The biggest simplification here is that you'll order a memory card that has the software for the Pi pre-installed. Everything else is done on the Pi itself when you get it, and takes just a few minutes. The only thing you need another computer or smartphone for is to order some things online. There are many ways to go about this and many other tutorials available. To me, this really unleashes the potential of modern electronics and computing, made accessible to those who have the drive and perseverence to learn them.

Using the Pi as a cross-development host for programming other embedded system boards running bare-metal, Linux, or RTOS (Real-Time Operating System).

Controlling electronic devices connected to the pin headers.

Communicating with remote devices and systems over serial and network interfaces.

Programming in C, C++, Python, Bash, and many other languages.

Once you have the Pi running, you'll be able to use it to learn a variety of useful skills over time:

Booting up NOOBS v2.8 (Raspbian Stretch) or v3.1 (Raspbian Buster).

I'll use it as the foundation for other tutorials, where I'll assume you have a Raspberry Pi up and running. This tutorial shows the simplest way to get started, covering just the basic essentials. One of my primary goals here is to remove roadblocks. We tend to forget that once we gain experience. Sometimes even the simplest thing can be a roadblock when learning a new thing. But for someone who's never worked with things at this level, it's all new. You may find some of the photos and descriptions overly detailed. This article is available in PDF format for easy printing If you know more than that, it's helpful but isn't a prerequisite here. Where do you even start?īy 'absolute beginner', I mean someone who knows how to browse the web and do basic word-processing and maybe use some of the other programs on a typical desktop, laptop, or tablet computer, but that's really all. There are different versions of it, different software to run on it, and all kinds of things to connect to it. It can be used as a full desktop computer.īut if you're an absolute beginner, the information can get overwhelming quickly. It runs a version of the Linux OS (Operating System) called Raspberry Pi OS (formerly called Raspbian, so you'll see that name a lot, including here), supporting multiple programming languages.

The Raspberry Pi is a great little computer for learning programming in general, as well as embedded systems.

Jarvis desktop layout for rpi3