Tutorial : Raspberry Pi CPSC 424 / 624

SPRING, 2017

I N S T R U C T O R : D R . J I M M A RT I N

SLIDES DEVELOPED: MANVEEN KAUR ([email protected] ) AND ANJAN R. ( @CLEMSON.EDU)

About this tutorial
This tutorial aims at familiarizing you with Raspberry Pi.
We will discuss the following topics -
What is Raspberry Pi?
How many Raspberry Pi models are there?
What can Raspberry Pi do?
Where can you buy a Raspberry Pi ?
How to configure your Raspberry Pi ?
Some DIY projects that can be done on the Raspberry Pi.
What is Raspberry Pi?
Raspberry Pi is a credit card sized bargain micro Linux
machine.
The goal behind creating Raspberry Pi was to create a low cost
device that would improve programming skills and hardware
understanding for students.
The latest model of Raspberry Pi comes sporting 1 GB of
RAM, 1200 MHz quad core ARM Cortex-A53 processor, and
basic levels of functionality that enables hobbyists, computer
enthusiasts, and students to use this device for DIY projects. Raspberry Pi 3 Model B
Raspberry Pi is open hardware with the exception of its (Latest release of Raspberry Pi)
primary chip, the Broadcomm SoC which runs the main
components of the board CPU, graphics, memory, USB
controller etc.
 Different models of Raspberry Pi (RPi)
The current models of the Raspberry Pi available: the Pi 2 Model B, the Pi 3 Model B, the Pi Zero, and the Pi 1 Model B+
and A+.
The Model A+ is the low-cost variant of the Raspberry Pi. It has 256MB RAM, one USB port, 40 GPIO pins and no Ethernet
port.
The Model B+ is the final revision of the original Raspberry Pi. It has 512MB RAM (twice as much as the A+), four USB
ports, 40 GPIO pins, and an Ethernet port.
The Pi 2 shares many specs with the Pi 1 B+, but it uses a 900MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU and has 1GB RAM.
The Pi 3 Model B was launched in February 2016; it uses a 1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU, has 1GB RAM,
integrated 802.11n wireless LAN, and Bluetooth 4.1.
Pi Zero is half the size of a Model A+, with a 1Ghz single-core CPU and 512MB RAM, and mini-HDMI and USB On-The-Go
ports.
All of these Raspberry Pi Models share the following features:
Operating Systems: Raspbian RaspBMC, Arch Linux, Rise OS, OpenELEC Pidora
Video Output: HDMI Composite RCA
Supported Resolutions: 640x350 to 1920x1200, including 1080p, PAL & NTSC standards
Power Source: Micro USB
 What can RPi do?
Raspberry Pi users have made many creative and
impressive projects using this device.
North Carolina Near Space Research
(http://www.ncnearspace.org/) used a raspberry pi
to power very-high-altitude balloons to take pictures
from space.
Engineers have used RPi to design a dicta-teacher
meant to teach disadvantaged blind children how to
read Braille.
A link to a weather station made from Raspberry Pi -
http://embeddedday.com/projects/rescuing-a-foam-
box/
RPi can also be programmed to assist in Video showing a smartphone made with Raspberry Pi .
housekeeping your network by functioning as NAS,
LDAP server, web server, media server, DNS server
etc.
 Where can you buy RPi from?
From the Raspberry Pi website : http://swag.raspberrypi.org/
From the Raspberry Pis main distributors : Premier Farnell/Element 14
(https://www.element14.com/community/community/raspberry-pi) and RS Compnents/Allied Electronics
(http://uk.rs-online.com/web/generalDisplay.html?id=raspberrypi)
Resellers of Raspberry Pi such as Adafruit (https://www.adafruit.com/products/998 )or Amazon.
How much does it cost?
The Model A+ costs $20
The Model B+ costs $25
Pi 2 costs $35
The Pi 3 costs $35
The Pi Zero costs $5
Power supply and SD card are not included in this price but are available from the same sellers.

