Exploring Raspberry Pi: Interfacing to the Real World with Embedded Linux

I'm amazed at the amount of useful information in this one book, covering everything from the interfacing requirements for the Raspberry Pi GPIO (including analog, digital, I2C and SPL formats), to understanding how to control larger, heavier current workloads using the low voltage, low current RPi outputs to switch transistors, op amps, and other devices and isolate circuits to avoid loop back interference or damage/destroy your RPi. The author spends significant time and goes in depth to explain serial and parallel voltage and current, how to calculate resistor values to attain desired a low, safe current limit for your circuits, and the importance of pull-up and pull-down resistors for digital circuits. Even if you have prior experience with basic electronics, the chapters that cover the essential math for calculating voltage drops, current, and power dissipation are well worth taking the time to review.I also like the author's familiarity with many common electronic components and integrated circuits, and their emphasis on which ones are most commonly used for specific applications. You can go through this book and spend maybe $100 to stock up on most/all? of the components that they reference, and build any and all of the examples in this book.The explanations are very clear and as simple as necessary, and you *will* walk away from this book with enough knowledge to build real, working circuits to control and respond to external devices using any RPi. This book would make an ideal textbook for a 200 level college course on robotics, because it covers everything soup-to-nuts, from concept to design to implementation.

I'm a long time Linux user at work and home. I've been playing with the Raspberry Pi for a few years now as a basic Linux computer, but I always felt that interfacing it to other devices would make this a much more powerful little platform. This books covers all that's necessary to do that, but beware - it's not for those who don't want to dive deep into the technical details. Dr. Molloy teaches computer science at the college level, and there's detail here that represents that background. But it's all extremely well-supported within the book, along with his dedicated book website. All of the code examples he writes can be found there, along with excellent supplemental material.The book starts from basics - Raspberry Pi hardware, basic Linux commands, basic circuits for interfacing, etc. He then gets into the depths of how to interface all of these together. I'm fortunate to have enough background in these areas to weave through this, but those with less of a computer or electronics background might want to have a local geek or two handy to call in for help when needed. He has excellent coding examples in multiple languages, builds from simple to more complex examples, and provides libraries to continue your own programming projects using the knowledge you have gained throughout the book.I'm an Electrical / Computer Engineer by trade, and I've had an interest in introducing hobby electronics to my kids. When I first saw the Raspberry Pi, I thought this might be the ideal platform on which to develop that. This book is the missing piece to that puzzle for me. It's exactly what I was hoping for, with all the details one could want about making this magnificent little board talk to other devices. I picture many blinking lights and beeping speakers in the months to come as a result of this book! I consider this a bargain-priced book for everything that's contained within it. If there's something you want to connect up to a Raspberry Pi, odds are, there's a solution somewhere in this book. I highly recommend it.

Make no mistake, this is not for beginners. You need to know how to program already, or you will be totally lost. And as far as EE stuff, you have to be a quick learner, and pretty smart to be able to starting building circuits from this book. That said, the book provides enough information to both build the circuits and program the code without needing any other training. But coming in cold you will struggle a bit. This is an advanced book. I would still advise to get this book! Because you can supplement if you get stuck. But this book takes you through every part of the pi from the hardware to the custom linux kernel, and explains everything in gory detail. It teaches the fundamentals of every interface on the pi: gpio, spi, i2c, uart, wireless, you name it. And it teaches you the basic concepts so that you are empowered to hook ANY device to it. Its not just a cookbook for say, connecting a temperature sensor to i2c. It teaches the electrical interface, protocols, and linux code to hook up any i2c decive and write your own driver code. My background is a c# web developer with hobby level ee knowledge. I had no problems with hitting the ground running with everything in the book, even coding in c, which i have no really ever done professionally, and not for 20 years. Get this book.

