Welcome to Raspberry Pi & SBCs
This forum is for single-board computers: the Raspberry Pi family from the tiny Zero to the full-size boards and Compute Modules, plus Orange Pi, Radxa, Libre Computer, Pine64 and the rest. Home servers, retro gaming boxes, media centres, robots, kiosks, network ad blockers, desk dashboards and anything else that boots Linux on a board not much bigger than a credit card.
How this forum is organised
Threads go into the subforums:
• General discussion: news, operating systems, setups, accessories and chat
• Projects & builds: show what you have made with a Pi or another SBC
• Help & troubleshooting: boot problems, networking, GPIO and anything else that has you stuck
Neighbouring boards
• Microcontrollers, including the Raspberry Pi Pico: ESP32 & microcontrollers
• Portable computers built around a Pi: Cyberdecks
• Pi-powered handhelds: DIY handhelds & portables
• Home Assistant and automations: Smart home & IoT
• Cases you have printed: 3D printing
Starter knowledge
• Power matters more than people expect. Use a good supply rated for your model. Undervoltage causes random crashes, corrupted cards and warnings in the system log.
• SD cards wear out and can corrupt if power is pulled mid-write. Shut down properly, use a decent card, and consider booting from an SSD on boards that support it.
• Raspberry Pi Imager makes flashing easy and lets you set up Wi-Fi, a user account and SSH before first boot. For other SBCs, use the maker's images or a community distribution such as Armbian, and check what your board supports.
• GPIO pins are 3.3 V and are not 5 V tolerant. Use a level shifter for 5 V devices, and share a common ground.
• Newer boards run warm. A heatsink or fan stops them throttling.
• Keep your system updated, change default passwords and think twice before exposing services to the internet.
Rules for the whole forum
• Emulation builds are welcome, but no ROMs, BIOS files or links to them, and nothing piracy-friendly. Play games you own.
• No malware and no selling or paid services.
• Safety warnings on batteries and mains are part of the rules. Lithium packs need protection circuits, and mains wiring belongs with qualified people.
The house rules apply too: be kind, English only (other languages are translated automatically), no spam, no keyboard mashing and no self-promotion spam. Use Report when something is not right. This thread is locked, so head into a subforum and start a thread.
Dexter
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