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Electronics => Microcontrollers => Topic started by: shims506 on January 10, 2012, 12:24:04 am

Title: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: shims506 on January 10, 2012, 12:24:04 am
http://www.raspberrypi.org/ (http://www.raspberrypi.org/)

Some of the people at my local Hacker Space has brought this up on a forum and looks promising. The device is capable of blu-ray play back 1080p and is affordable at a price tag of $25. The product is still in testing phase and proto-boards may be bought on ebay (close to around 800+ euro which all goes to help fund their project).

Anyone think this may kill the arduino?

Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: PeterG on January 10, 2012, 12:31:20 am
It 1200+UKPounds, i dont think Arduino is in any real danger with its $30-$50AUD boards.

Regards
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: shims506 on January 10, 2012, 12:34:11 am
It 1200+UKPounds, i dont think Arduino is in any real danger with its $30-$50AUD boards.

Regards


Those are the beta boards and it was up to the company to put such a hight price, enthusiast and followers bid to that price which to me is shocking.

Once testing is done they announced a $25 price tag on it.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: joelby on January 10, 2012, 12:41:53 am
The proceeds from the auctions are being used for charitable purposes - hence the high prices. There was an article today about how one was bought for the purposes of donating it to a computer museum.

At the $25 target price, I can think of little reason to use an Arduino for anything! An Arduino WiFi shield is, what, $40+? With Linux you can use a <$10 USB WiFi dongle, and rapidly develop interfaces in Apache and PHP or whichever stack takes your fancy.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: 8086 on January 10, 2012, 12:45:24 am
I see it being used for ethernet applications instead of arduino, for example. But for general tinkering or if you are a beginner etc. Arduino is still going to be the go-to board.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: PeterG on January 10, 2012, 12:50:03 am
I see it being used for ethernet applications instead of arduino, for example. But for general tinkering or if you are a beginner etc. Arduino is still going to be the go-to board.

Yes, i see Rapberry Pi as being a good Hi Performance option. There Arduino is a good general use board.

Regards
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: amspire on January 10, 2012, 01:01:08 am
I am really looking forward to getting hold of a $25 Raspberry Pi board, but it is not a replacement for Arduino - it is more of a compliment. Arduino can do networking, but it is really pushing its capabilities. On the other hand the Arduino is perfect for simple control and 16x2 LCD display type work. The Arduino can run on a surface mount or through hole processor, and you can move an Arduino project from the Arduino board to a custom project at just the cost of a $3 IC and a few other very cheap parts.

Raspberry Pi on the other hand would be a nightmare to implement on a custom PCB, and the costs would probably be more than $25, since the $25 is subsidized. They are probably getting the best possible pricing from the chip suppliers.

The Arduino processors run off microamps if you slow the clock down far enough, so it can be fabulous for battery low-powered applications.

To have both options will be absolutely great.

Richard.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: IanB on January 10, 2012, 01:10:03 am
I never thought of Raspberry Pi competing with Arduino. One is a low cost computer, the other is a microcontroller experimentation platform. Is the Raspberry Pi going to have a whole variety of hardware interfaces and a friendly dev environment to access them?
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: 8086 on January 10, 2012, 01:11:34 am
I think it's sufficient to put it this way:

Raspberry Pi is mostly about software

Arduino is mostly about hardware

They don't really meet at all.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: Psi on January 10, 2012, 01:14:27 am
I'm sure you can flash an LED with your 700Mhz ARM cpu if you really want to :)
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: joelby on January 10, 2012, 02:18:05 am
Is the Raspberry Pi going to have a whole variety of hardware interfaces and a friendly dev environment to access them?

Hardware remains to be seen, but there's no reason why a 'shield' ecosystem won't emerge.

For software development.. you can run vi on it! What more could you want? :) It will run all of the 'normal' development tools natively, or you could cross-compile from a PC.

I agree that for cheap applications, being able to move from an Arduino prototype to a bare MCU is great, but for anything that has to be Internet connected, or deal with more advanced sensors such as cameras, you might as well use Linux and everything that comes with it when it costs so little.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: 8086 on January 10, 2012, 02:25:18 am
I'm sure you can flash an LED with your 700Mhz ARM cpu if you really want to :)

Oh sure, in fact that's the first thing I did with my IGEPv2 board: IGEPv2 LED Flash (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wAY26UADRM#)

But it's oh so pointless.  :D
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: ejeffrey on January 10, 2012, 03:08:56 am
As near as I can tell there is no ADC, no PWM, and it won't ship with I2C or SPI drivers.  IO is 3.3 volt only, and there are only 8 GPIO.  It also consumes a fair bit more power than the arduino, which may be an issue for some people.

It looks quite promising, but it isn't exactly an arduino replacement for easy hardware hacking, at least not yet. 

Edit: 8 GPIO is a lie.  Just like arduino, the other peripheral ports can be reconfigured as GPIO, so there are more like 17 available pins.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: joelby on January 10, 2012, 03:43:22 am
There are Linux drivers for I2C and SPI, but it would take a tiny bit of hacking to get them working with a new board. I'm sure it won't take very long.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: westfw on January 10, 2012, 10:00:02 am
Quote
I'm sure you can flash an LED with your 700Mhz ARM cpu if you really want to
Sure.  You just download the LED loadable kernel driver.  Which will of course require a new version of the extended precision math and multilingual 3d gui button libraries before you can compile it.  But that'll need a new version of the C compiler that isn't compatible with the core ARM support, so you ....

(come to think of it, updating Arduino past gcc 4.3 isn't looking like such a walk in the park, either.)
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: firewalker on January 10, 2012, 10:31:43 am
There is no "threat" for Arduino from Rpi and vice versa. It's potatoes and tomatoes.

Off topic. I am really hopping for an XBMC version to be available with the release date of Rpi.

Alexander.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: PeterG on January 10, 2012, 10:42:20 pm
If they can get XBMC working on this, then i would be interested....... it would make a nice little media box.

