Rocking The Rocking Raspberry Pi Challenge.. Part 2 - Why Raspberry Pi ??

This is my second blog post for the Rocking Raspberry Pi Challenge, as there is some time left for me until Raspberry Pi and other goodies get delivered to me, I thought that its a good time to discuss that why Raspberry Pi is best suited for projects like these, I am writing this specially for beginners who just got into the electronics hobby, and have many questions in mind....

So what exactly is Raspberry PI ??

Raspberry Pi is a credit card sized single board computer, which was developed by the Raspberry Pi foundation for making computer education affordable for every one around the globe, It is powered by a Broadcom BCM2835 system on a chip (SoC), which includes an ARM1176JZF-S 700 MHz processor, VideoCore IV GPU, and was originally shipped with 256 megabytes of RAM, later upgraded to 512 MB. . You can just plug your keyboard, mouse and monitor and get started with it. Raspberry Pi can run various versions of Linux, I will be talking about in later in this post. And its BEAUTIFUL....

OK I got it, But what makes Raspberry Pi different from others ??

This is the most asked question on the internet when it comes to single board computers, people generally get confused that which single board computer they should start. People often gets Arduino and Raspberry PI, first of all comparing them is like comparing apples and oranges, Arduino is a programmable micro-controller board while the Raspberry Pi is a single board Linux computer.. So i will not be comparing both of them, I will be talking only about why one should prefer Raspberry Pi to other Single Board Computers out there...

So lets start...

Lots of Ports !!!

     Raspberry Pi comes with a huge selection of Input/Output ports, Lets talk a little about all of them...

HDMI Port : The HDMI port is the primary video and output port of the Raspberry Pi, it connects any HD TV or HD computer monitor to the Raspberry Pi..

RCA Video Port : Every one doesn't have a HD TV or HD computer monitor like me, hence the RCA Video output comes in handy, any old TV can be connected to the Raspberry Pi.

2 X USB Ports : The Raspberry Pi has 2 USB ports, which can be used to connect almost any USB device which do not require any special drivers. You can connect Keyboards, mice, USB Pen-drives, External Hard Drives, WiFi Dongles  etc. The list goes on and on....

SD Card Slot : The SD Card slot under the Raspberry Pi is used for Plugging in the SD card which has the Operating System or OS installed on it and some storage space, as it does not include a built-in hard disk or solid-state drive..

RJ45 Jack : It is used for connecting the Raspberry Pi to the internet and does support 10/100 Ethernet..

3.5 mm Analog Audio Out : The analog audio output port is very useful when you are using a computer monitor or a old TVs with Analog Video out, Because they both does not have audio. You connect speakers or use analog audio input of the TV.

THE GPIO Ports : The Raspberry Pi has 26 GPIO or General Purpose Input Output ports, which can be used to connect various sensors and other addon boards and shields to the Raspberry Pi.

The Micro USB Port : The micro USB port on the Pi is for power, it is a smart choice as now a days most of the mobile phones comes with a micro USB charger, and the RPi can be powered by them as they are typically 5 Volts and 1 Amp..

The Raspberry Pi Communities....

Since its launch in  March 2012 the Raspberry Pi community is growing day by day, and its amazing to see that every one is in it form 10  to 60 years old, from students to experts. And i think that's the biggest plus point of the the RPi. A community behind any product plays a vital role in its development, if you buy a RPi and face any problem there a very chance that someone had already faced that problem and solved and now you don't have to bang your head on the wall trying to fix it, great isn't it ??

And RPi has many big communities on the internet and one of the big ones right HERE on the Element14 with experts always there to solve your problems, and another one HERE on the RPi website...

Add-ons And Accessories.....

Raspberry Pi has the widest variety of addons and  accessories than any other single board computer out there in the market. custom cases, microcontroller boards, displays, dongles, cameras, you name it and it must be out there....

The power of doing more comes with these accessories and addons, there are allot of them so i can't mention all of them, but above in order are "PiFace Control and display", "Raspberry Pi lego case", "Raspberry Pi Camera", ''PiFace Digital" And "Wi-Pi Wi-Fi dongle for Raspberry Pi"....

NOOBS....

NOOBS or New Out Of Box Software which was introduced last year, which in my opinion is the best addition to the raspberry pi since raspberry pi it self.

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 !!

Click HERE to know more....

OK this I think this much is enough for now, if you have any other questions please be free to ask in the comments and i will answer as much as i can.

I am writing this in this blog because i was once a beginner once and had the same questions in mind, so i thought it would be a good idea to write it in the Rocking Raspberry Pi Challenge Group because I wanted to tell why RPi is best suited for Projects like a Karaoke machine and other such cool projects, and I think I proved it  BVIOUSLY....