This is my first blog post for the Rocking Raspberry Pi Challenge, in this i will be writing about the hardware that I will receive, some problems which i will need to overcome and some other things in general. As this is a challenge i will not be telling every thing than i an planing to do in the first post it self, its just going to be a over view of things..
So lets take a look at the hardware that i will getting for the challenge :
Raspberry Pi Model B With 520 MB RAM :
The RPi is a great piece of hardware for making such projects / prototypes, it will provide the processing power and lots of input output ports, and it's high speed internet capabilities will be very useful for playing songs off YouTube..
8 GB SD Card with NOOBS :
The NOOBS or New Out Of Box Software on the card will be very a nice addition as I will not have to download NOOBS which is about of 1.3 GB, if any one of you want to download it click HERE. NOOBS has 6 operating systems ( Raspbian, RaspBMC, Pidora, RISC OS, Arch Linux and OpenELEC ) in it ready to be installed just with a click !! and even re-installing and changing the OS is as easy as installing it you just have to press and hold the SHIFT key when RPi is booting up and it will take you to the instillation setup, How cool is that !!
Learn More About It HERE.
Wi-PI :
Wi-Pi is the WLAN USB module RPi from Element14 it connects RPi to a Wi-Fi local area network, giving it a wireless internet connection it supports data speeds of up to 150 Mbps.
Learn More About It HERE.
PiFace Control & Display :
It is a great add-on to the RPi because it can be used as a input / output device, and we no more need connect Pi to the monitor at least for basic tasks, i am looking forward to the portability factor for the Karaoke machine, and it provides me the power to do so, I have some other great ideas for the inputs which I wont be discussing in this post for obvious reasons.. Some key features of the PiFace Control & Display are 16X2 LDC with green back light, IR receiver, 3-position navigation switch, 5 tactile switches. Again i would like to say that its a great addition to the RPi, as it adds many features to the Pi..
Learn More About It HERE.
OK that's it about the hard ware that all of us contestants are getting for the challenge, Besides that we would need some more hardware for the project..
1 ). A HD TV or computer monitor (at least for the first boot- up ), then any analog monitor can be used.
2 ). A HDMI cable (for connecting the Pi to the HD TV or Monitor ).
3 ). Speakers ( if one is using a computer monitor which usually don't have in built speakers ).
4 ). A USB Microphone ( which I am unable to find till now ).
5 ). A Micro USB power supply for powering up the Pi, ( I will use a Mobile Phone Charger for that they usually have a output of 5 Volts and 1 Amp )
There are some other things that i intend to use, i wont be disclosing in this post. Now Let,s talk about some of the problems that all the contestants will face..
1 ). Till now I am unable to find a affordable USB microphone on the internet and in the local shops, a solution as suggested on the internet is to use a USB Sound Card Adapter.
I did some research on the web and found that these things don't work properly even with Windows, so i seriously doubt that it will work with Pi, and even if it works i don't think that sound quality will be that good, and it will not also not look, its a matter of testing. if it works with the Pi and if the sound quality will decent i will do some hardware hacking to make it look good, these things are very cheep so i can risk that. That is if I cant find a Decent and affordable USB Mic, ill keep looking for a couple of more days..
2 ). Another problem for me is to make it as portable as possible, that is a big concern for me, I would love to take it to parties etc. I think that i will have to design a custom case or some thing for it, but i want to keep it pocket friendly..
OK that's it for now, i did not wrote about any software stuff as it not a big concern for me at the moment, i will write about it as i start to build the project in coming weeks, hope the Raspberry Pi and others are delivered to me in next 5 days, it would make the post more interesting as i have some awesome ideas if it does, wont tell it OBVIOUSLY.....
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