3.2: Suggested Items

The following items are suggested items, and many are included in the "required" item bundles.

 

1. Storage box: I am honestly putting this at the top of the list as you will be buying supplies and will be building circuit boards, that you need to transport, and thought needs to be put into this.  Does it need to fit into a back pack?  Will a fishing style tackle box work? Or arts box, or small tool  box? We will discuss this in class, but you want something you can transport a Pi hooked through a ribbon cable to a breadboard, and transport it in a manner where you do not damage the circuit.
2. RPi case:  You will want a case to protect your Pi.  Do not worry about the fan unless you are doing data intensive calculations, which is not what this class is about.  But your case  must have a slot for the GPIO ribbon
3. Heat Sinks:  You will want these, and we can buy them in bulk as a class if needed.
4. External monitor Cable: If you want to run the RPi in desktop mode you need a cable to connect your monitor.  The type of cable depends on your choice of RPi and your monitor.  The RPi  3 uses hdmi and the RPi 4 and 5 use  micro HDMI.
5. USB Keyboard and Mouse: If you want to run your Pi in desktop mode you need a mouse and keyboard.  I suggest wireless.  I also suggest full sized keys, but a reduced size board, that way you can carry it around.
6. USB to MicroSD card adapter: You will download the operating system to your laptop/desktop and then load it onto a microSD card, and this allows you to do that through a USB port.
7. Tweezers:  If you get serious you will want a set of tweezers
8. Magnifying glass: Well, this depend on your eyesight, but I sure need them.
9.