Raspberry Pi Zero W: Installation, Configuration, and Basic Usage Guide

Raspberry Pi (Chinese: 树莓派, abbreviated RPi) is a credit‑card‑sized Linux‑based micro‑computer designed for learning programming, with various models widely used by hobbyists and makers.

1. Personal understanding : It functions as a tiny host that can connect to a monitor, keyboard, mouse, USB drives, etc., offering many GPIO and serial ports for low‑level hardware access.

2. Market models : The most common is the 3‑generation B+ board, priced around 230 CNY, but a cheaper alternative around 100 CNY is the Raspberry Pi Zero W.

3. Raspberry Pi Zero W : A miniature version roughly one‑third the size of the 3 B+, featuring a 1 GHz single‑core CPU, 512 MB RAM, Wi‑Fi/BT chip, micro‑USB power and OTG ports, mini‑HDMI, CSI camera connector, 40‑pin GPIO, and a micro‑SD slot.

Key specifications:

BCM2835 processor, 1 GHz, 512 MB RAM

BCM43438 Wi‑Fi / BT chip

micro‑USB power interface

micro‑USB OTG interface

mini‑HDMI port

CSI camera interface

micro‑SD card slot for OS

40‑pin GPIO expansion header

Dimensions: 65 mm × 30 mm

4. More Raspberry Pi resources : Visit the Raspberry Pi Lab website for additional models and tutorials.

5. Installing the system on Zero W

5.1 Preparation : Required items include a 16 GB or 32 GB SanDisk micro‑SD card, a standard USB‑type‑A Android cable, SDFormatter, Win32DiskImager, and the Raspbian image (preferably the Lite version).

5.2 Download the image : After downloading the zip (≈360 MB), extract it to obtain a .img file (~1.7 GB).

5.3 Write the image (using Win32DiskImager): Insert the SD card, select the .img file, choose the device, and click “Write”.

5.4 Modify the boot partition :

Create an empty file named ssh (no extension) to enable SSH on first boot.

Create wpa_supplicant.conf with the following content to auto‑connect Wi‑Fi: country=CN ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev update_config=1 network={ ssid="your_wifi_name" psk="your_wifi_password" }

5.5 Assemble and power : Insert the SD card into the Zero W, connect power via the USB cable (5 V 1 A), and wait for the indicator LED to become steady.

5.6 Find the IP address (e.g., 192.168.0.104) from the router and SSH into the board using the default credentials (user: pi , password: raspberry ).

6. System optimization :

Replace default apt sources with a domestic mirror (e.g., USTC) by editing /etc/apt/sources.list and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/raspi.list , then run sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade .

Set timezone to Asia/Shanghai using sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata .

Enable SSH on boot via sudo raspi-config (Interfacing Options → SSH) or by adding /etc/init.d/ssh start before exit 0 in /etc/rc.local .

7. Install nginx :

# Install
sudo apt-get install nginx
# Start
sudo /etc/init.d/nginx start
# Restart
sudo /etc/init.d/nginx restart
# Stop
sudo /etc/init.d/nginx stop

Access http:// your_pi_ip in a browser to verify the nginx welcome page.

8. Intranet penetration : Use tools like ngrok or frp to expose the local web service to the public internet. The author tested ittun and natapp ngrok clients on the Zero W; the ittun arm version worked.

Run ngrok in a screen session for background execution, though automatic startup on power loss remains unresolved.

9. Additional notes : The Zero W can run a lightweight website with nginx and ngrok, leaving about 250 MB RAM free and maintaining a CPU temperature of 37‑39 °C after two days of operation.

For more projects and tutorials, explore the Raspberry Pi Lab and other community resources.