You have probably come across the name Raspberry Pi several times, especially on tech sites like this one you see all kinds of craft projects with this mini computer. But what is a Raspberry Pi? And what can you do with it?
What is a Raspberry Pi?
The popularity of the raspberry pi emerged in 2012, with the arrival of the Raspberry Pi Model B. Basically, a Raspberry Pi is a full-fledged computer, on a small soldering board. In fact, you only need to connect peripherals such as a monitor, mouse and keyboard to this and you can use the Raspberry Pi as a kind of mini PC.
Before you can do this, however, you still need two things: power supply (you can simply use your smartphone charger for this) and a memory card with an operating system. That sounds complicated, but it isn’t. In most cases it is no more than connecting the memory card to a PC, copying a few files and you are done.
The Raspberry Pi has several connections, depending on the model. The latest version (the Raspberry Pi 4) has a USB-C port and four regular USB ports (two USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 connections). There are also two micro HDMI ports on the mini computer to which you connect your screen(s). You can optionally use the pin connection to connect additional equipment.
The Raspberry Pi was originally developed for educational purposes. It’s an accessible chipboard with open hardware that you can use to learn everything from programming to soldering. For young and old. Current Raspberry Pis are powerful enough to continue as a 4K media player or full-fledged mini PC. With that, they have somewhat outgrown their role and are also interesting for purposes other than educational.
The operating systems that you put on the memory card are usually different variants of Linux, depending on the purpose for which you use the Raspberry Pi. So no Windows or MacOS, because these operating systems are not open and accessible for free. Don’t let this put you off, there are very accessible Linux variants available, which may even be easier to understand than Windows or MacOS.
What can you do with a Raspberry Pi?
Because a Raspberry Pi is so small, you have the advantage of a lot of computing power in a size that you can fit anywhere. As a mini media player with the television. Outside as a weather station. As a self-built NAS. Linked to a camera as an ip-cam for security… A lot is possible, without having to connect a mouse, keyboard and monitor for every setup.
A Raspberry Pi has an Ethernet port and a WiFi chip. So you can access it remotely with another PC, for example, or via (an app on your) smartphone and tablet. This way you can let the minicomputer do its work and control it, without having to connect a mouse, keyboard and monitor.
Buy Raspberry Pi: which model?
Since the Raspberry Pi started its popularity thanks to Model B in 2012, several models have appeared, with different specifications and sizes. Yet the B-series remained the most accessible and best known. In the meantime, this has become the regular Raspberry Pi version, of which the Raspberry Pi 4 is the most recent.
The Raspberry Pi 4 is available in different RAM versions: 2GB, 4GB or 8GB. How much RAM you need, of course, depends on what you want to do with it. It is best to choose the 8GB version, so that you also want to use your Raspberry Pi for other projects. The Raspberry Pi 4 version with 2GB of RAM costs about forty euros. The 4GB version has a price tag of sixty euros and the 8GB Raspberry Pi about eighty euros.
However, the price and availability can fluctuate from time to time. That’s because the demand for the Raspberry Pi 4 is very high.
What accessories for a Raspberry Pi do I need?
When you buy a Raspberry Pi 4, you only get the computer board. You can’t do anything with that yet. You need a memory card for the operating system (micro SD). Assume at least 128GB of storage memory. You also need an adapter and USB-C cable to power the Raspberry Pi.
A mouse, keyboard and monitor is handy to have on hand to set up the Raspberry Pi.
Finally, it is useful to think about a housing. The sign is fragile and you can also get a shock if you touch the sign when it is connected to mains voltage. You can find such a housing at all kinds of web shops.
If you prefer to be ready in one go, you can also opt for Raspberry Pi kits. These often offer all the peripherals and cables you need and a memory card that you can plug directly into the Raspberry Pi and boot from.
Crafting with the Raspberry Pi
Are you excited to get started with the Raspberry Pi? Then the Tech Academy offers a course ‘Crafting with the Raspberry Pi‘ On. In this course you will not only see interesting projects, you will also have everything at hand to get started with the Raspberry Pi.
