Raspberry Pi Revision 2.0 Board Announced 155
An anonymous reader writes "The Raspberry Pi finally saw a release on February 29 this year and is thought to have sold 200,000 units, with a million expected to ship before the year is over. That's a lot of tiny PCs, but it's also been an opportunity for owners to feedback any problems or tweaks they'd like made to the board. The Raspberry Pi Foundation has taken the feedback on board and today announced a revised design is being put into production. The new Raspberry Pi, known as revision 2.0 PCB, is expected to start shipping in the next few weeks. The revision includes a number of changes, but is essentially the same board. To summarize it includes a new reset circuit, a replacement for the reset fuses allowing for more reliable USB hub power, two GPIO pin changes for JTAG debug support, four redundant GPIO signals have been removed, and a new connector has been added for attaching a range of boards including a clock or audio codec. Two of the more easily noticeable changes include a fix that stops the HDMI connection interfering with certain operations of the Raspberry Pi, and the addition of two 2.5mm mounting holes to allow for easier mounting."
And also it's now made in the UK (Score:5, Informative)
In Wales by Sony to be exact
http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/1925 [raspberrypi.org]
Re:And also it's now made in the UK (Score:5, Insightful)
In Wales by Sony to be exact
http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/1925 [raspberrypi.org]
Nice! That would have been a far more interesting headline than "RasPi gets mounting holes and minor bugfixes".
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Nice for some because, well, quality production lines so hopefully less of a problem with supply.
Horrible for others because, well, ZOMG BOYCOTT SONY.
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Nice for some because, well, quality production lines so hopefully less of a problem with supply. Horrible for others because, well, ZOMG BOYCOTT SONY.
Naah, it's even good for those people: they can find something to whine about withiout too much effort. Just think how disappointed they'd be if the board were being manufactured from fairtrade components and PCBs made of sustainably harvested pressed hemp, by a local co-operative which shelters kittens and supports the orphanage down the road.
Sure, there would be an outraged campaign against the fact that the hemp wasn't 100% certified organic, but it doesn't quite have the satisfying ring of ZOMG BOYCOTT
Ewww (Score:4, Funny)
There's so much I love about this. Seeing British-designed products being produced in Britain. It just feels right. I love the educational aims of the RPi. I love the hacker culture around it. I love the ethical sourcing and the informal PR of the RPi foundation. It's all so good.
And then... it's produced by... Sony. Yuck.
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Yeah, I feel a bit dubious about that. I wasn't too excited about made in the UK in the first place (nothing wrong with capital flow to poorer countries in my book), but it's Sony, too. I really don't want to be putting money in Sony's pockets after the stunts they've pulled in the last decades.
Will there be an option to buy 2.0s by a specific manufacturer?
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I assume this is to test out the new hardware-based rootkit Sony's been working on? :-D
Well, the Sony Pencoed factory is less than 3 miles away from the (Bridgend) location of Fortium Techologies ( http://www.fortiumtech.com/ [fortiumtech.com] ), aka 'First 4 Internet', the subcontractor that developed the XCP rootkit for Sony...
Coincidence, or something more sinister?: http://cardiffskateboardclub.com/2009/08/21/the-longest-conspiracy-theory-in-the-world/ [cardiffska...rdclub.com]
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It's not truly open... (Score:5, Insightful)
My problem with the Raspberry Pi is that it's not truly open - there's a binary bootloader and graphics driver, and the SoC is undocumented. If I wanted to write my own operating system from bootloader to windowing system, I'd have to do a lot of reverse engineering. That's kinda why I'd prefer the Beagle Board.
(Disasbuse me of this notion if I am wrong.)
Re:It's not truly open... (Score:5, Informative)
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Depends on what you mean by binary blob.
If you are talking about the firmware, you don't have to integrate it into your code. In fact, it's executed on the GPU before your code gets to run, before the ARM CPU is even started. Think of it as the BIOS on a PC.
If you were instead talking about the OpenGL ES, OpenVG and OpenMAX closed source libraries, these are user-space libraries that you don't need to have a functional operating system. You only need them if you want hardware accelerated video decoding and
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The only binary blobs there are those I mentioned (the firmware that runs on the GPU and the user-space OpenGL ES, VG and MAX libraries). Everything else is open source. The kernel doesn't have any close source parts.
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I'm curious as to where they got the driver code for the USB controller from. There's no usable public documentation for that and probably never will be because it's a third-party IP core.
Re:It's not truly open... (Score:5, Insightful)
Bare metal programming is possible though, and the system is fairly open.
really, you can make an x86 computer for $35? (Score:2)
Since the RPi *is* a computer, I assume you meant an x86 computer.
Where exactly can you find one for $35 that has GPIO pins, runs linux, and has HDMI, USB, and gigabit ethernet?
