Howdy... pi noob

I don't think you can get a Chinese Pi any more. The usual source for Pi is:

or

and navigate to their US sites.

Class 4 is good enough for me (no 1080p recording yet) and some people say it's better for random read/writes. Cheap enough if you get it wrong!

I buy Sandisk exclusively but I never buy them from ebay or Amazon. No problems so far.

You don't need a case but it can get a bit untidy. If you're not bothered about aesthetics get the cheapest - I did. Cooling hasn't been an issue with me but I haven't over-volted the Pi (it voids the warranty) although I have over-clocked it slightly.

The most important thing is to get a good power supply - cheap phone chargers aren't good enough. Mine delivers 2 amps so it's got a bit in hand ;-)

I initially used an HDMI TV so I needed only an HDMI to HDMI lead. If you connect to a DVI monitor you'll need an HDMI to DVI cable; there will be no sound so you need an audio cable as well.

Having said that, I run the Pi "headless"; ie without a keyboard, mouse or monitor. You can do this by installing a VNC server (eg tightvncsever) on the Pi and a VNC viewer on a PC on the the same network and control it from the PC (either Windows or Linux).

Incidentally, the first thing I did was to apt-get install synaptic.

Another Dave

You mean they are made in the UK now? I thought they where all made in China. Certainly the main distributers are CPC/Farnell and RS, UK companies but that doesn't mean the Pis are made in the UK.

the

Why is streaming going anywhere near the storage it's a stream. Out of the camera, through the processors/RAM, out the ethernet/USB...

There's a licensing agreement that allows R-Pi to be produced and sold for the Chinese market - these are on red boards and don't carry FCC/CE marks so can't be legally imported for sale in US or Europe.

Yes, all Pis not destined solely for the Chinese market (those have red boards) are now made by Sony in Wales UK.

Some third party suppliers may still have stocks of the old Pis made in China.

I know an impoverished group who did a cheap project to introduce the Pi to as many people as they could. Cost really was a concern, and they sourced Chinese clones and the systems worked OK. Beyond that, since Pi's are so cheap anyhow, I've avoided the trouble and bought all my others from a local retailer who goes through the normal channels.

In my experience it goes model-by-model. There's a useful list at .

Mel.

On 26/08/2013 15:26, Another Dave wrote: []

I just bought two RPi cards from RS - both were from China and one was faulty. I was disappointed not to get UK manufacture, and disappointed to have to waste time sending one back. Still waiting a replacement and refund of the £3 postage, although I have now been promised both.

Wish I'd bought from ModMyPi instead....

RS have become a seriously dodgy company since the bean-counters took over. I now only use them if what I want is not available from Farnell - even on the rare occasions Farnell is more expensive.

If you 're happy to run the RPi headless from a Linux PC you can do it with no other software needed: just set up SSH for X11 forwarding and, if you don't care about a graphical interface, set the RPi runlevel to 3.

The standard RPi Linux distro, aka Raspbian, is an ARM port of Debian Wheezy.

I broke down and ordered one from Allied. Despite claims to the contrary, one can apparently get Chinese made pi's in US. AdaFruit has a disclaimer that they don't know (and won't be responsible) if the buyer receives a Chinese made pi. The entire distro network seems to be screwed up. Newark claims to have 24K pi's, Allied 2.4K pi's, and MCM claims zero pi's in stock! These are all official raspberry pi vendors listed on raspberrypi.org. Neither Newark or Allied knows what a pi B rev 2 board is or if theirs are, in fact, rev 2 brds. You can tell neither really gives a rat's ass. Jes another item in their vast warehouse of stuff to sell. ;)

nb

At the price, there's not enough money in it for most sellers to do more than just shift the boxes. If they cost more, the suppliers might take more of an interest.

On 26/08/2013 21:42, Martin Gregorie wrote: []

Exactly what I do here. I use PuTTY for the SSH terminal program, and xming for the graphics support (usually not needed). Both programs are free.

For the OP, my notes are here:

Lotta great info. Thanx for that.

nb

Thanx for the advice. This will be my first time running Debian, so I'm expecting big surprises, all good, of course. ;)

nb

Great resource. Thank you.

Being in the Colorado Rockies boonies, I was lucky to find anything. We do have a Radio Shack, but they only had class 4 cards, but said the local bike shop had some class 10 cards. ??? Turns out they are for onboard bicycle computers, but they were currently out of stock. As a last shot, I checked our lone supermarket, which had a single SanDisk class 10 card. Who'da thunk it. ;)

nb

Gosh, I am surprised or is it a result of the cockup with the first production run? Better control over manufacture over here...

Seems that one needs to be careful when using the term "Chinese Pi". Need to specify if you mean a recent manufacture but destined for the Chinese market or old manufacture in China.

I'm still trying to figure out why you can't export the two Pi's I just bought which are clearly labeled "Made in China". :-)

bill

Nothing more cynical than better pricing.

No-one knew initially hoe many Pi's would be sold, so from what I gather, for the first few batches none of the UK assembly plants could get the cost down to the price the foundation wanted, but when they saw the volumes shipping, then it did become fesable to assemble in the UK. Components are for the most part still sourced abroad (AIUI).

China obviously didn't want to import, so one of the makers (Egoman) make them under license for the Chinese/far-east markets, and make them with a red PCB. Like this one:

There was some big issue initially about not paying tax on Chinese imported ready-made goods - but you do pay tax on components! I'm not sure if this is still the case, but a bit of a fuss was made about it initially (Read the forums for more details)

Highly unlikely. Really. It would also be a Rev 1 board - again highly unlikely. Buy a Pi today from anyone in the UK and it will be a UK made, Rev 2 Pi.

Red vs. Green (or Blue!)

Gordon

On 27/08/2013 18:36, Gordon Henderson wrote: []

I bought an RPi from RS Components very recently, and the green PCB is labelled "Made in China", as was the gaudy purple box the RPi came in.