Refer to http://elinux.org/RPi_Buying_Guide for further information on buying

What hardware do you need to setup your RPi ?
1. A Raspberry Pi
2. An HDMI or composite video capable television or monitor
3. An HDMI or composite video cable
4. An SD card that is compatible with your Raspberry Pi - http://elinux.org/RPi_SD_cards has a list of
SD cards you should use
5. A USB keyboard and mouse (Bluetooth keyboard/mouse work for latest model but with minor
connectivity issues)
6. Standard Ethernet cable
7. Micro USB power supply (that can provide at least 700mA at 5V)
8. A 3.5 mm stereo audio cable if your project requires Raspberry Pi to be connected to external
speakers.
Steps to setup your RPi
Each of the following steps is detailed in the subsequent slides.
Step 1 : SD Card Setup
Step 2 : Raspberry Pi cabling
Step 3 : Booting your RPi for the first time
Step 4 : Load GUI environment to your RPi
Sep 5 : Setup a network connection
After completing this setup , you will have your device powered up and working as a full fledged
Linux box running Debian.
Step 1: SD Card Setup
RPi will NOT start without a properly formatted SD Card (with a bootloader and suitable OS).
Two of the most important RPi OS options are Raspbian (based on Debian) and Pidora (based on
Fedora)
IMPORTANT - The formatted SD Card has to be inserted before powering the RPi; and the RPi
has to be shut down before unplugging the card.
Ways to setup the SD card:
Easy/ Safe way Buy a preloaded card from a reputable supplier (Available for sale
http://swag.raspberrypi.org/ and https://thepihut.com/ . There have been reports of
problems with SD cards purchased from ebay or Amazon so be cautious if buying from there)
Create your own SD card for Rpi
Using NOOBS
Flashing the SD Card using Windows, Mac, or Linux
Step 1: SD Card setup using NOOBS
NOOBS (New Out Of Box Software) is an easy way to install RPi distributions.
It is a 1 GB download compared to the 500 MB size of images used for flashing.
Download NOOBS from the raspberrypi.org downloads page
Insert a (4 GB+) SD Card into your computer
Format the disk using instructions mentioned in notes for this slide.
If your monitor doesnt work with NOOBS, press 1-4 for the following troubleshooting options:
Default HDMI Mode
HDMI Safe Mode - Use this if Default (1) doesn't work and you cannot see anything
Composite PAL Mode - Use this or 4. if you are using the yellow and black outputs on the opposite side to the
HDMI output
Composite NTSC Mode
 Step 1: SD Card setup by flashing the card
Instructions for Windows
Using the Win32DiskImager program
1. Download the distribution from raspberrypi.org downloads page. Make sure the distribution is for Raspberry Pi (it
will mostly be a compressed file ending in .zip or .gz). Extract this image.
2. Insert the SD card into your SD card reader and make note of what drive your SD Card is assigned.
3. Download the Win32DiskImager utility from https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/ . This can be run
from a USB drive.
4. Extract the executable from the zip file and run the Win32DiskImager utility (might
need to Run as Administrator; Right-click on the file, and select 'Run as Admin).
5. If you see a file error when Win32DiskImager loadsv(in windows 7), ignore the error.
6. Select the image file you extracted and the drive letter of SD card as shown here
7. Click Write and wait for write to complete.
8. Exit imager and eject SD card. It can now be plugged into RPi.
If you are unable to chose the device in Win32DiskImager, try using flashnul to do a similar installation.
Alternatively, you can use the Fedora ARM Installer to download and install RPi Fedora Remix images
(http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_ARM_Installer)
Step 1: SD Card setup by flashing the card
Instructions for Mac OS X
One way is to run an app with a GUI such as Pi Filler, ApplePi-Baker, or PiWriter; but the way that
has worked out for most users is by using systems tool from the command line.
First, download the image you want here : http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads
Verify the file using the published hash value - from the command line: $ openssl
sha1 path_to_file.img, or drag&drop the .img file into command window instead of typing the full
path and file name.
Unzip the file to extract the image (.img) file (an app like Unarchiver worked better that the OS X
file de-compressor.
Follow this link for instructions on installing OS images from the latest version of MAC OS :
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/installation/installing-images/mac.md
 Step 1: SD Card setup by flashing the card
Instructions for Linux command line
Download the zip file containing the image of the distribution : http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads
Extract image with : unzip ~/2012-12-16-wheezy-raspbian.zip
Run df h to see what devices are currently mounted.
Insert SD card into your computer and run df h again. Your SD card will be listed as something like "/dev/mmcblk0p1" or
"/dev/sdd1". The last part ("p1" or "1" respectively) is the partition number, but you want to write to the whole SD card, not
just one partition, so you need to remove that part from the name (getting for example "/dev/mmcblk0" or "/dev/sdd").
Now, unmount the SD card (and all its partitions that show up) - umount /dev/sdd1 (replace /dev/sdd1)
In the terminal write the image to the card with this command, making sure you replace the input file if= argument with the
path to your .img file, and the "/dev/sdd" in the output file of= argument with the right device name (IMPORTANT !!! The
wrong device name will cause you to lose all data on the hard drive)
dd bs=4M if=~/2012-12-16-wheezy-raspbian.img of=/dev/sdd --- Might need to sudo for this.
As root run the command sync or if a normal user run sudo sync(this will ensure the write cache is flushed and that it is safe to
unmount your SD card)
Remove SD card from reader and insert in RPi.
Step 2: Raspberry Pi cabling
Push SD card into the SD card slot.
Plug the HDMI cable into the HDMI output of
the Raspberry Pi and connect to the
TV/monitor.
Turn on monitor and switch to the HDMI
port.
Insert the network cable and connect to the
router.
Connect the keyboard and mouse via USB
ports.
Plug the power supply into the micro USB.
The device is now ready for the next steps.
Step 3: Booting your RPi for the first time
These steps are for the Debian distribution of Raspberry pi, Raspbian.
The first time you boot the Raspberry Pi you'll see a configuration tool called "raspi-config.
Calling raspi-config command from the terminal of your device will open this configuration
screen again, if you need to see it.
Select expand_rootfs and press enter (As shown in the images below). This option expands
the installed image to use the maximum available size of your SD card.
Step 3: Booting your RPi for the first time
Select configure_keyboard from the main menu and press enter. From the list of keyboard
options that comes up, select your keyboard setup. If you are unable to find your keyboard
setup. Select the default 105-key option.

