Love watching the progress of Raspberry Pi. The attraction of the platform to me (compared to something more capable, with more ram ghz etc) is that the ecosystem is now so mature, you can easily google and get a cut and paste guide to exactly what you want to do. This means you can spend time tinkering with aspects that interest you rather than maintaining an operating system or troubleshooting hardware...
I'm curious to see how far optimisations could go. Analagous to the old consoles where developers could squeeze incredible performance out (compared to the equivalent processors elsewhere) since it was so uniform. e.g. the later games on a nintendo or neo geo were incredible compared to what was capable on a typical 8/16 bit computer of the time.
A $5 version is just going to accelerate this ecosystem... looking forward to it.
There is a lot of capability on the graphics side, which takes up most of the die. Can run Quake3 etc. Not very impressive compared to modern PC graphics, but very handy if you want to put something on a small screen.
Same with Arduino. You can use dozens of off-the-shelf shields and libraries to make it do exactly what you need without having to understand every little detail (however, if you want you can change every little bit or resistor!).
Instead you can focus on solving the problem at hand, mostly writing high level glue code.
The sheer amount of "stuff" you get for $5 (albeit USD) is staggering.
I am designing some simple electronics gadgets for Burning Man, and the electronics (low-end MSP430 based) for that is costing me a significant portion of $5 yet its significantly less powerful.
I know, I know, volume is a key issue, but honestly, that doesn't make it any less impressive to me.
Ah well. I recently (a week ago) started a new project with the Arduino and then they release this beast. It's basically cheaper than an Arduino (except that there's no storage in the Pi) AND faster than the Arduino.
Sure, it won't have the same IO capabilities as there's much more layers but it will be pretty close and I don't really need great performance anyways.
I guess, I'll have to switch to the Pi, it's not even a fair race at this point.
(luckily for me, I was mostly writing the SaaS that would work with the Arduino and only spent about a full day's work doing C/C++ coding so far)
Or a clone of SparkFun's ProMicro, which is absolutely awesome. It's basically Arduino Leonardo (Mega32U4) in the 'micro' form factor and able to work either on 3.3V or 5V. You can get it at around $3
If you don't mind waiting for a month or so (depends on your location), you probably won't find anything cheaper unless you live in China/Singapore or buy bulk :)
There are serial-to-wifi modules for the Arduino; surely one of them would work on the RPi header, though you might need some new software to forward the network packets to it.
I'd like to get into this world. At this point I don't have enough experience or knowledge to know what kinds of things I can do with this thing. Or what kinds of things this is more appropriate for compared to a Raspberry Pi 2, or vice versa. Any pointers?
Could I make some kind of driver/controller for a small synchronized christmas light show with this? Or some kind of toy with lights and sounds for my toddlers?
I don't see anything about Ethernet/Wi-Fi. Am I missing something?
I understand they had to cut some features to reduce the prize. But networking is such a fundamental requirement for these types of systems, you'd think that it would be the last feature to be excluded.
Still, I for one would be more than willing to pay a few extra bucks for a stripped-down version of the Pi with wireless included.
Actually, all I'm looking for in this type of machine is Linux, Wi-Fi and GPIO, in a reasonably compact format. Maybe the Pi isn't a good fit, since it is more about "teaching computing" than "building your IoT stuff".
I agree, if this would include an ethernet port it would be the cheapest embedded linux board with wired networking. I would really like such a device and am kinda sad it doesn't exist. Like a ESP8266 but wired.
Can the HDMI port be abused for some kind of networking?
There are a whole bunch of extra features tucked away inside HDMI. I know the Pi doesn't support Ethernet-over-HDMI, because it's missing the necessary PHY, but apparently it does support I2C-over-HDMI. I2C isn't very fast (tops out at 3.4Mbit, if you're lucky); is there anything else which could be used hidden inside somewhere?
One interesting thing about I2C, though, is that it would be cheap and easy to build a chassis with a whole bunch of these $5 modules wired together via I2C. It's almost certainly not cost effective in any way, but would be interesting, particularly if you could get useful work out of it...
The cable to connect the computer now has more markup than a 1 GHz computer. Micro-USB OTG and mini HDMI adapters go for £1 each shipped on eBay, and I think most of that price is shipping. (Likewise, they've omitted the 40-pin GPIO header unless you buy the £10 bundle with the "Essentials kit", compared to £4 for the Pi itself.)
