Eben Upton's scientific contributions

The flexibility of the Raspberry Pi makes it a good choice as a low-power, general-purpose desktop computer. The Raspbian operating system, available from the Raspberry Pi website, includes the popular LibreOffice productivity suite as standard. This provides equivalents to all the tools one would expect to find in a commercial product such as Microsoft Office: a word processor, spreadsheet, database, presentation tool, and even applications for creating diagrams or mathematical formulae. If users use their Pi connected to the Internet the majority of the time, either through the integrated Ethernet port, built-in wireless, or through a USB wired or wireless adapter on models without integrated networking, cloud-based software offers them a powerful yet lightweight means of using office-centric software on the Pi. If they prefer not to use a cloud-based service, the alternative is to use LibreOffice. LibreOffice is a powerful piece of software, but one area where it lacks is in image editing.

All modern Raspberry Pi's, bar the industrial-friendly Raspberry Pi Compute Module design, feature a standardised 40-pin general-purpose input-output (GPIO) header. Each pin of the GPIO port has its own purpose, with several pins working together to form particular interfaces. This chapter shows the layout of the GPIO port. This chapter discusses how to construct and program the simple electronic circuits that demonstrate how to use the GPIO port for input and output. The Raspberry Pi Zero is unique in the mainstream Pi family, and not just because of its small size: it is the only model to be sold with an unpopulated GPIO header, meaning that it does not have the pins found on most models. Using male pin headers makes the Pi Zero compatible with any HAT or other add-on board designed for the Raspberry Pi family.

Before users can start using their Raspberry Pi, they need to connect a display. This chapter shows how to connect these to the Pi, along with a network connection in the case of the Model B, Model B+, Pi 2, and Pi 3. It also shows how to download and install an operating system for the Pi. The Pi supports three different video outputs: composite video, HDMI video, and DSI video. The Raspberry Pi 3 offers an alternative method of connecting a keyboard and mouse: a wireless Bluetooth connection. This provides freedom from cables cluttering up users' desk and frees up the USB ports for other devices. The Raspberry Pi Foundation supplies a software tool for the Pi known as New Out-Of-Box Software, or NOOBS. The purpose of this tool is to make it as easy as possible to start using the Pi. While the Raspberry Pi uses a micro-SD card for its main storage device, users may find that they run into space limitations quite quickly.

The Raspberry PI gets the first half of its name from a long-standing tradition of using fruit to name new computing systems, but the second half comes courtesy of the Python programming language. Python code is written in largely recognisable English, providing the Pi with commands in a manner that is quick to learn and easy to follow. This is in marked contrast to low-level languages, like assembler, which are closer to how the computer "thinks" but almost impossible for a human to follow without experience. Python is published under an open source licence and is freely available for Linux, OS X, and Windows computer systems. The examples in the chapter are all written with Python 2 in mind, so be sure to load Python 2 (IDLE) and not Python 3 (IDLE).

The easiest way to manually configure networking on the Raspberry Pi is through the graphical user interface (GUI). The configuration window provides multiple options. The following fields are needed to be filled out: IP address; router; DNS servers; and DNS search. As an alternative to the graphical method, user can configure the network connectivity using the console. After configured the new network settings, it can be tested. The easiest way to do this is to launch the web browser and attempt to visit a website; if the site appears, the network connection is working fine. The simplest way to connect to a wireless network from the Raspberry Pi is to use the graphical tool built in to Raspbian. This provides a GUI for software that would otherwise require the use of the terminal.

Raspberry Pi Foundation has released some add-on hardware for the Raspberry Pi, such as Raspberry Pi Wi-Fi adapter, Raspberry Pi Zero adapter kit, and Official Raspberry Pi case. All of these add-on accessories are available from the official Raspberry Pi partners Element14 and RS Components now, and may also be available from local and third-party online electronics outlets. Support for the Raspberry Pi 7" touchscreen display is automatic in Raspbian and derived distributions. The Sense Hardware Attached on Top (HAT) is a multifunction input and output board, designed for use in the Astro Pi programme and currently orbiting the Earth as part of a science bundle sent up to the International Space Station. Its onboard sensors provide information about the board's orientation and position via a gyroscope, accelerometer, and magnetometer, as well as the ambient air pressure, temperature, and humidity levels.

This chapter looks at some of the most common reasons for the Pi to misbehave and how to fix them. It talks about keyboard and mouse diagnostics, power diagnostics, display diagnostics, boot diagnostics, and network diagnostics. Perhaps the most common problem that users experience with the Raspberry Pi is when the keyboard repeats certain characters. Many problems with the Raspberry Pi can be traced to an inadequate power supply. Although the Pi is designed to work with almost any HDMI, DVI, or composite video display device, it simply might not work as expected while plugging it in. The most common cause for a Pi to fail to boot is a problem with the SD (or microSD) card. The most useful tool for diagnosing network problems is ifconfig.

The general-purpose input-output (GPIO) enables the Pi to communicate with other components and circuits and allows it to act as a controller in a larger electronic circuit. Before getting started to build circuits to use with the Pi's GPIO port, however, some additional equipment and an understanding about some of the language surrounding the world of electronics are needed. Various components and tools, such as breadboard, soldering iron and resistors are needed to start building circuits that can be controlled by the Pi's GPIO port. Most electronic components are clearly labelled. The major exception is a resistor. Instead, the resistance value in ohms is calculated from the colour bands that adorn the resistor's surface. Learning to decode these bands is an important skill for a hardware hacker to learn. The only way to figure out its value is to use a multimeter, which is an awkward and slow measuring tool for this particular job.