The first computer
-- ENIAC
was as big as a room
and comes with a memory
less than a microwave
But things have change now
This is raspberry pi --
one of the cheapest and smallest computer
out there.
Hi There, this is mrinal once again
and welcome to RTT video cast
In this video, we are going to see
10 things you need to know about raspberry
pi
Raspberry from fruit name and
pi from python lang
together makes raspberry pi.
The popular credit card size computer
which is not only famous for its size and
price
but also works really well
So you can buy this pi for as low as 25$ and
almost use it as fully functional computer
by running
several version of linux operation system.
Few years back
broadcom (a company that manufacture smartphones
chipsets)
joined hand with university of cambridge
to co-founded - rpi foundation.
And after few years this rpi was born.
Though, initially It was designed for
kids to learn programming and for
third-world countries can have access
to cheap yet functional computer.
Later when the geeks found about rpi,
they start doing all sought of cool projects
with it
and the rest is history.
Rpi becomes a massive success.
On the first day of sale,
more than 100,000 rpi units were sold
Apparently, more than 5 million units of rpi
has been sold world wide.
The first rpi version (model A) was introduced
on 2012
but over the year, there have several version
released
like B, B+ and the latest rpi 2
and like everything else ,
it only get better with each update
for instance
RAM has increased from 256MB to 1GB
CPU has been bumped from 700 Mhz single core
to 900MHz quad core
and similar the number of USB ports,GPIO pin
and other specs has also increased.
Overall, giving a decent computing power to
the latest version of pi.
But it’s not like raspberry pi is the only
kid in the town
there are other solid competitor for pi as
well
like the banana pi orange pi or beaglebone
etc.
Though each one of them are strength and their
weakness
but nothing's beat rpi on online documentation
and resources.
Thus making rpi
perfect for beginners-
But it’s not like
for 25$ you get an actual computer.
out of the box
it’s simply ship with single board computer
i.e. users will have to buy a separate
monitor, keyboard or a case to make it work.
so you may have to spend some extra bucks.
for instance,
if you going to use it for future projects
you would probably need a case. Right?
Now, for me
I don’t like to spend 10$ on case
for a 25$ machine.
so I DIY this plastic case myself using the
template available online.
Obviously, this is not the best looking case
in the world
but totally useable
Though, you can also buy a case online or
3d print yourself.
Like, few days back I got lucky on ebay
and found this acrylic case for less 2$.
Totally worth the price.
Like I said,
you do need to add extra hardware
to make it work.
But, where does they go;?
Well
To start with,
It has build in ram and cpu
in this broadcom chip
now why broadcom?
well, if you remember they were one of the
early investor in
raspberry foundation. So there is that.
this second small chip around here
is for controlling
usb and ethernet interface
now since this single chip control two thing
it does create some bottleneck,
if you use your pi heavily.
and this brings us to this --
4 USB port
which you can use
to connect your mouse and keyboard or pen
drive
though if you are connecting an external hard
drive --
make sure you use a powered usb hub
as the power supply the pi is not enough
next we have the ethernet jack-
which you can use
to connect this pi to the internet
and the best part about ether is
there is never a need to configuration anything
though if you want a wireless internet on
this pi
you will have to buy an extra wireless adapter.
for power supply-
rpi uses a micro -usb charger.
yes the same thing you use to charge your
android phone
And to connect your monitor,
here is a HDMI port
but if you have old tv,
you can use this old RCA video out
And finally, there 40 GPIO pin
which you can use to connect your pi
with different sensor or arduino
and program according.
So, that’ all about the hardware,
but what about the operating system?
Well, to load a OS
this pi, uses a micro SD memory card as harddrive.
If you are buying a memory card for your pi,
I suggest, you go for class 10 card and storage
more than 8 GB
trust me,
in long run it really pays of
This small magic box supports
quite a few linux distro
and the most popular one is-- raspbian.
yes, I know
there is a windows 10 version for pi as well
but that’s not really an operating we are
used to.
It basically meant for internet of things
and developers.
So to get raspbian on pi,
simply go to the NOOBS download page and
download its disk images on your memory card
and then insert that card in your pi
power on your system,
connect the pi with hdmi, keyboard, mouse
etc
and follow the onscreen instruction
within 10-20 minutes you will be kicking raspbian
on pi
and from now on
your rpi is like any other computer out there
whenever you turn on, it will boot your OS
directly and
you can use it like a regular computer
But can you really use it desktop replacement?
