Build your own computer with a step-by-step book, Raspberry Pi 3, programmable LED lights, DIY case, power button, wireless keyboard with track pad, 8GB MicroSD card, HDMI and power cables, stickers, Kano operating system, 100+ coding challenges, and 100+ apps
Plugs into any HDMI screen. Browse the internet, watch YouTube, write stories, 100+ apps, with 3 levels of parental controls
1x Raspberry Pi PCB
1x Case
1x Light board
1x Power supply
1x Power cable
1x HDMI cable
1x Set of books and stickers
1x 8GB microSD card
1x Power button
1x Wireless keyboard
@dadown@sligett@rileyper I actually already have a Pi 3 and use it for Retro Arcade. It runs MAME, and other simulators like Amiga, Nintendo, Commodore 64, etc.
I should pull it out of the closet and play with it again someday. Seems I never have the time though. Something else always comes up.
@cengland0@dadown@rileyper The only Pi I have in continuous use runs my weather station. I have a bag of them in the basement, sigh. I do have one running as a DNS server at a school I work in.
Yeah, get yours back out some time. I will get mine out too.
@cengland0 Tempting, but I’ve got a lot of unused Pi’s and Arduinos around here already. I really need to DO something with them instead of buying more crap.
Ooh… If I didn’t have the Kickstarter version and more Raspberry Pis than I really need, I would totally buy this. It may not be the newest Pi but you probably won’t notice the difference and it comes with the case and extra hardware. Doo eet!
Edit: For completeness, this is the Raspberry Pi 3 B but that’s the most popular type so people usually don’t say it.
@carl669@Helot after about a month, your six-year-old will probably have left you in the dust and used it to control all the iot devices in the home to play baby shark every time you ask to turn the lights off or something.
By eight the child will have fashioned a neural implant out of it and assimilated all the contents of Google.
By ten, you’ll have a startup operating out of your garage with four other ten-year-olds from the neighborhood. Don’t be alarmed when they name it Skynet. It’s just a coincidence…
@Helot - that’s about what I thought. no worries though, I think he’ll have fun.
@djslack - I still have yet to hear this baby shark song everyone talks about. maybe my 6 year old hasn’t been exposed to it? as for neural implants, I’m good with that. and a startup in my garage means billions of $$, right? I just assume he’s going to be the next Bill Gates.
A Raspberry Pi is really too complicated for elementary school kids to understand, but the games that come with it will be boring for older children. There are also a lot of Amazon reviews that say the customer support is horrible, so I’d look elsewhere.
@dadown They are not too complicated with a little guidance. I got one for my niece and she is only 5.5 year old. She was already using Scratch on a regular computer.
@dadown@yakkoTDI When a child says “I don’t know how to do that.”. The adult should say “Yet! I don’t know how to do that, yet!”
I bought one the last time. It really looked like a six year old might only need an adult around when first setting it up, and when getting stuck on something. I almost always need an adult to help me connect something to the HDMI on a strange TV and get the picture to show up with sound. If I am not in my own home, finding an extension cord can be difficult.
There is huge variation between six year olds. Most prefer to have another person interacting with them. There are a few that will spend 2 hours figuring out how to do things on their own. Most will be happier with a friend.
It is pretty easy to get the SD card back to the original firmware, but if you have another computer with enough disk space, you will want to make backups. Restarting from the beginning strains your patience, although most kids aren’t bothered much by it. Restarting from the beginning gives them a chance to customize it better. They often consider this a good thing. You really want them to be able to recover from SD card corruption with a minimum of tears. If they can recover it, they can do risky things.
Remember that the Raspberry Pi is last year’s model, so even if they totally soak it with grape juice, it will only cost about $35 to replace it. This year’s model costs $35 plus tax and shipping. If the old ones are in stock, they should be cheaper. The new model is somewhat faster and somewhat more robust.
Not sure how putting a plastic case on an already assembled Pi is “building computers”… but perhaps this is another example for why English majors might refrain from writing about technical shit.
