After deciding to augment my van's onboard DVD player with some sort of solid state electronics, I went through a couple of iterations.
I knew that the RPi ran Linux and booted from an SD card. I also knew that it had 2 USB ports (plus an extra for power) as well as an HDMI port and a stereo headphone out. There are other, cool connections available to play with (GPIO jumps to mind) but I am not a hardware hacker at that level. With all that in mind, I started to think about my initial hardware purchase. I decided on a bare-ish bones setup, running directly from the SD boot card for media in the car. I happened to have a 32GB class 10 SD card lying around, so that was the beginning of the build.
I also knew that my 2006 Honda Odyssey EX-L had some aux ports in the way back, by the third row of seats. Specifically RCA inputs for video and left and right audio. It also had a 12V car power socket.
After consulting with some buddies, doing some research online - specifically about power issues and Raspberry Pi in general - I came up with the following list (on amazon.com):
Raspberry Pi Model B Revision 2.0 (512MB) - $42.90
PowerGen Dual USB 3.1A 15w High Output Car Charger - $9.99
FAVI Entertainment Wireless Keyboard (Built-in TouchPad/Laser Pointer) - $18.99
Edimax EW-7811Un 150 Mbps Wireless 11n Nano Size USB Adapter - $10.98
Multicomp Clear Raspberry Pi Enclosure (MC-RP001-CLR) - $10.99
C2G / Cables to Go 40645 3.5mm Stereo Male To 2X RCA Female Adapter - $1.97
I happen to have Amazon Prime, so I did not incur any shipping charges for all of this stuff. 2 days after I ordered it, the hardware showed up. More on the initial boot in the next post.
Showing posts with label media center. Show all posts
Showing posts with label media center. Show all posts
Monday, June 17, 2013
An Auspicious Beginning
This all started as a way to stop using physical media (DVDs), while travelling with my kids in our 2006 Honda Odyssey EX-L. The DVDs are always scratched and skipping, the kids are always whining about it and changing discs while driving (at night, in a thunderstorm) can be dangerous!
After one such trip, I came into work the next morning and was complaining about the harrowing journey and the DVDs. I said to my co-workers "...is there a hard drive that you can plug into your car to play movies from?" one of them replied "Raspberry Pi and RaspBMC..." that started the odyssey I am about to chronicle for you here.
This blog is somewhat after the fact, but I will try and write the steps down in the order that I took them and enumerate the approaches I took while trying to hack my way through the various hardware and Linux commands I came into contact with along the way.
Fair warning: I am not a Linux guy. There were many stumbles along the way and I read many forum postings with scathing remarks about how the "Linux people" did not know how to describe something for non Linux folks. That is the reason I am making this blog, to let you know how a schlub like me got something this cool up and running.
After one such trip, I came into work the next morning and was complaining about the harrowing journey and the DVDs. I said to my co-workers "...is there a hard drive that you can plug into your car to play movies from?" one of them replied "Raspberry Pi and RaspBMC..." that started the odyssey I am about to chronicle for you here.
This blog is somewhat after the fact, but I will try and write the steps down in the order that I took them and enumerate the approaches I took while trying to hack my way through the various hardware and Linux commands I came into contact with along the way.
Fair warning: I am not a Linux guy. There were many stumbles along the way and I read many forum postings with scathing remarks about how the "Linux people" did not know how to describe something for non Linux folks. That is the reason I am making this blog, to let you know how a schlub like me got something this cool up and running.
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