Just curious if any of our fellow PriusChatters are playing with a Raspberry Pi? The reason I ask is I'm trying to use their Debian port and it looks like 'aptitude' and/or their mirror is severely broken. I'm trying some of the user forums but some of their suggestions . . . not good. It also looks like some of the Debian crowd really doesn't like the Raspberry because of a proprietary loader(?). Bob Wilson
I'm much happier now. The laptop working at the internet access had a 'quirk' and once I figured it out, aptitude worked perfectly. Bob Wilson
Bump. So..... I've reached a state of quiescence on my bicycle for now and I'm needing another time drain. Well.... No, that's not true at all, but I'm curious if anybody out there likes pi (raspberry, orange or banana.) I'm thinking of a home-brew security system or maybe some light automation, and I've discovered that there NOW are a butt-ton of single board computers out there, including at least one windows driver. As something of a minimalist, I'm thinking that my first tinker project will be in a Raspberry Pi Zero. That particular fruit seems to be the Prius of single board computers, with follow-on units trying to be the "Raspberry Pi killer.".......mostly unsuccessfully. Anybody else?
I mostly do Arduino boards and smaller chips for smaller size apps. I tend to think of Raspberry Pi as enabling video output which I am not usually trying for in my apps. You have to say what specifically you are trying to automate, and then ask if Rapsberry Pi is the best board vs. say Arduino. Or if you are just interested in learning Raspberry Pi, then have at it.
I have three Pi's. One for a file server on a home network, one for a media player near the TV and one to play with on the bench. The two dedicated machines have been working really well at their tasks. The tinkering board is now laying dormant, but I will find something to do with it. These are wonderful boards. I never played with Arduino so much, but have a Parallax Propeller board that is also pretty nifty and cheap. Seems like maybe an OBDII reader can be fashioned out of either Arduino, Parallax or Pi fairly easily. Perhaps a more accurate traction battery monitor with dedicated probes into the cells. I would love to hear more ideas on this.
I think I'm going to just tinker with learning the ins and outs of pi for now as a tinker project. I'm the kind of guy who will spend 4 hours with a new Linux distro on an old laptop getting it juuuuuuuust the way I want it and then seeing another one that I just have to try. That's why my Linux knowledge is a mile wide and an inch deep. I was thinking of making a home-brew video enabled security system just for grins. I live in a small town and wouldn't even bother with locking the doors if it weren't for my CFO....but.....you never know. The buy in for a pi seems to be <$50 and the fact that they're all now wifi and bluetooth enabled seem to make them more useful for tinkering with things like web-enabled monitoring....... Just rolling things around in my head for now. Seems like a lot of potential for $50........... But.... $50 will also buy a base model shot shell loader and I've always wanted to tinker with rubber balls, rock salt and rice......
You certainly get lots of bang for your buck with the Raspberry Pi. Got the second version for my teenaged grandson to encourage him into programming. Sadly the initial enthusiasm soon waned as he honed grumpy young man attitude. Surely we were never like like that!
I now own an RPI3 and a knock-off Arduino.....the former of which I'm using to re-purpose an old brinks system that was zorched by lightning for use as a tripwire system. Once I prove it on the bench, I'll go live with a Pi-Zero W, and use the Pi3 for the next lightning bug that I chase. The Arduino I'm thinking of using as a doorbell-to-text, and then maybe some home automation projects. Unfortunately.............I've only been able to peck away at it for a minute here and a minute there, but it's probably about the most fun I've had with $30 in a while.
