Raspberry Pi Questions?

By LilSnoop40
in Hardware Hangout

 Share

Recommended Posts

Veteran

LilSnoop40

Posted
Posted

hi, i was looking at getting a raspberry pi setup for xbmc use. can someone help with the parts i need to get this up and running please., this is what i have so far to order:

Raspberry Pi Board:

http://www.amazon.com/Raspberry-Pi-Model-Revision-512MB/dp/B009SQQF9C

Wifi Dongle:

http://www.amazon.com/Edimax-EW-7811Un-Wireless-Adapter-Wizard/dp/B005CLMJLU/

Case:

http://www.storenvy.com/products/404262-raspberry-pi-enclosure-kit

as far as power supply and other things what else do i need with links please, i am in the US.

Thanks!

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1131168-raspberry-pi-questions/
Share on other sites
Grand Master

Detection

Posted
Posted

I use a Nokia Lumia Charger 5v, 1200mA for mine

For XBMC, I use XBian (http://xbian.org/)

If you have a WP7 you can use a free app as an XBMC Remote over wifi that woks great, I imagine Android will have something similar, Windows 8 has one too

HDMI cable if you are using HDMI, Composite cable if you are using normal SD TV

You`ll probably want extra USB ports, so grab a self powered USB Hub (Don't rely on the Pi to power the extra USB ports, use a powered hub)

Grand Master

+jamesyfx Subscriber²

Posted
  • Subscriber²
Posted

Any 5V Micro USB power supply will work. If you have a modern smartphone that isn't an iPhone chances are you'll already have one.

As for the SD card, you can buy a compatible one with XMBC already installed for you: http://thepihut.com/products/xbmc-preinstalled-sd-card

Grand Master

firey

Posted
Posted

For my RPI. I just use an old blackberry charger I had. Standard mini-usb plugin. No special power supply, or power source needed. 5v is what is required to run it.

I don't use XBMC on mine, I just have base Arch installed, and play videos with OMXPlayer and wrote a custom front-end gui that I can use over the web. I connect mine to my TV via HDMI but can use composite.

I have a wireless USB stick but I couldn't get it to connect with security, hoping newer updates will help. I just SSH in and do it all via command line.

Grand Master

Detection

Posted
Posted

firey, so if i have a wifi dongle i cant use the security that i am running my router which i think is WPA2 i think. i don't wanna buy a pre load SD card just want to know what is a good one and size i should go with.

Thanks

I use a 2GB class 4 for XBMC

If you want to play around with different OS's then grab an 8GB one too

Grand Master

Detection

Posted
Posted

I've just ordered a Pi.

Is it possible to use the USB plug part of Apple chargers? and then stick a Micro USB cable in it?

I'm looking for some cool things to do with mine, not interested in media centres as i already have one.

I don't have anything apple so can't test, but here is the official Pi forum you can ask in

http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/index.php

Grand Master

PNWDweller

Posted
Posted

I used a laptop USB port on my RPI and blew out the power light or I guess as it was later decided one of the resisters going to it. 2 days old. While you can use a USB port on a computer to power it, according to what I have been told by the Raspberri Pi group is that it is very highly recommended to use a Cell phone charger with at least a 1A output because anyhting lower will cause issues with the unit.

I am waiting for a new Raspberry Pi now since I sent the other one back, but hope to be in business soon with it again. When it comes to XMBC, you will find it is a tad slow on this unit (I had the same one), so don't expect it to be super fast. But it does work good for everything else with the XMBC software. :) Also, video playback on some channels like HGTV or Food Network don't work as they haven't been able to license the video decoders for those networks.

Grand Master

Detection

Posted
Posted

I used a laptop USB port on my RPI and blew out the power light or I guess as it was later decided one of the resisters going to it. 2 days old. While you can use a USB port on a computer to power it, according to what I have been told by the Raspberri Pi group is that it is very highly recommended to use a Cell phone charger with at least a 1A output because anyhting lower will cause issues with the unit.

I am waiting for a new Raspberry Pi now since I sent the other one back, but hope to be in business soon with it again. When it comes to XMBC, you will find it is a tad slow on this unit (I had the same one), so don't expect it to be super fast. But it does work good for everything else with the XMBC software. :) Also, video playback on some channels like HGTV or Food Network don't work as they haven't been able to license the video decoders for those networks.

They actually advise NOT to use USB ports to power the Pi

Grand Master

PNWDweller

Posted
Posted

I didn't really stick around in those parts of the XMBC other than trying our favorite channels. But from everything else I tried, it was good, buffered fine and streaming wasn't an issue. . The area where it is slow is the navigation of it, other than that it is fine but from what I understand, changing the skin in the GUI fixes that as well to something a little less intensive GPU wise.

