Thinking about dipping a toe in - but not sure my 'hobby time' can handle it...

KGIII

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When RPi first came out, I had high hopes and bought a half-dozen for a project. Those languished in a drawer for an unknown amount of time. The missus insists that I gave them to a neighbor's kid, but I have no memory of doing so. Either way, they were not in the drawer when I actually did want to give them away. Go figure?

Anyhow, I'd like to dip my toe back in the SBC waters. The RP4 seems to be adept enough that I won't *need* to commit a few hundred hours to it. I simply lack the blocks of time necessary to undertake an entirely new hobby. Seriously, very little of my time belongs to me these days.

My question:


Would that be adequate as a starter Pi? My initial goal will be to turn it into a working computer, with peripherals. My end goal might be a dedicated box for 3D printing. (I'd not be doing design on the Pi, I'd just be using it to run the printing process. By itself, that should be a fairly light load.)
 


Yep all you will need - monitor, mouse and keyboard. Got like 12 3b+ and Zeros. Currently 1- ZeroW has MotioneyeOS and a PiCam and points down my driveway. 2 - 3B+ has Virtualhere Server and a USB 1080P Webcam and is my door/porch camera on My desktop in the back of the house, No googly or amazone spying. 3 and 4 are 3B+ Both on different PC's running ModBro's system Monitoring for the geeked out CPU temps and all one with a 7 Inch and 1 with a 3.5 Inch LCD. (3.5 being in an old 5 dollar Asteroids game console) 5 - 3B+ On top of a tower speaker and runs internet radio through Volumio.

The speaker I cut the top off, replaced it with plexi that I moved from its original AMMO box. I labeled that, VoluAmmo. And the Asteroid console I removed the guts. The rest took maybe hour each to set up.

asteroids.png
 
I did make that Tower for the Pi which I did a while ago it also has the Pi Ice Tower cooler...... so 6 running so far.

KIMG0088.JPG
 
Yep all you will need - monitor, mouse and keyboard.

Nice and thanks!

I did see an RPi computer, complete with and mouse. That seemed like cheating, and kinda defeats my purpose with it. I initially bought a half dozen for a project I had in mind, and just never got around to it. I should ask the neighbor kid if he's using them. They even had see-through reddish/pinkish cases with them.

I'm going to have to forgo a hobby for this, I think. I'm not very good at tying my own flies, so I guess I could put that aside for a season. My online obligations are seriously sucking up my time. Heck, just my site takes a bunch of time, probably averaging plural hours per day.

So, maybe I'll just rely on my current tackle or buy new flies as needed.
 
So, maybe I'll just rely on my current tackle or buy new flies as needed.
Or just don't waste time fishing.....:D

I'll go waste an afternoon shooting, yet don't hunt. Stopped fishing when I left Florida at 12. Had Horses there and then Arkansas. Would rather ride than fish. Heck I would rather play toss with my dogs than fish....I really don't like fishing.
 
Oh, that's not going to happen. No, I will fish.

Oddly, not out of any type of goal or anything, I actually know where a lot of my food comes from.

Besides, native brook trout is delicious. Don't get me started on the delicious salmon.
 
I can do Cod it is the least fishy. Can do shrimp, but shrimp is just a reason to eat the sauce. Shrimp is just Crunchy Water.

More Pork and Beef kinda guy.
 
I bought one at one point because it being able to run Linux on it, but I never got further than that. Never ended up doing anything with it and eventually just gave it away.
 
I love all sorts of fish.

I'm going to order the kit. I'll make time to play with it this summer.
 
Do it while wasting time fishing.

Oh, fishing time is never wasted time - unless it's ice fishing, which is just frickin' stupid.

I clear my mind and can then ponder deeper things while trying to coax a fish into eating my bait. Much of my fishing is known as 'sight fishing'. I wear polarizing sun glasses, spot individual fish, and target a specific fish. Gotta figure out what the fish is eating and then find matching bait to present to the fish. While you're doing this, you can ponder the deeper things in life and as a bonus you get delicious food.

I'll look into the downloader - but you can save time by not posting video (meant for me). I'll just use search. I pretty much never watch video content. It's just a personal preference. Google works for me.
 
When RPi first came out, I had high hopes and bought a half-dozen for a project. Those languished in a drawer for an unknown amount of time. The missus insists that I gave them to a neighbor's kid, but I have no memory of doing so. Either way, they were not in the drawer when I actually did want to give them away. Go figure?

Anyhow, I'd like to dip my toe back in the SBC waters. The RP4 seems to be adept enough that I won't *need* to commit a few hundred hours to it. I simply lack the blocks of time necessary to undertake an entirely new hobby. Seriously, very little of my time belongs to me these days.

My question:


Would that be adequate as a starter Pi? My initial goal will be to turn it into a working computer, with peripherals. My end goal might be a dedicated box for 3D printing. (I'd not be doing design on the Pi, I'd just be using it to run the printing process. By itself, that should be a fairly light load.)
This looks like the same thing that I purchased (the 4gb version). I added two HDMI to VGA adapters, since I use VGA Monitors (with audio outputs on both), and connected the primary to port 2 of the KVMA switch. The secondary video got connected to a spare monitor full time. I can select the HDMI1, HDMI2, Bluetooth, or my USB headset for audio output. This little white box is quite powerfull!!:p

Oh, yeah, if you get the 8gb version, be aware that the 64 bit version of the Pi operating system is now out of Beta, and available for download. It will allow you to use all 8gb of the ram without any "software gymnastics".

Happy Trails,
Paul
 
Last edited:
Yep all you will need - monitor, mouse and keyboard. Got like 12 3b+ and Zeros. Currently 1- ZeroW has MotioneyeOS and a PiCam and points down my driveway. 2 - 3B+ has Virtualhere Server and a USB 1080P Webcam and is my door/porch camera on My desktop in the back of the house, No googly or amazone spying. 3 and 4 are 3B+ Both on different PC's running ModBro's system Monitoring for the geeked out CPU temps and all one with a 7 Inch and 1 with a 3.5 Inch LCD. (3.5 being in an old 5 dollar Asteroids game console) 5 - 3B+ On top of a tower speaker and runs internet radio through Volumio.

The speaker I cut the top off, replaced it with plexi that I moved from its original AMMO box. I labeled that, VoluAmmo. And the Asteroid console I removed the guts. The rest took maybe hour each to set up.

View attachment 11949
Looks like you did a cannonball into the deep end of the pool! Good on ya, mate!:cool: What was that line? oh, yeah "If you're going to be a bear, be a GRIZLEY!"
 
When RPi first came out, I had high hopes and bought a half-dozen for a project. Those languished in a drawer for an unknown amount of time. The missus insists that I gave them to a neighbor's kid, but I have no memory of doing so. Either way, they were not in the drawer when I actually did want to give them away. Go figure?

Anyhow, I'd like to dip my toe back in the SBC waters. The RP4 seems to be adept enough that I won't *need* to commit a few hundred hours to it. I simply lack the blocks of time necessary to undertake an entirely new hobby. Seriously, very little of my time belongs to me these days.

My question:


Would that be adequate as a starter Pi? My initial goal will be to turn it into a working computer, with peripherals. My end goal might be a dedicated box for 3D printing. (I'd not be doing design on the Pi, I'd just be using it to run the printing process. By itself, that should be a fairly light load.)
When they first came out a decade ago I already had a very clear idea of what I would use them for. I built headless telephony servers. I still mostly think about headless projects.
 

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