Fairly comprehensive for both beginner hardware meddlers (me) and beginner programmers (not me). There is a lot of material to absorb, so for me, it's more of a reference than a book to "read". But I find it more thorough than much of the online "tutorial" material associated with the Pi. A good book to have on the bookshelf.Minor complaints: there are lots of monochrome photos and diagrams of boards. The photos are too dark and rather indistinct, which is the unfortunate norm for reproduction on unglossy paper. The diagrams likewise are often too dark; I suspect they were reproduced from colour originals.The edition I have goes up to the Pi Zero. Some day, it should be updated to add newer models (4, Zero 2) and to deemphasize or even remove the older models.

Professor Molloy gives you an easy approach to understand linux basics using RPI. A great overview in electronics is also given.If you are interested in kernel linux development, this book won't give you deep knowledge on it, except for the last chapter that explains how to create practical LKM (Linux Kernel Modules).Overall a great book for undergrad students searching for real life applications using an embedded system.

My profession is as an applications engineer for an American Semiconductor manufacturer. This book is excellent and follows the same theme as an earlier book by the same author on the Sitara based beaglebone black SBC. Very well presented and accurate, each chapter is detailed and full of working examples. This book deserves to be on the bench as a reference guide and a great introduction to Linux on the raspberry PI. This is a really good read and absolutely worth purchasing.

Ich besitze mittlerweile sehr viele Bücher zum Thema Raspberry, da ich mehrere parallele Raspi 3B+ Cluster betreibe und jede Menge kleinere und größere Steuerungsaufgaben mit selbstentwickelter Elektronik über Raspis laufen. Daher war/bin ich immer auf der Suche nach weiteren Details.Dieses Buch ist für mich eines der besten zum Raspi überhaupt, weil es neben einer soliden Einführung in das Betriebssystem, die Bedienung sowie Einbindung ins eigene Netzwerk auch einen sehr gut gemachten Einstieg in die elektronischen Spezialitäten und Eigenheiten des Raspis gibt - gleich noch mit Einstieg in die Raspi-spezifische Programmierung der GPIOs und Schnittstellen. Genial!Die Abbildungen sind super gemacht, sehr verständlich und illustrativ. Das Buch bietet tiefergehende Kenntnisse im Bereich Interfacing, Schnittstellen, top erklärt. Und immer bleibt der Fokus auf den Raspi gerichtet und der "Lernwert" selbst mit meiner über 1 1/2-jährigen praktischen Raspi-Erfahrung trotzdem groß. Es macht richtig Spaß sich durch die Themen zu arbeiten. Dieses Werk ist mein ultimatives Raspi-Buch, das den "Kofler, Kühnast, Scherbeck" locker auf den 2. Platz verweist, weil insgesamt auch der Anspruch beim Molloy höher ist, als bei Kofler & Co. Der Molloy wirkt für mich professioneller und wenig verspielt für Leute die mit einem Raspi mehr als nur herumspielen wollen... Ein grandioses Buch! Kann ich jedem, der English versteht und sich ernsthaft mit Raspi beschäftigen möchte, nur ans Herz legen. Best Bang for Your Buck. A must buy!

This book does not give you projects to do. What it does provide is a strong base to understand how the Raspberry PI works and how you can interface with it. I would say this is a good book for moving from following project recipes to creating them.

Excelente libro, muy completo, que muestra las ventajas de linux y la tarjeta de desarrollo Raspberry Pi, el libro se encuentra actualizado, el libro habla mucho de comando a través de linux y profundiza muchismo en el hardware de la tarjeta de Raspberry Pi, por lo que prácticamente conoces toda la tarjeta. en general muy util, para aquellos que no tengan ni idea ni de linux ni de la tarjeta de desarrollo Raspberry Pi, y para todos aquellos que ya la conocen pueden utilizarlo como referencia ya que explica con mucho detalle la tarjeta como el entorno linux. una cosa mas el libro esta en ingles pero es muuuy entendible, (lo digo porque no soy muy bueno en ingles, jeje)El único pero, seria que el libro llego algo maltratado, (quiero creer que por que paso por aduana,pero no se), pero salvo eso es un excelente material.