My thought on it is basically, you can package the XBMC into the Pi, place it somewhere and use it and probably never notice the speed thing or at least will get used to it.

Grand Master

firey

Posted
Posted

firey, so if i have a wifi dongle i cant use the security that i am running my router which i think is WPA2 i think. i don't wanna buy a pre load SD card just want to know what is a good one and size i should go with.

Thanks

The wireless adapaters are dependant on a few things. So the one I have may have issues but countless others work no problem. Some work not at all. The RPI site has a list of supported dongles.

As for SD Card.. I bought a 16gb one from future shop for 15$ on sale. It's a highspeed (32mb/s) card and using the tools on the pi site installed the Arch distro to it. Put the card in the pi and booted to console, then I just SSH'd into it and installed what I had to.

Veteran

LilSnoop40

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Just ordered all the parts for my raspberry pi last week. they all came but the main board. should be here tomorrow i would say.

Raspberry Pi Board:

Amazon.com: Raspberry Pi Model B Revision 2.0 (512MB): Computers Accessories

Wifi Dongle:

Amazon.com: Edimax EW-7811Un 150 Mbps Wireless 11n Nano Size USB Adapter with EZmax Setup Wizard: Computers Accessories

Case:

Raspberry Pi Enclosure Kit from Built-to-Spec's Store Storenvy

SD Card:

Amazon.com: SanDisk Extreme 16 GB SDHC Class 10 UHS-1 Flash Memory Card 45MB/s SDSDX-016G-X46: Electronics

i was told that i can use my iphone square wall charger plus a usb to micro for the power of the raspberry pi. is this ok, because i read its not recommended but it works. what is a good one to get because i also was told i should get a 2A power supply, please help if this is correct would like to order today so i can get by friday if the main board will be here tomorrow to complete the build?

can't wait to get this up and running to see how it handle navi-x, icefilms and 1channel!

thanks

Mentor

Jonny Wright

Posted
Posted

Depending on what other media devices are gonna be surrounding your Pi you may be able to pinch the power supply from there. Mine is in my living room with my TiVo box and I power my Pi from the USB port on the back of that. Saves on another mains plug being used.

PS; I'm using XBMC on my Pi (earlier model with 256 RAM) and I love it :)

Veteran

LilSnoop40

Posted
  • Author
Posted

well i ordered this here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005CG2ATQ/ref=ox_ya_os_product

so your saying i could even power off my tv usb or directv box? the only thing i plan on plugging into it is the nano wifi dongle that's it, no hard drive or anything.

should that be ok?

