Raspberry pi looks like a pretty good contendor against arduino

[Bored@Work]

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.

[Uncle Vernon]

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! 

[metalphreak]

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.

[updatelee]

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

[ndictu]

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

[firewalker]

FAIL!

 

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

Alexander.

[GeoffS]

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

[Monkeh]

Definitely cheaper, it's not even gold plated!

[Uncle Vernon]

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.

[westfw]

>> 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.)

[GeoffS]

Cheapest Pogoplug I've found is over $70 

[MarkS]

Internal magnetics? O.o Can someone please explain this to me?

[Bored@Work]

Magnetics is established laboratory slang for a a tiny transformer, which is required as part of Ethernet's physical interface.

[westfw]

Cheapest Pogoplug I've found is over $70

http://www.adorama.com/COCPOGOB01.html

[metalphreak]

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.

[MarkS]

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.

[armandas]

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 .

[metalphreak]

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)

[GeoffS]

Cheapest Pogoplug I've found is over $70

http://www.adorama.com/COCPOGOB01.html

$25.99 for the Pogoplug plus $59 to ship it 

[Chasm]

Yeah, the shipping cost to Europe is definitely a bit high.

[armandas]

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

[im_a_human]

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.

[Monkeh]

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.

[burb]

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 :-)

[WhyMe]

Some info here:

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