Raspberry Pi Here to Stay?

[4pyros]

I am surprised that there is not more actvity around this product yet, even a sub forum for it.
I was thinking of a winter project using Pi's to set up a control system for a large Halloween Haunt I work at.
Do you think the Pi is here to stay?

 

[Wp100]

Hi,

Had thought about getting one earlier this year, but every time I looked at the suppliers like Farnells/Element14/Newark it was, Coming Soon followed by Coming Soon again.

Now they have introduced Version B, hardware and new firmware, within 6 months of the original which would have made me angry if I had the A version, which, I believe is, in practical terms not upgradable.

Ok, you buy your Pi but thats no good, they don't do 'working out of the box' you have to buy all the extra cables and have the stuff to get it working, costing nearly as much again.

Seems like all the projects you can do with it, like a web camera etc, are going to cost you a lot more as well, thats assuming you have any chance of buying the extra modules/ parts before next Christmas.

Seems like the guys doing it have been very good at political and commercial lobbying to get everyone on board but think they have failed badly in delivering a competent product line.

Also feel the novelty factor will soon wear off for the school children it was originally intended for, cannot see them fiddling around with all those bits when they have such a choice of complete equipment around them.

They might hang on for another year as schools have probably committed to buying them, seems you are now allowed to order up to 100 at a time.

If they cannot sustain the volume cannot see it lasting much longer; but would not be surprised if they brought out a more complete cased version.

Hmmm... reminds me of what a young Sinclair did back in 1980, he started with the Mk14 micro kit and soon after brought out the complete ZX80/81

 

[ronsimpson]

I can't tell that there are here. Can't find one.

 

[4pyros]

I can't tell that there are here. Can't find one.

Newark says they have 20 ready to go with more on the way.
https://www.newark.com/jsp/search/productdetail.jsp?SKU=43W5302&CMP=KNC-GPLA&mckv=|pcrid|13950363021|plid|
Apparently the first 10,000, that's right 10,000 sold out almost immediately.
https://www.cnn.com/2012/12/21/tech/innovation/raspberry-pi-computer-upton/index.html

 

[be80be]

Newark billed me for one I never got it, Then they tell me they didn't bill me it was shipping on a $20.00 dollar order.
Not so I was billed all but shipping on the Pi. So i get a we don't do things like that so i figure I'd buy some more stuff from them ordered a RTC chip and some more stuff get a red led in a big box they made that order right.

They can forget about me ever buying agin from them.

That ended my want's for a PI I'll make my own thank you may not be the same chips but will run the same OS.

 

[4pyros]

Newark has been generally good for me over many years.
I can see a lot of people get pissed with the supply issues of the pi.
Many of them 1st time buyers with no history of Newark.
Newark is not your run of the mill supplyer they just had problems getting the pi's out as fast as they were being ordered.

 

[RichTheDude]

I am very dubious about the Pi's future. It's a lovely idea but I just can not see me using it for any projects I do, nor other engineers. It does not have enough processing power to do any computation I do in realtime (I would use a mini itx board), and for low level control I would just use a micro-controller.

So for me the problem is finding a use for it. Less engineering focused folk love the idea of it (making hardware projects with Python etc - I hope there are good io libraries!) but how long this novelty will last for I am not sure.

 

[4pyros]

I am very dubious about the Pi's future. It's a lovely idea but I just can not see me using it for any projects I do, nor other engineers. It does not have enough processing power to do any computation I do in realtime (I would use a mini itx board), and for low level control I would just use a micro-controller.

So for me the problem is finding a use for it. Less engineering focused folk love the idea of it (making hardware projects with Python etc - I hope there are good io libraries!) but how long this novelty will last for I am not sure.

I think I have a good use for it,"Scene Controllers" using audio video and I/O networked together.
I just dont want to spend a hole winter setting it up only to have the platform die.

 

[ronsimpson]

Newark has 0.
Total sails =1,000,000 in 1 year.
A ARM board with no video, no LAN is $99. If you want ARM it is a good choice if you can get one.

It does not have enough processing power to do any computation I do in realtime

There are many 8 bit CPUs doing real time computing at more money.

 

[4pyros]

Newark has 0.

Did thay just sell the last 20 in the last few hours?

 

[RichTheDude]

Newark has 0.
Total sails =1,000,000 in 1 year.
A ARM board with no video, no LAN is $99. If you want ARM it is a good choice if you can get one.

There are many 8 bit CPUs doing real time computing at more money.

I am talking computation which takes a few minutes to do on an i7 , I usually end up doing it in "logic" (i.e. FPGAs).

 

[()blivion]

Is the RasPi doomed? Probably. (It's already being eclipsed by the cubieboard honestly.)

