
Explore what the Raspberry Pi is—a tiny, powerful computer for home automation, IoT, retro gaming, servers, and robots, plus community support and diverse versions with varying RAM.
Gather essential materials for the course: Raspberry Pi boards (five, four, or three), a 5.1V 5A power supply, and a class ten microSD card (16–32GB), plus a USB WiFi dongle.
Find the Raspberry Pi's IP address on your network with angry ip scanner, scanning your local ip range to verify wifi and prepare ssh and vnc access.
Access the Raspberry Pi desktop from any device in a web browser using Raspberry Pi Connect. This works on Raspberry Pi OS bookworm or newer and includes screen sharing.
Configure your Raspberry Pi OS to auto-create a Wi-Fi hotspot when no network is available, then use tigervnc to access the desktop and switch to a new Wi-Fi network remotely.
Master how to use for and while loops to repeat code, print hello multiple times using a range of 0 to 9, and understand indentation and loop termination.
Practice handling variables, functions, scope, conditions, loops, and lists by building a program that computes and prints the maximum value in a list, optionally encapsulated in a function.
Compute the max value in a number list with a for loop and if, print it, then define get max value from number list that returns the max value.
Learn how a breadboard enables prototyping with top and bottom plus and minus rails and vertical connections in middle columns, so components share connections, while disconnections may require bridging wire.
Initialize GPIO Zero button on pin 26 as input, read button.is_pressed to detect pressed or not, and print the state every second.
Cycle through three LEDs by pressing a button, using a Python-driven switch LED function and a global led index to illuminate one LED at a time.
Learn movement detection with a PIR sensor on the Raspberry Pi and read its binary output with Python and GPIO, building on your Raspberry Pi and Python fundamentals.
Tune the PIR sensor by adjusting the jumper and two potentiometers. Set the range to 3–7 meters and the delay to 3–5 seconds.
Learn to use the Raspberry Pi terminal and core command line tools to build a movement sensor project and master Python scripts on the Raspberry Pi OS desktop.
Learn to install and update software on Raspberry Pi using the terminal and apt. Understand sources, sudo privileges, and package management, including install, upgrade, remove, and autoremove.
Learn to run Python from the terminal and execute Python files using Python 3 efficiently. Handle keyboard interrupts with a try and except to end scripts gracefully.
Learn to read, write, and manipulate files with Python using with open and modes r, w, a, w+, and the os module to check existence and remove files.
This complete, hands-on, step by step course is targeting the latest version of Raspberry Pi, which is the Raspberry Pi 5. Note that everything also works perfectly for Raspberry Pi 4 and older versions.
You don’t need any knowledge in programming, electronics, or anything else. To get started, you just need a computer to work from, and a Raspberry Pi board.
At the end of the course you will have a strong foundation with your Raspberry Pi, and you will be able to start your own projects in no time.
- Why this course?
You may be just getting started, or have already started to learn how to build projects with your Raspberry Pi. But knowing what to do first, and which path to follow can be quite hard and you may feel stuck.
The problem with most online resources for Raspberry Pi is that they focus on making you run existing programs to make you feel you’ve accomplished a lot, but in the end you’ve just copied/pasted some random code and didn’t even scratch the surface. The “why you should do that” is not involved. So, the next time you have to do something on your own, you feel stuck and too dependent on other people's code.
This course will focus on the “why” and make you become much more autonomous with your Raspberry Pi so you will be able to start your own projects without having to desperately search for code to copy/paste on the Internet. My personal goal is to make you understand enough to get started in a short period of time, and make you think as a problem solver, with engineer-level thinking skills.
- And how will we do that you may ask?
Simple:
HANDS-ON.
STEP BY STEP.
NO COPY AND PASTE.
This course is not a course where you just download some code and run it. This is a course where you will truly understand how to write the code and work with the different Raspberry Pi functionalities.
I will take the time to explain everything, step by step, even the basic things. I will write the code with you and explain why I write what I write. With the activities and final project you will have even more opportunities to practice on your own, and you will make progress without even noticing it.
- What will you do and learn in this course?
Here’s an overview of the different topics we’ll cover:
Setup your Raspberry Pi and install Raspberry Pi OS without an external monitor and keyboard.
Get good Python 3 programming basics.
Work with the Raspberry Pi’s GPIO panel.
Use a PIR sensor to detect movement from your Pi.
Discover how to use a Unix terminal and the most useful command line tools.
Send an email from your Raspberry Pi.
Take photos and videos using the Raspberry Pi camera.
Create a web server on your Raspberry Pi with the Flask framework.
The course is divided into 15 sections to make it easier to navigate and track progress. Each section is focused on one topic. For each topic we start with hands-on explanations.
And all along the way, through the different sections, you will have many opportunities to practice (11 activities) on the most important points.
After learning all those topics, you’ll work on a final project where you can practice more with everything you’ve seen in the course. This is also a good opportunity to mix different functionalities together, which is where you can really start to create much bigger and powerful applications.
So, don’t wait any longer and start your Raspberry Pi journey with this course!
The teaching method I use is now a proven method - not because I or someone arbitrarily said so, but because of the tons of positive feedback about successful learning results I’ve received over the years with thousands of students. Here are actual reviews from students who took this course:
“Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners to Learn Raspberry Pi. A great choice for beginners!!!” - Evan V.
“I feel accomplished after completing this course. The amount of knowledge gained and effort put in has been truly rewarding.” - Parul S.
“This course was a great match for me and helped me understand the GPIO interface, breadboard usage and how to send the proper python commands to control the electronic elements. Thank you!” - Mary P.
“Total beginner and the course is getting me set up and running. What more could one ask for” - Steve C.
I don’t come from an academic background. I’m an engineer and all I’ve done is to try to solve real problems by being practical on what I need to do and to learn. I actually used Raspberry Pi to program an entire 6 axis robotic arm which is now on the market. This forced me to go to the point and focus on what’s really useful.
This experience and the lessons I’ve learned is what I want to share with you. Understanding the “why” and focusing on practicing on the key points, is, to me, one of the best ways to progress 10x faster.
My goal here is to give you more freedom when you start a project. To make you less dependent on what you may find (or not) on the Internet. To think more by yourself when building new projects.
Oh, and you also get a 30 days money-back guarantee if you’re not fully satisfied.
See you in the course! :)
Note - This course is not for you if:
You’re not interested in understanding what you’re doing and prefer a quick copy/paste solution.
You’re already an advanced Raspberry Pi user.