GET STARTED WITH RASPBERRY PI CODING PROJECTS For Beginners Over 480 Tips & Hints Inside eee “S www.pclpublications.com £6) Papercut 100% INDEPENDENTFor Beginners Tech Guides BE Available on @& Readly For a full list of titles available visit:Raspberry Pi For Beginners w Raspberry Pi For Beginners is the first and only choice if you want to learn everything about the Pi from the ground up - where the only limitation is your imagination. Learn how to build some amazing projects from a retro gaming console to a home entertainment system. The possibilities of the Raspberry Pi are endless and the best place to start is right here. Papercut www.pclpublications.comContents 6 Raspberry Pi is Good For You! 8 10 v3 4 cy 18 20 Po) ey 3 30 Py oy cs cy Cy) ee Say Hello to Raspberry Pi Cerone dal Up Close with the Raspberry eee The Pi 400 - Up Close Acie em uceO) Recto eves cecen ies Myla ies Pico Power: the Tiny Microcomputer The Pico and MicroPython Pico Examples and How to eee EL eco ci) Take a Tour of PIXEL rein nuke Se ESC PCS Connecting to the Pi Remotely Ter ames ed Remove Programs 32 34 Ey 38 co) ery ery cr 4 Cy 66 Other SBCs to Use Reo Caer cal nei omc Raspberry Pi in Numbers Pare ns) Setit Up Sane ae) ene Paneer Es eas Ricca What You Will Need Perera Ges ecsASsco) ees cn aC) einen nce (creamedContents 68 Python on the Pi 70 Starting Python for the First Time 72. Your First Code Ze Ease hes 76 Executing Code from the Cee u NE PMN ee ted ECS) 82 Working with Variables ema Emeric 88 Conditions and Loops Cau ern) eee Omar ed 96 Glossary of Terms “Thanks to the Raspberry Pi’s unique setup, operating system and amazing community of imagineers, this little computer has become one of the mostimportantpieces of educational technology in the world. It’s helped people learn how computers, coding and electronics work, as well as helping science and engineering, astronauts and technicians, young and old, teachers and students. You will learn and discover how the Pi works, what you can do. with it and where to take your Pi adventures.” eeRaspberry Pi is Good For You! Fe Raspberry Pi is Good For You! Your journey with this amazing little computer begins here. Say hello to the Raspberry Pi; learn how it works, what kind of operating system it has, what you need to get it up and running and much more. This is your first step into the world of the Cee In this section, you'll discover what makes the Raspberry Pi such a fabulous little computer and project board. There are in-depth guides to the hardware, operating system, what you'll need to begin with and enjoying the software the Pi has to offer from your computer's desktop. Now let's see what this amazing eT Cake8 Raspberry Pi is Good For You! Se eee ee eet Ben een erat eR en Cees ey eC et ee ea serine etree fee ee eee ota pice ori Rte a ear Tes Internati pa sree eer ts el B+ was launched on 14 March ey Such, all qe ereatenne carne pti erful world of che Raspberry this isthe ott‘The Raspberry Pisa British built low cost ‘computer that enables everybody to learn ‘computing, start programming and explore basicelectronics. t's the size ofa credit ‘ard but capable of running a full operating system and doing everything a desktop does. More importantly, with the Raspberry Piyou install your own operating system, connect ll your devices and create your own programs Using languages ike Scratch and Python. “There's no case so you can hook up electronic >>”.Now, enter the following: print (*Hello, world!) Users of Python will undoubtedly recognise the syntax, btif you've ‘never coded with Python before, then let's explain what's going on in this imple ne, The print command, as you probably assume, is used to print, clsplay, something to the screen forthe userto read. Ifyou want tosay something tothe user, then yout need to enclose your text Inside a par of brackets and quotation marks.In this example, we're isplaying the words Hale, wort. When the MicroPython interpreter reads the Print command it wil naturally assume that ‘something s being displayed, and look for a numberof acceptable ‘outcomes. The first bracket and opening quotation mark means there's going to be some text, so the interpreter wil look Fora losing set of quotation marks and bracket Press Enter and the words Hele, woxial will appear inthe Shell. section of Thonry. tou oe ‘what you've just done is communicate directly with the Pico, nd through MicroPython onthe Pico, i'srecognised the command you've ‘entered and acted nit. Justfor