Schlagwort: Raspberry Pi Products

  • Sustainable clothing with Rapanui and Raspberry Pi

    Sustainable clothing with Rapanui and Raspberry Pi

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    New to the Raspberry Pi Store, Cambridge: T-shirts made using Raspberry Pis in Rapanui’s sustainable factory.

    Oli Wilkin – our Glorious Retail Guru, to give him his formal title – has been hard at work this year bringing the Raspberry Pi Store, Cambridge, to life. Open since February, the store continues to evolve as it introduces our credit card-sized computer to a high-street audience. Oli and the store team are always talking to customers, exploring new ideas, and making changes. Here’s Oli on the latest development: Rapanui clothing, made sustainably with the help of Raspberry Pis.

    Rapanui 2

    Subscribe to our YouTube channel: http://rpf.io/ytsub Help us reach a wider audience by translating our video content: http://rpf.io/yttranslate Buy a Raspberry Pi from one of our Approved Resellers: http://rpf.io/ytproducts Find out more about the #RaspberryPi Foundation: Raspberry Pi http://rpf.io/ytrpi Code Club UK http://rpf.io/ytccuk Code Club International http://rpf.io/ytcci CoderDojo http://rpf.io/ytcd Check out our free online training courses: http://rpf.io/ytfl Find your local Raspberry Jam event: http://rpf.io/ytjam Work through our free online projects: http://rpf.io/ytprojects Do you have a question about your Raspberry Pi?

    Rapanui

    Brothers Mart and Rob started bespoke clothing company Rapanui in a garden shed on the Isle of Wight, with an initial investment of £200 (about $257 US). Ten years later, Rapanui has grown to a fully fledged factory providing over 100 jobs. Their vision to create a sustainable clothing brand has seen them increase Rapanui’s offering from T-shirts to a much wider range of clothing, including jumpers, socks, and jackets. Another reason we like them a lot is that the factory uses over 100 Raspberry Pis with a wide variety of functions.

    Rapanui’s early early days weres not without their challenges. Mart and Rob found early on that every improvement in sustainability came with a price tag. They realised that they could use technology to help keep costs down without cutting corners:

    Along the way, we needed a real low-cost option for us to be able to get computing in and around the place. Someone said,
    “Oh, you should check out Raspberry Pi.”
    “What’s that?”
    “It’s a computer, and costs twenty quid or something, and it’s the size of a credit card.”
    “OK – that can’t be true!”

    We got one, and it just blew our mind, because there’s no limit to what we could do with it.
    – Mart

    The Raspberry Pis are supporting things like productivity improvements, order tracking, workload prioritisation, and smart lighting. All employees are encouraged to try coding when they start working for Rapanui, and they’re empowered to change their workplace to make it smarter and more efficient.

    As Mart explains,

    In the world today, there’s a lot of issues around environment and sustainability, which feel like compromises – you want to do your bit, but it costs more. What this kind of technology allows us to do is make things cost less because you can create these massive efficiencies through technology, and that’s what enables you to be able to afford the things that you want to do with sustainability, without having to compromise on price.

    Circular economy

    All of the organic cotton that Rapanui uses is fully traced from India to the Isle of Wight, where it is turned into amazing quality branded items for their customers. Once a garment has come to the end of its life, a customer can simply scan the QR code on the inside label, and this QR code generates a Freepost address. This allows the customer to send their item back to Rapanui for a webshop credit, thus creating a circular economy.

    Raspberry Pi + Rapanui

    All of this makes us very pleased to be working with Rapanui to print the T-shirts you buy in the Raspberry Pi store.

    Rapanui – from workshop to store

    Subscribe to our YouTube channel: http://rpf.io/ytsub Help us reach a wider audience by translating our video content: http://rpf.io/yttranslate Buy a Raspberry Pi from one of our Approved Resellers: http://rpf.io/ytproducts Find out more about the #RaspberryPi Foundation: Raspberry Pi http://rpf.io/ytrpi Code Club UK http://rpf.io/ytccuk Code Club International http://rpf.io/ytcci CoderDojo http://rpf.io/ytcd Check out our free online training courses: http://rpf.io/ytfl Find your local Raspberry Jam event: http://rpf.io/ytjam Work through our free online projects: http://rpf.io/ytprojects Do you have a question about your Raspberry Pi?

    We have started with our Raspberry Pi 4 T-shirt, and others will follow. Our hope is that all our T-shirts will be fully sustainable and better for you, our customers.

    Website: LINK

  • Designing distinctive Raspberry Pi products

    Designing distinctive Raspberry Pi products

    Reading Time: 6 minutes

    If you have one of our official cases, keyboards or mice, or if you’ve visited the Raspberry Pi Store in Cambridge, UK, then you know the work of Kinneir Dufort. Their design has become a part of our brand that’s recognised the world over. Here’s an account from the team there of their work with us.

