Getting Started with the Raspberry Pi 3A+

Updated 25 January 2019

There is a new board in the Raspberry Pi family!

In this Tutorial, we will walk you through the steps to set up your new Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+.
To setup your Raspberry Pi 3A+ you will need:

Prepare Your SD Card

The easiest way to get started with the Raspberry Pi 3A+ is to buy a pre-loaded NOOBS SD card. NOOBS stands for New Out Of Box Software, if you are new to Linux then this is where you should start.

You can also download NOOBS from the Raspberry Pi website. You can find the instructions on how to create your own NOOBS SD card in our How to Create a NOOBS SD card Guide.

Powering On for the First Time

Before you power up your Raspberry Pi 3A+, you should connect:

  • Mouse and Keyboard to the USB port
  • The HDMI cable from the Raspberry Pi 3A+ to your display,
  • Insert your NOOBS microSD card
  • THEN connect power to the MicroUSB port using A Raspberry Pi Official Power Supply or equivalent.

When you first power up your Raspberry Pi with NOOBS you should see a black screen with text displayed briefly, followed by a grey background with the Raspberry Pi logo. A few setup boxes will appear. Let them do their thing until you see one saying ‘Please wait while NOOBS initialises’. You might see something different, just hold onto your hat and let it load up. Eventually, you will be prompted for some input (see below).

After a few seconds, it should disappear and you’ll be left with the NOOBS installation management screen. The two options are Raspbian and LibreELEC. Select Raspbian as the operating system to install. If connect to your Wi-Fi at the screen you will be given additional optional installation options. We can always install them later though so leave them unchecked.

NOTE: At the bottom of the screen you will need to select the language and keyboard, if you are in Australia or the US you will need to change the keyboard to “US”

Noobs-install-screen-raspberry-pi-3-model-A-plus

Now you just need to sit back and relax while the NOOBs installer does the work! 

Initial Setup

Once everything is installed Raspbian will start automatically. A new install of Raspbian will give you a screen with the option to Set your country, time zone and password. It’s a good idea to change your password from the default.

If you didn’t connect to WIFI already, you will then be prompted to connect to a WIFI network.

Finally, you will be asked if you would like to check for updates. This is an important step for any new install, check for updates and then reboot!

Going Further

Now you’ve done it! Your new Raspberry Pi Model 3A+ is ready to use! We have an entire category of Raspberry Pi Tutorials to help get you started, as well as a complete Raspberry Pi Online Workshop. The online workshop will walk you through everything from setup (already finished) to advanced operations. The workshop applies to all models of Raspberry Pi!

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