Raspberry pi £25 computer with big performance

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Howlin_Mad
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Re: Raspberry pi £25 computer with big performance

Post by Howlin_Mad »

Looking to get mine up and running as either a home server for my wireless lighting / home server that does all my music (as it can run constant for very little power and no moving parts) or maybe a car installation with GPS and wireless USB dongle. Good bit of kit though so far it seems :)

HM


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joneschrisan

Re: Raspberry pi £25 computer with big performance

Post by joneschrisan »

I have mine now and started working on the user interface about 4 months ago. Just about finished and all I have to do now is create my own Linux distro and get it all working with the extra peripherals I need, like USB 3g dongle, USB GPS receiver, touch screen, etc.

The issue I'm facing at the moment is trying to find a 7 inch screen and USB touch interface that will work with the pi.

As the pi does not have VGA support this is proving a little difficult to source.

In regards to someone saying it would be great if they could put Windows XP on it. No version of Windows currently on the market would run on the pi as it uses an ARM processor and MS only made Windows run on x86 based processors.

On saying that the new Windows 8 soon to be released has the promises to run on ARM, but we all know how MS like keeping their promises.

And that brings me to the point, why would anyone want to use windows? It's buggy, crashes and uses way too much memory to run the simplest of programs. Also unlike *nix systems MS refuse to make Windows only use the swap partition when its absolutely necessary hence the reason it runs everything so slow.

As for a Solid state drive to hold the OS. You can add a USB solid state hard disk to a pi, but the second state boot loader has to be on the SD card as the first state boot loader is on the GPU and is programmed to look for the second state boot loader on the SD card. But to be able to do that you would need to know how boot loaders work and I presume, quite a bit about Linux too.

There are some SD card image files you can download from the raspberry pi website to get you started with detailed instructions on how to copy the image file to your SD card and get started.

If I've got anything wrong in any of that then please let me know. I don't really know much about boot loaders as I cant be bothered to even try and get my head around assembly.
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JAG90

Re: Raspberry pi £25 computer with big performance

Post by JAG90 »

I too am interested im making a project like this and hope that you are still at it. :th:

I couldnt help but notice the Raspberry pie has analogue output with a RCA (PAL/NTSC). This would mean you could bang in allmost any 7" monitor with a decent quality like:http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/7-inch-HD-car ... 1113048666

Then get a peal and stick touchscreen with linux support like http://linitx.com/product/11273

Here are the linux drivers for it http://home.eeti.com.tw/web20/eg/Touch_Drives.html

Just check the dimensions of the monitor and touchscreen but you should be good to go. I too am interested in making something like this and if you would like a hand just say.

Also another point to look at would be Android as it does work well on the Pi. It would allready pickup your gps dongle and things like that but it would have the advantage of navigation too. Including other apps and when you get your head round Android development its quite straight forward.
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joneschrisan

Re: Raspberry pi £25 computer with big performance

Post by joneschrisan »

Nice. Thanks for the heads up on those 2 and drivers, nice :) But how easy would it be to take that screen appart as I dont need the case. I want to fit my device in the center console lol.
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JAG90

Re: Raspberry pi £25 computer with big performance

Post by JAG90 »

I would go measure it but my car has been in garage for 2 weeks now :crybaby: . The cool thing about LCD's is they just sit in the case and all the wires are stuck to the back, so when you do crack one open you will most likely find a solid metal shell and a couple of wires for buttons and input. Unlike the monitor I posted I think you wouldnt have that big box on the back as that is the power adapter for larger screens. You wont have to go as far as taking the metal off. The film would be best and cheapest for you but I was impressed by the hammer use and as four mounting thats up to you but dont expect the metal case to have any screw holes as I think they are essentially clamped in.

All in all I think this wouldnt be more than a afternoon job unless you hit a Linux incompatability but they can normally be resolved via the internet and I am tempted to take the same road. I would love to use Android because of my native programming language being Java BUT you have to keep in mind that in android you cant get access to the pins on the Pi board. Which would mean creating your own USB device to transmit values from the car and writing a driver for Android which is something I dont want to attempt. Or using bluetooth which again is too far I think. So despite my last post I think sticking to Linux would be best. Finally my computer science degree put to use. Time for me to get a Pi I think

Take Apart A LCD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvQdYDJJ-Qk

Install a Touch Kit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnaMV3_ ... ure=fvwrel

Install a Touch Kit (That you can use with a hammer! :clapping:) http://youtu.be/xV4TVg8XOP0

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