Raspberry Pi - Our First Look
FrequencyCast has been playing with the Raspberry Pi. Here's a transcript of our first look, taken from episode 77 of our technology podcast.
Listen to FrequencyCast Show 77 - Raspberry Pi, Echobox, iOS6 and WOWee |
First Experiences with the Pi:
For Show 77, Kelly and Pete connected up a Raspberry Pi. Here's what happened:
Pete:
Let's see how technically-minded you are. I'm going to hand you this. And what do we have a picture of there on the circuit board?
Kelly:
A raspberry - oh, this is a Raspberry Pi!
Pete:
Ah - absolutely. These little beasties, for the benefit of anyone listening that isn't familiar with these, $35 will get you a fully-functional computer. It's actually intended for educational use, but a lot of people are using these either for development, or in home entertainment. That's actually when I'm using it - I'm connecting this to my telly, so I can surf the net on my telly. Now, here's the test, lots and lots of sockets - what do we have here, please?
Kelly:
We have our internet port, then we have two USB ports. We have a headphone and video socket, a place for an SD card, as well as a power cable and a port for a HDMI.
Pete:
Perfect. Now let's see if we can connect this up. There is an Ethernet lead - plug that one in for me, please.
Kelly:
I shall.
Pete:
OK, this is the one that connects to your TV - that's the HDMI, plug that one in for me.
Kelly:
Hang on - I've got to get round the other side here ... and in.
Pete:
Now, this is a micro USB socket for the power - just plug that into the corner socket there, please.
Kelly:
There you are.
Pete:
I'm using a wireless keyboard and mouse here. If I could get you to plug in the USB dongle that powers the mouse and the keyboard.
Kelly:
Indeed - there you go.
Pete:
Excellent - and the hard drive, please.
Kelly:
There you are - test complete.
Pete:
Perfect - there you go, you've wired this up. Now, of course, as I mentioned, this is a £30 computer, but you don't get the power supply, you don't get the USB cable, you don't get the keyboard, you don't get the mouse and you don't get the SD card.
So you do have to buy quite a few bits to actually get this up and running, but it is a rather impressive piece of technology. My ideal plan for this is to do something complicated with amateur radio on this as well, but for £30, you can't go wrong, can you?
Kelly:
You really can't, particularly not in schools, so I think it'll work really really well with children, and getting them to learn technology from a young age.
Pete:
What I would say, on my journey with the Raspberry Pi, two things to note: one, the technical requirement is for a 4GB SD card - go for at least 8 or 16, because the 4 gig is too small; and the other thing, when you've plugged it in and got it up and running for the first time, you've just got a Linux prompt - what you have to do, if you've got one of these, is type "startx" and the operating system starts, and very nice it is too.
Kelly:
Fantastic!
Pete:
Talking of rather impressive bits of kit, in the next couple of weeks something is going into space with your name on it.
Kelly:
It is! - I sent a message into space.
Pete:
And what this is, it's a satellite called the F-1 Cubesat, which is being launched by a team of Vietnamese scientists from the International Space Station at the end of July, and they have, for a very period of time, the option to get your name included in the satellite. What you had to do was fill in a form, which went over to their systems, and they copied all the messages from the public onto a micro SC card that's going to be launched into space, and you got your message on there, didn't you? FrequencyCast has got one, I've got one on my personal account as well. What did you say? - what one thing did you want to get beamed into space?
Kelly:
Well, I thought it'd be quite interesting, as I'm having so many issues down on earth, to send my own lonely hearts ad out into space.
Pete:
OK, go on then - what did you go for?
Kelly:
"Young female princess tecchie seeks fellow Martian to set up home on a new planet."
Pete:
I don't know what to say to that! - it's better than mine. I went with the rather boring, "Live long and prosper", from Star Trek, but there you go. Well, I wish you luck in your quest.
Kelly:
Thank you very much.
Transcript Continues: Echobox Home Networking
Listen to FrequencyCast Show 77 - Raspberry Pi, Echobox, iOS6 and WOWee |
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