Old, old business model - cut the headline price to the bone, make it back on cables.
Doesn't have to be - they're relying on people not shopping around for the cables and accessories, much like big brick-and-mortar retailers such as Best Buy have done for a long time.
While the Raspberry Pi is not the perfect hacker-friendly computer, it has done a lot of good. Some reasons off the top of my head:
1. Providing a low cost computer has given many people access to computers. Giving more people access to the web, email, an office suit, a programming environment AND giving people the ability of safely tinker without the fear of bricking an expensive device.
2. Introduced many different types of people to the FOSS landscape of powerful tools (e.g. distros such as Debian, tools such as Python).
3. The Raspberry Pi foundation has paid developers to write/optimise FOSS (e.g. paid Collabora to optimise WebkitGTK+ -- I think some Wayland work was also done).
4. Built on top of existing FOSS tools (e.g. building Raspbian on top of Debian), instead of doing everything on their own in a proprietary fashion. This has no doubt also helped to introduce new people into these communities.
This is a really good counter-point to all the "locked down" (hacker unfriendly) devices like smart phones and tablets.
This is probably the result of boards like the $9 C.H.I.P. stealing their thunder a little. (Which should actually be able to run Debian, unlike the Pi - Debian Jessie has built-in support for that generation of Allwinner chips.) The Pi has not actually been all that cheap lately compared to the competition. There's no reason they couldn't have done this years ago; like that Allwinner chip, the BCM2835 is an old, slow processor whose R&D costs were probably paid back long ago that they wouldn't otherwise be able to sell. This is especially true of the BCM2835, which is an ARM11 chip that's not widely supported outside the RPi ecosystem.
Olimex alleged[1] that the '$9' CHIP was being sold at a loss (which I guess is par for the course for a Kickstarter project).
>The Pi has not actually been all that cheap lately compared to the competition.
I'm not a big fan of the RPi Foundation & it's relationship with BroadCOMM, but which competition are you referring to? I tried searching for RPi-like boards a while back but only came up with HardKernel & the bananaPi, and I don't think either is a proper competitor.
The Orange Pi PC is competing fairly directly with the Pi 2, for $15. (Though it does apparently have some thermal throttling issues and isn't yet supported by the upstream Linux kernel without patches.) Annoyingly so in some ways; they haven't bothered to pin out many SoC features that the Pi lacks, like line-in support.
Oh, and that Olimex article smells of FUD. As they themselves point out, the price they were quoted for the SoC in the C.H.I.P. wouldn't be competitive - it's the same as a modern quad core SoC for a outdated single core. It's not a new die either, just another (possibly repackaged) version of the old and cheap Allwinner A13, so there's little in the way of R&D costs to recoup.
This could even act as a custom chromecast-ish device. Still cheaper too!
(Although it lacks WiFi AC that the new chromecast has, and probably way weaker graphics, but a cheap WiFi adapter or ethernet and having most stuff streamed should be workable.)
> (Although it lacks WiFi AC that the new chromecast has, and probably way weaker graphics, but a cheap WiFi adapter or ethernet and having most stuff streamed should be workable.)
This irks me a bit with the new "$5" RPi. Yes, it's $5… For a device without a power cord, without networking, and where you need adapters (and/or solder on a UART) to plug anything into it.
Would be neat with an ethernet adapter with Power-over-Ethernet plus a simple micro-USB converter/USB-OTG cable. Yes, I'm aware that might raise the price a bit...
There's no ethernet port. So, also an ethernet adapter. But there's only one USB port (µUSB, too, so you most likely need an adapter to regular USB). So if you want more than just ethernet, you'll need an USB hub. But the RasPi's power supply has always been weak, so better get an actively powered one…
And soon you're paying four times as much for the accessories than for the RasPi.
How exactly has the power supply been weak? I've been running three PIs (A+, B and B+) for a few years with no problems with just simple cell phone power adapters. However, I'm not plugging any extra hardware into them...perhaps that's why I haven't run into problems?
Yes, the parent was talking about lacking power through the Pi's USB ports thus often requiring a powered USB hub.