thanks

This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

  • Posts

    • Politically funny images of the World

      By snowy owl · Posted

    • BleachBit 6.0.1 Beta

      By Copernic · Posted

      BleachBit 6.0.1 Beta by Razvan Serea When your computer is getting full, BleachBit quickly frees disk space. When your information is only your business, BleachBit guards your privacy. With BleachBit you can free cache, delete cookies, clear Internet history, shred temporary files, delete logs, and discard junk you didn't know was there. Designed for Linux and Windows systems, it wipes clean thousands of applications including Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Opera, Safari, and more. Beyond simply deleting files, BleachBit includes advanced features such as shredding files to prevent recovery, wiping free disk space to hide traces of files deleted by other applications, and vacuuming Firefox to make it faster. Better than free, BleachBit is open source. BleachBit has many useful features: Delete your private files so completely that "even God can't read them" according to South Carolina Representative Trey Gowdy. Simple operation: read the descriptions, check the boxes you want, click preview, and click delete. Multi-platform: Linux and Windows Free of charge and no money trail Free to share, learn, and modify (open source) No adware, spyware, malware, browser toolbars, or "value-added software" Translated to 64 languages besides American English Shred files to hide their contents and prevent data recovery Shred any file (such as a spreadsheet on your desktop) Overwrite free disk space to hide previously deleted files Portable app for Windows: run without installation Command line interface for scripting and automation CleanerML allows anyone to write a new cleaner using XML Automatically import and update winapp2.ini cleaner files (a separate download) giving Windows users access to 2500+ additional cleaners Frequent software updates with new features Going beyond standard deletion of files, BleachBit has several advanced cleaners: Clear the memory and swap on Linux Delete broken shortcuts on Linux Delete the Firefox URL history without deleting the whole file—with optional shredding Delete Linux localizations: delete languages you don't use. More powerful than localepurge and available on more Linux distributions. Clean APT for Debian, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and Linux Mint Find widely-scattered junk such as Thumbs.db and .DS_Store files. Execute yum clean for CentOS, Fedora, and Red Hat to remove cached package data Delete Windows registry keys—often where MRU (most recently used) lists are stored Delete the OpenOffice.org recent documents list without deleting the whole Common.xcu file Overwrite free disk space to hide previously files Vacuum Firefox, Google Chrome, Liferea, Thunderbird, and Yum databases: shrink files without removing data to save space and improve speed Surgically remove private information from .ini and JSON configuration files and SQLite3 databases without deleting the whole file Overwrite data in SQLite3 before deleting it to prevent recovery (optional) BleachBit 6.0.1 Beta release notes: BleachBit 6.0.1 beta is now available for testing. This maintenance-focused release includes bug fixes, updated translations, and a range of safe enhancements. This release fixes a Windows security issue that could allow arbitrary file deletion during privileged cleaning (reported by Zeze with TeamT5). It also adds new cleaners (including a DNS cache cleaner, Claude Code, and Visual Studio Code forks), support for multiple Chrome and Edge profiles, new deep scan options for developer directories like node_modules and venv, and safer, faster file shredding. All Platforms Added cleaners for Claude Code, DNS cache, and many Visual Studio Code forks. Added support for multiple Chrome and Edge profiles. Chrome can now clean downloaded AI models. Deep Scan can optionally remove venv, __pycache__, node_modules, and .angular directories. Deep Scan is faster by skipping directories on the keep list. File shredding is safer, faster, and leaves fewer recoverable traces. Improved handling of cookies, symlinks, Unicode filenames, external processes, and configuration files. Improved Expert Mode warnings and long warning dialogs. Fixed crashes related to cleaner detection, invalid Unicode, and malformed cleaner data. Clipboard is now cleared automatically after shredding files via paste operations. Linux Added AppImage support. Added cleaners for Visual Studio Code, Codeium, Librewolf (.deb), Transmission (Flatpak), and Profanity. Improved Linux trash detection, including Snap-installed applications and mounted drives. Fixed Wayland root CLI issues and several Snap-related problems. Improved package dependencies, AppStream metadata, and desktop file handling. Fixed startup crashes when Python Requests is unavailable. Windows Fixed a security vulnerability that could allow arbitrary file deletion when cleaning with elevated privileges. Added %WindowsSystem% variable support. Improved clipboard clearing using native Windows APIs. Improved installer experience on unsupported Windows versions. Reduced installer size and improved application robustness. Fixed Unicode handling, filename anonymization, Git revision reporting, and splash screen stability. [full release notes] Download: BleachBit 6.0 | Portable | ~20.0 MB (Open Source) View: BleachBit Home page | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • DriversCloud 12.1.6

      By Copernic · Posted

      DriversCloud 12.1.6 by Razvan Serea With DriversCloud (formerly My-Config.com), you can explore your computer easily, safely and free. The application quickly scans your PC and identifies the hardware and software components. DriversCloud then establishes a list of the different drivers compatible with your OS and hardware. Download the drivers needed for the proper functioning of your computer. To detect your drivers, DriversCloud also displays a detailed summary of your hardware and software configuration, analyzes your BSOD, monitors in real-time your PC voltages and temperatures and lets you share your configuration online. Once the hardware components have been detected, you will be able to obtain with just a few clicks the latest drivers corresponding to the identified hardware. You can record your configuration on the site for free, and can get the corresponding URL to post the configuration to technical forums, e-mail and social networks. You can also download the detection result (the configuration) as a PDF file. To protect the user's privacy and data confidentiality, a 4-level confidentiality system was created that filters the XML marks and gives control to the user. The default level can be modified in the preferences. Using the maximum level will prevent the user from publishing his configuration and generating a corresponding PDF file. In non-connected mode, each XML configuration is stored on the server for one day (for practical reasons). However, you are given the opportunity to manually delete it. Created in 2004, and continually improved, My-Config.com has established itself on the web as a free service to PC users running Windows and Linux operating systems. The service is designed to work with the most common Internet browsers (Edge, Firefox, Chrome, Safari). Download: DriversCloud 64-bit | 20.0 MB (Freeware) Download: DriversCloud 32-bit | 18.9 MB Link: DriversCloud Home Page | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Microsoft about to radically change how often your Edge browser updates

      By +mram · Posted

      Ummmm Read my comment again.
    • The official Funny Pictures thread

      By +Edouard · Posted

  • Recent Achievements

    • One Month Later
      AndreaB earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Month Later
      agatameier earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      agatameier earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      ssd21345 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Contributor
      MarkHughes4096 went up a rank
      Contributor

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      516
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      189
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      148
    4. 4
      ATLien_0
      96
    5. 5
      Steven P.
      76
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!