Regards
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: firewalker on January 10, 2012, 11:01:51 pm
Actually I had read it in Wikipedia.

Quote
Raspberry Pi community forum administrators have mentioned that XBMC developers are also in development of a port of XBMC media center software to Broadcom BCM2835 SoC based devices using the Raspberry Pi board as its reference platform.

Alexander.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: benemorius on January 10, 2012, 11:29:19 pm
I'm sure you can flash an LED with your 700Mhz ARM cpu if you really want to :)

Not in real time you can't. ;) :D
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: firewalker on January 11, 2012, 03:35:57 pm
If they can get XBMC working on this, then i would be interested....... it would make a nice little media box.

Regards

Raspberry Pi XBMC (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHlLnLqEBfg#)

Alexander.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: steff on January 13, 2012, 02:08:17 pm
I think it's sufficient to put it this way:

Raspberry Pi is mostly about software

Arduino is mostly about hardware

They don't really meet at all.

Have a look at the Gertboard. I can easily see the RPi taking off for hardware projects that require a bit of floating-point oomph (I'm looking forward to seeing what people get up to with them in the homebrew UAV/autopilot world, for instance - not having to count cycles in your Kalman filter has to be a big help in ease of implementation).

Obviously, it's no replacement for Arduino as a means of prototyping things that will later just a bare AVR and the minimum of external components though.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: 8086 on January 13, 2012, 02:19:23 pm
I think it's sufficient to put it this way:

Raspberry Pi is mostly about software

Arduino is mostly about hardware

They don't really meet at all.

Have a look at the Gertboard. I can easily see the RPi taking off for hardware projects that require a bit of floating-point oomph (I'm looking forward to seeing what people get up to with them in the homebrew UAV/autopilot world, for instance - not having to count cycles in your Kalman filter has to be a big help in ease of implementation).

Exactly. These are projects that need lots of processing in software. The RPi has I/O just like Arduino, but it uses unfriendly voltages, so requires extra hardware to interface to normal hobbyist stuff, etc. And of course Arduino is simpler to use, much lower power, doesnt have any need to 'boot', etc. So for simple hardware projects, Arduino wins. For processing, RPi wins.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: MarkS on January 24, 2012, 08:08:37 pm
It looks good and I'll be getting one. I am curious how they got around HDMI licensing issues?
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: Psi on January 24, 2012, 09:25:00 pm
It looks good and I'll be getting one. I am curious how they got around HDMI licensing issues?

Do you mean HDCP?
I doubt it implements HDCP at all. Being open source i don't see how they could.

Remember HDMI is just DVI with a SPDIF sound channel and standard timing for 720p/1080p and other TV related resolutions.
It does have optional HDContentProtecton but you don't have to use it unless your playing protected content.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: MarkS on January 24, 2012, 10:03:06 pm
It looks good and I'll be getting one. I am curious how they got around HDMI licensing issues?

Do you mean HDCP?
I doubt it implements HDCP at all. Being open source i don't see how they could.

Nope.

http://www.hdmi.org/manufacturer/terms.aspx (http://www.hdmi.org/manufacturer/terms.aspx)
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: ndictu on January 24, 2012, 10:48:18 pm
Nope.

http://www.hdmi.org/manufacturer/terms.aspx (http://www.hdmi.org/manufacturer/terms.aspx)

The 5/15 cents (I don't think they do HDCP) are not an issue. The 10k - maybe this is paid by the graphics chip manufacturer? I would say that if it already has all the HDMI pins they probably have to pay it, and RPi is just adding a connector to that so it would be ridiculous if they had to pay again...
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: Psi on January 24, 2012, 10:56:03 pm
I think the licensing is to do with labeling your product with the HDMI logo.

I don't see how an old PC (pre-hdmi) with a DVI port connected to a DVI-HDMI adapter can violate the licensing.
And if that's true, then they should be able to do HDMI without a licence as long as they don't use any HDMI logo or say it supports HDMI specs.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: jerry507 on January 24, 2012, 11:22:03 pm
I'd love to have that much processing power in my micros, but unfortunately I'm not that good with software. This platform will be great for the subset of humanity that can write linux drivers. An arduino is much more for people who are either very new at writing software or just want some of the nice bits done for them so they can hack out an easy project faster.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: mobbarley on January 25, 2012, 02:26:03 am
I'm sure you can flash an LED with your 700Mhz ARM cpu if you really want to :)

Not in real time you can't. ;) :D

sure you can, you just need to dump the scheduler - and possibly find a data sheet........
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: GeoffS on January 25, 2012, 11:28:29 am
AS more of a software person that a hardware hacker, I'm looking forward to seeing/getting one of these.
There are a number of projects I'd like to start that require a cheap Linux computer to run.

I have a feeling these will sell out quicker that Dave's uCurrent  :)
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: baljemmett on January 25, 2012, 01:53:02 pm
This platform will be great for the subset of humanity that can write linux drivers.

I don't think kernel-level programming will be a required skill to use the Pi in an embedded controller type of situation; they recently posted a video (http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/500) of the GertBoard GPIO expansion board, which includes some demonstration code showing how to talk to the GPIO lines just by reading and writing files in the /sys filesystem.  In the grand old Unix tradition, everything's a file!
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: firewalker on January 25, 2012, 01:58:54 pm
The kernel sources.

https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux (https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux)

And another XBMC video.

XBMC on Raspberry Pi SCALE 10x 2012 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NR57ELY28s#ws)



Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: ndictu on January 25, 2012, 03:45:09 pm
So, what are your project ideas for this? Personally I'm going to plug one behind my TV, hook up some Ir receiver, install XBMC and have a small media center, streaming videos from my NAS.

Edit: Also, another idea I had was to take a USB (web)cam, really large SD card or an external HDD and use it as a dashcam in car. Should be easy to do (given a camera with available drivers), and then I still can hook up plenty of extra stuff to it (GPS for track logging, OBD for speed/gas usage logging, playing music from SD card to car speakers, ...)
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: firewalker on January 25, 2012, 07:49:21 pm
It would be a nice board for implementing GSM automations with cheap mobile phones with usb port.

