Rasberry Pi?

[Ken]

Who has one?  Do you like it?  What do you personally use it for?

[MemoryX2]

I have one.

I really like it. Its not as powerful as I would like but for the money its very nice.

I use mine as a home media center basically. I run raspbmc on it and it loads all of my media off of a NFS. It works really well, it could be better but it is still good.

[Michael]

I don't have one but I would love one to move development off site lol.

[Ken]

I have one.

I really like it. Its not as powerful as I would like but for the money its very nice.

I use mine as a home media center basically. I run raspbmc on it and it loads all of my media off of a NFS. It works really well, it could be better but it is still good.

 

That's what I was interested in using it for.  Other than just a toy I can't think of any other use for it.  Are there any other alternatives or is Raspbmc the only one?

[cloudrck]

That's what I was interested in using it for.  Other than just a toy I can't think of any other use for it.  Are there any other alternatives or is Raspbmc the only one?

I don't have a Rasberry Pi, I opted for something with more power and went with the PandaBoard from Texas Instruments. They have opensource graphic drivers for Ubuntu, so I can play full 1080p MKV files perfectly fine.

 

In addition to using it as a media server, you can setup a VPN tunnel, hook up various sensors (temperature, ambient light, CO2, water flow, etc.). Home automation seems to be gaining ground. I have an Arduino that talks to my Pandaboard sending data from it's sensors. I'm sure you can accomplish the samething with a Raspberry Pi.

[Paul]

We have one http://www.blesta.com/2013/01/17/cake-or-pie-video/

[KuJoe]

I have one that I keep for a backup PC (I have an SD card with RPITC which connects to a Windows VM <30ms away and I have an SD card with Raspbian to play around with). Mine is zip-tied to the back of my monitor so it's out the way. There was a 2 week period when my new laptop was delayed from shipping where this was my primary PC and productivity wasn't impacted at all.

[MemoryX2]

There was a 2 week period when my new laptop was delayed from shipping where this was my primary PC and productivity wasn't impacted at all.

As I previously said, I use mine for a media player.

For a long I didn't buy one because I thought it would be a joke. But a few weeks ago I borrowed a friends and I was blown away at how powerful and well HD movies play.

I have been very impressed with the pi, I may even consider buying another or two.

[Ken]

I don't have a Rasberry Pi, I opted for something with more power and went with the PandaBoard from Texas Instruments. They have opensource graphic drivers for Ubuntu, so I can play full 1080p MKV files perfectly fine.

 

In addition to using it as a media server, you can setup a VPN tunnel, hook up various sensors (temperature, ambient light, CO2, water flow, etc.). Home automation seems to be gaining ground. I have an Arduino that talks to my Pandaboard sending data from it's sensors. I'm sure you can accomplish the samething with a Raspberry Pi.

 

Now we're talkin... I'm going to check that one out as well.  That sounds like more of what I'd be after.

 

 

As I previously said, I use mine for a media player.

For a long I didn't buy one because I thought it would be a joke. But a few weeks ago I borrowed a friends and I was blown away at how powerful and well HD movies play.

I have been very impressed with the pi, I may even consider buying another or two.

 

My only concern about running media on the Rasberry Pi was 1080p.  I watched some youtube videos which is not always the most accurate source of info but the comments can be revealing sometimes.  It appeared to run 1080p without any problems but only if the hertz was dropped down to 24 or something to that effect.  What are you running yours at? 

 

Also another thing I don't like is the RCA video and analog audio port.  The only thing I'd ever need is ethernet, USB, and hdmi w/audio pass through.

 

Very cool that Blesta geeked out on one and posted a video already.  

[MemoryX2]

Now we're talkin... I'm going to check that one out as well. That sounds like more of what I'd be after.

My only concern about running media on the Rasberry Pi was 1080p. I watched some youtube videos which is not always the most accurate source of info but the comments can be revealing sometimes. It appeared to run 1080p without any problems but only if the hertz was dropped down to 24 or something to that effect. What are you running yours at?

Also another thing I don't like is the RCA video and analog audio port. The only thing I'd ever need is ethernet, USB, and hdmi w/audio pass through.

Very cool that Blesta geeked out on one and posted a video already.

I run full 1080p videos mostly in mkv files, some mp4 and wmv(wmv sucks I know. Long story as to why I have those).

The video sizes range from 2gb all the way to maybe 10gb each. Not all of my movies are 1080p HD and all that, but the ones I tested with were as I fell like if it can play that it can play less as well.

I haven't actually checked the frames per second during playback but I do know that it plays great. As for the audio, and rca I don't use it either. The raspberry b model has an HDMI port and that's all I use, it also has audio pass through in HDMI which I use as well.

Oh, I do know that the is a status page in raspbmc where it will tell the current fps and mine is generally somewhere around ~40-60 fps. I believe the movies fps is a factor their also.

I have an Ethernet cable, HDMI and power over USB connected that's it. I control everything else through my network with my smartphone (android of course).

