Raspberry pi

[Tin Falcon]

I am probably totally crazy for buying something that takes hbby time.  but I do work some with computers ad electronics and somtimes have to do unusual interfacing. and make devices communicate with one another. And I hate having to hug the learning curve  . Maybe it is more of a push back. I have seen info on the raspberry pi computer for months and untill now they were hard to come by in the USA. I have one on the way should be in my hands by Monday afternoon.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/faqs

getting ready to burn a boot up chip  have a 4 gig I will use. went to big lots picked up a 4 port hub and a card reader both red in color. a hdmi cable and a hdmi to DVI  cable will use a monitor keyboard and mouse that I have.

so a question .
has anyone here experimented with this computer and accessories. I am thinking of adding a pi face or gert board o for real world control.

any help appreciated.
Tin

[John S]

Bought a couple when they first came out. Sent one over to Art Fenerty in Canada in the hopes he could put Mach on it or just a lathe threading program but he's having problems with it and says it's not really suitable.

Not done anything with mine, basically because i know sod all about programming etc. Was hoping to mimic what Art had done

[Tin Falcon]

thanks for the input John . not really expecting it to run a cnc  epecialy with mach. it is intended as a linux system and probably will not even handle linux cnc.

I burned a couple boot chips I have a computer guy friend that is getting one and will give him a chip/card.
it is crazy though like anything else you spend more on accessories and add ons than the device. 35 for the computer and as much for the cable to hook to a monitor. a tv is cheaper to hook to but do not really own a functioning tv.
Tin

[RonGinger]

There has been discussion of a LinuxCNC for the RasPi on the emc Mail list. It is not well regarded.

There is a similar board, the BeagleBone, and a new version of it called the BeagleBone Black that seems much more suitable. Just today a post was made with a LinuxCNC implementation.

The BBB is about $50 and based on an industrial TI chip. If a CNC app is going to happen it seems likely to on this board.

Remember, the reason the RasPi was developed was to be a cheap and simple way for kids to learn to program with Python. I/O was a minor thought.

[Tin Falcon]

thanks ron another front to watch. Technoigy is always changing. hopefully for the better.
right now I am looking at the apps that That is good at. for one it will play video. I have some cool old stuf I have wanted to play at shows but have not set up the laptop . it will do basic office stuff if I want and there is a web browser. it will not do windows.
Tin

[Tin Falcon]

interesting the BBB looks cool as well and more capable than the rasberry pi. will think about it not expensive can always pass the one i do not like to a young nephew. 
same price as a gert board. I will think on it and see for now ill try out the PI. amazing the advances in computer technology . I am glad to see tech development accessible to the masses one again at least to some degree.
Tin

[doubletop]

Being an electronics/IT guy I had to buy one. Fired it up got it running and now its a paper weight. I'll get around to doing something with it in the future. In the meantime I've got as far as the the pistons on my Bobcat engine. I'm finding machining far more gratifying than coding these days.

Pete

[RonGinger]

i did the same thing, then added it to a drawer full of boards, like Basic Stamps, Propellor Board, Arduino, Tiny Tiger, and some I dont even recall.

I started as a sales engineer for DEC in 1969. Our main product was a PDP-8, a 12 bit cpu with 4K of memory and a 1 microsec cycle time. It sold for $13,900.  a digital I/O, for I think 12 bits was about $6k.  That same year I bought a new car for about $4k. My first project was to control a glass furnace, which cost about $20k. I could do that same control today on an Arduino for under $50. I could do it with a picAxe chip for under $5.

So every time I see a new small board for under $50 I have to get one, try some of the example code just to see how they work. It is just astounding to see what we can have today. The RasPi and BBB are even more amazing, as they are full systems running a real operating system.

We did amazing things with PDP-8s in their day, but what can be done now leaves me speechless. Just wish I had more time to do more projects.

[Lew Hartswick]

If you had worked in electronics for 30 years (from vacuum tubes to LSI) when you finally retire (15 yrs ago)
You quit that sort of stuff and play with wood and metal working .  :-)
   ...lew...

[zeeprogrammer]

If you had worked in electronics for 30 years (from vacuum tubes to LSI) when you finally retire (15 yrs ago)
You quit that sort of stuff and play with wood and metal working .  :-)

If not before one retires. 

[cfellows]

I nearly bought a Rasberry pi, but kept reminding myself that my Arduino's are more than adequate for the stuff I'm doing.  I always get intriqued with newer, bigger, faster stuff, but, like some of the others have mentioned, once I get it and fool around with it for a few days, I lose interest and go back to making chips. 

It's taken me most of my lifetime to realize this, and I still suffer setbacks, but I'm far better off searching for a solution to a real world problem than trying to find a problem for what seems to be an interesting solution.

Chuck

[doubletop]

I worked on a military avionics system that was 12bit with 8k of memory (not PDP based) and we made that thing jump through hoops. I dare not think what they've got flying around these days, we may think we know from what we've read but would be wrong .

There are a number of these single board systems around these days. I see Silicon Chip (Oz) and Elecktor (EU) both have their own versions. I'd guess Circuit Cellar would have done the same. Microchip now have a micro based on the MIPS core. At one time MIPS were the bees knees when it came graphics work stations.

Chuck has it spot on

I'm far better off searching for a solution to a real world problem than trying to find a problem for what seems to be an interesting solution.

Pete

[Maryak]

Hi Guys,

I have read this thread with a great deal of interest. Alas I am no wiser now than when I started. Just goes to show how quickly I've become a dinosaur, (46₁₆). I have vague memories of a book called "Doctor Bitwiddlers Bible." from which I learned the 19 piece instruction set for an, (I think), 8086 processor, than was back in the early 80's. Now I just sit at the keyboard and never wonder what's happening under the hood.

Best Regards
Bob

[vcutajar]

Just goes to show how quickly I've become a dinosaur, (4616)

I know the feeling.  I started with computers back when one bought it as a kit and soldered it together (UK101 and Acorn Atom era).  If I remember it was the 6502 processor era.  Did some assembler, basic and visual basic programming.  I assembled all my computers during the years.  Then I realised a few years ago that technology was moving so fast that I could not keep up.  Everytime a new game came out I had to upgrade something.  So I bought a games console and relegated myself to just being a computer user.

I do not even know what's Intel or AMD latest processor.

Vince

[doubletop]

Vince

Now you're talking, UK101. (Ohio Superboard for those in the US), I've still got mine and the original ROMS which I keep meaning to rig something up to do a debug dump and see if it says something like "Microsoft Basic V1.x"  (bleeding edge at the time). Mine ended up with the addition of a Z80 and running CPM as well as the Ohio OS65.

When the PC became affordable I moved on to plug and pray

Pete