Alexander.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: MarkS on January 25, 2012, 08:45:13 pm
So, what are your project ideas for this?

A game system, similar to a Super Nintendo or SEGA Genesis in power/performance and focusing on platformers, but with HD output.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: ndictu on January 25, 2012, 08:53:00 pm
So, what are your project ideas for this?

A game system, similar to a Super Nintendo or SEGA Genesis in power/performance and focusing on platformers, but with HD output.

That's pretty cool! I've seen complete emulators and multiple ROMs built into some of the old controllers, but with this you get much more power so you could do more recent stuff.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: MarkS on January 25, 2012, 08:57:47 pm
Oh no, no emulator. I want to play around with something of my own design. I have always like the old-style ROM interface and this would provide it (somewhat) with either USB sticks or SD cards. Besides, I have too much respect for Nintendo and SEGA to blatantly pirate their IP.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: ndictu on January 25, 2012, 09:17:51 pm
So like creating your own game (or use some linux game) with some oldschool controller?
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: MarkS on January 25, 2012, 09:24:58 pm
So like creating your own game (or use some linux game) with some oldschool controller?

Well, yes. I actually would probably make it more extensible by making some sort of software API, although I have never done any Linux programming. I need to think on this more. I was originally thinking about something comprehensive and general purpose, but my original plans (from several years ago) did not involve Linux. I was going to do something like this with an ARM controller and a HDMI interface. That is actually why I brought up the licensing issue. HDMI was going to require me to pay the $10,000 fee just for technical docs and this was just going to be a home project. :-\
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: ndictu on January 25, 2012, 09:59:50 pm
I also had a few ideas that were supposed to use a custom design with some ARM processor and some linux, but I can't do it as well or cheap as RPi is. Also, if I base my project on a popular piece of HW more people might try it and become involved.

For example, the car dashcam will be just an USB camera, maybe USB harddrive, and then maybe some extra stuff. But the important part will be the software, which can be a collaborative work. And when I get bored with it I just unplug everything and start a new project :)
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: ndictu on January 26, 2012, 12:00:46 am
Just BTW for people interested in playing video on this thing.

Quote from: http://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?p=318975&sid=99ac027ee46dc34482e19a435d166674#p318975
Yes, the Raspberry Pi uses the same CPU & video chip set as the Roku 2
models

Quote from: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4903/roku-2-xs-review-streaming-videos-and-casual-gaming-on-the-big-screen/7
H.264 (MP4, MOV and MKV containers)
 WMV9 (ASF, WMV)
H.264 was already confirmed earlier by RPi guys, not sure about WMV9. Beyond that nothing is confirmed, but if Roku 2 which is supposed to be some media player doesn't support more codecs I guess there is no HW support for them. (I really hope that is not the case and RPi supports more).

If there is no more HW support then using an USB optical drive for DVDs is out, so is streaming other videos from SD card/network (xvid, divx, ...)  :(
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: firewalker on January 26, 2012, 01:00:16 am
They said that the HW support will be clarified soon.

I am guessing there will be extra features that the user will have to pay extra.

Alexander.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: Hypernova on January 26, 2012, 02:51:28 am
I'm sure you can flash an LED with your 700Mhz ARM cpu if you really want to :)

Not in real time you can't. ;) :D

sure you can, you just need to dump the scheduler - and possibly find a data sheet........

Anyone who tries to code a 700Mhz ARM bare metal is either a genious or a glutton for pain.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: firewalker on February 02, 2012, 08:32:40 pm
http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/592 (http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/592)
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: mikeselectricstuff on February 02, 2012, 08:39:02 pm
I'm sure you can flash an LED with your 700Mhz ARM cpu if you really want to :)

Not in real time you can't. ;) :D

sure you can, you just need to dump the scheduler - and possibly find a data sheet........

Anyone who tries to code a 700Mhz ARM bare metal is either a genious or a glutton for pain.

Depends a lot what you want to do - if all you want is to do a simple task very quickly, an OS can be more of an encumbrance than a help.
I believe the basic I/O hardware on the RPI processor will be documented, and the ARM core is of course fully documented.

 
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: olsenn on February 02, 2012, 08:42:47 pm
I don't even use arduino or other micro dev boards anymore... I use FPGA dev boards, like the Terasic DE0 Nano or Digilent Atlys; they are so so so so much better in every respect. The rasberry pi looks like it will be obsolete before it even gets released... they're trying too hard to keep the price under 30 bucks.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: buxtronix on February 03, 2012, 12:49:14 pm
I don't even use arduino or other micro dev boards anymore... I use FPGA dev boards, like the Terasic DE0 Nano or Digilent Atlys; they are so so so so much better in every respect. The rasberry pi looks like it will be obsolete before it even gets released... they're trying too hard to keep the price under 30 bucks.

The Pi is certainly not going to be obsolete. Unless your FPGA boards are credit card sized, run linux, and can have programs written from them in C, python, etc, etc...
The Digilent is HUGE, and over 10x the price. The Terasic is not the same thing at all it has USB and... a bunch of IO pins.

You are comparing apples and oranges. The Pi fits a segment that NOONE has anything for yet. So whilst it will be no good for hardcore FPGA devs, it's perfect for those who want a tiny embedded system, and who are already familiar with Linux. That's a big big market.

Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: mobbarley on February 03, 2012, 04:58:40 pm
The Pi fits a segment that NOONE has anything for yet. So whilst it will be no good for hardcore FPGA devs, it's perfect for those who want a tiny embedded system, and who are already familiar with Linux. That's a big big market.

Yes, finding a cheap (and easy to use) embedded linux board is hard! So far i've been hacking wireless routers with openwrt just so I can use them as small systems for various things - now I can have a cheap bare PCB with a whole lot more community support.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: tinhead on February 03, 2012, 05:38:47 pm
there are tons of embedded and cheap boards out there, the problem is always in front of the computer.