    Over the last six years, our team at Kinneir Dufort have been privileged to support Raspberry Pi in the design and development of many of their products and accessories. 2019 has been another landmark year in the incredible Raspberry Pi story, with the opening of the Raspberry Pi store in February, the launch of the official keyboard and mouse in April, followed by the launch of Raspberry Pi 4 in June.

    We first met Eben, Gordon and James in 2013 when we were invited to propose design concepts for an official case for Raspberry Pi Model B. For the KD team, this represented a tremendously exciting opportunity: here was an organisation with a clear purpose, who had already started making waves in the computing and education market, and who saw how design could be a potent ingredient in the presentation and communication of the Raspberry Pi proposition.

    Alongside specific design requirements for the Model B case, the early design work also considered the more holistic view of what the 3D design language of Raspberry Pi should be. Working closely with the team, we started to define some key design principles which have remained as foundations for all the products since:

    • Visibility of the board as the “hero” of the product
    • Accessibility to the board, quickly and simply, without tools
    • Adaptability for different uses, including encouragement to “hack” the case
    • Value expressed through low cost and high quality
    • Simplicity of form and detailing
    • Boldness to be unique and distinctively “Raspberry Pi”

    Whilst maintaining a core of consistency in the product look and feel, these principles have been applied with different emphases to suit each product’s needs and functions. The Zero case, which started as a provocative “shall we do this?” sketch visual sent to the team by our Senior Designer John Cowan-Hughes after the original case had started to deliver a return on investment, was all about maximum simplicity combined with adaptability via its interchangeable lids.

    Photo of three Raspberry Pi Zero cases from three different angles, showing the lid of a closed case, the base of a closed case, and an open case with an apparently floating lid and a Raspberry Pi Zero visible inside.

    The ‘levitating lid’ version of the Zero case is not yet publically available

    Later, with the 3A+ case, we started with the two-part case simplicity of the Zero case and applied careful detailing to ensure that we could accommodate access to all the connectors without overcomplicating the injection mould tooling. On Raspberry Pi 4, we retained the two-part simplicity in the case, but introduced new details, such as the gloss chamfer around the edge of the case, and additional material thickness and weight to enhance the quality and value for use with Raspberry Pi’s flagship product.

    After the success of the KD design work on Raspberry Pi cases, the KD team were asked to develop the official keyboard and mouse. Working closely with the Raspberry Pi team, we explored the potential for adding unique features but, rightly, chose to do the simple things well and to use design to help deliver the quality, value and distinctiveness now integrally associated with Raspberry Pi products. This consistency of visual language, when combined with the Raspberry Pi 4 and its case, has seen the creation of a Raspberry Pi as a new type of deconstructed desktop computer which, in line with Raspberry Pi’s mission, changes the way we think about, and engage with, computers.

    The launch of the Cambridge store in February – another bold Raspberry Pi move which we were also delighted to support in the early planning and design stages – provides a comprehensive view of how all the design elements work together to support the communication of the Raspberry Pi message. Great credit should go to the in-house Raspberry Pi design team for their work in the development and implementation of the visual language of the brand, so beautifully evident in the store.

    Small tabletop model of the side walls, rear walls, front windows, and floor of the Raspberry Pi Store. The model is annotated with handwritten Post-It notes in a variety of colours.

    An early sketch model of the Raspberry Pi Store

    In terms of process, at KD we start with a brief – typically discussed verbally with the Raspberry Pi team – which we translate into key objectives and required features. From there, we generally start to explore ideas with sketches and basic mock-ups, progressively reviewing, testing and iterating the concepts.

    Top-down photo of a desk covered with white paper on which are a couple of Raspberry Pis and several cases. The hands of someone sketching red and white cases on the paper are visible. Also visible are the hands of someone measuring something with digital calipers, beside a laptop on the screen of which is a CAD model of a Raspberry Pi case.

    Sketching and modelling and reviewing

    For evaluating designs for products such as the cases, keyboard and mouse, we make considerable use of our in-house 3D printing resources and prototyping team. These often provide a great opportunity for the Raspberry Pi team to get hands on with the design – most notably when Eben took a hacksaw to one of our lovingly prepared 3D-printed prototypes!

    Phone photo of Eben sitting at a desk and hacksawing a white 3D-printed prototype Raspberry Pi case

    EBEN YOUR FINGERS

    Sometimes, despite hours of reviewing sketches and drawings, and decades of experience, it’s not until you get hands-on with the design that you can see further improvements, or you suddenly spot a new approach – what if we do this? And that’s the great thing about how our two teams work together: always seeking to share and exchange ideas, ultimately to produce better products.

