Raspberry Pi - Why it's awesome, and how to get started!

Raspberry Pi is one of the most awesome developments in maker culture in decades. That's not even hype.

In my intro post I listed some stuff that fascinates me, and Pi was part of that list along with the device most often compared with it, the Arduino (which I wrote about here). As part of my plan to blog regularly here I thought I would explain why you should consider the Raspberry Pi, what it can do, and how to get started :)

Raspberry Pi - the least you need to know

The Raspberry Pi is a single board computer.

What that means is it has the processor, graphics, memory, and (with an SD card) storage to be a fully fledged computer. Hook it up to a keyboard, mouse, and TV/monitor, and you can word process, play games, and run a web browser.

With the Pi Zero W and the Raspberry Pi 3, there is on-board wifi. Older Pi boards require a cheap USB Wifi dongle, or in some cases, a wired network connection, to access to the internet.

What can it do?

• Play games - Not just games developed for the Pi, such as Minecraft, but play real, actual arcade and console games, via projects like RetroPi

• Build robots

• Control your 3D Printer with Octopi

• Build a media centre with Kodi/OSMC - I would never suggest anyone do anything in a legal grey area, but lots of people enjoy streaming ... media ... via their Kodi devices.

• Learn programming - Seeing as it is a fully fledged computer, you can learn Python, Scratch, C++, pretty much anything your nerdy heart desires ...

• Build an internet streaming webcam

... and waaaaaay more!

Get started with Raspberry Pi

First you need to buy one

The main options are the Pi 3 and the Zero W in my opinion, for the built in wifi, but I would actually steer you toward the Pi 3 even though it is a little more expensive. That is because the Pi 3 has 4 full USB ports, whereas the Pi Zero needs a dongle.

There are lots of suppliers now for the Raspberry Pi. I like Canakit kits from Amazon, but you will probably have a supplier near you. The Zero W sells out so supplies are normally restricted.

If you don't buy a kit, then you will need a power supply and an SD card.

Once you have your pi and SD card, if your card didn't come pre-installed, you will need to "burn" a disk image. Follow the procedure I show here in the embedded video, just use a regular Raspbian image instead of Octoprint :)