Page 86 - Raspberry Pi as a Foundation for Boosting Computer and Technology Literacy

7 Basic projects for getting to know Raspberry Pi

Figure 7.2
Raspberry Pi 4
in DiSalvo copper
enclosure (right)
and in Argon ONE
M.2 enclosure (left)

a mouse, a couple of cables, a power supply, and a monitor to start. If
you decide to purchase a kit, it comes with a mouse, power supply, a
micro HDMI to HDMI cable, and a microSD card preloaded with the
Raspberry Pi OS.
Two options are shown in Figure 7.2, each having its advantages.
The Argon ONE M.2 case is worth considering as it provides the fol-
lowing:

• Buil-in IR support
• Power management modes
• Integrated M.2 SATA SSD support

The latter allows one to maximize the potential speed of the Rasp-
berry Pi as one can boot via a SATA SSD for faster boot times and larg-
er storage capacity compared to booting from a microSD card.

7.2 Christmas tree 7.2

Six years ago, the 3D Xmas Tree was reviewed in MagPi magazine by
Russell Barnes ( 3D Xmas Tree review). The 3D Xmas Tree is a HAT
for the Raspberry Pi available in unsoldered version and a version
that comes pre-soldered. The price difference speaks in favour of the
pre-soldered version, the more so if you do not have a soldering iron
at the time of reading. One has to solder 25 resistors and 25 LEDs to
the board, as well as a 40-pin GPIO header. We needed almost an hour
to do this, so it is up to you to decide which one to purchase. Program-
ming the tree is a piece of cake as there are code examples available
on the PiHut web page ( 3D Xmas Tree for Raspberry Pi). PiHut also
suggests using a GPIO Zero as the easiest way to control your Xmas
tree board.

86