Raspberry Pi For Dummies

Sean McManus is an expert technology and business author. His tutorials and articles have appeared in The MagPi, Internet Magazine, Business 2.0, and Personal Computer World. Mike Cook is a former Physics lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University who has designed access control systems and written over 300 computing and electronics articles.

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Why You Need This Book 2

Foolish Assumptions 3

Icons Used in This Book 3

Beyond the Book 4

Where to Go from Here 4

Part 1: Setting Up Your Raspberry Pi 7

Chapter 1: Introducing the Raspberry Pi 9

Getting Familiar with the Raspberry Pi 11

Figuring Out What You Can Do with a Raspberry Pi 14

Getting Your Hands on a Raspberry Pi 15

Determining What Else You Need 16

Chapter 2: Downloading the Operating System 23

Introducing Linux 24

Creating a NOOBS Card 25

Downloading NOOBS 25

Formatting the SD card 26

Copying NOOBS to the SD or MicroSD card 30

Using Your NOOBS Card 32

Flashing an SD or MicroSD card 32

Chapter 3: Connecting Your Raspberry Pi 35

Inserting the SD Card 37

Connecting the Raspberry Pi Camera Module 39

Connecting the camera on a Pi Zero W 40

Connecting the camera on other Raspberry Pi models 40

Preparing Your Pi Zero or Zero W 41

Connecting a Monitor or TV 41

Connecting an HDMI or DVI display 42

Connecting a television using composite video 42

Connecting a USB Hub 43

Connecting a Keyboard and Mouse 44

Connecting Audio 44

Connecting to Your Router 45

Connecting the Power and Turning on the Raspberry Pi 46

Logging In 50

Configuring Your Raspberry Pi in Raspbian 50

Configuring Your Wi-Fi 53

Configuring Bluetooth Devices 54

Testing the Camera Module 54

Setting Up the Data Partition 56

Taking Your Next Steps with the Raspberry Pi 56

Part 2: Getting Started with Linux 57

Chapter 4: Using the Desktop Environment 59

Navigating the Desktop Environment 60

Using the Applications menu 60

Running programs that are not on the menu 63

Resizing and closing program windows 63

Using the Task Manager 64

Using File Manager 65

Navigating File Manager 66

Copying and moving files and folders 69

Selecting multiple files and folders 70

Creating new folders and blank files 71

Deleting files and folders 71

Changing how files are displayed 72

Opening a folder in the terminal 73

Browsing the Web 74

Using Chromium to browse the web 74

Searching within web pages 76

Using tabbed browsing 76

Adding and using bookmarks 76

Protecting your privacy 77

Sending and Receiving Email with Claws Mail 78

Using the Image Viewer 79

Using the Text Editor 81

Customizing the Desktop 82

Finding and Installing New Applications 83

Backing Up Your Data 84

Logging Out from PIXEL and Shutting Down 85

Chapter 5: Using the Linux Shell 87

Understanding the Prompt 88

Exploring Your Linux System 88

Listing files and directories 88

Changing directories 89

Checking file types 89

Changing to the parent directory 90

Understanding the directory tree 91

Using relative and absolute paths 94

Investigating more advanced listing options 96

Understanding the Long Listing Format and Permissions 99

Slowing Down the Listing and Reading Files with the Less Command 102

Speeding Up Entering Commands 103

Using Redirection to Create Files 104

Creating Directories 106

Deleting Files 107

Using Wildcards to Select Multiple Files 108

Removing Directories 110

Copying and Renaming Files 111

Installing and Managing Software on Your Raspberry Pi 113

Updating the cache 114

Finding the package name 114

Installing software 115

Running software 116

Upgrading the software 116

Removing software and freeing up space 117

Finding out what’s installed 118

Managing User Accounts on Your Raspberry Pi 118

Learning More about Linux Commands 120

Customizing the Shell with Your Own Linux Commands 122

Shutting Down and Rebooting Your Raspberry Pi 124

Part 3: Using the Raspberry Pi for Both Work and Play 125

Chapter 6: Being Productive with the Raspberry Pi 127

Installing LibreOffice on Your Raspberry Pi 128

Working with LibreOffice on the Raspberry Pi 128

Saving your work 129

Writing letters in LibreOffice Writer 129

Managing your budget in LibreOffice Calc 131

Creating presentations in LibreOffice Impress 134

Creating a party invitation with LibreOffice Draw 136

Chapter 7: Editing Photos on the Raspberry Pi with GIMP 139

Working with GIMP 140

Understanding the GIMP screen layout 140

Resizing an image in GIMP 142

Cropping your photo 144

Rotating and flipping your photo 145

Adjusting the colors 145

Fixing imperfections 146

Converting images between different formats 147

Finding Out More about GIMP 147

Chapter 8: Playing Audio and Video on the Raspberry Pi 149

Setting Up Your Media Center 149

Navigating the Media Center 150

Adding Media 151

Adding music 152

Adding videos 153

Adding pictures 154

Streaming media 155

Playing Music 155

Playing Videos 156

Viewing Photos 157

Changing the Settings 157

Using a Remote Control 158

Turning Off Your Media Center 158

Playing Music in the Desktop Environment 158

Part 4: Programming the Raspberry Pi 161

Chapter 9: Introducing Programming with Scratch 163

Understanding What Programming Is 164

Working with Scratch 164

Understanding the Scratch screen layout 165

Positioning and resizing your sprite 166

Making your sprite move 167

Changing your sprite’s appearance 172

Adding sounds and music 176

Creating scripts 178

Using the Wait block to slow down your sprite 180

Saving your work 180

What’s new in Scratch 2 181

