Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi computer Model-B Rev1

Developer Raspberry Pi Foundation
Type Single-board computer
Release date 29 February 2012
[1]

Introductory
price
US$ 25 (model A) and US$
35 (model B)
Operating
system
Linux (Raspbian, Debian
GNU/Linux, Fedora,Arch
Linux ARM, Gentoo)
[2]
RISC
OS,FreeBSD, NetBSD, Plan
9
Power 2.5 W (model A), 3.5 W
(model B)
CPU ARM1176JZF-S (ARMv6k)
700 MHz,
[3]

Storage
capacity
SD card slot
(SD or SDHC card)
Memory 256 MB
[4]
(Model A)
512 MB (Model B rev 2)
[5]

256 MB (Model B rev 1)
Graphics Broadcom VideoCore IV
[3]

Website www.raspberrypi.org
The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card-sized single-board computer developed in
the UK by the Raspberry Pi Foundation with of the intention promoting the
teaching of basic computer science in schools.
[6][7][8][9][10]

The Raspberry Pi is manufactured through licensed manufacturing deals
with Newark element14 (Premier Farnell), RS Components and Egoman. These
companies sell the Raspberry Pi online.
[11]
Egoman produces a version for
distribution solely in China and Taiwan, which can be distinguished from other
Pis by their red coloring and lack of FCC/CE marks. The hardware is the same
across all manufacturers.
The Raspberry Pi has a Broadcom BCM2835 system on a chip (SoC),
[3]
which
includes an ARM1176JZF-S 700 MHz processor,VideoCore IV GPU,
[12]
and
was originally shipped with 256 megabytes of RAM, later upgraded to
512 MB.
[4][13]
It does not include a built-in hard disk or solid-state drive, but
uses an SD card for booting and persistent storage.
[14]
The Foundation's goal
was to offer two versions, priced at US$25 and US$35. They started accepting
orders for the higher priced model B on 29 February 2012,
[15]
and the lower cost
model A on 4 February 2013.
[16]

The Foundation provides Debian and Arch Linux ARM distributions for
download.
[17]
Tools are available for Python as the main programming
language,
[18][19]
with support for BBC BASIC
[20]
(via the RISC OS image or the
Brandy Basic clone for Linux),
[21]
C,
[18]
andPerl.
[18]

Contents
[hide]
1 History
o 1.1 Pre-launch
o 1.2 Launch
o 1.3 Post-launch
2 Hardware
o 2.1 Specifications
o 2.2 Accessories
3 Software
o 3.1 Driver API
o 3.2 Raspbian
3.2.1 History
o 3.3 Third-party system software
o 3.4 Third party application software
o 3.5 List of operating systems
4 Reception and use
o 4.1 Community
o 4.2 Use in education
5 See also
6 References
7 External links
History[edit]


An early alpha-test board in operation. Its layout is different from the beta and
production boards.
In 2006, early concepts of the Raspberry Pi were based on
the Atmel ATmega644 microcontroller. Its schematics and PCB layout are
available for public download.
[22]
Foundation trustee Eben Upton assembled a
group of teachers, academics and computer enthusiasts to devise a computer to
inspire children.
[23]
The computer is inspired by Acorn's BBC Micro of
1981.
[24][25]
The first ARM prototype version of the computer was mounted in a
package the same size as a USB memory stick.
[26]
It had a USB port on one end
and an HDMI port on the other.
Pre-launch[edit]
In August 2011, fifty Alpha boards were manufactured. These boards were
functionally identical to the planned model B,
[27]
but were physically larger to
accommodate debug headers. Demonstrations of the board showed it running
the LXDE desktop on Debian, Quake 3 at 1080p,
[28]
and Full HD MPEG-
4 video over HDMI.
[29]

In October 2011, a version of RISC OS 5 was demonstrated in public, and
following a year of development the port was released for general consumption
in November 2012.
[30][31][32][33]



Certificate of authenticity for an auctioned board
In December 2011, twenty-five model B Beta boards were assembled and
tested
[34]
from one hundred unpopulated PCBs.
[35]
The component layout of the
Beta boards was the same as on production boards. A single error was
discovered in the board design where some pins on the CPU were not held high;
it was fixed for the first production run.
[36]
The Beta boards were demonstrated
booting Linux, playing a 1080p movie trailer and
the Rightware Samurai OpenGL ES benchmark.
[37]

