Raspberry Pi is a very versatile device for programmers. Novice and experienced coders can take advantage of Raspberry Pi which is a highly adaptable device. Raspberry Pi is available since 2012. You can accomplish complex electronics projects as effortlessly as plain practical projects with Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi is known to power anything from games and toys to smart media such as TV.
A Brief about the Low-Cost Computing Platform Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi is a credit card size computing platform, modestly priced and extremely popular. Today, Raspberry Pi is the preferred device for building smart applications. It is a viable platform for electronics professionals and hobbyists alike.
When Eben Upton and his team first built the mini device, their objective was mainly to garner greater interest in computer science, especially from the student population. However, the high level of accessibility offered by their solution led Raspberry Pi founders into developing several subsequent models.
Raspberry Pi flavors are available as models across generations with a rich and diverse feature set. Raspberry Pi models include Pi 1, Pi 2, and Pi 3. Every stage in the evolution of Raspberry Pi has enhanced features incorporated into its functionality. Programmers looking at minimalistic coding functions can also settle for the Raspberry Pi Zero model. Raspberry Pi models are priced based on their capabilities.
Interesting Electronics Projects You Can Execute with Raspberry Pi
Working with Raspberry Pi for your electronics projects can be exciting. The platform provided by Raspberry Pi is simple and best suited for coding even your very first project. Some interesting ideas that you can take up as part of your next electronics project include the following:
- Raspberry Pi is designed to enable novice programmers to create the game of their choice instantly. Pre-installed programs make it very easy to program your game as per your intended logic.
- Advanced gaming projects like play emulators can also execute equally well on a Raspberry Pi platform. Raspberry Pi provides the right mechanism to achieve the functionality of an emulator that can play titles from consoles including Sega Genesis, SNES, and PlayStation through conventional ROMs.
- Raspberry Pi serves as an excellent platform to set up streaming through Kodi, to access content which is available locally as well as on the Internet.
- Programming a download is one of the most popular Raspberry Pi projects. If you are planning to download large files from the Internet, then Raspberry Pi can create the desired bifurcation by directing all your download traffic to an external device. An arrangement like this alleviates the burden of low disk space on your local computer. Raspberry Pi download hubs also prove safer than direct downloads since the possibility of malware destroying files on your local drive is ruled out.
Some of the most interesting practical projects achieved through the flexible and extendable platform encapsulated in Raspberry Pi are retro game machines, mini Macintosh machines, Minecraft machines, and mini computers to control cars capable of displaying important parameters like speed and maintenance information.
One of the most basic functions that you will have to accomplish to make an electronics project effective is to establish connectivity between your mobile device and your Raspberry Pi. In this way, your mobile device gains access to the Raspberry Pi through a virtual desktop. VNC Viewer is one of the most popular choices to accomplish this task.
List of Steps to Connect your Mobile to Raspberry Pi Virtually
Connecting to your Raspberry Pi is easy from your handheld device. You can attach a Bluetooth keyboard to your mobile device to extend it with Linux capabilities. The following steps will setup your mobile device to access Raspberry Pi.
- On your Raspberry Pi, install tightvncserver. Tightvncserver will make your Raspberry Pi desktop available to any device on a network. Ensure that the device running Raspberry Pi and your mobile device is present in the same wireless network.
- Next use the ipconfig utility from the Command Line to find out the IP address of the Raspberry Pi device.
- On the Raspberry Pi device, start VNC server using the command vncserver:1 from the Command Line.
- Your mobile device must be running VNCViewer App to be able to connect to the VNC server running on the Raspberry Pi device.
- Next, create a new device from your VNC viewer for the IP address of the Raspberry Pi device identified earlier.
- Provide an authentication password after you receive a confirmation for successful connection with the device. The default password is usually raspberr.
- After successful authentication, you can view the Raspberry Pi desktop on your screen.
The Future of Raspberry Pi Projects
The breadth and depth of electronics and academic projects executed by the simple Raspberry Pi platform are enormous and unexpected. Raspberry Pi is becoming the de facto standard for academic projects. The rapid adoption of Raspberry Pi across disciplines has given impetus to its sales, recording close to eight million devices in the hands of its diverse customers.
In future, Raspberry Pi has the potential to take over IoT space. Performance increase with every new model, optimization for power management and USB device support will enable the required capability for advanced application development with Raspberry Pi.
Backward compatibility is primary to the design of Raspberry Pi and pricing is not directly proportional to the performance enhancements incorporated in the later models. This dual benefit propels greater interest among students from the disciplines of mathematics, engineering, electronics and computing after every new release of the Raspberry Pi version.
Raspberry Pi is a very practical computing platform that addresses a real world problem. Engineering and electronics academic projects now have access to a practical angle, unlike any device that was available to the academic community in the past. The Raspberry Pi solution is, therefore, a definite source of revolution and disruption in the teaching and learning space.