But such is the life of media devices, hot technology one minute, woefully inadequate the next. The chips these systems are made from are really intended for portables with an adequate lead time to market. They have really short expiration dates, so making what is essentially a cheap dev system out of them doesn't really make any sense. Unless of course the chips used are future generation devices. And making it as a "platform to teach children programming" doesn't really make much sense either, there are better ways to do that. Notepad++, a compiler/interpreter, and a decent internet tut can get most people off the ground with what they already own. Flash game tuts are better at capturing interest than a bare PCB also, which is arguably a much more important point.

My opinion, the RasPi was wish fulfillment for developers, the public raison d'etre came after as post justification for the project. I Could probably do something interesting with one, so wouldn't mind getting one for free, but I wouldn't go out and buy one. My PC works just fine.

*THESE* COMs (Computer On Module) are far more powerful, but need a digit or two dropped off the price tag before I would get one /)

What I would REALLY like to see is an economy COM that uses modern commodity laptop parts. Such a board would have stack-able I/O boards for interfacing with EE projects and the like, just like the above COM's can be made to do. I say "commodity", because I can get a dual, and sometimes even quad core 1.5+Ghz socket S1 laptop CPU for 5-7$ on ebay easy. And 2+GB of RAM for about the same price. I already have a few of each actually. And as powerful as modern ARM CPUs are, a modern laptop CPU would still lap them in performance. That's because x86 is typically tuned for performance, where ARM is designed primarily for power efficiency. Best part about such a fantasy device is that there exists far more free and open x86 software floating around out there. More devs too.

I wonder if such hardware would be something the ETO gurus could come together and design...? I may have to make a thread and test the waters.
-()b

 

[picbits]

I don't think they are doomed.

You have to bear in mind they were designed as a low power experimental board at a budget price for kids and electronic enthusiasts to mess about on.

They will always do this and a their price point of around £27 including VAT over here.

I bought two the other day. I've only unpacked and played with one but it is perfectly happy hooked up to my 42" LCD television streaming 1080p video and running openelec / xbmc. I'll probably have the other one in the workshop monitoring the environment, controlling the heating, serving the CCTV and playing some music and video. With a power consumption of <=5W they pay for themselves in less than a year in power savings alone.

The sales of them may slow down with the release of similar SBCs at similar pricepoints but you need to take a step back and look at what they were originally designed for.

 

[picbits]

Is the RasPi doomed? Probably. (It's already being eclipsed by the cubieboard honestly.)

Which would be good if you could actually buy a cubieboard - I've just had a look and it's still being promised but not available for sale. It looks quite a cool little device but they have yet to release it properly, get it out to the masses then sort out any bugs that are found.

The rPi is pretty much tried and tested now, has a massive following and there are tens of thousands of units now out being used.

I'll certainly look at grabbing a cubieboard if it's at rPi prices over here though

 

[4pyros]

Which would be good if you could actually buy a cubieboard - I've just had a look and it's still being promised but not available for sale. It looks quite a cool little device but they have yet to release it properly, get it out to the masses then sort out any bugs that are found.

The rPi is pretty much tried and tested now, has a massive following and there are tens of thousands of units now out being used.

I'll certainly look at grabbing a cubieboard if it's at rPi prices over here though

The question is how much is it

 

[Vizier87]

If they make $20 small HDMI monitors it'll be much more worthwhile. I bought one for my lab just to play around and it looked pretty decent. Being tiny it should be portable, but it isn't when you have to power up a monitor to do anything with it.

 

[()blivion]

I've just had a look and it's still being promised but not available for sale.

I saw. The same problem plagued the Raspi, and before that it was the OpenPandora. It's no surprise, all most every small group made projects like these have this same exact problem. It's not vaporware, it's an unavoidable problem that will resolve it's self in short time, just as the Raspi and Pandora situation did. And when it does, I believe many many Pi purchasers will have buyers remorse as the cubieboard has twice the numbers in just about every conceivable stat for an otherwise identical product.

If that isn't the definition of "doomed" then nothing really is.

That being said, people have, do, and will buy the Pi. So it's tangible existence is pretty much guarantied. But it's philosophical existence is very much threatened IMHO.

 

[ronsimpson]

Being tiny it should be portable, but it isn't when you have to power up a monitor to do anything with it.

What do you suggest? I am looking for information.
My development boards require a PC to program them. The RasPi needs a TV and a keyboard. Many of the ARM boards can be programmed over the internet. My last ARM project has half of the boards in USA and half in Malaysia. The programmers can program any board at any location.

 

[picbits]

What do you suggest? I am looking for information.
My development boards require a PC to program them. The RasPi needs a TV and a keyboard. Many of the ARM boards can be programmed over the internet. My last ARM project has half of the boards in USA and half in Malaysia. The programmers can program any board at any location.

My rPi doesn't need a keyboard, mouse or screen to operate. I can SSH into it and remotely control it.

 

[4pyros]

The flash card on the pi holds the operating system you can just pop it into a PC.