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  • Author Author: dubbie
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Getting Started with an Old Raspberry Pi #1 : Its a Model B (not a B+)

dubbie

As I am thinking of taking part in the Picasso Design Challenge that uses a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ and not knowing very much about any Raspberry Pi I thought I would borrow one and see what I could do. I obtained an old one from my son which I am now attempting to get going.

 

I have searched some of the Element14 older material and managed to find out that I have a Raspberry Pi Model B (but not a B+). But so far I have not been able to find out how to connect it up so that I can at least turn it on and see what happens.  I think I need an HDMI cable but what else? Can anyone point me in the right direction for this very old Pi which is way past its Best Before Date?

 

Dubbie

  • I would hate to discourage you, but if I were just starting out - I would just buy a new RPi 3B+ as a kit with power supply, pre-loaded SD card and case.  I think you'll find that the old model RPi will cause you a lot of issues with lack of memory, CPU power and no wireless.  Unless you have a compelling reason for using the old RPi, you'll have a much better experience with the latest one.  It is somewhat counter-intuitive, but a full featured unit will be easier to learn because you don't have to worry so much about constraints when running example programs.  After you get experience, then you can optimize the hardware selection for features, size and power.

     

    That being said, if your son had used the RPi previously, it probably has a bootable SD card so you'll just need to add a USB keyboard/mouse and HDMI/DVI display to check it out as Luis has suggested.  One caveat for a newbie, if you get running - make sure you shutdown the OS before powering off as there is a reasonable chance to corrupt your SD image otherwise.

  • Hi ,

     

    The minimum necessary to use a Raspberry Pi:

    • First identify which RPi you have, this way is going to be less painful to deal with issues and also the GPIO mapping may be different, so this step is important
    • SD card with Raspbian or any OS compatible with Rpi: depending of which version of the Rpi you have, it may be a SD card or a micro SD that is required. Older versions of the RPi handle less types of SD cards/microSD so this is something where need to be careful.
    • Keyboard/Mouse (optional): Not a lot to say here but USB Keyboard/Mouse are the popular option.
    • Screen (optional): HDMI or a TV/screen with analog input are probably the easier options, but image quality will be on the low side with the 2nd option... and painful to deal with when reading.
    • Network cable (optional): or you may have a version that has WiFi, since is not known yet, lets assume you may potentially need one
    • About the "(optional)": you can access your RPi remotely -if connected to the network- in this case Screen/Mouse/Keyboard may not be required. There are ways to setup the network options from a PC.

     

    Hope this helps.

     

    Luis