FESTERS PLACE

Hi, does anyone have/use one of these?

http://www.raspberrypi.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have started to volunteer as a mentor with the CoderDojo in Carlow and they are probably going to start using them next year, so I was wondering the best place to get them and if anyone here had any tips for them.

Please discuss

Fist

i think i read about them in an article that also contained minecraft. they sound delicious but they probably dont taste very good.

The website you have in your post should be the best place to start. I know they come in a couple of flavours (with/without ethernet port).

In essence a linux platform with a GPIO port for good measure.

My housemate uses them in his third year research project. He seems to speak highly of it.

Yep, as Doishy said, I use it for my physics thirsd year project. Bloody good things, for what they are. Runs a 1080p output, although if you want to play a video I imagine it'll take up most of the operating power, my projects more about the GPIO so haven't had to test the video capacity.

Inernet is damn good, specuially if you want to use it as a small web host, very quick response times from it. Although as a game server or anything more than a simple site host its not likely to be up to the task, at least not with the standard OS.

The GPIO, the thing my projects on, are fucking awesome. Theres a couple of C libraries out there for them, really easy to get hold of and so long as you don't need massivly time dependant (I mean down to the microsecond... sadly I do.) then your good. You can get that thing to do damn near anything you want, and with a small amount of physics and electrical knowledge it becomes one of the greatest toys ever. At the moment all mine does is measure how fast a light bulb is being turned on and off, admittedly this is happening about 500 times a second so its all good. Just don't put more than 3.5V through or you'll fry everything, trust me.

I must warn you, sometimes it'll boot and register the keyboard and the mouse, but they won't work, or the screen res is wrong. The OS although stable is a bit off in places. Oh and don't forget to get a powered USB hub, otherwise you have to pick between a mouse or keyboard as combined both draw more power than the Pi can give, same goes with USB sticks the two usb ports on there have very little power running through them.

Oh Chris, you so silly.

...

3.5 volts? they sell it with a 5v power supply

only 3.5V through the pins on the side, not the total input, that needs to be 5Vs.

also never touch the processor. First it can get hot, second it electrocutes you. Get electrocuted about 10 times everytime I do my experiment with it.