I tried to learn ROS in 8 hours (and set a robot on fire)
#ROS2 #robotics #raspberrypi
In this episode I install ROS2 Jazzy on Linux Mint and a Raspberry Pi 5, run turtlesim across three environments (native Linux, Mac VM, and Pixi), build a minimum viable program with nodes and actions from scratch, and end up controlling a real servo and LEDs on the Pi using nothing but teleop arrow keys.
No hardware required to follow along — but we do get there by the end.
Chapters
00:00:00 Intro — I burned the rover
00:02:30 Plan B: learn ROS in one day, software only
00:03:06 Installing ROS2 Jazzy on Linux Mint
00:05:24 First turtlesim — it's alive
00:06:05 Nodes, topics and terminals (so many terminals)
00:07:08 Playing with turtlesim and rqt
00:07:55 Understanding nodes, topics and services
00:09:01 Recording and replaying commands with mcap
00:09:47 Building a ROS2 package from scratch
00:11:05 Making turtles do something actually fun
00:12:33 Setting up the Raspberry Pi 5
00:13:30 Why Pixi saves the day (and your sanity)
00:14:24 Wiring the servo and LEDs on the breadboard
00:15:45 Connecting laptop and Pi over ROS_DOMAIN_ID
00:16:46 It works — teleop controls real hardware
00:18:00 What this unlocks for the series
Links
Official ROS2 Jazzy tutorials → https://docs.ros.org/en/jazzy/Tutoria...
Episode code (nodes + wiring + full setup instructions) → https://github.com/iuliaferoli/ros2-r...
Rerun ROS2 bridge — for visualization in future episodes → https://rerun.io/examples/robotics/ro...
Products used:
RaspberryPi 5: https://amzn.to/3NTSdps
Elegoo screwdriver: https://amzn.to/3ONfd9J
SG90 servos: https://amzn.to/4l8m2Po
Follow iulia on:
Patreon for updates, chat, extra content: patreon.com/c/BacktoEngineering
Instagram for behind the scenes: instagram.com/backtoengineering
GitHub for the project code: https://github.com/iuliaferoli
X for yapping: x.com/iuliaferoli
For business enquiries (sponsorships, collabs, etc) reach out at: [email protected]
Road to Physical AI series
Microcontrollers → ROS2 → Simulation → Nav2 → Computer Vision → VLA policies
Every episode builds on the last.
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