Rasberry Pi/Coding

Definitely go for a Pi 4, the higher GB you can afford the better. I wouldn’t recommend the Pi 400 as it seems to be getting more ‘black box’ like.

In terms of setting it up and using it, I wouldn’t recommend trying a headless install with him. Just plug it into your TV until it’s all ready to go via SSH. As others have said, you can either link into it via a PC or iPad. If you use it via the iPad you can use a keyboard and mouse with it - it doesn’t have to be a special iPad set, you can buy a lightning usb adaptor to use wireless keyboards and mice.

Minecraft Pi version is included in a standard installation of Raspbian (now called Raspberry Pi OS I believe), as is Scratch and Python editors. However Minecraft Pi is a very old version designed to help learn how to code. You can’t play Survival mode in it, and it will never (officially) be updated, though a team of fans are working on updating it.
You can run Minecraft Java 1.16 on a Pi 4 with some tinkering, the Pi 3 just isn’t powerful enough. It’s not officially supported of course, but it does mean you can either use it to play on somebody else’s server or host your own without tying up the computer. I don’t know how much you know about Minecraft servers, but if you do run one on the Pi mind your network security - I would only let his real life friends onto it.

There are various installations of OS available, including Retropie which comes with emulators for old consoles. No ROMs included, and of course you should only download ROMs of games you actually own ;) Some people use them for watching films, I can’t possibly comment.

In terms of hardware I would go for the official power supply, but don’t buy a bundle with the Pi, chances are you’ve got half the stuff or more lying around. I would consider buying a physical computing kit with various wires etc, there’s loads on Amazon and official Pi sellers. They also sell individual components. Maybe he would like a robot kit to go with it? There are free guides online for virtually everything!

As mentioned, the Pi 4 gets hotter than the 3, so if you’re going to enclose it you may be worthwhile buying a fan for it. You can get cases that already include one. Definitely get a case of some sort, or goodness knows what will happen to it.
 


Cheers. I’ve always just used bash but this would need to be graphical. I’ll get a pi ordered and look into it.
The standard raspbian download is pretty much all you’ll need. Download and whack it on a decent size sd card and boot it up. Set all the settings and then install teamviewer.
 
Cheers. I’ve always just used bash but this would need to be graphical. I’ll get a pi ordered and look into it.
there lots of ways.
Raspberry pi OS comes with vnc built in, just need to enable it in the config. Then a vnc viewer is free and available. Once setup you don't need a monitor just the name of the pi or ip
 
there lots of ways.
Raspberry pi OS comes with vnc built in, just need to enable it in the config. Then a vnc viewer is free and available. Once setup you don't need a monitor just the name of the pi or ip
I usually enable ssh from /boot on first install and check out the IP from my router connection table, so don’t use a monitor at all.
 
Lightbot is good for getting kids started as it gamifys coding. I think there are apps for phones as well as the website. Other than this download the free version of visual studio and start getting him used to a language by programming some algorithms such as looping round and printing out only odd numbers or fizz buzz. Once he gets the hang of that move onto something like programming a real world application such as a car park ticket machine.
 
Another good option just appeared on the market, the Raspberry Pi Pico.

The Pi Hut have them in at £3.60 each. This is a microcontroller so it does not run linux, only one simple program, but you can quickly start adding buttons and LEDs to it, programming in python or C++. You don’t need to add a sd card or power supply so very cheap to get started.

One downside at the moment is they don’t seem to sell them with soldered headers, so you will have to do that yourself. Anyone who does not fancy that could wait a few weeks. I bet it will not be long before someone is selling them soldered up, in a kit with breadboard and some add-on hardware.
 

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