Is the Raspberry Pi real at that price?

Hype?

There are loads of boards out there (some with better specs) for reasonable prices based on SoCs for which you can download full datasheets and user manuals. In the long run such a board will be much more usefull.

--
Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply
indicates you are not using the right tools...
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Nico Coesel
Loading thread data ...

RS Australia has it listed at $50, which is probably about what you'd have to pay to get a $35 item from the UK including shipping.

I will certainly get one as soon as I can, I'd like to see whether it can run apache as a home web server and home automation machine.

A full Linux machine for $50 is disruptive technology, if it does perform as the hype suggests, I see a lot of uses for it, and probably a flood of imitators.

The PIC and Arduino boards certainly have their uses, but horse for courses.

Reply to
keithr

Whatcha gonna do wid dat pi Stephen? If you want to push a forth on a popular embedded platform, why not go for the BeagleBone?

Rick

Reply to
rickman

=3D=3D

Really, disruptive technology? Is this really much less than the cost of a smart cell phone which has a user interface and also makes phone calls!

Rick

Reply to
rickman

You cannot physically turn things on and off with that (the phone). All you can do is control the devices which can (these devices).

His can switch relays on and off. The damned things do need a net connection though.

So, look at say the ten times overpriced "industry" that was made by a few for billiard halls to turn the lights on and off,and log play times.

Each "receiver/switch" was very expensive and each table needs one. The software was expensive as well.

This would allow one to control any number of tables for a little over $40 each. And you could author and perfect your own time logging application. You could even put dimmers in and control the light level.

I could sell this, if pool had more popularity. Sadly, operating costs have grown so much that the per hour rate for pool has gotten ridiculous. They even charge per person now in some places instead of per table.

How truly sad. Bastards actually want to make money. It should be popular though.

Dumb folks everywhere would rather give a bar money for liquor though.

Billiards should be more popular.

Reply to
TheGlimmerMan

Show me where your "cheap laptop" (or any laptop practically) has gpio header or a readily available jtag header.

Reply to
WoolyBully

I was discussing with someone that the Pi could be used as a musical instrument: add an inexpensive USB audio/MIDI interface plus some software, hook up a MIDI controller keyboard, and you have a hardware sampler/synthesizer that can stream mega or gigabyte sound "patches" off the memory card. It could probably run the stage lighting if it's DMX equipped. And you're not out a grand if someone spills their beer on it, unlike a laptop.

Reply to
bitrex

Conformal coat it. After you hook everything up to it. :-)

Reply to
TheGlimmerMan

You missed the part about the RPi Foundation being a non-profit educationally-motivated effort, hurr.

Which'll trash the rip-off fake-Arduino you're trying to flog in your latest get-rich-from-home scheme. Go whinge elsewhere.

--
Chris
Reply to
Chris Baird

It is retailing at £25 ($40). There is another rival development single board of similar size and lesser capability for about £10 (but much less sophisticated). At least part of the intention is educational to make computing and electronics engineering more interesting to school children. The existing UK syllabus churns out MickeySoft Office drone users with no clue at all how PCs and software work. In a reference back to the BBC Micro they have even called them Models A and B.

I think they expect to sell a lot of them and since the opening day took down both the major UK electronics suppliers websites they could well be right. It is priced to allow every schoolchild to have one.

I reckon they called in a lot of favours to get it designed for maximum capability, minimum cost and built for that price. I wish them good luck with the project. We need to get more youngsters interested in engineering at school as opposed to soft options "meedja studdis".

Brian Cox and Jim Alkalili have already turned round the decline of the hard sciences. The former making Physics very "cool" at the moment!

I expect there isn't a lot of margin but the price isn't completely impossible either. Just look at the cheapest PC graphics cards.

If it becomes the new BBC Micro it will engage a new generation of children in direct connection with real electronics and software at a level where it can be relatively easily understood and played with.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown
Reply to
Martin Brown

No I read that Chris.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a UK registered charity (Registration Number

1129409)

Who controls Rasperry Pi? Who controls Rasperry Pi foundation? Who controls the CPU chip manufacturer?

