Rasberry Pi ????

Fifer

mttylad wrote: »

I have a Pi.

IMO its not all its cracked up to be.

It has problems because of its design, not all USB devices work on it, the fusing causes problems. not all SD cards work.

A case is expensive - between £9-15, a PSU £4, an SD card £7-10 then an external HDD id you want to use it as a media centre.

Got to disagree. I have two Pi's. One is doing sterling service as a catch-up TV box for my TV (running Raspbmc with a £3 4GB SD card and £1 USB cable powering it from my TV USB port , all inside a DIY printed cardboard box). The other is for playing with and I'm currently toying with using it for some home automation projects.

Of course it has limitations, but it never claimed to be anything other than built to a very strict budget. For the cost, I think it's a brilliant wee board.

[Deleted User]

Has he already got any coding experience? You might want to buy him a book or two to help him get started...

Here's some other, random advice: http://ask.slashdot.org/story/08/07/22/0452225/how-to-encourage-a-young-teen-to-learn-programming

Now, does he know what he wants to code for? Windows programs, websites, phone apps? If he's got no experience at all, then it might be best to not just jump into C++ (although i wish I had done at 14). Maybe something like visual basic, Java or Python, might be better suited

Gillor

I am sure as a curious 14 year old your son has read most of the Raspberry Pi reviews but here's on of the latest

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/B/0,2817,2407062,00.asp

[Deleted User]

Reading the review, i'm almost tempted to cancel my RPi order..

How does it perform as a XBMC client?

Fifer

ringo_24601 wrote: »

Reading the review, i'm almost tempted to cancel my RPi order..

How does it perform as a XBMC client?

I'm quite impressed so far. I installed Raspbmc at the weekend. It streams catch-up TV flawlessly (iPlayer, ITVPlayer, 4OD and Demand Five) on my limited testing so far. I started out using a wireless keyboard/trackpad to navigate, but it also works using an old XBMC IR remote I had kicking around too (except the pause/play button only pauses but doesn't resume - I suspect a mapping tweak needed). It apparently works well using an original XBox DVD remote (can't confirm, haven't got one), Logitech Harmony remote (haven't programmed mine yet but will try) and Android/iOS XBMC remote apps (will try that over the next couple of days).

As expected, the menu system response and stream starts aren't totally instantaneous, but the system is much more responsive and usable than I ever expected it to be, given the limited processing power.

[Deleted User]

How exciting, my Pi has shipped today (just got the email). Glad to know I can control it with Android/iOS. I look forward to a tinker

Fifer

If you want to use it as a XBMC player, here's a useful link:

http://djb31st.co.uk/blog/catch-up-tv-on-raspberry-pi-raspbmc-bbc-iplayer/

knightstyle

WOW, lots of interesting comments to consider. As it is such a low price I may get him one and see what he makes of it.
Thanks everyone and keep posting your ideas please.

Fifer

ringo_24601 wrote: »

How exciting, my Pi has shipped today (just got the email). Glad to know I can control it with Android/iOS. I look forward to a tinker

I just tried the Android XBMC Remote app - works perfectly.

RobertoMoir

knightstyle wrote: »

Thinking of getting one for 14year old. There seems to be a lot of hype but little real information on someone with no experience learning from it.
Has anyone got one? What do you think of it?

I think the raspberry pi is absolutely fantastic at being what it is - a hobbiest board with lots of educational potential that's being looked at from that point of view by a lot of schools and colleges, and as a lightweight control board by several companies who are interested in small, low power computing.

But I'm not sure that it's the thing to hang your hat on for a 14 year old who's got an interest in learning programming. He can get C# from Microsoft as someone already suggested, Eclipse from IBM and all kinds of other similar resources for free. If he's interested in electronics / how computers actually work in general as well as programming then it might be worth a go, don't get me wrong, just don't think that it's something that it isn't.