Raspberry Pi 3 Model B in detail
Conclusion
New wireless components have made the RPi3 the most ambitious project yet for the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Getting a worldwide declaration of conformity with both CE and FCC marks came with a £100,000 price tag.
On the other hand, The RPi3 now stands ready for new areas of application with its WiFi, Bluetooth, and faster processor. WiFi works immediately, making for fast setup of an access point. Bluetooth, by comparison, needs a bit of patience and skill. The community will probably step in with help in the form of tutorials and scripts.
Upton has announced a compute module 3 for 2016, and the foundation is also working on an RPi3A board. The compute module 3 will definitely not have WiFi and Bluetooth. The model 3A might be a good candidate for a low-cost IoT hub.
The user looking to make a new purchase can buy an RPi3 without hesitation. Because the price of the lower performing RPi2 is not likely to go much lower, the choice to buy an RPi3 will be an easy decision for most users.
Connecting Keyboards via Bluetooth
The current Raspbian image comes with the required bluez Bluetooth package already installed. The user should open the Bluetooth prompt, as in line 1 of Listing 4 and use list to display the available controllers (Listing 4, line 3). The pi3neo in line 4 stands for the host system name.
The system should already be in the correct mode, but as a precaution, switch on the controller and change it to connection mode (lines 5-8). Next, it is time to activate the connection mode on the Bluetooth device. Generally, you'll need to press a button on the device for a few seconds.
Now the user should couple the Bluetooth device with the help of the BT MAC to the Rasp Pi (lines 23 to 34). Many devices connect immediately. Others require a PIN from the user. The PIN for the keyboard I used is 334004 (line26). After entering the PIN and confirming by pressing Enter, the system executes the coupling.
If you want the device to connect automatically in the future, add it to the list of trusted devices (line 35); then, the user can start the connection (line 38), and the keyboard is immediately available. The final step is to exit the Bluetooth command window (line 41).
From this point on, the system will independently generate the connection when the Raspberry Pi reboots or the device is reconnected.
Listing 4
Setting Up a Bluetooth Device
01 sudo bluetoothctl -a 02 [...] 03 [bluetooth]# list 04 Controller B8:27:EB:C9:42:2B pi3neo [default] 05 [bluetooth]# power on 06 Changing power on succeeded 07 [bluetooth]# pairable on 08 Changing pairable on succeeded 09 [bluetooth]# scan on 10 Discovery started 11 [CHG] Controller B8:27:EB:C9:42:2B Discovering: yes 12 [CHG] Device 00:1A:7D:02:00:49 RSSI: -66 13 [CHG] Device D4:F5:13:52:2F:14 RSSI: -73 14 [NEW] Device 3C:29:A7:17:03:40 3C-29-A7-17-03-40 15 [CHG] Device 3C:29:A7:17:03:40 LegacyPairing: no 16 [CHG] Device 3C:29:A7:17:03:40 Name: ID0070A 17 [CHG] Device 3C:29:A7:17:03:40 Alias: ID0070A 18 [CHG] Device 3C:29:A7:17:03:40 LegacyPairing: yes 19 [CHG] Device 00:1A:7D:02:00:49 RSSI: -57 20 [CHG] Device 00:1A:7D:02:00:49 RSSI: -81 21 [CHG] Device 00:1A:7D:02:00:49 RSSI: -61 22 [bluetooth]# scan off 23 [bluetooth]# pair 3C:29:A7:17:03:40 24 Attempting to pair with 3C:29:A7:17:03:40 25 [CHG] Device 3C:29:A7:17:03:40 Connected: yes 26 [agent] PIN code: 334004 27 [CHG] Device 3C:29:A7:17:03:40 Modalias: bluetooth:v05ACp0239d011B 28 [CHG] Device 3C:29:A7:17:03:40 UUIDs: 29 00001000-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb 30 00001124-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb 31 00001200-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb 32 [CHG] Device 3C:29:A7:17:03:40 Paired: yes 33 Pairing successful 34 [CHG] Device 3C:29:A7:17:03:40 Connected: no 35 [bluetooth]# trust 3C:29:A7:17:03:40 36 [CHG] Device 3C:29:A7:17:03:40 Trusted: yes 37 Changing 3C:29:A7:17:03:40 trust succeeded 38 [bluetooth]# connect 3C:29:A7:17:03:40 39 Attempting to connect to 3C:29:A7:17:03:40 40 [CHG] Device 3C:29:A7:17:03:40 Connected: yes 41 Connection successful 42 [bluetooth]# quit 43 Agent unregistered 44 [DEL] Controller B8:27:EB:C9:42:2B pi3neo [default]
Infos
- Announcement for the Raspberry Pi 3: https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-3-on-sale/
- Xenon Death Flash: https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/xenon-death-flash-a-free-physics-lesson/
- Regulatory domain settings: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-2
- Bluetooth 4.2 in BlueZ: https://www.bluez.org/bluetooth-4-2-features-going-to-the-3-19-kernel-release/
- The MagPi, issue 43, March 2016: https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi-issues/MagPi43.pdf
- Wikipedia article for Raspberry Pi: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi
- Sintel: https://durian.blender.org
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