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.'"
Raspberry Pi already obsolete (Score:4, Interesting)
The Raspberry Pi is already obsolete. Rhombus-Tech [rhombus-tech.net] is coming out with a board based on the Allwinner ARM implementation, 3x as fast as the obsolete CPU the Pi crowd is using. "Mass-volume pricing (just for the CPU card, and therefore excluding tax, shipping, profit, a case and a power supply) looks to be on target for around $15:" They're also looking at reusing the BeagleBoard form factor (which is much like an Arduno) and coming out with a fast Linux board in that format.
By the time the Raspberry Pi crowd delivers, they'll be obsolete. Much like the OLPC.
Re:Seriously? (Score:5, Interesting)
Raspberry Pi delayed? Shocking!
I thought we were just days away last month?
http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/696 [raspberrypi.org]
TLDR: Saturday 2/25 Eben expected the boards to ship (to them) that day or Monday.
I'm sure the Pi-ers will mod me down fiercely, but come on guys... I ordered one too, I want one, but lets not pretend this has been handled well.
Re:Raspberry Pi already obsolete (Score:3, Interesting)
That's an interesting idea, but how much will it cost, it looks like it may be more expensive for the base unit since from the FAQ:
"Why is the price of the Allwinner A10 EOMA-68 Card $15?
It damn well isn't! We are getting a massive amount of misunderstandings about this. We have reported that based on estimates from the Reference Board supplied by the Manufacturer of the SoC that the MATERIALS COST is APPROACHING $15 in MASS VOLUME quantities of 100,000 units.
That is excluding a case, power supply (which as the unit can be powered by USB-OTG is not needed), packaging, tax, customs duty, shipping and, most importantly, a profit margin.
Any company has to make a profit, and a CIC is no different. Charities and Not-for-Profit Foundations can get away with not making a profit, but Rhombus Tech is not a Charity."
Also a PCMCIA card is going to be very much less convenient to use as a computer than a device which has the following ports: USB, Ethernet, DVI, sound out
Re:Seriously? (Score:2, Interesting)
Correct. They're doing it because their (consistently, horribly unprofessional) distributors insisted that it be done... not because regulations actually apply with this device.
The foundation desperately needs to get away from these horseshit companies. They've completely dropped the ball at every single step of the process, from the launch itself, to maintaining accurate information for current and future buyers, to present day, last-minute issues with the CE mark.
The Raspi team was right to go with outside distribution, and they picked (what appeared to be) appropriate companies for the job. It just hasn't worked out and they need to cut the bums loose.
Re:Seriously? (Score:2, Interesting)
It might seem unfair, but I understood that a group of people with a big goal, on a small budget, doing something interesting and different... that was going to come with quite a few headaches. So when they pushed the dates, goofed on public updates or didn't handle misinformation properly... well, I understood and felt I had no reason to get cranky.
But when two mature businesses that sell electronic components for a living can't get their goddamn acts together to save their lives, I have a little less patience. It's doubly frustration for those that have already ordered theirs... because those people are now customers. And it's not even like they just underestimated what they'd need at launch and ignored the direct warnings, they've continued to screw everything up ever since.
In short, I'll happily cut the foundation all kinds of slack. They're not a big for-profit business with customers. They're basically a group that's been blogging about the process of trying to make something really cool, and doing a really good job of it. These distributors, however, are a joke.
Re:Seriously? (Score:2, Interesting)
Based on how the EU regulations are worded, to qualify as a "finished end product" the board is supposed to have an enclosure. No enclosure, it's not a "finished end product" and it doesn't require EMC. Personally I think this is a silly way of deciding what needs to be compliant, but that's how it's worded.
I haven't really been following the Raspberry Pi, but it doesn't look like it comes with an enclosure. So it sounds like the distis are just being anal (unless you believe the conspiracy theory discussed above).
Re:Seriously? (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.raspberrypi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/1seaofpis.png [raspberrypi.org]
gosh this looks like a lot of Raspberry Pi's in shrink wrap, I wonder if maybe you got modded out for some reason other than you make sane reasonable points with evidence in a calm and reasonable manner?
Its 29 or March, there is ~900 boards in the picture, they are still in China.
Launch date was 29 February (full 30 days ago), Launch means here you go click and buy. There was nothing to buy.
If you read post that came with that picture you will learn they are talking about 2000 boards, so where did the 8000 go? They never existed in February.
Btw I just checked and they banned me :-) Banned me for saying they "officially launched" with ZERO inventory.
Launch was in February. Farnell says that EARLIEST date is June. It all stinks. I feel scammed.
Its one thing to be incompetent, its another to constantly lie.