Pi-Chrome Project

Objective: Learn what hardware and software tools we’ll need to use in this course.

Materials: OLED Display

As mentioned in the previous lesson, one of the things that I think is really cool about this course is the relative low cost of the materials and the vast amount we will be able to accomplish with these tools.

For hardware, we will be using the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B with 8GB of RAM.  You can purchase these from many different vendors either in raw form - just the microcomputer or in kit form.  We chose to purchase kits from Canakit, which includes the Raspberry Pi plus several “nice-to-haves”, such as a power supply, on-off switch, a micro SD card reader/writer, and several other pieces.  [NOTE: You may be able to do many, if not all of the projects, outlined in this course with older and lower-cost versions of the Raspberry Pi, but this has not been tested yet.]

Our high school has a one-to-one program where each student is assigned a Chromebook.  Throughout this course, we will basically be using the Chromebook as a terminal.  No software will be loaded onto the Chromebooks - all required software will be run on the Raspberry Pi - the Chromebook merely acts as the interface to the Raspberry Pi.

You’ll need an Ethernet cable and a physical connection that you can make to the Internet with the Ethernet cable.

Early on in the course, you’ll also need to have access to some wire wrap and a wire wrap tool (and maybe a soldering iron, solder, and solder flux).  You won’t need one for every student - one per class should do.  The purpose of these tools is to connect a small display to the Raspberry Pi unit that can broadcast several metrics, most importantly its IP address.  Don’t worry, I will describe in great detail how to accomplish all of this in a future lesson!

We will be using a variety of software tools throughout the course.  Almost all of these tools are free to use and I’ll introduce each of these tools when they are needed.

To sum up, here is a list of the hardware we will need to get us started.

One per student (required):

• Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (8GB model w/ kit is recommended)
• Chromebook (the specifications should not matter)
• OLED Display
• Ethernet cable (~6 feet should fine) - the recommendation would be to house your Raspberry Pi’s in a cluster in one area of your classroom.

One per class (required):

• 30AWG Wire Wrap
• Wire Wrap Tool
• Roll of Electrical Tape

One per class (potentially required - depending on the OLED display purchased):

• Solder Iron
• Solder
• Solder Flux

In the next lesson, I'll share with the recommended pre-requiistes learners will find helpful in tackling this course.

Resource Links:

30AWG Wire Wrap: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08D6D1TKH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

Canakit: https://www.canakit.com/

Chromebook: https://www.google.com/chromebook/

Ethernet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet

OLED Display: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09JWLDK9F/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

The Raspberry Pi Foundation: https://www.raspberrypi.org/

Wire Wrap Tool: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BFYE0CY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Pictures:

Raspberry Pi 4 Model B

Canakit

Chromebook

Ethernet Cable

OLED Display

Electrical Tape

Wire Wrap

Wire Wrap Tool

Videos: None