    Photo of three people sitting at a table in an office handling and discussing 3D-printed Raspberry Pi case prototypes

    There’s no substitute for getting hands-on

    Back to the prototype! Once the prototype design is agreed, we work with 3D CAD tools and progress the design towards a manufacturable solution, collaborating closely with injection moulding manufacturing partners T-Zero to optimise the design for production efficiency and quality of detailing.

    One important aspect that underpins all our design work is that we always start with consideration for the people we are designing for – whether that’s a home user setting up a media centre, an IT professional using Raspberry Pi as a web server, a group of schoolchildren building a weather station, or a parent looking to encourage their kid to code.

    Engagement with the informed, proactive and enthusiastic online Raspberry Pi community is a tremendous asset. The instant feedback, comments, ideas and scrutiny posted on Raspberry Pi forums is powerful and healthy; we listen and learn from this, taking the insight we gain into each new product that we develop. Of course, with such a wide and diverse community, it’s not easy to please everyone all of the time, but that won’t stop us trying – keep your thoughts and feedback coming to [email protected]!

    If you’d like to know more about KD, or the projects we work on, check out our blog posts and podcasts at www.kinneirdufort.com.

    Website: LINK

  • Tinkernut’s Raspberry Pi video guide

    Tinkernut’s Raspberry Pi video guide

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    “If you’ve ever been curious about electronics or programming, then the Raspberry Pi is an excellent tool to have in your arsenal,” enthuses Tinkernut in his latest video, Raspberry Pi – All You Need To Know.

    And we aren’t going to argue with that.

    Raspberry Pi – All You Need To Know

    If you keep your ear to the Tinkering community, I’m sure you’ve heard whispers (and shouts) of the Raspberry Pi. And if you wanted to get into making, tinkering, computing, or electronics, the Raspberry Pi is a great tool to have in your tool belt. But what is it?

    “This Pi can knit a Hogwarts sweater while saving a cat from a tree,” he declares. “It can recite the Canterbury Tales while rebuilding an engine.” Tinkernut’s new explainer comes after a short hiatus from content creation, and it’s a cracking little intro to what Raspberry Pi is, what it can do, and which model is right for you.

    “This little pincushion, right here”

    Tinkernut, we’re glad you’re back. And thank you for making us your first subject in your new format.

    If you like what you see, be sure to check out more Tinkernut videos, and subscribe.

    Website: LINK

  • Another snazzy Raspberry Pi wallpaper for your phone and computer

    Another snazzy Raspberry Pi wallpaper for your phone and computer

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    After the success of our last snazzy wallpaper for your computer and smartphone, Fiacre is back with another visual delight.

    Click one of the images below to visit the appropriate download page!

    Standard rules apply: these images are for personal use only and are not to be manipulated, printed, turned into t-shirts, glazed onto mugs or sold.

    Let us know in the comments if you decide to use the wallpaper, or tag a photo with #SnazzyRPi on Twitter and Instagram.

    Website: LINK

  • Compliance, and why Raspberry Pi 4 may not be available in your country yet

    Compliance, and why Raspberry Pi 4 may not be available in your country yet

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    In June we launched Raspberry Pi 4, and it has been selling extremely well, with over 1 million devices already made. We launched the product in a select set of countries in June, and ever since, we’ve been steadily making it available in more and more places; currently, Raspberry Pi 4 is on the market in 55 countries.

    Raspberry Pi 4 and compliance

    There have been many questions around why Raspberry Pi 4 isn’t available in certain countries, and this post will give you some insight into this.

    Whenever a company wants to sell a product on a market, it first has to prove that selling it is safe and legal. Compliance requirements vary between different products; rules that would apply to a complicated machine like a car will, naturally, not be the same as those that apply to a pair of trainers (although there is some overlap in the Venn diagram of rules).

    Raspberry Pi Integrator Programme

    Regions of the world within each of which products have to be separately tested

    Different countries usually have slightly different sets of regulations, and testing has to be conducted at an accredited facility for the region the company intends to sell the product in.

    Compliance for a country is broken into the following: testing, certification, and marking.

    Testing

    Compliance testing requirements vary from country to country; there is no single set of tests or approvals that allow you to sell a product globally. Often, it’s necessary to test the product within the country that compliance is needed for; only some countries accept test reports from other countries.

    For the launch of Raspberry Pi 4, we tested to EU, FCC (USA), and IC (Canada) regulations, and we’ve used these test reports to apply for compliance in as many countries as possible.

    Certification

    Once testing is complete, a certificate is issued for the product. The time this takes is variable, and some countries post such certificates online publicly so people can search for products.

