Question 1

Does it have the OS on it or do you need to install one?

Accepted Answer

The official OS installer from the manufacturer is Noobs (google raspberry pi noobs.  yes, that's really the name).  It gives you a choice of which distribution you'd like to use.  To install the OS, just get a 2GB or larger SD card format it, unzip the files and copy the files onto the card.

There are other distributions out there for specific functions, depending on what you want the device to do.  Such as a XMBC client, a Plex client, a MAME arcade emulator, etc.  Most of them are fairly turn key to get going.

One thing to note, there is no BIOS like a traditional PC.  If there is no OS on the card, it will give you a black screen and go no further.  This does not mean the board is defective.

Also, the internal USB hub doesn't provide much power,  so consider getting a USB hub with the device and a good USB cell phone charger to power the Pi.

If you don't know what you want to use the device for yet, there's a lot of projects on Element14.  The Ben Heck Show always has some good ideas too.

Question 2

What is the VGA part of this combo?  My understanding is that RPi only has RCA or HDMI video interfaces?  Is the "combo" some add-on for this capability?

Accepted Answer

There isn't on board vga output. You can however use a hdmi to vga adapter. Just to state though some people have had issues but I personally have had no issues using a vga monitor through an adapter. Unless it's necessary to use the pi solo I would recommend a remote connection which would allow you to save memory for the Cpu!

Question 3

Does it come with a power plug, or do i have to buy it separate?

Accepted Answer

I received mine fairly recently and it did not come with any accessories aside from the pi itself. I do not recall who the seller was on new eggs site, but I suggest you be prepared not to receive one. Most cell phones and tablets these days come with these power supplies, and some also include the micro usb cable, but if you do not have a spare power supply that supplies about 1amp, or a USB cable,  you might have to buy.

Question 4

What do I use as a power supply?

Accepted Answer

There are several good options to provide power through the microUSB connector. The Features description says it can also be powered using one of the two standard USB data ports. For my purposes - running a XBMC media server - I bought a powered 4-port USB hub and ran a cable from one of the hub's ports to the microUSB power-in port. That way I have five available USB ports for keyboard, mouse, and flash drives loaded with media files. One can also use a charging unit from certain cellphones if they use the same type of microUSB connector.

Question 5

does the raspberry pi have a track point keyboard port ?

Accepted Answer

I don't believe it has a specific port for any keyboard. It does have 2 USB ports and I believe that there are converters if your keyboard has a different connectors. If the keyboard does plug into a USB port directly then there might be a driver file issue. Check for the supported hardware for the Operating System that you are using.

Question 6

I want to use this product in a mame arcade cabinet, the joystick and buttons which are setup for bluetooth. What would I use to power the raspberry pi and as well a 10 inch lcd monitor, and would I still need a hard drive and operating system, or does on come installed?

Accepted Answer

If you are going for a full-on cabinet, you might as well power everything using a powerstrip in the cabinet. The rasberry pi can be powered by the same cable that powers Android phones. 
The OS will be on the SD card you would need to purchase seperatily. You will want to check Rasberry PI site for more info on that, though.

The above link comes sells an SD with the OS pre-installed. Not sure if that would work for Mame.

You could simply use a USB stick as a harddrive. This should be enough to store your ROMs.

Question 7

Does this come with a Micro usb to usb or do I need to buy one?

Accepted Answer

It does not come with anything. The board is the only thing in the box. You will need to find a power supply. Most cell phone chargers will work.

Question 8

Is this product made in UK or China?

Accepted Answer

The first production run was made in China, subsequent production was moved to the UK.

Question 9

Till when is the SD card free? Thanks

Accepted Answer

You would have to ask newegg's 'Pricing or promotions' dept http://help.newegg.com/app/chat/sa_chat_launch Order assistance -> Pricing or promotions

Question 10

Hi, I've taken apart a dell inspiron mini 1012 netbook to use the monitor which is 10.1 inches and was wondering how I would go about connecting it to the raspberry pi. What would I need exactly?

Accepted Answer

These screens are designed with existing or custom driver electronics for interfaces usually by the manufacturer as large as Dell which would use similar electronics and software for their line of PC's. The trick here is to grab that display IC and its supporting IC's and feed it data in the format it expects. This is not so much a question of whether the Rasp. general purpose I/O could be programmed to run the display -- it probably could with much effort. It would take much of the space and power on the Raspberry to do it. In other words, the software overhead would eat you alive in running and development for one processor. A very light weight one at that. You will notice that there is not a preponderance of 10.1" screens for Raspberries even though there are millions of Raspberries out there. The ones that do exist are expensive because the calculating IC;s to run the display have been designed into other custom IC's to do what a Intel or AMD CPU could do easily in the background. This "extra" interface to do what the Raspberry can not adds expense to normally cheap PC displays.

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