Should there be further models of the Raspberry Pi?

Recall that one of the important aspects of the Pi is *cheap* so that it ca n be bought by kids from their pocket money, or in large numbers by schools , or just because it tickles your interest. When faster models of ARM are cheap enough I bet you'll see new versions of Pi using them.

If you want a faster ARM powered linux machine there are *lots* of them ava ilable; they're just more expensive and often not provided with the GPIO fa cilities that make for so much Pi fun.

Only if it's to give more processing grunt or memory to the same basic form. Look at Arduino a myriad of confusing models, add-ons, shields etc.

But TBH for the vast majority of uses the current Pi has enough grunt and memory. The key factor is price, it is a very powerful machine for very little money. It's not *that* long ago that the best part of five times the current Pi price (taking into account inflation) bought you a kit with a 3.25 MHz Z80 CPU and 1 kB of memory, the Pi of it's day to some extent.

I'd also like one with integrated VGA output so I can use any monitor without having to buy adaptors.

Except the purpose it was originally designed for ;-)

That's ancient history ;-)

Buy a new monitor. A monitor with DVI can be used with a DVI-HDMI cable (just a cheap cable with different connectors at each end).

Not worth it to make a new design with VGA. VGA is so last century.

I've run startups.

The secret is to follow the money.

Find out what the customers want that you can provide, and give it to them.

We started out selling networking software for VAX VMS, but we made all the cash selling networking software for PCs. Before Microsoft did.

I would actually, with the Pi, start selling addons. boards that plug in, that do something.

And for really dumb users, a preloaded flash card.

Not very cost effective when I have several monitors with VGA inputs spare.

It is ubiquitous.

I think that is a good way to go. The two qualities to build on are: cheap price, small size. How to add portability? A tiny projector that plugs into the video port and is OS-independent, so that any blank wall can be used as a screen? Roll-up keyboards? Clockwork power-source?

What do you think it will cost to add VGA to a digital video design? D/A chip, several analog filtering components, connector.

Well, when you want to use old gear pair it with old gear. There are more than enough small PC motherboards with onboard VGA.

All currently easily available except the clockwork power source. The projector may need an HDMI-VGA convertor, but they're not that expensive.

Keyboard:-

(Sorry if the wrap breaks the link, others are available)

Or if that's too big when it's rolled up:-

As predicted by Harry Harrison many years ago. Admittedly, they're reported to be a pig to use, but they *are* extremely portable.

All are OS independent, and present themselves to the computer as standard components.

A lot less than buying a new monitor.

But we are talking about the RPi.

I agree. The hope was to get RPi's into schools. If they can use the monitors, mice and keyboards of existing computers it might happen. If they need new monitors, it won't. Most school monitors I've seen are VGA only.

Oooh. I like the idea of a clockwork power supply!

But I was more thinking of things like I2C (is that the right thing) capability to run sensors off, so that a Pi could be used to build environmental monitoring stuff.

As I said before, the Pi is a component. It needs other components to do really useful things with.

The old PCs can run telnet, and log into the PI!

Isnt that the point? if you have a school network, plug the pi into it and get hacking.

Heck I think to days ethernet is auto sensing enough that you could plug a standalone PC via an ethernet patch into it .

Pis will not REPLACE PC's. Theyoffer a different experience and should co-operate with them.

Lets face it, where are you going to get a multi-user linux computer on your network for less than a pi?

It could run mysql databse, apache, php and be a full functioning LAMP web server, all for 30 quid!!!

And those are valuable skills all.

...

Agreed. Now that the RPi is well established at its price point I wonder if they could release a model with VGA output even if it costs a little extra.

James

Me too - as long as the Pi OS recognises when the power is about to fail so it can shut down gracefully if someone forgets to wind it.

James

The camera module seems to fit that bill and add very high resolution for the price.

James

What worries me is the fragility of those GPIO pins. The 3V3 power from the Pi lets you build circuits that interface directly, but that supply is only good for 50mA. The 5V supply is pretty capable, but your interfaced device needs to include an LDO regulator, or you blow up the processor. Maybe this will produce a generation of careful kids, but it's kind of mean to make carefulness the first lesson.

Mel.

Why add old tech? Everyone's throwing away their analogue monitors and TVs and replacing them with DVI/HDMI-capable devices. Adding Bluetooth or WiFi would make more sense, except those are some of the many expansions that are easily handled by USB.