During the first week of 2012, the first 10 boards were put up for auction
on eBay.
[38][39]
One was bought anonymously and donated to the museum atThe
Centre for Computing History in Suffolk, England.
[40][41]
The ten boards (with a
total retail price of 220) together raised over 16,000,
[42]
with the last to be
auctioned, serial number No. 01, raising 3,500.
[43]
In advance of the anticipated
launch at the end of February 2012, the Foundation's servers struggled to cope
with the load placed by watchers repeatedly refreshing their browsers.
[44]

Launch[edit]


Raspberry Pi Model A
The first batch of 10,000 boards was manufactured in Taiwan and China.
[45][46]

Shipping delays for the first batch were announced in March 2012, as the result
of installation of an incorrect Ethernet port,
[47][48]
but the Foundation expected
that manufacturing quantities of future batches could be increased with little
difficulty if required.
[49]

"We have ensured we can get them [the Ethernet connectors with magnetics] in
large numbers and Premier Farnell and RS Components [the two distributors]
have been fantastic at helping to source components," Upton said.
Initial sales commenced 29 February 2012
[50]
at 06:00 UTC;. At the same time,
it was announced that the Model A, originally to have had 128 MB of RAM,
was to be upgraded to 256 MB before release.
[15]
The Foundation's website also
announced: "Six years after the project's inception, we're nearly at the end of
our first run of development although it's just the beginning of the Raspberry
Pi story."
[51]
The web-shops of the two licensed manufacturers selling Raspberry
Pi's within the United Kingdom, Premier Farnell and RS Components, had their
websites stalled by heavy web traffic immediately after the
launch.
[52][53]
Unconfirmed reports suggested that there were over two million
expressions of interest or pre-orders.
[54]
The official Raspberry Pi Twitter
account reported that Premier Farnell sold out within a few minutes of the initial
launch, while RS Components took over 100,000 pre orders on day one.
[15]
As
of September 2012, about 500,000 boards had been sold.
[55]

Manufacturers were reported in March 2012 to be taking a "healthy number" of
pre-orders.
[56]

Post-launch[edit]
On 16 April 2012 reports started to appear from the first buyers who had
received their Raspberry Pi.
[57][58]
As of 22 May 2012 over 20,000 units have
been shipped.
[59]
On 16 July 2012 it was announced that 4000 units were being
manufactured per day, allowing Raspberry Pis to be bought in bulk.
[60][61]
On 5
September 2012 the Raspberry Pi Foundation announced a second revision of
the Model B Raspberry Pi.
[62]
On 6 September 2012 it was announced that in
future the bulk of Raspberry Pi units would be manufactured in the UK,
at Sony's manufacturing facility inPencoed, Wales. The Foundation estimates
the plant will produce 30,000 units per month, and will create about 30 new
jobs.
[63][64]
In October 2012 it was reported that some customers of one of the
two main distributors had been waiting more than six months for their orders.
This was reported to be due to difficulties in sourcing the CPU and conservative
sales forecasting by this distributor.
[65]

On 17 December 2012 the Raspberry Pi Foundation, in collaboration with
IndieCity and Velocix, opened the Pi Store, as a "one-stop shop for all your
Raspberry Pi (software) needs". Using an application included in Raspbian,
users can browse through several categories and download what they want.
Software can also be uploaded for moderation and release.
[66]

In October 2013 the Foundation announced that the one millionth Pi had been
manufactured in the United Kingdom.
[67]

In November 2013 they announced that the two millionth Pi shipped between
October 24 and October 31.
[68]

Hardware[edit]


Location on the PCB of connectors and major ICs


Block diagram of the Model-B;
in a Model-A the lowest two blocks and the rightmost block are missing (note
that these three blocks are in a chip that actually contains a three-port USB hub,
with a USB Ethernet adapter connected to one of its ports).
In the Model-A the USB port is connected directly to the SoC.


A Raspberry Pi system running an X server
Initial sales were of the Model B, with Model A following in early 2013. Model
A has one USB port and no Ethernet controller, and will cost less than the
Model B with two USB ports and a 10/100 Ethernet controller.
[69]

Though the Model A doesn't have an 8P8C (RJ45) Ethernet port, it can connect
to a network by using an external user-supplied USB Ethernet or Wi-Fiadapter.
On the model B the Ethernet port is provided by a built-in USB Ethernet
adapter. As is typical of modern computers, generic
USB keyboardsand mice are compatible with the Raspberry Pi.
[14]

The Raspberry Pi does not come with a real-time clock,
[7]
so an OS must use
a network time server, or ask the user for time information at boot time to get
access to time and date for file time and date stamping. However, a real-time
clock (such as the DS1307) with battery backup can be added via
theIC interface.
On 20 April 2012 the schematics for the Model-A and Model-B were released
by the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
[70]