    Testing in the remaining countries that require testing to happen in-country is now complete, and the respective certificates are being granted for Raspberry Pi 4 right now. However, whilst the certificate is being issued, the product isn’t yet compliant; we need to add the regulatory markings for this to happen.

    Marking

    Like testing requirements, product marking requirements may differ from country to country. The main difficulty of marking is that many countries require a unique certificate number to be printed on packaging, leaflets, and the product itself.

    Some countries, such as the USA, allow companies to create the certificate number themselves (hence jazzy numbers like 2ABCB-RPI4B), and so we can place these on the product before launch. In other countries, however, the certificate number is issued at the end of the certification process.

    For Raspberry Pi 4, we are now at the final stage for compliance: marking. All our certificates have been issued, and we are updating the packaging, leaflet, and product with the various certificate numbers needed to unlock the last few countries.

    The countries that we have certificates for that require markings to be added: China, South Korea, Brazil, Mexico, Taiwan, Chile, and Japan.

    The process is beginning, and Raspberry Pi 4 should be available in these markets soon.

    We post all our product compliance information online.

    Conclusion

    This is a broad overview of the compliance process for Raspberry Pi, and there are some details omitted for the sake of clarity. Compliance is a complex and varied task, but it is very important to demonstrate that Raspberry Pi 4 is a compliant, safe, and trustworthy product.

    We aim to make Raspberry Pi 4 available in more countries than ever before, ensuring that everyone can take advantage of the amazing features, power, and cost-effectiveness it offers.

    Website: LINK

  • Help us make it easier for you to design products with Raspberry Pi

    Help us make it easier for you to design products with Raspberry Pi

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    We want to improve the way we support companies that design with Raspberry Pi computers, and we need your help to do it.

    Raspberry Pi’s success is thanks to the community that exists around it.  When we launched Raspberry Pi 4, our most powerful computer yet, we gave our community the chance to ask our engineers all about the new product.

    A shiny Raspberry Pi 4 on a flat white surface, viewed at an angle

    Now we’d like to turn the tables and ask you some questions as we work to improve the support we offer to people and organisations that design using Raspberry Pi.

    If you have experience of designing products or industrial solutions that use Raspberry Pi, we would love to hear from you.

    Raspberry Pi in products

    Raspberry Pi has been used to power products from Compute Module-based industrial controllers made by Kunbus…

    Three smart, compact orange and grey RevPi Core 3 enclosures mounted on a din rail

    …to Raspberry Pi-based washing machines with Raspberry Pi touchscreen displays from Marathon.

    Sleek-looking charcoal grey washing machine with a dark red door trim and a large colour display screen

    Organisations are increasingly using various kinds of Raspberry Pi computer to power products and solutions, and we want to do more to support designers.

    Please help us!

    If you have experience as a design consultancy that uses Raspberry Pi computers in products, or if you have used a designer to build a product that includes a Raspberry Pi, we would love to talk to you about it. You will help shape what we offer in the future, and make designing products with Raspberry Pi simple, quick, and powerful.

    Get in touch

    If you use Raspberry Pi in products or in industrial solutions, I want to talk to you. Please fill in this form with a few details of your experience so we can talk more.

    Website: LINK

  • We asked our engineers your Raspberry Pi 4 questions…

    We asked our engineers your Raspberry Pi 4 questions…

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

    We collected some of the most common Raspberry Pi 4 questions asked by you, our community, and sat down with Eben Upton, James Adams, and Gordon Hollingworth to get some answers.

    Raspberry Pi 4 Q&A

    We grilled our engineers with your Raspberry Pi 4 questions Subscribe to our YouTube channel: http://rpf.io/ytsub Help us reach a wider audience by translating our video content: http://rpf.io/yttranslate Buy a Raspberry Pi from one of our Approved Resellers: http://rpf.io/ytproducts Find out more about the #RaspberryPi Foundation: Raspberry Pi http://rpf.io/ytrpi Code Club UK http://rpf.io/ytccuk Code Club International http://rpf.io/ytcci CoderDojo http://rpf.io/ytcd Check out our free online training courses: http://rpf.io/ytfl Find your local Raspberry Jam event: http://rpf.io/ytjam Work through our free online projects: http://rpf.io/ytprojects Do you have a question about your Raspberry Pi?

    Do you have more questions about our new board or accessories? Leave them in the comments of our YouTube video, or in the comments below, and we’ll collect some of the most commonly asked questions together for another Q&A session further down the line.

