Raspberry Pi
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The Raspberry Pi is an ultra-low-cost (approximately £20) credit-card sized Linux computer for teaching computer programming to children. The objective of this project is to do exactly that and to teach our 12 and 13-yr old children the basics of computer programming.
Along the way, we are hoping to teach them how it can be used for robotics and home automation. To encourage them in this activity, I'm allowing them to add what ever home automation elements they want to they bedrooms.
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The project objective is to simply port the core of our hybrid technology Home Control System (HCS) off of the current mini-ITX PC / Windows 7, to the Raspberry Pi device. Because of the architecture used, we can do this one process at a time. Our Home Control System (HCS) uses socket layer messaging and is all written in Java, so it can run in distributed fashion across a number of machines whilst the porting completed.
The Raspberry Pi will enable us to upgrade to a more powerful CPU with more powerful graphics and I/O capability. This should enable us to provide a more powerful user interface and we would like to add touch screen capability too.
Components
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Installation & Configuration
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In Use
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Summary
This device is not quite yet ready to buy in the UK but, it will be very soon.
News Stories
There are loads of news stories on the Raspberry Pi. Those of particular interest to this project are listed below:
Jan 2012
One of the Raspberry Pi developers shows it running Apple AirPlay:
December 2011
Guardian article: At Kesgrave High School in Ipswich (our children's school), a state school, computing teacher Clive Beale is eagerly awaiting the machines.
"There's not been anything like it for 25 years" he says. "We'll boot it up and it will just blink at us we'll have to tell it what to do. It's going to give pupils a chance to be creative."
