Raspberry Pi for Dummies

I reverse engineer circuits from JTAG ports to check on proprietary algorithms, so am tearing apart electronics all day long. When you look at the skyrocketing Raspberry Pi sales stats, about 70% are from folks looking to "build an inexpensive PC" whereas the other 30 are hobbyists with a few pros thrown in to chain with Propeller and other heavy hitters for more advanced applications. A few of us use them to customize testing tools, but that's another topic for another day, and NOT in this book. This book covers ALL the big questions, especially for those just opening the package. It will save you a LOT of money by: 1. Showing you how to get the OS working without having to buy pre-packaged cards, which are themselves only downloads from the free sites anyway 2. Not having to buy the 12 other books either out or coming out that show you (with varying quality) piece-by-piece what either the hardware, software, assembly, Linux, OS, or other levels do one by one. I'd recommend this to anyone planning to use this as an inexpensive PC, or planning on more advanced hobby work, because after you get all the pins, access, media vs. primary OS, etc. done you can then move on to more advanced, specialized applications from home automation to games, robotics, and much more. Most of the younger, most advanced programmers on the planet (I work with a LOT of them) don't have a clue about some of the older assembly-level memory tricks, etc. and when you're using an SD card instead of a big drive, the discipline is a great eye opener even for old hacks like me. This beast is nearly 500 pages, compared to a lot of "specialty" Pi books at twice the price and 1/3 the page count, and every page is packed with great stuff for beginning and intermediate users. For reference and review, at this price, I'd also recommend it to seasoned old folks too if you really want to maximize your RP skill quickly, and save money re: above.

I purchased this as a Kindle book the day after I got my Pi. It starts off very basic, which is what I needed, and goes on the describe more complicated subjects. The focus is getting your Pi up and running and then discussing many possible applications. I'd highly recommend it for those with little background in computer hardware.

Coming into Raspberry Pi, I have an Electrical Engineering background, some programming experience, and a course or so using micro-controllers. However, outside of my personal interest as measurement tools, side projects, and robotics, this tool has a great opportunity: being able to introduce and teach others the basics of programming and engineering to get them interested in the field. Hence, before I wasted money on buying parts I may not need and to get an idea of how to approach this, this book was the perfect choice after reading both "tonygo" and "LIbrary Picks Reviews" reviews of the product. Though perhaps for not those who work with micro-controllers daily, this is a cheap and quite nicely laid out book to help you and others be able to learn what equipment to get, how to work with the Raspberry Pi, and even ideas for easy projects to keep their interest. I especially hope to interest girls into engineering and science with this, so the book was a wonderful inspiration point. For those of you wondering, it is useful for many smaller engineering firms as well. Though other resources are free, having at least 1 hard copy in the office is often helpful and the Raspberry Pi can easily be configured to a very affordable measurement tool for varying set-ups.

I found the book to be well written and great explanations. Projects were good. I am 70 years old and find the Dummies series of books to be a great help in getting started in something new. The Raspberry Pi is a great little computer and the book compliments it. I am sure there are those who have more experience in using the Raspberry Pi for them the book may not be the one to get. If you are starting out or want to find out what this little computer can do I think the book would be a great help.

If you're like me, you buy Dummies books not because you literally know nothing, but because of the consistency that the brand enforces. Unfortunately, I feel this book is written for people who have never seen linux before and for some reason still want to buy a raspberry pi to use as a regular computer. To be fair, had I read the cover, I would have known that. But I took it on brand faith that the Dummies book for the Raspberry Pi would be well-rounded. Thus, I am disappointed. Here were some of my "what the heck?" moments: 1) A whole chapter on html and websites? 2) Two chapters on Python and Pygame? 3) Chapters on GIMP and LibreOffice? Ok, so Raspberry Pi is a linux machine. Got it. But none of these are really specific to the Raspberry Pi. You can do all this stuff on a Windows machine. It seemed like filler material to me. The chapters at the end on physical computing were better, but instead of starting you with breadboards and LEDs, they have you doing woodworking to build a physical game. I think there are better books out there for almost every skill level.

If you are like me and know nothing about a Raspberry Pi, this book is for you. It takes you from a basic introduction of the hardware and Raspian (Linux) operating system and moves on to setting it up and programming it using Python. While this book won't be your only guide to using the RPi, it's certainly a good place to start. Sean McManus does of a great job of explaining it all in terms we can all understand. I recommend it.

New to Linux? Heard about this $35 computer that can be used to make... anything? This book can guide you through those first steps of setting it up and walking you through a couple nifty projects.Once you've mastered the material, you can (and definitely should) try your hand at some of the more advanced projects you may have seen floating around the internet.

good book

Amazing book for those who want to start messing around with the Raspberry Pi and don't know how to even turn it on. It's the most basic guide, if you already know a little about programming or I/O you may want to look for something a little more advanced.

Bien documenté, bien expliqué, complet. On a l'impression d'avoir affaire à de vrais techniciens, dans le genre Bob Pease. Enfin.

Ottimo come sempre nello stile della collana "for dummies", fornisce una infarinatura generale sul dispositivo e sulla sua programmazione, compresi alcuni accenni di elettronica. sia chiaro, si tratta di un manuale introduttivo, utile soprattutto a chi è completamente digiuno di programmazione informatica.

Dan dieses Buches konnte ich gut abschätzen, wofür der Raspi alles gut sein kann. Es hat mir die Inbetriebnahme meines ersten Raspi sehr beschleunigt, weil alles gut Beschrieben ist. Ich glaube, dass dies auch ein sehr gutes Buch für Leute ist, die bisher noch keine Erfahrung mit Linux-Basierten Betriebssystemen haben. Der Autor hat einen angenehmen Schreibstill und kann damit für die Sache begeistern. - Sehr zu empfehlen.