    Website: LINK

  • Snazzy photographs of Raspberry Pis #SnazzyRPi

    Snazzy photographs of Raspberry Pis #SnazzyRPi

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    If you don’t follow Raspberry Pi on Instagram, you really should, for there you will find #SnazzyRPi, a collection of snazzy-looking Raspberry Pi photographs taken by our very own Fiacre Muller.

    Do you have a Raspberry Pi 3 A+? What have you built with it? . And how snazzy is this photo from @fiacremuller?! . . . . . #RaspberryPi #3A+ #RaspberryPi3A+ #Computing

    4,412 Likes, 90 Comments – Raspberry Pi (@raspberrypifoundation) on Instagram: “Do you have a Raspberry Pi 3 A+? What have you built with it? . And how snazzy is this photo from…”

    Here are a few more to whet your appetite. Enjoy.

    #gallery-4 { margin: auto; } #gallery-4 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-4 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-4 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

    Join the #SnazzyRPi revolution and share your Raspberry Pi glamour shots on Instagram using #SnazzyRPi

    Website: LINK

  • Win some Raspberry Pi stickers #GimmeRaspberryPiStickers

    Win some Raspberry Pi stickers #GimmeRaspberryPiStickers

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

    To celebrate the launch of Raspberry Pi 4, and because it’s almost the weekend, we’re giving away some sticker packs!

    For your chance to win a pack, all you have to do is leave a comment below, or comment on the Facebook post about this give-away, or tweet us with the hashtag #GimmeRaspberryPiStickers — all before midnight (BST) Monday 8 July.

    Each sticker pack will contain the following stickers, plus any others I find between now and Monday, and we have 10 packs to give away.

    Winners will be picked at random, and I’ll tweet who these lucky ten are on Tuesday, so keep your eyes peeled.

    Good luck!

    Oh, if you don’t see your comment on this post, it’s because you’re new to the blog and we haven’t approved it yet. Don’t worry, it’s there, and we’ll see it before the contest ends.

    Website: LINK

  • Raspberry Pi 4: 48 hours later

    Raspberry Pi 4: 48 hours later

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    “We’ve never felt more betrayed and excited at the same time,” admitted YouTubers 8 Bits and a Byte when I told them Raspberry Pi 4 would be out in June, going against rumours of the release happening at some point in 2020. Fortunately, everything worked in our favour, and we were able to get our new product out ahead of schedule.

    So, while we calm down from the hype of Monday, here’s some great third-party content for you to get your teeth into.

    YouTubers

    A select few online content creators were allowed to get their hands on Raspberry Pi 4 before its release date, and they published some rather wonderful videos on the big day.

    Office favourite Explaining Computers provided viewers with a brilliant explanation of the ins and outs of Raspberry Pi 4, and even broke their usually Sunday-only release schedule to get the video out to fans for launch day. Thanks, Chris!

    Raspberry Pi 4 Model B

    Raspberry Pi 4B review, including the hardware specs of this new single board computer, and a demo running the latest version of Raspbian. With thanks to the Raspberry Pi Foundation for supplying the board featured in this video.

    Blitz City DIY offered viewers a great benchmark test breakdown, delving deeper into the numbers and what they mean, to show the power increase compared to Raspberry Pi 3B+.

    A Wild Raspberry Pi 4 Appears: Hardware Specs, Benchmarks & First Impressions

    The Raspberry Pi 4 B has been released into the wild much earlier than anticipated. I was able to receive a review sample so here are the hardware specs, some benchmarks comparing it to the Pi 3 B and Pi 3 B+ and finally some first impressions.

    Curious about how these creators were able to get their hands on Raspberry Pi 4 prior to its release? This is legitimately how Estefannie bagged herself the computer pre-launch. Honest.

    HOW I GOT A RASPBERRY PI 4 BEFORE ITS RELEASE

    I needed a new Raspberry Pi. FIND ME HERE: * http://www.estefannie.com * http://instagram.com/estefanniegg * http://www.twitter.com/estefanniegg * https://github.com/estefanniegg * https://facebook.com/estefanniegg

    For their launch day video, Dane and Nicole, AKA 8 Bits and a Byte, built a pi-calculating pie that prints pies using a Raspberry Pi 4. Delicious.

    The new Raspberry Pi 4 – Highlights & Celebration Project!

    There’s a new Raspberry Pi, the Raspberry Pi 4! We give you a quick overview and build a project to welcome the Raspberry Pi 4 to the world!

    Alex from Low Spec Gamer took his Raspberry Pi 4 home with him after visiting the office to talk to Eben. Annoyingly, I was away on vacation and didn’t get to meet him 🙁

    Raspberry Pi 4 Hands-on. I got an early unit!