fun, enter the command again, but this time intentionally, miss out the last bracket. Youll notice that the Shell doesn't want tocontinue without the bracket, sotherefore it's an error. While Using MicroPython, or most other programming languages, you'll need to be careful what you type. The slightest mistake can have dire consequences to your code ~oF, more than likely, just stop itfrom working, Forthe next example, click the upper part of Thonny, where the number “1'ls Now enter the Hello, world code again. When you hit Enter this time, youl notice that instead of running the code through the Pico, ‘Thonny has created asecondlin and is wating For more input. ‘While using the Shellis great, t's not so good For creating multHine ‘ode. Thisis where the upper section comesin. To execute the code in the upper section yout need to do the following: Clckthe Run button; this opens a new window asking For asave location (This computer or the Raspberry Pi Pico). Ths s because any code that's been entered inthe upper section of Thonny needs tobe saved First, asap file, before t can be executed.SelectthePicoas the save location, then when asked, create aname for the py fileinthis case calit HelloWorldpy and clckthe OK button, ‘Assoonas you've saved the file, it will automatically run and you'lsee the output From the code displayed in the Shell box. ‘Alternatively, you can open. browser and navigate to https//woww. raspberrypi.org/documentation/pico/setting started. Scroll down ‘ntl you get tothe Getting started with MicroPython section, and follow the on-screen instructions, Click onthe Download UF2 File ‘button -at the bottom ofthe Getting Started info box. ‘Once the UF2filehas been downloaded, locate it in the Downloads folder on your computer, and click and drag itinto the Pico storage dive; as you would drag and drop a file From your computer to a standard USB flash drive. ‘After afew seconds, the Pico storage drive wil disappear -you may {geta warning stating thatthe device wasn’t unplugged correcty, bbutignore that. This process has now ‘lashed! the Pico withthe ‘MicroPython Firmware. The Pco disappearing From the File Manager ‘means that ithas rebooted and is nowin MicroPython mode. Thisis. essentially all you need todo For the moment. The Picois now ready tostart coding on to using MicroPython, Pico Examples and How To eB BLINKING LEDS! ‘MicroPython, as with Python, uses modules to enhance the code you're writing. A modules simply Further code, but when called ‘upon by your code it ill operate to specific parameters. For ‘example, there are modules available that are designed to handle ‘graphics, while others handle complex mathematical operations. Using these modules saves you from having to invent the code and place t among the many lines you're typing in. Allyou need do is call ‘up the module, and pass any variables and parameters through the ‘module to getthe result you want. In MicroPython, and in the Pico’ case, there are modules that can bbe called upon that handle the physical hardware side of things. The Pico-specfic modules will handle input and output through the GPIO ports, or utilise some of the co's inherent sensors. For example, hhere's some code that will light up the builtin LED on the Pico: from machine import Pin Jed = Pin(25, Pin.our) ed.on() ‘Type t.into the upper section of Thonny, save it as LED py (for example) and run the code, The LED will light up. But, let's explain what's going on here, ‘Tobegin with we have, from machine import Pin. This means thatthe code is going to open the builtin module called Machine, of which certain class within itis called Pin. This particular set of external code isdesigned to talk’ to and handle the input and output ofthe Pico’s. PIO pins. ‘The next line, eal '= Pin (25, Pin.OUT) s What we've done here is create variable called Led which we've told to hold the information regarding the Pin dass, in particular the number 25, as an Output. The CGPIO pinon the Pico is hardwired tothe LED, so essentially we've told MicroPython that Pin25is going to have Output data sent toit, and It’s going to be called led ‘The Final ine, 1ee.on (is trigger that sets Pin 25 Output toa high value ~in ths case, On. The results that the LED onthe Pico willbe turned on Try and ater the code, so the las ne reads: led. o££() ‘As you would expect, thie turns the IED off. Now try: led. toggle)8 Raspberry Pi is Good For Yo! ‘Whattoggle() doesis every time the codes executed, the LED