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RaspiBlitz
Fastest and cheapest way to get your own Lightning Node running on a Raspberry - with a nice LCD.
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This tutorial is based on the RaspiBolt project - you can find in detail here: https://github.com/Stadicus/guides/blob/master/raspibolt The RaspiBlitz serves as a shortcut through this setup process with some changes and an additional LCD display so that you can quickly experiment with a Lightning node and start working on your LApps on a hacking event (or at home). This shortcut is fine for testnet usage and maybe trying some small things on mainnet. But if you choose to go full reckless afterwards … please consider taking the time and work thru the original RaspiBolt project. Don’t trust us, verify.
Hardware Needed (Amazon Shopping List)
The RaspiBlitz software is build and tested for the following Hardware set that you can buy cheap on Amazon.de:
RaspBerry Pi 3: 31,99 EUR https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01CD5VC92
Micro SD-Card 16GB: 7,11 EUR https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0162YQEIE
Power: 9,29 EUR https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01E75SB2C
1TB Hard Drive: 49,99 EUR https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00KWHJY7Q
Case: 9,36 EUR https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0173GQF8Y
LCD-Display: 19,58 EUR https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01JRUH0CY
Total Price: 127,31 EUR (thats under 150 USD)
Amazon shopping lists for different countries: [ USA ] [ UK ]
Optional Hardware
Some optional goodies to consider to add to your shopping list for your RaspiBlitz:
SD-Card Writer: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01JWFZWUQ LAN Cable: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B004SUEIE2 USB-LAN-Adapter: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00NPJV4YY Transport Case: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B007Y4NWSW Y-Cable: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00ZJBIHVY
If you organizing an educational event where you want to support people learning on and with multiple RaspiBlitz, here is a package list of useful hardware to have at that event: [ Event Package List ]
Prepare your Hardware
There are two ways to start:
Scenario 1: “At a Hackathon/Event”
If you are at an event, ask for a ready-2-go set or if you have your own hardware ask for assistance to prepare your SD-Card and HDD. Then you are all set and and you can proceed with "SetUp your RaspiBlitz".
Scenario 2 “Start at Home”
You got all the hardware of the shopping list above and you have no further assistence. Then you need to prepare your SD-Card yourself .. this scenario is still experimental, feedback needed and can take some time.
- Download SD-Card image with a bittorrent client: https://wiki.fulmo.org/downloads/raspiblitz-2018-07-13.torrent or try this HTTP-Link for direct download: http://wiki.fulmo.org/downloads/raspiblitz-2018-07-13.img.gz
- Write the SD-Card image to your SD Card - if you need details, see here: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/installation/installing-images/
SetUp your RaspiBlitz
Connect all hardware like on photo and boot it up by connecting the power.
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- Make sure to connect the raspberry with a LAN cable to the internet at this point.
- Make sure that your laptop and the raspberry are on the same local network.
- On Mac OSX you can also consider to connect the raspberry directly with your laptop and share your WLAN internet connection over ethernet (thats a nice mobile setup): https://mycyberuniverse.com/mac-os/connect-to-raspberry-pi-from-a-mac-using-ethernet.html
When everything boots up correctly, you should see the local IP address of your RaspiBlitz on the LCD panel. So open up a terminal and connect thru SSH:
ssh admin@[IP] → use password → raspiBlitzA
Now follow the dialoge in your terminal. This can take some time (prepare some coffee) - but in the end you should have a running Lightning node on your RaspberryPi that you can start to learn and hack on --> see Chapter "Your First Lightning Transaction"
Documentation of Setup Process
The goal is, that all information needed is provided from the interaction with the RaspiBlitz itself during the setup. Documentation in this chapter is for background, comments for educators and help in special edge cases.
Getting the Blockchain
If you want to use the option “COPY” to sync the Blockchain you can simply use the HDD of another RaspiBlitz or you preapre a HDD yourself by:
- format second HDD with exFAT (availbale on Windows and Mac)
- copy an indexed Blockchain into the root folder "bitcoin"
- when youre HDD is ready the content of your folder bitcoin should look like this:
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To connect the 2nd HDD to the RaspiBlitz, the use of a Y cable to provide extra power is recommended (see optional shopping list). Because the RaspiBlitz cannot run 2 HDDs without extra power. For extra power you can use a battery pack, like in this picture:
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Learning and Building
TODO: Once the SetUp Process is done, the learning and building should begin ... educational content should be added on sub pages in the future - at least "Your first Lightning Transaction"