Raspberry Ramblings

[Abysinth]

I seem to have started a Raspberry Threadlet elsewhere, so I'm (trying) to move the comments here...

I'm sure I read somewhere that DB was hoping to release Elite:* for the Raspberry Pi.

But surely your Pi is your good computer?

Well, when it arrives, I intend to make it my file server and my media centre. I also hope it will be the first of a whole cluster.

I have a whole year to play before I get distracted with... other pursuits

At the risk of getting a little off topic... I have some Pi in my house now. They're great as an emergency desktop for those times when your main PC's parts are spread over the front room and you need to remind yourself of something online. As a media centre with XBMC they're superb, easily outperforming a regular web browser for high def Youtube (and with zero fan noise). They're great for minor server tasks, such as DHCP.

Unfortunately, they're absolutely pants at being a file server. It works, don't get me wrong, but your disks and your network all share one USB2 bus, and performance is pretty pathetic.

Brilliant little boxes, though. With a ModMyPi case and an SD card with RISC OS on it, you have a 100% British designed and built computer, something that hasn't been available since the last century. Computing has finally come home.

Thank you for that.

I guessed that the file server would not be very efficient, but my primary use for a file server is for backups so I won't be using it very much.

I think the whole USB technology is 'pants'. I appreciate why USB is on the Pi (support etc.) but I do wish they could have used firewire it is so much better IMHO.

I had an idea of multiple pi with backups spread across them all, possibly in some kind of Raid set up. I'm going to measure performance with HDD, SSD and/or straight to the SD and see how it goes.

I need an external (to my laptop) MySQL server to play with too.

I'm also intrigued by the Spy Cam and the I/O possibilities - I've not played with hardware before.

Perhaps I should have taken this to another thread.

Indeed, one of my Pi is doing precisely that. Backing up about 500GB of files per night, an incremental run with very few changes (total transfer of just a few megs) takes it about six hours. Overclocking does little to change this; it's IO bound, and the bottleneck is that USB chip.

Of course, USB was chosen over Firewire because nobody has a Firewire keyboard and mouse. (-:

I think the moderators might want to pick these posts out into another thread...

One of the things I intend to try is to compare timings between ethernet -> HDD and ethernet -> SDCard to see if it slower to log jam the USB chip or writing to the SD Card

 

[Alexander R]

It would be awfully nice if a cut down version of Elite Dangerous could be made for lesser machines such as Ouya, iOS, tablets etc. so we could take the game on the go. That would help with gametime for those of us that have lots of family and work commitments.

This should be completely doable if these versions cut back on the texture detail and perhaps go simply with lit polygons using somewhat simpler model detail.

I'd love a simple polygon version I could play on the go. Gameplay was always the best aspect of Elite after all.

Maybe even a Raspberry Pi version would be possible.

 

[Sir.Tj]

Hi Abysinth,

I've moved this to the Games Development section of the forum, seems a logical place to put it.

If the PI get Elite I'll be the first to get it

 

[kaserei]

I also have some pi, and Brianetta is right with regards to high volume data transfer performance so my revo net tops are not to be replaced just yet.

Risc OS? I am going to look, as running a 100% Brit machine appeals greatly.

Or maybe there is something in designing input devices around the rasbpi platform.

I'll suggest any pi comments end up here if I come across any too. And when I find out what I want to do with mine, I'll comment... right now it's just looking cute in a clear case on top of my behemoth of a desktop.

 

[Abysinth]

Hi Abysinth,

I've moved this to the Games Development section of the forum, seems a logical place to put it.

If the PI get Elite I'll be the first to get it

Yeah, that makes more sense than the Elite forum.

Does anyone know if I can run my Pi from my powered USB hub? If has a 2.5 amp PSU so it should be OK but I've seen talk of not running it from a USB port and do not know if this is just a USB port on a computer which I think just put out 500 ma.

Actually, since the heart of the Pi is an ARM11, doesn't that make the Pi a Risc Workstation, which sounds expensive and powerful...

Does anyone know if I can run my Pi from my powered USB hub? If has a 2.5 amp PSU so it should be OK but I've seen talk of not running it from a USB port and do not know if this is just a USB port on a computer which I think just put out 500 ma.

To answer my own question, yes I can run my Pi from the USB Hub.

