Raspberry Pi Adventures

[haphazardnuke]

Hi everyone.
I know there was a thread a while back about the Raspberry Pi, a $35 computer the size of a wallet, but since that thread's been dead for a while I decided it might be better to just make a new thread entirely.
Anyone else have one of these things? They're a lot of fun. Share your stories!

As for myself, I've managed to get a full Minecraft server running on a 512 version B. It sits in a lego case of my own design, next to a small switch for internet.
I'm powering it through a monitor that also serves as the usb hub for the Pi, but the monitor isn't actually the Pi's display.
Instead, I'm using it as a secondary display for my laptop, and I've maximized an SSH client (puTTY) on that monitor; that way, I can share a single keyboard and external monitor between my laptop and the Pi. If I want to watch the Pi's boot log, all I have to do is set the monitor to its digital input (the Pi's HDMI, converted by cable to DVI). The VGA input is connected to my laptop, so once the Pi is up and running I can toggle back to having two monitors on my laptop without moving a cable.

As for the server itself, it runs fairly smoothly, though I've had to fiddle with the properties.
First off, it isn't the Pi version of the game, it's the full computer Minecraft we all know and love. I'd put BTW on there if I wasn't using Bukkit!
The server's on 1.4.7 right now, I haven't tried 1.5.x yet.
I overclocked my Pi a bit (the "high" setting in raspi-config) and disabled animals, mobs, and the Nether.
The server throws a lot of "[warning] can't keep up! " messages, but that seems to be related to the Pi's lack of a real-time clock, because when I was testing it alone, it was nearly as smooth as singleplayer: no lag on movement, blocks place and break properly, there are slight chunk-render delays on occasion, and items sometimes take a second or two to get picked up.
All the data for the server is on an external usb stick instead of the SD card. I don't know if it makes a difference for read speed or anything, but it works well enough as-is.
Hey, for 512 Mb of RAM, that isn't bad. I'm going to get some friends on later to see how well the server takes to multiple players at once, but I'm pretty confident it will work.

Picture time~! (warning, large images)
Nothing too fancy yet, it's only been a minecraft day or two.
The setup itself.

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I tend to name worlds after their seed. "strawberry" in this case...

The view from spawn.

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Sorry it's so dark. I realized afterward that I could have set the time to day through the server...

My Hobbit-hole nearby. With skylight room!

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I haven't used the Pi's GPIO pins yet, but I might set up a temperature indicator or player count or something.

[PureZaros]

I have to say, that's pretty cool. Of course, I'm saying this from the haze of naivety... Either way, love that lego!

[finite8]

I've got 2 raspberry Pi's for a job a friend has given me but i've been a little lazy, mainly surrounding my lack of casing for the little thing. I cannot believe i never thought of the lego thing before!

[Wibbles]

That lego case is wonderful. Pimp my pi springs to mind :)

[haphazardnuke]

Wow, thanks for the compliments on the case. It's just something I cobbled together from pieces I dug up around the house, mostly. Lots of custom features, though. The silvery section on the top right is easily removed and lies directly over the GPIO, the white axle on top is there because I need a tool to dislodge the ethernet port, the black grating on top is the HDMI cover (removed because it's in use), and the usb / ethernet side has a cover panel on a hinge. I build with stream-of-consciousness and then revise. xD

I also have an NXT lego robotics set, and I really want to connect that to the Pi, but I don't have any project ideas, haha.

An update about the minecraft server.
Aside from a few end-of-stream disconnects it's been fairly stable. I invited a friend to join for some "stress-testing", which involved redstone clocks, light blocks, pistons, and gratuitous amounts of TNT in creative mode. We couldn't stop the server, though we did slow it down quite a bit in the block-update department! (player movement was still fairly smooth, somehow. I'll chalk it up to having only two of us on).

Next projects I'm thinking about: building a real-time clock circuit, attaching a 16x2 LCD character display, or wiring an analog-to-digital (ADC) chip so I can have volume dials and stuff.

[finite8]

Next projects I'm thinking about: building a real-time clock circuit, attaching a 16x2 LCD character display, or wiring an analog-to-digital (ADC) chip so I can have volume dials and stuff.

Let us know how the lego case goes :)

[haphazardnuke]

Let us know how the lego case goes :)

...you mean, for the peripheral(s)? Or the Pi itself (which already has a case built, in my first image) ?

If you mean for the other stuff, I don't know if those even need a case. Maybe a rack of some kind for the breadboard, but that would be about all I'd need to do.

[finite8]

Let us know how the lego case goes :)

...you mean, for the peripheral(s)? Or the Pi itself (which already has a case built, in my first image) ?

If you mean for the other stuff, I don't know if those even need a case. Maybe a rack of some kind for the breadboard, but that would be about all I'd need to do.

All this talk about lego is giving me a dreamy image of a Lego PC case.

[weldaSB]

All this talk about lego is giving me a dreamy image of a Lego PC case.

Funny you should say that. That is the first project on my list when summer comes.
http://tfvlrue.wordpress.com/2008/06/25/lego-computer/

[Mud]

All this talk about lego is giving me a dreamy image of a Lego PC case.

Funny you should say that. That is the first project on my list when summer comes.
http://tfvlrue.wordpress.com/2008/06/25/lego-computer/

If only lego constructions like this one had more vertical stability...