Raspberry Pi and Berryboot

[Foster]

For those of you planning to use a Raspberry Pi in your robot, take a quick look at Berryboot.
It gives you the ability to put multiple distributions on your SD card.

You can put as many distros on a SD card as you want. You can pick one to be the default to boot after so many seconds. So you can make your robot code be the default to boot to after 10 seconds.

I have Pi set up with a base of the control system, it boots into that as the default. I can take that card, plug it into the dev PI and select a different environment to work on that code. The nice thing is that Berryboot will set up the environments with a shared file system. This lets me put files into the shared area that will be picked up by the control system environment.

There is an option to have Berryboot use VNC as the terminal console, so you could connect into the robot and pick the boot image. I've not tested this 100% (missing a cRio at Muppet Labs). But with the Pi connected into the lab network I can find it with VNC and pick what I want it to do.

Berryboot is highly recommended, make sure you get the latest release.

(For those of you that got the Cubieboard, which may end up being a better co-processor, Berryboot also works on that)

[Foster]

Not to add to the season start message mess, but I've found and installed these copper heatsinks on the RaspBerry Pi. Reduced the overall temps inside the Adafruit boxes from 58-60C to 47-48C. Still well below running temps, but if you are doing vision on the Pi, this will be a good idea. They are always out of stock, he builds them as needed. Nice work, I was pleased with my three sets.

[Foster]

Newark Electronics is now selling the ASSEMBLED Gertboard. This board sits on top of the PI and gives easy access to the GPIO connections. It's plug and go, you get to skip the 2 hr assembly process.

http://www.newark.com/gertboard/gert...led/dp/46W9829

It's late in the build season, but if this is on your to do list, now is the time to get this board.