rasperry pi - where to start

[shirt]

does anyone here have their own projects? where to start for a clanky with zero programming experience?

i'm looking for a project i can work on whilst away on rotation. so all components and tools have to be small and light otherwise i'd be bringing my ducati engine!

i was just looking at these:

https://shop.classicdriver.com/collections/clocks/...

and thought i would have a bash at making something similar. only i would want:

- radio clock
- speedo needle to measure air pressure
- odo barrels to show the date
- temp gauge for air temp
- fuel gauge for air quality
- one of the warning lights for wireless charging status

all seems feasible with a rasperry pi i would have thought / hoped?

just wondering if there's enough knowledge here to set me off for component buying or do i need to join a forum?

[OutInTheShed]

I'm writing this on Pi, but TBH, I'm more of a user than a programmer with Pi.
I've built a few things but pretty much just downloading other people's code.
I've built a couple of music players, one with a commercial DAC 'hat', the oother wired to a DAC chip with my own power supply and buffering etc.
I did some faffing with the Pi camera

I do some Arduino stuff, the project you describe seems quite a good fit for that?
Real time clocks and GPS clocks are easy to do
It's lower power with plenty of I/O.
The lower-level coding of it works for me, because I've had a career as a hardware person,
But I'm interested to do more with the Pi.

[shirt]

what is the difference between arduino and RP? also pico, but is that just a smaller RP?

code copying is fine with me. hardware, making the cabinet and gauges work is my comfort zone. 3D printer for the rear supporting frame and a custom gauge place for the fascias. splitting up and motorising the odo barrels will be the hardest part there.

[sunbeam alpine]

Can't help personally, but it might be worth having a look in this thread.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[eliot]

shirt said:

what is the difference between arduino and RP? also pico, but is that just a smaller RP?

code copying is fine with me. hardware, making the cabinet and gauges work is my comfort zone. 3D printer for the rear supporting frame and a custom gauge place for the fascias. splitting up and motorising the odo barrels will be the hardest part there.

I prefer Arduino's because they are microcontrollers, have no operating system and start instantly and you never need to worry about your operating system getting corrupted or needing patching - Raspberry PI "pico" is microcontroller, the other PI's are essentially computers with an operating system.

Arduino's have been around for ages, so there's always an example of what you want to do on the internet and chatgpt is very good a writing code for it by simply describing what you want.

This guy makes loads of dashboard projects:
https://www.youtube.com/@upir_upir/videos

Here's my efforts for CAN display for my car, I'm not a coder, just a hacker who can cobble stuff together.
https://github.com/eliotmansfield/ArduinoCAN


Summary from chat gpt between PICO and Arduino: (Both being microcontrollers, not computers like a full fat PI)
Choose the Raspberry Pi Pico if you need performance, flexibility, and cost-efficiency, especially for Python-based projects. Opt for an Arduino for simplicity, a vast ecosystem, and out-of-the-box functionality. The choice depends on your project's complexity, required features, and personal experience level.

[Mr E]

As above. A raspberry pi is a computer. An arduino is a microcontroller.