Technology: Raspberry Pi Model B - Indie Games Studio

[Left] Raspberry Pi with case, 32GB SD Card, Wifi adapter and power [Right] Raspberry Pi Desktop

Background

Earlier this month I decided to purchase a Raspberry Pi (RPi).? Quite simply it?s a credit card sized single-board computer developed in the UK with the intention of promoting basic computer science principles in schools.? There are a number of hobbyists out there doing amazing things with it; a few are listed at arstechnica.? Besides using it as a computer to run a MAME cabinet or an XMBC Media Center, it can run a number of servers (VNC, SSH, LAMP, etc).? Running off of 5V @ 0.7A (3.5W) the estimated cost to run this computer is about $0.24/month.???

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Setup

Raspberry Pi model B comes with 2 USB ports (do not run an unpowered USB hub off it!), HDMI (1080p & ouputs audio), RCA composite out, 3.5mm jack (audio out).? Like a Mac Mini you?ll need to supply the monitor, keyboard, and mouse and unlike a Mac Mini you?ll need to supply an SD Card for storage (32GB max?).? If you?re like me you?ll only use the keyboard, mouse, and monitor for the initial setup and then remote into later from another device.? In Windows 7 (maybe earlier?) you can use ?Remote Desktop Connection? and log right in.? Of course you can use VNC if you prefer.? For an SSH client in Windows I use the very popular putty client.? On my iOS devices I use iSSH as it supports both SSH and VNC through SSH tunneling.? I know 99% of you already know this, however Mac & Linux users can use their respective ?Terminal? apps to SSH and VNC for remote desktop.

Parts breakdown:

• Raspberry Pi model B Revision 2.0 (512 MB)
• Motorola Micro-USB Home and Travel Charger (** OUTPUTS 850mA/0.8A; you need at least 700mA/0.7A to run RPi **)
• Edimax EW-7811Un 150 Mbps Wireless 11n Nano Size USB Adapter
• SB Clear Case for Raspberry Pi Computer (** Get a case!! This one fits perfectly; although it was a little tricky opening it)

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So now that you have all your parts the basic setup is as follows:

1. Download a Raspberry Pi ROM and flash it to your SD Card
2. Boot the computer and configure (FYI: there?s no ON/OFF switch; just plug it in!)
3. Update & Upgrade! (** more later)

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Here?s the tutorial I used from engadget; it?s step-by-step, concise, and I didn?t run into any issues using it.?? Once you?re done I?d recommend performing an update & upgrade:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

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Conclusion

Although it supposed to cost $35 it was a pretty big disappoint as a stand alone computer.? Although my expectations were not high due to it?s price, having seen it play Quake 3 Arena I did make a foolish assumption and thought web browsing would be relatively fast since it?s running on a very stripped down version of Debian Linux.? Browsing the internet is unbelievable slow, like really sllllllooooooowwww.? I originally planned on getting another one for my nephew so he can use it to browse the web but it was just plain awful experience.? Out of the box it wasn?t able to play flash videos , even after installing Chromium.? Perhaps this will be fixed later??

Much too slow for Unity; and no the Linux export won?t work since it uses ARM architecture.? However it does come with a visual game editor called Scratch as well as a growing python game development community.

Tags: mini computer, raspberry pi, rpi, technology

This entry was posted on February 25, 2013 at 3:19 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Posted in Technology by Jordan Thompson

Source: http://indiegamesstudio.com/blog/?p=1401

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