Raspberry Pi - The Bear and Badger

Blue Swirl

Scotswahey wrote:

Blue are they any good? I was looking at them a while back but i've seen mixed reviews online.

The keyboard or the wifi dongle?

Assuming you mean the keyboard, it's pretty swish. Though I did have to send my first one back because the trackpad didn't work, but the second one has been pretty flawless so far. I wouldn't recommend using it to type out a novel or anything, but it's a great wee keyboard for the Pi - cheap, comes with a trackpad so you don't need a separate mouse, works just like a USB keyboard, and doesn't take up a ton of room.

Blue Swirl

Bare metal programming on the Raspberry Pi.

Blue Swirl

There's a new RPi coming, the Model B+.

The B+ is based on the same Broadcom chip as earlier versions and has the same 512 megabytes of memory but a variety of other changes have been made to the device.

The analogue and composite video connector has been ditched in favour of a single four-pole connector and the SD card slot has been replaced with a micro-SD card unit. ...

Better power management on the B+ will mean it can keep four USB peripherals going without requiring mains power or an external hub.

...

More USB ports and better power management allowed owners to run a 2.5in (6.4cm) hard drive off the device without the need for a powered hub.

This is definitely a welcome change. Currently* I'm planning on connecting a spare USB HDD to my Pi and using it as an ownCloud machine, but I'll need to buy a powered USB hub, and I'll end up with cables everywhere!

*What I'm going to do with my Pi changes on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis.

IanHamlett

I'm so glad I didn't upgrade already. I had a vibe something was coming although I expected the Pi2 (or πR²).

IanHamlett

My Pi B+ arrived today. Pibow case is sexy as fuck. It wasn't worth me getting one without an 8gb noobs card and I'm so glad because it turns out a micro SD card in an adapter and my USB card reader won't take a disk image. I'll get to the bottom of that tomorrow.

Coupe_1_of_4_grande.JPG?v=1405281343

IanHamlett

The two network lights are on the Ethernet port now. Its better that way but I miss the little cluster of lights. I might have to buy one of those spiral light things.

Blue Swirl

That is a neat little machine.

IanHamlett

I'm liking the easy access to the GPIO pins too. The micro SD slot is a clicky one. I'm into that. Camera next.

IanHamlett

Gigabit Ethernet, sata port, better processor. Banana Pi Chinese knockoff.

Blue Swirl

IanHamlett wrote:

Banana Pi Chinese knockoff.

There seems to be a fair few Pi-a-likes coming out these days. I'm most intrigued by Intel/Microsoft's Galileo board. You know something is making waves when Microsoft wants to get involved.

IanHamlett

I didn't know MS were in on it. Actually surprised it took Intel so long to get one out. Surprised it took Intel so long. I was thinking of picking one up but I haven't even scratched the surface with the Pi and that's where the community is.

Blue Swirl

IanHamlett wrote:

I was thinking of picking one up but I haven't even scratched the surface with the Pi and that's where the community is.

I'll stick with my Pi for the forseeable, too, because a) it's nominally not for profit b) they're the OGs and c) they're British.

GAWD BLESS T' QUEEN.

IanHamlett

If only they had an OS CPU to work with. That would be the shizzle.

Blue Swirl

An OS CPU? Wassat? (I mean, I know what the abbreviations stand for, just not together.)

IanHamlett

There are people working on open source hardware. I don't think they're there yet for CPUs. Full documentation would be nice for the pi tho. Broadcom opened a lot of stuff up recently. It's all way above my paygrade.

Blue Swirl

IanHamlett wrote:

There are people working on open source hardware. I don't think they're there yet for CPUs. Full documentation would be nice for the pi tho. Broadcom opened a lot of stuff up recently. It's all way above my paygrade.

Oh, "open source", not "operating system". They seem me derping, I'm herping...

Yeah, that'd be aces. AFAIK the only computer it's possible to run 100% free/libre software on is the IBM Thinkpad T60.

Blue Swirl

Talking about open source hardware, here's something you lot might be interested in: the Novena laptop from Bunnie studios (the same guy that wrote Hacking the Xbox).

Question for you lot: I have a spare USB HDD lying around that I want to use with my Raspberry Pi. The HDD is capable of being powered, I just need to buy a supply for it. What I was wondering is if I buy a powered USB hub, would that supply enough power to the HDD to work with the RPi?

Basically, I want to avoid having to use three outlets to power my ownCloud solution (one for the RPi, one for the USB HDD, one for the USB hub with my wi-fi aerial and keyboard). Two plug 'oles is plenty.

Blue Swirl

Follow up question:

I took the HDD to an engineer I work with, as I needed to find out if the pin in the power supply port was positive or negative before buying a supply. He reckons that if I get a powered hub, I can power the HDD and the Pi off that, as the Pi's power supply is basically a mini (micro?) USB. This seems reasonable, as the Pi is currently being powered by what is basically an el cheapo phone charger.

So, can I power the Pi, the USB HDD, my wifi aerial, and the keyboard dongle all off a powered USB hub? If so, that'd be great, I'd only need one wire going into the wall!

