![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Cooking and geeking
Jul. 22nd, 2012 10:42 pmBut in separate rooms, honest. Notably, a Raspberry Pi, even running fully loaded, doesn't generate enough heat to cook with. This is definitely in contrast to some Intel processors I've used.
Made ratatouille in the slow cooker today. Smelled great for six hours while it cooked. Here's a photo of how it looked at the beginning:
Eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, sweet pepper, onion, seasoned with garlic and hot paprika, a little olive oil and wine added.
Meanwhile, I finally got the Raspberry Pi (now running Raspbian, the Linux OS customized for its specific hardware features, including hardware floating point processor) going with the HDMI to VGA conversion box that arrived on Saturday. That converts the HDMI video and sound output from the Pi to separate VGA (analog) video and audio signals. Hooked up an old VGA CRT monitor and was surprised to find that it was capable of 1280 x 740 resolution without straining. That aspect ratio was wrong though and everything was distorted to tall and skinny proportions. Some quick changes to config.txt and the screen opened at 1024 x 768, which is more appropriate and also needs less memory to process for Xwindows.
Here is the screen, with keyboard and cheap (freebie) speaker at left:
The speaker is in the top of the Pringles can to the left of the keyboard. These are given away as a promotional prize and seemed appropriately cheap for use with a $35 computer.
Actually there's more than $35 invested in the project now. The HDMI to VGA converter box was $33. Assorted cables, about $10 total. 8 MB SDHC was about $8, and serves as the system disk. Surge protector with two USB charging ports to power the Pi was about $9. The keyboard, mouse, and monitor were supplied by spares that I had lying around. Total cost, a bit over $100. The resulting system performs as well as any small home computer in the $300 or so price range today. However, it is infinitely smaller than one of those "minitower" desktop units. The Raspberry Pi fits in a plastic enclosure of about 2 x 3 x 4 inches. The processor is a 700 MHz ARMv6, with two USB ports, ethernet, HDMI and composite video outputs. There is a serial port and other interfacing available through an expansion header, but you have to provide a ribbon cable and connector, and break those out for yourself.
Oh, and it looks like we have a recipient for our sheep. Friend of a friend came by to see them, asked questions, went home to talk to his wife, and called to say they will take them. They have horses and cows, so are used to dealing with hay buying. He has a border collie that he wants to train for sheep herding, and I think it sounds like a suitable home for our little flock.
Made ratatouille in the slow cooker today. Smelled great for six hours while it cooked. Here's a photo of how it looked at the beginning:
Eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, sweet pepper, onion, seasoned with garlic and hot paprika, a little olive oil and wine added.
Meanwhile, I finally got the Raspberry Pi (now running Raspbian, the Linux OS customized for its specific hardware features, including hardware floating point processor) going with the HDMI to VGA conversion box that arrived on Saturday. That converts the HDMI video and sound output from the Pi to separate VGA (analog) video and audio signals. Hooked up an old VGA CRT monitor and was surprised to find that it was capable of 1280 x 740 resolution without straining. That aspect ratio was wrong though and everything was distorted to tall and skinny proportions. Some quick changes to config.txt and the screen opened at 1024 x 768, which is more appropriate and also needs less memory to process for Xwindows.
Here is the screen, with keyboard and cheap (freebie) speaker at left:
The speaker is in the top of the Pringles can to the left of the keyboard. These are given away as a promotional prize and seemed appropriately cheap for use with a $35 computer.
Actually there's more than $35 invested in the project now. The HDMI to VGA converter box was $33. Assorted cables, about $10 total. 8 MB SDHC was about $8, and serves as the system disk. Surge protector with two USB charging ports to power the Pi was about $9. The keyboard, mouse, and monitor were supplied by spares that I had lying around. Total cost, a bit over $100. The resulting system performs as well as any small home computer in the $300 or so price range today. However, it is infinitely smaller than one of those "minitower" desktop units. The Raspberry Pi fits in a plastic enclosure of about 2 x 3 x 4 inches. The processor is a 700 MHz ARMv6, with two USB ports, ethernet, HDMI and composite video outputs. There is a serial port and other interfacing available through an expansion header, but you have to provide a ribbon cable and connector, and break those out for yourself.
Oh, and it looks like we have a recipient for our sheep. Friend of a friend came by to see them, asked questions, went home to talk to his wife, and called to say they will take them. They have horses and cows, so are used to dealing with hay buying. He has a border collie that he wants to train for sheep herding, and I think it sounds like a suitable home for our little flock.
