The following sections provide more information on these necessary peripherals. Later in this hour,
you’ll learn about some nice-to-have additional peripherals.
The SD Card
The Raspberry Pi comes with no internal storage device and no preloaded operating system. The SD
card is used to provide the operating system to the Pi, in order for it to run. You must have an SD card
in order to boot your Raspberry Pi.
Most prepackaged Raspberry Pi kits come with a supported SD card that is preloaded with the
necessary operating system. If you don’t buy a prepackaged kit, you have two choices:
Buy a supported SD card and load the operating system onto it yourself. (You’ll learn about that
later in this hour.)
Buy an SD card that has the needed operating system already on it.
elinux.org/RPi_Easy_SD_Card_Setup lists companies that sell these preloaded SD cards.Watch Out!: Getting the Correct SD Card
Spend some time making sure you are purchasing the right SD card for your Raspberry
Pi as discussed below. The right SD card can make your Raspberry Pi experience
wonderful. The wrong SD card can cause you lots of heartache and pain.If you decide to get your own SD card and load the operating system yourself, you can’t just run out to
the store and buy any old SD card. You must get one that works with a Raspberry Pi. So how do you
find out which SD card to buy? Fortunately, the good people at the Linux Embedded Wiki page are
here to help. On their RPi SD card page, elinux.org/RPi_SD_cards, various Raspberry Pi enthusiasts
have listed which SD cards will work and which ones won’t. Generally speaking, you need an SDHC
card in the standard physical size with at least 4GB of storage (but 8GB is better).
By the Way: SD Card Size
You are not stuck with only the space on your SD card for storing files and programs.
You can also attach storage via the Raspberry Pi’s USB port. However, you do need
the SD card to boot your Pi.Power Supply
The Raspberry Pi does not come with a power cord ready to be plugged into the wall. It simply has a
USB micro B female power port. These are the basic power requirements for the Raspberry Pi:
5 volts
700mAYou can go over the 700mA. In fact, it is better to have more power because the more peripherals you
add, such as a USB mouse, the more power that will be needed.
You have several options here. The options range from super cheap to very flexible but expensive.
Read on to learn more.
Cheap Power Supplies