Their is an initial lag at the beginning of the movie but afterwards it plays great. I would say the lag could be up to 3 seconds. But after that everything is great.

I do have one complaunt, I would like for it to be more powerful obviously. It doesn't load my media library movie covers very fast at all. Other than that its awesome.

For the money I don't know of anything better although I need to look into what cloudrck mentioned.

I have heard of odroid also it is a more expensive option.

[MemoryX2]

After researching pandaboard more I would have to seriously consider this before buying one.

http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/products/prdt_info.php?g_code=G135341370451

[Ken]

After researching pandaboard more I would have to seriously consider this before buying one.

http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/products/prdt_info.php?g_code=G135341370451

 

Nice!  You've got me eyeballing the XU now.  

 

Could I justify the cost though?  Hmmmm

[KuJoe]

Cost was the main factor for me buying the RPi. I wasn't willing to spend more than $50 on something that doesn't get used daily. My RPi is perfect for those times I want to get online to check something out or I need to login to manage a server but I don't want to pull my laptop out and hook up half a dozen cables. It's fast an convenient and the value is above and beyond what I paid for it, another faster would be overkill so I wouldn't be able to justify the cost.

[cloudrck]

Now we're talkin... I'm going to check that one out as well.  That sounds like more of what I'd be after.

If you can code and know electrical theory than skys the limit. I have some code in my Github deal with the Arduino.

There is also the BeagleBone/BeagleBoard line and WandBoard. I've used a BeagleBone A6, it worked well enough for reading sensors, not media though.

 

The $45 BeagleBone Black is supposedly more powerful than the Pi. Source

Texas Instruments has been investing in the embedded linux scene lately.

[Cody]

I'm thinking about turning my Pi into a sprinkler control system, and creating an interface to configure schedules over the internet, and possibly tie into weather monitoring service (NOAA) to automatically disable/reschedule during rain showers.

It could be fun to play around with when used in conjunction with my video surveillance system.

[MemoryX2]

I'm thinking about turning my Pi into a sprinkler control system, and creating an interface to configure schedules over the internet, and possibly tie into weather monitoring service (NOAA) to automatically disable/reschedule during rain showers.

It could be fun to play around with when used in conjunction with my video surveillance system.

That sounds awesome!

Their is a university that built a super computer out of pi's, they chained like 50 together to cluster compute or something along those lines.

[Ken]

I'm thinking about turning my Pi into a sprinkler control system, and creating an interface to configure schedules over the internet, and possibly tie into weather monitoring service (NOAA) to automatically disable/reschedule during rain showers.

It could be fun to play around with when used in conjunction with my video surveillance system.

 

This is definitely an awesome idea and I'd love to see it done!

 

If you can code and know electrical theory than skys the limit. I have some code in my Github deal with the Arduino.

There is also the BeagleBone/BeagleBoard line and WandBoard. I've used a BeagleBone A6, it worked well enough for reading sensors, not media though.

 

The $45 BeagleBone Black is supposedly more powerful than the Pi. Source

Texas Instruments has been investing in the embedded linux scene lately.

 

I was just looking at the BeagleBoard Black today as a matter of fact.  I love it's form factor and how it doesn't have a bunch of ports hanging off of it that are worthless to me.

[Cody]

The hardware already exists for my raspberry pi sprinkler system, so I think I'll probably just pick up that kit and write the application to run it.

[Ken]

Next Marketing Buzz:  Cloud Sprinkers!  brought to you by Cody.

 

Gotta love Pi's community and market share.

[RRWH]

Yeah,  Got a few RPi's 1 gets use as a media Server - XBMC connected to the NAS  Does a great job.

 

Still playing with one to use as a remote (solar powered) internet gateway for Ham Radio.    Until the Pi it was simply not feasible to do this due to the power requirements to have something running all the time.  Now at about 4W power it is very feasible.  Have not used the GPIO pins for any control, but have thought about it - that is what Ardruino's are for - much lower power and quite simple code.

[Paul]

Yeah,  Got a few RPi's 1 gets use as a media Server - XBMC connected to the NAS  Does a great job.

 

Still playing with one to use as a remote (solar powered) internet gateway for Ham Radio.    Until the Pi it was simply not feasible to do this due to the power requirements to have something running all the time.  Now at about 4W power it is very feasible.  Have not used the GPIO pins for any control, but have thought about it - that is what Ardruino's are for - much lower power and quite simple code.

 

How does an internet gateway work with ham radio? I use to talk on 10/11 meter a long time ago. Still have the old RCI-2950

[nirays]

I have one.

 

This is the site I am using to update every thing related to RPi

 

https://plus.google.com/b/100101100233768197353/100101100233768197353/posts

 

Currently I have configured RPi as headless.

[RRWH]

How does an internet gateway work with ham radio? I use to talk on 10/11 meter a long time ago. Still have the old RCI-2950

 

Simple! - APRS - Basically Packet Radio, RPi is used to decode then upload data to Internet. And at such low power usage it is perfect for remote/splar-powered installtion.