Chapter 10: Programming an Arcade Game Using Scratch 183

Starting a New Scratch Project and Deleting Sprites 184

Changing the Background 185

Adding Sprites to Your Game 185

Drawing Sprites in Scratch 186

Naming Your Sprites 189

Controlling When Scripts Run 190

Using the green flag to start scripts 190

Using the Forever Control block 191

Enabling keyboard control of a sprite 192

Enabling a sprite to control another sprite 193

Using Random Numbers 195

Detecting When a Sprite Hits Another Sprite 196

Introducing Variables 197

Making Sprites Move Automatically 199

Fixing the Final Bug 201

Adding Scripts to the Stage 203

Duplicating Sprites 203

Playing Your Game 204

Adapting the Game’s Speed 204

Taking It Further with Scratch 205

Chapter 11: Writing Programs in Python 207

Working with Python 208

Entering your first Python commands 208

Using the shell to calculate sums 210

Creating the Times Tables Program 212

Creating and running your first Python program 213

Using variables 214

Accepting user input 216

Printing words, variables, and numbers together 216

Using for loops to repeat 218

Creating the Chatbot Program 221

Introducing lists 222

Using lists to make a random chat program 225

Adding a while loop 227

Using a loop to force a reply from the user 228

Using dictionaries 229

Creating your own functions 231

Creating the dictionary look-up function 234

Creating the main conversation loop 236

Final thoughts on Chatbot 236

The final Chatbot program 237

Chapter 12: Creating a Game with Python and Pygame Zero 239

Collecting Your Sounds and Images 240

Setting Up Your Folders 241

Creating and Running Your First Program 241

Detecting mouse clicks 244

Animating your actors 245

Using random numbers 247

Adding more clouds 248

Making the clouds regenerate 250

Enabling multiple clouds to be clicked 251

Adding the timer 253

Adjusting the game difficulty 253

The final game listing 254

Exploring Pygame Zero Further 256

Chapter 13: Programming Minecraft with Python 257

Playing Minecraft 258

Moving around 258

Making and breaking things 259

Preparing for Python 260

Using the Minecraft Module 261

Understanding coordinates in Minecraft 261

Repositioning the player 262

Adding blocks 263

Stopping the player from changing the world 264

Setting the maze parameters 265

Laying the foundations 266

Placing the maze walls 267

Understanding the maze algorithm 268

Setting up the variables and lists 269

Creating the functions 270

Creating the main loop 271

Adding a ceiling 274

Positioning the player 274

The final code 275

Adapting the Program 279

Chapter 14: Making Music with Sonic Pi 281

Understanding the Sonic Pi Screen Layout 282

Playing Your First Notes 283

Using Note and Chord Names 285

Writing Shorter Programs 286

Composing Random Tunes Using Shuffle 287

Changing the Random Number Seed 287

Using List Names in Your Programs 288

Playing Random Notes 288

Experimenting with Live Loops 289

Using Samples 291

Adding Special Effects 292

Synchronizing with Your Drumbeat 293

Bringing It All Together 293

Next Steps with Sonic Pi 295

Part 5: Exploring Electronics with the Raspberry Pi 297

Chapter 15: Understanding Circuits 299

Discovering What a Circuit Is 300

Understanding the nature of electricity 300

Determining how a component needs to be treated 307

Getting Familiar with the GPIO 308

Putting the general purpose in GPIO 309

Understanding what GPIOs do 309

Putting an output pin to practical use 311

Using GPIOs as inputs 313

Learning which end is hot: Getting to grips with a soldering iron 314

Making a soldered joint 316

Looking at Ready-Made Add-On Boards 317

The Sense HAT 318

The Skywriter HAT 318

The Xtrinsic Sense board 319

Other boards 319

Chapter 16: Taking Control of Your Pi’s Circuitry 321

Accessing Raspberry Pi’s GPIO Pins 321

Soldering the GPIO pins onto Pi Zero 323

Getting at all the pins with one connector 324

Connecting things together 326

Your First Circuit 327

Bringing your LED to life 328

Using Scratch 1.4 328

Control the flashing speed with an input 329

Using Python 331

Using GPIO ZERO 334

Starting Out with a Dice Display 337

A dice display 337

The project 340

The numbers 340

The display 341

Taking it further 346

Pedestrian Crossing 347

The Pedestrian Crossing hardware 351

The Pedestrian Crossing software 352

Taking it further 356

Chapter 17: Lots of Multicolored LEDs 357

Making Colors 359

Using diffusers 359

Making more colors 360

The Way Forward 362

Bit-banging the APA102C protocol 365

Creating a class 366

Rainbow Invaders 370

Keepy Uppy 375

LEDs Galore 378

Current limits 379

Signals and memory 379

Display update 381

Getting more LEDs 381

Chapter 18: Old McDonald’s Farm and Other RFID Adventures 389

How RFID Work 390

A MIFARE card’s structure 393

A simple RFID jukebox 395

A better RFID jukebox 397

Taking it further 401

Dressing Up a Paper Doll 401

Runway time 406

Old McDonald’s Farm 410

Making sound samples 411

Making the graphics 413

Part 6: The Part of Tens 425

Chapter 19: Ten Great Software Packages for the Raspberry Pi 427

Penguins Puzzle 428

FocusWriter 429

Mathematica 429

XInvaders 3D 431

Fraqtive 431

Tux Paint 432

Grisbi 433

Beneath a Steel Sky 434

Sense HAT Emulator 435

Brain Party 436

Chapter 20: Ten Inspiring Projects for the Raspberry Pi 437

One-Button Audiobook Player 437

Weather Station 438

Heart Rate Monitor 439

Electric Skateboard 439

T-Shirt Cannon 439

Panflute Hero 440

Magic Mirror 440

Pi in the Sky 441

Raspberry Turk 442

Sound Fighter 443

Appendix A: Troubleshooting and Configuring the Raspberry Pi 445

Index 459