Well, even though it runs on Linux platform
you get a nice looking GUI
with a web browser and open source libreoffice
It even comes with a built in a popular game
like minecraft
But, will it work as a regular computer.
Well, AFAIK you can’t really use it for
desktop replace
for instance -- the web browser is nice
but opening more than one tab
freezes it
Even to play a YouTube video,
I have to do some tinkering with the terminal
And, not to forget
it can’t run any popular program
like photoshops or games
For me, I do most of my work on cloud
but even then
I can’t even use it for more than 10 minutes
So NO.
An average user,
can not use it desktop replacement
but still
there few hopes for kids or senior citizens
if they work in a limited scope
So if, this computer
cannot be used a computer
then what is good for?
What can you do with it?
Well most people who use this rpi,
use it in headless mode
For instance -
I don’t want to disturb my family
by taking their television everytime I use
my pi
neither do I want to go through the
tedious process of connecting it with keyboard
and mouse
So to avoid such problems,
we have two options here --
First,
you can ssh into your rpi.
in simple terms
it means -
remotely accessing your pi via a secure terminal.
Just find the rpi address from your router
and then use a free tool called putty.
Here,
All you need is ip address of your pi
and its username/ password
And that’s it
here you will see command line interface
and can do almost anything
like you would normally do
But say you want to get the screen as well.
In that you can use the second method i.e.
install tight vnc server on rpi and the
using their client you can login to your pi.
Again all you need is your pi’s
ip address and username/pass
It’s similar to what we do in team view.
We install software on rpi
which is sending us the screen in real time
So now that we know the basics about rpi.
The question is what can can (people like
you and me)
do with it.
Well Rpi is one of those things,
who uses are only limited to your imagination.
but still here are few useful things I a beginners
can do with it.
#1 Learning:
If you have kids at home
or even you want to start learning baiss of
programming
then it’s a great device.
Raspbian also comes with scratch --
a fun programming language learning for mit.
And if you are minecraft fan, then there is
that as well.
Also if you play around with linux,
rpi is the cheapest bet
even if something goes wrong,
it’s still better than damaging a actual
computer
#2 Network storage device NAS :
Say you have external hardrive whose content
you would like
to access from every device on your network.
So
Simply mount of your external hard drive
install samba on your rpi
(which is file sharing protocol)
And you will be able access your rpi
from all the computer and smartphone.
under the same network
I am using it for weeks,
and everything works flawless.
But
you can also easily do this with any computer.
Right
so why use a rpi for this.
Well, keeping a computer on-- uses a lot of
power
but on the other hand a rpi uses only 10 percent
of it
while doing the same job
#3 torrent machine:
This is what I mostly used my rpi for.
Say you want to download all free version
of all the linux distro from torrent.
which is around 20 GB.
Now for an average internet connection it
make take entire night.
But keeping your computer awake all night
will need a lot of power,
so why not turn rpi into ultimate torrent
downloading machine.
You can install a torrent client like deluge
on your rpi
and then configure it so that you can control
it f
rom remote computer and that’s it.
I have left this system ON
for days and nights and it work well.
Just make sure deluged is set to auto restart
mode.
So even if your rpi reboot due to power failure-
your torrents will auto restart.
#4 Home media server
Say, I have huge collections of movies, tv
shows, pictures
that I would like to watch on my tv,
android or computer -- anywhere anytime.
So simply
install xmbc server like kodi on your pi
and then you can turn it
into a portable media server.
Kodi -- a popular xmbc server lets you do
that.
Now some of you may ask, why use a media server,
when I can stream all those content by simply
sharing my hard drive on the network.
The reason is, you get channel art, imdb rating
movie description, if you pause a movie on
one device
you can resume on other from where you left.
That’s what a media server does.
Other than that, you can make your own plug
and play VNC server,
or even use it a private dropbox or turning
your usb printer to a wireless on.
So basically anything, that can be done on
a regular computer can be done rpi
but with you get always on machine that runs
on low power and is extremely cheap.
This is all for now,
I hope you understand what raspberry pi is
and what you can do with it
Also give this video a thumbs up if
you find it useful
If you want to me to cover more rpi tutorial
like the use case I have shown in this video
then let me know in the comments below
and subscribe to see more tech videos
This is all for now it’s mrinal signing
off
and like always thanks for watching.
