I love munching on these crunchy Clusters. They’re Awesome. But not as awesome as this Raspberry PI Cluster.
Stick around cause it’s TechWizTime.
Hey guys, Jonathan here with TechWizTime, where I teach you technology through tutorials.
Today, I’m going to teach you the easiest way to setup a Raspberry Pi Cluster using BitScope Blade Rack.
I reached out to the team over at Bitscope and they were kind enough to send me out one of their Bitscope Blade Racks.
It’s a 19" 1RU rack mount server that holds the Bitscope Blade Quatro Pi.
And a 5 port network switch.
It’s the simplest and tidiest solution out there.
So, Clusters are a set of connected computers that work together as a single system.
So a set of 4 Raspberry Pi 3 devices would essentially act as a 16 core computer.
Distributing the workload over 16 cores gives the cluster more processing power.
The same way a super computer works.
So without getting more technical, a cluster is just a large scale computer with many CPU cores.
The software is what makes clusters really tick, and it is by far the one thing that’s lacking out there on the YouTubes.
Unfortunately, most software needs to be manually programmed in a language like Python and software like MPI4Pi.
So, MPI4Pi helps to distribute tasks across several Raspberry Pi’s or nodes.
The nodes all work together to make the programmed task run faster.
In future video’s I’ll be teaching you how to setup a Boinc cluster, which is searching for aliens and curing cancer.
And a Web Server with the Bitscope Blade Rack.
So make sure you’ve subscribed and have notifications turned on for those.
The heart of the Bitscope Blade Rack is the Quatro Pi.
This board is powered from a 9V 4amp to 48V 500ma external power supply with a 2.5mm jack.
It gives each Raspberry Pi enough reliable power for USB powered Hard Drives and other USB Devices.
You can also power down or reset each Raspberry Pi individually, which means you don’t need to power down the whole Quatro Pi board.
Instead, you can replace any Raspberry Pi without interrupting the other units.
Each slot on the Quatro Pi board also has an auxiliary power header which means you can power a Raspberry Pi display or other devices.
If you need to use the HDMI or Audio port, these are accessible from the first Raspberry Pi slot.
USB ports are accessible from the rear as well for all Raspberry Pi’s.
You can find the Quatro Pi or the Bitscope Blade Rack which includes the Quatro Pi directly from the Bitscope website, link is in the description, or you can source them from one of their reseller websites like Element14.
What’s included with the Bitscope Blade Rack?
We’ve got 2 panels for the enclosure, the front cover and 2 ears for the rack.
The Quatro Pi board
A 5 port network switch.
4 Ethernet Cables
2 pieces of double sided tape for mounting the Network switch inside the Rack.
4 M3 metal standoffs
16 M2.5 Nylon standoffs
8 M4 screws
4 6mm M3 Screws
6 10mm M3 Screws
32 M2.5 screws
4 M3CSK Screws
4 M3 Washers for the 6mm M3 Screws
And these awesome instructions with easy to follow pictures.
Since I’m showing you, lets run through how easy it is to construct the Bitscope Blade Rack from start to finish.
Installing the Raspberry Pi’s onto the Bitscope Blade Quatro Pi board is relatively simple.
Using the 16 M2.5 Nylon standoffs and the 32 M2.5 screws, place the nylon standoffs between the Quatro Pi board and the Raspbbery Pi’s and use the screws either side of the standoffs.
Once you're done, it should look like this.
Now the standoffs stop the Raspberry Pi’s from moving around.
If you didn’t use them, the Raspberry Pi’s could potentially touch the PCB. So don’t skip this step.
Using the 4 M3 Washers and the 4 6mm M3 Screws attach the 4 M3 Metal standoffs to the Quatro Pi.
If you want to power the Quatro Pi board via the mounting tabs at the blade edges, you will need to replace the metal standoffs with nylon standoffs yourself.
Now we can attach the Quatro Pi board to one of the metal panels.
So grab the 4 M3CSK Screws and attach the metal panel to the standoffs.
It takes a little bit of time to line them up right so take your time here.
Once you’re done, flip it back over and attach the double sided tape to the bottom of the 5 port network switch and then press the switch onto the metal panel.
Remember to orient the ports to the same side as the Raspberry Pi ethernet ports, this is important.
Next, we will connect the ethernet cables from each Raspberry Pi to the 5 port network switch.
Initially I got it all hooked up but it wasn’t very tidy, so I used one of the cable ties that came with the ethernet cables.
That looked a little bit tidier, but then I tried something different since the cables were flat.
And after all that, it looks a little bit tidier again.
To make things easier, plug in the power for the Blade and the Network switch before we go any further.
And if you’ve got your Micro SD Cards prepared, put them in now too.
Place the other metal panel on top now and using the two ears and the 8 M4 screws, connect the two panels and ears together.
Now it’s starting to look more like a 1RU Rack Mount Server.
Lastly, using the 6 10mm M3 screws, attach the Front Cover to the metal panels and then we are done!
The Bitscope Blade Rack is constructed and ready to be powered on.
So now we have the 4 Raspberry Pi’s enclosed and connected inside the Bitscope Blade Rack.
How awesome does that look!
Are you interested in Cluster Computers, specifically a Raspberry Pi Cluster?
Maybe you want to help fight cancer or search for aliens?
Let me know down in the comments below.
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And as always
Imagine, Learn, Create.