Raspberry PI - The ideal e-bike computer?

[morphix]

I posted a while ago about the Raspberry PI, a tiny credit-card sized computer designed by some clever geeks here in Britain which is now taking the world by storm..

I actually purchased one of these as soon as they were available to order to see what all the fuss is about and after waiting 3 months they finally arrived.. I say they because they sent me TWO by mistake. One of them came with an attractive specially designed housing case which is available in black, white or clear (I received the white one).

Here's some pics for those interested..

This is the actual unit with a typical USB wifi dongle next to it for size comparison:

Fitted inside the housing with the SD card containing the operating system:

A diagram of the circuit showing the ports:

Here it is hooked up to my old analogue TV:

When I initially saw these advertised I had loads of ideas about what I could do with it, now I've got the thing I can't even find a single use for it!

Since it runs off 5.7v, in theory, it could be used on a bicycle for something (if you can think of anything useful to do with it!)..you could power it off your e-bike battery using a cheap voltage inverter (I got the idea from d8vh). But I'm still not sure what you would actually use it for on a bicycle..anyone have any suggestions?

It's actually not as fast as you would expect it to be on booting it up. With no hard drive,
you would expect it to be almost "instant on" like the low-powered pocket PCs that run Windows CE and Windows Mobile.. not the case, the Raspberry takes 30 seconds to boot up! However, once it's booted it's quite a fast and capable little computer with 512MB ram on-board and a 700Mhz ARM processor.

The advantage over other pocket PC's (which you can pick up much cheaper than the Raspberry on eBay) is that it is USB ports, analogue video-out and obviously much more flexibility with the OS due to running Linux.

After getting a HTC Desire mobile phone recently (one of the best things I ever bought) I think Android and smartphones have made micro PC's like the Raspberry and Windows pocket PCs pretty much obsolete.. there isn't much you can't do with Android apps is there? The only limitation is the lack of USB really.

 

[GaRRy]

Put Raspbmc on it and use it as a media player. Works a treat and far lower powered than things Like Apple TV. More info here Raspbmc

To be fair the main use it was designed originally for was as a cheap computer for kids to start learning to program again like we all did in the early 80's with things like the Spectrum and the C64 etc.

Take a look here for other ideas

Raspberry Pi | An ARM GNU/Linux box for $25. Take a byte!

 

[Scimitar]

After getting a HTC Desire mobile phone recently (one of the best things I ever bought) I think Android and smartphones have made micro PC's like the Raspberry and Windows pocket PCs pretty much obsolete.. there isn't much you can't do with Android apps is there? The only limitation is the lack of USB really.

I'd be much more inclined to leave that hard-wired and weatherproofed onto the bike than a satnav or mobile phone, for duty as a glorified mapper, run recorder, etc. After all, a mobile is a much more expensive thing to lose than a raspberry pie.

 

[morphix]

I'd be much more inclined to leave that hard-wired and weatherproofed onto the bike than a satnav or mobile phone, for duty as a glorified mapper, run recorder, etc. After all, a mobile is a much more expensive thing to lose than a raspberry pie.

Indeed, good point.

I was experimenting with the idea of setting up an electronic rear view mirror a while ago and that's one of the purposes I had in mind for the Raspberry..

I also have a Nokia n810 (which looks like a smartphone but is not a smartphone) a Linux-based tablet PC with SatNav and transflective LCD making it more suitable for use as an electronic rear view mirror.. it also has a USB port, so opens up a lot of possibilities with mini webcams.

However, getting it to work with a USB webcam is tricky as it requires completely recompiling the OS and finding the right webcam driver etc! Still haven't gotten round to it but it would be interesting to find out if the idea of an electronic rear view mirror actually works in practice!

 

[morphix]

incidentally, the Nokia n810 is a fantastic little device and they can be picked up very cheap on eBay (there was a company selling them for around £30 ex-factory new)...

The only drawback is that the GPS is not powerful or reliable enough for SatNav purposes which is a pity as the transflective screen is very good even in sunlight..

There's a lot of interest in this device though, it has its own community of followers with all manner of mods and projects for it.. perhaps the SavNav signal could be boosted..

 

[Scimitar]

That looks interesting, right enough.
The price of naked display units has plummeted in the past year, I noticed, but something like that with gubbins attached, is very attractive.

 

[jackhandy]

Android 4 has usb function & works well on my galaxy note: I use a usb sd card reader to transfer video files from my act20 helmet camera to the note if I want to save them from being written over before the end of a ride.

 

[morphix]

Android 4 has usb function & works well on my galaxy note: I use a usb sd card reader to transfer video files from my act20 helmet camera to the note if I want to save them from being written over before the end of a ride.

That's interesting..I didn't know you could get an SD usb interface..whatever will they think of next!

I don't think I'd be able to upgrade my HTC Desire to Android 4 mind.. It's only on 2.2 or 2.3.. it would be nice if I could use USB on it though as the GPS is very very good.. I use Maverick android app to monitor my distance/speed and journey routes... it's very slick, even lets you upload trip reports onto a freely hosted site.

 

[NRG]

Put Raspbmc on it and use it as a media player. Works a treat and far lower powered than things Like Apple TV. More info here Raspbmc

To be fair the main use it was designed originally for was as a cheap computer for kids to start learning to program again like we all did in the early 80's with things like the Spectrum and the C64 etc.

Take a look here for other ideas

Raspberry Pi | An ARM GNU/Linux box for $25. Take a byte!

Yep thats a good use for it, are you on any of the audio forums Garry? theres a it of a following for it...

 

[Ptarmigan]

When I initially saw these advertised I had loads of ideas about what I could do with it, now I've got the thing I can't even find a single use for it!
'''
It's actually not as fast as you would expect it to be on booting it up. With no hard drive,

And many other deficiencies, least of all in the Linux implimentation let alone hardware interface, too numerous to go into here !
You'd be better off with Arduino, or even PIC (or PICAXE for the neophyte)
The RasPI is a nostalgic lookback to the days of the BEEBmicro by David Braben and others, modern switched on youth is already streets ahead of them.

 

[morphix]

And many other deficiencies, least of all in the Linux implimentation let alone hardware interface, too numerous to go into here !
You'd be better off with Arduino, or even PIC (or PICAXE for the neophyte)
The RasPI is a nostalgic lookback to the days of the BEEBmicro by David Braben and others, modern switched on youth is already streets ahead of them.

I haven't really used it beyond booting it up.. I think it's ok for its intended purpose, hacking code, or as others have suggested just using as a simple small media player to play movies and music on your TV.

One other possible application I did consider was as a battery powered/solar powered backup server. I think it would be useful there perhaps. I did consider using it as a wiFi CCTV station also to relay images from my camcorder, but I've had a lot of problems getting WifFi to work on the Raspberry. Two dongles I tried didn't work, one was faulty though I think. You have to check carefully on the supported hardware list what you buy. I tried to hook it up to my router too to use WiFi that way, but that also proved problematic (due to my limited networking abilities rather than the Raspberry) so I eventually gave up!