raspberry pi(E)

[krissy]

any of you guys tinker with these?

what did you make?

will you be getting the zero? i will once it's available again

i want to make a media server and an emu box and maybe a phone if im bored enough

[Formalhaut]

I hear lots of good things about it but I don't really know what to make of it.

[Shoeberto]

One of my "someday" projects is to build a small home file server, with ownCloud (https://owncloud.org/) for automatic file synching, and just general Samba file sharing. Overall the cost of investment in the project is pretty small - < $200 or so for the rpi, hard drive and HDD enclosure - but I just haven't committed yet. The low power consumption is really attractive to me when compared to repurposing old desktop hardware.

The rpi zero really intrigues me. It's so tiny! You could make so many home projects like that. I'm tempted to see what kind of servos I could get to automate coffee brewing or something silly like that. At $5 you could do a lot of home automation projects relatively cheaply.

[CimminyCricket]

I'm super lame and used mine to make a retro console. I like that it can run almost every emulated game out there. Set up was a little stressful. I plan on trying to make a home file server too, but I just haven't bothered. There's a lot of cool projects that I want to tinker with, but with school and work I have trouble dedicating time to any one thing.

[Mirage]

I want one, but as an emu box it would be useless to me as it wouldn't be enough to run half the emulators I care about :p.

I'd get it mostly just as a toy.

[-N-]

I've used these and Beaglebone Blacks and I would say the BBB is slightly superior, but both are pretty disappointing. My user level is professional, so my demands may not be yours.

Supporting the Ubuntu ARM distribution makes development of complex projects on the BBB a lot easier. I currently use a BBB as an internal Samba server, an external web server, and a python development platform. I tried using it to drive a photo display, but the HDMI only supports 16-bit color, not 24-bit color. The CPU can handle it, but wow the peripheral support is awful. USB mass storage is also very slow. Using the onboard microSD is slightly better.

The RPIs do have decent USB performance but I have burned two of them doing large file transfers. It's apparently just too much work for that outdated single-core ARMv6 to move GBs from Ethernet to USB. You get what you pay for with these creatures; it's fine for messing around, but not for any next-level trout.

I will upgrade my BBB at some point to these lovely boards by Boundary Devices. https://boundarydevices.com/product/nitrogen6x-board-imx6-arm-cortex-a9-sbc/

They are a lot more coin but the Freescale iMX6 chip (esp the quad-core... woo!) is totally worth it. I know its kernel more than I care to admit, but it's developed openly and pretty robust. You could make a smartphone with this thing - Android & Ubuntu are well supported. I've designed two boards around this guy and give it a strong recommendation.

edit: I may also go a step further and get an Intel NUC. That thing should be able to do everything listed so far in this thread, simultaneously. But of course you need $500.

[Shoeberto]

I've used these and Beaglebone Blacks and I would say the BBB is slightly superior, but both are pretty disappointing. My user level is professional, so my demands may not be yours.

Supporting the Ubuntu ARM distribution makes development of complex projects on the BBB a lot easier. I currently use a BBB as an internal Samba server, an external web server, and a python development platform. I tried using it to drive a photo display, but the HDMI only supports 16-bit color, not 24-bit color. The CPU can handle it, but wow the peripheral support is awful. USB mass storage is also very slow. Using the onboard microSD is slightly better.

The RPIs do have decent USB performance but I have burned two of them doing large file transfers. It's apparently just too much work for that outdated single-core ARMv6 to move GBs from Ethernet to USB. You get what you pay for with these creatures; it's fine for messing around, but not for any next-level trout.

I will upgrade my BBB at some point to these lovely boards by Boundary Devices. https://boundarydevices.com/product/nitrogen6x-board-imx6-arm-cortex-a9-sbc/

They are a lot more coin but the Freescale iMX6 chip (esp the quad-core... woo!) is totally worth it. I know its kernel more than I care to admit, but it's developed openly and pretty robust. You could make a smartphone with this thing - Android & Ubuntu are well supported. I've designed two boards around this guy and give it a strong recommendation.

edit: I may also go a step further and get an Intel NUC. That thing should be able to do everything listed so far in this thread, simultaneously. But of course you need $500.
Is this based on RPI A/B or RPI 2? Just curious - I played with my friend's RPI B and wasn't impressed by the performance, but the RPI 2 really seems like a fairly large leap in specs if the hype is to be believed.

