Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community
Old 01-16-2013, 05:29 PM   #1
ShaolinFlame
Powerplay Quarterback
 
ShaolinFlame's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Walking Distance
Exp:
Default Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi is a cheap single board computer manufactured for educational purposes [http://www.raspberrypi.org/]. I'm thinking of ordering one myself but I wanted to check if anyone here has any experience.

So, any CPers getting down on the Pi?

If so, some followup:

Where did you procure it?
How long did it take to arrive?
Are there any important accessories I should think about? Are the micro USB cord and memory included?

So far the only distributor I've found in North America is an American Company called Allied Electronics [http://www.alliedelec.com/lp/120626raso/]. It appears that the wait is several months at this point, and I've read it can be even longer. I wouldn't mind picking one up somewhere else for $10 or $20 more if it meant quicker delivery.

Thoughts?
__________________
Come on down...
...and Welcome to the Terror Dome

Flames-Flyers-Stamps-Jays
ShaolinFlame is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-18-2013, 07:14 PM   #2
cKy
First Line Centre
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Okotoks
Exp:
Default

Besides the initial problems with the new boards when they moved the plant to China (a bunch of dying/overheating boards) this will be my next purchase. A co-worker got the model A ones and loved it. Newark is a Canadian place that ships as well - and get stock frequently.

Be sure to check out some of the awesome cases you can make for them!

http://canada.newark.com/jsp/bespoke...40880372|plid|
__________________

cKy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-20-2013, 07:38 PM   #3
Rathji
Franchise Player
 
Rathji's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Supporting Urban Sprawl
Exp:
Default

What are you guys planning on using the Pi for?

The geek in me has some ideas but I haven't put a lot of thought or planning into it since I really don't have time right now.
__________________
"Wake up, Luigi! The only time plumbers sleep on the job is when we're working by the hour."
Rathji is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-20-2013, 08:22 PM   #4
Wormius
Franchise Player
 
Wormius's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Somewhere down the crazy river.
Exp:
Default

The best place to look for ideas is on MAKE.

Personally, I haven't bought into this movement, or the Arduino movements, but that might be because I am a hardware engineer, and would rather design and build my own platform. I guess these appeal to the non-electronics guys who just want to program.

People programming embedded devices though need to learn memory management skills. On embedded systems memory is not infinite.

I have also never programmed for a Linux environment, so that's kind of a problem for me.

My son's school is starting a Raspberry Pi club though, so maybe I should try to figure out if there is something really great about it that I am missing.

What does turn my crank though is this TI watch dev kit:

https://estore.ti.com/MSP-WDS430BT20...lay-P2447.aspx


Last edited by Wormius; 01-20-2013 at 08:26 PM.
Wormius is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-20-2013, 10:12 PM   #5
sclitheroe
#1 Goaltender
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Exp:
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wormius View Post
Personally, I haven't bought into this movement, or the Arduino movements, but that might be because I am a hardware engineer, and would rather design and build my own platform. I guess these appeal to the non-electronics guys who just want to program.
I don't entirely understand the appeal either - you're beholden to the hardware something fierce, and if your goal is to learn programming, since it's Linux based you might as well learn on something more powerful and comfortable.

Flip side, of course, is that anything that gets people digging into C code or asm and learning more about low-level coding/cpu architecture is still a good thing, no matter how they go about it.
__________________
-Scott
sclitheroe is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-21-2013, 02:27 PM   #6
FanIn80
GOAT!
 
FanIn80's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Exp:
Default

I'm confused... I always assumed Raspberry Pi was just another flavour of Linux. Is it actually just the name of a computer running Linux?

Edit: Just read through the site a bit and figured it out. Seems pretty cool, actually. Suddenly all those magazine covers I've seen about using Raspberry Pi as a web server (etc etc) are actually impressive!

Last edited by FanIn80; 01-21-2013 at 02:40 PM.
FanIn80 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-21-2013, 02:44 PM   #7
Bobblehead
Franchise Player
 
Bobblehead's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: in your blind spot.
Exp:
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by FanIn80 View Post
I'm confused... I always assumed Raspberry Pi was just another flavour of Linux. Is it actually just the name of a computer running Linux?
Quote:
The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard. It’s a capable little PC which can be used for many of the things that your desktop PC does, like spreadsheets, word-processing and games. It also plays high-definition video. We want to see it being used by kids all over the world to learn programming.
http://www.raspberrypi.org/faqs

Lots of Kickstarter projects surrounding it, too.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...term=raspberry

I can see people using it to stream video to their TV, since there will be many tiny enclosures created for it.
__________________
"The problem with any ideology is that it gives the answer before you look at the evidence."
—Bill Clinton
"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance--it is the illusion of knowledge."
—Daniel J. Boorstin, historian, former Librarian of Congress
"But the Senator, while insisting he was not intoxicated, could not explain his nudity"
—WKRP in Cincinatti
Bobblehead is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-21-2013, 02:48 PM   #8
FanIn80
GOAT!
 