@MntlWard Sure! No problem! Just replace the motherboard, processor, memory, add in a video card, hard drive, optical drive, maybe a sound card too, slap that into a case and use a different OS, with a gaming keyboard and mouse and yer good to go! Easy peasy!
@MntlWard@sammydog01 I’m still on the fence. Aspirationally, I want it, envisioning a little summer project with the grands. But my practical side cautions that I still have Christmas presents we haven’t worked into the mix yet…hmm
@MntlWard A Raspberry Pi is perfect for retro gaming. MAME for arcade gaming, and then emulators for the various 8, 16, and 32 bit gaming systems that came out in the 80’s and 90’s. Plug a couple of Microsoft game controller into the USB ports and you will be in retro gaming heaven.
@cajun@MntlWard The question was “modern gaming rig” I suppose if one takes a very long view, what you are describing from last century could be called modern, like indoor plumbing and push-button telephones are modern.
Ironic to see this today. I bought one several months ago for my 7 year old, I own several Pi that I tinker with and thought he was ready for it. I meant to use a very old Dell DVI monitor (4x3, if that tells you something), but Pis are only HDMI out and something wasn’t working with the DVI2HDMI adapter I hooked it up with. Spent quite a bit of time trying multiple HDMI cables and other adapters without success. I assumed the monitor was just too old and connected the Pi to our living room TV instead while waiting for the new monitor I bought to show up. Worked great, my son seemed n2it, but then the new monitor showed up and the hell began.
The new monitor was also DVI (or VGA) only…most monitors are…so I again used a DVI2HDMI adapter, but again the video was not working. Finally did what I should have done first and goggled the issue. Apparently all Pis have this problem, something about the video coming from the board renders the majority of the DVI2HDMI adapters useless. I never encountered this issue because I always SSHed into the other Pi, not needing a monitor.
Anyway, seems most/all adapters won’t work, but there are DVI to HDMI cables out there that do work, they’ll cost you ~$7 off amazon. Thrifty me finds what looks like an identical cable via ebay for only $3.99. Ordered it on the 17th with an expected delivery date by Tuesday (the 23rd). It finally showed up yesterday, hooked it up, annnnnd…nothing. Cable did not fix the issue. I immediately went to Amazon and bought the recommended cable with one day shipping. It’s supposed to arrive sometime today. Fingers-crossed this will do the trick. I’ll update this comment with my results.
@knotworking Wow, how do they manage to make HDMI -> DVI not work? They’re the same signals, just a different connector. Yes, HDMI has some extras like audio & network, but they’d have to be out of spec on the video output to break things.
My favorite use for my Raspberry Pi… I installed an app called PiHole that blocks all advertising for all devices on my home network. When I’m online at home, whether PC or mobile device, I no longer see advertising, period.
@eonfifty An arrangement of tnt blocks in Mine Craft produce a chain reaction that looks cool to a ten year old.
The Raspberry Pi version of Mine Craft includes an easy to use software interface. Writing programs that draw stuff is a great way to learn programming, because most programming mistakes draw something, even if it isn’t what was intended.
I had the students make houses in Mine Craft. Quite a few of them made stuff with tnt blocks just for fun, even without me assigning it has homework.
This is the sort of thing that makes meh the best! Thank you to the purchasing team, as you made me start my Christmas shopping a wee bit earlier this year…I just hope we can find it (or remember we have it, lol) when the time comes…:)
Ugh - I was showing my daughter the page on meh, and she was excited to get one with her own money. I refreshed the page and…SOLD OUT! Anyone ever heard about meh having leftover items due to order cancellations, etc?
@MysteriousHuffy Never heard of that, but they often have repeat deals (this was a repeat offering, maybe even twice already) so keep your eyes peeled in the future.
I shoulda got one, but I have so many already. I think $50 or below would have sealed the deal. NOT getting one leave me feeling … meh, so I suppose it works either way.
Specs
What’s in the Box?
