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Raspberry Pi Setup

This is the AQA version closing after June 2019. Visit the the version for Eduqas instead .

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Buy your Model B Pi and Accessories

Visit Farnell and type Raspberry Pi into their search box. You will find everything you need on their site. You may well be able to save some cash by shopping around.

This was our starter kit ...

Model B Raspberry Pi
SD Card - For example - 8GB SanDisk SDHC Class 4 Card
USB keyboard
USB mouse
A PieView HDMI to VGA converter or use a HDMI cable and monitor if you have one.
A suitable 5 Volt USB power supply
Network cable

Windows Machines - Pi Card Setup

These instructions assume you are using Windows to make the boot card.

Get a suitable SD Card

We used an 8GB SanDisk SDHC Class 4 Card. 4GB is OK. 2GB is really too small.

Download the Raspbian "wheezy" Image

Downloading to a hard disk speeds things up as the image file is large and needs to be unzipped.

View the Downloads Page for more information.

Download the Raspbian "wheezy" image file and unzip the img file.

Burn a Boot Disk (Card)

CAUTION: Neil accidentally turned his USB Stick into a Raspberry Pi boot disk. Bad idea!!!
He did have a backup but it took a long time to restore all the files and a special formatting tool was needed to repair the USB Stick.

Download Win32DiskImager and use this to burn the boot image. Get the drive letter right or you might repeat Neil's error above.

It looks like this but double check your drive letter! Click the Write button to create the bootable card.

Disk Imager Ready to Burn

Edit config.txt

On your new boot card, use wordpad to edit config.txt to work with bog standard VGA monitors. Remove two # symbols as shown. Newer monitors and HDMI TV connections will most likely work without this step.

Config.txt

After your installation is complete, try un-editing it to get a higher screen resolution if your monitor will support it. Put the # symbols back in.

Be sure to save as .txt or the Microsoft formatting codes will stop this file working. If this is problematic, copy the text, paste it into Notepad and save it from there.

Connect Everything Up

Insert the boot card into the SD slot on the Raspberry Pi.
Plug in a USB keyboard.
Plug in a USB mouse.
Plug a PieView HDMI to VGA converter cable into the HDMI port or use HDMI with a suitable monitor.
Plug in a suitable 5 Volt USB power supply.

Boot your Pi

You should see some text scrolling past as the Pi boots up. Then a setup screen is displayed.

Expand your filesystem - Yes - Do it.
Change your password - Only if you want to.
Default Username: pi
Default Password: raspberry
Boot to Desktop - Don't do it.
Internationalisation - It defaults to UK English so leave it alone unless you are not UK English.
Enable Camera - No.
Add to Rastrack - No.
Overclock - No
Advanced Options: Enable SSH.
Finish and Reboot

You can change all these options later if you need to by typing

sudo raspi-config

Boot your Pi for Use

Run X-Windows (LXDE)

startx

A window based desktop should appear.

After having a play, click the bottom left (start button) and select Log Out.

Safe Shut Down

Type the magic command to shut down the Pi and press enter.

sudo shutdown -h now