    Watch the best documentaries on Curiosity Stream: https://curiositystream.com/lowspecgamer #RaspberryPi4 #HandsOn #Preview A new Raspberry Pi joins the fray. I got an early Raspberry Pi 4 and decided to explore some of its differences with Eben Upton, founder of Raspberry Pi. All benchmarks run on an early version of the new raspbian.

    The MagPi magazine managed to collar Raspberry Pi Trading’s COO James Adams for their video, filmed at the Raspberry Pi Store in Cambridge.

    Introducing Raspberry Pi 4! + interview with a Raspberry Pi engineer

    The brand new Raspberry Pi 4 is here! With up to 4GB of RAM, 4K HDMI video, Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0, and USB C, it is the ultimate Raspberry Pi. We talk to Raspberry Pi hardware lead James Adams about its amazing performance.

    Some rather lovely articles

    If you’re looking to read more about Raspberry Pi 4 and don’t know where to start, here are a few tasty treats to get you going:

    Raspberry Pi 4 isn’t the only new thing to arrive this week. Raspbian Buster is now available for Raspberry Pi, and you can read more about it here.

    Join the Raspberry Pi 4 conversation by using #RaspberryPi4 across all social platforms, and let us know what you plan to do with your new Raspberry Pi.

    Website: LINK

  • Raspberry Pi 4 on sale now from $35

    Raspberry Pi 4 on sale now from $35

    Reading Time: 11 minutes

    We have a surprise for you today: Raspberry Pi 4 is now on sale, starting at $35. This is a comprehensive upgrade, touching almost every element of the platform. For the first time we provide a PC-like level of performance for most users, while retaining the interfacing capabilities and hackability of the classic Raspberry Pi line.

    Raspberry Pi 4: your new $35 computer

    Get your Raspberry Pi 4 now: http://rpf.io/ytraspberrypi4 #RaspberryPi4 Subscribe to our YouTube channel: http://rpf.io/ytsub Help us reach a wider audience by translating our video content: http://rpf.io/yttranslate Buy a Raspberry Pi from one of our Approved Resellers: http://rpf.io/ytproducts Find out more about the #RaspberryPi Foundation: Raspberry Pi http://rpf.io/ytrpi Code Club UK http://rpf.io/ytccuk Code Club International http://rpf.io/ytcci CoderDojo http://rpf.io/ytcd Check out our free online training courses: http://rpf.io/ytfl Find your local Raspberry Jam event: http://rpf.io/ytjam Work through our free online projects: http://rpf.io/ytprojects Do you have a question about your Raspberry Pi?

    Get yours today from our Approved Resellers, or from the Raspberry Pi Store in Cambridge, open today 8am–8pm!

    Raspberry Pi 4 Model B

    Here are the highlights:

    • A 1.5GHz quad-core 64-bit ARM Cortex-A72 CPU (~3× performance)
    • 1GB, 2GB, or 4GB of LPDDR4 SDRAM
    • Full-throughput Gigabit Ethernet
    • Dual-band 802.11ac wireless networking
    • Bluetooth 5.0
    • Two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports
    • Dual monitor support, at resolutions up to 4K
    • VideoCore VI graphics, supporting OpenGL ES 3.x
    • 4Kp60 hardware decode of HEVC video
    • Complete compatibility with earlier Raspberry Pi products

    And here it is in the flesh:

    Still a handsome devil

    Raspberry Pi 4 memory options

    This is the first time we’re offering a choice of memory capacities. We’ve gone for the following price structure, retaining our signature $35 price for the entry-level model:

    RAM Retail price
    1GB $35
    2GB $45
    4GB $55

    As always these prices exclude sales tax, import duty (where appropriate), and shipping. All three variants are launching today: we have initially built more of the 2GB variant than of the others, and will adjust the mix over time as we discover which one is most popular.

    New Raspberry Pi 4, new features

    At first glance, the Raspberry Pi 4 board looks very similar to our previous $35 products, all the way back to 2014’s Raspberry Pi 1B+. James worked hard to keep it this way, but for the first time he has made a small number of essential tweaks to the form factor to accommodate new features.

    Power

    We’ve moved from USB micro-B to USB-C for our power connector. This supports an extra 500mA of current, ensuring we have a full 1.2A for downstream USB devices, even under heavy CPU load.

    An extra half amp, and USB OTG to boot

    Video

    To accommodate dual display output within the existing board footprint, we’ve replaced the type-A (full-size) HDMI connector with a pair of type-D (micro) HDMI connectors.

    Seeing double

    Ethernet and USB

    Our Gigabit Ethernet magjack has moved to the top right of the board, from the bottom right, greatly simplifying PCB routing. The 4-pin Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) connector remains in the same location, so Raspberry Pi 4 remains compatible with the PoE HAT.