I finally jumped in and made the purchase but this has me somewhat concerned. Most of my needs are fileserver related (Samba is a big one) and probably for a few small projects here and there - IRC bots and whatnot. I'm hopeful that it fits the bill. I guess even if it burns out it's not that big of a financial loss though, eh?

[krissy]

we ended up getting a rpi 2+ so far we've set up kodi and emulationstation on it
i have two usb controllers (ps1 type) and it works with ps3 controllers too but havent quite worked out the kinks. pretty cool, but you definitely need a dedicated usb/wireless keyboard to get the most out of it

it's not a main workstation/desktop replacement i realize now, but fun to tinker with for a purpose like a tv box or an emu box

waiting for the next gen of these which should be able to replace computers if you need them to. sometimes i just want to commandline on my tv i guess, and for that the rpi is enough. you can kill xsession and go raw if you like.

raspbian (the OS that came with it) is all right. came with minecraft which works on it but i feel like it shouldn't.

[Shoeberto]

Depending on what you're trying to do, you can also SSH into the pi from just about any connected device. I haven't had my pi hooked up to a display device since I first installed it. Then again, I use it mostly for server-ish stuff - lots of file operations, git repo hosting, various other web projects. So if you're trying to do anything different (like launching video playback from the CLI) you might have better luck keeping a kb+m on hand.

On the other hand, Kodi has some very good keyboard-less interaction (joypads/smartphone remotes). I've also used the Rom Collection Browser add-on to some success on Windows, if you wanted an all-in-one deal for Kodi.

[Mirage]

holy smokes, a person who actually calls them "joypads".

[Slothy]

Am I in 1985 again?

On a more serious note of inquiry, anyone with experience with the raspberry pi think it'd be workable as a means of controlling a home built cnc machine? Just an idea i have rattling around my head that would be a few years off anyway so things will probably change by them anyway. :jess:

[Shoeberto]

Am I in 1985 again?

On a more serious note of inquiry, anyone with experience with the raspberry pi think it'd be workable as a means of controlling a home built cnc machine? Just an idea i have rattling around my head that would be a few years off anyway so things will probably change by them anyway. :jess:
I'd imagine that a pi + arduino controllers would be exactly what you'd be looking for. Tbh, I'd almost be surprised if there isn't already a how-to on making one with low-cost components out there somewhere.

[sharkythesharkdogg]

I was looking at these, but I'm also waiting for C.H.I.P. to officially release.

I'm not too savvy, but the idea is pretty interesting and I can think of a few applications for it with what I mess around with.

[krissy]

im also waiting for chip, but i feel like the support network is huge for rpi now

all those other pi's, the orange pi or whatever, even if their specs are better on paper, the software is not always optimized i guess

like the chinese tv boxes you can get off amazon, yeah they have 2 gigs but kodi isn't optimized for the architecture, so performance might actually be better on rpi

anyway i now want to get another one and set it up for myself but with a bigger card so i can actually fit more things on there/games etc

[krissy]

just for fun
i decided to flash and install a omsc img onto an rpi2
and hook it up to the wifi

without bluetooth and without a keyboard

which mean that

a) i had to network using laptop and phone apps
b) everything was difficult
c) i also accidentally turned off the wifi dongle going thru set up using the android remote which meant i had to REFLASH everything again ahahaha and start over, because i couldn't get into the config of the flashed image to change that option
d) but couldn't manage to do that so i had to ethernet connect into my router and access the thing from my wifi network

anyway hope you're all doing well

[Mirage]

i was looking at the pi 3, but it's a bit of a letdown that they still only have 10/100 ethernet.