All these FirendlyARM S3C2410/S3C2440/S3C2416/S3C6410/s5pc100 are easy to use and cheap,
if you need cheaper than this buy a DPF like this https://sites.google.com/site/repurposelinux/df3120
(and solder maybe bigger RAM for 2$)

RPI might be a good thing too, currently it is only a nice try to have something US made
to "fight" all these Samsung SoC

I don't even use arduino or other micro dev boards anymore... I use FPGA dev boards, like the Terasic DE0 Nano or Digilent Atlys; they are so so so so much better in every respect.

i like both, FPGA and ARM (9/M3/A8), depends on need there is always something in
my "portfolio" which can be used for next project.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: AntiProtonBoy on February 04, 2012, 01:00:51 am
The Pi has an OpenGL 2.0 ES capable graphics chip built in, so if you want to do graphics programming on a cheap, compact platform, you can. It would be certainly of interest for the more adventurous game and graphics programmers. I'd consider using it for a custom game console or an arcade machine.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: westfw on February 04, 2012, 01:17:54 am
I dunno.  PI will benearly unique in that it has very good graphics capabilities, but ... if you want to teach/learn programming, it could be that "graphics" is a huge distraction...
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: GeoffS on February 04, 2012, 01:31:10 am
I have an ongoing project to connect a wireless weatherstation and  webcam which will be done under Linux.
The Raspberry Pi is the cheapest way I can do this so look forward to its release although I imagine that the first batch will be gone pretty quickly.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: Bored@Work on February 04, 2012, 01:34:26 am
I dunno.  PI will benearly unique in that it has very good graphics capabilities, but ... if you want to teach/learn programming, it could be that "graphics" is a huge distraction...

If looking at the home computer era then graphics was a big motivation for kids to start programming. And the Raspberry PI (who comes up with these stupid names?), tries to recreate the success of the home computer era.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: AntiProtonBoy on February 04, 2012, 03:19:21 am
I dunno.  PI will benearly unique in that it has very good graphics capabilities, but ... if you want to teach/learn programming, it could be that "graphics" is a huge distraction...
Why would graphics be a distraction? Distraction from what exactly?

Computer graphics encompasses a whole range of programming topics, including problem solving, mathematics and advance algorithms.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: djsb on February 04, 2012, 08:06:36 pm
How are people meant to program these boards? If they are meant to be as easy to program as the old BBC computers where is the equivalent programming language? I've read that maybe it's python? Any thoughts?


David
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: ndictu on February 04, 2012, 11:32:51 pm
How are people meant to program these boards? If they are meant to be as easy to program as the old BBC computers where is the equivalent programming language? I've read that maybe it's python? Any thoughts?

Basically, it's a linux machine. You can do whatever you want with it. Get a python interpreter on there and you can run python scrips. Write some C/C++/... and compile it. Or Java/Mono/... through a VM. Whatever you want. If you are really hardcore you can write your own peripheral kernel drivers. But I guess all the GPIO will be exposed in a more friendly fashion.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: ndictu on February 04, 2012, 11:35:11 pm
BTW, any news on release date? Should be soon if I remember right (and if nothing went wrong). Also, since it gained so much popularity, I'm assuming it'll be on backorder forever.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: ndictu on February 07, 2012, 08:29:18 pm
(Sorry about the triple post)

Some news - http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/615 (http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/615)

Finished boards by 20.2., orders should start near the end of the month. They are making 10k for the first run, and limiting order to one per person, so there is some chance of getting one :)

Also, they released a datasheet for the SoC they are using, but just an abbreviated version. Should be enough for low level peripheral stuff. And I'm sure the full datasheet will leak soon.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: AntiProtonBoy on February 08, 2012, 01:32:50 am
I really hope their website can cope with the influx of orders, because the whole site is just a mess. Their mailing list does not work, there is no RSS feed for news, the forum is terrible, and it looks  everything has been slapped together via Wordpress.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: joelby on February 08, 2012, 01:36:44 am
I can't comment on the mailing list or the forum, but what's wrong with the RSS feed?
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: AntiProtonBoy on February 08, 2012, 05:09:36 am
I tried signing up to their mailing list, and it gave me a 404.

I can't find an RSS feed for the actual blog site. I know the forum has one, but i don't want my feed flooded with random forum threads.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: Sal Ammoniac on February 08, 2012, 05:24:31 am
Anyone think this may kill the arduino?

This is in no sense an Arduino killer. In fact, it's not even in the same niche at all. The Raspberry Pi is more of a competitor to the BeagleBoard.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: joelby on February 08, 2012, 05:56:05 am
The RSS feed can be found at http://raspberrypi.org/feed (http://raspberrypi.org/feed) . There's no RSS icon or text link, just a <link rel="alternate"> tag that shows up an "RSS" thing in some browsers.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: AntiProtonBoy on February 08, 2012, 06:00:16 am
Much better, thanks. Interestingly, the RSS icon did not show on FF10. Weird.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: 8086 on February 28, 2012, 02:36:37 am
http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/716 (http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/716)

Almost time!
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: ndictu on February 28, 2012, 02:01:57 pm
First time I'm glad I have to wake up at 6 am (CET, so 5am GMT) tomorrow, so I can be ready to order :)
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: im_a_human on February 29, 2012, 10:42:32 pm
Im tempted to get one but i will wait for the rush to die down and the suppliers to bring there sites back up
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: Uncle Vernon on February 29, 2012, 10:46:14 pm
Can you load Ubuntu 12.10 onto a Rasberry Pi Model "B" that you don't have?
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: Jimmy on March 01, 2012, 01:22:41 am
I don't know but u can load up a vm that has the same specs and try that. Mine comes in the mail next week

Not if you are going to buy it of element 14 buy the $38 one not the $50 cut down version
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: Uncle Vernon on March 01, 2012, 02:15:23 am
Mine comes in the mail next week
Will wait to see if this realises. I see lots of orders but have not as yet seen anyone on the planet actually having a Pi in the postbox. And as always we poor schmucks in the antipodes will not rate high on the global delivery schedule.