    Through the looking glass

    The Ethernet controller on the main SoC is connected to an external Broadcom PHY over a dedicated RGMII link, providing full throughput. USB is provided via an external VLI controller, connected over a single PCI Express Gen 2 lane, and providing a total of 4Gbps of bandwidth, shared between the four ports.

    All three connectors on the right-hand side of the board overhang the edge by an additional millimetre, with the aim of simplifying case design. In all other respects, the connector and mounting hole layout remains the same, ensuring compatibility with existing HATs and other accessories.

    New Raspbian software

    To support Raspberry Pi 4, we are shipping a radically overhauled operating system, based on the forthcoming Debian 10 Buster release. This brings numerous behind-the-scenes technical improvements, along with an extensively modernised user interface, and updated applications including the Chromium 74 web browser. Simon will take an in-depth look at the changes in tomorrow’s blog post, but for now, here’s a screenshot of it in action.

    Raspbian Buster desktop

    Some advice for those who are keen to get going with Raspbian Buster right away: we strongly recommend you download a new image, rather than upgrading an existing card. This ensures that you’re starting with a clean, working Buster system. If you really, really want to try upgrading, make a backup first.

    One notable step forward is that for Raspberry Pi 4, we are retiring the legacy graphics driver stack used on previous models. Instead, we’re using the Mesa “V3D” driver developed by Eric Anholt at Broadcom over the last five years. This offers many benefits, including OpenGL-accelerated web browsing and desktop composition, and the ability to run 3D applications in a window under X. It also eliminates roughly half of the lines of closed-source code in the platform.

    New Raspberry Pi 4 accessories

    Connector and form-factor changes bring with them a requirement for new accessories. We’re sensitive to the fact that we’re requiring people to buy these: Mike and Austin have worked hard to source good-quality, cost-effective products for our reseller and licensee partners, and to find low-cost alternatives where possible.

    Raspberry Pi 4 Case

    Gordon has been working with our design partners Kinneir Dufort and manufacturers T-Zero to develop an all-new two-part case, priced at $5.

    New toy, new toy box

    We’re very pleased with how this has turned out, but if you’d like to re-use one of our existing cases, you can simply cut away the plastic fins on the right-hand side and omit one of the side panels as shown below.

    Quick work with a Dremel

    Raspberry Pi 4 Power Supply

    Good, low-cost USB-C power supplies (and USB-C cables) are surprisingly hard to find, as we discovered when sending out prototype units to alpha testers. So we worked with Ktec to develop a suitable 5V/3A power supply; this is priced at $8, and is available in UK (type G), European (type C), North American (type A) and Australian (type I) plug formats.

    Behold the marvel that is BS 1363

    If you’d like to re-use a Raspberry Pi 3 Official Power Supply, our resellers are offering a $1 adapter which converts from USB micro-B to USB-C. The thick wires and good load-step response of the old official supply make this a surprisingly competitive solution if you don’t need a full 3 amps.

    Somewhat less marvellous, but still good

    Raspberry Pi 4 micro HDMI Cables

    Again, low-cost micro HDMI cables which reliably support the 6Gbps data rate needed for 4Kp60 video can be hard to find. We like the Amazon Basics cable, but we’ve also sourced a 1m cable, which will be available from our resellers for $5.

    Official micro HDMI to HDMI cable

    Updated Raspberry Pi Beginner’s Guide

    At the end of last year, Raspberry Pi Press released the Official Raspberry Pi Beginner’s Guide. Gareth Halfacree has produced an updated version, covering the new features of Raspberry Pi 4 and our updated operating system.

    Little computer people

    Raspberry Pi 4 Desktop Kit

    Bringing all of this together, we’re offering a complete Desktop Kit. This is priced at $120, and comprises:

    • A 4GB Raspberry Pi 4
    • An official case
    • An official PSU
    • An official mouse and keyboard
    • A pair of HDMI cables
    • A copy of the updated Beginner’s Guide
    • A pre-installed 32GB microSD card

    Raspberry Pi Desktop Kit

    Raspberry Pi Store

    This is the first product launch following the opening of our store in Cambridge, UK. For the first time, you can come and buy Raspberry Pi 4 directly from us, today. We’ll be open from 8am to 8pm, with units set up for you to play with and a couple of thousand on hand for you to buy. We even have some exclusive launch-day swag.

    The Raspberry Pi Store sign

    Form an orderly line

    If you’re in the bottom right-hand corner of the UK, come on over and check it out!

    New Raspberry Pi silicon

    Since we launched the original Raspberry Pi in 2012, all our products have been based on 40nm silicon, with performance improvements delivered by adding progressively larger in-order cores (Cortex-A7, Cortex-A53) to the original ARM11-based BCM2835 design. With BCM2837B0 for Raspberry Pi 3B+ we reached the end of that particular road: we could no longer afford to toggle more transistors within our power budget.

