Raspberry Pi Gets a Red-Tape Delay; Awaits CE Certificate 135
judgecorp writes "After many delays, the Raspberry Pi computer has arrived in Britain, but has been stopped by the need for a CE approval sticker to say it meets European regulations. The Raspberry Pi Foundation expects the sticker to be a formality, and says it failed to apply because it thought the Pi did not qualify as a 'finished end product.'"
Re:Seriously? (Score:5, Informative)
No, seeing as comparable systems, like BeagleBone etc don't...
Re:Seriously? (Score:5, Informative)
It's a bare board. They figured they'd get lumped in with arduino, etc, as "components" and not have to get certified. They're probably legally right, but the supplier doesn't want to take the risk. So they wait.
I dunno why they're waiting though. They could easily take their product to another supplier and sell out just as fast.
Re:Raspberry Pi already obsolete (Score:5, Informative)
The $15 card you're describing is a PCMCIA card form factor. Feel free to explain how to power it, plug a keyboard into it and hook it up to their TV without another $15 card with all the connectors you need for a practical application.
Also, the Broadcom on the Pi is about as obsolete as the ATMega parts used on the Arduino card. It gets the job done in the application it's put in. God forbid it's slower than a high end Cortex-A8 processor...
Re:go away, Broadcom (Score:4, Informative)
it wasn't the standards body that "called them out", but the retailers who asked "shouldn't it have...."
The Pi devs thought it didn't need the CE mark because it is an unfinished product, not a consumer device (eg it doesn't come with a case). they thought this because the Beagleboard [beagleboard.org] is a similarly 'unfinished' product and it too doesn't have the CE mark.
The Pi people are going through the CE motions to make sure they're covered, and finding out if they really have to go through the compliance checks on the side.
ArsTechnica does a much better job [arstechnica.com] describing the issue.
A formality? (Score:4, Informative)
The Raspberry Pi Foundation expects the sticker to be a formality
CE tests are more strict than FCC. If they have a leaky oscillator on the board - which is extremely likely if the board has poor ground or no shielding - then they are finished. I usually test prototypes on the bench, using a spectrum analyzer and a field probe. If that looks reasonable then the board goes into the chamber for measurements of real values.
It is not easy to meet those requirements. They are not liberal. The field will be measured up to several GHz, and the passing criteria is hard to meet if you have any sort of fast switching logic in your design. R-Pi has that.
They will be even testing for the noise that the switching power supply feeds back into the AC power. They better pick a good power supply. But wires are always a problem - they radiate as hell. That's why you often see ferrite beads on power cords - they are there not because the OEM decided to splurge on unnecessary stuff.
Re:Seriously? (Score:4, Informative)
The Arduino Uno [arduino.cc] does have a CE mark. Look at the picture of the back of the board.
I don't know it is required, but it does have it