Quote
Not if you are going to buy it of element 14 buy the $38 one not the $50 cut down version
Don't both versions of the board have the $20 dollar E14 tax applied?
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: Jimmy on March 01, 2012, 04:25:12 am
Mine comes in the mail next week
Will wait to see if this realises. I see lots of orders but have not as yet seen anyone on the planet actually having a Pi in the postbox. And as always we poor schmucks in the antipodes will not rate high on the global delivery schedule.

Quote
Not if you are going to buy it of element 14 buy the $38 one not the $50 cut down version
Don't both versions of the board have the $20 dollar E14 tax applied?

I got confirmation email of expected delivery date of 5/3/2012 so I hope it is some time next week.  We pay gst so its $38 + gst delivered  It is an Australian distributor with Chinese manufacturer

O I apologize the $50 is the chip only no board is included
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: GeoffS on March 02, 2012, 02:31:31 pm
Just noticed a credit card hit for $41.80 the cost of a Raspberry Pi which I ordered from Element 14.
Hope fully this indicates that the order has been filled? I've never ordered from Element 14 before so don't know what there billing practices are.

I'll find out soon, I hope.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: joelby on March 02, 2012, 02:33:09 pm
Generally they don't charge until they ship (so if your order is delivered from different warehouses over several days, you'll be charged for each shipment separately), but anything's possible!
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: GeoffS on March 02, 2012, 03:03:30 pm
Just went and checked the order on the Element 14 website and it gives a status of back order  :(
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: metalphreak on March 02, 2012, 03:03:54 pm
Is it a credit card charge? or a hold? I can't remember but generally they put a hold on the (total amount of) funds and then actually charge you a day or so after it ships. If they ship an order in multiple lots, they have an actual charge for each lot, and reduce the hold accordingly.

I've also got a *hold* for $41.80 on my card :)

02/03/2012   AUTHORISATION ONLY - EFTPOS PURCHASE AT FARNELL IN ONE CHESTER HILLAUSAU      $41.80


You will usually get an email with the ETA once they know when they'll get stock, and another invoice when it actually ships. Don't forget they only had 10,000 in the initial batch, with actual demand far far surpassing that :)
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: Bored@Work on March 02, 2012, 07:02:20 pm
Don't forget they only had 10,000 in the initial batch, with actual demand far far surpassing that :)

From what I read, both RS and Farnell had non or almost non in stock at all, the boards still being on the boat from China.

And if I get it correctly, RS didn't dare to take orders at all, just allowing to register an interest. While Farnell initially had the balls to take orders and later switched to registering an interest only. People who managed to place an order with Farnell are now complaining on Farnell's element14 that their delivery dates are pushed back to e.g. end of April. No one who could be taken serious has come forward and claimed he got a shipping confirmation.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: Uncle Vernon on March 02, 2012, 09:32:40 pm
From what I read, both RS and Farnell had non or almost non in stock at all, the boards still being on the boat from China.
Here is the problem with becoming a self appointed language Nazi, eh Bored? Glass caves, stones and all that. Hmm!  :D :D :D :D
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: metalphreak on March 03, 2012, 06:11:20 am
From what I gathered, the Raspberry Pi foundation had a batch of 10,000 made by an assembler in china. Knowing the huge demand for it, they decided to let E14/RS handle production with their own assemblers. So while E14/RS are organising new production runs, I would assume they each got allocated a share of the initial 10,000 to start selling.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: updatelee on March 05, 2012, 03:08:16 pm
Don't forget they only had 10,000 in the initial batch, with actual demand far far surpassing that :)

From what I read, both RS and Farnell had non or almost non in stock at all, the boards still being on the boat from China.

And if I get it correctly, RS didn't dare to take orders at all, just allowing to register an interest. While Farnell initially had the balls to take orders and later switched to registering an interest only. People who managed to place an order with Farnell are now complaining on Farnell's element14 that their delivery dates are pushed back to e.g. end of April. No one who could be taken serious has come forward and claimed he got a shipping confirmation.

element14 online status shows

Expected Ship Date 13 Mar 2012

on my order, we'll have to see though

Chris Lee
VE6UDL
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: ndictu on March 05, 2012, 04:14:43 pm
element14 online status shows

Expected Ship Date 13 Mar 2012

on my order, we'll have to see though

Lucky :) I'm still waiting till they get stock

Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: firewalker on March 08, 2012, 04:25:14 pm
FAIL!

 :P :P :P :P

http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/781 (http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/781)

Alexander.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: GeoffS on March 08, 2012, 04:25:49 pm
Delayed!

Apparently the manufacturer substituted a cheaper part that the one specified on the BOM,
Part in question was the Ethernet jack,

Story here
http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/781 (http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/781)

Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: Monkeh on March 08, 2012, 04:34:32 pm
Definitely cheaper, it's not even gold plated!
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: Uncle Vernon on March 08, 2012, 09:25:27 pm
Delayed!

Apparently the manufacturer substituted a cheaper part that the one specified on the BOM,
Part in question was the Ethernet jack,
From a consumer point of view it's an RP fail. Nothing in the story identifies which batches are crook, which order will be fullfilled or delayed further. Blaming a component part doesn't preclude the vendor. If a component part on my BMW fails, I still have a broken BMW until repair, same applies to RP.

I'll never understand the logic in overestimating delivery in these marketing launches, sure it fans up interest but it all too often creates as many poor experiences as good ones. And we know which experiences get the most coverage.

