Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi I bought yesterday was incredibly easy to get up and running. The $40 was good for just the main board, but I actually had enough spare parts lying around to cover everything else. Here's what was needed and where I got them from...

• 5v USB power = borrowed from by HTC Incredible
• SD Card = the default one that came with my camera... never used it
• HDMI = borrowed from my upconverting DVD player
• Keyboard = from my Mac mini
• Mouse = from my Mac mini

Besides that, I also needed to get the Linux image and install that on the SD card. I went for the recommended Raspbian Linux (based on Debian). Once that was setup, all that was left was to plug everything in. I didn't come across any problems at all. It just worked!

Cool... so now what? The next steps are to get a compatible USB wi-fi dongle. Without internet, this system isn't too useful. Getting connected will open up a lot more for me to do. I also need to rig up some kind of case for it. Because of its size, this device allows makers to pretty much use anything as a case. There's even a printable PDF. So I'll see if I can come up with something. To be continued...