# My Raspberry Pi and prepping Year 2



## coates776 (Sep 4, 2015)

Well I have started year 2 now in my getting prepared and have decided I want to use my 5v Pi to build some prepping bits and pieces.
Have collected,
The raspberry pi
Sence hat
Camera for the Pi
Keyboard, mouses, wireless
Infrastructure to build 4 Pi network
5v router 5 ports
5v usb hub for power
Books, Python, Linux 
And lots of bits and pieces

Thinking the 5v capability will be handy when grid down, plan to build a battery power pack and my main project is to build a 4 Pi stack.

Who else has the Pi and has some prepping bits with it. I'm think thinking of playing with the night vision and senses.


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## Targetshooter (Dec 4, 2015)

You lost me ,, what's a Pi ?


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## sideKahr (Oct 15, 2014)

Sounds like a foreign language, but I'm willing to learn.


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## txmarine6531 (Nov 18, 2015)

Linux based computer. Coates, your are the first person I've "met" that owns a Linux system.


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## dwight55 (Nov 9, 2012)

Heck, . . . I saw the title, . . . 

Figured he had forgotten the E in PIE, . . . so I tuned in for a new recipe for raspberry pie.

Sheesh, . . . and I really think that would have been good.

May God bless,
Dwight


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## ND_ponyexpress_ (Mar 20, 2016)

3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286.........


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## ND_ponyexpress_ (Mar 20, 2016)

Sorry!! I couldn't resist.. nerds run in my family...:stick:


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## Kauboy (May 12, 2014)

I know the Pi is a cool little piece of tech, but I'm not really seeing it's usefulness for a grid down world. What are you plans for this, exactly?

For those unfamiliar, the Raspberry Pi device is a basically the bare minimum of a stripped down computer motherboard. It has a CPU, graphics processor, small storage, USB, Wifi, LAN, and HDMI connections. It can be set up with many different operating systems and you can install your own code to it, and create some pretty cool devices since it's so versatile.


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## ND_ponyexpress_ (Mar 20, 2016)

couldn't my geek brother just build one?


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## sideKahr (Oct 15, 2014)

That's really clever, an entire system on a chip. I like the name of the infrared camera: Pi NoIR


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## BuckB (Jan 14, 2016)

I have a couple setup with the IR camera. It works pretty well. It was certainly easy to set up and get going. The total power draw for an RPi2 with the camera and two IR "flood" lights is about an amp and a half at 5v. I have a small solar panel for it that is about 6x8 inches and has a micro USB plug. It is powerful enough to run the RPi without the camera, but not with it.

The reason I got interested in the RPi in the first place was because it makes a perfect disposable computer for penetration testing. They make a version of Kali Linux for it that includes aircrack-ng, Metasploit, Wireshark and all the rest of our Kali friends. The RPi is small enough it can be hidden inside a printer or a desk drawer or wherever. And since the RPi is so cheap, if it gets discovered by some network cop, I do not mind just throwing it away.


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## coates776 (Sep 4, 2015)

When you loose power you are going to loose all your devises like computers that need 240v. Pi runs on 5v basically batteries and you have the full capacity of what your big computer does.

I do all sorts, practice the Linux command line, store anything on the sd card, play games, build a Minecraft house using code, look at web site vulnerabilities. It is a whole world of whatever you want.

Currently starting a 4 stack network as looks interesting. Get a good Linux book and you can do what you want in a system rather than Windows telling you what you have to do.

I'm a her to!
https://www.google.com.au/imgres?im...4DMAhWKoZQKHd3XAUUQMwgsKAowCg&iact=mrc&uact=8


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## stevekozak (Oct 4, 2015)

This makes my non-technological brain hurt.


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## Kauboy (May 12, 2014)

coates776 said:


> When you loose power you are going to loose all your devises like computers that need 240v. Pi runs on 5v basically batteries and you have the full capacity of what your big computer does.
> 
> I do all sorts, practice the Linux command line, store anything on the sd card, play games, build a Minecraft house using code, look at web site vulnerabilities. It is a whole world of whatever you want.
> 
> ...


That's all well and good, but what benefit will this device have in a post-SHTF world?
Is it primarily for entertainment?
Your ability to communicate will be severely limited to those who are close by and made similar plans to keep a comp running.

I'm just not seeing the usefulness. That said, I've started looking at them again to tinker around with.


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## Will2 (Mar 20, 2013)

The Pi was marketed as an educational tool, primarily in Britain to help with microcomputer programming by youth but caught on as a geek tool, not unlike the arduino.

The PI version 3 is now out, the third generation, with more power and capabilities.

For its costs, it is quite useful. These systems use the ARM architecture not unlike most smart phones.

Most highend phones are still more capable than the PI in terms of programming, but the PI makes interface quite a bit easier.

The 3rd Generation PI is really quite impressive for the cost.