My issue is with the Pi's use of micro USB for power, I'd rather it use a barrel connector, it's not like it doesn't have the space. Yes, I know the choice is based on the presumption that everyone already has a micro USB power adapter from a cell phone. The use of micro USB for power on this Pi Zero makes a lot more sense given the form factor.
> However, I'm not plugging any extra hardware into them...perhaps that's why I haven't run into problems?
Yes. Phone chargers provide plenty of power for the Pi itself, but once you add several USB devices like wifi/ethernet you'll need beefy ones.
But even that is normally not much of a problem, because (especially on the B+) each device has their own port. If you plug several into a hub, however, you'll quickly exceed the hub port's power rating. Hence the need for an active hub.
This is an awesome board for embedded development. Not as powerful or I/O rich as the Beaglebone Black, but add $6 worth of CAN transceiver chips and a 12V->5V switching power supply and you've got an incredibly powerful automotive compute unit. The Pi 1 was a bit underpowered for what I'm doing, and this might hit the sweet spot while dropping $35 off my unit cost for small quantities. None of the issues you mention affect that calculation at all.
That's exactly what I'm going to use this for, too. Right now I have an original Pi B logging GPS and OBD data, but it's crammed into a small storage spot in the car and is a big waste of space. I'm super excited to be able to cut my project to less than half its original size. I don't need ethernet (other than for debugging), four usb ports, etc. etc. I think this is going to be fantastic for creating homemade embedded devices.
I don't right now, unfortunately, but a writeup is next on my list of projects after the carputer is complete. I'll post it here if there's interest. For learning about the OBD protocol, though, these resources have been very helpful:
Other than hack value, I don't see it as a replacement for a $35 Chromecast. Even then probably better to root a Chromecast due to all the hardware benefits mentioned above.
"1. Providing a low cost computer has given many people access to computers. Giving more people access to the web, email, an office suit, a programming environment AND giving people the ability of safely tinker without the fear of bricking an expensive device."
I seriously doubt about your first point. Adding the cost of accessories (mouse, keyboard, screen) and a shipping cost, Raspberry Pi costs the same as a decent, used laptop that can be used to install a full Linux distro. Even getting Raspberry Pi Zero with essential kit (cabels + the smallest SD card) to my country rises its costs to 20£, add the cost of accessories, and you can get another working used laptop (and as a bonus Ethernet/WiFi connection which RPi Zero lacks).
Don't get me wrong, Raspberry Pi is great for tinkering and home projects, I have much respect for what they are doing, but getting "computer to every home" is not it's strongest point.
It seems awfully silly to argue that it costs the same once you add in the price of a retail monitor. You're just saying that the price of the computer is negligible to the setup. They don't manufacture the peripherals, it's weird to blame them for not magically also dropping the price of those other things that they don't make or sell. Besides, it's pretty easy to get free mouse/keyboard/screen via donations from companies or individuals who upgrade if you're that worried about cost.
To add a fifth point if I may - it was also rocket fuel for getting CS into the (what most here will call 'K12') curriculum.
When I (only ~5 years ago) took GCSE (last compulsory qualification) 'IT' - even though it was the slightly different course for 'more able' pupils - we were learning how to make Flash animations, use MS Office, Windows Movie Maker, and sorry things like that.
Forget "fifth point" - I think it's impact on schools is #1.
Definitely an impressive feat. I really, really, really wish it had on-board Wi-Fi though. At least that would make it a useful web server.
The way it's designed now, it's kind of unusable for anything useful without making it a 3X larger package. Add a Wi-Fi dongle and the converter from regular to micro-USB is about the size of the board itself. And since it only has 1 USB port, you'll need a full-blown hub to connect any other stuff like sensors, keyboards, or whatnot.
For one I'm glad it doesn't have wifi since that'd add on size and cost. I hope that the ecosystem takes off and shields get created like wifi, bluetooth, gsm, etc. That would be really useful and give everyone flexibility.
From the differences amongst the Arduino, I see the hdmi as a necessary evil. Otherwise it'd be too cumbersome to debug.
I totally agree. One of the reasons I've started using an Onion Omega is because of this reason. IoT is pointless if you can't connect to the I easily, IMHO.
Yeah, I played with an Onion Omega for a while. The downside to it is the horribly limiting 16MB flash (with 64MB RAM, WTF?). When I first read it, I thought it was 16GB and a typo. (We have 128GB micro-SD cards already, and all they could put was 16MB onto it?)