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The problem is that the family computer is generally something you don't want the kids to mess up, which means they are limited in the things they can try. (I still remember getting told off by my dad for writing a program which poked random values to random addresses when I was a lad.)
You can mess up the Pi software COMPLETELY and restore it by re-copying it to the SD card.
You can solder stuff to the Pi and learn how
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Check out Olimex: https://www.olimex.com/dev/index.html [olimex.com], particularly the upcoming A13-OLinuXino. My understanding is that they are making hardware that is vaguely similar to the Raspberry Pi, but with full documentation.
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It's as open as any other ARM SoC with an integrated GPU. There's nothing stopping you from writing your own operating system. Many people already are in the process of doing that. The closed bits are only needed if you want hardware-accelerated 3d rendering and video decoding, which aren't necessary for an operating system to work.
The Beagle Board also has a GPU with closed source binary drivers, I don't see how how it's any different from the Raspberry Pi.
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Personally I like it. I haven't bought one but I will at some point when I have some time to play with it. There are 200000 people who feel like I do and have shelled out real money to get one. They, and people who are thinking about buying one have a reason to comment on board changes, you don't.
One question: are you a professional
cheaper plastic cases please. (Score:2)
Hello, I'd like a plastic case, from anyone, that doesn't cost anywhere near the price of the networked/motherboard/CPU powerhouse that is Rasberry Pi. We're talking about molded, (or whatever), plastic. Relatively precision plastic I will grant you, but a small plastic box is The Specification. It doesn't even need to look pretty, just more functional than the cardboard box now in-use. -Thanks, from my entire budget for Rasberries this season.
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This is a step up from a cardboard box and it's still dirt cheap:
http://h2database.com/raspi/ [h2database.com]
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That is pretty darn near perfect! Thanks. One of my Christmas projects is building asterisk servers to run as documented 'answering machines' associated with a www.12voip.com SIP account. Kudos!
http://nerdvittles.com/?p=1784 [nerdvittles.com]
Also, I'm thinking about moving away from a conventional dd-wrt Broadcom router setup and using a Pi as a firewall. Bringing down the cost helps buy a bunch of these, and saves electricity in the long run, and hopefully improves the firewall security too.
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4 pounds is too much for a hung of plastic. I see no reason why a case can't be 80p....in large quantities. Sure, you could make a case with a 3d printer but it wouldn't be cheap. injection-molding is still the least expensive per unit, but the mold has to be made. These molds can cost lots of money. So, someone needs to invest some money. Perhaps a kickstarter for it?
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Try a Tupperware sandwich container.
Bad USB drivers. (Score:4, Interesting)
Has the problem with the USB drivers [slashdot.org] been fixed?
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What is this?!? (Score:4, Informative)
After waiting for 11 weeks for my RaspberryPi to ship, then getting an email that they would need many more weeks to supply the orders, they announce a 2.0 revision? How about fulfilling your orders first? They announced to the world months ago that they are producing thousands of units per day and yet I still don't have my order. I really don't like how this company is working.
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I ordered mine from Farnell two weeks ago. They quoted three weeks for shipping. It arrived last week.
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If you're in the UK, order from CPC. I ordered mine (having cancelled my RS order) at 10am on Tuesday and it was delivered at around 11am this morning.
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You didn't buy it from the rasp pi foundation, you bought it from RS/Farnell/etc.
It's like blaming MS because your pre-ordered xbox at best buy didn't come in time while gamestop/etc still has tons.
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RS hasn't shipped it because there was a "delay in manufacturing delivery" (their words)
Dammit (Score:3)
I just bought one a month ago. And NOW they release an updated board? Com'n, you couldn't warn us it was coming???
Re:Dammit (Score:5, Funny)
I just bought one a month ago. And NOW they release an updated board? Com'n, you couldn't warn us it was coming???
No. [wikipedia.org]
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But that ignores the "now I'm fucking pissed, will never give you any of my money again, and badmouth you till the end of time" effect that often accompanies the Osborne effect.
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No it doesn't. It's a toss up of two evils, and a few bitching customers is worth not going completely under (the subject of the Osborn effect).
Mind you if customers really bitched about a lack of upgraded product announcements we'd have no more companies. It's common practice not to announce new products until they are imminently available for exactly that reason.
We're in the fast paced tech world, and a new model has been released. Unless your old one now magically doesn't work there's really nothing to c
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Despite being in a high-tech world and the consequences of the Osborne effect not a single tech company makes product announcements like this. Every single one gives many months notice of upcoming new releases. NO ONE does product announcements like this. And for a very good reason.
To blatantly say "yeah, we have this brand new board that's ready to go, we're just waiting for suckers to buy up all the old ones before we start selling it" is pretty damned stupid. They're sure not going to earn any good will
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Yes well most companies are driven by a profit motive, not a non-profit scraping through products at ludicrously low prices.
