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Introducing Raspberry Pi B+

raspberrypi.org

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Re: Introducing Raspberry Pi B+

#51

Post by lovelearning »

copperx wrote: post #35

I still can't see why would anyone buy one except as one of those toys that you buy and then gets tossed in the closet. 10 years ago I could see the appeal, but now? The robotics, home automation, and weekend project use cases seem like would be better served by a $5 microcontroller. Some projects, such as the weather station, justify the use of a full-fledged OS, but with the cost of buying an existing, proven, weat…

I built my own home security system with a Pi as the brains to control camera streaming and do face recognition using OpenCV. Is there a $5 microcontroller that can do all that? Admittedly, it's a big load on the Pi and I'm looking for more powerful single board computers, but that again eliminates $5 MCUs.

I have another Pi working as a drop-in replacement wifi router that routes data via a USB data dongle in case my main internet connection fails. This too may be too much to ask from a $5 MCU.

Re: Introducing Raspberry Pi B+

#52

Post by makomk »

praeivis wrote: post #28

I got surprised B+ cost same as B, and they even keep B in production. That, what I miss from other manufacturers in modern world.

They'd probably piss off a lot of their developer community if they didn't keep the B in production. There's a huge number of third-party cases and projects that are built around the original connector arrangement.

Re: Introducing Raspberry Pi B+

#53

Post by learc83 »

Already__Taken wrote: post #49
learc83 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right now it's possible to back feed power with a powered hub instead of using the micro USB connection. I'd like to see the schematic to find out if that's still possible, but I can't find one yet.

This isn't a good idea though I've heard, don't you bypass some important components for power safety in the micro USB power circuit?

You're bypassing a fuse. If you have a crappy powered hub that isn't well regulated you could fry your pi.

In reality, the chance of that happening is very small, and safety here is only in the context of the "safety" of a $35 board. Most hubs won't let you draw more than a couple of amps anyway.

Re: Introducing Raspberry Pi B+

#54

Post by jiggy2011 »

tdicola wrote: post #48
jiggy2011 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that it's too slow to be used as an actual development computer, so you have to write your code on another computer and then copy it over to the pi.

Check out sshfs or similar user-mode filesystems to make the Pi look like a drive. Cyberduck is another tool that has a decent file explorer UI around SSH/SFTP and is cross platform. If you're writing C/C++ you can set up a cross compilation tool chain to write and compile code on any Linux machine. It's a pain but there are lots of blogs posts and guides on it.

Sure, but I mean you already need another computer in order to program the pi at which point you already have a computer that can run programs without the pi.

Re: Introducing Raspberry Pi B+

#55

Post by weland »

copperx wrote: post #35

I still can't see why would anyone buy one except as one of those toys that you buy and then gets tossed in the closet. 10 years ago I could see the appeal, but now? The robotics, home automation, and weekend project use cases seem like would be better served by a $5 microcontroller. Some projects, such as the weather station, justify the use of a full-fledged OS, but with the cost of buying an existing, proven, weat…

I don't have the Raspberry Pi, mainly because, since I develop embedded software for a living, I have an endless supply of development boards I can hack on at work and am free to take home (during those evenings when I am not so fucking tired of flipping bits that I don't even want to SEE C code!), but:

* A platform with less legacy crap than x86 is wonderful for learning about OS development. I don't know how the Pi fares for this, with Broadcom's chip and all, but if I had the free time to hack an OS in my spare time, not dealing with all the thirty year-old cruft nor shedding a gazillion EUR on a PowerPC system would be ideal.

* There's a legitimate audience of visual artists, musicians or just tinkerers who, as outrageous as might sound to us, long-bearded bit twiddlers, find learning anything other than Python either hopelessly complicated or just not refreshing enough. Aye, their needs would be better served by a 5-dollar MCU, but when an extra twenty dollars buying you the ability to write the code on the same computer that runs it, it's hard to resist. I find myself breaking the sacred oath of not using even one bit more than I need, too, because it's Saturday and my cat wants some attention too and I derive far more pleasure from seeing the jukebox playing music than from knowing the half-done file loader module that will eventually be part of a jukebox eighteen Saturdays from now on is so optimized that even an optimizing compiler would slash its veins in envy.

* The "cheap webserver" part is generally useful when you actually want one to interface something with the outside world over the Interwebs. I find the idea of using HTTP for much of this rather... repugnant, but there are people to whom it isn't, and a VPS isn't of much use if the requirement is to toggle this relay in response to that HTTP request.

Re: Introducing Raspberry Pi B+

#56

Post by ibisum »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #46
vlad003 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is that the Raspberry Pis are intended to be used in education. The front page says: "We want to see it being used by kids all over the world to learn how computers work, how to manipulate the electronic world around them, and how to program." That said, I use mine as a simple NAS for backups.

The problem is that it's too slow to be used as an actual development computer, so you have to write your code on another computer and then copy it over to the pi.

"Too slow"? Thats a very consumer-centric point of view. Compiling onboard is quite sufficient for most small projects, and really .. its a matter of patience, but for sure its quite usable. For those more used to the fat-IDE approach, where everything is done for you at a few clicks, its certainly not interesting .. but if you want to get really familiar with software development, doing things onboard the rPi can be a very effective way to develop. The so-called limitations of the device can also work in your favour: write smaller, tighter, leaner modules, and you don't have to wait so long in between compiles.

Not to mention that there are plenty of ways to use the rPi that don't require compiling. I myself use an onboard Lua environment, which just plain rocks .. ssh in, open up vim, edit Lua .. run in another terminal. Quite a comfortable environment, and I hardly even care that its on a 'small/slow CPU' (after all, I lost interest in the speed race decades ago. Those of us who grew up building the Linux kernel on MHz-class machines don't feel your pain.)

Re: Introducing Raspberry Pi B+

#58

Post by jiggy2011 »

ibisum wrote: post #56
jiggy2011 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that it's too slow to be used as an actual development computer, so you have to write your code on another computer and then copy it over to the pi.

"Too slow"? Thats a very consumer-centric point of view. Compiling onboard is quite sufficient for most small projects, and really .. its a matter of patience, but for sure its quite usable. For those more used to the fat-IDE approach, where everything is done for you at a few clicks, its certainly not interesting .. but if you want to get really familiar with software development, doing things onboard the rPi can be…

Hooking the Pi up to a monitor and using it to actually edit on is extremely slow, once you've loaded an editor a browser a couple of terminals and maybe an MP3 player it's a crawl compared to devices anyone is used to in 2014.

Re: Introducing Raspberry Pi B+

#60

Post by greyman »

copperx wrote: post #35

I still can't see why would anyone buy one except as one of those toys that you buy and then gets tossed in the closet. 10 years ago I could see the appeal, but now? The robotics, home automation, and weekend project use cases seem like would be better served by a $5 microcontroller. Some projects, such as the weather station, justify the use of a full-fledged OS, but with the cost of buying an existing, proven, weat…

My colleague uses it to run a python script to periodically download and store virtual currency prices. As I understand it, it is useful if you want to download stuff from the internet in certain time intervals.
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