That sounds like an application better suited for a basic Arduino with some I/O. If the I/O can source enough current to directly drive the relays, that would be a bonus, but I don't know enough about the Arduino's specs to say. The development environment for Arduino is probably easier to work with though.
You are correct!! Thanks, I searched that and found exactly what I needed so that's awesome
You are correct!! Thanks, I searched that and found exactly what I needed so that's awesome
Glad you found something. MAKE and Hack-a-Day are great sites with lots of Arduino-centric postings. There was actually an article on MAKE a few days ago comparing Pi to Arduino and what applications they are best suited for.
Hm that might be a good project, I was going to ask what projects would be good for kids, my 11 yr old has been bugging me for a Raspberry Pi but I'm not sure what we'd do with it, a Gameboy emulator might be cool.
He is learning to program though, so he'd probably want projects that involve programming.
Well that is a nice thing about a Pi - put RetroPi on one SD card, put Raspian (or whatever) on another.
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Of note there are reports the new processor runs really hot, like reach 100 degree Celsius on full load hot. You may need to invest in a heat sink to prevent damage to Raspberry Pi depending on how you use it.
Of note there are reports the new processor runs really hot, like reach 100 degree Celsius on full load hot. You may need to invest in a heat sink to prevent damage to Raspberry Pi depending on how you use it.
Probably be a good time to pick up another Pi2.
I expect there should be a price drop with the 3 out
Edit: Good deal at Amazon with complete package:
Pi2, heatsinks, case, power supply, micro SD card, HDMI cable and wifi adapter for $60 including taxes and shipping. https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B00MV6...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Last edited by EldrickOnIce; 03-08-2016 at 01:40 PM.
My is not interesting, except given the size. I use Pi as a mini HTPC (home theatre PC)
It's about the size of a deck of regular playing cards and plays local or streamed content up to 1080p very nicely. I put some Velcro dots on the case and stick it on the back of a TV.
I use OSMC, a mini Linux base OS that uses Kodi 16 as media server. It installs in a couple clicks from SD card automatically.
One of the coolest things about the Pi though, is the SD card is essentially the computer hard drive, so popping one out and another in gives you an entirely different machine/application in just seconds literally.
It's still a bit of a hobby project though. Certainly not as polished as some stand alone media servers, but is fun and cheap and very quiet/economical to run. Easily replaced my roaring, power hungry old laptop I used to use for the same purpose.
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From the photos I have seen of side by side comparing the Pi 3 and Pi 2, it looks like Pi 2 heatsinks should work for the Pi 3.
The guy who built the custom heatsink shown in the link says he used a 15x15mm heatsink and 16x16mm fan and some shrinkwrap if that helps
I've been reading that heat issues might be overblown. I've run it and didn't see any major heat issues. In general use it hit about 56C, well below problem temperatures. It is enclosed in the official RPi3 case during this, oddly there are no vents.
Also using it as a HTPC. Stream from my NAS and also stream OTA from a TV server. For the latter you will want to purchase the MPEG2 license for 2 British Pounds (about $4.50CDN). Works great! Don't forget to change your config.txt to amd_freq=1200 otherwise it defaults to 900. raspi-config does not do the change for you.
As a quick comparison between the RPi2 and RPi3, you can definitely tell the RPi3 is faster, much faster. The "feel" of it even as you move around a desktop gui is much more quick. Inside Kodi, changing channels happens a bit quicker as well. I haven't done any actual speed tests.
Also the microSD card is not spring loaded like it was in the RPi2. So if you get a case you want to make sure you can access the card without having to pull the case apart. My RPi2 case wouldn't allow this but the new case does.
ers
Last edited by ericschand; 03-11-2016 at 08:57 AM.
Reason: added info
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Are there any good learning resources for this stuff? Perhaps for people that are several levels beneath a total noob?
Your best bet is to dive in. Many times the question is, "I would like to learn Linux, how do I begin?" The answer is always the same. Setup a system and dive in. There is no one specific starting point.
Best thing is to type "raspberry pi 2 getting started" into google.com and read the first page of links. See if you can get all that going, understand what they are doing and why. Multiple sites will give a feel for it.
From there, choose a project (like a HTPC) and search that out, see if you can get it working. In fact, do Kodi on Raspbian instead of OpenELEC. It'll let you absorb more info about the Pi and Linux.