Answer: Broadcom

That is the way I read it Chris. Please tell me if I am wrong.

Cheers Don...

====================

--
Don McKenzie

Dontronics: http://www.dontronics-shop.com/
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Don McKenzie

This week old article, straight from the horse's mouth, clears up a lot of confusion:

formatting link

nb

--
Fight internet CENSORSHIP - Fight SOPA-PIPA
Contact your congressman and/or representative, now!
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
notbob

For this kind of products the costs are not in the hardware but in the software.

--
Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply
indicates you are not using the right tools...
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Nico Coesel

In many areas, every high school student gets a laptop. It hasn't changed anything outside the school budgets.

I don't see how that follows, either. It may entice some latent code monkeys but I don't see how a finished product like this is going to create a significant number of budding engineers. That's a tough one, given the level of integration today.

Never heard of them but it looks cool.

Amazing.

I don't see how a canned computer interests anyone in electronics. Software, maybe. More script kiddies, sure. I don't see the latter as being particularly useful (in the global economy), though.

Reply to
krw

Yes and it may succeed in part...

Which UK syllabus are you on about?

I help my partner who TEACHES the syllabus for ICT and computing to

11 - 18 year olds for ICT and Computing.

The syllabus for ICT includes many other aspects from animation and image manipulation to differences between serial and parallel busses, from 11 to 14 they often use Scratch to learn logic fundamentals and other aspects.

Many inexperienced teachers may follow the MS Office route as they know no different or it is foisted on them by management or IT services or Education Authority. Know of some schools that insist on OpenOffice so kids can use it on home sysems as well for minimal cost.

When it comes to computing at A level (17-18 year olds), I know in one school they actually spend a year with command line and GUi python, then do PHP, SQL databases and many other aspects. Even learn about logic gates, hamming codes, A/D, D/A and Nyquist.

Media Studies is often taken by the masses of kids in days gone by would not even consider doing A levels but now do. For them it is an ACHEIVABLE subject where as ICT and Computing is not, let alone Maths or sciences.

There are not so many shit shovelling jobs about these days, so they have to get qualifications. Won't be long before you need a degree to considered competent to use a shovel.

--
Paul Carpenter          | paul@pcserviceselectronics.co.uk
    PC Services
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Paul

yes it does, thanks for the URL nb,

I just hope rPi is the real deal, and it bears fruit for everyone involved. I guess all parties will simply have to wait.

Cheers Don...

====================

--
Don McKenzie

Dontronics: http://www.dontronics-shop.com/
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Don McKenzie

GROW UP AND STOP YOUR WHINING!!! ;-)

--
You can't have a sense of humor, if you have no sense.
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

That part is easy. Now try to store the data and present it (turnover, utilisation). And while you are at it, add some management functions like different tarifs for different times & days. Lock-out during certain hours, etc, etc. Oh, and how about being able to do things remote from on -say- a tablet? Thats what customers want these days.

IMHO you are whining because you missed out on that opportunity.

--
Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply
indicates you are not using the right tools...
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Nico Coesel

st

e). All

net

e by a

.

ne.

ver

el.

ing costs

s.

ould be

gh.

Yes, and if you had an onion it would make my stone soup taste a lot better too!

You are ignoring that you still need to connect the rPi to a display of some sort, usually about the same cost as a laptop (where did you get the grand price?) and keyboard and mouse. The difference is the laptop will actually do the job without screwing with how to connect it all up without being a tangle of wires all over.

Rick

Reply to
rickman

It does have a connector for I2C, SPI, and GPIO. It seems to be aiming to be a cross between a cheaper BeagleBoard and a more powerful Arduino, rather than being a dirt-cheap PC.

It's powerful enough to run GUI programs and be programmed in high-level languages, which lowers the barrier to entry. It's (supposedly) cheap enough that you can allow students to connect their own circuits to the I/O port without having to worry about the budget implications of boards getting fried occasionally.

Reply to
Nobody

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.