Introduction to Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi is a small but full-featured computer on a single board. It plugs into a monitor and you attach a keyboard, mouse and speakers.The Raspberry Pi can be used for browsing the web, creating documents and spreadsheets, playing games, watching videos and lots more.It also provides a great environment for learning programming and digital making. You can also connect up hardware to the Pi’s GPIO (general purpose input/output) pins and learn to program using electronics components.Raspberry Pi is popularly used for real time Image/Video Processing, IoT based applications and Robotics applications.Raspberry Pi is slower than laptop or desktop but is still a computer which can provide all the expected features or abilities, at a low power consumption.

                                            Raspberry pi 3

Raspbian OS is official Operating System available for free to use. This OS is efficiently optimized to use with Raspberry Pi. Raspbian have GUI which includes tools for Browsing, Python programming, office, games, etc.We should use SD card (minimum 8 GB recommended) to store the OS (operating System).Raspberry Pi is more than computer as it provides access to the on-chip hardware i.e. GPIOs for developing an application. By accessing GPIO, we can connect devices like LED, motors, sensors, etc and can control them too.It has ARM based Broadcom Processor SoC along with on-chip GPU (Graphics Processing Unit).The CPU speed of Raspberry Pi varies from 700 MHz to 1.2 GHz. Also, it has on-board SDRAM that ranges from 256 MB to 1 GB.Raspberry Pi also provides on-chip SPI, I2C, I2S

and UART modules.

There are different versions of raspberry pi available as listed below:

1. Raspberry Pi 1 Model A
2. Raspberry Pi 1 Model A+
3. Raspberry Pi 1 Model B
4. Raspberry Pi 1 Model B+
5. Raspberry Pi 2 Model B
6. Raspberry Pi 3 Model B
7. Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+
8. Raspberry Pi Zero
9. Raspberry Pi Zero w

Out of the above versions of Raspberry Pi, more prominently use Raspberry Pi and their features are as follows:

Raspberry Pi 3 On-chip Hardware

The On-chip hardware of Raspberry Pi 3 (here) is as shown in below figure,

Some Hardware Components shown above are mention below:

1. HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface): It is used for transmitting uncompressed video or digital audio data to the Computer Monitor, Digital TV, etc. Generally, this HDMI port helps to connect Raspberry Pi to the Digital television.
2. CSI Camera Interface: CSI (Camera Serial Interface) interface provides a connection in between Broadcom Processor and Pi camera. This interface provides electrical connections between two devices.
3. DSI Display Interface: DSI (Display Serial Interface) Display Interface is used for connecting LCD to the Raspberry Pi using 15-pin ribbon cable. DSI provides fast High-resolution display interface specifically used for sending video data directly from GPU to the LCD display.
4. Composite Video and Audio Output: The composite Video and Audio output port carries video along with audio signal to the Audio/Video systems.
5. Power LED: It is a RED colored LED which is used for Power indication. This LED will turn ON when Power is connected to the Raspberry Pi. It is connected to 5V directly and will start blinking whenever the supply voltage drops below 4.63V.
6. ACT PWR: ACT PWR is Green LED which shows the SD card activity.

USB ports — these are used to connect a mouse and keyboard. You can also connect other components, such as a USB drive.

SD card slot — you can slot the SD card in here. This is where the operating system software and your files are stored.

Ethernet port — this is used to connect the Raspberry Pi to a network with a cable. The Raspberry Pi can also connect to a network via wireless LAN.

GPIO ports — these allow you to connect electronic components such as LEDs and buttons to the Raspberry Pi.

Raspberry Pi 3 Pinout

Following figure shows the pinout of Pi 3.

These are the 40 GPIO pins that are used for connection with other devices.You can see from the figure above, the UART pins are the serial input output pins that are used for serial communication for data and for the conversion of debugging code.

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B comes with 64 bit quad core processor, on board WiFi and Bluetooth and USB features.

• It has a processing speed ranging from 700 MHz to 1.4 GHz where RAM memory ranges from 256 to 1GB.
• The CPU of this device is considered as the brain of the device which is responsible for executing numbers of instructions based on mathematical and logical operation.
• The GPU is another advanced chip incorporated in the board that carries out function of image calculation. The board is equipped with Broadcam video core cable that is mainly used for playing video games through the device.
• The Pi 3 comes with GPIO (General Purpose Input Output) pins that are essential to maintain connection with other electronic devices. These input output pins receive commands and work based on the programming of the device.
• The Ethernet port is incorporated on this device that sets a pathway for communicating with other devices. You can connect Ethernet port to the router to maintain a connection for internet.
• The Board has four USB ports that are used for communication and SD card is added for storing the operating system.
• Power source connector is a basic part of the board that is used to provide 5 V power to the board. You can use any source to set up a power for the board, however, it is preferred you connect power cable through laptop USB port for providing 5 V.
• The Pi 3 supports two connection options including HDMI and composite. The HDMI connector is used to connect LCD or TV, that can support 1.3 and 1.4 version cables. Composite video connection is used to connect the older version of TV with the device that uses the 3.5mm jack socket for the audio production.
• The new device comes with a video core multimedia 3D graphics which is capable of playing 1080 MP video. This feature puts this advice ahead of its predecessors where video quality was not that much upgraded.
• The USB hard drive incorporated on the board is used to boot the device, similar to PC hard drive where windows is used to boot the computer hard drive.

