🥧 Step 1: Setting Up Raspberry Pi Copy | Betabox

🥧 Step 1: Setting Up Raspberry Pi Copy

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🥧 Step 1: Setting Up Raspberry Pi Copy

🥧 Step 1: Setting Up Raspberry Pi Copy 🥧 Step 1: Setting Up Raspberry Pi Copy

To make progress on our car, we need to configure the Raspberry Pi that came with the kit.

Note: If your Betabox kit already includes a pre-loaded Raspbian SD card, you can skip the Installing Raspbian section and go straight to Boot Up the Pi on Your Car below.

If you are experienced and would like to do it on your own, go ahead and set up the Pi and the SD card in your kit and proceed to the next step. If this is your first time with a Pi, keep following along.

What you’ll need to do:

  • Install the Raspbian operating system on your Pi.
  • Boot up the Pi on your Car Body and connect it to an external monitor with an HDMI port.
  • Plug in the keyboard, power, and monitor into your Pi.
  • Connect to the internet to download software.

Installing Raspbian

You will need:

  • Access to the internet to download balenaEtcher
  • An SD card reader with USB plug
  • A MicroSD card (at least 8 GB)
  • a MicroSD-to-SD card adapter

Loading the MicroSD card with Raspbian:

  • Navigate to this link to download Raspbian
  • Click the Download ZIP button for NOOBS
  • Extract the folder
  • Navigate to this link to download balenaEtcher
  • Select the version compatible with your computer to download the program.
  • Open the program
  • Insert your SD card reader into your computer’s USB
  • Insert the MicroSD card into the SD card adapter and then place in the SD card reader
  • In Etcher, click Select image and select the raspbian file you downloaded in the previous step
  • Select the storage device and make sure the drive is the same as the portable device (SD card reader) and NOT the computer’s hard drive
  • Click Flash!
  • Test the functionality of the SD card by plugging the card into a Raspberry Pi board and plug that into an HDMI screen. (Computer > USB > screen / screen > HDMI > Raspberry Pi / Raspberry Pi > USB > outlet). If the Raspberry Pi logo shows up on the screen when you plug everything in then the upload was successful.

Boot Up the Pi on Your Car

Push your SD card into the SD card slot on your Pi.

Then, connect an external monitor into the HDMI port, and a keyboard/mouse into the USB ports. Next, add two 18650 batteries into the car. Make sure they are fully charged! If you don’t have batteries you can also use a micro USB cable to plug the Raspberry Pi right into a wall for power.

Your setup should look a bit like this:

If it does, turn on your Pi.

You should see the Raspberry Pi logo boot up on your monitor.

Next, let’s get connected to Wi-Fi!