ison itil switch oF, and fit’ oF Fil switch on, Interesting stuf siti Let's expand our LED code Further and include aloop with another kind of module: (tmoix from machine import Pin Lea'= Pin(25, Pin. OUT) 5 Led. togatec ‘from machine import Pin from utime import sleep Jed = Pin(25, Pin.cor) for 4 in range(5): ed. toggie() sleep (1) ed. toggle() sleep (1) When you execute this new code, itwill link the LED Five times based on whether the LED was previously on or off using the led. toggle() syntax we looked at a moment ago, Let's take a moment to break down the new elements ofthe code, though, ‘Fron! utiine Gmpart steep, as you probably suspect, this is using ‘anew module called utime, From which we want to use the sleep class. Utime holds code that can be used For timing, and the sleep class ‘enables the code to pause fr a specficnumber of seconds. For 4 in eange(5), is new line which sthe beginning of aloop, Basically, we've asked MicroPython to count to, and anything after the colons repeated rive times. Providing what code we've entered in the loop is okay, i'l doe Five times before stopping. Note: The indent after the colon, Tis means that the code in the indent i directly ‘controlled by the for loop. Indents in Python are as important as spelling and getting the correct characters in order. ‘The inal new element is seep (4), which pauses the code forthe ‘count of one, or one second, Feel Free to mess around withthe code you've created. Extend the number of seconds, use led.on and led of instead of toggle, and extend the Fr loop to more than Five She tea! oan jetTEMPERATURE READINGS ‘The Pico also comes with a builtin temperature sensor, andis connected to one of the Pico's analogue pins. The analogue pins on the Pico are actually called ADC's or Analogue to Digital Converter whereas the GPIOs are dsital. The ifferenceisthat a digital pin, reads only two states: High or Low (or One and OFF), and an analogue pin can read. range of values from zero 65535 (through the use ‘of MicroPython, the Pico's ADC realy reads from zero to 4096). ‘This means that anything that's read through the analogue pins canbe from Oto the value of 65536, which makes it perFect fora temperature sensor. ‘The temperature on the Pico hardwired into ADC4~ or analogue pin 4, So we can extract the data from the temperature sensor using the following code: ‘from machine import ADC ‘eempsensor = ADC(4) temperature © tenpsensor.read s16() Print (temperature) ‘There's alot going on here, and the displayed number that appears, inthe Shel probably won't make much sense, s0let's have alookat the code. First we'e using the machine module and fromit the ADC class. ‘Then we've created a tempsensor variable which wil pullthe data from ADC pin 4—which is the Pco's temperature sensor. The third line of the code creates a temperature variable, which stores the value of ADCS and applies a 16-bit data range toit so we can havea value from 0 to 65535. And finally, we're printing the currenty held value of temperature the Shel. Now here's the par that will make your head hurt. ‘The Pico's microcontroller runs.at 3.3 volts. So when there's full 3.3V being applied, the ADC will read a value of 65535, and when there'sno voltageit wil read zero, The temperature sensor on |ADC4 works by sending voltage to ADC4 thats proportional to the ‘environmental temperature. So ifthe environment the Picois nis 27 degree Celsius the Pico sends a voltage of 0.706V. So, using the 3.3V ‘maximum at the value of 65535 and the operational specifications (of 27 degrees Celsius as being a voltage of 0.706V, we can work ‘out code that wll convert the original value you got From the ‘temperature variable into degrees Celsius. Before our brains dribble out, here's the rest ofthe code: ‘from machine import ADC ‘tempsensor = ADC(4) ‘temperature = tempsensor.read_u16() volts = 3.3 / 65535 ‘temperature = temperature * volts celsius = 27 ~ (tenperature ~ 0.706) / 0.001721 Print (celsius) Let's run through the code. We've created a volts variable which takes the maximum 3.3V and divides it by 65535, then we've taken The Pico and MicroPython eB the already read temperature variable and multiplied that by the volts value. We've then created a Celsius variable, which we've used the above numbersto store the value of 27, minus the temperature value, minus 0.706 and divided by 0.001721. This wil give usa reasonably accurate conversion of volts to Celsius, which the code will then print Into the Shel