FanIn80's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Exp:
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobblehead View Post
I can see people using it to stream video to their TV, since there will be many tiny enclosures created for it.
Yeah, I'm now thinking of using one as a dedicated Plex box.
FanIn80 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-21-2013, 02:59 PM   #9
The Yen Man
Franchise Player
 
The Yen Man's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Calgary
Exp:
Default

Yup, my brother bought a couple and is playing around to see if he can get it to be a nifty media streaming device. Once he gets that running, I'm going to order 3 of these and connect each of my tvs with it.
The Yen Man is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-21-2013, 03:08 PM   #10
Rathji
Franchise Player
 
Rathji's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Supporting Urban Sprawl
Exp:
Default

Plex or XMBC were 2 options that I was thinking of as obvious fun projects to do with it, but I am concerned about performance issues.
__________________
"Wake up, Luigi! The only time plumbers sleep on the job is when we're working by the hour."
Rathji is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-21-2013, 04:08 PM   #11
sclitheroe
#1 Goaltender
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Exp:
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Yen Man View Post
Yup, my brother bought a couple and is playing around to see if he can get it to be a nifty media streaming device. Once he gets that running, I'm going to order 3 of these and connect each of my tvs with it.
__________________
-Scott
sclitheroe is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-21-2013, 05:24 PM   #12
sa226
#1 Goaltender
 
sa226's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Back in Calgary!!
Exp:
Default

There is a bit of discussion about it on the XBMC forums
sa226 is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 02-18-2015, 01:41 PM   #13
MickMcGeough
First Line Centre
 
MickMcGeough's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Calgary
Exp:
Default

Bump.

Just got the new one delivered. The Pi 2 has a quad core and 1GB of RAM (marketing as 6x the speed of the Pi B+).

Biggest challenge will probably just finding time to do something useful with it.

Any CPers using Raspberry Pis for something cool?
__________________

MickMcGeough is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-18-2015, 01:45 PM   #14
Bobblehead
Franchise Player
 
Bobblehead's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: in your blind spot.
Exp:
Default

I'm using one for a Plex front end.

The 2 is supposed to be much better, and handle retro gaming much better too, so I'm thinking I will get a new one for that. Then I am considering re-purposing my current one into a perhaps a VPN server, or some appliance use like that.
__________________
"The problem with any ideology is that it gives the answer before you look at the evidence."
—Bill Clinton
"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance--it is the illusion of knowledge."
—Daniel J. Boorstin, historian, former Librarian of Congress
"But the Senator, while insisting he was not intoxicated, could not explain his nudity"
—WKRP in Cincinatti
Bobblehead is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-18-2015, 02:16 PM   #15
MickMcGeough
First Line Centre
 
MickMcGeough's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Calgary
Exp:
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobblehead View Post
I'm using one for a Plex front end.

The 2 is supposed to be much better, and handle retro gaming much better too, so I'm thinking I will get a new one for that. Then I am considering re-purposing my current one into a perhaps a VPN server, or some appliance use like that.
Rasplex?

Have you tried AirPlay on it? If so, how is it?
__________________

MickMcGeough is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-18-2015, 02:46 PM   #16
Resolute 14
In the Sin Bin
 
Resolute 14's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Exp:
Default

I use mine as an emulator for old video games - google RetroPie.
Resolute 14 is offline   Reply With Quote
The Following User Says Thank You to Resolute 14 For This Useful Post:
Old 02-18-2015, 04:11 PM   #17
Bobblehead
Franchise Player
 
Bobblehead's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: in your blind spot.
Exp:
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by MickMcGeough View Post
Rasplex?

Have you tried AirPlay on it? If so, how is it?
Yeah, Rasplex.

No, I don't use airplay.
__________________
"The problem with any ideology is that it gives the answer before you look at the evidence."
—Bill Clinton
"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance--it is the illusion of knowledge."
—Daniel J. Boorstin, historian, former Librarian of Congress
"But the Senator, while insisting he was not intoxicated, could not explain his nudity"
—WKRP in Cincinatti
Bobblehead is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-18-2015, 04:13 PM   #18
Bobblehead
Franchise Player
 
Bobblehead's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: in your blind spot.
Exp:
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Resolute 14 View Post
I use mine as an emulator for old video games - google RetroPie.
I've heard many reports that the games RetroPi wasn't quite able to run smoothly are now running much better with the additional horesepower.


Just don't use flash photography to take a picture of the pi while it is running.
__________________
"The problem with any ideology is that it gives the answer before you look at the evidence."
—Bill Clinton
"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance--it is the illusion of knowledge."
—Daniel J. Boorstin, historian, former Librarian of Congress
"But the Senator, while insisting he was not intoxicated, could not explain his nudity"
—WKRP in Cincinatti
Bobblehead is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-18-2015, 05:04 PM   #19
MickMcGeough
First Line Centre
 
MickMcGeough's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Calgary
Exp:
Default

####. I just read a few articles on some pretty sophisticated wireless home automation systems built with Raspberry Pi.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Uber...-w-Arduino-Pi/

There goes all of my free time...
__________________

MickMcGeough is offline   Reply With Quote
The Following User Says Thank You to MickMcGeough For This Useful Post:
Old 02-18-2015, 05:25 PM   #20
Hugh Jahrmes
Powerplay Quarterback
 
Hugh Jahrmes's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Exp:
Default Raspberry Pi

Must..resist..

Rasplex sounds sweeeet
__________________
Long time listener, first time caller.
Hugh Jahrmes is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 07:05 AM.

Calgary Flames
2023-24




Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright Calgarypuck 2021