Hardware accelerated video (H.264) encoding became available on 24 August
2012 when it became known that the existing license also covered encoding.
Previously it was thought that encoding would be added with the release of the
announced camera module.
[71][72]
However, no stable software support exists for
hardware H.264 encoding.
[73]

At the same time the Raspberry Pi Foundation released two additional codecs
that can be bought separately, MPEG-2 and Microsoft's VC-1. Also it was
announced that the Pi will support CEC, enabling it to be controlled with the
television's remote control.
[74]

On 5 September 2012, a revision 2.0 board was announced, with a number of
minor corrections and improvements.
[75]

On 15 October 2012, the Raspberry Pi foundation announced that new
Raspberry Pi model B's would be fitted with 512 MB instead of 256
MB RAM.
[13]

Specifications[edit]

Model A Model B
Target
price:
[7]

US$ 25 US$ 35
[76]

SoC:
[7]

Broadcom BCM2835 (CPU, GPU, DSP, SDRAM, and
single USB port)
[3]

CPU:
700 MHz ARM1176JZF-S core (ARM11 family, ARMv6
instruction set)
[3]

GPU:
Broadcom VideoCore IV @ 250 MHz
[77][78]

OpenGL ES 2.0 (24 GFLOPS)
MPEG-2 and VC-1 (with license
[74]
), 1080p30 h.264/MPEG-4
AVC high-profile decoder and encoder
[3]

Memory
(SDRAM):
256 MB (shared
with GPU)
512 MB (shared with GPU) as of 15
October 2012
USB 2.0
ports:
[14]

1 (direct from
BCM2835 chip)
2 (via the built in integrated 3-port USB
hub)
[69]

Video input:
A CSI input connector allows for the connection of a RPF
designed camera module
[79]

Video
outputs:
[7]

Composite RCA (PAL and NTSC), HDMI (rev 1.3 &
1.4),
[80]
raw LCD Panels via DSI
[81][82]

14 HDMI resolutions from 640350 to 19201200 plus
various PAL and NTSC standards.
[83]

Audio
outputs:
[7]

3.5 mm jack, HDMI, and, as of revision 2
boards, IS audio
[84]
(also potentially for audio input)
Onboard
storage:
[14]

SD / MMC / SDIO card slot (3.3V card power support only)
Onboard
network:
[7][14]

None
10/100 Ethernet (8P8C) USB adapter on
the third port of the USB hub
[69]

Low-level
peripherals:
8 GPIO,
[85]
UART, IC bus, SPI bus with two chip
selects, IS audio
[86]
+3.3 V, +5 V, ground
[77][87]

Power
ratings:
300 mA (1.5 W)
[88]
700 mA (3.5 W)
Power
source:
[7]

5 volt via MicroUSB or GPIO header
Size: 85.60 mm 53.98 mm (3.370 in 2.125 in)
[89]

Weight: 45 g (1.6 oz)
[90]

Operating
systems:
Arch Linux ARM,
[2]
Debian
GNU/Linux, Gentoo, Fedora, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Plan
9, Raspbian OS, RISC OS,
[30]
Slackware Linux
[91]





Web Control of Raspberry Pi GPIO (UPDATED)
by drcurzon
Download
7 Steps
+ Collection
Favorite



Hi there,
This is an updated version of my previous Instructable: Control Stuff with your
Raspberry Pi (GPIO) Over the internet.

This version is much more secure and could easily be used across the internet
with very few security concerns.

A brief outline:
- A server program that runs on the Raspberry Pi to read variables
- A MySQL database to store the variables in
- An Apache2 served webpage to allow control of the variables
Step 1: Knowledge Base






You must have the following running on your Raspberry Pi:
- Apache web server
- PHP5
- MySQL Server
- phpMyAdmin would help

You can find instructions for this here.

It may help to read up on my other Instructable: Control Stuff with your
Raspberry Pi (GPIO) so you know what;s going on.
Step 2: Enable Root Account








Okay - Skip this if you have the root account enabled already, otherwise
continue reading.

Login to your Raspberry Pi with your username and password, then type the
following:

sudo -i
passwd root

Now, type in (and confirm) a password for the root account.

