Hardware recieved

I paid for my Raspberry Pi via credit card to Element 14 on June 13: NZ$55.50
I received the card on Friday 20th July 2012
Today I went to Jaycar electronics and bought:
16GB uSD Card. $30
SD to uSD adaptor. $5
USB - AC adaptor. $19
USB (A) to micro USB cable (2 metres) $11

I already have:
Ethernet cable
HDMI cable
3.5mm to 2xRCA cable

So for a total cost of $120.50, I am up and running.
I can put the uSD card into my mobile phone and connect that to my computer to write to it.

So I downloaded and installed raspbmc OS to uSD card.

Then connected it all up to the TV and stereo and router in the lounge.
It booted up and connected to the internet and installed the OS and then rebooted into raspbmc, sweet as!

Now I just need to add some video to the SD card and try running that.
Also need to sort out how to access a hard drive full of media etc.
Also need to get a web browser functional on it.

Monitor and mounting

Ceiling mounting:

I have found a wall mounting bracket that might fit the bill.
Well in this case its going to be Ceiling mounted of course.

Something like the above bracket for about NZ$70 is available that allows you to rotate the monitor into portrait mode for reading.
I might look into extending the arms so that the monitor can drop about 800mm from the ceiling. The one shown above has the front of the monitor about 400mm max. down from the ceiling.
I should be able to rig up a rope and a few pulleys to make the monitor easy to raise and lower.
Perhaps at a later stage if necessary I could motorise that movement.

Monitor Specs

I want to use a monitor with these features
1) LED LCD. Low power consumption and hopefully better for reading at night?
2) 16:10 aspect ratio. I may end up using this monitor for other things an I just like 16:10. [16:9 Sux]
3) 24 inch display size. A good size I think.
4) Matt panel. I do not like the reflective panels.
5) HDMI input. Just for convenience as the RasPi has HDMI out.
6) VESA mounting system. So I can buy a mounting rack to fit onto it.
7) Optionally, I guess it would be nice if it had some speakers built in, but this is not really required.

So far, the only monitor that I can find that meets all of the above criteria is the
HP ZR2440w at about NZ$500. An add on "speaker bar" is available (NQ576AT) for NZ$28

The RasPi is set up to handle 1920x1080 output.
I need to find out if it will be fine with 1920x1200 output.
Just checked the spec table and it supports 14 HDMI resolutions from 640×350 to 1920×1200 plus various PAL and NTSC standards
I will probably wait until I actually have possession of my RasPi until I buy anything else for this project.

A project without the hardware

I'm only one day into this project and I can tell you something:

Trying to get motivated about a project WITHOUT the core hardware is pretty difficult.

Sorry, but I had to get that out of my system.

Project definition: eBook Reader

What am I going to do with my RasPi?

I like the idea of making an eBook reader that bolts onto the ceiling above my bed so that I can read books in the winter without having my arms outside the covers, getting all cold.
This is a fairly simple project.
Maybe the ceiling mounted screen can act as a night clock and alarm clock as well.

I will also use it as a web browser of course and will watch movies on it, and probably a whole lot of other things as well.

But for now, I just want it to be a good eBook reader.
1) I guess the main thing to sort out is having a very black screen when not in use, but still powered up.
Using an LCD screen as a night time eBook reader is probably a bad idea as the supposedly "black" background will just give off too much light I suspect. I will have to do some testing with various devices.
I do not want my eyes to hurt when reading 50 -100 pages at night.

2) It would be nice if I could raise and lower the screen to get the distance from eyes to screen as comfortable as possible for different sized text, and movies, and web browsing.

3) Hopefully I can get it up and running in time to read "The Hobbit" before it comes out at the movies in December 2012. Hopefully, I will receive my RasPi before then? Possibly not? Well, at least I'm in the queue.

Registered my interest at RS and Element14

Wednesday 9th May 2012 approx 11:00am
Today I registered my interest in buying a Raspberry Pi (model B) with RS and Element 14 (formerly Farnell)
Now I have to wait in the queue until they email me so that I can buy one.

So that's all I can do? 

Well not quite. I can probably do the following:

-2) Start being more geeky by starting list counts with numbers like negative two.

-1) Think about what I am going to use the RasPi for.
00) Start a blog.
+1) Find out what size and brand/model of SD Card to buy and buy it.
+2) Find out what brand/model of USB WiFi dongle works best and buy it.
+3) Buy a second hand 24" screen that is 1080p with appropriate connections.
+4) Think about what OS and apps I want to put on it.
+5) Make up a 4xAA battery pack to power it (rechargable) and think about a power supply that plugs into a wall socket.
+6) Learn about Python programming language.
+7) Look into available case options and think about some funky case ideas.

+8) Think about being less geeky so that people reading my blog don't roll their eyes too much.

+9)  I need to source a solid state hard drive and figure out how to attach it. Why SSD? Well I want this thing to be TOTALLY quiet, and also very low on power consumption. No moving parts.

10) At this stage I am hoping NOT to need a USB hub. there are 2 USB ports on the model B RasPi.

 I will use one for a WiFi dongle and the other for wireless keyboard and mouse. That's it.