Yesterday I went a couple of miles into the suburbs where I bought some goodies to experiment with. My plan is to build a retro coffee table arcade machine, complete with joysticks and big buttons to mash. I bought:

  • Raspberry Pi 2. £36
  • Plastic case. £6
  • 8GB SD card. £8
  • Micro USB charger. £9 (!)
  • Micro USB cable. £1
  • Wifi USB dongle £10
  • USB keyboard and mouse £6

Setting it up was a breeze, and I’m blown away by how functional this thing is. My last experience with electronics was an Arduino, which could be flashed with C code. This thing is a full PC, complete with a GUI and the ability to play 3D games. I could do 95% of my work on it. It is mindblowing that you can buy a powerful computer for about the same as a medium-sized Lego set.

Sales of the Raspberry Pi are now past four million, up from the 10,000 that were initially predicted. I hope that translates into more interest in programming and electronics among kids.