Description of this Free E-Book:
This book explores a number of things you can do with your Raspberry Pi, from controlling hardware with Python, to using it as a media centre, or building games in Scratch. The beauty of the Raspberry Pi is that it’s just a very tiny general-purpose computer (which may be a little slower than you’re used to for some desktop applications, but much better at some other stuff than a regular PC), so you can do anything you could do on a regular computer with it. In addition, the Raspberry Pi has powerful multimedia and 3D graphics capabilities, so it has the potential to be used as a games platform, and we very much hope to see people starting to write games for it.
We think physical computing—building systems using sensors, motors, lights and microcontrollers—is something that gets overlooked in favor of pure software projects in a lot of instances, and it’s a shame, because physical computing is massive fun. To the extent that there’s any children’s computing movement at the moment, it’s a physical computing movement. The LOGO turtles that represented physical computing when we were kids are now fighting robots, quad copters or parent-sensing bedroom doors, and we love it. However, the lack of General Purpose Input/output (GPIO) on home PCs is a real handicap for many
people getting started with robotics projects. The Raspberry Pi exposes GPIO so you can get to work straight away.
I keep being surprised by ideas the community comes up with which wouldn’t have crossed my mind in a thousand years: the Australian school meteor-tracking project; the Britton Scouts in the UK and their robot, which is controlled via an electroencephalography headset (the world’s first robot controlled by Scouting brain waves); the family who are building a robot vacuum cleaner. And I’m real space cadet, so reading about the people sending Raspberry Pies into near-earth orbit on rockets and balloons gives me Goosebumps.
Success for us would be another 1,000 people every year taking up Computer Science at the university level in the UK. That would not only be beneficial for the country, the software and hardware industries, and the economy; but it would be even more beneficial for every one of those 1,000 people, who, I hope, discover that there’s a whole world of possibilities and a great deal of fun to be had out there. Building a robot when you’re a kid can take you to places you never imagined—I know because it
happened to me!
—Eben Upton
Author:
Eben Upton is a founder and trustee of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and serves as its Executive Director. He is responsible for the overall software and hardware architecture of the Raspberry Pi, and for the Foundation’s relationships with its key suppliers and customers. In an earlier life, he founded two successful mobile games and middleware companies, Idea works 3d Ltd. And Pod fun Ltd., and held the post of Director of Studies for Computer Science at St John’s College, Cambridge. He holds a BA, a PhD and an MBA from the University of Cambridge.
Download Link for Free E-Book:
Raspberry Pi Users Guide Free E-Book
Table of Content:
Introduction
Programming is fun !
A bit of history
So what can you do with the Raspberry Pi?
Part I: Connecting the Board
Chapter 1: Meet the Raspberry Pi
ARM vs. x86
Windows vs. Linux
Getting Started with the Raspberry Pi
Connecting a Display
Connecting Audio
Connecting a Keyboard and Mouse
Flashing the SD Card
Connecting External Storage
Connecting the Network
Connecting Power
Chapter 2: Linux System Administration
Linux: An Overview
Linux Basics
Introducing Debian
Using External Storage Devices
Creating a New User Account
File System Layout
Logical Layout
Physical Layout
Installing and Uninstalling Software
Finding Software
Installing Software
Uninstalling Software
Upgrading Software
Chapter 3: Troubleshooting
Keyboard and Mouse Diagnostics
Power Diagnostics
Display Diagnostics
Boot Diagnostics
Network Diagnostics
The Emergency Kernel
Chapter 4: Network Configuration
Wired Networking
Wireless Networking
Chapter 5: Partition Management
Creating a New Partition
Resizing Existing Partitions
Automatic Resizing
Manual Resizing
Moving to a Bigger SD Card
Imaging from Linux
Imaging from OS X
Imaging from Windows
Chapter 6: Configuring the Raspberry Pi
Hardware Settings—config.txt
Modifying the Display
Boot Options
Overclocking the Raspberry Pi
Disabling L2 Cache
Enabling Test Mode
Memory Partitioning—start.elf
Software Settings—cmdline.txt
Part II: Using the Pi as a Media Centre, Productivity Machine and Web Server
Chapter 7: The Pi as a Home Theatre PC
Playing Music at the Console
Dedicated HTPC with Rasbmc
Streaming Internet Media
Streaming Local Network Media
Configuring Rasbmc
Chapter 8: The Pi as a Productivity Machine
Using Cloud-Based Apps
Using OpenOffice.org
Image Editing with The Gimp
Chapter 9: The Pi as a Web Server
Installing a LAMP Stack
Installing WordPress
Part III: Programming and Hacking
Chapter 10: An Introduction to Scratch
Introducing Scratch
Example 1: Hello World
Example 2: Animation and Sound
Example 3: A Simple Game
Robotics and Sensors
Sensing with the PicoBoard
Robotics with LEGO
Further Reading
Chapter 11: An Introduction to Python
Introducing Python
Example 1: Hello World
Example 2: Comments, Inputs, Variables and Loops
Example 3: Gaming with pygame
Example 4: Python and Networking
Further Reading
Chapter 12: Hardware Hacking
Electronic Equipment
Reading Resistor Colour Codes
Sourcing Components
Online Sources
Offline Sources
Hobby Specialists
The GPIO Port
UART Serial Bus
I²C Bus
SPI Bus
Using the GPIO Port in Python
Installing the GPIO Python Library
GPIO Output: Flashing an LED
GPIO Input: Reading a Button
Moving Up From the Breadboard
A Brief Guide to Soldering
Chapter 13: Add-on Boards
Ciseco Slice of Pi
Adafruit Prototyping Pi Plate
Fen Logic Gertboard
Part IV: Appendixes
Appendix A: Python Recipes
Appendix B: HDMI Display Modes
