Raspberry pi why and what to buy

Raspberry Pi, (aka Raspi or RPI) is a single

board computer developed in the UK.

It’s around the size of a credit card, is

very low cost and requires little power.

The compute power is relative to a

Pentium II pc and the graphics are similar

to a 2002 era game console.

Beagle Bone

Banana Pi

Orange Pi

PCDruino4

NanoPC, ($65)

CubieBoards, ($144!)

MinnowBoard, ($145)

Odroid, (varying models)

Ardruino

› Ardruino “boards” are micro-controllers.

› Excellent for open source projects and at

collecting data.

› They shouldn’t be confused with a single

board computer.

› You can purchase a card, (i.e. hat) that

attaches to the RPI to simulate an ardruino.

Leader of the single board computer

industry.

Tons of online and printed resources.

Parts are easily attainable, both name

brand and off market.

Products are available online and in

many stores.

Open architecture leads to myriad of

creative and functional projects.

Model Version

Displayed

above chip!

Version 2, B+ or Pi Zero are the current

models out.

900Mhz Arm11 Broadcom BCM2835 Processor

Dualcore VideoCore GPU

1Gb of Ram

4 USB Ports

Full Size HDMI Display Port

Micro USB Power 5V

40 Pin GPIO

Micros SD Slot for Storage

Good Quality Micro SD Card, 8Gb

preferrable.

Power Adapter, (Smart Phone charger

works.)

HDMI Cable

USB Mouse and Keyboard

WiFi USB

USB to Micro SD Card adapter

SD Formatter

› Used to format Micro SD Cards on your

computer via the USB port and USB to Micro

SD Card Adapter.

Win32 Disk Imager

› Create backup images of your RPI from the

Micro SD Card to your computer and use to

load new OS images on Micro SD Cards after

downloading.

Raspberry Pi B+, Ver. 2 Pi Zero

Unit Cost $20 $5

Main accessories* $70 $70

Adapter for Micro** $15-25

Touch Screen

Mountable?

Yes With Additional

mounting.

Case? Often cumbersome Good Idea

GPIO Pins Pre-soldered Manual Purchase and

Solder

Good for small

projects

Yes Exceptional

Best Choice for First

Time Purchase

Yes No

MagPi Magazine

Pibrella, ($20, and discontinued)

RPI’s 7 inch touchscreen monitor

Or a Small, (7-10 inch) HDMI monitor

You want to just do experiments vs. have

a computer to program on and build out

other projects.

The project at hand would be better

suited to a controller.

Raspberry Pi Organization

AdaFruit’s Raspberry Pi Page

Hackaday

Makezine

My RPI page on DBAKevlar