[Bradford] Fruit Pies

[Moanin]

Hi Bernard and List,

Thanks for the contributions so far. Some browsing has thrown up the 
fact that some of the places already mentioned do wholesale deals and 
one does a club deal. So if anybody else is looking and we can push the 
total purchase over £100 post-discount and pre-VAT we could get them all 
a bit cheaper on the club deal. Wholesale requires a far bigger initial 
purchase.

Bernard, thanks for the heads up on the micro SD card. As it happens, 
swapping phones to a H(u)awei The Lads from a MotoG has released a 32gb 
micro SD from the latter. CL is fine, too, for now anyway, so thanks for 
the tip on seeing if a new pie gets baked by the time the next one is 
needed. :)

So far the purchase list includes a 2gb Pi4, a micro to standard HDMI 
adaptor, Pi dedi power supply (no difference in price to any others 
visible, or buy elsewhere and pay more postage anyway). Those three come 
to £45 plus postage.

Anybody else, to generate a "BradLUG Club Order"? Postage on a club 
order is a fixed £10, but each single order is £2.99 so three people 
almost covers it. The discount is "up to" 30% but at a guess 15 to 20% 
for an order which only just covers the £100. If enough interest shown, 
I'll get the actual discount amount confirmed.

Cheers,

Mike

On 13/12/2020 16:27, Bernard Czenkusz wrote:
> Hi Mike, from my own experience with a Raspberry Pi 3, (though I would 
> suggest you go for the latest pi4):
> 
> Items you need:
> 
> USB power supply - needs to be a good one, I'd go for the 'official 
> raspberry pi power supply'.
> 
> An SD card (I think the pi 4 uses a micro format of SD card) - you can 
> download the OS onto it, be aware that you can download an image with a 
> desktop environment on it - in which case you may want the 4G option, or 
> a 'lite' image with just a command line - in which case the 2G option 
> would probably be fine. My laptop is Linux mint and it has a 'USB image 
> writer' facility which worked fine.
> 
> I use the lite image with just the command line - after putting the 
> image onto the SD card, I then plugged the SD card into the pi, 
> connected a hdmi cable to a TV, connect a USB keyboard and mouse, and 
> ethernet cable to my router. I then set up the pi with wifi and ssh 
> service using a config facility included in the OS.
> 
> Once that is done, the pi can be completely 'headless',  you can connect 
> to it from your PC by wifi and ssh. No keyboard/mouse/tv necessary. 
> However that only gives you a command line, good for setting up 
> services, but for general programming you may want the graphical 
> environment of a text editor. I do that on my laptop, and then when 
> required upload files to the pi by sftp. Rather as if the pi was a 
> remote server. If you set the ssh with keys, this becomes very easy, not 
> even a password to remember.
> 
> I wouldn't worry about upgrading, the next version will inevitably be 
> more powerful and prettier than the last. The hardware connectivity is 
> another world in itself, I've had a camera attached, and temperature 
> sensors, and LED's flashing, all interesting stuff to play with.  The 
> hardware pin outs changed from the very first versions of pi, but have 
> been consistently stable since then.
> 
> Cheers
> 
>     Bernard
> 
> 
> On 13/12/2020 00:03, Moanin via Bradford wrote:
>> Hi Folks,
>>
>> I just wanted to buy a Raspberry Pi
>> But there's so many models I now want to cry.
>> It's really confusing so please tell me why
>> It's so hard to know which Raspberry Pi?
>>
>> Continuing with my efforts to get to grips with programming I thought 
>> it may be a good idea to get one of these. But so many choices! The 
>> commercial offerings were bad enough but there seem to be a never 
>> ending list of them on raspberrypi.org, from version 1 to 4 and each 
>> with its own variations. From a "sticking with Linux" perspective, 
>> should I be getting the latest or will an earlier version suit my 
>> needs? They all look affordable. But I don't want to have to fight off 
>> 'Doze and 'Tosh if I get something towards the shinier end!
>>
>> My objective is to set one up as a server, then write and test simple 
>> programmes. I'd also like to start knocking up a few web pages using 
>> the Smarty templating engine, to get a handle on its basic principles. 
>> I don't mind if it means deleting earlier work to make space but I 
>> gather they can hold quite a lot?
>>
>> The main question: Which "board" to get - online it looks like boards 
>> or you can buy one in a box but is there much point in that beyond 
>> cosmetics? Several people brought theirs to the BradLUG meetings, 
>> remember those anybody? so hopefully a few of you can help to 
>> enlighten me? :)
>>
>> Am I right in thinking I can plug one into the laptop or PC to get a 
>> screen? What other bits and pieces will I need?
>>
>> Any recommendations for a UK supplier? I found thepihut.com which 
>> prices in £p. There's Farnell too, which used to be in Armley but were 
>> bought out. No idea how reliable or trustworthy any of them are though.
>>
>> Finally, are they upgradeable? So for instance I may only need say 2gb 
>> just now but could I add more or is it better to start off with say 
>> 8gb? What's the maximum?
>>
>> Any and all help and/or tips welcomed warmly.
>>
>> TIA,
>>
>> MIKe
>>