Tag Archives: Raspberry Pi

Free Raspberry Pi Poster

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The Raspberry Pi is a computer with no casing, no keyboard, no hard disk and no screen. Despite all that, it’s taking the world by storm!

Get your free Raspberry Pi poster now, courtesy of Elektor, RS Components, and CC! Go ahead: download, print, and then enjoy!

Free Raspberry Pi Poster

RASPBERRY PI ESSENTIALS

Model A has 256-MB RAM, one USB port, and no Ethernet port (network connection). Model B has 512-MB RAM, two USB ports, and an Ethernet port.

The Raspberry Pi Model B, revision 2 board:

  • Status led labels: top led has label “ACT” and bottom led has label “100”
  • Header P2 is not populated
  • The text underneath the Raspberry Pi logo reads: “(C) 2011,12”
  • The area next to the micro usb port has CE and FCC logos and the text “Made in China or UK” along the board edge.
  • There are two 2.9-mm holes in the PCB, which can be used as mounting holes.
  • P5 is a new GPIO header with four additional GPIO pins and four power pins. Also note that some pin and I2C port numbers of connector P1 have been modified between revisions!
  • Header P6 (left from the HDMI port) was added, short these two pins to reset the computer or wake it up when powered down with the “sudo halt” command.

The Raspberry Pi measures 85.60 mm × 56 mm × 21 mm, with a little overlap for the SD card and connectors which project over the edges. It weighs 45 g.

The SoC is a Broadcom BCM2835. This contains an ARM ARM1176JZFS, with floating point, running at 700 MHz, and a Videocore 4 GPU. The GPU is capable of BluRay quality playback, using H.264 at 40 Mbps. It has a fast 3D core which can be accessed using the supplied OpenGL ES2.0 and OpenVG libraries.

The Raspberry Pi is capable of using hardware acceleration for MPEG-2 and VC-1 playback, but you’ll need to buy license keys at the Raspberry Pi Store to unlock this functionality.

Which programming languages can you use? Python, C/C++, Perl, Java, PHP/MySQL, Scratch, and many more that can run under Linux.

TROUBLESHOOTING TIPS

If you’re getting a flashing red PWR LED or random restarts during the booting process, it’s likely that your PSU or USB cable has problems. The Raspberry Pi is pretty picky and requires a solid 5-V/1000-mA power supply. For other issues and more troubleshooting tips check out the extensive overview at the eLinux website

Circuitcellar.com is an Elektor International Media website.

Pi-Face: A New Raspberry Pi Accessory

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Ready for the Pi-Face Digital? What’s that? you ask.

Pi-Face at Electronica 2012 (Source: Elektor.tv)

Pi Interface Digital, or Pi-Face Digital, is a Raspberry Pi accessory board Premier Farnell will begin distributing in early 2013. You can plug it into a Raspberry Pi and start designing immediately. Plus, you can connect sensors to Pi-Face Digital for a variety of purposes, such as temperature- or pressure-monitoring applications.

The following useful information is posted at the University of Manchester’s School of Computer Science site.

Pi-Face Digital is the first of a range of interfaces to allow the Raspberry Pi to control and manipulate the real world. It allows the Raspberry Pi to read switches connected to it – a door sensor or pressure pad perhaps, a microswitch or reed switch, or a hand held button. With appropriate easy to write code, the Raspberry Pi then drives outputs, powering motors, actuator, LEDs, light bulbs or anything you can imagine to respond to the inputs… The hardware provides an easy and consistent programming interface, in Scratch (as shown running on a Raspberry Pi in the photograph) and Python with good observability to promote easy development, and reduce technology barriers.

It will cost approximately €20 to €30. You can register at element14.

Want to see Pi-Face in action? Check it out on Elektor.tv!

CircuitCellar.com is an Elektor International Media publication.

Raspberry Pi Now Shipping

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Got Raspberry Pi? Probably not. But rest assured. The wait is almost over.

After receiving an inquiry about the status of Raspberry Pi from a Circuit Cellar member earlier today, I decided to do a bit of research. It didn’t take long to figure out that hundreds of thousands of orders have been placed and shipping has begun.

Raspberry Pi (Source: Raspberry Pi Foundation & posted on Elektor.com)

TheInquirer.net reported last week that more than 350,000 orders have been placed since February and the next shipments are scheduled for May.

According to an April 18 post by element14′s Sagar Jethani, shipping is underway and “will be made strictly in the order that commitments were received within each region — Europe, Asia, and the Americas.” He added that “Everyone who ordered before 18th April will definitely receive their Raspberry Pi before the end of June. Those placing new orders from today can expect a July delivery.”

I encourage Circuit Cellar members to tell us what they think about Raspberry Pi once their receive their orders. We’ll be happy to review project articles for publication in print or online.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation’s compact (85.60 mm × 53.98 mm × 17 mm) single-bard computer features a Broadcom BCM2835, an ARM1176JZFS, and a Videocore 4 GPU. The ARM GNU/Linux system costs $25.

You can order the Raspberry Pi from element14 and RS Components.

Check out my first Raspberry Pi post for additional information.