Thursday, December 27, 2012

The Platform

First of all I need to decide on the platform to build this thing on. As you can tell from the title that's already decided.

I'm going to base it on the new RaspberryPi mini computer. Theses things are great. Basically a computer on a credit card size circuit board with enough connections to actually be useful. Lots of  people are starting to experiment with these, so loads of community support. And they are cheap. (£24).

Have a look here for more info about this great little unit. RPi Hub.

Basically, they use a mobile phone chipset. They have a couple of USB ports, HDMI, Ethernet and sound output. They have an SD card port that you use as a hard disk to run your operating system.

You have a few operating systems to choose from, Windows is not one of them !!!!! I went for Debian which is a Linux distribution.

I've messed around with Linux in the past so know my way around it enough to get me going.

To get the RasPi going I'll need a few other odds and ends.


  • USB Power adapter, for, well, power really.
  • SD Card for the operating system
  • HDMI Cable, I'm sure I've got one lying around somewhere.
  • Network Cable, yeah I've got them coming out of my ears.
  • Monitor, I'll just use my TV in my office for now.
  • Keyboard and Mouse, I've got a small media centre keyboard and mouse from Maplin - here
  • Power USB Hub. - Got an old belkin one lying around I can use.


Other things I'll probably add later

  • External hard drive or USB Stick for more data storage
  • WiFi Adapter - I have a Netgear N150 I don't use any more that will be perfect.


And finally to get the project going




So that's pretty much all the hardware gathered together for now.

Check the "Spendomiter" to see how much this has cost so far



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