I have decided to acquire a PI 3b and experiment with it as a project. I am thinking of either setting up Mystic on it or interfacing it with an Icom 706 mk-IIg radio I have sitting here. This is my first venture involving a PI. I decided to start out with a PI 3b, a 2.5A power supply, and a plastic case. I already have a 32G SD card and the necessary peripherals such as cables and input devices. I see this project that once setup is a setup and let it do it's thing project. If the first PI project is successful I could foresee additional PI projects.
Anyone have any thoughts, comments, or suggestions?
I have three PIs and, as you envisage, all of them were bought with dedicated projects in mind and run 365/24/7
In order of acquisition:
a RPi 1b running
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This has been running continuously for three years and has been totally reliable. It's by far the most productive Pi in my collection I just use a minimal SD card to boot it and then hand over to an attached 160GB lump of spinning rust, which is large enough to function as a NAS drive for my Windows boxes and pi #2
The second Pi, also a 1b was acquired about a year later and hangs from an HDMI port of my TV. It runs OSMC / Kodi and is mainly used to entertain the grandchildren with youtube clips and photos & movies stored on the NAS. I haven't really had the time or inclination to explore it's functionality to the full, and to be honest the GUI is rather slow.
My third Pi is a Pi Zero with a WiFi dongle and runs this smart thermostat project (but in a case 1/4 of the size)
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month to have one, I just made it to show what can be done on a shoestring.
I've got an IC706 Mk1, and have yet to play with the interface.
Not a lot of fun, but I would suggest that as a first project you learn to build your disk from the ground up or from a backup. Get a couple of extra SD cards and practice wiping them clean and rebuilding. Once you get good at that, then you are ready to "experiment". :)
If you're also into distributed computing for social good, it is simplicity itself to dedicate unused CPU to BOINC projects like Einstein@home. Note that maxing a Pi 3's CPU for more than ten minutes or so will lead to CPU throttling, so you may want to install active cooling like a 40mm fan. Avoid smaller and fast fans (in fact you can often slow 5V fans down by connecting them to the 3.3V pin, instead), as they can be very loud. A slow to moderately fast 40 - 60mm fan will do a excellent job cooling, while making very little noise. I like the Noctua NF-A4x10 5V because it is super quiet, to the point where I've several running in my living room and they add nothing to ambient noise. Also note that in cheaper fans, sleeve bearings are common, and they run a bit louder and wear out faster when run horizontally (as is common in Pi cases).
For me, nearly every single board computing project involves such dual use, as I'm a big distributed computing fan and it's fun for me to see how many work units I can process with tiny low power boards like the Pi. It kinda game-ifies the process for me, heh.
I think you'll find that once you build your first Pi project, that it will not be the last ;-) My problem isn't a lack of good ideas, but money, time, and unfortunately for me where I live - a lack of access to affordable 3D printing, which would be a great boon to my ambitions. Off the shelf parts solve most problems, but inelegantly. I wish I could afford my own
3D printer, but can't justify it. Not yet, anyway *grins*
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