My daughter and i are keen to get involved in a little coding and projects with a Raspberry Pi.

Can anyone recommend a good resource or place to start? We need two i fear as we live apart most of the time, but it seems something fun and creative we can do at the same time, even if we arent together.

A look online throws up lots of learning resources, is there a recommended route?
Also it seems like authorised sellers are low on stock. Is there a recommended seller to buy from? Is there a secondhand market in them?

Thanks

Ian

Depending on her age and your longer terms ideas/goals you could both just use Scratch on any PC you have hanging around.

If you want to interact with the world round you, my colleagues used to recommend an Arduino instead as it had better I/O capabilities

Argh….even more i wasnt aware of!

Another shout for Arduino, loads of add ons and loads of tutorials on line as well.

I currently have 6 pi’s (in two places) running doing all sorts of stuff from automated lights, monitoring oil boiler fuel usage, PV inverter monitoring and data upload, hot water tank temperature monitoring and completely running an all electric heating system.

Frankly for my use almost any model of Pi is enough, but it’s easier to get something with wifi (and maybe bluetooth) built in.  The Zero W is a bit of a fave of mine.

Ardunino is good but RPi has a massive ecosystem that’s a great resource.

The problem with Pis is that there are (still, after a couple of years now!) huge problems getting hold of them. I see The Pi Hut has the (original) Pi Zero W in stock but that’s all (and that is pretty low-powered). They are also full computers that run Linux so that’s something else you need to wrap your head around (though the basics aren’t complicated).

Arduinos are cool, there are a lot of resources available and they (or at least the Chinese clone ones!) are very cheap. But the design is SO OLD, they generally don’t even have WiFi let alone BlueTooth.
I would only ever use Arudinos for extremely specific uses now (mainly as it has a built-in ADC) and my go-to is the ESP32 (which can also be programmed via the Arduino IDE) which is more powerful and has Wifi & BlueTooth. Maybe not quite as beginner-friendly as there are a LOT of variants which could be a bit confusing. Probably the best thing about them is they can run a firmware called ESPhome (which can optional be integrated into Home Assistant) which makes creating your own IoT devices really easy.

Raspberry Pi Pico W is very similar, except hugely more powerful (& made in Japan IIRC not China if that’s a factor at all) and has built-in WiFi. Still very cheap. It’s a microcontroller like Arudino not a full Linux PC like the normal Pi. Not as many resources available as it’s relatively new, but still plenty of stuff available especially for beginners, and as it’s a lot more powerful than an Arduino it can run interpreted languages like MicroPython rather than having to learn C which is a lot friendlier (and, probably more relevant to the real world).

I’d have a look around one of the main “maker” suppliers (Pimoroni is great!) and buy one of their kits that specifically does something your daughter would be interested in, there’s all sorts on there, smart badges, watches, signs, displays, mini robots etc.

What do you want to do with it? What other computers / equipment do you have to work on it?

If you want a “Mini computer with the ability to interact with stuff” you’ll probably want a “Proper” Raspberry Pi (Model 4 is the one to go for, 2/4GB ram probably the sweet spot). Pimoroni seem to be a good UK supplier, and they do starter kits with a case, SD card, power supply and the annoyingly-hard-to-find micro HDMI to normal HDMI lead you’ll almost certainly need. e.g.: https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/raspberry-pi-4-essentials-kit?variant=39850460086355 they also have a wide variety of project boards that let you expand the Pi with sensors, outputs etc.

An Arduino (or the new Raspberry Pi Pico) isn’t a mini desktop computer that you plug a keyboard and screen into, it’s a dedicated microcontroller that just runs the program you write and interacts via it’s inputs and outputs (generalising here, they’re surprisingly capable once you’ve got to grips with them). You’ll need another computer available to program them from. Again all sorts of add-ons are available for specific projects.

Good luck and have fun!

my go-to is the ESP32

I really must get round to trying one of these!

I believe there’s more than one version (?) which should I look for?

Pimoroni seem to be a good UK supplier, and they do starter kits with a case, SD card, power supply and the annoyingly-hard-to-find micro HDMI to normal HDMI lead you’ll almost certainly need. e.g.: https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/raspberry-pi-4-essentials-kit?variant=39850460086355

unless supply issues have eased (which I don’t think they have) I’d snap one of these up immediately if at all interested as I doubt it’d be in stock for long (and I haven’t seen the 4gb version for ages!)

If you’re just starting out you could try a v2 BBC Microbit. They are really cheap (£15) and have built in lights and sensors. If you get 2 they can talk to each other as well.

If you’ve not tried Scratch it’s well worth looking at too.

I think you should probably start by deciding what kind of projects you want to do and pick the hardware based on that. Have a look at Make magazine for some ideas and go from there:

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I believe there’s more than one version (?) which should I look for?

@sharkbait yeah there are hundreds probably! Unless you have a specific use-case for it which needs a small version (or the one with the built-in camera!) I’d just go for one with the biggest number of GPIO ports. The cheapest price is buying direct from China e.g. AliExpress but tbh the next-day prices from Amazon Prime aren’t terrible (and you get it a lot sooner!)

I like the DevKit-C version like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/ESP32-DevKitC-ESP32-WROOM-32-Microcontroller-Bluetooth-Development/dp/B08LGNV6V6/ref=sr_1_9?crid=1I5METQ8R4U3C&keywords=esp32+devkitc&qid=1685535276&s=industrial&sprefix=esp32+devkitc%2Cindustrial%2C69&sr=1-9
especially as it fits nicely into this breakout board for prototyping (I bought it a LOT cheaper from China though!!) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Screw-Terminal-Breakout-Module-ESP32-DevKitC/dp/B087P9KGF1/ref=sr_1_6?crid=1I5METQ8R4U3C&keywords=esp32+devkitc&qid=1685535276&s=industrial&sprefix=esp32+devkitc%2Cindustrial%2C69&sr=1-6

Microbits are lovely to start out on, my son had a lot of fun playing with one.

Microbits are good fun.

Just been talking to a friend about aircraft trackers for the Raspberry Pi – using a sdr TV aerial type thing.
I am currently picking up 60 aircraft – some as far as 200 miles away.
Needs a Pi3b or better.

Share your data

https://flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/build/

https://www.flightradar24.com/share-your-data

We have an RPi 400, which is built into a keyboard. Very neat, but probably hard to get hold of.

My 8 year old does loads of Scratch on it. The 12 year old has moved on to Python.