Getting Started with XinaBox for Raspberry Pi Users

Welcome to the first in our series for Raspberry Pi users getting started with XinaBox. We promise this will be quick and easy! Just follow our instructions. In the next blogs we will guide you through retrieving data from your xChip sensors, displaying it locally, and controlling devices.

Raspberry Pi (RPi) - Setup

1. What you need
2. Installations
3. To do
4. Summary of to do steps
5. When things don't work as expected
6. Next steps

• a RPi Zero or RPi 3 B , the RPi Zero is as capable as RPi 3, yet is a slower machine with less I/O features

Raspberry Pi 3 B with power, HDMI, keyboard, and mouse

        Raspberry Pi Zero with power, HDMI, USB expander, keyboard, and mouse 

• access to the internet

• parts as specified at https://www.raspberrypi.org/learning/software-guide/

• an internet-connected computer onto which files can be downloaded and on which applications can be executed in order to unzip files and write images to a micro SD Card (mSDC)

• a mSDC adapter - where an adapter is not present in the computer being used, a USB mSDC adapter will be required

• follow the instructions of the Raspberry Pi Software Guide as presented at https://www.raspberrypi.org/learning/software-guide/quickstart/ in order to download and install Raspbian. This installation is not difficult, however, some patience is required during the file downloads, extractions, and the transferring of images to the mSDC.

• read the instructions in the abovementioned quickstart guide, and follow the steps for installing carefully - if any problems are experienced during setup, the best approach is to start from scratch - once the Raspbian image has downloaded successfully, starting from scratch only entails removing power from the RPi,  re-imaging the mSDC, placing the mSDC back in the RPi, powering up, and following on-screen instructions

• once the RPi on-screen setup is complete, the RPi will reboot and present the Raspbian desktop

• browse to https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/

• select "download ZIP" for "Raspbian Stretch with Desktop" and save this file on your computer

• unzip the zip file, it will unzip to a .img file - the unzip application to use on Windows is "7-Zip", on Mac, "The Unarchiver", and on Linux, "Unzip"

• browse to https://etcher.io/and download and install the "Etcher" application

• place a micro SD Card into the SD card reader - minimum size is 8GB

• start Etcher

• select the .img file you unzipped earlier

• select the drive letter which points to the micro SD Card - make absolutely sure it's the correct drive

• select "Burn" or "Flash"

• once the image is on the mSDC, place it in the RPi and follow the steps presented in order to complete the setup

• keeping the username "pi" and password "raspberry" for the duration of the XinaBox related exercises is highly recommended

• in the domain of the Raspberry Pi, a wealth of information and many user forums exist on the internet, and very many thousands of RPis are used on a daily basis - https://www.raspberrypi.org/ and very many other sites are very well supported by the RPi community, and time spent browsing sites related to this family of devices will be a valuable time investment- solutions to most if not all problems ever experienced can normally be found using your favourite internet search engine

• once the RPi on-screen setup is complete, the RPi has rebooted, and the Raspbian desktop is presented, browse the desktop menus and try out the applications which are available in the default installation

Please see our Raspberry Pi XK03 kit, and especially the online instructions for other useful links to getting started, sample code and projects.