Raspberry Pi - Computer for under $50-

[JohnyMac]

MrsMac and I were at a amateur radio dinner Saturday night. Yes it's Okay to think the Mos Eisley Cantina scene from Star Wars. The hot topic was the new version three of the Raspberry Pi.

In essence, the Raspberry Pi is a computer for under $50-!

It does not include a screen, key board, CD/DVD drive or additional memory however you can add that using USB ports. The keyboard goes into this nifty box (case) or make your own out of tupper ware, Anadoids mint box, et cetera.

As you can see here, the price is quite reasonable.

Now why do I need this little yet powerful computer you might ask - Think EMP!

Put this computer, memory sticks and a small flat screen into an aluminum wrapped card board box, put away in a secure location, ground the box an viola! Youz gotz a computer to read and use the archived survival stuff you have acquired over the years.

I was blown away by the things they were doing on this little computer. And yes, there is Win10 for the Raspberry Pi hence Microsoft Office Suite.

[Well-Prepared Witch]

My Dad and Mr. WPW are both huge fans of the Raspberry Pi.  It sounds pretty neat, but I just don't have time to fuss with a DIY computer right now.  I like your idea of tucking it away for future use, though.  I'd just want to make sure I include instructions on how to set it up/use your stored docs if it's not a standard "hit the power button and it works" thing.  I end up Googling how to use most of my new tech.

[gadget99]

JM... you can do a great deal with the Raspberry PI.

[thatGuy]

I had a girl who was very tech savvy who was going to make me one with a radio dongle that would something something something packet radio... but I fucked that up

[Nemo]

Better mark that one X rated.  Talking about all that something and dongles. 

I saw some porn in my younger day but kept away from a dongle.

Nemo

[JohnyMac]

So nobody wants to read about my dinner with the the Mos Eisley Cantina crowd Saturday night?

Boy O' boy was I a fish out of water! I can bend your ear on pretty much any subject but not the topics they were talking about.  Farads and micro farads, multiple-base transistors, inverted-T field-effect transistor's et cetera, et cetera...

MrsMac was busting my chops all of the way home after that dinner. Holy crap was I out of my league. Nobody seemed to care about the best rifle twist for accurately flinging a 55 gr. .223 pill down range, a good grease/lube fort a AR bolt, or even the best solar set-up for the apocalypse.

Anyhow, I did get the Raspberry PI III deal so I thought that was pretty cool, I guess. 

Man O'man I feel so inadequate......Kinda like Nemo....

[APX808]

Hi John, that's a nice piece of hardware, you sent me one on my last trip to San Diego.

I don't recommend you to install a windows on it as it isn't as powerful and it will crawl.

Best thing is to get the canakit or some of those kits that include the transformer, a case and a SD card.

As ThatGuy told you can do nice things to monitor radio with an SDR, you can also control 40 input/output pins that can be used to control physical devices/equipment, is pretty handy to have a bluetooth keyboard to use with it too.

[JohnyMac]

Holy crap...So much to learn in so little time.

On another note...My next door 12 year old neighbor attended this instructive dinner as our guest. He had just passed his Technical Ham Exam a week earlier and was feeling pretty cocky about himself UNTIL this dinner. He along with MrsMac busted my chops all of the way home. I get no respect.

Thanks APX. As usual you are 100% correct in your comments.

On another note: It was pretty cool watching many folks plug into the "house" raspberry III to show off cool programs like "Travel Plus" for locating 2M & 6M repeaters on your road trip route, "D-Star" to connect via the internet with other hams instead of just using the airwaves or their own new cool app/program. Man my mind is still spinning.

[Nemo]

OUCH!!!

 

Nemo

[thatGuy]

I didn't ask John because I knew it would be way over my head too..

[JohnyMac]