Raspberry Pi Arrives but Beaglebone gets used!

I ordered the base unit with no accessories as I thought I had what was needed already in my collection. It was ordered from MCM Electronics on Sept 2. Despatch notification was received on Sept 4 and it was on my doorstep  Sept 6. So much for long delivery times!

I built the default OS on an 8GB SDHC card under windows using the instructions at http://elinux.org/RPi_Easy_SD_Card_Setup. This proved to be much less problematic that expected. Then I went to power up the board. However hard I looked I could not find a USB A to micro USB B cable which was needed to power up the RPI.  I can see a visit to the local computer shop tomorrow.

I did discover a "Basic" for the Raspberry Pi called DexBasic The IDE for this has similarities to the one for the Arduino which I have used a lot. The link also has tutorial. I did manage to complete the Intro page tutorial and put it on a 1GB SDHC card, but will have to wait until I get the power lead to see the result

While waiting I decided to try out the Beaglebone. It is a rev 6 board. Searching the Internet I found some tutorials from adafruit http://learn.adafruit.com/beaglebone Unfortunately the instructions for installing the USB drivers are for Rev5 boards and I was left with complaints that drivers for an SUBARTIC  USB device had not been installed and beeps every minute. So I disabled it while I find out why. Undeterred I continued with the Ethernet tutorial which went fine. I must wait to try out the WiFi tutorial until the module used comes back in stock

£13 SDR Dongle has more work to do!

Just had a visit from Charlie G3WDG who was in Dallas on business. He also delivered my 9cm EME QSL card!

I had mentioned the £13 dongle to him at the EME conference so we talked at how to install it. While browsing the web for the drivers I discovered a page at osmocon (scroll down) which lists software that utilises the output from the dongle to decode various modes. The majority are not windows based so I decided now was the time to investigate "computers: the dark side" ie make a Linux machine. As Raspberry PI were now becoming available at respectable delivery time to order one!.

While discussing other matters with Doug G4DZU on skype,  who i know is a Linux user, he pointed me at an "idiots guide" article on using the dongle with a linux machine  He also pointed out that my Atom 945 M.B. which has now been replaced by the faster Atom 525 M.B. may be usable as a Linux machine.  I did hook the dongle to my ADSB antenna and succesfully saw planes approaching DFW so I know that bit works!

Talking of ADSB I already had a beaglebone board  bought in antipation of DL4MEAs Radarcape board that will turn it into an ADSB decoder (yes it is a Linux machine  but i was told Radarcape would be easy to install!) but in the meantime its time to try and make it flash an LED!

I also noticed software to turn the dongle into a GPS receiver. I know it wont be as cheap as  a $10 surplus motorola Oncore module but it will be fun