Part 2. GrovePi Zero Software

The first step in getting our software setup is to get the latest version of Raspbian on the MicroSD card that will go in our Pi Zero. Raspberry Pi provides excellent documentation for this step here.

Before we boot our Pi Zero the first time, we need to make sure we have our wifi adapter connected along with our keyboard/mouse adapter. This is where the USB hub comes in handy. Connect both adapters to the USB hub and plug the hub into the micro USB port via the micro USB adapter. Connect a display to the HDMI adapter.

Once we have our operating system installed and booted, our mission is to connect to a wifi network (Raspberry Pi's wifi guide) and get our ip address. Go to your Pi’s command prompt by clicking on the LXTerminal icon at the top toolbar. Enter the command:

$ hostname -I

Bash Beginner Tip: The $ sign in the command above denotes the start of a bash command, you don't actually type this when typing in bash. In fact, if you look at your raspberry pi's terminal or your other machine's terminal, you'll see the dollar sign is already to the left of the cursor. If you ever see a # instead of a dollar sign before the bash command, it means that the current bash context has elevated, super user privileges, similar to prefixing each command with sudo.

Write down your IP address. We will use this to remotely access our Pi Zero through SSH (guide to using SSH).

Shutdown your Pi Zero and remove the HDMI connection and USB hub. Connect your wifi adapter to the micro USB adapter and reboot. Your Pi Zero should now look like the image at the top of this page.

Next, let's install the GrovePi Python libraries.

<< Part 1: Plug-N-Stream Sensors - Part 2: GrovePi Python Setup >>