Raspberry Pi is a tiny and inexpensive computer that can perform many light and medium duty tasks. It was developed by the ‘Raspberry Pi Foundation’ in the United Kingdom as a series of single board computers. The first generation Raspberry Pi i.e Raspberry Pi 1 Model B was released in February 2012.
Raspberry Pi 3
Raspberry Pi 3 is the latest version of the circuit board sized Pi computer. Experts are quoting this as the most powerful and at the same time most affordable version of the Pi. The new and improved version, Raspberry Pi 3, is more powerful now due to the added advantage of having both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi without any raise in the price. It can now be termed as a versatile and all-in-one board. It is now more useful as a retro games machine and also as a media streamer too.Before going into the details of Raspberry Pi 3,
Before going into the details of Raspberry Pi 3, lets check out what is Raspberry Pi and how it helps through the following video shared by Raspberry Pi Foundation.
Comparing Raspberry Pi 3 and Pi 2:
Physically, Raspberry Pi 3 and Pi 2 both look very identical. Pi 3 has the same port selection, the same board layout, the same GPIO pin layout, etc. like that of a year old Raspberry Pi 2 Model B. Raspberry Pi 3 is being claimed as having the potential to be used as a proper PC. Compared to Pi 2, the additional specifications it has:
- 11n Wireless LAN
- Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
- 2 GHz 64-bit quad-core ARMv8 CPU
- Bluetooth 4.1
The specifications common in both Pi 2 and Pi 3:
- 1 GB RAM
- 40 GPIO pins
- 4 USB ports
- Ethernet port
- Full HDMI port
- Camera interface (CSI)
- 5mm audio jack and composite video
- Micro SD card slot
- Display Interface (DSI)
- Videocore IV 3D graphics core
Raspberry Pi 3 is completely compatible with Raspberry Pi 1 and Pi 2. The creators of Raspberry Pi 3 Model B claims it to be very useful in schools or any general usage of computing. For projects requiring low power and embedding, prefer Pi Zero or Model A+ for embedding Pi.
Features of Raspberry Pi 3
Although the upgradation to version Pi 3 may not look much significant on paper, but the additions have given a serious usability boost. The special mention can be given to its on-board wireless capabilities, which works awesome with the default Raspbian operating system. The Raspberry Pi specific OS, Raspbian, makes Pi 3 easy to use when compared to standard Linux installations.
Inclusion of Wi-Fi itself is another huge step that makes Pi 3 stand out from previous Raspberry Pi models. Because now you don’t have to buy a separate Wi-Fi adapter or hardwire the board through Ethernet connection.
Raspberry Pi 3 has moved a step further from its previous versions in terms of USB inputs, as Pi 3 now has native Bluetooth compatibility which allows connection of wireless peripherals or gadgets for advanced maker projects.
Raspberry Pi Foundation founder Eben Upton said “This 50–60 percent [performance improvement] has moved us over some sort of line, where it becomes a much more credible PC replacement,” which does not seem false at any point. This statement makes it clearer that Raspberry Pi 3 can definitely manage basic web browsing and productivity tasks.
is an open source and free tool for wiring hardware devices, online services, APIs together in an interesting manner. IBM Emerging Technologies developed it, and it runs on every major OS. It provides browser-based flow editor. Node.js builds it, making it ideal for running at the edge of the network on low-cost hardware like Raspberry Pi. Also, an online flow library allows you to share your best flows with others.Python – a modern language for RPi
The default implementation of the Python language bundles IDLE (Integrated Development and Learning Environment), an IDE for Python. Python for RPi is cross-platform, it avoids feature clutter. It’s highlighting features are multi-window text editor with syntax highlighting, autocompletion, persistent breakpoints, Python shell with syntax highlighting and call stack visibility. Raspbian comes with both Python version 3 and 4 Installed.
Sonic Pi – a Domain Specific Tool
When compared to all the tools bundled with Raspbian, Sonic Pi is the most domain specific tool. It is an open source, free and live coding music synthesizer released under MIT license. As its name suggests, yes it runs on Raspberry Pi and it also runs on Linux, Windows and OS X.
Raspberry Pi as a Personal Web Server
The miniscule machine, Raspberry Pi, can serve as a web server capable of hosting a simple site or landing page and storing files in the cloud without any hosting fees. In terms of server and hosting, Raspberry Pi can act as web server and responds to requests to serve up Web pages like sophisticated Web based apps or simple HTML apps.
Pi Web server hosts single Web page that connects to a MySQL database, which gets data from Python program, which is receiving data from a smart thermometer. You cannot use a Pi server as a business solution because it lacks the power of our desktop PCs, but you can still utilize it for personal resources such as creating spaces for websites and storage. To make your Raspberry Pi into a web server you need a router, modem, an Ethernet cable, an operating system and a SSH (Secure Shell) access.
Use in Internet of Things based Home Automation
Home automation enables you to control your devices at home from your mobile device, regardless of your location in the world. This technology contributes to the ‘Internet of Things,’ where each device is assigned an IP address, allowing remote access, monitoring, and control. Utilizing Raspberry Pi, home automation empowers you to manage systems such as detecting water leaks, controlling the garage door, monitoring movement, sensing gas leaks, checking lights, and more, with the added benefit of receiving alerts on your phone in case of any incidents. So now you can monitor everything from your phone.
For IoT applications based home automation, Raspberry Pi provides a suitable platform because of availability of many open source communities. For example, you can build a dashboard that allows you to access and manage monitoring of Raspberry Pi. You can connect more sensors to Raspberry Pi and monitor all sensors remotely anytime from anywhere using the single dashboard.
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