Select the keyboard layout as required

The last option to set in the Keyboard configuration is the ALT / CTRL / BACKSPACE feature to
kill X11. It is recommended that you enable this, so that in case your GUI ever crashes you can
safely kill it without rebooting.
Step 3: Booting your RPi for the first time
Setting user password on your device.
From the main menu, select change_pass and
press Enter. You will be prompted to enter new
UNIX password.
Set your locale which is the general character
set used in your native language (en_US.UTF-8
for USA). Set this as the default locale when
prompted.
Set your timezone by selecting the Change_timezone option.
Select Finish and reboot. Once you are back online, you will see a login prompt like this.
Step 4 : Load GUI environment to RPi
Log in from the login prompt with the username pi and the password you set earlier.
After logging in, type startx to get the GUI environment loaded.
After a loading sequence, you will see a UI which looks similar to the Windows UI. It is the LXDE
Window Manager which is a light weight UI that runs well on Raspberry Pi.
After finishing the whole setup sequence, you now have your device powered up and the LXDE
WM running. You can now use this Pi for your projects, or for general computing tasks.
Step 5 : Setup a network connection
Your device can be connected to the internet in the following different ways, depending on the
model you have used:
The LAN interface via Ethernet cable to your Internet router (Models B & B +, not the A, A + and Zero)
If you are using the Ethernet option and your router is configured for DHCP, you should be able to
connect without any further configuration.
The built-in wireless card - Only the Raspberry Pi 3
A USB wireless dongle - available for all models
This option consumes more power than other options. If you are using this option, make sure you hve
a power supply that can support it.