1x Raspberry Pi PCB
1x Case
1x Light board
1x Power supply
1x Power cable
1x HDMI cable
1x Set of books and stickers
1x 8GB microSD card
1x Power button
1x Wireless keyboard
Price Comparison
$93.99 at Amazon
Warranty
1 Year Kano
Estimated Delivery
Monday, July 13th - Thursday, July 16th
Forget kids, I want this for myself.
@cengland0 seems its for all ages.
@cengland0 The OS that comes with it is for young kids. You’d be better off getting a regular Pi with Rasbian.
@cengland0 @dadown https://help.kano.me/hc/en-us/articles/360001762319-Can-I-run-a-different-OS-
@dadown @sligett @rileyper I actually already have a Pi 3 and use it for Retro Arcade. It runs MAME, and other simulators like Amiga, Nintendo, Commodore 64, etc.
I should pull it out of the closet and play with it again someday. Seems I never have the time though. Something else always comes up.
@cengland0 @dadown @rileyper The only Pi I have in continuous use runs my weather station. I have a bag of them in the basement, sigh. I do have one running as a DNS server at a school I work in.
Yeah, get yours back out some time. I will get mine out too.
@cengland0 Tempting, but I’ve got a lot of unused Pi’s and Arduinos around here already. I really need to DO something with them instead of buying more crap.
@blaineg @cengland0 I am using mine as a media server it was super easy to setup and Alexa can play any music I want!
@Bguertin @cengland0 Nice! What software are you using to interface to Alexa?
@blaineg @cengland0 I am using My Media for Alexa. Here is the link https://www.mymediaalexa.com/home/raspberrypi
It supports a bunch of different OS but I had a Raspberry Pi lying around. The license is $5 a year.
@Bguertin @cengland0 Thanks, I appreciate the tip.
Ctrl alt delete
More of this stuff and gadgets please.
/buy
@cajunbob It worked! Your order number is: velvet-ruthless-jar
/image velvet ruthless jar
Ooh… If I didn’t have the Kickstarter version and more Raspberry Pis than I really need, I would totally buy this. It may not be the newest Pi but you probably won’t notice the difference and it comes with the case and extra hardware. Doo eet!
Edit: For completeness, this is the Raspberry Pi 3 B but that’s the most popular type so people usually don’t say it.
for anyone that has this, would a 6 year old really be able to use this and have fun with it?
@carl669 Our six year old needs an adult companion to use this and not get frustrated, but enjoys it with help.
@carl669 @Helot after about a month, your six-year-old will probably have left you in the dust and used it to control all the iot devices in the home to play baby shark every time you ask to turn the lights off or something.
By eight the child will have fashioned a neural implant out of it and assimilated all the contents of Google.
By ten, you’ll have a startup operating out of your garage with four other ten-year-olds from the neighborhood. Don’t be alarmed when they name it Skynet. It’s just a coincidence…
@Helot - that’s about what I thought. no worries though, I think he’ll have fun.
@djslack - I still have yet to hear this baby shark song everyone talks about. maybe my 6 year old hasn’t been exposed to it? as for neural implants, I’m good with that. and a startup in my garage means billions of $$, right? I just assume he’s going to be the next Bill Gates.
@carl669 When they went on sale last time for $69 I got one for my 5.5 year old niece and one for me.
Two days of decent items. IRK must still be watching End Game.
@hchavers Or the MorningSavers are still spending their tax refunds so none of that stuff has had to be offloaded on Meh.
/buy
@carl669 It worked! Your order number is: toxic-aquamarine-crab
/image toxic aquamarine crab
Fine. In for one. You win, Meh. You win.
/image bulbous-obligated-tail
A Raspberry Pi is really too complicated for elementary school kids to understand, but the games that come with it will be boring for older children. There are also a lot of Amazon reviews that say the customer support is horrible, so I’d look elsewhere.
@dadown They are not too complicated with a little guidance. I got one for my niece and she is only 5.5 year old. She was already using Scratch on a regular computer.
@dadown @yakkoTDI When a child says “I don’t know how to do that.”. The adult should say “Yet! I don’t know how to do that, yet!”
