Internet of Things - Raspberry Pi - An Introduction

Raspberry Pi is an affordable single-board computer developed by Raspberry Pi Foundation to help schools and people from developing countries to get educated in computer science. Popular uses of the Raspberry Pi involve but are not limited to - IoT, Robotics, Media Centre, Drones and Control systems etc.

• HDMI Port - Connect monitor or projector
• Ethernet Port - connect board to wired network
• GPIO Pins - connect sensors and other electronic components
• SD Card Module Slot - Supports SD Card to store OS and files.
• USB Ports - connect mouse, keyboard and other USB operated components
• Audio Jack - connect headphone or speakers
• MicroUSB connector - connect power supply

• Raspberry Pi Zero
• Raspberry Pi Zero W
• Raspberry Pi 1 Model A+
• Raspberry Pi 1 Model B+
• Raspberry Pi 2 Model B
• Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+
• Raspberry Pi 3 Model B
• Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+
• Compute Module 3+

• Linux based Operating Systems - Raspbian/Fedora/Archlinux/UbuntuMATE
• Windows 10 IoT Core
• Android Pi
• Raspberry Pi Media Centers (OpenELEC and LibreELEC)
• RISC OS Pi
• Plan 9 (Barebone open source operating system)
• RetroPi/RecalBox/Lakka/PiPlay
• FreeBSD/RaspBSD/NetBSD
• Chromium OS
• Screenly

In order to make the Raspberry Pi board work, an Operating System needs to be installed on it. For people who are new to the world of Pi boards, NOOBS (New Out of Box Software) makes is very easy to install one of your choice. You can either buy an SD card pre-loaded with NOOBS or download one from https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/noobs/ as a first step

Insert the SD card in slot provided underneath the Raspbery Pi board. Format the SD card as FAT using disc utility or formatting tool. While selecting the format option, "Format Size Adjustment" is set to "No".

Extract the NOOBS zip file in computer and copy only the NOOBS files in the formatted SD card.

Insert the SD card in the card slot provided underneath the Raspberry Pi after copying the NOOBS files in it. Boot the Raspberry Pi board to allow NOOBS to guide you through the installation of operating system like Raspbian or LibreELEC, OSMC etc.

Make sure you run following command in terminal once after you install Raspbian OS and reboot to a desktop to update firmware of the Pi board:

sudo rpi -update

This will help update all the firmware and solve dependencies related issues.

Stay tuned for more articles and demo videos on Raspberry Pi OS setup and programming.