Wifi can be setup using either the command line or the graphical interface. Instructions on setting up wifi
are available in detail in this document : https://learn.adafruit.com/downloads/pdf/adafruits-raspberry-
pi-lesson-3-network-setup.pdf
Getting started with IDLE on RPi
Raspbian comes preloaded with Python, the official programming language of the Raspberry Pi
and IDLE 3 which is a Python Integrated Development Environment.
IDLE3 can be loaded up by double-clicking the icon on your LXDE desktop.
Click File > New Window, which will then bring up a new blank window which you can type in.
Type in your code and save.
Click Run > Run Module or press F5 to run your code.
Enable SSH on your RPi
If you want to access the command line (not the full desktop environment) of your RPi from
another computer, you can use ssh
SSH can be enabled using raspi-config.
Enter sudo raspi-config in the terminal, navigate to ssh, hit Enter, and select Enable
or disable ssh server
For access to the full desktop environment via remote control, you can use VNC. It transmits the
keyboard and mouse events from the controller, and receives updates to the screen over the
network from the remote host.
Instructions to enable VNC are here : https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/remote-
access/vnc/README.md
 SSH into Rpi using Windows
Download PuTTY (available as putty.exe)
When you run it, you will see a configuration screen like this ->
Type the RPis IP address into the Host name field and Open.
(Find the IP address using hostname I )
When the connection starts, you will see a security warning
about the servers host key not cached in the registry. This can be safely
ignored. Click Yes.
You will now get the usual RPi login prompt. Log in with pi as
username and the password you set earlier.
Type exit to close the putty window.
You can use Saved sessions on the configuration screen to
connect the second time. You can change the Seconds between
keepalives value in the left hand pane to 30 to allow PuTTY to
leave the remote connection open for long periods without any
activity on your RPi.
 SSH into RPi using Linux/ Mac OS
SSH from Linux or Mac OS doesnt require any software installations.
Get your devices IP address from the terminal using hostname I
Type the command ssh pi@<IP> where <IP> is the IP address of the RPi into the terminal window of the
Linux or Mac OS devices. If your RPi user name is not pi, replace pi in the command with your user name.
If you receive a connection timed out, check if you have the RPis correct IP address.
When you get a security authenticity warning, type yes.
You will now be prompted for the password for the pi (username: pi; password: as in the setup).
X-Forwarding can also be set up from Linux or Mac OS by using the Y flag as ssh -Y pi@<IP>
With X-forwarding, When you type in commands such as idle3 & you can now open up graphical windows
such as Python Editor IDLE remotely.
R-Pi Temperature/Humidity Sensing
Optional project : Setup an FTP server on
RPi
Install the vsftpd package sudo apt-get install vsftpd
By default vsftpd is configured for anonymous access with read-only permissions. It needs to be changed so that it requires you
to authenticate with a local user.
Open the configuration file sudo nano /etc/vsftpd.conf
Change or uncomment the following values
anonymous_enable=NO
local_enable=YES
write_enable=YES
Local_umask=022
chroot_local_user=YES
user_sub_token=$USER
local_root=/home/$USER/ftp
Restart the vsftpd service
Create a couple folders in your local users home folder. The ftp folder will be the root when you connect.
Vsftpd doesnt allow root to have write permissions so you need to reate a sub-folder inside the root called files which our local
user will be allowed to write to. This is where youd upload/download files from with an FTP client.
You can now connect to your RPi from any FTP client and start uploading/downloading files.
Resources for learning about RPi
Learning resources : https://www.raspberrypi.org/resources/learn/
Raspberry Pi projects : http://elinux.org/RPi_Projects
Raspberry Pi learning community https://www.element14.com/community/welcome
A project aiming at creating an enhanced router using Raspberry Pi https://ronnyvdbr.github.io/