Then you need to colse the SSH session, and restart it - logging in as root.
A. Introduction
1. What is a Raspberry Pi?
The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a
keyboard. It is a capable little computer which can be used in electronics
projects, and for many of the things that your desktop PC does, like
spreadsheets, word-processing and games. It also plays high-definition video.
We want to see it being used by kids all over the world to learn programming.
-Introduction
-Top
2. Can I buy shares in the Raspberry Pi Foundation?
The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a charity, so you cant buy shares in the
company. If you want to support us, we would love you to buy a Raspberry Pi.
-Introduction
-Top
B. BUYING AND SHIPPING
1. Where can I buy one?
You can buy the Raspberry Pi through Premier Farnell/Element 14 and RS
Components/Allied Electronics. Both distributors sell all over the world.
In mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau you can also buy directly
through Egoman Technology Corp.
-Buying and Shipping
-Top
2. How much does it cost?
The Model A costs $25 and the Model B costs $35, plus local taxes and
shipping/handling fees.
-Buying and Shipping
-Top
3. What do I get when I buy one?
You get the Raspberry Pi board itself. A power supply or SD cards are not
included, but can be purchased at the same time from Farnell and RS. You can
also purchase preloaded SD cards too; we recommend buying these from our
licenced distributors rather than from third parties on eBay, as the software is
being updated all the time.
-Buying and Shipping
-Top
4. Why is the price in US Dollars? You are a UK company!
The components we buy are priced in dollars, and we negotiate manufacturing
in dollars. Because currency markets are so volatile, we price the final board in
dollars too so we dont have to keep changing the price.
-Buying and Shipping
-Top
5. Is there a buy-one-give-one program?
Not yet. We may implement a program of this sort one day, but you can also
just buy an extra one to donate to the person or organization of your choice if
you prefer.
-Buying and Shipping
-Top
6. Is the device available internationally?
Yes.
-Buying and Shipping
-Top
7. I want to be a Raspberry Pi reseller.
We have an exclusive distribution arrangement with RS and Farnell. Resellers
that chose to do so are buying the Raspberry Pi in bulk from them (which
reduces shipping costs to nearly nothing) and selling on. You do not need any
special license to resell, and they are very happy to sell on to resellers.
Unfortunately, because of the way the pricing model (and the fact that we are a
charity) works, you will have to buy in very large bulk before you will qualify
for any bulk discount what most resellers are doing is using it as a way to sell
high-margin peripherals and so on.
-Buying and Shipping
-Top
C. GENERAL
1. What it the Username and Password for the Raspberry Pi?
The default username for most distro is pi (without any quote marks) and the
default password is raspberry (again, do not include the quote marks). If that
does not work, check the information about your specific disto on the download
page.
-General
-Top
2. Why does nothing happen when I type in my password, did my
Raspberry Pi freeze?
To protect your information, Linux does not display anything when typing in
passwords in the bash prompt or the terminal. As long as you were able to see
the username being typed in, your keyboard is working correctly.
-General
-Top
3. What is the difference between Model A and Model B?
The Model A has 256MB RAM, one USB port and no Ethernet (network
connection). The Model B has 512MB RAM, 2 USB ports and an Ethernet port.
-General
-Top
4. How do I connect a mouse and keyboard?
The Model A has one USB port and Model B has 2 that can be used to connect
most USB 2.0 devices. Additional USB devices such as mice, keyboards,
network adapters and external storage will all connect via a USB hub.
-General
-Top
5. Where is the on/off switch?
There is no on/off switch!
To switch on: just plug it in.
To switch off: If you are in the graphical environment, either exit to the bash
prompt or open the terminal. From the bash prompt or terminal shut down the
Raspberry Pi by entering sudo halt -h (without the quote marks) . Wait until
all the LEDs except the power LED are off, then wait an additional second to
make sure the SD card can finish its wear leveling tasks and write actions. You
can now safely unplug the Raspberry Pi. Failure to properly shut the Raspberry
Pi may corrupt your SD card, and you will have to re-image it.
-General
-Top
6. Who or what is NOOBs?
NOOBs stands for New Out of Box Software. It is our recommended
installation method. It allows you to install the distro of your choice even if you
have little to no computing or Linux experience. A noob is someone who is
inexperienced: the title should be worn with pride. After all; the only people
who were never a noob at some point were those who never bothered to learn
anything at all!
-General
-Top
7. When will the next model of the Raspberry Pi be released?
As of the end of 2013, there are no immediate plans for the next model; possibly
a new model will be released in 2-3 years, but this is not a firm time frame. A
new model would inherently undo much of the community work that has been
done to date on the Raspberry Pi, which would be counter-productive to our
educational aims. We concentrate our engineering effort on making the software
