What this book covers
Chapter 1, Kick-Start Your Raspberry Pi Zero, starts right out of the box and covers what you’ll need to get your Raspberry Pi running. Then we install and configure the operating system.
Chapter 2, Setting Up Physical and Wireless Connections , covers the many ways you can communicate with your Raspberry Pi Zero, how to get it on your home network, and USB configurations that make the Raspberry Pi Zero unique to its siblings.
Chapter 3, Programming with Linux, goes over some of the useful things to know when using a Linux operating system. From basic filesystem operation to application installation and upgrades, this will provide a set of tools you will find necessary for using your Raspberry Pi Zero.
Chapter 4, Programming with Python, begins with a brief introduction of Python and its major versions, and must-have libraries when using Python and a Raspberry Pi. From there, we move on to creating a solution that monitors, graphs, and notifies Raspberry Pi Zero board temperatures over time.
Chapter 5, Getting Your Hands Dirty Using the GPIO Header, gets into some basic hardware and usage of the versatile General Purpose Input Output (GPIO) interface. We’ll explore the different GPIO modes and methods of communication, using a variety of languages and tools.
Chapter 6, Controlling the LEDs and Displays, starts with more advanced LED exercises and moves on to the control and operation of LED matrices, LCD displays, and controllers for operating several LEDs individually.
Chapter 7, Controlling the Hardware, shows how easy it is to control motors, relays, and buzzers. It also touches on more advanced circuitry to control high-voltage systems from your Raspberry Pi. More advanced electrical experience is needed for some of these recipes.
Chapter 8, Taking Digital Inputs to the RPZ, moves into receiving inputs from external devices for the Raspberry Pi Zero to detect. We also cover receiving triggers and data from devices: RFID scanners, GPS boards, and more!
Chapter 9, Interfacing Sensors with RPZ, dives deeper into the options for receiving sensor data on the Raspberry Pi Zero. At this point, there shouldn’t be a device available that you can’t have your Raspberry Pi Zero talk to.
Chapter 10, Cooking Up Projects to Amaze the World!, wraps up with bringing home automation and monitoring to your Raspberry Pi Zero to centralize all of the sensor inputs and monitors to one place.
If you go through the chapters completely, my hope is that you will have ideas for dozens of projects where these recipes are only a component of your larger solution. I also hope that it will get you more involved in the Raspberry Pi community and its immense wealth of shared ideas and that you’ll be telling your friends about how they need to get their hands on one (and an extra for your birthday!).
