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I have a Raspberry Pi 1 Model A, as well as a MacBook Pro (running Sierra 10.12.6), and would like to:

  • Use a USB cable (from Mac -> RPi) to provide my RPi with power/voltage; and; and
  • SSH into my RPi so I can do anything I'd normally do on a Linux machine: check what programs are running, check service health, check log files, etc.

I'm wondering what type of hardware setup I'd need to make this a reality.

Can I SSH into my RPi just via the USB cable? Or do I need to setup wifi on my RPi (is that even an option for the model I have?!) and SSH in wirelessly? I have to assume my model of RPi (even though its old) has some type of networking interface? Otherwise, how would one ever interact with it while its running?!

Thanks in advance!

smeeb
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2 Answers2

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There is different ways of connecting to the pi. You can use a usb to uart (serial) interface to communicate. Here is a good tutorial about how to use it. It's for the Pi Zero, but I assume it could be used for the pi 1 as well.

Also, you can configure the pi to appear as a ethernet device. It's explained here.

For me, the best way to do it is to connect the Pi to the router with an ethernet cable and power it using the usb. Then, configure the network settings on the pi to a static IP and then access using the mac terminal over ssh.

I don't know if the speed is important to you, but the pi 3 is much faster than the pi 1 and the pi 2, so, if you're going to use it a lot, I do recommend upgrading it.

Luis Diaz
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Answer: Yes!

Raspberry Pi Zero and Raspberry Pi 1A supports USB gadgets/OTG.

Raspberry Pi 1B, Raspberry Pi 2, Raspberry Pi 3 have USB hubs integrated and cant utilize USB gadgets/OTG.

USB gadgets/OTG is that you change the USB port from being a "USB host" to be a "USB client".

Ref.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_On-The-Go

MatsK
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