Sorry your 1 month old computer is obsolete. This was quite common a few years ago. But keep complaining, you only sound like a winger who hasn't missed out on anything and is out of pocket for less than a decent meal and a drink.
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The price is irrelevant. It's the principle. You don't milk people for money like this. It's bad form, it pissed people off, and pissed off people have long memories.
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You mean like where Intel or AMD will announce new CPU/GPUs many months in advance, so you know what's coming in the future and can decide whether you want to buy their current offerings or wait for the new ones? Those kinds of computers?
UK 2.0 (Score:5, Funny)
I am happy that the Raspberri PI has updated the UK to version 2.0. UK v 1.x was getting long in the tooth.
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Great. Do you know if they've fixed the weather?
And what about the motorway throughput? Is it really a driver problem?
Release date? (Score:3)
After not being able to get the first, when may I expect to be unable to get that one?
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I don't think you tried very hard.
still can't get the last model (Score:3)
Re:still can't get the last model (Score:5, Informative)
cancel your order and get it from MCM.. in stock and I'm getting them 2 days after ordering.
How about the A board first? (Score:2)
I have been waiting for the A board to be released. I want the 1/2 power use and all the useless stuff removed.
Please guys? release the A board soon! I have an alarm clock project and a car stereo project that is dying for the A board.
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In today's announcement about UK manufacturing, they stated that the Model A would be available before the end of the year.
Picaxe (Score:3)
I gave up trying to get a RaspberryPi long ago. I was looking forward to it for months, I had such plans for it, but it's one hurdle after another to actually buy one. I check back every few months to see if anything changed - today I looked again and what do I see in the availability column? "Awaiting delivery". Wonderful..
I'll just go back to tinkering with a picaxe instead.. it was cheap and easy to get and easy to make it do cool stuff even though I know nothing about about electronics. It may not run linux but it plugs into my ubuntu netbook and can be programmed with basic. It's actually fun, unlike the Pi which so far is just an exercise in frustration.
Hard to get? (Score:2)
Connectors (Score:2)
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Have they fixed it yet? (Score:2)
Have they yet replaced the defective closed-architecture chips that required binary-only drivers?
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qemu+wine are ----> over there. Although a hog like Visual Studio would take ages to even start.
Re:What about development tools? (Score:4, Funny)
Visual Studio = Microsoft, closed-source stuff and just plain evil with lawyers
Raspberry Pi = Linux, open-source stuff and just happiness with rainbows
Leave your nerd card at the door and never come back here.
Re:What about development tools? (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, it can. How do you think Intel's compiler integrates into Visual Studio? You just need to write the plugin for integration and make custom build rules.
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preview the force luke... damn, meant this board needs a lot of non-free stuff. /me hangs head in shame
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Whilst public moaning in completely unrelated forums may appear to be the best way to expedite delivery, talking to to RS or Farnell will probably yield better results. If you've been waiting months, and you really have paid, then something has gone wrong. I wasn't charged until despatch, and I received the board within eight weeks of first reserving it (not purchasing, reserving). Registered with Farnell/RS 2012-05-08, pre-ordered from Farnell 2012-06-13, despatched and invoiced 2012-07-17, arrived 2012-07
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They charged me immediately and quoted a ship time of 11 weeks. They missed that deadline already.
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Yes. Never order from RS. The other vendor has them in stock but RS has held my money since June 29 and wants to ship in October. I consider that "tentative" Fsck them.
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I cancelled my RS order on Tuesday morning and ordered from CPC (this was at 10:01am). I received my Pi at about 11am this morning. approximately 49 hours from order to delivery!
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Yes, I realize now after visiting the RPi forums that RS is crap. Canceling my order.
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I got mine two weeks after ordering from Newell or Newark or somesuch. They did tell me 8-10 wks so maybe I just got lucky.
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I'm in the same situation you are in, but I am just happy they are improving the board in response to the feedback they received. And so quickly, too. I wish all hardware vendors did that.
I also really don't feel bad about not getting a free upgrade. I paid my $35 knowing full well that I was paying for an early version that would likely still have some kinks to be worked out. The wait is long, but they told me it would be.
I feel they are handling this well, and I really hope the Raspberry Pi becomes the ro
Re:Still Waiting... (Score:5, Interesting)
Order from Allied 2.5 months ago. After hearing about the USB and Ethernet reliability issues I decided to cancel (literally this morning). Bought the Rikomagic MK802II [rikomagic.co.uk] instead. I should get it in 2 weeks too.
Here's a side by side comparison of the MK802 vs the Rasp. Pi.
http://youtu.be/YKNPnBE-ouI [youtu.be]
From my understanding, the Pi still beats the MK802 on price and GPIO (addressed in the video).
