A small taste of Pi
Time to “bake” a Pi, so to speak. I received my new Raspberry Pi about a week back, and remained patient. Had to wait for the case, camera and a larger SD card to arrive in the postbox. Now, with the various components in hand, I’d run out of reasons to delay any longer.
The level of documentation for the R-Pi is astonishing. There are many evangelists out there; all that remains is to choose your poison. Do you want to read a magazine, or watch one of the dozens of tutorial videos, or simply go through someone else’s crib notes? Actually, I’ve had time to mix and match, so there was nothing really unfamiliar once I cleared the table.
First up, drill one more hole in the plastic case; I could have purchased something more elaborate, but there is a budget to respect here. More than $8 for what looks like a recycled mint case and I get leery. I had drills and reaming tools, so the piercing of a peekhole took only a couple of minutes. Not sure yet how I’ll permanently mount the camera module inside, but fibreglass tape works OK.
The new SD card is 8 GB, so I made sure that my initial format wouldn’t do anything untoward. With the Raspbian Weezy distro, there’s a tool to expand to the maximum space on the card. Once I borrowed a quality HDMI cable from elsewhere, the initial setup menu was onscreen and obvious. Update/upgrade the distro and the firmware. Enable the camera module. Configure the wifi module. Test, gently.
I’ve seen my mug (the coffee mug) onscreen in both still and video, so I’ve packed everything away. Next time around, a stream of video to amaze and astound any bystanders. That includes the dog.
