getting started with the raspberry pi - raynet-uk

Getting Started with the Raspberry Pi (The Internet of Things and its potential for Raynet)

Raynet Spring Convention – 22nd March 2015 Andy Russell, G0VRM

Raspberry Pi

• What is a Raspberry Pi ?

• What can I do with it ?

• How do I get Started ?

• Where do I get help ?

Demonstrations

What is a Raspberry Pi ?

• Introduction In 1965 Gordon Moore wrote a paper which described how the number of

devices on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years.

The Raspberry Pi is part of a family of low cost and low power devices that have the potential to change the way we look at computing...

Moore, Gordon E. (1965). "Cramming more components onto integrated circuits“


• History The concept of developing a the Raspberry Pi came about in 2006 when Eben

Upton noted a decline in both the numbers and the programming skills of the people that were applying to study Computer Science at Cambridge University.

Changes in the way people interact with computers

The typical home computer of the 1980s has been replaced by games consoles and Windows PCs. Neither of which offer easily accessible programming tools.

Changes in the School Curriculum

Computer Science has been replaced with Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in schools. Whilst people applying in the 1990s were hobbyist programmers, the majority of applicants in 2006 had only written web pages


• The Raspberry Pi Foundation The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a Charity set up with the aim of promoting the

study of computer science and related topics, especially at school level, and to put the fun back into learning computing.

The foundation paired with RS Components and Element 14 (Farnell) who organised the manufacture and distribution of the devices under licence.

The first 10,000 devices were made in China, however manufacture has now moved to the Sony Technology Centre in Pencoed in South Wales. In Oct 2013 they announced in October 2013 they have made 1,000,000 Raspberry Pi s


Video


• The Raspberry Pi The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer based on the Broadcom BC2835

System on a Chip (SoC) which has a 32-bit ARM 11 CPU and a Graphics Processor, its RAM memory is mounted directly above the CPU using Package on Package

The Raspberry Pi does not have any onboard storage - it uses an SD Card

Two USB Ports

Ethernet

Composite Video & Audio

HDMI Video

General Purpose I/O

Micro USB Power In

SD Card Slot (Underneath)

• The Raspberry Pi Evolution


Raspberry Pi Model B

Raspberry Pi Model B+

Raspberry Pi 2

Raspberry Pi Model A+

Raspberry Pi Model A

Cost £30

Cost £17


• Raspberry Pi 2 – Feb 2015 The Raspberry Pi 2 has a 900MHz Quad Core ARM-7 Cortex CPU, 1GB of RAM,

four USB Ports, and an extended 40-Pin GPIO Header.

Four USB Ports

Ethernet

Composite Video & Audio

HDMI Video

Extended General Purpose I/O

Micro USB Power In

Micro SD (Underneath)

6x more power!


• Raspberry Pi Camera The Raspberry Pi camera is a 5 Mega Pixel fixed-focus camera that can be used to

take high-definition video, as well as still photographs. There are lots of examples online of people using it for time-lapse, slow-motion and other video effects.

It attaches via a 15cm ribbon cable to the CSI port on the Raspberry Pi.

A version is available with the infra-red filter removed that can be used for low-light and effects photography.

What is a Raspberry PI ?

• Other Devices The Raspberry Pi is only one of family of such devices, the most notable being

the Arduino – it is programmed using a “C-Like” language that is compiled and uploaded to the device.

The Arduino Nano contains an Atmel Atmega 328 with 16k of Flash memory!

What can I do with it ?

• Learn to program using Scratch Scratch was developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at MIT.

Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively; whilst programming their own interactive stories, games, and animations

Build blocks of code Into structures

Share projects online


• Program in Python Raspbian comes preloaded with Python, the official programming language of the

Raspberry Pi (and where the Pi in Raspberry Pi comes from). It also comes with IDLE, a Python Integrated Development Environment - named after Eric Idle!

Python is an interpreted high level programming language with an emphasis on readability, it supports both Procedural and Object Oriented Programming and can be used for a variety of tasks from web scripting to interfacing.

The PiFace is an Input / Output

Expansion Board for the Raspberry Pi

which allows it to sense and control

the real world – Python is used to provide

access to these functions from within Scratch


• Python script to send a message via APRS


• The Internet of Things (IoT) The small size and low power requirements of the Raspberry Pi make it

ideal for applications where physical objects or “things” are given sensors and the ability to exchange data over computer or radio networks.

APRS is good example as it uses GPS to sense the position of the “thing” and shares this data over a radio network giving us the ability to track vehicles and people such as walkers, runners, horse riders etc.

However, if amateur radio is used then the person carrying the device must be a licenced radio amateur and it cannot be used in aeronautical applications such as balloons or model aircraft.


• High Altitude Balloons A telemetry board is available that allows balloon flights to be tracked and

uses the Raspberry Pi camera to provide live images.

GPS Data is transmitted using a 433MHz licence-free module using RTTY and can be received on the ground using a low-cost DVB-T dongle and decoded using a version of FL-Digi - data is shared via the Internet to assist recovery.


• UKHAS.net A wireless mesh network developed for High Altitude Balloons using 868 MHz

low power licence exempt wireless modules. These modules are low cost, and use a simple routing algorithm to encourage widespread development and deployment.

These modules are a self-contained transceiver that contains all the electronics to do the modulation and demodulation, they communicate with the host processor using the SPI interface – unbelievably they cost less than £5


• Your own personal D-Star Gateway An image is available from Western D-Star that contains a full implementation

of the D-Star ircDDB gateway software that allows you to set up a hotspot.