Introducing the Raspberry Pi 3 | Hackaday

I would consider upgrading my PI if I actually wasn't mobile for the next year, with a 5kg carryon limit. I will be quite barebones for the next 12 months. Anyone who wants to play around with basic programming, this is highly recommended. Of course most windows and linux systems you can run consoles for programming. This however is ARM which most PCs arn't.

These things are a little larger than a cellphone. YOu can hook them up to bluetooth devices like mouse and keyboard. They are HDMI compatible. Effectively they are a desktop PC, just not as powerful as todays desktops, but perfectly fine for media, ebooks, browsing the internet etc..


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## coates776 (Sep 4, 2015)

Two great posts. It was the infra red camera that I brought to. When bad stuff happens and we loose our computers these little gadgets will give you some sort of computer that we where used to playing with. Learning Linux and Python is more fun that solitaire, but games are installed on the gui as well. What about the kids, they want something to play and you only need a rechargeable battery.

I just got electronics for dummies and a few wires ect and bits to help me with want I can do with it.


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## Grim Reality (Mar 19, 2014)

I can imagine a lot of usefulness arising from a "dohickey" like this! I have lots of documents that I might 
want to read or refer to after the SHTF. One thing though...it runs on 5 volts? That's GOOD! 

But...! Where do I get a MONITOR that runs on 5 volts? What good will it be without a screen?

I want to learn more. Where do I go?

Grim


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## coates776 (Sep 4, 2015)

I have many led screens that hook up to the raspberry Pi. eBay. $10. I would start with buying the pi kit on eBay with the operating system dabien already installed then go to the raspberry pi web site and do the tutorials. Then check out YouTube mega demos of what you can do.

It becomes a real hobby as you can't stop expanding and playing. Mega forums out there to. In Aust we have a web site element 14 for parts but I use eBay and these sites are HUGE,

I spent 80 Aust and have fully functional computer. Lcd screen, color ones, $20 screens can be cable tied to anything. Plus is the small Lcd screens bother your eyes you get a clamp that holds a magnifying glass and you have a full sized sceen.

I am learning Linus now as wanting to load usb with things I want so I have them post disaster.


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## coates776 (Sep 4, 2015)

Plus, for ease of learning at first I did two things, set up a Remote Desktop to the gui but when bored of that I set a constant IP address on my home network and can Ssh it in 1 second flat which is easy to play at your leisure at the command line. If you google how do I do that on raspberry Pi you get the answers if 5 seconds.


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## Will2 (Mar 20, 2013)

Grim Reality said:


> I can imagine a lot of usefulness arising from a "dohickey" like this! I have lots of documents that I might
> want to read or refer to after the SHTF. One thing though...it runs on 5 volts? That's GOOD!
> 
> But...! Where do I get a MONITOR that runs on 5 volts? What good will it be without a screen?
> ...


You can buy small LCD screens for it.

Try any number of PI forums for more info.

https://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&...5.0....0...1c.1.64.hp..0.14.949.0._stDK4vqa_c


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## BuckB (Jan 14, 2016)

Grim Reality said:


> I can imagine a lot of usefulness arising from a "dohickey" like this! I have lots of documents that I might
> want to read or refer to after the SHTF. One thing though...it runs on 5 volts? That's GOOD!
> 
> But...! Where do I get a MONITOR that runs on 5 volts? What good will it be without a screen?
> ...


Although you can use it like a traditional computer with a keyboard and a screen, that is not really its strength. Primarily it is a great device for "headless" applications. That is, setting it up to monitor network traffic and upload data intelligently to a remote server or run a surveillance camera. Any application that does not require direct human interaction is a great application for the RPi. You can then attach to it via a traditional laptop, phone, tablet, etc. to interact if necessary. But that is not really what it is good at.

I have been playing with using it to collect random numbers. One absolute necessity for performing strong encryption is the ability to "seed" the encryption algorithm with a random sequence of numbers. Without that, it is impossible to build a secure encryption scheme. Part of the problem with any computer is they are not good at generating any kind of random sequence. So I setup a RPi with a motion detector (about $3) and wrote a little script to just capture the bits coming from the motion detector to a file. I put it by a bush on a windy day and voila, I have my random numbers! These are the types of things that it is really good at.


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## zombiecidal (Apr 16, 2016)

*The Lowdown*

To those who are unaware of the true usefulness of a pi in a SHTF scenario please let me shed some light. Other than the obvious security cameras you can clone entire web sites like for example instructables or prepping sites. You can set up a full gsm network(do not do this now as it is illegal but in a SHTF scenario well what laws). You can use it to set up a BBS system over vhs(ham radio). You could also build an auto turret system. I really could go on and on but I think these abilities alone are a good foundation to help other peppers realise the potential. I hope this has been informative please feel free to ask questions I will happily answer any questions within my ability. P.S. For those less tech savvy remember this computer was made for students so on WWW.raspberrypi.org you can learn from any or no skill level.


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