Hacking Raspberry Pi®

Chapter 2. Hardware Components Quick Start

Have you ever heard the term “black box”? Black box is meant to denote any object or process whose inner workings remain outside of easy view. Personal computers, for instance, are often referred to as black boxes. Thus, some people are afraid of troubleshooting their own computers for that very reason—just what does lie inside that fancy computer case?

Well, if you’ve received your Raspberry Pi, you might have been surprised to see that the Foundation doesn’t give you a case (or peripherals, for that matter). That’s right—for $35 you receive the Raspberry Pi Model B board and nothing else.

This is actually good news because it forces us to take a long, hard look at that befuddling mass of wires, components, ...