that runs on the Raspberry Pi faster and better all the time which is why you
should always be running the most recent firmware.
Minor hardware revisions, such as bringing out i2s on the Model B rev. 2 board,
will occur on an as needed basis and have no set timeframe or schedule.
-General
-Top
8. What are the dimensions of the Raspberry Pi?
The Raspberry Pi measures 85.60mm x 56mm x 21mm (or roughly 3.37 x
2.21 x 0.83), with a little overlap for the SD card and connectors which
project over the edges. It weighs 45g.
-General
-Top
9. What hardware documentation is available?
All available documentation on the SoC, GPIO pins, and LAN9512 is available
on our Tech documentation page
-General
-Top
10. What SoC are you using?
The SoC is a Broadcom BCM2835. This contains an ARM1176JZFS, with
floating point, running at 700Mhz; and a Videocore 4 GPU. The GPU is capable
of BluRay quality playback, using H.264 at 40MBits/s. It has a fast 3D core
accessed using the supplied OpenGL ES2.0 and OpenVG libraries.
-General
-Top
11. What is anSoC?
SoC, or System on a Chip, is a method of placing all necessary electronics for
running a computer on a single chip. Instead of having an individual chip for the
CPU, GPU, USB controller, RAM, Northbridge, SouthBridge, etc., everything
is compressed down into one tidy package
-General
-Top
12. Why did you select the ARM1176JZFS?
Cost and performance.
-General
-Top
13. How does it boot?
All the files necessary for booting are installed in a FAT32 partition of the SD
card. The Raspberry Pi has to have an SD card installed to boot from, but a USB
HD can take over after the initial boot. You cannot boot without an SD card.
-General
-Top
14. Do you sell a self-assembly kit?
No. It would be too expensive for us to provide kits alongside finished boards,
which would mean introducing another step in manufacturing; and a kit would
be impossible to hand solder. We use special equipment (robots!) to solder on
the BGA package and other tiny components.
-General
-Top
D. PERFORMANCE AND COST CONSIDERATIONS
1. How powerful is it?
The GPU provides Open GL ES 2.0, hardware-accelerated OpenVG, and
1080p30 H.264 high-profile encode and decode.
The GPU is capable of 1Gpixel/s, 1.5Gtexel/s or 24 GFLOPs of general purpose
compute and features a bunch of texture filtering and DMA infrastructure.
This means that graphics capabilities are roughly equivalent to the original
Xboxs level of performance. Overall real world performance is something like
a 300MHz Pentium 2, only with much, much swankier graphics.
-Performance and Cost Considerations
-Top
2. Does it overclock?
The Raspberry Pi operates at 700 MHz by default. Most devices will run
happily at 800MHz. In the latest Raspbiandistro (you can download the
Raspbian image directly or install it via the NOOBs installer, both available on
our Downloads Page) there is an option to change the overclocking options on
first boot and any time afterwards by running sudoraspi-config without
voiding your warranty. It should be noted that these are experimental settings
and not every board will be able to run stably at the highest setting. If you
experience issues, try reducing the overclocking settings until stability is
restored.
-Performance and Cost Considerations
-Top
3. Does it need a heatsink?
No. The chip used in the Raspberry Pi is equivalent to a chip used in a
cellphone, neither of which become hot enough to need any special cooling. Of
course, if you just like the look of a heatsink, you will not hurt anything by
placing an appropriately sized heatsink on it.
-Performance and Cost Considerations
-Top
4. What hardware interfaces does it have?
The Raspberry Pi has 8 dedicated GPIO pins, a UART, i2c bus, SPI bus with
two chip selects, i2s audio, 3v3, 5v, and ground.
If you do not need or want to use the extra low level interfaces (UART, i2c, etc)
than the Revision 1 Raspberry Pi can natively support 17 GPIOs, the Revision 2
can support 21 GPIOs.
The maximum number of GPIOs can theoretically be indefinitely expanded by
making use of the i2c or SPI bus.
-Performance and Cost Considerations
-Top
5. Why is there no real time clock (RTC)?
The expectation is that non-network connected units will have their clocks
updated manually at startup. Adding an RTC is surprisingly expensive, once
you have factored in batteries, area and componentry, and would have pushed
us above our target price. You can add one yourself using the GPIO pins if
youre after an interesting electronics project.
-Performance and Cost Considerations
-Top
6. Can I add extra memory/Can the Raspberry Pi come with more than
512MB?
No. The RAM is a Package on Package (POP) on top of the SoC, so it is not
removable or swappable, and 512 MB is the maximum RAM the Raspberry Pi
can support since there are no manufacturers making larger-capacity compatible
devices.
-Performance and Cost Considerations
-Top
7. Why doesnt the Raspberry Pi include <insert name> piece of hardware
or <insert name> sort of port?
Our main function is a charitable one we are trying to build the cheapest
possible computer that provides a certain basic level of functionality, and
keeping the price low means weve had to make hard decisions about what
hardware and interfaces to include. We understand that this means the
Raspberry Pi will not be a perfect fit for everyone and if the lack of a specific
piece of hardware is a deal breaker then we encourage you to look into one of
the many more expensive Raspberry Pi-like boards out there.
-Performance and Cost Considerations
