My Raspberry Pi Setup

I am currently using my Raspberry Pi hooked up to an Ubuntu machine, via an Ethernet cable, in order to share the Internet Connection. The Raspberry Pi is running Raspbian. This page details my current setup and costs. All costs detailed on this page are correct at the time of writing.

Which Model?

Purchased a Model B from RS Components. This includes two USB ports and an Ethernet port. This cost £25.92. I also needed a power supply (cost £6.23 inc VAT) and a 4GB SD card (cost £7.79 inc VAT). Total cost from RS Components was £44.89 which included a delivery charge of £4.95.

Keyboard and Mouse

I had a spare wireless keyboard and mouse (uses USB wireless transmitter/receiver) that came with the Packard Bell PC iXtreme-X2711. No additional cost incurred. Plugged the USB transmitter/receiver into a USB port on the Raspberry Pi.

Display

At home the TV is the only HDMI display that can currently be used with the Raspberry Pi. I need to buy a HDMI monitor! For now, I have managed to get the Pi working with a Samsung SyncMaster 226cw monitor after much tweaking! This monitor is DVI only. A DVI cable can only carry video data. A HDMI cable can carry both sound and video data. This means for the time being I will have to use the separate audio output port on the Raspberry Pi for sound.

In order to get this working I splashed out and ordered a £3.99 HDMI (female) to DVI-D (male) adapter from amazon.

I connected HDMI cable to the HDMI female connecter on the adapter and then connected the adapter to the female DVI-D port on the SyncMaster 226cw monitor. The other end of the HDMI cable connects to the HDMI port on the Raspberry Pi.

This worked a treat after installing the Raspbian distribution on the SD card. I installed Raspbian following the instructions detailed here. RS Components do offer SD cards with the Operating System preloaded but they charge for this. Cheaper doing it yourself!

HDMI Cable

Reused from XBox 360. No additional cost.

Case

Purchased a case from ebay for the sum of £8.89.

Total Cost

The total cost incurred so far is £53.78, i.e. £44.89 (Raspberry Pi+SD Card+Power supply+Delivery) and £8.89  for case.

What I need next?

Need suitable compatible USB powered hub and wireless dongle to provide direct connection to the wireless router. Anyone? This way I no longer have to share an Internet Connection with the PC.

What I plan to do next?

Use the Raspberry Pi as a CUPS print server for the Epson Stylus Photo RX640. I will do this once I have acquired a suitable USB wireless dongle and USB powered hub.