RASPBERRY PI - GETTING STARTED
There are so many sites with information regarding this small computer that I feel theres no need for me to add much here
There are quite a few different models out there but if you are thinking of buying one for running some ham radio applications , you probably will want a raspberry pi 3 or pi 4. These two models are the best because of their performance and both have built in wi-fi etc
Bear in mind you will also need a 5 volt 2.5 amp power suppy for the rpi 3 and a 5.1 volt 3.0 amp supply for the raspberry rpi 4
A discarded phone charger ( 5 volt 1amp ) may be ok for the zero, but no good for a pi 3 or pi 4. You will also need a keyboard, mouse and a monitor ( thou you can use a TV screen ) also for running ads-b you will require a TV dongle ( more about this later ) plus its a good idea to buy a cheap plastic case for you to put your raspberry pi in.
Going back to the power requirements - if you run your raspberry ' headleass' without a wi-fi dongle and are just using a ethernet cable from your router the power requirements should be less i.e no mouse/keyboard to power..the power needed will still be less if you rely on the internal wi-fi of the pi3/4 but start adding dongles.usb sound cards etc and it's advisable to use a hub
For some further information on power suppies click here
CONNECTING TO THE RASPBERRY PI
HEADLESSLY
To run the raspberry pi ' headless ' and activate the wi-fi and allow 'ssh' automatically is quite easy - first download and write the image to your sd card using something like balenaetcher to write the image, put the sd card in a pc and it will open show the contents of the card
Make a blank text file called 'ssh' ( no extension ) and add it to the other files in the sd card . then make a file called 'wpa_supplicant.conf' and add the below script to that file and also place it with the other files in the sd card
country=FR
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
network={
ssid="YOURSSID"
scan_ssid=1
psk="YOURPASSWORD"
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}
You need to modify the country line to reflect your country, replace 'yourssid' with your wi-fi network name and replace 'yourpassword' with your password
check this link to see how to do everything using Raspberry pi "Imager"
TO INSTALL BALENA-ETCHER FOLLOW
THE BELOW INSTRUCTIONS
wget
https://github.com/futurejones/balena-etcher-arm/releases/download/v1.5.63/balena-etcher-electron_1.5.63_raspbian_buster_armhf.deb
sudo apt-get install
./balena-etcher-electron_1.5.63_raspbian_buster_armhf.deb
You will need to find your i.p address for the raspberry before you can ssh into it ( you could of course initially set the raspberry up with a monitor/keyboard/mouse attached ) or use the below program if you have another raspberry pi networked , or go into your router which usually has a i.p address something like 192.168.1.1, it will most likely ask for a password but you should be able to find the i.p address of your new device there.
You can install https://snapcraft.io/install/nmap/raspbian which will allow you to see your new pi i.p address and any other computers on your network
You can then install REMMINA which will make things a lot easier
remmina <sudo apt-get install remmina>
You could also install vnc viewer ( to download vnc viewer click here )
To enable the camera adjust the gpu memory etc etc go into raspberry pi configuration / interfaces
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You can use the remote desktop facility on your pc to connect to the raspberry pi - see above two images
click here to see how to implement a static i.p address
if you want to connect to your raspberry pi direct using a usb cable click here
A nice android app to control your raspberry pi can be found on this link
OPERATING SYSTEM
You will need the operating system for the raspberry, which can be downloaded from the raspberry site below
download the os from the official raspberry site here
before you load the os onto the sd card the card needs formating
so download a utility called sd formatter from here
next copying the os to the card with a utility called win32 disk imager
win32 disk imager can be downloaded here
or download the image from the raspberry site using 'imager'
<sudo apt-get install rpi-imager >
it maybe easier to use balena-etcher to write the image - see further up the page for installation
It’s not a difficult task to write your own image, so don't go and buy a pre installed card
Use a good quality SD card 8 g/byte is ok 16/32 g/byte is even better (use a class 10)
The speed/class
should be displayed in a circle on the SD card
its always a good idea to do have a backup of your raspberry pi image which you can do with the 'sd card copier' part of the raspberry pi os
you can down load past and current versions of raspbian/ stretch / wheezy etc from here
for a light weigh os try dietpi
https://www.armbian.com/rpi4b ( this is image is absolutely brilliant, it's packed with pre-installed programs everything you could possibly need )
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the above picture shows a raspberry pi 3 with built in wi-fi |
the above picture shows a raspberry pi w ( w de-notes its got built in wi-fi |
so what programs can i run ? check the below link
using a raspberry pi as a replacement for a pc
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if you want to run ads-b / acarsdeco2 etc you will need a tv dongle which with a modified driver will receive signals from about 10 mhz up to 1.8 ghz ( depending on the dongle you buy ) the driver will be installed during the setup procedure - you will require a program called zadig if using with a windows pc
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if you want to receive rtty/psk or navtex and take the audio from from a ssb receiver as opposed to using a sdr dongle you will need a sound card dongle the raspberry pi has got no audio input only a audio output so you will need one of these very cheap sound card dongles the programs required for receiving rtty / navtext are linpsk or fldigi for raspberry pi to manage the input / output to the sound card dongle use the following program sudo apt-get install qasmixer
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