-Top
8. Does it blend?
Yes. We have conducted extensive virtual simulations. No Raspberry Pis were
harmed in the testing.
-Performance and Cost Considerations
-Top
E. CAMERA
1. What is the Camera Board?
The Camera Board is a small PCB that connects to the CSI-2 camera port on the
Raspberry Pi using a short ribbon cable. It provides connectivity for a camera
capable of capturing still images or video recordings. The camera connects to
the Image System Pipeline (ISP) in the Raspberry Pis SoC, where the incoming
camera data is processed and eventually converted to an image or video on the
SD card (or other storage).
-Camera
-Top
2. What model camera does the camera board use?
The camera module is an Omnivision 5647. It comparable to cameras used in
mobile phones.
-Camera
-Top
3. What resolutions are supported?
The camera module is capable of up taking photos up to 5 MegaPixels (5MP)
(25921944 pixels) and can record video at resolutions up to 1080p30
(1920x1080x30fps).
-Camera
-Top
4. What picture formats are supported?
The camera module supports raw capturing (Bayer data direct from the sensor)
or encoding as JPEG, PNG, GIF and BMP, uncompressed YUV, or
uncompressed RGB photos. It can record video as H.264, baseline, main or
high-profile formats.
-Camera
-Top
5. How do I use the camera?
There are three command line applications provided for stills, video, and stills
output uncompressed. These applications provide the typical features you might
find on a compact cameras, e.g. Set image size, compression quality, exposure
mode, ISO. See the documentation located on the Technical Documents
Page for more details.
-Camera
-Top
6. Can I extend the ribbon cable?
Yes, people have used cables up to 4 meters and still received acceptable
images, though your mileage may vary.
-Camera
-Top
7. Can I have a camera with more MPs?
No, this is the only camera module that is compatible with the Raspberry Pi.
There are currently no plans to release a higher-resolution sensor in the future
either.
-Camera
-Top
8. How much power does the camera module use?
The camera board requires 250mA to operate. Make sure you ensure your
power supply can provide enough power for the camera module as well as the
Raspberry Pi, and any peripherials directly attached to the Raspberry Pi.
-Camera
-Top
F. CASES
1. Does it come with a case?
At this time, there is no official case, however the education release planned for
2014 will have a case by default. There are lots of homebrew case discussions
on the forum as well as several third party cases available. We suggest stopping
by thecases sub-forum and reading some of the threads about cases you can
purchase or build yourself.
-Cases
-Top
2. Does it fit in an Altoids tin?
No, since the corners are not rounded and the Ethernet/USB/SD card slot stick
out just a little bit, the Raspberry Pi will not fit in an Altoids tin. If, however
you make some heavy modifications to the Altoids tin to let the corners and the
Ethernet/USB/SD card to stick out then you can mostly enclose a Raspberry Pi
with an Altoids tin. Of course, at that point you are better off hammering the top
of an Altoids tin into the top of an enclosure the Raspberry Pi can actually fit in.
-Cases
-Top
G. VIDEO
1. What displays can I use?
There is composite and HDMI out on the board, so you can hook it up to an old
analogue TV through the composite or through a composite to scart connector,
to a digital TV or to a DVI monitor (using a cheap, passive HDMI->DVI cable
for the DVI). There is no VGA support, but active adapters are available.
Passive HDMI->VGA cables will not work with the Raspberry Pi. When
purchasing an active VGA adapter, make sure it comes with an external power
supply. HDMI->VGA adapters without an external power supply often fail to
work.
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2. Does the HDMI port support CEC?
Yes, the HDMI port on the Raspberry Pi supports the CEC Standard. CEC may
be called something differently by your TVs or DVDs manufacturer;
check the Wikipedia entry on CEC for more information on the CEC standard
and the different names it is called.
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3. Why is there no VGA support?
The chip we use supports HDMI and composite outputs but does not support
VGA. VGA is considered to be an end-of-life technology, so supporting it
doesnt fit with our plans at the moment. We have polled educators and
confirmed that adding in a VGA output would not enhance the capabilities of
the Pi, nor does the lack of a VGA output detract from the capabilities of the Pi
in an educational environment.
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4. Can I add a touchscreen?
We have not experimented with any touchscreens yet, but theres no electronic
reason why it shouldnt work. There are plenty of discussions about people
using touch screens on the forums, so far the main issue people are encountering
seems to be one of cost; touchscreens are very pricey!
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5. What codecs can it play?
The Raspberry Pi can encode (record) and decode (play) h.264 (mp4/mkv) out
of the box. There are also two additional codecs you can purchase through
the Raspberry Pi Store that enables you to decode MPEG-2, a very popular and
widely used format to encode DVDs, video camera recordings, TV and many
others, and a second one that enables you to decode VC-1, a Microsoft format
found in Blu-ray discs, Windows Media, Slingbox, and HD-DVDs.

