I'm on the process of building a carputer using JRiver.
I considered using the Raspberry Pi but I decided not to use it for one specific reason, I read on some forums that it is common to have the SD Card corrupted if you just unplug Pi's power. Also doing a command line to power the Pi down properly using some of it's GPIO pins required more skills that I have.
Now that the IdPi has launched I'm wondering how the power down process works on it. Can I just cut Id Pi power and it will not corrupt the SD card and work normally on next start up?
Great suggestion (and discovery) on the logo idea. Thanks.
I think the power question is more of a Raspberry Pi question. I can't answer it. Forum posts aren't always reliable.
It's probably about two minutes from power on to music. I'll try to time it when I'm home.
Just pulling the plug on a raspberry pi poses a risk of corrupting the sd card. It has happened to me a few times when I had an unexpected power interruption, and it's widely reported as an issue. However, if you shutdown the pi in software, it will be safe to unplug it once the shutdown has completed.
As an aside, I've been using computers in some form or another since 1985, and I've never interacted with a computer where it was 100% safe to just turn it off with filesystems active. Back when the operating system ran off of a floppy disk, we used to make sure to take out the disk before turning the computer off. Windows 95 was the first OS I interacted with that actively tried to stop users from just flicking the power switch when they were done (because of the risk of file corruption among other things), and introduced the (now famous) "it is now safe to turn off your computer" splash screen, after which you still had to flip the power switch off yourself.
Obviously, most modern computers will, after finishing the software initiated shutdown, turn the rest of the way off. The pi is more like a windows 95 machine; if you shut it down in software, it's safe to unplug it, but you still have to unplug it yourself (and plug it back in when you're ready to use it again). There are mini-batteries that give the pi time to shutdown, and power switches that ease the process a bit (or make it a bit more elegant) both available on the broader market. If were working on a car pi application, I would look into something like this:
https://www.modmypi.com/raspberry-pi/breakout-boards/pi-modules/ups-pico . It's essentially a battery that detects when its discharging and safely shuts down the pi, and can be setup to restart when power is applied again.
TL;DR: if you just yank the cord on a running Pi, it can corrupt filesystem, but that's also true of most computers (albeit to a lesser extent). It you make sure to shut it down properly (until the green lights stop blinking if I recall correctly), you'll have no risk pulling the plug.