Operating system

• The official Raspbian Linux operating system runs on Pi 3. Other third party OS that can operate on this device are RISC, Kodi Media Center, Windows 10 loT core, Ubuntu Mate and classroom management.
• There are other non-Linux based systems that can run on this device which you can pick based on your needs and requirements.
• Windows 10, the latest version of windows, can run remarkably well on the desktop computer, but running windows 10 on the Pi 3 is a whole new experience, not as good as desktop computer, but still you can get a little glimpse of running windows 10 on a tiny device like Pi 3.
• The windows 10 that run on this device is not a full version of windows 10, but a reduced version that is called windows 10 loT core, capable of running only one single full screen windows app at a time, however, still it supports number of software running on the background.
• Raspberry Pi 3 is a 64 bit device, which is capable of running official Raspbian operating system. The Raspbian Pi Foundation is also looking to modifying the Raspbian operating system to make it compatible for 32 bit devices that were introduced a while ago.
• We can run following operating sysytem on raspberry pi3.

Points of Consideration

• If you want to remain in constant touch with this device, it is better to enclose in a case, it will help prolong the lifetime of the device, also covers it from heat and other external factors.
• You can run number of operating systems including Linux or Non-Linux based systems, but if you are highly concerned about performance and stability of device, then running official Raspbian operating system would be an effective choice, which supports the decent amount of programming and office software.
• The power consumption of Pi 3 is more than Pi 2, however it turns out to be almost identical in case of less demanding work loads. Turning Pi 3 into low level laptop is bit of interesting task, which can be achieved in few bucks only.
• Pi 3 can support up to SanDisk 64GB SD card. Before making purchase of this high speed memory card, make sure you are in dire need of this card for your project as it costs more than the actual Pi 3 device. If you intend to run official Raspbian operating system, 8GB SD card would be suffice to meet your needs.
• Making a purchase in only 2500 rupees would be a worth investment for a tiny computer like this. However, there are multiple Pi kits are available which you can select from, that are modified for performing different functions based on your needs and requirements, costing you little bit extra than simple Pi 3.

Features of Raspberry Pi 3

• 1.4 GHz 64 bit, Broadcom BCM2387 ARM Cortex-A53 Quad Core Processor, which is 10 times faster than Raspberry Pi 1.
• 1GB RAM (LPDDR2 SDRAM) which allows you to run more advanced applications
• On-board wireless LAN, used to connect device through wireless
• On-board Bluetooth
• 4 USB ports for communication
• 300Mbit/s ethernet
• 40 GPIO pins
• Full size HDMI 1.3a port
• 10/100 BaseT Ethernet socketbr
• Fully HAT compatible
• Combined 3.5mm analog audio and composite video jack
• Camera interface (CSI), for connecting camera
• Display interface (DSI) used for connecting Raspberry Pi touch screen display
• microSD slot for storing data
• Micro USB power source
• Full size HDMI
• VideoCore IV multimedia/3D graphics core @ 400MHz/300MHz

 

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Comparison between Raspberry Pi 3  and Computer

• Raspberry Pi 3 is identical to regular computer in terms performing many valuable functions. But it has a leg over desktop PC when it comes to cost, and approaching to hard to reach places. Spending huge amount of money on advanced computer, when you are in a beginning phase of learning computer skills, would not be good choice. It is better to invest in a tiny device like Pi 3, so you can get a glimpse of what actual PC can do.
• This device can be modified into any module like a robot or laptop, based on your needs and requirements.
• If you are obsessed with games, then this device can turn out to be a very useful gaming console, as it can run low demanding vantage games, allowing you to get rid of spending huge amount of money on laptop.
• No doubt, Raspberry Pi 3 has so many functions identical to regular PC, but it is not as fast as desktop computer when it comes to uploading or handling heavy sites.
• Gamers can find this device addictive, because it can be capable of supporting number of vintage games, however, playing more advanced games will be little bit difficult than playing on the regular PC.

Applications of Raspberry Pi

The Pi 3 comes with a wide range of applications with the purpose of performing most of the functions like a desktop computer. Following are the main applications of the Pi 3

• Arcade Machine
• Media Streamer
• Tablet Computer
• Home Automation
• Controlling Robots
• Internet Radio
• Coffee Projects
• Cosmic Computer

That’s all for today. I hope you have enjoyed the article.Feel free to keep us updated with your feedback and suggestions, . Thanks for reading the article. Stay Tuned!