section of Thonny. ‘Asyou cansee fromthe screenshot, the room we ran this code inwas a balmy 2049 degrees Celsius. When we looked at the temperature on the digital thermostat in the same room, it read21 degree Celsius, so only hala degree out, whichisn’ttoo bad. THE WORLD OF THE PICO AWAITS... ‘Thisis only asmall example ofthe type of projects and coding that ‘canbe achieved withthe Pico and MicroPython. There are numerous ‘extras, such as motors, sensors, LEDS and even LED screens that can be attached tothe Pico'sGPIO ports with some neat soldering and the use of ahandy electronics kt. \What we've looked at here is taster, and the Foundations on how to callup the Pic's GPIO pins and how to use MicroPython in Thonny. From here, we'd recommend you learn more about how the Raspberry Pi functions as wellas some more Python coding, which wil giveyoua better insight into how the Pico and MicroPython will work. Have Fun, and let us know what Pico projects you've created.BE Raspberry Pi is Good For You! Pico Projects & Ideas PICO POWER! Here areten ideas and project that you could look into achieving with your Raspberry Pi Pico. You may need to enhance your electronics skills, but there’ plenty of help online i you hunt around fort. RT cnsosctaesrarmneinizoniete DERRY naisinite abil aPioanivelta ETERS OUSD Perce resorts PFET Wt retook upsone leds as bain ADC to convert analogue to use the Pio microcontroller asaset oF otal signals also has abuiintemperatre sensor soit’ possible traffic lghts Youcan even incrporatea burton that when pushed toe the Fico asa temperature gauge. willactas a Wabutton and stp the trafic for pedestriansPico Projects and Ideas i MoD visiserourommetcn cancion” MAMAN yon tpn the sersoc Which meansyoucancreatea burgralam,orndude th Pe, togeter witha photoranstor sensor anda telescope, could therobotdes to alow some ormf autonony, be wed create a scope tet canrckthe passage ofthe Moon through the night sky. Petals eniiis) Using buttons and LEDs, youcan nc eneke antsy withthe infrared motion create a simple button push reaction ‘sensor, you could attach the ‘game, for multiple players. Perhaps you could attachabuzzerthat Pico toan outdoor camera ~ or camera withina weather proof signifies the winner or loser. container to activate when something passes the sensor, capturing that neighbours pesky cat nthe at! fiz. aw PEM ten) Mosttome automation tasksare — RUNCSWPNNEIN There are a numberof Pco-built RGB ‘un through microcontrollers, so LED displays available online. You can the Picois suitably placed for those who have setup some advanced _use one to display messages, create some form of interactive home automation devices. Elements such as turning the heating or game, or display data that's coming from one of the input GPIOs lights on, or opening the garage door, for instance. attached to a sensor.BB Raspberry Pi is Good For You! Other SBCs to Use ‘An SBC, oF Single-Board Computer, isa complete computer system that's built ona single piece of circuit board consisting of memory, storage and input and output ports. The Raspberry Pisa prime example of a modern SBC, and the one that has easily become the most popular. However, there area numberof other SBCs available that vary in size, capacity, performance, price and expandability, Some of them are x86-based, which means they'e basically very small PCs on which you can install Windows 10; others utilise different makes of processor or microprocessors and offer a varied number of operating systems that will work on them, such as Android or Linux. \While the Raspberry Pls the SBC that offers some ofthe best opportuniesin terms of project work, and flexibly, it's certainly not the only one ofits kind, We've lsted some of our favourite boards, that you may consider taking a look aif the Raspberry Piisrtfulfling your goals ‘The Udoo brand has been active since 2013, whenit launched its First SBC via Kickstarter. These days the company is atthe Forefront of developing some of the most powerful SACs on the marketn particular, the Udoo Bot ‘The Udoo Bolt measures 120mm x 120mm and Features anultra-powerful AMD Ryzen V1605B, quad-ore/eight thread CPU, running ata maximum of 3.6GHz ‘The builtin GPUs the AMD Radeon VEGA 8, and there's support for two dual channel SO-DIMM DDR4 memory units to a maximum oF 32GB. There's also a 32GBEMMC 5.0 Flash module installed, bout witha pair oF M.2 sockets for M2 SSDs, In terms of connectivity, there'sa gigabit Ethernet port, with