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H. AUDIO
1. Is sound over HDMI supported?
Yes.
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2. What about standard audio in and out?
There is a standard 3.5mm jack for audio out to an amplifier. You can add any
supported USB microphone for audio in, or using the I2S interface you can add
a codec for additional audio I/O.
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I. POWER
1. What are the power requirements?
The device is powered by 5v micro USB. Exactly how much current (mA) the
Raspberry Pi requires is dependent on what you hook up to it. We have found
that purchasing a 1.2A (1200mA) power supply from a reputable retailer will
provide you with ample power to run your Raspberry Pi.
Typically, the model B uses between 700-1000mA depending on what
peripherals are connected, and the model A can use as little as 500mA with no
peripherals attached. The maximum power the Raspberry Pi can use is 1 Amp.
If you need to connect a USB device that will take the power requirements of
the Raspberry Pi above 1 Amp then you must connect it to an externally
powered USB hub.
The power requirements of the Raspberry Pi increase as you make use of the
various interfaces on the Raspberry Pi. The GPIO pins can draw 50mA safely
(that is 50mA distributed across all the pins! An individual GPIO pin can only
safely draw 16mA), the HDMI port uses 50mA, the camera module requires
250mA, and keyboards and mice can take as little as 100mA or over 1000mA!
Check the power rating of the devices you plan to connect to the pi and
purchase a power supply accordingly.
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2. Can I power the Raspberry Pi from a USB Hub?
It depends on the hub. Some hubs comply with the USB 2.0 Standard and only
provide 500mA per port, which may not be enough to power your Raspberry Pi.
Other hubs view the USB standards more like guidelines, and will provide as
much power as you want out each port. Please also be aware that some hubs
have been known to backfeed the Raspberry Pi. This means that the hubs will
power the Raspberry Pi through its USB cable input cable, without the need for
a separate micro-USB power cable, and bypass the voltage protection. If you are
using a hub that backfeeds to the Raspberry Pi and the hub experiences a
power surge, your Raspberry Pi could potentially be damaged. The wiki
contains a list of tested Hubs here. The additional information column provides
details as to whether the Raspberry Pi can be powered directly off the hub and if
the hub backfeeds power to the Raspberry Pi.
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3. Can I power the Raspberry Pi from batteries as well as from a wall
socket?
Running the Raspberry Pi directly off batteries requires special care and can
result in damaging or destroying your Raspberry Pi. As such we do not
recommend it unless you know what you are doing.
For example: 4xAA rechargeable batteries would provide 4.8v on a full
charge. 4.8v would technically be just within the range of tolerance for the
Raspberry Pi, but the system would quickly become unstable as the batteries
lost their full charge.
Conversely, using 4xAA Alkaline (non-rechargeable) batteries will result in
6v. 6v is outside the acceptable tolerance range and will potentially damage or
in the worst case scenario destroy your Raspberry Pi.
It is possible to provide a steady 5v from batteries by using a buck and/or boost
circuit, or by using a charger pack which is specifically designed to output a
steady 5v from a couple of batteries (these devices are typically marketed as cell
phone emergency battery chargers). A list of verified working battery packs can
be found on the wiki here.
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4. Is power over Ethernet (PoE) possible?
Not in the base device. There are adapters that would split the voltage off the
Ethernet line before connecting to the Pi, but they are relatively expensive.
-Power
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J. SOFTWARE
1. What operating system (OS) does it use?
There are several official distributions (distros) available on
our downloads page. New users will find the NOOBs installer helps as it walks
you through the download and installation of a specific distro. The
recommended distro is Raspbian, which is specially designed for the Raspberry
Pi and which are engineers are always optimising, but it is a straightforward
process to replace the root partition on the SD card with another ARM Linux
distro, so we encourage you to try out several distros to see which one you like
the most. The OS is stored on the SD card.
-Software
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2. Does it have an official programming language?
The Raspberry Pi Foundation recommends Python as a language for learners.
Any language which will compile for ARMv6 can be used with the Raspberry
Pi, though; so you are not limited to using Python. C, C++, Java, Scratch, and
Ruby all come installed by default on the Raspberry Pi.
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3. Will it run WINE (or Windows, or other x86 software)?
Wine Is Not an Emulator. Some people have put Windows 3.1 on the Raspberry
Pi inside an x86 CPU emulator in order to use specific applications, but trying
to use a version of Windows even as recent as Windows 98 can take hours to
boot into, and take several more hours to update your cursor every time you try
to move it. We dont recommend it!
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4. Will it run the Windows 8 ARM edition?
