Rasberry Pi 3

[MadGamer]

Hey guys,

I'm looking at buying one of these just to tinker with really, and maybe set up a media server. How easy are they to use?

[pip08456]

Depends what you want to use it for.

[Matth]

Picked up a model B original for £15 to have a play with. There are a number of different firmwares available, and of course, they are IMPOSSIBLE TO BRICK, as a bad firmware can be fixed by simply changing the SD card.

Ultimately though, they are a mini Linux box (or Windows 10 IoT core), the standard build being Raspbian.
NB. Windows Insider build currently required for Pi 3, release build of IoT core only supports Pi 2 - IoT core might turn out to be a more friendly environment for Windows users to get to grips with - can't try this one myself, does not support ye olde model.

There are tons of guides for doing things like this with a Pi.

Don't forget, you also need a suitable PSU, and a powered hub to support USB powered devices - do not rely on getting full USB power from the Pi ports

[deadite66]

you can set max_usb_current=1 in /boot/config.txt to double the USB current limit.

EDIT: anyone thinking of getting a V2 camera module hold off for now, the focus is nerfed at distance.
raspberrypi.org/forums

[MadGamer]

Originally Posted by Matth

Picked up a model B original for £15 to have a play with. There are a number of different firmwares available, and of course, they are IMPOSSIBLE TO BRICK, as a bad firmware can be fixed by simply changing the SD card.

Ultimately though, they are a mini Linux box (or Windows 10 IoT core), the standard build being Raspbian.
NB. Windows Insider build currently required for Pi 3, release build of IoT core only supports Pi 2 - IoT core might turn out to be a more friendly environment for Windows users to get to grips with - can't try this one myself, does not support ye olde model.

There are tons of guides for doing things like this with a Pi.

Don't forget, you also need a suitable PSU, and a powered hub to support USB powered devices - do not rely on getting full USB power from the Pi ports

thanks for that. There is a power supply you can buy for the Pi 3, I've seen it on amazon. Is there anything else other than the board, case, power supply and an SD Card that I need? Obviously a keyboard, mouse and an hdmi cable to attach to my TV

[Matth]

Can't think of anything, though if connecting a USB powered hard drive, a powered USB hub is recommended.

On the PI 3, Wifi is built-in.

My PI model B is now running Openelec, the random Wifi USB I had happened to work... now to get some "interesting" Kodi addons

PS. looks like Openelec offers some media server options on setting up, may be worth a try.
NB. Openelec repartitions the SD at first run, recovering the extra space not used by the image file - it's likely that other distro's do the same.

[Uncle Peter]

If you're effectively using it as a set top box it's worth getting a wireless mini keyboard/controller like the iPazzport.

You can also control OpenElec/Kodi (if going down that route) from your tv remote to control the Pi if the TV supports HDMI-CEC

[Stephen]

There is an existing Pi thread here

http://cableforum.co.uk/board/19/336...n-page-21.html

[MadGamer]

Thank you for the info people