Got a Pi
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I am a little late to the party, but I got a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B to use an entertainment center. Should be fun to play with.
I also snagged a couple Zeros although I am not sure how much I am saving with the zero since for my purposes I need a wifi dongle. With the Dongle they are $17 plus $5 shipping. I can get a Pi 3 Model B for $35 with free prim shipping.
$17 for a zero and a dongle?
Just use some cheap $3-$5 LogiLink / TPLink / Whatever USB wifi dongle.Like this one for example: https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Wireless-Adapter-150Mbps-TL-WN725N/dp/B008IFXQFU/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1472668512&sr=8-4&keywords=wifi+dongle
Good point, I will test out the zero and see how I like it compared to the Pi 3.
You can't compare them directly. The Pi3 is a beast compared to the Zero. On the other hand, the Pi3 can be considered slow compared to other boards
I use Zero's as hosts for sensors and actors, they are good for such things.
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@MattSpeller said in Got a Pi:
@IRJ I agree with @thwr - the pi3 will run an OS nicely, the zeros are more for dumb automated tasks where you don't need a gui, just SSH.
Not to say you can't with the zero, just that you'll wish you didn't.
I plan on creating a portable VPN router out of a zero.
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@MattSpeller said in Got a Pi:
@IRJ I agree with @thwr - the pi3 will run an OS nicely, the zeros are more for dumb automated tasks where you don't need a gui, just SSH.
Not to say you can't with the zero, just that you'll wish you didn't.
I plan on creating a portable VPN router out of a zero.
That could work nicely!
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The port size on the Zeros is the only thing I couldn't get past. Pi 3 is where my preference is.
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The port size on the Zeros is the only thing I couldn't get past. Pi 3 is where my preference is.
Different use-cases
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The port size on the Zeros is the only thing I couldn't get past. Pi 3 is where my preference is.
Different use-cases
I want to get a few of these for UPS monitoring. Would the Zero be the best choice?
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@JaredBusch said in Got a Pi:
The port size on the Zeros is the only thing I couldn't get past. Pi 3 is where my preference is.
Different use-cases
I want to get a few of these for UPS monitoring. Would the Zero be the best choice?
Could be a good idea, but what exactly are you planning to do? For example, I could think of a RS323-to-SNMP bridge made with a Zero or something similar for non-SNMP UPS's.
You could also use them to monitor SNMP (or RS232) and raise some alarm, maybe via SMS. There are also lots of other ARM and uC-Boards available that could do that job.
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@JaredBusch said in Got a Pi:
The port size on the Zeros is the only thing I couldn't get past. Pi 3 is where my preference is.
Different use-cases
I want to get a few of these for UPS monitoring. Would the Zero be the best choice?
At least a Pi2/3 would be way overpowered. Do you plan to use a screen with the board? In this case, use a Zero with some very lightweight desktop (LXDE/LightDM or something similar) or use a Pi2/3.
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I have lots of mid grade APC and Eaton UPS systems out there at clients. No one wants to pay an additional $200 for the network capable units. They mostly have the RJ45 to USB cord..
Raspian repos have the APC Ups software in them natively so you can apt install it.
The APC software works with most units with just a minor config file change.
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@JaredBusch said in Got a Pi:
The port size on the Zeros is the only thing I couldn't get past. Pi 3 is where my preference is.
Different use-cases
I want to get a few of these for UPS monitoring. Would the Zero be the best choice?
At least a Pi2/3 would be way overpowered. Do you plan to use a screen with the board? In this case, use a Zero with some very lightweight desktop (LXDE/LightDM or something similar) or use a Pi2/3.
Just want to get email notification. All places have wireless, so as long as the unit has that and USB, I should be good.
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@JaredBusch said in Got a Pi:
@thwr https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=87364
I'll take a look later this day, on my way to work right now. But basically what I said, RS232-to-something bridge. Shouldn't be that hard I guess. Pi Zero should do just fine, there's not much horsepower required.
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@JaredBusch said in Got a Pi:
@thwr https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=87364
Should work out of the box. Don't know the apccontrol script / software and didn't take a look yet, but it should work like on any x86 machine as long it's
a) available as arm-hf binary or
b) some script (python?) -
@JaredBusch said in Got a Pi:
@thwr https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=87364
Ah OK, looks like there is some daemon / kernel module monitoring the RS232-port that just logs to syslog category "UPS". Next, there are two scripts that can be run in a loop or via cron which just monitor the said log and raise some action. Always great if there's something working with standards.
So you may just go ahead, buy a Zero, install the script and follow some howto, it doesn't seem to be specific to Pi or ARM in any way.
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Put the WiFi dongle on your PiZero:
http://n-o-d-e.net/post/138478383831/how-to-add-a-low-profile-wifi-board-to-a-raspberry
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@JaredBusch said in Got a Pi:
The port size on the Zeros is the only thing I couldn't get past. Pi 3 is where my preference is.
Different use-cases
I want to get a few of these for UPS monitoring. Would the Zero be the best choice?
If I could UP vote this again I would.. I have wanted something that could do this for more than a decade. Recently with the advent of the new boards I have thought about the Pi or even the ESP8266 board.
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@JaredBusch said in Got a Pi:
@JaredBusch said in Got a Pi:
The port size on the Zeros is the only thing I couldn't get past. Pi 3 is where my preference is.
Different use-cases
I want to get a few of these for UPS monitoring. Would the Zero be the best choice?
At least a Pi2/3 would be way overpowered. Do you plan to use a screen with the board? In this case, use a Zero with some very lightweight desktop (LXDE/LightDM or something similar) or use a Pi2/3.
Just want to get email notification. All places have wireless, so as long as the unit has that and USB, I should be good.
Might want to go with the Raspberry Pi 3 then, they've got wireless built in and standard USB ports. You could plug into up to 4 UPS systems if they have more than 1 in the same area. A few more dollars, but no hassles with USB ports or wifi adapters.
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@travisdh1 said in Got a Pi:
@JaredBusch said in Got a Pi:
@JaredBusch said in Got a Pi:
The port size on the Zeros is the only thing I couldn't get past. Pi 3 is where my preference is.
Different use-cases
I want to get a few of these for UPS monitoring. Would the Zero be the best choice?
At least a Pi2/3 would be way overpowered. Do you plan to use a screen with the board? In this case, use a Zero with some very lightweight desktop (LXDE/LightDM or something similar) or use a Pi2/3.
Just want to get email notification. All places have wireless, so as long as the unit has that and USB, I should be good.
Might want to go with the Raspberry Pi 3 then, they've got wireless built in and standard USB ports. You could plug into up to 4 UPS systems if they have more than 1 in the same area. A few more dollars, but no hassles with USB ports or wifi adapters.
Awesome. That is way better than dealing with add on stuff
@IRJ sorry to derail your thread. but I was just looking into this yesterday myself.
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The port size on the Zeros is the only thing I couldn't get past. Pi 3 is where my preference is.
Different use-cases
I agree. I was trying to use it the way that someone would use a Pi 3 as a zero client because of the super cheap price.
