What’s in the box:
The content of the boxes is picked to work with the Raspberry Pi mini computer.
Inside the box, you will find:
- 1 Raspberry Pi 3
- 1 Raspberry Pi, Model 1 B+
- 1 16 GB micro SDHC w/Raspbian (updated 31.01.16)
- 1 8 GB micro SDHC w/Raspbian (updated 31.01.16)
- 1 Sense Hat extension board
- 1 Berryclip extension board
- 1 Adafruit T-Cobbler
- 1 Solderless breadboard
- 1 PIR sensor
- 1 USB webcam
- 1 Speaker
- 1 HDMI cable
- 1 Wifi USB dongle (for use with the Pi 1B)
- 1 Bluetooth USB dongle (for use with the Pi 1B)
- 2 USB power supplies
- 15-20 Wires
- 1 Padlock
Plastic Case for the Raspberry
The plastic case for the Raspberry can completely enclose it. If you use the Berryclip, just use the lower half of the casing as a base for the Raspberry. This protects the fragile circuits on its backside.
Note: The easiest way to destroy a Pi without a case is by placing it on a metal surface, such as any laptop from Apple. It will often shortcircuit immediately.
Wifi
- The Wifi USB adapter is not as stable as Wifi on laptops.
- Configuring the Wifi is simple, but if you want to connect to Eduroam, you would have to add your personal credentials. Then anyone getting hold of your SD card or that can log into your Pi may use the network on your behalf. Therefore, you should rather use a separate Wifi network in case you want to go wireless.
The Sense HAT
The Sense HAT is an add-on board for Raspberry Pi, that has an 8×8 RGB LED matrix, a five-button joystick and includes the following sensors:
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Magnetometer
- Temperature
- Barometric pressure
- Humidity
A Python module to control the Sense HAT can be found at this site:
http://pythonhosted.org/sense-hat/
The Berryclip
The Berryclip is a simple extension board that adds a button, a buzzer and 6 LEDs to the Raspberry Pi. The original website is here.
Download the test program for the Berryclip with the following command:
wget http://item.ntnu.no/~kraemer/ttm4175/berrycliptest.jar
The command wget simply downloads a given file, here a jar file. This jar file contains a Java application that uses the Berryclip. To run the program, start Java:
sudo java -jar berrycliptest.jar
The LEDs should light up one after another. After that, press the button, and you should hear a beep.
- If you don’t see the LEDs: Something is wrong.
- If you don’t hear a beep: The buzzer of some Berryclips is not working. (It seems they stop working at some time.) If you still need sound, you can connect the speakers and use other means to generate some sound.
SD Card
The SD card has Raspbian installed, a special Linux distribution. You may find files from earlier courses in the home directory /home/pi. Since the Pi is yours now, you can delete them.
Some Precautions
- Make sure that you don’t place the Raspberry directly on a metal surface, because it will create short circuits and destroy it. Placing the Pi on an aluminium MacBook, for instance, may destroy it.
- You can re-plug the USB, speaker and HDMI cables also while the Pi is powered. However, do not plug the GPIOs or any other connectors on and off while powered. These connectors go directly to the Pi’s processor. So if you short circuit them, you may destroy the Pi.
- The file system on the SD card can get corrupted. To avoid this, halt the system properly (sudo halt) before you unpower the pi.
- Change the password. If you connect your Pi to a public network, it may easily get hacked if you use the default password.
Testing Everything
Plug the Pi:
- Make sure the SD card is inserted properly. It is easy to accidentally touch it so that it is not properly connected.
- Add a network cable into the ethernet port. Do not connect the Wifi USB at the beginning, since you would first need to configure Wifi.
- Connect a monitor via HDMI.
- Connect the speakers and switch the speakers on.
- Make sure the Berryclip is mounted. correctly.
- Power up the Pi by plugging in the power supply.
- Establish an SSH connection to the Pi
- Download and run the test program (See above for the Berryclip)
Reactive Blocks for the Raspberry Pi
We have created the team Raspberry Pi Box. Join this team, and you’ll find building blocks that can run on the Raspberry and that may be useful. Examples are speech, MQTT, Berryclip, and the USB camera.
To generate an application that runs on the Pi, select the standard “Java Standard Edition (J2SE)” as target platform for the code generator.
Application Examples
The following is a list of example applications that may be useful to study.
- An intrusion detection system, that detects movements using the camera.
- Controlling a LED arrow via MQTT. Shows how to use MQTT, an LED matrix, and how to listen to your keyboard.
- A time lapse recorder that can take pictures with the USB camera.
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