So, fortunately, I have my Pi
Unfortunately, I have ordered a separate power supply and do not need it
Fortunately, it runs, it starts and I can surf the internet.
Unfortunately, my Mouse has not yet arrived, I do not have a USB Mouse and it is difficult to use without a Mouse.

which is why I'm back on Windows for this...

Surfing is as much as I have done until either my Mouse arrives or I can borrow one.

Oddly, the Apps seem to take a moment or two to start and web pages load almost instantly.

or, perhaps not so odd given where the apps are stored...

 

[Impy]

XBMC sounds really good on a Pi.
Is it really good? I bet it is.
Have you had any problems at all with the XBMC setup? I'm thinking of getting one to function as an always-on XBMC machine. Currently I have a large desktop running XBMC which requires a steady supply of orphan unicorn tears to keep running.

Also, Hi Brianetta! I know you from alt.fan.elite. (It's me Impaler, I changed my nick on here so they wouldn't know we're gathering intel on likely targets. Pretty cunning huh?)

 

[Abysinth]

XBMC sounds really good on a Pi.
Is it really good? I bet it is.
Have you had any problems at all with the XBMC setup? I'm thinking of getting one to function as an always-on XBMC machine. Currently I have a large desktop running XBMC which requires a steady supply of orphan unicorn tears to keep running.

I don't know yet, I got as far as getting to the desktop and going to BBC.CO.UK.

My only conclusion so far is it is quite difficult to use without a mouse, i.e. harder than windows but that may be because I do not know all of the keyboard shortcuts yet. I ordered a few supplementary bits from Amazon, one of which was a mouse. A couple of items (Books) are not in stock but they decided to send the USB hub but withhold the mouse and ship it with the books

I ordered a pre programmed SD card so that I know it works and, if it didn't work, it was not because I messed up programming the SD Card. I have a spare so I intend to put XBMC onto that. It does not say on the programmed card what class the SD card is, so I've ordered a class 10 to see how much faster it is, if any. That will arrive when it does as there is no stock or est. delivery date yet.

(I must admit, I'm not sure if I'll bother with RiscOS because it is co-operative rather than preemptive, and co-operative is no way to structure an OS IMHO. I've worked with a good selection of them too: Windoze (from 3.1 onwards), OS/2, MVS, z/OS, some Unix and Linux, OS/400)

If anyone has pictures of Windows 1.0, I would be interested to see. I've seen Windows 2.0.

 

[Juniper]

I recommend OpenELEC for an XBMC install. In my experience, it's a lot more stable & faster than Raspbmc.

Installing it is a breeze though - just plug the SD into your PC, download the distribution, and use Win32DiskImager (google for it) to write the distribution to your SD card. Unplug it, plug into your Pi, and you're away.

As far as running it from a hub - be careful. It may appear to work, but the Pi needs at least a 1A PSU to function successfully for long periods with everything plugged in. 1.5A is better. A standard Kindle or phone charger ought to do it. For me, I power mine through the USB port of my TV - it saves an extra plug, and also has the advantage of turning itself on and off with the TV itself (I'm running XBMC).

 

[Abysinth]

I recommend OpenELEC for an XBMC install. In my experience, it's a lot more stable & faster than Raspbmc.

Installing it is a breeze though - just plug the SD into your PC, download the distribution, and use Win32DiskImager (google for it) to write the distribution to your SD card. Unplug it, plug into your Pi, and you're away.

I'll give it a try

As far as running it from a hub - be careful. It may appear to work, but the Pi needs at least a 1A PSU to function successfully for long periods with everything plugged in. 1.5A is better. A standard Kindle or phone charger ought to do it. For me, I power mine through the USB port of my TV - it saves an extra plug, and also has the advantage of turning itself on and off with the TV itself (I'm running XBMC).

Well, my hub has a 2.5A PSU and only has a mouse and k/bd plugged into it atm. The only other thing (for the moment) I intend to plug into the hub is an ext HDD with it's own PSU, but we'll see. The TV idea is a good one and I'd not thought of that.

I will need a wireless mouse and k/bd for that or some kind of remote desktop s/w.

 

[Juniper]

Why not get a remote control? There are a few that will work with the Pi and XBMC (including the standard Microsoft MCE one) out of the box. For Wifi, the Edimax range are good.. you can get absolutely tiny receivers & they work with the Raspberry Pi.

Armed with those, you have a living room PC media centre, and you don't need a mouse or keyboard as you can connect to it over the network using SSH/Telnet to do any housekeeping you need.