I'm keen to have a play with a RP board, but stuffed if I can understand the general frenzy and with that the inevitable Rev 1.0 headaches for all who play.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: westfw on March 09, 2012, 07:24:26 am
>> I'll never understand the logic
I'll never understand the logic of "needing" to be one of the first people to get something.
This isn't even a profit-motivated project (supposedly); there shouldn't have been so much pressure to cause screw-ups of this magnitude...

(meanwhile, I bought a pogoplug for $25.  Shipped.  In a pretty pink box, power supply and ethernet cable included.)
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: GeoffS on March 09, 2012, 08:14:37 am
Cheapest Pogoplug I've found is over $70  :(
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: MarkS on March 09, 2012, 05:00:43 pm
Internal magnetics? O.o Can someone please explain this to me?
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: Bored@Work on March 09, 2012, 05:46:58 pm
Magnetics is established laboratory slang for a a tiny transformer, which is required as part of Ethernet's physical interface.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: westfw on March 09, 2012, 05:56:48 pm
Cheapest Pogoplug I've found is over $70
http://www.adorama.com/COCPOGOB01.html (http://www.adorama.com/COCPOGOB01.html)
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: metalphreak on March 10, 2012, 05:25:26 am
Internal magnetics? O.o Can someone please explain this to me?

Have you ever noticed the big thick black IC on network cards just after the RJ45 socket? That is where the transformers are for the interface. These newer "MagJacks" integrate that into the socket to save space.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: MarkS on March 10, 2012, 06:14:08 am
Have you ever noticed the big thick black IC on network cards just after the RJ45 socket? That is where the transformers are for the interface. These newer "MagJacks" integrate that into the socket to save space.

Actually, I have never really paid much attention to ethernet, other than plugging the cord into the back of my computer. Never really cared to get into networking. Thank you for the info though. It was a term I was unfamiliar with.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: armandas on March 10, 2012, 10:48:59 am
Internal magnetics? O.o Can someone please explain this to me?

Have you ever noticed the big thick black IC on network cards just after the RJ45 socket? That is where the transformers are for the interface. These newer "MagJacks" integrate that into the socket to save space.

Here's a photo of one on the PCB and a couple of depopulated modules (they're not really ICs :).
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: metalphreak on March 10, 2012, 11:58:55 am
http://www.raspberrypi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Side-View-Mag-Type.jpg (http://www.raspberrypi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Side-View-Mag-Type.jpg)

You can just make out the four transformer windings in this x-ray from RPi.

I've never cracked one of the magnetic's "ICs" open before so thanks for sharing that pic :)

Typical Magjack internal Schematic (from a Hanrun model)
(http://i.imgur.com/V3tqH.png)
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: GeoffS on March 10, 2012, 12:58:22 pm
Cheapest Pogoplug I've found is over $70
http://www.adorama.com/COCPOGOB01.html (http://www.adorama.com/COCPOGOB01.html)

$25.99 for the Pogoplug plus $59 to ship it  :(
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: Chasm on March 10, 2012, 03:15:48 pm
Yeah, the shipping cost to Europe is definitely a bit high.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: armandas on March 10, 2012, 05:03:13 pm
Anyway , is it BGA solder balls am i seeing on the screw holes that prevent the screw from scratching the board ?

I don't think they used actual solder balls there. You can see similar balls popping out of vias in planes and traces. It's weird and not something I can explain :D
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: im_a_human on March 14, 2012, 06:54:11 pm
I hope if i get one of these to be able to have some kind of PC based 'C' compiler so i can write my own applications with it. I would want to write some kind of boot loader for booting into my own OS from the SD card. Then the world would be at my feet. :)
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: Monkeh on March 14, 2012, 07:28:52 pm
I hope if i get one of these to be able to have some kind of PC based 'C' compiler so i can write my own applications with it. I would want to write some kind of boot loader for booting into my own OS from the SD card. Then the world would be at my feet. :)

They run Linux. You can compile C, C++, C#, D, or just about any other language you fancy right there on the device (or crosscompile from another OS if you really must) and then run the program. They are not Arduinos; they're complete Linux PCs in a palm sized device.
Title: Raspberry Pi
Post by: burb on April 26, 2012, 09:41:11 pm
Raspberry Pi - it would be great to hear what you think of it, including

- board layout
- price
- components, manufacturing, how price is so low
- what would make different
- are you in the slightest interested by it
- opinion opinion opinion :-)

Title: Re: Raspberry Pi
Post by: WhyMe on April 27, 2012, 12:24:29 am
Some info here:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/microcontrollers/raspberry-pi-looks-like-a-pretty-good-contendor-against-arduino/ (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/microcontrollers/raspberry-pi-looks-like-a-pretty-good-contendor-against-arduino/)
Title: Re: Raspberry Pi
Post by: johnboxall on May 09, 2012, 02:33:59 pm
Some info here:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/microcontrollers/raspberry-pi-looks-like-a-pretty-good-contendor-against-arduino/ (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/microcontrollers/raspberry-pi-looks-like-a-pretty-good-contendor-against-arduino/)

That is the start of this thread :)
Title: Re: Raspberry Pi
Post by: Kremmen on May 09, 2012, 06:09:32 pm
Raspberry Pi - it would be great to hear what you think of it, including

- board layout
- price
- components, manufacturing, how price is so low
- what would make different
- are you in the slightest interested by it
- opinion opinion opinion :-)
Just 5 minutes ago Farnell informed me they would now take my order - so i placed it. Price is right, the rest remains to be seen. My interest is mainly to use it as a realtime computing engine for CNC applications, path control for coordinated motion and suchlike. But it all depends. Linux would be the preferable OS but whether RTAI or any other realtime kernel can run in Raspberry will be found out only after i have it. If not then maybe a lower level kernel like the FreeRTOS could be doable. That one of course has zip device support so forget video and other civilized things unless i find a way to run that under Linux. But yes, it is interesting and possibly even useful. The investment to find out is negligible so what is there to lose?
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: AntiProtonBoy on May 10, 2012, 12:25:23 am
What's the availability like? Still have to wait for ages?
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: GrumpyDave on May 10, 2012, 10:47:28 am
What's the availability like? Still have to wait for ages?