That's where the Pi excels since it has a micro-SD slot (and a much faster CPU of course). But then, no Wi-Fi ...
This is so cool, it's even cheaper than an Arduino. This could turn into a standard embedded development, OS development and learning board for every enthusiast and students.
The cost makes it a great choice for students with less resources.
The headers/shield solutions could easily provide that too, so it doesn't have to be integrated into the SoC if you want to add something not already there. These type of electronics have essentially become digital Lego.
You can find zigbee, wifi or bt dongles for $8 or less these days. I suspect board development costs are the limiting factor for the Foundation here, it's easier to slap on USB and tell users to plug in what they need.
I have read of many alternatives, though RPi has one feature, nothing can beat it today - community support.
99% problems you'll see on your RPi, you can find a solution to them in 5 minutes with Google.
Maybe it will sound like nitpicking and also RPi has versatility and extensibility for rapid development. Want add camera? No problem. Connect to screen? No problem. Few USB devices? No problem. GPIO control? No problem.
Probably it's just a rant with possibly very long discussion, but if you do not know what crazy or fun thing you going to do tomorrow, RPi probably got your covered, whereas others - not so much. So if RPi (let's say the 'normal' one, not the Zero) had builtin WiFi and BT, personally I would be covered in any way I need and would not need any dongles at all.
Beside the product himself, thumbs up at the whole team. From a funny project to a very famous name and large community. I can imagine Eben and his friends surprise.
I learned to take these pricing claims with a large grain of salt. $5 sounds great and makes for great news. But then I head over to Farnell/element14 and learn that a) this is unobtainium, because the first shipment is expected on Dec 21, and b) it will cost me $17 + VAT + shipping.
The title should say "the computer that might be available to some people at $5 at some time in the future".
Sure if you fancy the risk of your house going up in flames because you bought some dodgy no-name power supply knocked out in a Chinese electronics sweatshop.
How big is that a risk, though? Serious question - because I'm really considering using Chinese USB power supply units as power sources for my home automation project. I've been using one of those units for the last 5 days with no visible problems - no overheating, no noise, etc.
For that application it is better to get officially imported ones (eg. CE-marked in Europe), where at least the importer is vouching that the design meets minimum safety requirements.
I guess there's a market for importing Chinese USB chargers from Europe into China then ;)
But yep, the CE mark is related to the importing paperwork so only signifies something inside EU, would be interesting to know if it's a positive or negative quality signal inside China...
Yes the articles are about fake and counterfeit power adapters but I expect these el-cheapo units have many of the same design and safety flaws due to cost cutting. Personally I'm taking no chances.
Anecdotal, but I replaced my eeepc's charger with a cheap compatible charger from ebay and about a year later, I heard some buzzing on the speakers at my desk followed by a bang at my feet. The caps blew the wall wart's case right open. :\",
I'm not sure that low voltage 0.5-2amp power supplies can short that badly to cause fire, but heck anything is possible.
That said you can find lots of old original cellphone chargers on Ebay or just get them at yard sale or thrift/goodwill stores for about a 1$ each easily.
Even if it's not a micro/mini USB power adapter most of the old Nokia chargers have pretty much the same voltage output as USB, those that are close enough can still be used (normal USB power isn't overly reliable and it's heavily rectified on the consuming end any how), worse case you'll need to add a resistor but even that's not an issue.
I've powered USB powered devices with 5.5V power bricks and none of them failed on me ever (due to power supply issues any how).
Yes most Chinese cheap power supplies are very dodge indeed, but unless you are using them to charge a device with power-sense and fast-charge that drives much higher current through than USB would normally provide it shouldn't be an issue, the normal USB power specifications are very dirty and lose, in many PC's USB is grounded to the case itself which makes it a very noise power source, but considering it's only 5v and 0.5amp usually it's easily rectified with cheap solid state components so it's not an issue.
I always dismount cheap power supplies, to see their quality for myself. I check for creepage, clearance distances, noise filtering circuits, transformer quality, grounding quality if appropriate, build quality, circuit sophistication, appropriate wire gauge, protection fuses, etc.
Some of those I checked had none of the above.
I enjoy understanding electronic circuits.
But it is also important, I believe. Just reading the list of unsafe banned products from EU markets, a lot of the time it is these cheap power adapters. And I can absolutely understand why.
