# General > IoT, IoE, and Maker Forum >  [RESOLVED] Raspberry Pi, ect without soldering

## Nightwalker83

Hi,

I was wondering if there was any platform that does not require soldering wires, etc inorder to use? I was wondering is there were any prototyping platform that used click in place type connectors instead? The reason I ask is my hands are very unstead due to having a disability.

Thanks


Nightwalker

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## dilettante

"Welding" eh?  LOL, I think you meant _soldering_.

While I can't find a cheap source of these in the U.S. right now (http://www.robotshop.com/ is out of stock) you might keep your eyes open.  And for that matter you might find somebody who has packaged up a Dingleberry Juice or whatever in a similar little proto-box.

86Duino EduCake

Using a hands-free magnifier or magnifying visor to aid with vision and perhaps with the aid of some fine-nosed long-nose pliers these can be a bit easier for the experimenter suffering from age or various infirmities.

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## dilettante

Before you get excited...

... while these support "Windows" they mean "Windows CE."  But that said I _have_ heard of people _claiming_ to get them working running Windows 95 or even Windows XP.  And a lot of players in the "86Duino club" seem to use them running FreeDOS.

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## Nightwalker83

> "Welding" eh?  LOL, I think you meant _soldering_.


Yeah, that is what I meant!  Can't imagine someone trying to weld those kits. Thanks for the info! 




> Before you get excited...


Yeah! Although, did find an article talking about using mono to write code for Raspberry Pi in C# if I remember correctly.

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## dilettante

You could always start out slowly...

Look for a cheap USB->GPIO board, there are some decent 8 bit ones out there.  Or even some with relays on them and/or more bits of I/O for a bit more money.

Get a cheap polyethelyne cutting board.  Use it as -is or cut it in halves or even quarters.  Mount the little board on there using threaded brass standoff spacers.  That gives it a little weight so it doesn't flop around.  You could also mount other stuff on the cutting board that you connect to the I/O board, but you might want to look for proper plastic-thread screws for motors or other stuff that might torque around.

Of course wood always works too.

Most of those GPIO boards come in styles that have screw terminal blocks on them for connecting to sensor pins, relays, or devices. They look like a serial (COMx:) port to Windows, so you can easily control/read using a VB program.

So you can figure out how much you enjoy it before making additional investments in hardware.

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## techgnome

> does not require soldering wires, etc inorder to use? I was wondering is there were any prototyping platform that used click in place type connectors instead?


Breadboards are what you're looking for... they're commonly used for prototyping... you can make them as simple or as complicated as you like... as you can see here: https://www.google.com/search?q=elec...IVRSYmCh1zzwyp

-tg

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## dilettante

Yep, and that "EduCake" thing integrates one into the top of its box.

However when starting out something like this:

http://numato.com/8-channel-usb-gpio-module.html

... might be all one really needs.  Or for that matter you can mount it next to a solderless protoboard on that "cutting board" (which acts as your _actual_ breadboard in the far more traditional sense of the word) and wire them together with a few jumper wires.

My point being that you can start out to explore the hobby without investing in a ton of weird hardware and software.


Then if you decide you like this sort of thing you can always go invest in tons of hardware, tools, and time to create that IoT Carrot Peeler you always wanted.

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## dilettante

Instead of hacking something up you can always use something like this:


That one is for an Arduino UNO, but very similar things are made with the holes drilled for other models and other boards.  It appears to come as a kit you must assemble: a predrilled plastic slab, stick-on rubbery "feet," the breadboard (which I think comes with double-faced tape), and the four sets standoff hardware for the controller board.

Cost is about $10 US shipped from Amazon.


I'm even thinking of trying one of these on there instead of my UNO:


That little critter is an 8-bit Bluetooth GPIO/ADC board.  Using that as-is you can do quite a few Arduino/Pi type projects using your PC instead of one of those "smart" boards... as long as your PC has Bluetooth or you buy a cheap USB Bluetooth dongle for it.

The only downside is that many things need +5 V as well as + 3.3 V and this little board doesn't supply a 5 volt connection point.  But since it uses a 5V power supply itself you might just use a power Y-cable or tack-solder a +5 lead onto the board at its power jack.

Most simple projects use GPIO pins anyway, so even a BT-to-GPIO board should be able to manage them.  Or a cheaper option is the USB-to-GPIO sort of thing I mentioned in an earlier post above.

Bluetooth means you can move the "project" some distance away though, depending on how much range you can achieve but up to 10 meters is typical.

Then you can do a little "IoT experimentation" using VB6 or possibly even .Net  :Wink: 


From there you can buy packaged up kits of jumper wires and components along with project ideas, e.g.:

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## Nightwalker83

I bought a Raspberry Pi 2 and am in the process of puting it together. Having a hard time getting the board to sit correctly in the case though. One question I have is I forgot to buy a keyboard could I correct the Pi up to my laptop and access it via my laptop?

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## Milk

Not sure if it is quite what you want but you can log into the pi remotely with an SSH session. This gives you access via a terminal window. On Windows you can use a SSH client such as PuTTY.

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## Nightwalker83

Thanks! It uses a Linux distro but I am not sure if it run automatically on the device power-on.

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## Milk

It probably will. You will need to find its ip address. You should be able to see it by logging onto your router with it plugged in. Is it raspbian? if so the default password is 'pi' and the password is 'raspberry'.

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## Nightwalker83

> It probably will. You will need to find its ip address. You should be able to see it by logging onto your router with it plugged in. Is it raspbian? if so the default password is 'pi' and the password is 'raspberry'.


The Operating System is NOOBS:




> This is an 8GB micro SDHC card that is pre-installed with the NOOBS operating system for the Raspberry Pi Model 2 B. NOOBS is actually a system image with SIX different Linux based operating systems used to run on the Raspberry Pi, Archlinux, OpenELEC, Pidora, RaspBMC, Raspbian and RiscOS. This little card allows you to start using your Raspberry Pi straight out of the box without worrying about imaging it on your own.


However, it still uses the default username and password you mention above.

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