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Anyone else got a Raspberry Pi?

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    #21
    Originally posted by cojak View Post
    It's not the money, it's the possible clutter if I don't get into it.

    Anyhoo....

    What do you think of this starter kit?

    Raspberry Pi B+ Starter Kit - Pimoroni
    Keyboards and meeces I have aplenty, and I already had a decent power supply for my iPad with a spare outlet, so not for me.

    That Pibow case @ £12.95 looks an awful lot better than the one I got for about £11.50 which doesn't even fit properly.
    Last edited by Sysman; 16 December 2014, 14:29.
    Behold the warranty -- the bold print giveth and the fine print taketh away.

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      #22
      Originally posted by administrator View Post
      I was toying with the idea of this in Maplins a few days ago. I am not sure Mrs Admin would have thanked me for buying one "for the children" though, they are nine and six and I think it is not a bad time to get them into it.
      Get one or two, and download the kano OS from Kano - Make a Computer - it's designed to get kids started, has rewards that they can track online etc. and builds up different things that they do.

      We already had a Pi so I just downloaded the OS, but we also bought the kano kit via Kickstarter which came with everything you'd need (apart from a screen) and they had fun building and decorating the new Pi.

      Once they've got through the basics, have a look at something like Super Scratch Adventure, or Adventures in Raspberry Pi which are great to give them some more ideas. We also have some Python books which they've not looked at yet.

      Even if they never want to use a computer or become a programmer, there are some good skills that programming teaches you whatever course of life you take.
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        #23
        Originally posted by Sysman View Post
        Keyboards and meeces I have aplenty, and I already had a decent power supply for my iPad with a spare outlet, so not for me.

        That Pibow case @ £12.95 looks an awful lot better than the one I got for about £11.50 which doesn't even fit properly.
        I have the Pibow for the model B which is nice. Took a bit of working out what order things needed to go in...

        I also have the VESA monitor mount so the Pi can screw to the back of the monitor if you want it completely out of the way - it just replaces the bottom layer of the case.
        Best Forum Advisor 2014
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          #24
          Originally posted by administrator View Post
          I was toying with the idea of this in Maplins a few days ago. I am not sure Mrs Admin would have thanked me for buying one "for the children" though, they are nine and six and I think it is not a bad time to get them into it.

          cojak - PVR personally I would go a bit pokier than a PI. Yes you can run XBMC on it but if you are recording as well I would have thought you would need something a bit beefier.
          Raspberry Pi • View topic - How MUCH is XBMC/PVR working for others/you?

          I am just getting a few of my old PCs together, new mobo, processor and RAM and will then whack a load of old drives in it so I can get a Plex and FreeNAS box up and running over Xmas.
          There was a Kickstarter project recently where it was basically an overclocked Pi B running a tweaked version of XBMC. Looked quite tasty (included a 1 or 2TB drive with it for the files), but since I run all the stuff from my NAS with Plex, I couldn't justify the cost.

          Wish I had now.
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          Click here to get 15% off your first year's IPSE membership

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            #25
            I have a couple around the house. One is running OpenElec as a media player and the other is running as an OpenHab home automation server. Great for media, although it can struggle a little for home automation.
            Kind Regards,

            Paul

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              #26
              As an educational project for my kids, we built a remote control lego car.
              The kids had a lot to learn - the pi itself, linux, python, wireless networking, GPIO, electronics, android programming. It was too much for them so I will revisit it when they are a little older. (they were 9 and 7 at the time) and the car got quite big by the time it had a pi on board, motor driver, power supplies and cables.

              I wrote an android app to control it. Worked well although the steering needed improving.

              I also started working on using a pi to replace my broken GSM remote automated gates but couldn't get the pi to communicate with the GSM modem so it is on the shelf just now until I get some more time.

              Aside from that, minecraft and XBMC. We have 3 pi's
              And who buys cases? That's what lego is for!

              Al.
              Back at the coal face

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                #27
                Originally posted by slice16 View Post
                I have a couple around the house. One is running OpenElec as a media player and the other is running as an OpenHab home automation server. Great for media, although it can struggle a little for home automation.
                Right! So I can build a media player - great!

                Erm, what does a media player actually do?

                (I use my iPhone/iPad when I listen to the radio or watch iPlayer/Kindle movies...)
                "I can put any old tat in my sig, put quotes around it and attribute to someone of whom I've heard, to make it sound true."
                - Voltaire/Benjamin Franklin/Anne Frank...

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                  #28
                  Originally posted by cojak View Post
                  Right! So I can build a media player - great!

                  Erm, what does a media player actually do?
                  OpenELEC Mediacenter - What Is OpenELEC?

                  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txm_3dUpqQg

                  and loo lights!

                  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZszlVVY1LXo

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                    #29
                    Ta vet!

                    *toddles off to investigate...*
                    "I can put any old tat in my sig, put quotes around it and attribute to someone of whom I've heard, to make it sound true."
                    - Voltaire/Benjamin Franklin/Anne Frank...

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                      #30
                      Originally posted by cojak View Post
                      Ta vet!

                      *toddles off to investigate...*
                      Raspberry Pi Projects

                      https://hackaday.io/projects/tag/raspberry%20pi

                      Raspberry Pi • View forum - Projects

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