No. Even if Microsoft decided to devote all its resources to getting Windows 8
on the Pi it would not work. The Raspberry Pi lacks the minimum memory and
CPU requirements, it runs on an version of the ARM processor that is not
supported by Windows 8, it lacks the appropriate axis sensors the list goes on
and on. The Pi will not run Windows 8.
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5. What Linux distros run on the Pi?
A complete list of the officially supported distros can be found on
our Downloads Page.
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6. Will it run Android?
No. A version of Android can be found in the forum. It is not presently stable
enough for everyday use. There are no plans to continue working on it, as
Android does not provide any enhancement to educational purposes that are not
already fulfilled more readily with existing software we see it as a platform
for consumption, not creation.
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7. Will it run <insert name of program here>?
In general, you need to look to see whether the program you want can be
compiled for the ARMv6 architecture. In most cases the answer will be yes.
Specific programs are discussed on our forum, so you might want to look there
for an answer. Ultimately, nothing beats grabbing a Raspberry Pi and finding
out the answer through direct testing!
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K. SD CARDS AND STORAGE
1. What size SD card do I need?
Whether you want to use the NOOBs installer or a stand alonedistro image,
the minimum size SD card we recommend using is 4GB. This will give you
just shy of 2GB of free space to install additional packages or make programs of
your own.
-SD Cards and Storage
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2. What size SD card can it support?
We have tried cards up to 32GB, and most cards seem to work OK. The wiki
has more information about which makes and models work best. You can also
attach a USB stick or USB hard drive for storage.
-SD Cards and Storage
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3. What happens if I brick the device?
You can restore the device by reflashing the SD card.
-SD Cards and Storage
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L. NETWORKING, USB AND WIRELESS
1. Does the device support networking?
The Model B version of the device has a built in 10/100 wired Ethernet. There
is no Ethernet on the Model A version.
-Networking, USB, and Wireless
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2 Is there built in Wi-Fi?
Neither model has built in Wi-Fi, but both can support a USB Wi-Fi dongle.
-Networking, USB, and Wireless
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3. Will there ever be a built in Wi-Fi option?
Unlikely. The SoC does not support native Wi-Fi, and adding an additional built
in Wi-Fi chip would greatly increase the cost of the Pi.
-Networking, USB, and Wireless
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4. Why is there no Gigabit Ethernet?
The Ethernet is attached via the USB 2.0 bus, so the upstream bandwidth would
not support Gigabit.
-Networking, USB, and Wireless
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5. Does the device have support for any form of netbooting or pxe?
No. However, its such a low power device that we expect it to be left on much
of the time!
-Networking, USB, and Wireless
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6. How do you connect more than two USB devices?
Use a hub to increase the number of ports. Some keyboards have hubs built in
which would work well. It is highly recommended that you use a powered hub.
-Networking, USB, and Wireless
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M. EDUCATIONAL USES
1. What educational material is available?
We are working with partners to get software materials developed, as well as
with the open source community. Computing at School are writing a user guide
and programming manual, there are many books about the Raspberry Pi, and
others have already started to produce some excellent tutorials including video.
We are also working with partners to use it as a teaching platform for other
subjects, including languages, maths and so on.
We hope that the community will help bodies like Computing at School put
together teaching material such as lesson plans and resources and push this into
schools. Theres lots of discussion of educational uses and resources in our
forums come and have a chat!
-Educational Uses
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N. ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS
I still have more questions!
Read the sticky subjects in the Beginners subform and check the wiki pages
at http://elinux.org/RaspberryPiBoard for more information. If the answer is not
there, ask it in the forums, where there are lots of helpful Raspberry Pi owners,
users and fans who will be more than happy to help you out.
-Additional Questions
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O. Glossary
BGA: ball grid array. A type of surface mount packaging for electronics.
SoC: system on chip. A computer on a single chip.
GPIO: General purpose input/output. A pin that can be programmed to do stuff.
GPU: graphics processing unit. The hardware the handles the graphics.
Distro: a specific package (flavour) of Linux and associated software.
Brick: to accidentally render a device inert by making changes to software or
firmware.
Pxe: preboot execution environment. A way to get a device to boot by via the
network.
PoE: power over ethernet. Powering a device via an ethernet cable.