It will never work "right" the first time around. Don't worry about that. Don't worry about asking for help. Heck, I've been doing Unix/Linux for...well, a LONG time (so get out of my datacentre! Young hooligans and their lvmthis and lvmthat...) and it still took me numerous tries. You will find other ways, perhaps better ways, of doing things. Or better settings than the ones suggested, then you go back, delete it all and do it again. And again.
Find more projects and do it all over again.
Eventually after a while doing that, you no longer are a total noob, just another bearded, sandaled, t-shirt with cheeto crumbs wearing geek. Welcome to the club.
ers
Last edited by ericschand; 03-11-2016 at 03:08 PM.
Reason: Accidently forgot a ltter
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Are there any good learning resources for this stuff? Perhaps for people that are several levels beneath a total noob?
What ericschand said is perfect, and I'll just add that the beauty now is the Pi2 @ $60 for a complete kit isn't much to shell out for a hobby toy, even if nothing much comes of it.
I still know very little about Linux and programming, and rely on tutorials and walk throughs by other to do what I want to get done. Lots of great info available.
What spurred my interest was cutting the cable cord, and while a lot of addons for Kodi media player (and others) are devoted to grey area or downright illegal streaming, there is a ton of great legal addons to watch streaming content, and the Pi is a great choice for a DIY kind of person.
Good luck to anyone jumping in to give it a try.
We have one just for playing around with, and my 9 year old daughter loves the little projects we have made with it, including from building a very brightly decorated girlie case to a reporting weather household station.
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Hardware wise, the Kangaroo is better in almost every category. Faster processor, more and faster RAM, better graphics card, built in storage, AC wireless (compared to N on the Pi 3), built in battery, and a USB 3.0 port (the Pi 3 only has USB 2.0 ports). The Pi 3 has a built in 10/100 Ethernet jack that shares bandwidth with it's USB ports (the Kangaroo doesn't have any wired Ethernet ports but that may be coming in future docks). Both have Bluetooth 4.1.
If you want to get into robotics or communicating with external electronics like sensors, cameras, actuators, etc; the Kangaroo loses to the Pi. General Purpose Input Output (GPIO) pins, camera connector, and touch screen display connector on the Pi make it the clear winner in that regard. Keep in mind all extra electronics will cost extra.
The base version of Kangaroo can run and comes with a full version of Windows 10. The Raspberry Pi 3 can only run Windows 10 IOT, which is basically a subset of Windows and won't run everything that a full version of Windows will. My understanding is that Windows IOT for the Pi is meant more as a development platform than actually being used as an everyday operating system.
If you want to run linux based environments, then maybe Pi 3 is the better choice (especially if you are a Linux newbie). While the Kangaroo has been confirmed to run some variants of linux (e.g. Ubuntu), there isn't a large community for it and driver support for hardware may lead to some quirkiness in how it supports linux. The Pi 3 has custom versions of Linux made specifically for its hardware with a large community so any problems that arise OS wise should be fixed in short order or have answers on the internet. I believe the finger print scanner on the Kangaroo doesn't work in any version of linux yet.
In terms of cost, while they advertise the Pi as $35 USD, it is difficult to get it in Canada for that low. It will probably at least cost $60 CAD for just the board including shipping. Then you need to figure in the cost of the power supply (recommended 5.1v 2.5 amps but you might get away lower than that) and at least a 8gb micro sd card. That is the bare minimum you need to run a Pi 3 (well obviously you need a keyboard/mouse and HDMI display but you need those using a Kangaroo too) but some people already have those things from other uses. Also advisable to invest in a case to house the Pi, which will cost extra (can get cheap ones on ebay, but the higher end ones can sell for $20-$30). Some places offer kits where you can get the board, power supply, sd card, case and some other goodies (e.g. heat sink), but you will probably spend $80-$100 if you need to buy everything.
In comparison you can get the Kangaroo for $140 CAD shipped and that includes storage, case, power supply, and a full Windows Home license.
** One other thing to consider with the Kangaroo throttles a lot. It has no active cooling, so the way it manages the processor getting very hot, is to lower the processor speed until the temperature gets back to reasonable. This can be very annoying to most people and keep the hardware from reaching it's full potential. The Raspberry Pi 3 had some reported heat issues but they appear to be overblown.
Last edited by sureLoss; 03-13-2016 at 09:36 AM.
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