I bought one the last time. It really looked like a six year old might only need an adult around when first setting it up, and when getting stuck on something. I almost always need an adult to help me connect something to the HDMI on a strange TV and get the picture to show up with sound. If I am not in my own home, finding an extension cord can be difficult.
There is huge variation between six year olds. Most prefer to have another person interacting with them. There are a few that will spend 2 hours figuring out how to do things on their own. Most will be happier with a friend.
It is pretty easy to get the SD card back to the original firmware, but if you have another computer with enough disk space, you will want to make backups. Restarting from the beginning strains your patience, although most kids aren’t bothered much by it. Restarting from the beginning gives them a chance to customize it better. They often consider this a good thing. You really want them to be able to recover from SD card corruption with a minimum of tears. If they can recover it, they can do risky things.
Remember that the Raspberry Pi is last year’s model, so even if they totally soak it with grape juice, it will only cost about $35 to replace it. This year’s model costs $35 plus tax and shipping. If the old ones are in stock, they should be cheaper. The new model is somewhat faster and somewhat more robust.
@fastharrydotcom How about Global Thermonuclear War?
Got any strawberry rhubarb Pi? That’s my favorite. Or my personal invention, blu-barb pi. Even better.
Not sure how putting a plastic case on an already assembled Pi is “building computers”… but perhaps this is another example for why English majors might refrain from writing about technical shit.
This would be perfect for @Barney if it came in purple instead of orange.
@phendrick
@phendrick If it did come in purple, I would have been the first to buy it.
Anyone remember the old Timex computer u had to program? I wish I still had it.
@Felyne Timex Sinclair, sure. Think it had a Z80 processor, you could get 'em at a grocery store for about a hundy when I was a kid.
@Felyne I could never get past the membrane keyboard, too hard to type.
@freidkin Ebay still has them? LOL! TimexSinclair
@Felyne “Find Timex Sinclair on eBay. Seriously, We Have Timex Sinclair!”
Their Google ads campaign has come up with some weird stuff that, seriously, they did not have.
I grew up running a TS1000 about as early as I could read. That and the TRS-80.
@djslack Fun thinking about them. Vintage now, almost 40 hrs old.
@Felyne @freidkin I still have mine. And a TI-99/4A. Both are destined to another (ex-)mehmber here along with some catshirts.
Could a Pi be made into a modern gaming rig?
@MntlWard Sure! No problem! Just replace the motherboard, processor, memory, add in a video card, hard drive, optical drive, maybe a sound card too, slap that into a case and use a different OS, with a gaming keyboard and mouse and yer good to go! Easy peasy!
/headphones optional
@MntlWard @therealjrn I hear it’s good for an old style gaming system. And the booklet says you can play Minecraft. This is one of our summer projects.
@MntlWard @sammydog01 I’m still on the fence. Aspirationally, I want it, envisioning a little summer project with the grands. But my practical side cautions that I still have Christmas presents we haven’t worked into the mix yet…hmm
@MntlWard A Raspberry Pi is perfect for retro gaming. MAME for arcade gaming, and then emulators for the various 8, 16, and 32 bit gaming systems that came out in the 80’s and 90’s. Plug a couple of Microsoft game controller into the USB ports and you will be in retro gaming heaven.
https://retropie.org.uk/
@cajun @MntlWard The question was “modern gaming rig” I suppose if one takes a very long view, what you are describing from last century could be called modern, like indoor plumbing and push-button telephones are modern.
That works!
But does it have a Strawberry Pi???!!?
@Jaicienil No, but there’s some shortcake over there.
Ironic to see this today. I bought one several months ago for my 7 year old, I own several Pi that I tinker with and thought he was ready for it. I meant to use a very old Dell DVI monitor (4x3, if that tells you something), but Pis are only HDMI out and something wasn’t working with the DVI2HDMI adapter I hooked it up with. Spent quite a bit of time trying multiple HDMI cables and other adapters without success. I assumed the monitor was just too old and connected the Pi to our living room TV instead while waiting for the new monitor I bought to show up. Worked great, my son seemed n2it, but then the new monitor showed up and the hell began.
