Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My son is working with the Raspberry Pi as part of a High School class, and we would like to be able to use Python on the Pi in addition to Scratch. It claims that it is already installed, but will not boot up. Do we need to have an internet connection to work with Python on the Pi? Or to get it started? We were planning to use some of the lessons of of the Raspberry Pi website, which are all in Python. Any tips on working in Python would be appreciated.

Hi Michelle,

Did you purchase a Raspberry Pi kit from Science Buddies or through another vendor? In either case, Python should work and you should not need an internet connection. Our kit has an older version of the operating system though, so if I know what exactly you're working with, I'll be better able to help.

Thanks,

Ben

I just purchased the kid from Science Buddies this summer. Thanks

Ok - can you let me know exactly what you are doing and any error messages you see when you try to launch Python? I just checked using our SD card and I am able to select Menu -> Programming -> Python 2 (or Python 3) and this launches the programming interface for Python.

One caveat, however: our kit uses an older version of the operating system (OS). We did this so we could provide support for a specific version of Scratch and not worry about users having different versions of the software, and because they update the software much more frequently than we could ever update the kit. However, there have been some improvements to Python in the last couple years that you will be missing out on if you stick with the old OS, particularly in how it controls the GPIO pins (the pins you hook up to an external circuit). That means you might not be able to follow some of the latest tutorials on the Raspberry Pi site. So, I'd recommend purchasing a second SD card and installing the newest version of the OS if your son wants to start working with Python. I can provide directions for how to do that if you want.

Thanks,

Ben