Thursday, April 25, 2013

Raspberry Pi

Absolutely ZERO moto content in this post. (Well maybe a little)

And, no, not that kind of pie

I like it when boxes arrive in the mail. I had been interested in these small single-board computers since they came out last year but couldn't think of a good use. I noticed that Amazon had "kits" available which includes the Raspberry Pi Model B and some popular options. In this case, a plastic case, 4G SD card, USB charger, micro USB cable, and an HDMI cable.

I have a use for the tiny computer in Barrow to drive the conference room projector and installed XBMC running on Linux. Here is the board installed in the case showing most of the interfaces which include Fast Ethernet, 2xUSB ports, analog stereo audio out, composite video out and HDMI out. Underneath is the SD card slot. On the top there is an port for  expansion boards.

I opened the box at 10:30am and by 11:30am, I was searching for an display with a free HDMI port. XBMC was installed and running and this will be a great, simple solution. And the entire kit was about $80 including the wireless 802.11b/g/n nano USB adaptor.

There is also an Arduino microcontroller sitting on my desk tempting me to see what I can do with it.

To add a little moto content, right after I had XBMC running, I got a call from a Ural rider about 100 some miles down the road. You know me, any reason for a road trip!

21 comments:



  1. Richard:

    when I think Pi, or Pie I hum this tune:

    Bye, bye Miss American Pie
    Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
    Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye
    Singin' this'll be the day that I die
    This'll be the day that I die


    That's your new name "Rescue Richard", I saw this somewhere

    bob
    Riding the Wet Coast

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I always liked that song. Don McLean song I think..

      I don't know what you're talking about. Any road trip is good, even in the truck.

      Delete
  2. No idea about the computer things, but I like the pie. Makes me think of summer, too.

    It's OK if you don't post moto things. There's always something good to read and/or look at here!

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    1. I'm kind of excited about the Raspberry Pi and Arduino stuff. Kind of like the old Radio Shack and Heathkit projects.

      Delete
  3. Replies
    1. You need to stick around more....

      I don't think you'd get that response from others in the family!

      Delete
  4. I had Super Richard in mind, but Rescue Richard will do it as well.

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    1. You give me a choice between "road trip" or "hanging around at work". Which would you choose?

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  5. I was on the track with pie ala mode, fell off until we got down to the "kind of like the old Radio Shack and Heathkit projects".

    This single board computer does what??

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    1. Sorry, I should have explained. XNMC is software to turn it into a media server, i.e. show movies and streams off of the Internet. In my case, I also wanted it to work for Apple AirPlay to stream movies over wireless from iDevices and some Macbooks. Kind of like an more flexible AppleTV.

      Delete
    2. Actually, it can do whatever you'd want it to. In this case, I was looking for a media server...

      Delete
  6. I'd rather have the pie in the first pic.

    The tech talk just sounds like Doc Brown in back to the future. 1.21 gigawatts!!!

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    1. I think I would like some of the first pie as well!

      Delete
  7. My son was so excited when his wife got him a Raspberry Pi for his birthday. With an electrical engineer for a daughter and a web designer for a son I've gotten really good at acting excited about things I don't understand :^)

    And I agree with Martha. I don't come here only for the moto content, I come here because it's a nice place to hangout and I learn stuff.
    ~k

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    1. Really fascinated by the whole micro-controller and low power computers. It's amazing their capabilities.

      It's fun learning new stuff like this.

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  8. Very interesting little device. Will have to show Oilburner and see what he can do with it. There has to be moto-capabilities in there. ;)

    Road trip!! Even in a car they can be fun. Glad you were able to ditch the work thing.

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    1. I'm sure that there are moto-applications for these single board computers such as frame grabs from your GoPro and automated uploading to your Flickr account....

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  9. Now I have to go find some raspberry pie - that made me instantly crave it. I will leave the computer stuff to you.

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    Replies
    1. So, I should post more pie pictures?

      The computer stuff is less sugar...

      Delete
  10. Richard,
    Imagine my surprise when Friday's work email contained a message with the Subject line reading "Raspberry Pi Camera.....".

    I get (what seems like) 20 emails/day regarding medical electronics news, but Friday's versions contained one I "understood". I didn't even have to open it with the hopes of something topped with cream.

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