an external USB drive attached the WIFI is sharing its bandwidth with it and you'll end up with slow download speeds trying to do things like download to an external HD.

witnessmenow · 23-05-2019 2:50pm

For people looking to install pi-hole, I have a short video on the process of installing it if you want to check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rZhCLh3WyY

The actual process of installing it is pretty straight forward, but it needs to be configured to be part of your network, which I also try to explain in the video.

chonix · 23-05-2019 3:43pm

witnessmenow wrote: »

For people looking to install pi-hole, I have a short video on the process of installing it if you want to check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rZhCLh3WyY

The actual process of installing it is pretty straight forward, but it needs to be configured to be part of your network, which I also try to explain in the video.

I second this. It's pretty handy, it's easy to whitelist too. Side note: it's not an anonymization service, just blocks the ads, and works better than any conventional adblocker.

Zilog · 23-05-2019 7:57pm

+1 on PiHole here. I used the following guide:
Complete Pi Hole Tutorial – Network-wide whole home Ad blocker.

One suggested tweak in this guide is installing Log2Ram to reduce wear on the SD card when using query logging; this caches the log in RAM and then writes as fewer larger chunks to the SD card.

A complication I had: I've a Netgear R7800 (Nighthawk X4S) and the current firmware has a bug preventing DNS server from within the network working! Installing a user modified build fixed this (Voxel's firmware), but this was an evening of head scratching wondering why my internet kept failing when set to the PiHole! Setting to a normal (Google, Familyshield, etc.) outside of the private IP range worked, but PiHole needs to be the DNS server and also works best being the DHCP server too. Hope this helps someone.

the.red.baron · 24-05-2019 10:49am

Skylinehead wrote: »

I ran a Plex Server on my Pi for a while, seemed grand for serving 1080p content, but I'd worry about transcoding. Moved it to my Shield which is more ideal with 3GB of RAM and a Tegra chip for transcoding.

just don't transcode

it'll pretty much serve up an content to the point it's restricted by the network so 8 or 9 meg

the.red.baron · 24-05-2019 10:52am

Zilog wrote: »

+1 on PiHole here. I used the following guide:
Complete Pi Hole Tutorial – Network-wide whole home Ad blocker.

One suggested tweak in this guide is installing Log2Ram to reduce wear on the SD card when using query logging; this caches the log in RAM and then writes as fewer larger chunks to the SD card.

A complication I had: I've a Netgear R7800 (Nighthawk X4S) and the current firmware has a bug preventing DNS server from within the network working! Installing a user modified build fixed this (Voxel's firmware), but this was an evening of head scratching wondering why my internet kept failing when set to the PiHole! Setting to a normal (Google, Familyshield, etc.) outside of the private IP range worked, but PiHole needs to be the DNS server and also works best being the DHCP server too. Hope this helps someone.

Piholes pretty much useless

It grand for ads delivered from known domains, doubleclick etc, but useless for anything that google etc are pushing out

Youtube ads etc, can't do anything against them

the.red.baron · 24-05-2019 10:53am

chonix wrote: »

I second this. It's pretty handy, it's easy to whitelist too. Side note: it's not an anonymization service, just blocks the ads, and works better than any conventional adblocker.

it is not better than an ad blocker

chonix · 24-05-2019 2:59pm

the.red.baron wrote: »

it is not better than an ad blocker

I'm guessing that from the way you don't merge your posts and the way you talk doesn't add much to your personal opinion, but, welcome to a forum, where everything is debatable. So.... I'll say:

Having a Raspberry Pi is a nice thing if you have time to thinker on things, but, if you like simple things and if you don't have time to waste then, it's not for you. See: you can benefit from installing all adblockers on every fricking device you have at home and avoid possible infections/targetads/**** in your local network as a filter. I like that, so I've got a raspi.

I guess if I say that you can emulate videogames or use kodi in a raspberry pi, you may well as say that you can run it on your pc and therefore there is no need for a raspberry.

evolving_doors · 24-05-2019 3:24pm

the.red.baron wrote: »

it is not better than an ad blocker

ad blocker is not better than closing your eyes and putting your fingers in your ears, and cheaper too.

Raoul · 26-05-2019 9:48pm

I went and did this tonight. Fairly easy to do. It seems ok. It is getting rid of quite a few ads. Not everywhere. Still a good few on facebook. Anyone got any tips on how to improve it? I followed the guide above.

chonix · 27-05-2019 3:56pm

Raoul wrote: »

I went and did this tonight. Fairly easy to do. It seems ok. It is getting rid of quite a few ads. Not everywhere. Still a good few on facebook. Anyone got any tips on how to improve it? I followed the guide above.

Hi, you might try one of these lists. There is one at the bottom, Or if you Ctrl+F and type Facebook, there is one.
Be aware, though, it may cause false positives and end up blocking all stuff from FB.

Raoul · 28-05-2019 9:06am

chonix wrote: »

Hi, you might try one of these lists. There is one at the bottom, Or if you Ctrl+F and type Facebook, there is one.
Be aware, though, it may cause false positives and end up blocking all stuff from FB.

Actually seems to be working quite well now. Still one or two on FB but overall it is pretty good. I have two Amazon Echo's and a Kindle. Between the three of them, they make a ridiculous amount of requests!!

the.red.baron · 28-05-2019 3:20pm

chonix wrote: »

I'm guessing that from the way you don't merge your posts and the way you talk doesn't add much to your personal opinion, but, welcome to a forum, where everything is debatable. So.... I'll say:

Having a Raspberry Pi is a nice thing if you have time to thinker on things, but, if you like simple things and if you don't have time to waste then, it's not for you. See: you can benefit from installing all adblockers on every fricking device you have at home and avoid possible infections/targetads/**** in your local network as a filter. I like that, so I've got a raspi.

I guess if I say that you can emulate videogames or use kodi in a raspberry pi, you may well as say that you can run it on your pc and therefore there is no need for a raspberry.

it's not better than an ad blocker, nowhere did you debate how it is

I run it, it's next to useless

It can't block most ads

an Ad blocker can, using an alternative to the Youtube app can

the.red.baron · 28-05-2019 3:21pm

evolving_doors wrote: »

ad blocker is not better than closing your eyes and putting your fingers in your ears, and cheaper too.

not sure what that means

adblockers are class

for a while so was pihole, but that type of blocking has been bypassed

so it no longer works

the.red.baron · 28-05-2019 3:32pm

Raoul wrote: »

I went and did this tonight. Fairly easy to do. It seems ok. It is getting rid of quite a few ads. Not everywhere. Still a good few on facebook. Anyone got any tips on how to improve it? I followed the guide above.

basically you can't block facebook ads with a pihole without blocking Facebook

Not in the way piHole works

They are being served from the same domains as the content

Same with youtube, they basically keep hosting the content on an ever changing list of servers internally, which also hold the ads, it's forever changing and any list you make up breaks pretty quickly if it ever worked at all

Raspberry Pi 3B+ on Amazon 33 euro delivered.

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