Bluetooth and Wit USB3.0 ports, two USB-Cports,asingle USB 3.1 por, two full-sized HOM! ports and power input via USB-PD, ‘The VO For projects is Arduino Leonardo- compatible with 12 analogue ports, up to23 digital ports, and a single UART, 12 and SPL It’s a remarkably impressive board, that can ‘un Windows or Linux, But allthat power and 1Ocomesat price. The Bolt VB, the board we mentioned above, comesin at $418, roughly £300, Whichis pretty expensive compared to the Raspberry Pi but thstiny board is more powerfulthan most desktop computers.BANANA PI Launched in 2014, the Banana Plis a Raspberry Prcompatible board that has seen many releases since its initial conception. These are [ARM based SBCs developed in China and sold viaa number oF international distributors. ‘The latest version ofthe Banana, the BPHMS, looks remarkably similar tothe Raspberry P38. It features an Amlogic $905K3 quad-core CCortex-ASS CPU running ata decent 2GHs, together witha Mali G31 (GPU. There's 4GB of LPDDR4 memory, 1668 of eMMC Rash storage on- bboardanda MicroSD slot with support Fr upto 25668 cards. Connectivity comes nthe orm ofa gigabit Ethernet port, ull sized HDMI, 3.5mm audio jack, Four USB 3.0 portsanda US8-C port For power input. The /O mimics the Raspberry P's 40-pin GPIO, but there's ‘no extra connectivity for cameras and such; as Found onthe RaspberryPi, ROCK PI Developed by Radka, the Rock Pihas been a direct competitor to the Raspberry Pi For some years now; and t's certainly not looking Likes slowing down any time soon. ‘The latest versionis the Rock Pi 4 Model C, which sports ahexa- core CPUwitha dual-core Cortex-A72 at 1.8GHz anda quad core Cortex-AS3 at 1.4GHz together with a Mali TESOMP4 GPU. Models ‘Aand B feature 1GB, 2GB and 4GB memory options; but the Model, ‘Ccomes with only 4GB oF LPDDRS memory. There's an eMMC Flash module available, in 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB and 12868 options, as well asa MicroSD card slot with support for 128GB cards, and an M.2 connector or M2 SDs, ‘As For connectivity, there's HOMI, gigabit Ethernet, two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, 3.5mm audio jack, USB-C for power, and Bluetooth and WEF For project wor, there's 40-pin GPIO, as wellasa MIPICSislot For ‘camera attachments, t's also interesting to note thatthe Ethernet port supports Power-over-Ethemnet (with an additional HAT). Not bad fora board that measures 85mm x 54mm. ‘The Rock Pi Model Ccosts $59 or £42, and while alittle more ‘expensive than the Raspberry Pit out performs the Piin nearly ‘every benchmark, Other SBCs to Use a ‘The Banana Pi MS sa tad more powerfulthan the Raspberry Pi, and the 4GB memory option copes the more common Pi available. ‘Although you wil have extra RAM if you were lucky enough to get hold ofthe 868 memory i. Youcan install both Linux or Android on the M5, and t's even Raspberry i OS compatible. Iecosts$53~at the time of writing -which equates to around €38; 50 ot too ar from the cost oF Raspberry Pi, ARE THEY WORTH IT? ‘The question of whether to use a different board other than the Raspberry Plis purely up toyou as an individual and what you're planning on using the SBC For, For most Folk, who buy a Raspberry Pi For emulation orasamedia server -which are the two most popular projects used by users then they'd probably get more mileage out ofthe aforementioned boards. True, the expense is considerablein the case of the Udoo, but i'l do afar better job of processing than the Raspberry Pi will ever do. “The real argument comes dowin to cost. F you're wing to pay a litle more For the extra performance, then the alternative SBCs wil suit ‘you fine. But when you compare them tothe Raspberry Fi, the Pi does seem to come on topin terms of cost versus-performance. Needless to say there are countless more SBC available. Some are smaller, even more powerful than the Pi and cost does vary wildly from one product to the next For most users, though ~and espedially For the beginner - the best bets to stick to the Raspberry Pi When your skills improve, and you have more specificprojects inmind, then look tothe other boards forthe specifications and Features youneed.ms Raspberry Pi is Good For Yor Raspbian: The Complete Operating System Rees anata Cuneo a URU ene Te aes OSM a Tie een cet ec RuLccssemnt cs coche neces co Seculstcn POWERING THE PI ‘The Raspbian OS has been powering the Raspberry Pi since its release backin2013.Atits core, Raspbianisa Linux operating system, based