    Raspberry Pi 4 is built around BCM2711, a complete re-implementation of BCM283X on 28nm. The power savings delivered by the smaller process geometry have allowed us to replace Cortex-A53 with the much more powerful, out-of-order, Cortex-A72 core; this can execute more instructions per clock, yielding performance increases over Raspberry Pi 3B+ of between two and four times, depending on the benchmark.

    We’ve taken advantage of the process change to overhaul many other elements of the design. We moved to a more modern memory technology, LPDDR4, tripling available bandwidth; we upgraded the entire display pipeline, including video decode, 3D graphics and display output to support 4Kp60 (or dual 4Kp30) throughput; and we addressed the non-multimedia I/O limitations of previous devices by adding on-board Gigabit Ethernet and PCI Express controllers.

    Raspberry Pi 4 FAQs

    We’ll keep updating this list over the next couple of days, but here are a few to get you started.

    Wait, is it 2020 yet?

    In the past, we’ve indicated 2020 as a likely introduction date for Raspberry Pi 4. We budgeted time for four silicon revisions of BCM2711 (A0, B0, C0, and C1); in comparison, we ship BCM2835C2 (the fifth revision of that design) on Raspberry Pi 1 and Zero.

    Fortunately, 2711B0 has turned out to be production-ready, which has taken roughly 9–12 months out of the schedule.

    Are you discontinuing earlier Raspberry Pi models?

    No. We have a lot of industrial customers who will want to stick with the existing products for the time being. We’ll keep building these models for as long as there’s demand. Raspberry Pi 1B+, 2B, 3B, and 3B+ will continue to sell for $25, $35, $35, and $35 respectively.

    What about a Model A version?

    Historically, we’ve produced cut-down, lower-cost, versions of some of our $35 products, including Model 1A+ in 2014, and Model 3A+ at the end of last year. At present we haven’t identified a sensible set of changes to allow us to do a “Model 4A” product at significantly less than $35. We’ll keep looking though.

    What about the Compute Module?

    CM1, CM3, and CM3+ will continue to be available. We are evaluating options for producing a Compute Module product based on the Raspberry Pi 4 chipset.

    Are you still using VideoCore?

    Yes. VideoCore 3D is the only publicly documented 3D graphics core for ARM‑based SoCs, and we want to make Raspberry Pi more open over time, not less.

    Credits

    A project like Raspberry Pi 4 is the work of many hundreds of people, and we always try to acknowledge some of those people here.

    This time round, particular credit is due to James Adams, who designed the board itself (you’ll find his signature under the USB 3.0 socket); to Mike Buffham, who ran the commercial operation, working with suppliers, licensees, and resellers to bring our most complicated product yet to market; and to all those at Raspberry Pi and Broadcom who have worked tirelessly to make this product a reality over the last few years.

    A partial list of others who made major direct contributions to the BCM2711 chip program, CYW43455, VL805, and MxL7704 integrations, DRAM qualification, and Raspberry Pi 4 itself follows:

    James Adams, Cyrus Afghahi, Snehil Agrawal, Sam Alder, Kiarash Amiri, Andrew Anderson, Eng Lim Ang, Eric Anholt, Greg Annandale, Satheesh Appukuttan, Amy Au, Ben Avison, Matt Bace, Neil Bailey, Jock Baird, Scott Baker, Alix Ball, Giles Ballard, Paul Barnes, Russell Barnes, Fiona Batchelor, Alex Bate, Kris Baxter, Paul Beech, Michael Belhazy, Jonathan Bell, John Bellairs, Oguz Benderli, Doug Berger, Ron Berthiaume, Raj Bharadwaj, Udaya Bhaskar, Geoff Blackman, Ed Bleich, Debbie Brandenburg, David Brewer, Daniel Brierton, Adam Brown, Mike Buffham, Dan Caley, Mark Calleja, Rob Canaway, Cindy Cao, Victor Carmon, Ian Carter, Alex Carter, Amy Carter, Mark Castruita, KK Chan, Louis Chan, Nick Chase, Sherman Chen, Henry Chen, Yuliang Cheng, Chun Fai Cheung, Ravi Chhabra, Scott Clark, Tim Clifford, Nigel Clift, Dom Cobley, Steve Cole, Philip Colligan, Stephen Cook, Sheena Coote, Sherry Coutu, John Cowan-Hughes, John Cox, Peter Coyle, Jon Cronk, Darryl Cross, Steve Dalton, Neil Davies, Russell Davis, Tom De Vall, