So small now

Reposted from RasberryPi on blogger over here...

Installing the Raspberry Pi Camera Module - Part 1

The Raspberry Pi Camera module recently went on sale and I managed to get hold of one to play, I mean experiment, with. The module itself came with no documentation, but I did manage to find a document on the Element14 web site called "Unofficial guide to getting up and running with the Raspberry Pi Camera" which was very helpful. You can find this document here if you are interested.

Ok, so lets have a look at what you get for your hard earned cash. The ruler is included in the photos to give an idea of scale. The actual camera is tiny and is mounted on a board which is only about 25mm x 25mm:

The camera board comes with a pre-fitted ribbon cable which is about 15 cm long. The following photos show front and back views of the complete assembly as supplied.

Unfortunately the camera module isn't quite "plug and play" and there are a few preparatory tasks to perform before before it can be used with the Raspberry Pi.

First of all you need to download the latest release of the Raspbian "Wheezy" operating system from www.raspberrypi.org and install it on a freshly formatted SD(HC) memory card (4GB or larger). At the time of writing the most recent release is dated 2013-02-09. I've covered in detail how to make a bootable SD(HC) card in a previous post so I won't repeat it here.

The first time you boot from this new SD(HC) card "Raspi-config" will run automatically. Use the "expand_rootfs" option to expand the root partition on the SD(HC) card to use all the available space (how to do this is covered in detail in a previous post).

 Now choose the "memory_split" option and press Enter:

This option allows you to specify how much memory to allocate to the graphics processor. Type in "128" and press Enter:

Now select "Finish" and allow your Raspberry Pi to reboot. Then log in and run the "sudo apt-get update" and "sudo apt-get upgrade" commands. Details of how to do this can be found here if you need them.

Let your Raspberry Pi reboot and then run the "Raspi-config" commmand again by typing "sudo raspi-config" at the command line prompt and pressing Enter:

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ sudo raspi-config_

There should now be an option to enable camera support. Use the arrow keys to move down to the "camera" command and press Enter:

Select "Enable" and press Enter:

When you return to the Raspi-config main screen select the "Finish" option and then reboot your Raspberry Pi.

Your Raspberry Pi should now be ready for the camera module, but just to be sure, go into the GUI, launch "Leafpad" and open the file "/boot/config.txt". Scroll down to the bottom of the file - the last few lines in the file should contain the entries "gpu_mem=128", "start_file=start_x.elf" and "fixup_file=fixup_x.dat" as shown in the following screenshot.

In my next post I'll explain how to connect the camera module to the Raspberry Pi and get it up and running.

Why not to USB/Hotspot Tether your MetroPCS Android Phone(s)

---

This is just a guide I decided to write to warn those of you who Tether your MetroPCS phones and I know there are alot of you out there. Your Android phone is yours to begin with. Do whatever you want with it.. such as root it, flash roms on it, whatever to get a better, richer experience on it as Android is open source and you should be allowed to use your phone to its full potential.
MetroPCS cant do anything about you rooting and modifying your phone, the only thing they can do is void your warranty, but all you need to do is just flash the stock rom back on it and your all safe if your in a situation where you need to take the phone back to them.

Now to begin with the main part, DO NOT use Tethering apps that allow you to use your phone's internet connection on other devices because your MetroPCS account can be easily terminated if they find out, and there has been many cases where customers have had their MetroPCS service cancelled due to MetroPCS finding out about them tethering their phones. Look no further, its right in their terms which im sure 99% of you never looked at:

MetroPCS | MetroWEB | Terms of Use


Not only do they cancel your service, your phone's ESN gets blacklisted so it is unable to be used again on the MetroPCS network. So say you try to sell your phone to someone, that person wont be able to activate the phone on MetroPCS and people usually steer clear of phones with bad ESN's unless they knowingly buy it with a bad ESN.

Tethering your phone is really not worth it, just get a cheap Internet connection. If you can afford an Android phone and pay $50+ monthly on your phone plan(s) than im sure you have enough money in your wallet to pay for a cheap Internet Connection. Of course you don't have to listen to anything I have said just remember that this does happen and I made this Article to make you all aware of it. Feel free to share this article but please give me credit and linkback to this thread.

What app do you guys use to enable hotspot on metropcs?

1. Install FoxFi & the proxy plugin on your phone. This sets up a wifi hotspot but which also hides the tethering. You then manually setup up a wifi connection profile on the PB & when you want to use it you just switch to that profile. You are then online, and also hidden from tether use.

2. You do the same through bluetooth after installing either BlueDUN or PDANet onto your Android. You activate the app on your phone then activate Internet tethering on your PB- selecting your network profile. You will be warned about charges, etc. However both BlueDUN and PDANet again have the same principle - to allow data connection use from your phone whilst 'hiding' you from tether charges. BlueDUN is better (but has cost); PDANet is free.

I do use both ways. It may sound more complicated but the Wifi hotspot using FoxFi is the easiest way. Once setup you simply activate FoxFi, change your Wifi setting on PB & hey presto - you're online with data. I used this last week through my Galaxy Ace to do a video call from a coffee shop - worked superbly!