#pi3

The other commission for Darkstars a fic by @miraculousturtle<3 which you you totally should check out!! Go on and read it!

This is beautiful Pi3 Ori. Too good for this world, we must protect such kindness

Thanks a lot for creating such amazing characters<3<3

if you want me to draw something for you commissions are open!!

Hello ladies and gentlemen, welcome to my ongoing world of waffle. So as the title suggests a friend lent me a Raspberry Pi 3 with 1GB of RAM and a Raspberry Pi 4 with 4GB RAM.

Now in the past I have always been dismissive of the Raspberry Pi so they were lent to me to play with to see if using the items in question would change my perspective.

Well started off with the Pi3. Installed Raspberry Pi OS (Raspbian as it used to be known). It works fine if a little slow but that's to be expected given it only has 1MB of RAM. It will browse the web, but try and do anything beyond that and you start to see the slow down.

I did get the ZX Spectrum emulator Fuse working and providing you never got above double height video it worked alright. I managed to play TLL without too much stutter.

Installed RISC OS next which was interesting for all of about ten seconds. It didn't support the WiFi so I could not install any different software so that was that.

Looked at Retropie... Nice idea but unfortunately it's using RetroArch (the most annoying multi-emulator ever) so I quickly got out of that.

I have yet to find a core on Retroarch I can say yep that works without problems. So as soon as I saw that it was RetroArch. Oh dear well it was a nice thought.

Now I'm sure I am going to get people complaining that if you set Retroarch up correct it's fine. I don't doubt it but it's a faff to sort so it can take a run and jump.

Right having messed around with the Pi3 it was time to move onto the Pi4.

That's when I hit the wall. For some strange reason I was not getting a video output. Now remember this isn't my Raspberry Pi. I am borrowing them from a friend. I am quite concerned.

The adaptor he supplied as soon as I connect the HDMI to it, goes snap. Not good. So I connect up a micro HDMI to HDMI cable. Nothing.

Odd. I eventually get another adapter type and finally I get video. However if you straighten the cable the video cuts out.

I don't know if this is common but video works if it's pulling slightly to the right. I don't think this is common but as the saying goes when in Rome.

Raspbian works as it should and the extra ram is definitely noticed when typing stuff.

One of the things I installed on both versions was Focuswriter (a minimalist word processor). On the Pi3 you had to wait for it catch up when typing. It would normally get it but there was a delay before it appeared on screen.

On the Pi4 this delay seems to have gone thankfully which is to be expected given better processing power, more RAM.

Web browsing works but is still underpowered. However on the 4GB I can open more than one tab which the Pi3 could not.

Video playback is not great and for all they claim the Pi4 can do 4k. Not streaming it can't. It could just say manage 320p without it falling apart.

However that could equally be the fault of my internet as it is not exactly quick.

Audio playback was equally a bit choppy.

Part of me is suspicious due to the strange connection angle required maybe I'm not getting optimal signal here.

I moved on from Raspbian and attempted to get Manjaro ARM to work.

This was a fail. It ran through it's setup then on the reboot refused to start up into X. It just sat there looking dumb and would not accept any keyboard input.

Oh dear not a great start. Ok moving on I discovered a system called Twister OS.

Now it's a modified version of Raspbian but allows window theming, overclocking and seems to have several more basic programs.

Well it starts off fine. It can indeed be themed to look like Windows 95, Windows XP, Windows 7, Mac OS X (light and dark modes) and its own TwisterOS desktop.

They all change easily using the Twister themes and each time you have to restart but it's quick and responsive so not bad at all.

The overclock can be set manually or be set using the modes of on-demand or performance from the system tools menu.

Being it is a modified Raspbian install it can use all of the same programs so tested with Focuswriter.

It runs smoothly. Loaded Fuse the Spectrum emulator and it has no real issues. Then I try the challenge.

MAME is always a good test. I had ran it on the Pi3 before now and while things loaded it struggled with sound and frame rates were inconsistent.

Well it seems running under TwisterOS. MAME ran my test games of Frogger, R-Type, R-Type II and StarForce without issue. I did not even seem to have to switch it to performance which I thought I might but they all worked fine with no major slowdown.

So bonus points to the Pi4 it worked regarding basic emulation pretty well.

To be honest running the Pi4 with TwisterOS it really isn't bad. Obviously provided you don't intend to use it to stream video the Pi4 is definitely an improvement over the Pi3.

Now I admit the Raspberry Pi isn't aimed at me. Don't get me wrong it can emulate stuff, but the Pi is aimed at programming types or engineering people.

They will try and connect the Raspberry Pi to cameras to monitor birds, or connect to your doorbell be a monitoring device. Or sit and teach your kids how to program in BASIC using Scratch.

I don't have the patience for that sort of stuff or the skill as normally it involves soldering or programming neither of which I can be fussed about.

Is the Raspberry Pi a bad idea. Not at all I'm sure someone always finds ingenious ways to use one. Am I one of those people... nope.

Do I think I will ever invest in a Raspberry Pi. Answer probably not but now at least I can admit that the Pi4 is not as bad as I thought it was.

Now my experience is over I can return the Pi's to their owner forthwith. Job done...

Seeing very few discussions about security but a lot of talk about how to get the PiAware device “online” so friends can view it over the internet, I quickly put together this conceptual connection document with four options to get the PiAware device protected. IPs and port numbers have been changed and generalized.

Please note that I quickly put this document together. There may be grammatical errors or networking typos. Let me know if you come across any.

I’ve included a Visio and PDF document to allow for note taking and redesigning with ease based on your setup. PDF: PiAware WAN Concept Visio (in .zip format): PiAware WAN Concept

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New Post has been published on https://www.topbreaking.news/articles/simple-home-automation-using-raspberry-pi3-and-android-things.html

Simple Home Automation Using Raspberry Pi3 and Android Things

The idea is to design a “smart HOME” wherein one can control household devices using Android Things and Raspberry Pi. The project consists of controlling house appliance like Light, Fan, motor etc.Materials Required:Raspberry Pi 3HDMI CableRelayhousehold devices like Fan, Light bulb Etc.Soldering Gu… By: Adithya T G

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