Topic: Raspberry Pi ($35 computer)

[Fatah Ruark (aka MIKE B)]

http://www.raspberrypi.org/







Has anyone gotten one of these yet. I realize they just came out. I have one on order and it should be here in a couple of weeks.

The first one will be turned into a torrent / media server. That should be fairly easy. I'll probably just install Fedora Linux on it (it only runs Linux).



Eventually though, I'd like to make a portable machine that has an audio input and you can control via a remote desktop on my smart phone that I can use to stream shows. It's USB powered, so power isn't an issue. Getting the internet hooked up to it shouldn't be too hard.

Things I need to figure out:

1. Remote Desktop. Not sure if an app for Android exists to remote desktop onto the Raspberry Pi. If it doesn't, I'm sure with this little device someone will make a way.
2. Audio input. The way it comes now, it only has audio out. It does have a USB input, so I could get a USB audio interface for it. I'd like it to be fairly small (around the same size at the computer case would be ideal...then I need to get one that actually works with Linux. It seems what I've found so far is Windoz/Mac only, but that may just be what they officially support. Obviously it's fairly common for people to make unofficial Linux drivers.
3. Wireless Network connection. I'd be either hooking up to a venue's interweb connection, or use my phone's hotspot. No idea if this exists either. Hoping I can find a USB solution here as well.

I may be in over my head...but that's part of what make's it fun.

[H₂O]

You could probably build a GPIO Sound Card - for audio input

For streaming you could use a Ethernet to Wireless bridge as well.

 

[rastasean]

Leap morning day I was ready to order one but both distributors who were selling had their sites unavailable due to ddos and they were not even selling the pi. Fortunately, my interest was registered and I ordered one at the beginning of the month so I'm also hoping it shows up soon.

For wifi, maybe you could use a usb wifi device in one of the free usb ports. I'm sure you would be able to use vnc to control the device or you could use a terminal app on your phone and ssh into it.

possible streaming solution:
mics > usbpre amp like sound devices usbpre2 or ua5 > pi connected to wifi
Then you would ssh on your phone to run a script to start sending the audio out to the streaming provider. I'm not quite sure how this would work with only livestream.com so this would be more suited for a CDN like scaleengine.com

still a lot to figure out and there's no wrong way to do this. Have fun!

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For wifi, maybe you could use a usb wifi device in one of the free usb ports. I'm sure you would be able to use vnc to control the device or you could use a terminal app on your phone and ssh into it.

Thats what I was going to suggest. I think this is something that would work best as a kick-off-the-script setup. One thing I'd investigate is an app for the Pi that will immediately email an ip address (to you) when it finds a wireless network to connect to. That way you don't have to burn spectrum having the Pi broadcast a wireless signal if there is already one available. I guess you could have it act as a wifi server first, you connect, force it to connect to a different wireless server (the AP in the room), shut down the temp wireless AP, then start up the streaming, but that seems kludgy to me.

Ideal would be having your android connect to the server over usb. I know it's possible to reverse tether your phone (so it uses the PC's internet connection) over usb, but I havn't sat down to look at how to just bridge that so you can get a login prompt or if you have to do the full reverse tether to get it.

possible streaming solution:
mics > usbpre amp like sound devices usbpre2 or ua5 > pi connected to wifi
Then you would ssh on your phone to run a script to start sending the audio out to the streaming provider. I'm not quite sure how this would work with only livestream.com so this would be more suited for a CDN like scaleengine.com

I'd go the CDN route, I think you have more options that way. Tapers.org has a setup like that, and many VPS/CDN providers would let you install a shoutcast server on your slice.

[fleish]

Very cool looking product. I've been wanting to return to running a tiny Linux box as my home router/firewall & for $35 + whatever a USB ethernet costs this might be it. I kept trying to goto http://www.raspberrypi.com/ and always find it's down, but I guess you're meant to order through their resellers. Let us know once someone has one in hand how it works.

[rastasean]

www.raspberrypi.ORG for the blog site and all the information! the .com hasn't had any information since I've been following this in December.
The .org lists the two places you can order from and the shipping to the states will be ~$5-7 from what I remember reading.

[Chilly Brioschi]

$35 for a computer!?

Thanks, but I'll wait for the Groupon for it.     

[JackoRoses]

If you can't find a RDP client for your droid there might be a vnc client for it.
Good luck with the wifi, So far there are only 3 chipsets supported.

$35 for a computer!?

Thanks, but I'll wait for the Groupon for it.     

the model A is only 25, doubt you'll find a groupon for it 

[newscane]

This will let you tether a computer to use an Android phone's network connection:
http://www.junefabrics.com/android/index.php

Free android app, requires software on the computer side as well.. and right now, it's only Win/Mac.  I wonder if you could run the Windows version under WINE?

[Fried Chicken Boy]

Very intriguing.  Anyone here have experience with running one of these?

[Fatah Ruark (aka MIKE B)]

Very intriguing.  Anyone here have experience with running one of these?

Not many out there yet. They had an issue getting it though EU CE (standards). They are starting to ship now.

I should have mine at the end of June.

[Fried Chicken Boy]

^^ Cool.  Would definitely like to hear your thoughts after you drive it around the track a few times.

[capnhook]

http://www.raspberrypi.org/

Hmmmmm....."raspberrypi"?  Looks blue to me.

Color FAIL

[rastasean]

I have one and wine won't work. Keep in mind the RAM is only 256MB.
Its very easy to install one of the distros on it and get it up and running and you're able to install packages just like you would on a  desktop.
I was hoping to use this to stream audio but adobe flash media live encoder is mac/win only so I'm not certain if there's a way to stream easily.

I haven't attempted wireless just yet on it but hopefully one of the wireless cards i have works. One thing I overlooked was USB for power, its micro not mini so its being powered by a swindle charger right now. 

This is a great way to try out the few supported distros since you don't have to burn CDs, partition disks, take a long time installing, etc.

I believe the only difference between model A and B is ethernet.

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I was hoping to use this to stream audio but adobe flash media live encoder is mac/win only so I'm not certain if there's a way to stream easily.

look at icecast/shoutcast and an ogg vorbis stream. Takes a bit more bandwidth, but not much more. If you have fiber/fios at home, that should be enough for the typical taper stream in place of the ustream servers.

edit: added clarification