There are better products than the Pi (Score:2)
It's slightly bewildering how the Pi has such a massive following. There are many other competing devices (many of which have cases and aren't just boards) which cost roughly the same price. And there are devices which are truly open, which the Pi is *not*.
Ultimately it comes down to marketing and PR... and Slashdot.. which loves the Pi.
But clearly you're going to get more bang for your buck with a product built outside the UK, where wages are some of the highest in the world. And you're going to have
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What's good about the pi:
-easy to use GPIO libraries were available day 1 (this is lacking on a LOT of the ARM SoC implementations)
-they worked pre-release with the XBMC to ensure that a "functioning" media center was available day 1
-tiny, cheap, powerful "enough" (you'll find better bang for buck, but not generally "cheaper")
-HDMI and ethernet onboard. Many don't come with either, requiring an adapter card
It's not perfect, but it is in a bit of a "sweet spot" for hobbiests who need a bit of power and a b
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I ordered from Newark on 26 Aug and it was shipped (and charged) 5 Sept.
My order from Allied on 16 July is still in limbo (not charged and not shipped and no word from them) (I'll probably cancel it once I get my order from Newark).
So... it pays to shop around.
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Lesson learned. Don't order from RS online. Newark has over 100 in stock and RS wants to ship my Jun 29th order in October.
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I got mine from Farnell in less than a week.
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The problem is that doing so would fragment the development base while the project is still getting off the ground, with all the "cool" stuff going just to the higher end boards because the developers can't be bothered to do the more difficult optimization to let their projects run well on the more limited hardware. Despite the popularity among the hobbyist crowd the project's primary focus is on delivering a low-cost computer to allow accessibility to budget constrained educational institutions, and the
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They've already fragmented the developer base slightly. This board revision rearranges which GPIO pins correspond to which pins on the GPIO header; unless software developers go to additional effort to detect the board revision and use the correct GPIO definitions, software developed to use the GPIO interface on the newer revision won't work on the older and vice-version.
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True, but the I'd bet that the GPIO pins are only used by a fairly small percentage of the hobbyists, it's basically a fringe feature added for them because it added virtually nothing to the unit cost while increasing the hobbyist appeal (which is sort of their bootstrap market)
There's also the fact that it's trivial for a developer accessing the pins to detect the board revision, a matter of a couple lines of code, whereas it can take considerable effort to squeeze a demanding application down to run on a
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The software will work, you'll just need a breakout cable (which you already need anyways) which swaps the pins into the correct place for whatever interface board you'er using.
But simply detecting the RPI revision would be easy as well.
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There are no plans for upgraded hardware. The most they will probably do is move to a 512MB RAM chip when it starts being less expensive than the 256MB chip they are using now.
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I mean come on, what can you even do with this board that you can't do with a Mac Mini?
You can't fit a Mac Mini into a cigarette box and run it off of 5 volts all for less than $100.
mac mini? really? mini costs 17x as much (Score:2)
So the first thing you can do is buy 17x as many of them. You also get GPIO pins for hardware projects.
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change suppliers (Score:2)
Some suppliers are shipping immediately, others are on back order for some unknown reason.
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Because of the lack of mounting holes, it is very hard to design a snug-fitting case for the the first-gen Raspberry Pi. I'm pretty sure the component placement precludes using a rail-mounted design (slide-in) because there are too many components right at the edge of the board. And there are components at every corner of the board. About the only thing I can come up with are flat rubber bumpers where the CE logo is, under the Ethernet jack, and under the video jack, with different-thickness rubber bump
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the OLS (open logic sniffer probe) also was designed and shipped without any mounting holes.
what is it with very smart hardware guys who MISS THE OBVIOUS things like mounting screw holes?
I design and build hardware and while I'm not good enough to be a cpu system designer (my digital chops are more modest) at least I would not have omitted the so-obvious mounting holes.
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It's not just the lack of mounting holes. Give me a quarter inch of empty board space all the way around with no components and I don't need holes. Just build a case where the board slides in. The problem with this board design is that it has neither mounting holes nor even one single solitary contact point where you can put physical pressure on both sides of the board in the same spot without knocking components off. Opposite the CE logo are the major power regulating components for the whole board.
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I wish the board was just headers (pin headers) and had options for cables that would be chassis-mount friendly. THAT is how you do a DIY.
in fact, some would not connect the usb's to anything. some would not care about hdmi (like myself). some would not care about ethernet.
like the arduino, it should have been 'just pins' and with good idc ribbon cable options to standard connectors such as the rj45 and usb.
had they done that, it would have been cheaper and they'd have room for holes.
for these boards, I
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In other words, the current design tries too hard to cram too much into too little space. I tend to agree, though for non-case-mounted uses, I could see the compact size being useful. It's definitely a tradeoff.
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How is software supposed to look for the holes? With the camera which a) may or may not be connected, and b) may or may not be pointed at the board?
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Yes, but how many nuggets will that be?