on the hugely popular Debian Flavour of Linux. Mike Thompson and Peter Green created Raspbian in2012, towork on the low-performance ARM CPUs Found inthe eary Pi models. Toward, the end of 2014, Raspbian was Further improved to work on the then new model Pi, the Raspberry Pi; utilising the 3.18 Linux kemel while stilhaving Debian 7 (codenamed Wheezy) as the base. Mid-way through 2015, Raspbian started using Debian 8 Uessie) asthe base, with kemels 4.1, 4.4, and 49. Kernel 49 was also used From 2017's Raspbian release, which has since used Debian 9 (Stretch asthe foundation distribution, More recently, from November 2018, , the Raspberry Pi Foundation has spit the Raspbian OS project into three separate distributions. Although these ‘are essentially the same core operating system, those available now are a Lite, Minimal and Full desktop set of mages. (One ofthe primary reasons forthe three- ‘way split is due to the overall sizeof the ‘continually improving Raspbian. nits early years, the Raspbian desktop image size ‘was a litle under 1GB. This image contained everything the Pi user ofthe time needed to get their projects up and running, as well as enjoying thicé-party applications such as LibreOffice. Siowiy, as the P itselF evolved, the Rasphian image increased. These days the image weighs in at around 18GB and it’ Ukely to continue to expand over the coming years as new software is improved on and. ‘added, alongside changing hardware. However, the three-way split _addresses the issue ofan ever-expanding OSimage, while still enabling the user to get the most From their Raspberry Pi ‘The Lite version image comes in at roughly 350MB in size. While Ik may seem like a logical choice to opt forthe Lite version t's not recommended for every user. The Lit version basically installs without ‘any ofthe software you expect From the previous versions of Raspbian it doesnt even come with the graphical desktop. This makes it an incredibly streamlined and efficient version of the OS that's ideal for those who run headless Piservers (a Piwithout a monitor, Keyboard or mouse attached, that the user remotely connects to in order to input commands). You will need to know your Linux commands in order to {get the most from the Lite version, so For most beginners it's not a ‘900d place to start. The more advanced users will, however, be able to setup their Pi projects without the unnecessary baggage of all the other applications clogging up the P's precious system resources. Its ‘worth nating tha the Lite edition can be made up toa fully Functional desktop version by installing allthe relevant software manualy The Minimal edition is now the default version recommended for most new Raspberry Pi users This version is around 1B in size and includes the PIXEL desktop, Chromium web browser, ew hardware accelerated VLC player and Python. It does not include LibreOffice, Scratch, Sonic Pi and many of the other tools, programs and applications that ‘previous versions of Raspbian included. Its a perfect start for most users and those who are more familar with the workings of Raspbian and Linux can easily add more apps later, as they require. ‘The Full desktop version is 1.8GB in size {atthe time of witing) and asyouimagine, contains pretty much everything you can squeeze into Raspbian. You get the POEL desktop, UibreOffice, VLC, browser, games, programming resources and much more. So,.which version should you download and use on your Pi?Normall,asrecommended bythe Raspberry PiFoundation, ‘most new Pi users are best opting for the Minimal desktop; but that Fle Explorer and choose the $0 Card Inthe sidebar. The dive should be empty, but we will copy the files toitin the next steps. For now just make sue thet you can ‘access the empty root ofthe SD Card. cool Ata eed eee Retin cee eee 'ANOOBS folder should appear in your downloads. It oe otter re te Cee eee ae cece contents, These are the files you need to copy tothe root (base) oF Rear! Bea ‘Now it's time to download the NOOBS software from the Raspberry Pi website. Opena web browser and enter https://wunuraspberrypiora/downloads/noobs/ into the URL field Scroll down to find the NOOBS section not NOOBS LITE) and click Download Zip and Save. pile containing the NOOBS filesis copied to ‘your Downloads Folder. lice Open Folder when tis done. 6 a Ce en erated eee eC ao eer ee eet hed eee nest Dee Reet teu ee eet aac Pree ger ety the SD Card From your Windows PC. k's now ready tobe inserted into Sew