The first step in establishing a computer system with Raspberry Pi is to gather together all the necessary components listed below:
• Raspberry Pi – first you will need to get your hands on a Raspberry Pi board itself, available worldwide through Premier Farnell/Element 14, Allied Electronics, and RS Components.
• Micro SD card – to contain the operating system, so is recommended at least 8GB capacity and Class 4 or higher.
• Micro SD card reader – to write the operating system onto the card, unless you have pre-installed system card.
• Micro USB 5 volt power source – typically an cellphone charger or e-book reader charger, providing a power supply output of at least 5V.
• USB mouse – any standard mouse.
• USB keyboard – any standard keyboard.
• TV or monitor – any HDMI/DVI monitor or TV should work, but for best results use one with HDMI input.
• HDMI cable – to connect to a TV/monitor.
• Ethernet cable – for wired internet connection, unless you use the built-in WiFi adapter to connent to a router wirelessly.
You can find the Raspberry Pi suppliers online at farnell.com and at alliedelec.com or at rs-components.com
This seemingly long list of requirements is broadly similar to the components of a traditional PC so you may well already have some items on this list, but others you may need to purchase.
Raspberry Pi 3 Model B
When you have gathered together all necessary components they can be connected as shown below – but the Raspberry Pi is not yet functional as the SD card doesn’t contain an operating system.
The Camera Serial Interface (CSI) port allows connection of the official Camera Module accessory – an extra available from Raspberry Pi stockists.
The Display Serial Interface (DSI) port allows connection of the official 7” Touchscreen Display accessory – an extra available from Raspberry Pi stockists.
Want to know more?
For the complete Raspberry Pi 3 guide, all in the trusted In Easy Steps style, click here. In full-colour and straightforward, jargon-free language, Raspberry Pi 3 in Easy Steps enables complete beginners to create their very own computer programs with the Scratch visual programming environment. It also instructs programming in the high-level (human-readable) Python programming language, which is processed by the Python ‘interpreter’ to produce results fast.
See also: Setting up the Raspberry Pi 3