Raspberry Pi - New Out Of The Box
I got a Raspberry Pi for Christmas. I don't know if I'll get anywhere with it, but I thought I'd keep a brief log of my failures or successes. With lots of pics.
So this is what you get. Well, it isn't, because you get the Raspberry Pi box and a box containing a box to put your Raspberry Pi in. A sort of cake tin. It doesn't come with wheels and a sandwich either.
With a bit of self assembly, you can create the colourful object above. I've plugged in a Microsoft Wireless Keyboard and Mouse adaptor - that's the white thing that sits in the USB slot. There's also a standard phone charger which is plugged straight into the mains and an HDMI cable. That connects it to our television and presents the first problem. We like watching TV and so having a Raspberry Pi plugged into it might cause distress in the household.
The RP came with a large SD card that didn't plug into it anywhere. But the large SD card also contained a tiny SD card that fitted in a small slot on the short edge.
The first thing you have to do is choose an Operating System. The top one is (insultingly?) called 'NOOBS' or 'New Out Of the Box System'. Programmers are good at acronyms, or PAGA for short. I chose Raspbian. This is recommended for beginners as it has a nice graphical interface and does a great impression of Windows Installing, as seen above.
All was going well until I got to this screen. The Raspberry Pi console absolutely refused to recognise the Wireless Keyboard and Mouse, no matter how hard I pressed the buttons.
So I nipped upstairs and pinched the Keyboard and Mouse from Simon's PC.
So now Simon was not only without TV, but because the PC refused to recognise the Wireless Keyboard, he couldn't go on his PC either.
Meanwhile, I was able to plough through some menu options and get to the Graphical User Interface (GUI).
You can do literally anything with a Raspberry Pi and I've got a number of projects I want to try out. But the first objective is to return the PC and TV to Simon! Project one will be getting control from my laptop.
So this is what you get. Well, it isn't, because you get the Raspberry Pi box and a box containing a box to put your Raspberry Pi in. A sort of cake tin. It doesn't come with wheels and a sandwich either.
With a bit of self assembly, you can create the colourful object above. I've plugged in a Microsoft Wireless Keyboard and Mouse adaptor - that's the white thing that sits in the USB slot. There's also a standard phone charger which is plugged straight into the mains and an HDMI cable. That connects it to our television and presents the first problem. We like watching TV and so having a Raspberry Pi plugged into it might cause distress in the household.
The RP came with a large SD card that didn't plug into it anywhere. But the large SD card also contained a tiny SD card that fitted in a small slot on the short edge.
The first thing you have to do is choose an Operating System. The top one is (insultingly?) called 'NOOBS' or 'New Out Of the Box System'. Programmers are good at acronyms, or PAGA for short. I chose Raspbian. This is recommended for beginners as it has a nice graphical interface and does a great impression of Windows Installing, as seen above.
All was going well until I got to this screen. The Raspberry Pi console absolutely refused to recognise the Wireless Keyboard and Mouse, no matter how hard I pressed the buttons.
So I nipped upstairs and pinched the Keyboard and Mouse from Simon's PC.
So now Simon was not only without TV, but because the PC refused to recognise the Wireless Keyboard, he couldn't go on his PC either.
Meanwhile, I was able to plough through some menu options and get to the Graphical User Interface (GUI).
You can do literally anything with a Raspberry Pi and I've got a number of projects I want to try out. But the first objective is to return the PC and TV to Simon! Project one will be getting control from my laptop.