Minimal Computing (anyone using "Raspberry Pi"?)

[Varn]

The windows software that I was using to make the disk wasn't. I found something called roadkil that worked.

I have tried playing mp4 videos on it. After a while then they lock up. I m using a regular phone charger to power it. I bet it is sagging.

Been reading about projects.

[Arragonis]

Glad you got it working - I haven't used Roadkill but it sounds OK, I used WinDD but you have to be careful because it will write over anything - including your system partition.

Lockups are probably heat related - can affect either the PI or the card, usually the card.

In Scotland heat is not usually an issue, trenchfoot is...

Also worth a check to see if the card has the latest firmware to make use of the 512K.

[Arragonis]

Edit to post this link to stuff in Python (and other languages).

Green Tea Press: Free Computer Science Books

Cool guy, well written stuff.

[Arragonis]

Just started getting back into this, a few developments.

Firstly wanted to get into Mono programming on it (I use .NET a lot at work - not the only fruit) but it seems you need a soft-float version of the Linux OS for that to make it work and that is slow. So not for now.

Anyway a check of the website has this video

A 13 year old girl who has programmed Life more or less from scratch - which is cool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...v=a35XINnYFtA#!

And this 3 year old who can set one up from scratch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=hMBOLQF-H2Y

And the factory has been "moved" from China to the UK, ready for the next "million" sold.

[Varn]

I have gotten my unit to work. Have figured out why I had lock ups. I believe that it was because my power supplies, two different telephone chargers was not up to the task. I found a power pack from a switching device that was rated at 2a makes the device very stable. I have used it for playing videos.

I have connected it to my desktop at home and although I can make it transfer files I have not been able to make my cell phone modem work sharing it's connection and have read that the power that is put out by the USB port is not enough to directly power the USB cell modem.

The only TV (for video output) that I can hook to is at home otherwise it would nice to try hooking it to my ethernet here in the office.

[Arragonis]

A powered USB hub would provide enough juice for the modem probably.

Wireless might also be the key - I used a USB plug in adaptor for my games desktop which decided to lunch itself over Christmas (last Packard Bell I ever buy...). Just on a whim I tried plugging it into the Pi with XFCE running and the wireless connection utility thing reported that it could find my hub. Enter the pass key and it worked - I was impressed

I don't know the make, it was just a generic £5 from Amazon - the Pi list of peripherals lists ones that do work.

Downloaded Minecraft for Pi and had that working reasonably well too.



Also bought a copy of Programming Python on Win32 (an older O'Reilly book) for £2 secondhand - the online tutorials are fine but you can't beat dead trees for reading in bed

[Arragonis]

An interesting story about PIs in Africa

Bringing computing to rural Cameroon | Raspberry Pi

Kids doing cool stuff with computers is always cool.

[Varn]

That is a good project.

To date besides watching a few videos My Pi languishes.

[Arragonis]

Awake thread, awake - live...

The Raspberry PI has now reached version 2.0 which features an ARM7 quad core processor running at 900mhz compared to the original running an ARM5 single core at 700mhz used before. It has also gone from 256Mb (to 512 in the B+) and now 1GB.

Amazingly it is the same price as before!

There is a video showing it running here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo8RT8Wpv6w

It looks pretty impressive - e.g Minecraft full speed at under 25% of CPU with other windows / apps running too. The original one struggles with just one app.

If you like Windows (I'm neutral) then a free version of Window 10 will be available for the new Pi as well.

Microsoft Windows on Devices

[P-hack]

where is the bcm2836 datasheet?

With an android tablet costing $50, with a built in display, and gps and bluetooth and wifi and etc, not really sure what the benefit here is.