The Kingdom of Philtopia

The Pi A+ has had my attention since it first launch and I have eagerly been awaiting for mine to arrive. Today that day finally came and I saw the package waiting to be opened on my desk.

I ordered my Pi from Adafruit along with a pre installed SD/Micro SD combo card with Raspian. I’ve already played the OS install and self setup game for many years and for this project I just wanted to get up and go as soon as it arrived.

The Pi comes in an updated box, the original was just a plane looking white package while this one sports the RPi foundation logo, element14 and product details on the back.

The new form factor of the A+ is really what had my attention and I just had to see it for myself. It is 1/3 shorter than the B models I have. The eventual goal for this Pi is a track view camera for train club powered by a power bank.

First boot

Now the A+ only has 1 USB and no ethernet so for initial setup it is a good idea to have a USB hub around to allow you to connect more peripherals. In my case I already had a hub that I bought when I got my first B model almost 2 years ago. I plugged in my keyboard and mouse, inserted the microsd card (which has a nice push spring release too) and connected the HDMI and power.

The Initial setup screen popped up, I used my whole SD card and set my overclock to 950 (standard among my Pi’s) and rebooted again.

I logged into the OS and ran startx. There was a Minecraft Pi icon on the desktop, this seemed like a good first run test.

I don’t actually play minecraft but the application ran very smoothly and I chopped away at the mountain side with a sword for a bit.

The first boot test was over and the A+ gets an A+.

Projects

First I am going to test the limits of this Pi by having it run in my Arcade controller. We will see if can match or come close to the same perf as the B with the reduced RAM. I believe it will and this will open up the possibility for a 2 player arcade Pi down the pipes. The A’s extra GPIO slots make a full 2 player deck possible. If it doesn’t hold up there is always the B+ model.

Secondly the actual intention for this Pi will be to convert one of my HO scale flatbed train cars into a camera car for the GNMRE club layout. The reduced power footprint of the A+ should make it more co-operative with the small power bank I would like to use whereas the B’s used too much power for it to be possible.

So keep an eye out you’ll be hearing more from me in the coming weeks!