Quick specs for those who don't wanna click on the article:
A Broadcom BCM2835 application processor
1GHz ARM11 core (40% faster than Raspberry Pi 1)
512MB of LPDDR2 SDRAM
1 x micro-SD card slot
1 x mini-HDMI socket for 1080p60 video output
Micro-USB sockets for data and power
Unpopulated 40-pin GPIO header
Identical pinout to Model A+/B+/2B
Size: 65mm x 30mm x 5mm
Even without the Ethernet connector this is impressive. Yes, you should add the microSD, cables and peripherals cost, but even adding that the RPi Zero is a marvel.
$5 is an amazing price for something so functional.
The current go-to device for semi-disposable network-attached devices is the ESP8266, which was supposed to be a WiFi add-on board for the Arduino until someone ported Lua to run on it[2]. That is ~$3, but nowhere near as functional as the Pi Zero.
> The single USB port on the model A is capable of working as a USB slave (OTG mode). The model B cannot do that because of the USB hub/LAN chip being in the way.
Please, please do not tell me that the Pi CPU has only a single USB controller?! facepalm
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[ 0.21 ms ] story [ 307 ms ] threadI'm curious to see how far optimisations could go. Analagous to the old consoles where developers could squeeze incredible performance out (compared to the equivalent processors elsewhere) since it was so uniform. e.g. the later games on a nintendo or neo geo were incredible compared to what was capable on a typical 8/16 bit computer of the time.
A $5 version is just going to accelerate this ecosystem... looking forward to it.
The sheer amount of "stuff" you get for $5 (albeit USD) is staggering.
I am designing some simple electronics gadgets for Burning Man, and the electronics (low-end MSP430 based) for that is costing me a significant portion of $5 yet its significantly less powerful.
I know, I know, volume is a key issue, but honestly, that doesn't make it any less impressive to me.
Sure, it won't have the same IO capabilities as there's much more layers but it will be pretty close and I don't really need great performance anyways.
I guess, I'll have to switch to the Pi, it's not even a fair race at this point.
(luckily for me, I was mostly writing the SaaS that would work with the Arduino and only spent about a full day's work doing C/C++ coding so far)
Is there a list somewhere that shows the cheapest possible place to get raspberry hardware modules.
Also, where do you guys buy your modules? You can include Arduino stuff.
This screen* is pretty cheap, right? I'm currently using one (on an Arduino, different seller) and it works great.
* http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2004-204-20x4-Character-LCD-Displa...
"Zero" is a great model name, since the price is negligible (approximately equal to 0 for most purposes).
Personally, one of the downsides of the original RPi (and RPi 2 as well), was it's , believe it or not, size.
Sometimes I wanted to have some portable embedded projects, for which small micro-controller would not be enough, but RPi, was 10 times bigger.
But it's just my personal nitpick, overall RPi devices, community and it's ecosystem is just great.
Could I make some kind of driver/controller for a small synchronized christmas light show with this? Or some kind of toy with lights and sounds for my toddlers?
The simplest one I found is here: http://opensource.com/life/15/2/music-light-show-with-raspbe...
And there's plenty of other results on 'raspberry christmas lights'.
wished it had wifi tho
I decided to buy one from the UK for $16 dollars including shipping.
Wanted the MagPI Magazine with a free RPi Zero but its sold out!
I understand they had to cut some features to reduce the prize. But networking is such a fundamental requirement for these types of systems, you'd think that it would be the last feature to be excluded.
Still, I for one would be more than willing to pay a few extra bucks for a stripped-down version of the Pi with wireless included.
Actually, all I'm looking for in this type of machine is Linux, Wi-Fi and GPIO, in a reasonably compact format. Maybe the Pi isn't a good fit, since it is more about "teaching computing" than "building your IoT stuff".
Like gp I wish some sort of network connectivity can be included to make it more complete as a standalone computer.
There are a whole bunch of extra features tucked away inside HDMI. I know the Pi doesn't support Ethernet-over-HDMI, because it's missing the necessary PHY, but apparently it does support I2C-over-HDMI. I2C isn't very fast (tops out at 3.4Mbit, if you're lucky); is there anything else which could be used hidden inside somewhere?