Pretty much, I registered my interest to buy with RS on the release day at approx 10am and have not been able to place an order yet..

I  received an email on the 8th saying they are still producing thousands of PI's for people in order of registration and there will be a mail next week, no dates were specified..

I have no Idea how Farnell (element14) are doing as I did not register with them.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: Kremmen on May 10, 2012, 11:06:35 am
What's the availability like? Still have to wait for ages?
Farnell wrote about July/August for the order i placed yesterday. No firm commitment though.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: joelby on May 10, 2012, 11:09:42 am
I actually registered with both, because both were having problems and I thought I'd hedge my bets. element14 (Australia) rang up yesterday to say mine would be shipped on either the 25th or 28th (I don't remember which). RS continue to send me update emails, but nothing to give an indication of when they'll be available.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: jucole on May 24, 2012, 10:00:41 am
Hungry for hardware? and you're still waiting for the Raspberry Pi you ordered? well it seems there are other options on the menu now!

Quote
Raspberry Pi faces challenge from Android-based rivals Via Technologies' APC micro-PC Powered by a WonderMedia ARM processor, the APC offers an alternative to the Raspberry Pi.
The Raspberry Pi computer faces fresh competition from two Asian micro-PC rivals. Taiwan's Via Technologies has announced plans to sell the APC. Like the Pi it comes with its motherboard exposed and is designed to be connected to a TV or monitor. It follows the MK802 - an enclosed PC-on-a-stick from China's Rikomagic - which went on sale last week.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18163419 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18163419)
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: T4P on May 24, 2012, 10:50:39 am
Oh Via ? Alright all that's important to me is if it has a SATA/m-SATA connector if it doesn't then zilch for me
Looks like all of them don't so they lost my father's purchase  :P
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: Jimmy on May 24, 2012, 11:28:04 am
I have had my r-pi for about a month now :)

The layout is a little hap hazad with connectors on all 4 sides of the board some hang over the side alot. Parts of the board get quite warm but mos vregs do. It didn't like the first 3 sd cards that I had here so I had to go buy one that was in their hardware list. I haven't had a problem with it yet and for the $38 I paid for it it is awesom

now looking at the http://apc.io/about/  (http://apc.io/about/) Via Technologies' APC micro-PC  it looks good however it dosent have and gpio like the pi but it is not marketed for the hackers like the pi is. The Pi does 1080p so the media player crowd will stick to the pi. The Via board has mounting holes so it is easyer to mount.

There are many good points about both boards and cheap enough to have one of each.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: StubbornGreek on May 24, 2012, 01:10:51 pm
There seem to be a number of products being introduced as "mini" computers. The RPi looks great, so does this $74 Android option below and finally, the Intel NUC is looking sheksy!

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/05/new-74-android-mini-computer-is-slightly-larger-than-a-thumb-drive/ (http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/05/new-74-android-mini-computer-is-slightly-larger-than-a-thumb-drive/)
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: Quiggers on June 24, 2012, 04:10:40 pm
I've registered but heard nothing since the original e-mail to say they recieved my request,
the other mini pc's are great if you want to add internet to your home cinema but i want
the Pi so i can use it as an embedded dev board, plus I like to support the foundations education ethos.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: Kremmen on June 24, 2012, 04:20:27 pm
I can't recall when i sent the original email to register for buying but it was some time ago already. However, just yesterday they (RS) sent me an invitation to place my order which i did. They quoted a 10 week delivery time - we'll see.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: caroper on June 24, 2012, 10:21:18 pm
I have also had mine for nearly a month, I ordered it from RS South Africa but it was shipped by RS UK. Certainly good value for money, but it is definitely still a beta.


I don't really have the time to learn Linux and Python right now. so rather than have it sit idle on my desk I loaded XBMC for Raspberry Pi and hung a usb drive off it.
It makes a very usable and cheep Media Center PC.


Cheers
Chris







Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: gtsili on July 01, 2012, 08:31:20 am
I just received my Raspberry Pi on Friday and quickly put together an SD card with Debian and omxplayer. I am attaching a picture of the Pi playing a 1080p x264 DTS movie over my LAN. I am very happy with it so far and can't wait to try xbmc. Note the CEC capability.   
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: ndictu on July 02, 2012, 04:41:30 pm
I just received my Raspberry Pi on Friday and quickly put together an SD card with Debian and omxplayer. I am attaching a picture of the Pi playing a 1080p x264 DTS movie over my LAN. I am very happy with it so far and can't wait to try xbmc. Note the CEC capability.

I might try that next, I've used some old OpenELEC builds when I received mine and it was extremely slow while in the menus, playback itself was OK. I don't plan to use it as a serious media center but only as a small and simple player that I can put behind TV and remotely start a movie on it.

BTW, anyone using some remote control receiver?
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: elliot42 on July 03, 2012, 12:38:56 am
I might try that next, I've used some old OpenELEC builds when I received mine and it was extremely slow while in the menus, playback itself was OK. I don't plan to use it as a serious media center but only as a small and simple player that I can put behind TV and remotely start a movie on it.

BTW, anyone using some remote control receiver?

I've also tried OpenELEC and found the menus much more responsive with the CPU overclocked to 900MHz. I also clocked the RAM to 450MHz but it was unstable when I tried it at 500MHz. I still get freezes/crashes sometimes when using the menus or scanning for media. Video playback has been fine, I've watched a few full movies and haven't had problems while watching them.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: gtsili on July 03, 2012, 06:43:28 am
Hi guys,

I have tried Raspbmc (see attached photo), that has a very smooth and easy automated installation. The menus where not that slow but the playback on high definition was very choppy and I did manage to crash it while playing a video. Under the hood Raspbmc is a very minimalistic Debian so you can ssh and tinker with thinks from the console (I did a proper nfs4 mount because I do not like the way xbmc does that). I was thinking of trying OpenELEC too. I do not like this overclocking business, Raspbmc also overclocks the CPU at 800MHz but the chips are quite hot already. I have not connected any remote control receivers yet but there are several options (either a usb one or something using the GPIO) but the one I prefer is the CEC solution. Raspbmc does not use libCEC from what little I have read. One more think I forgot to mention is that omxplayer does not need X-windows to display the movie, so memory-wise and performance-wise it will be the clear winner. I am sure that with a little bit of effort I can put together a simple ncurses program that just browses around a predefined path and uses omxplayer to play the selected movie. What the heck, you can even set up midnight commander to do that.

