If you want to get your Pi ready for a Dataplicity project you can usually use it as it is already set up. However, if you want to start from ground zero you can carry out a fresh install of NOOBS (New Out Of Box Software) on any SD card.
We're going to use a laptop to download and install NOOBS onto an SD card. You'll then be ready to insert the SD card in your Pi, and install Raspbian OS and Dataplicity.
You can buy an SD card with NOOBS on it already
As Raspberry Pi themselves say, "SD cards with NOOBS preinstalled are available from many distributors and independent retailers, such as Pimoroni, Adafruit and Pi Hut."
Here, however, we assume you want to install the latest NOOBS yourself on any shop bought SD card.
Prerequisites
You will need:
- an SD card, preferably 8GB or more (NOOBS regular download is about 1GB)
- a laptop with an SD card slot
- some time to carry out all of the downloads, perhaps half an hour.
- We're going for the regular download which has Raspian OS included. If you don't have an internet connection on your Pi the Raspbian operating system is the only OS you'll be offered.
Download and install a formatter
Insert your SD card into the slot of your laptop.
Download SD formatter 4.0 for Windows or for Mac.
This takes you to a page where you you accept and download. There's a lot of scrolling down on this site.
Run it to format your SD card for NOOBS; this may take a few minutes.
- You'll need to note of the drive letter allocated to your card, e.g. G:/, to tell SD formatter which drive to format.
Download and install NOOBS
When you've formatted the SD card, download the NOOBS zip file from the Raspberry Pi site.
- If you download the Light version you'll need an internet connection on your Pi to get Raspian (or any other OS). If you choose the regular version (shown with a green frame in this image) then the file size is larger but Raspian is included in the download.
Download using the button shown here with a green surround. A download button should appear bottom left of the screen showing progress.
From your laptop's Downloads folder, open the NOOBS folder. In another window open the folder for your newly formatted SD card. Then drag and drop the files from the NOOBS download to the SD card (in Windows you may need to unzip them first).
Files selected to be dragged to an SD card (E: drive in this pic), shown on Windows OS.
Files selected to be dragged to the SD card 'Recovery' shown on Mac OS.
After a few minutes when the files have copied across, eject the SD card safely from your laptop, and insert it into your Pi.
You're now ready to carry out a Remote Pi build.
Updated about a year ago