One interesting thing about I2C, though, is that it would be cheap and easy to build a chassis with a whole bunch of these $5 modules wired together via I2C. It's almost certainly not cost effective in any way, but would be interesting, particularly if you could get useful work out of it...
It feels a lot like a tipping point for something.
http://makezine.com/2015/11/25/raspberry-pi-announces-5-comp...
Old, old business model - cut the headline price to the bone, make it back on cables.
The question I really want to ask is, how long will a 1.2A supply last with nothing else attached to it ?
An AA battery can provide 1.2A for maybe an hour or two; a wall wart can provide 1.2A indefinitely.
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFFQmdUc5Vg
While the Raspberry Pi is not the perfect hacker-friendly computer, it has done a lot of good. Some reasons off the top of my head:
1. Providing a low cost computer has given many people access to computers. Giving more people access to the web, email, an office suit, a programming environment AND giving people the ability of safely tinker without the fear of bricking an expensive device.
2. Introduced many different types of people to the FOSS landscape of powerful tools (e.g. distros such as Debian, tools such as Python).
3. The Raspberry Pi foundation has paid developers to write/optimise FOSS (e.g. paid Collabora to optimise WebkitGTK+ -- I think some Wayland work was also done).
4. Built on top of existing FOSS tools (e.g. building Raspbian on top of Debian), instead of doing everything on their own in a proprietary fashion. This has no doubt also helped to introduce new people into these communities.
This is a really good counter-point to all the "locked down" (hacker unfriendly) devices like smart phones and tablets.
Curious about that.
(really, no needs to downvote me. I would love to see this thruth, just sceptical)
Not saying it proves or disproves anything. I'm also interested in this aspect of cheap-o-computing
>The Pi has not actually been all that cheap lately compared to the competition.
I'm not a big fan of the RPi Foundation & it's relationship with BroadCOMM, but which competition are you referring to? I tried searching for RPi-like boards a while back but only came up with HardKernel & the bananaPi, and I don't think either is a proper competitor.
1. https://olimex.wordpress.com/2015/06/05/how-to-get-in-the-ne...
Oh, and that Olimex article smells of FUD. As they themselves point out, the price they were quoted for the SoC in the C.H.I.P. wouldn't be competitive - it's the same as a modern quad core SoC for a outdated single core. It's not a new die either, just another (possibly repackaged) version of the old and cheap Allwinner A13, so there's little in the way of R&D costs to recoup.
(Although it lacks WiFi AC that the new chromecast has, and probably way weaker graphics, but a cheap WiFi adapter or ethernet and having most stuff streamed should be workable.)
This irks me a bit with the new "$5" RPi. Yes, it's $5… For a device without a power cord, without networking, and where you need adapters (and/or solder on a UART) to plug anything into it.
And soon you're paying four times as much for the accessories than for the RasPi.
My issue is with the Pi's use of micro USB for power, I'd rather it use a barrel connector, it's not like it doesn't have the space. Yes, I know the choice is based on the presumption that everyone already has a micro USB power adapter from a cell phone. The use of micro USB for power on this Pi Zero makes a lot more sense given the form factor.
Yes. Phone chargers provide plenty of power for the Pi itself, but once you add several USB devices like wifi/ethernet you'll need beefy ones.
But even that is normally not much of a problem, because (especially on the B+) each device has their own port. If you plug several into a hub, however, you'll quickly exceed the hub port's power rating. Hence the need for an active hub.
Who uses ethernet anymore?
The ELM 327 data sheet (this is the chip in most OBD devices you'll find on amazon): http://elmelectronics.com/DSheets/ELM327DS.pdf
Wikipedia's article on OBD PIDs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OBD-II_PIDs
"A complete guide to hacking your vehicle bus on the cheap & easy": https://theksmith.com/software/hack-vehicle-bus-cheap-easy-p...
There's a PyOBD python module out there (my carputer is built in python), but it's a fairly simple process so I just rolled by own using pyserial.
I seriously doubt about your first point. Adding the cost of accessories (mouse, keyboard, screen) and a shipping cost, Raspberry Pi costs the same as a decent, used laptop that can be used to install a full Linux distro. Even getting Raspberry Pi Zero with essential kit (cabels + the smallest SD card) to my country rises its costs to 20£, add the cost of accessories, and you can get another working used laptop (and as a bonus Ethernet/WiFi connection which RPi Zero lacks). Don't get me wrong, Raspberry Pi is great for tinkering and home projects, I have much respect for what they are doing, but getting "computer to every home" is not it's strongest point.
