Yes, you can power, access, and provide internet access to your Raspberry Pi Zero with only one USB cable connected to your laptop. And that USB cable will give your Pi Zero internet at higher speed than most WIFI connections! One USB cable does it all! So you’ll need only one ordinary USB cable, the same one that you to use to connect or charge your phone.īut that’s not all, that same USB cable can be used to enable the Pi Zero to access internet. That ethernet functionality is what you need to connect (and power!) your Raspberry Zero. That means the Zero can switch USB states (MASTER/SLAVE or HOST/DEVICE), so it can use the USB port just like any other computer (HOST), but also like an USB device, or Gadget, (DEVICE), so it can mimic a keyboard, mouse, USB flash drive/stick, a Webcam or even as an USB ethernet device. Happily the Zero has a special trick, an USB OTG chip. That Wifi versions seems to be the version to go for – what is a computer without network access these days? – and the Zero only has one USB micro port, so you’ll need some extra peripheral equipment, like a WIFI adapter and a USB OTG cable and a hub or something. There is also a variant with integrated Wifi and Bluetooth for twice the price: ca 10$ or 10€. The cheapest version is a Raspberry Zero that can be bought for around 5$ (5€). Raspberry Pi’s are little computers, that are fun to play and develop with, and that come with an affordable price tag.

After you’ve set it up correctly, connect the cable, let the Pi boot, ssh to your Pi with this simple command ssh pi0 or update your pi with this oneliner ssh pi0 'sudo apt update & sudo apt dist-upgrade -y'.Your Raspberry Pi Zero will have internet access over USB with higher speeds than most WIFI connections. The goal of this post is to explain how you can power, connect and share internet with your Raspberry Pi Zero from your laptop with just one USB cable.

Raspberry pi zero wifi configuration