Michael VK5ZEA has a very good example on YouTube Channel


• AMBE Gateway A board is available for the Raspberry Pi from NW Digital Radio that contains

the AMBE 3000 speech codec chip used in D-Star, Fusion and DMR. This could act as a gateway between voice-over-IP and digital voice enabling SIP calls to be made to a D-Star hand-held.


• Remote SDR Receiver The Funcube Dongle and DVB-T dongles based on the Realtek RTL2832U chipset

can be used with the Raspberry Pi as a remote Software Defined Receiver – the receiver is controlled by the command-line and data is streamed via the network to the host PC via UDP.

http://m3php.com/2012/10/10/remote-sdr-using-raspberry-pi-rtl_tcp/

Using SDR# select RTL-SDR / TCP and fill out the IP address of the Raspberry Pi – then press play!

You’ll need to download the tools from RTL-SDR and install a few packages to make it work.


• WSPR Beacon Transmitter The Raspberry Pi can be used as a very simple WSPR beacon by connecting GPIO

port to Antenna (and LPF). It operates on the LF, MF, HF and VHF bands.

http://github.com/threeme3/WsprryPi

Alternatively the WSPR program can be compiled for the Raspberry Pi and used to drive a transceiver

http://www.george-smart.co.uk/wiki/RaspberryPi_WSPR

The propagation maps can be displayed using an iPad App.

How do I get started ?

A micro SD card can be used with an adapter

1. Choose a suitable SD Card The SD card needs to be at least 4GB in size and must be Class 4 or better.

The Class is shown in the small circle and indicates how fast the card is.

Before this card can be used with the Raspberry Pi computer, it must first be formatted and loaded with an operating system. In most cases this is Linux...

2. Format the SD Card Download SD Card Formatter from the SD Card Association www.sdcard.org

Insert the SD Card into your computer’s SD Card slot and format it – this utility formats the whole card not just the partitions that are visible to Windows.


Select Format Size Adjustment to restore the card to its original size

3. Download the Software It is recommended that first time Raspberry Pi users should start by downloading

the New Out of Box Software (NOOBS) software which is available from the Raspberry Pi website.

4. Extract the Zip file onto the SD Card Right Click the File and select Extract All – copy the files onto your SD Card


Other software may require an image file to be written to the card using Win32 Disk Imager

5. Connect a Display The Raspberry Pi is designed to work with TVs and monitors with an HDMI input.

It can also be used with analogue displays using composite video.

VGA isn’t supported directly – there is an “official” adapter sold by Element 14

6. Connect a USB Keyboard and Mouse The Raspberry Pi has two USB ports which are both used up just by plugging in a

keyboard and mouse, a cordless keyboard and mouse is recommended !


7. Connect to a Network The Raspberry Pi can be connected via its built-in 10/100 MB Ethernet port to

wired networks – A WiFi dongle is available from Element 14

A network connection isn’t essential but it makes updating and getting new software for your Raspberry Pi much easier.

8. Power Up A micro USB power supply that can provide at least 700mA at 5V is required

Many mobile phone and tablet chargers are suitable – check the label.


9. Select Display and Localisation

On first boot NOOBS will resize the FAT partition to a minimum which allows it to create the partition required for the Installation – this is hidden from Windows

If you can’t see anything on your display at this stage don’t worry – by default the Raspberry Pi will output to the HDMI port at the monitor’s preferred resolution.

Press 1, 2, 3 or 4 to select HDMI preferred mode , HDMI safe mode, PAL or NTSC

The display, language and keyboard settings are remembered between reboots and are automatically transferred to your chosen operating systems.

If you are connected to a wired network you can get help using the inbuilt web browser and automatically download the latest versions


10. Select an Operating System Select the checkbox next to the Operating Systems you want to install using the

mouse or keyboard (using the arrow keys and Enter) and click Install (or press “i”)



Raspbian is probably the best Linux environment for a beginner – The system is easy to configure, to enable SSH logins and to make it boot automatically in the user-friendly LXDE Graphic User Interface.

Risc OS can be traced back to the team that developed the ARM processor for the Acorn Archimedes – it even has it’s own version of BBC Basic.

RaspBMC turns your television into a fully-fledged media centre, and is probably one of the first real uses people have for the Raspberry Pi – to play downloaded movies from your home network!

Scratch is a graphical programming environment developed for education by MIT. It is used within the National Curriculum to teach programming at KS2 (ages 7 to 11) alongside Python.

11. Reboot If you have chosen to install multiple Operating Systems you are given a boot

menu on start up.

You can enter Recovery Mode on start up simply by holding down the Shift key


http://www.raspberrypi.org/ - quick start guide on setting up NOOBS

and links to download the software tools to setup your SD Card

http://www.themagpi.com/ - a magazine that is available both in print and as downloadable PDF files, with construction projects for the Raspberry Pi and Arduino, and tutorials in Scratch and Python

http://scratch.mit.edu/ - try out scratch from your PC’s web browser and look inside sample projects to see what others have done with it.

http://www.makethingsdostuff.co.uk/ – a website that aims to help people make the shift from consuming digital technologies to making and building things Everything from Lego cases for the Raspberry Pi to Web Servers and Robots

http://learn.adafruit.com/category/learn-raspberry-pi

Tutorials covering everything from setting up your SD Card and network to sensing things and controlling stepper motors

Where do I get help ?

Where do I get help ?

http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/by-subject/computing/raspberry-pi/

information leaflets and classroom resources

http://www.pythonschool.net/ - training for ICT teachers to gain the knowledge and skills necessary to switch to Computing and Computer Science in schools.

http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/by-subject/computing/raspberry-pi/

information leaflets and classroom resources

getting started with the raspberry pi - raynet-uk

Documents