Raspberry Pi update from RS Components!

Just curious: Does this mean the first round was shipped without being EMC tested?

This obviously means the first batch has not been produced at all. At least I'd expect people to report experiences with the RP if they shipped a batch.

So it was being sold without inventory on the shelves? Hmm ...

I think the first batch was produced, because I don't think they faked their blog update about the wrong ethernet connector. But I wonder if they have to dump the first batch, if the test fails. Maybe they can sell it with a sticker "for use in EMC shielded cages, only" :-)

They'll probably turn up on Ebay :)

From :

"I'm going to have to put a statement out about this later: in short, once a certain number of orders were in, RS decided they didn't want to sell the boards as dev boards (which was what we'd planned for the first, uncased units

- dev boards don't require CE marking - see Arduino, Beagleboard etc.) because the sales volumes were so big they were worried someone with a similar or competing product might try to cause some legal trouble over the definition of development board. We're still trying to work out if we can get some out earlier without CE marks to developers. We're rushing through compliance as fast as is humanly possible at the moment."

-a

More reading:

Cheers Don...

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And this is the discussion in the forum:

Looks like the customers are not amused. The foundation should have tested it before. Is it allowed to sell it as a dev board? I don't think the comments in the article are right, that it is not allowed to sell it as a dev board, if they sell too many of it. There must be other reasons, maybe the intended use of it.

This will cause a major delay, if they have to do all the things like EMC, WEEE, CE etc. and then for all countries where they plan to ship it. Maybe we'll get the first devices sometime in summer.

I got my order in on day one and Farnell are quoting delivery in "early May". This is presumably one from the first batch.

I too am very surprised that they haven't sorted out regulatory testing. Even if the first batch of boards really is intended only for "developers", it would be unfortunate if interface specifications such as placement of ground pins needed to change to sort out radiated emissions or ESD problems.

Lets hope it works out OK.

John

I thought development boards are exempt anyway? I find it hard to believe that all the hundreds of well regarded dev boards from Olimex et al have been formally EMC tested. How could they be, most have headers for direct access to the microcontroller pins.

The Pi will very likely fail any such test IMO.

Gee, gee, gee... Is Dontronics is spreading FUD about the Raspberry Pi again?

Chris, if you look at the message I wrote, you will find I only quoted an email sent to me from RS, and did not comment at all. The subject line explains this, that is if you take the time to read it.

In fact I made sure I didn't comment, so people like you couldn't twist what I said, but you managed, didn't you.

You again have again concocted the message to suit your own agenda.

What is your agenda, and what is your beef?

If you don't like my messages, why do you join in the threads?

This was simply a copy of an email that RS sent to me because I expressed an interest in the Raspberry Pi.

What crime have I committed?

Cheers Don...

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who

Yes, dev boards are exempt, the issue is whether rPi foundation can support the claim that this *is* a dev board given the number of boards sold and the type of users who are buying them. From the quote above it sounds like someone's lawyers got into the loop and added the FUD. So of course the bean counters then said, "Let's get the testing done" since it can be pretty expensive if it turns out they get whacked with fines, etc.

It's the right decision.

Rick

It is most definitely not a development board and they explicitly say so in the FAQ:

Quote "What?s a Raspberry Pi? ... The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard. It?s a capable ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ little PC which can be used for many of the things that your desktop PC does, like spreadsheets, word-processing and games. It also plays high-definition video".

Then, quote "We want to see it being used by kids all over the world to learn programming".

By kids all over the world, to learn programming. That makes it rather clear that is is marketed as a computer and not a dev kit.

It's not FUD, the lawyer was IMHO right.

Absolutamente. Someone has screwed up when they prematurely announced this device. They should not have started sales before having all ducks in the row and they clearly didn't have them in a row. At least they fessed up and are doing the right thing now.

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So it could be positioned as a software development kit. And as a credit card sized target for embedded SW development.

Yeah, that is a bit "soft".

Yup, and I guess their laywers just had their comeuppance that that won't fly in case it goes wrong somewhere :-)