The new monitor was also DVI (or VGA) only…most monitors are…so I again used a DVI2HDMI adapter, but again the video was not working. Finally did what I should have done first and goggled the issue. Apparently all Pis have this problem, something about the video coming from the board renders the majority of the DVI2HDMI adapters useless. I never encountered this issue because I always SSHed into the other Pi, not needing a monitor.
Anyway, seems most/all adapters won’t work, but there are DVI to HDMI cables out there that do work, they’ll cost you ~$7 off amazon. Thrifty me finds what looks like an identical cable via ebay for only $3.99. Ordered it on the 17th with an expected delivery date by Tuesday (the 23rd). It finally showed up yesterday, hooked it up, annnnnd…nothing. Cable did not fix the issue. I immediately went to Amazon and bought the recommended cable with one day shipping. It’s supposed to arrive sometime today. Fingers-crossed this will do the trick. I’ll update this comment with my results.
@knotworking Wow, how do they manage to make HDMI -> DVI not work? They’re the same signals, just a different connector. Yes, HDMI has some extras like audio & network, but they’d have to be out of spec on the video output to break things.
Would this be good for a kodi PC?
@rtjhnstn Not really
@rtjhnstn Yes. Look up OSMC. I’ve been running that on a RPi2 for a couple years, and it’s great.
@mnementh666 Thanks, I found the link below and I’ll install the 6th option rather than the 1st.
https://thepi.io/how-to-install-kodi-on-the-raspberry-pi-using-libreelec/
My favorite use for my Raspberry Pi… I installed an app called PiHole that blocks all advertising for all devices on my home network. When I’m online at home, whether PC or mobile device, I no longer see advertising, period.
@cajun Please share a link.
@rtjhnstn http://bfy.tw/D6TL
@cengland0 outstanding!
@rtjhnstn https://www.google.com/search?q=pihole
@cajun can confirm: PiHole is great.
If you have a Docker host, it runs well in a container!
@cengland0 @rtjhnstn Aww, they’ve dialed back the snark.
/giphy rusty-brunette-bird
@rtjhnstn Strangest bird I ever done saw!
@blaineg You’re right. it looks like a margay kitten to me.
Do a search on YouTube for ETA Prime. He has easy to follow tutorials for the Raspberry Pi
Neat. The choice of block for the welcome screen in the product photo is interesting.
@eonfifty An arrangement of tnt blocks in Mine Craft produce a chain reaction that looks cool to a ten year old.
The Raspberry Pi version of Mine Craft includes an easy to use software interface. Writing programs that draw stuff is a great way to learn programming, because most programming mistakes draw something, even if it isn’t what was intended.
I had the students make houses in Mine Craft. Quite a few of them made stuff with tnt blocks just for fun, even without me assigning it has homework.
@hamjudo
It looks cool to some people who are older than 10 too.
/giphy Minecraft tnt
This is the sort of thing that makes meh the best! Thank you to the purchasing team, as you made me start my Christmas shopping a wee bit earlier this year…I just hope we can find it (or remember we have it, lol) when the time comes…:)
my 10 and 12-year-old each have one, got them when they were 9. They love them.
Ugh - I was showing my daughter the page on meh, and she was excited to get one with her own money. I refreshed the page and…SOLD OUT! Anyone ever heard about meh having leftover items due to order cancellations, etc?
@MysteriousHuffy Never heard of that, but they often have repeat deals (this was a repeat offering, maybe even twice already) so keep your eyes peeled in the future.
I shoulda got one, but I have so many already. I think $50 or below would have sealed the deal.
NOT getting one leave me feeling … meh, so I suppose it works either way.
Whoever gets one will be happy for the purchase.
Any issues with this running PLEX?
@ckcarlton I’ve read that even the first generation Pi could, so this one shouldn’t have any issues assuming you install a different Linux flavor.
@n5corp Thanks!!