I might try that next, I've used some old OpenELEC builds when I received mine and it was extremely slow while in the menus, playback itself was OK. I don't plan to use it as a serious media center but only as a small and simple player that I can put behind TV and remotely start a movie on it.

BTW, anyone using some remote control receiver?

I've also tried OpenELEC and found the menus much more responsive with the CPU overclocked to 900MHz. I also clocked the RAM to 450MHz but it was unstable when I tried it at 500MHz. I still get freezes/crashes sometimes when using the menus or scanning for media. Video playback has been fine, I've watched a few full movies and haven't had problems while watching them.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: T4P on July 03, 2012, 07:09:31 am
Throw a heatsink onto it. It will help in the long run
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: gtsili on July 03, 2012, 07:38:21 am
I was thinking the same Dave however, both chips are a very small die with headers and jacks around them. So I need to search around for something suitably small and low profile as well as a good thermal conductive adhesive.

Throw a heatsink onto it. It will help in the long run
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: T4P on July 03, 2012, 10:19:40 am
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/aluminum-cooler-heat-sink-chipset-for-ram-memory-w-type-8-piece-set-35816 (http://www.dealextreme.com/p/aluminum-cooler-heat-sink-chipset-for-ram-memory-w-type-8-piece-set-35816)
Or this one if it fits:
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/universal-southbridge-heat-sink-chipset-cooler-48616 (http://www.dealextreme.com/p/universal-southbridge-heat-sink-chipset-cooler-48616)

I'm aware of the size of the broadcom chip it's pretty small
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: elliot42 on July 04, 2012, 12:54:51 am
I haven't yet noticed any heat issues with mine. The highest I've measured the CPU at is 42 degrees Celsius (surface temperature).
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: gtsili on July 04, 2012, 06:34:50 am
Thanks Dave, those are great!

I suppose it depends on your ambient temperature (quite hot in Greece at the moment), the load on the CPU/GPU as well as what features of the board you are using. Add to that, a bit of overclocking and encase the board on a box with low ventilation and you have a possible problem. I have not measured the actual temperature but after an hour of playing around with it, the chips were bearably comfortable to the touch, so as a rule of thumb around 50 C. I am attaching a picture taken with a thermal camera with the board under full load playing high definition video and using the ethernet. More images and info at: http://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/675/what-are-the-maximum-operating-temperatures-of-the-components (http://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/675/what-are-the-maximum-operating-temperatures-of-the-components)

I haven't yet noticed any heat issues with mine. The highest I've measured the CPU at is 42 degrees Celsius (surface temperature).
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: ndictu on July 04, 2012, 07:57:15 pm
I'm probably going to make an enclosure for it and put a big PC fan at low speed to get some airflow, and maybe mount some heatsinks on it (although I don't really want to put on any adhesive, so maybe some clip-on heatsinks with just thermal compound). I need to get a proper thermometer gun but the chip and SD card gets quite warm.

I've tried an ear thermometer but it only said 45+, a sad face and started beeping like crazy because it thought I'm going to die in the next few seconds :)
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: elliot42 on July 05, 2012, 01:03:52 am
gtsili: Interesting photo, thanks. Ambient temperature here isn't very high at the moment when I'm running it, 20C max. I don't have a fancy thermal imaging camera, just a cheap IR thermometer, but I'll keep an eye on the temperature when I'm next playing with the Pi.
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: T4P on July 05, 2012, 01:51:04 am
The ambient temperature around here is always like 36 or something else when it's not raining
Things can get crazy here... The high ambient temperature claimed my old HP laptop many times
my 858D once
basically fried many things due to the HAT,
i mean like, where the hell have they been developing them? OHWAIT ... China
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: gtsili on July 05, 2012, 05:46:29 am
I've tried an ear thermometer but it only said 45+, a sad face and started beeping like crazy because it thought I'm going to die in the next few seconds :)

Hahahahaha, I almost fell of my chair laughing with that. Epic engineering story!!!!  ;D

gtsili: Interesting photo, thanks. Ambient temperature here isn't very high at the moment when I'm running it, 20C max. I don't have a fancy thermal imaging camera, just a cheap IR thermometer, but I'll keep an eye on the temperature when I'm next playing with the Pi.

I don't have a fancy thermal imaging camera either. The original article and images are from the guys on "hack a day".

The ambient temperature around here is always like 36 or something else when it's not raining

 :o OMG
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: nctnico on July 05, 2012, 09:00:48 pm
The ambient temperature around here is always like 36 or something else when it's not raining
Things can get crazy here... The high ambient temperature claimed my old HP laptop many times
my 858D once
basically fried many things due to the HAT,
I hope you have airco over there? Singapore is pretty warm compared to other cities in that part of the world. I once visited the old fortress on Sentosa Island. Fortunately they had refill points for my water bottle!
Title: Re: Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino
Post by: T4P on July 05, 2012, 09:16:21 pm
The ambient temperature around here is always like 36 or something else when it's not raining
Things can get crazy here... The high ambient temperature claimed my old HP laptop many times
my 858D once
basically fried many things due to the HAT,
I hope you have airco over there? Singapore is pretty warm compared to other cities in that part of the world. I once visited the old fortress on Sentosa Island. Fortunately they had refill points for my water bottle!

Yeah i do, my fan is always on full so heat is not an issue, the weather's starting to cool down since Tuesday