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Raspberry Pi Zero W

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Thomas Amberg edited this page Oct 24, 2022 · 148 revisions

Buy

Setup

Create a bootable SD card

Write the Raspberry Pi OS IMG to the SD Card

Use the Raspberry Pi Imager tool to create a bootable SD card

  • Install https://raspberrypi.org/downloads/ (MacOS, Windows, Linux)
  • Write the Raspberry Pi OS (other) > Lite image to the SD card
  • Create a pi user and set a password as described here
  • Remove and re-insert the SD card to your computer
  • There should now be a disk drive named boot

Enable SSH

Create an ssh marker file on the SD card

  • The following file will enable sshd, the SSH daemon, on the Raspberry Pi
  • Navigate to the disk drive named boot and create an empty file named ssh with
    $ cd /Volumes/boot
$ touch ssh
    or on Windows, assuming the boot drive is E:
    C:> E:
E:> type nul > ssh
  • Note: once sshd is enabled, the Raspberry Pi will remove the ssh file

Enable RNDIS

Edit configuration files on the SD card

  • The following edits convert the Raspberry into a RNDIS USB device
  • Open config.txt and append dtoverlay=dwc2
    $ cd /Volumes/boot
$ open config.txt
$ cat config.txt
…
dtoverlay=dwc2
  • Open cmdline.txt and add modules-load=dwc2,g_ether after rootwait
    $ open cmdline.txt
$ cat cmdline.txt
… rootwait modules-load=dwc2,g_ether …

Configure Wi-Fi (optional)

  • On the disk drive named boot, create a file named wpa_supplicant.conf
    $ cd /Volumes/boot
$ nano wpa_supplicant.conf
  • For file content and options, see Configure Wi-Fi

Connect the USB

  • Insert the SD card into the Raspberry Pi (it is the Pi's "hard disk")
  • Connect the USB cable, use the left USB connector on the Raspberry Pi

Get USB access from Windows

Install RNDIS driver on Windows

Install Bonjour 3.x on Windows

  • Download iTunes installer https://www.apple.com/itunes/download/win64
  • Unpack the installer EXE/ZIP, find the Bonjour64.msi installer inside
  • Run Bonjour64.msi, select Bonjour uninstall old version
  • Run Bonjour64.msi, select Bonjour install 3.0

Share Internet to RNDIS

  • Wi-Fi > Properties > Sharing > [✓] Allow

Get USB access from Mac

Share Internet to RNDIS

  • System Preferences > Sharing > [✓] Internet
  • Sharing > Share your connection from: Wi-Fi to computers using RNDIS Ethernet Gadget

Get USB access from Linux

Share Internet to RNDIS

Find your Pi

To find your Pi Zero via USB (if Internet Sharing is enabled), type

$ dns-sd -G v4 raspberrypi.local

Or, use ifconfig (or ipconfig on Windows) you find the local IP prefix, e.g. 192.168.0.

$ ifconfig
en0: flags…
    ether…
    inet6…
    inet 192.168.0.23
    …

Then use nmap to scan the subnet, e.g.

Note: make sure port scanning is fine with the local network admin, e.g. at FHNW it's not allowed.

$ nmap 192.168.0.0-255 -p22
Nmap scan report for 192.168.0.42
…
22/tcp open  ssh

Access your Pi

With ssh (or PuTTY on Windows), default password raspberry

$ ssh pi@192.168.0.42

Or, via USB, if there's only one Pi

$ ssh pi@raspberrypi.local

Or via FTDI Serial (up to Pi 2, or with this fix for Pi 3).

3V3 (!), Pin 6 = GND, 8 = TX, 10 = RX

Remotely access your Pi

Use a relay service like Ngrok, Pagekite or Yaler.net.

Configure Wi-Fi

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/wireless/wireless-cli.md

Open the Wi-Fi config file wpa_supplicant.conf (or create it on the SD card)

$ sudo nano /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

The file should contain the following content (using your credentials)

country=UK
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1

network={
    ssid="MY_SSID"
    psk="MY_PASSWORD"
    key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}

Consider using the hashed version of psk, see output of

$ sudo wpa_passphrase 'MY_SSID' 'MY_PASSWORD'

To activate the new config, type

$ sudo ifconfig wlan0 up

Configure interface priorities

To display the priority metric, use

$ route -n

To change the priority metric (here wlan0 before usb0), type

$ sudo nano /etc/dhcpcd.conf

interface wlan0
    metric 200

interface usb0
    metric 300

Get the MAC Address

$ cat /sys/class/net/wlan0/address

Install git

Install the git client

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install git
$ git

Configure git user

$ git config --global user.email "USER_EMAIL"
$ git config --global user.name "USER_NAME"

Create an SSH key

$ ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "USER_EMAIL"
$ eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
$ cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Register the key

Store the key

$ sudo apt-get install keychain
$ keychain ~/.ssh/id_rsa
$ . ~/.keychain/$HOSTNAME-sh

(Until next reboot)

Tools

SCP

Copy a file from the computer to the Pi

$ scp -P 22 LOCAL_FILE pi@RASPI_IP:RASPI_PATH

Copy a file from the Pi to the computer

$ scp -P 22 pi@RASPI_IP:RASPI_FILE LOCAL_PATH

Code

Java

Install

Libraries & Examples

Javascript with Node.js

Install Node.js

Install Noble (BLE Central)

  • Update apt-get with
    $ sudo apt-get update
  • Install prerequisites with
    $ sudo apt-get install bluetooth bluez libbluetooth-dev libudev-dev
  • Install the abandonware fork of noble with
    $ npm install @abandonware/noble

Libraries & Examples

Python

C

Pinout

Resources

CC BY-SA 4.0, T. Amberg, FHNW

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