IanHamlett

Yes you can and that's how a lot of people roll. There is a newer USB power standard that puts out more than 500mA. Get a hub full of that shit.

IanHamlett

https://www.modmypi.com/New-Link-4-Port-USB-Hub-(USB-2.0-with-Mains-Adaptor)

This is one I think.

Edit - That link is bullshit but the New Link hub is what I was on about.

Blue Swirl

Ah, dang it. I got a hub but it's not leet enough to power the Pi as well. So I can connect all my gizmos now, but I still have two power supplies.

Scotswahey

IanHamlett wrote:

Gigabit Ethernet, sata port, better processor. Banana Pi Chinese knockoff.

That thing is a load of shite from what I've read. It doesn't run Raspberry software and the community is so small that it's probably never going to be much use.

In other news.... I've still been messing around with Retropie and ive got a good few hundred SNES games on it now.

I also installed RiscOS on a spare SD card. It's bloody brilliant. It runs so much faster than linux distros and its a shame that the web browser isn't up to much. Saying that, it's really nice to work with RiscOS. It's just snappy and simple to get your head around. I really hope people stick with it and get it working well.

Finally, When the feck is the Wayland Raspberry version of Linux coming out. Raspian is so slow it's almost unusable.

Blue Swirl

Scotswahey wrote:

I also installed RiscOS on a spare SD card. It's bloody brilliant. It runs so much faster than linux distros and its a shame that the web browser isn't up to much. Saying that, it's really nice to work with RiscOS. It's just snappy and simple to get your head around. I really hope people stick with it and get it working well.

I concur, I was rather taken with RiscOS when I had it running on my Pi. I'm in the process of setting mine up as an ownCloud server, so I've taken Risc off because it was superfluous to requirements.

But if they get wifi working under RiscOS and I get another Pi, then we may have a winner for the operating system I install.

Talking of getting wi fi to work, has anyone else got their Pi online wirelessly? I bought a wifi USB aerial that's meant to work 'out of the box', and I've followed about a hojillion guides online, no luck. It connects fine via ethernet. The aerial works too, I've tested it under Windows 7 and OS X 10.9. I'm totally stumped.

Blue Swirl

Imagination Technologies, the same company who make Apple's mobile device graphic cards, are releasing a "Raspberry Pi on steroids" for free.

For free it's hard to complain, but I'm still wary. What do they stand to gain?

Cross-posted to Apple thread.

Scotswahey

BlueSwirl I'm using an Edimax wifi dongle. But are you using WPA2 security because if you've got an Edimax THEY DO NOT LIKE IT! Theyre supposed to work with it but I've tried a million times and it just doesnt.

dynamiteReady

Blue Swirl wrote:

I concur, I was rather taken with RiscOS when I had it running on my Pi. I'm in the process of setting mine up as an ownCloud server, so I've taken Risc off because it was superfluous to requirements. But if they get wifi working under RiscOS and I get another Pi, then we may have a winner for the operating system I install.

http://runningfabulous.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/dog.jpg

Blue Swirl wrote:

Talking of getting wi fi to work, has anyone else got their Pi online wirelessly? I bought a wifi USB aerial that's meant to work 'out of the box', and I've followed about a hojillion guides online, no luck. It connects fine via ethernet. The aerial works too, I've tested it under Windows 7 and OS X 10.9. I'm totally stumped.

It was laboured. I had it working under Arch, and it wasn't a very flexible solution (it was only tied to one connection, but I could have changed that with some l337 BASH hack*...). Had to use some kind of native interface though...

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/WPA_supplicant & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wpa_supplicant

I was in a masochistic mood that day though.

There's got to be an easier way. I suspect there's probably a more pleasant networking interface on the likes of Debian Wheezy.

*Could I fuck.

Scotswahey

I use wifi on my pi but one thing I have learnt is that the wifi dongle has to be plugged into the Pi and not a USB hub. Don't ask me why, but it just doesn't like it.

dynamiteReady

But yeah... I've been neglecting my Pi, as I don't currently have a telly, and even if I did, I'd probably use it for a console right now. But your RISCy talk (~_~) did make me wonder about it, and led me to this list...

http://www.themagpi.com/issue/issue-12/article/raspberry-pi-operating-systems-all-you-can-eat-raspberry-pi/

dynamiteReady

Scotswahey wrote:

I use wifi on my pi but one thing I have learnt is that the wifi dongle has to be plugged into the Pi and not a USB hub. Don't ask me why, but it just doesn't like it.

Huh? I'm using one of those beady USB wifi cards (if that is the technical term).
Between a serial port scan and that supplicant thing, that type of network device should work on any Linux based Pi.

How have you connected yours?

Don't ask me about setting up wifi on that RISC gubbins' though, but it's interesting to hear about how well it runs.

Scotswahey

I've got my dongle in the top USB port of the Pi and a USB B going to my hub which has my keyboard, mouse and USB pendrive. I've read and learnt from experience that putting the edimax wifi dongle in the hub doesn't always work but it does when plugged into the Pi.

RISC doesn't support wifi only ethernet. So I haven't got it up and running yet because my hub is downstairs and all my computery stuff is in a cupboard upstairs.

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