Shopping Cart 0 items
log in register
Today's Deals Forum Desktop Site
All Categories
Featured
Brands
Development
Sensors
Tools
Miscellaneous
Components
E-Textiles
Robotics
Wireless & IoT
Audio

Raspberry Pi 2 Starter Kit Hookup Guide

This Tutorial is Retired!

This tutorial covers concepts or technologies that are no longer current. It's still here for you to read and enjoy, but may not be as useful as our newest tutorials.

View the updated tutorial: Raspberry Pi 3 Starter Kit Hookup Guide

≡ Pages
Contributors: MTaylor
Favorited Favorite 1

First Boot

Before you apply power for the first time, run through this pre-flight checklist.

  • Is the micro SDcard installed and depressed?
  • If using a monitor (stand-alone PC usage),
    • Is the HDMI attached and the monitor powered on?
    • Are the mouse and keyboard plugged in?
    • Are the mouse and keyboard standard USB, not wireless?
  • If using serial
    • Is the wedge and ribbon cable connected and secure?
    • Is the FTDI "BLK to BLK" and "GRN to GRN"?
    • Is the FTDI connected to your computer with a USB cable?
    • Is your terminal software configured to 115200 baud?
  • Lastly, is the whole setup secure on your desk and not liable to jump onto the floor at the first touch?

Ok, you're ready to apply the power to the Pi.

Power Adapter Requirement! Make sure the power being supplied is from a the included 5V, 2A power supply and not your USB connection. The USB most likely won't have enough current supplying capacity and will result in a brown-out of the Pi that can damage it, and will likely mess up the files on your SD card.

What to expect on first boot with a monitor

First you should see a color chart that indicates the Pi has power and is doing something, but doesn't have software loaded yet. Next, the Pi "Hold shift to enter setup" screen appears briefly. Holding shift lets you get in and do Noobs level maintenance which is not covered by this guide.

Next, linux starts booting and the log rolls down the screen. After it's gotten the system loaded, the raspi-config text window pops up and asks you questions. The card comes pre-expanded to fill the space so no actions need to be taken to get straight to a prompt, just select "Finish".

alt text

This dialog is used to configure the basic linux experience - for now select "Finish". If settings need to be changed later, it can be invoked later by running "sudo raspi-config".

After that, you will be auto-logged in as user "pi", password "raspberry".

If the screen remained dark, check out the troubleshooting section of this hookup guide -- it shows a method of manually invoking the raspiConfig. With some monitors this can happen, but, usually after it's fixed, it's no problem until SDcards, power, or monitor changes.

What to expect on first boot with only serial

Without a monitor, the first boot should happen with a serial connection to monitor what is going on.

First boot instructions for serial:

  1. Open up a serial terminal and configure to 115200 buad.
  2. Send a few characters out the port and watch the FTDI. One of the LEDs should flash with each character.
  3. Plug in the micro usb power to the Pi.

Now, the boot log should start scrolling as the system boots.

This time, no raspi-config tool pops up, and you are not auto-logged in. Log in with "pi" and "raspberry" to get to a prompt.

Note: If, from here, an HDMI cable and monitor is attached, the raspi-config dialog may appear, though in a really big graphical mode. This is because audo-detecting your monitor is part of the boot routine. Without it, the graphics mode has defaulted to the most compatible, and lowest, resolution.
View as a single page Next Page →
Methods of Working with the Pi
← Previous Page
Assembly