When I (only ~5 years ago) took GCSE (last compulsory qualification) 'IT' - even though it was the slightly different course for 'more able' pupils - we were learning how to make Flash animations, use MS Office, Windows Movie Maker, and sorry things like that.
Forget "fifth point" - I think it's impact on schools is #1.
Done then abandoned. Doesn't work with their currently shipping hardware/OS.
The way it's designed now, it's kind of unusable for anything useful without making it a 3X larger package. Add a Wi-Fi dongle and the converter from regular to micro-USB is about the size of the board itself. And since it only has 1 USB port, you'll need a full-blown hub to connect any other stuff like sensors, keyboards, or whatnot.
From the differences amongst the Arduino, I see the hdmi as a necessary evil. Otherwise it'd be too cumbersome to debug.
That's where the Pi excels since it has a micro-SD slot (and a much faster CPU of course). But then, no Wi-Fi ...
The cost makes it a great choice for students with less resources.
This is easily my pocket pc now.
Such step would increase price, I know, but AFAIK, most people are almost always buying either wifi or bluetooth dongles anyway.
All in all, RPi ables to deliver exciting, rather (for me) unexpected and most importantly great and user-friendly products.
But still the best thing will be that:
- you will not need any dongles
- can embed your project immediately
- better compatibility with hardware and software (hopefully) :)
99% problems you'll see on your RPi, you can find a solution to them in 5 minutes with Google.
Maybe it will sound like nitpicking and also RPi has versatility and extensibility for rapid development. Want add camera? No problem. Connect to screen? No problem. Few USB devices? No problem. GPIO control? No problem.
Probably it's just a rant with possibly very long discussion, but if you do not know what crazy or fun thing you going to do tomorrow, RPi probably got your covered, whereas others - not so much. So if RPi (let's say the 'normal' one, not the Zero) had builtin WiFi and BT, personally I would be covered in any way I need and would not need any dongles at all.
The title should say "the computer that might be available to some people at $5 at some time in the future".
But all in all it's an impressive little machine that can do wonders for small home/school projects.
See http://www.righto.com/2012/10/a-dozen-usb-chargers-in-lab-ap... for some horror stories about crap USB chargers.
[0] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10632118
But yep, the CE mark is related to the importing paperwork so only signifies something inside EU, would be interesting to know if it's a positive or negative quality signal inside China...
http://www.righto.com/2014/05/a-look-inside-ipad-chargers-pr...
http://www.righto.com/2012/03/inside-cheap-phone-charger-and...
Yes the articles are about fake and counterfeit power adapters but I expect these el-cheapo units have many of the same design and safety flaws due to cost cutting. Personally I'm taking no chances.
Yes most Chinese cheap power supplies are very dodge indeed, but unless you are using them to charge a device with power-sense and fast-charge that drives much higher current through than USB would normally provide it shouldn't be an issue, the normal USB power specifications are very dirty and lose, in many PC's USB is grounded to the case itself which makes it a very noise power source, but considering it's only 5v and 0.5amp usually it's easily rectified with cheap solid state components so it's not an issue.
Some of those I checked had none of the above.
I enjoy understanding electronic circuits.
But it is also important, I believe. Just reading the list of unsafe banned products from EU markets, a lot of the time it is these cheap power adapters. And I can absolutely understand why.
S+H is £2.50
Do you have any good bookmarks that You could share with a complete beginner?
(Just ordered three of them)
http://theunshut.com/2015/11/26/raspberry-pi-zero-5-dollar-m...
It’s amazing what you can do with $5.
The current go-to device for semi-disposable network-attached devices is the ESP8266, which was supposed to be a WiFi add-on board for the Arduino until someone ported Lua to run on it[2]. That is ~$3, but nowhere near as functional as the Pi Zero.
[1] https://batilanblog.wordpress.com/2015/04/27/first-experienc...
[2] http://nodemcu.com/index_en.html
See https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=98&t=7409...
> The single USB port on the model A is capable of working as a USB slave (OTG mode). The model B cannot do that because of the USB hub/LAN chip being in the way.
Please, please do not tell me that the Pi CPU has only a single USB controller?! facepalm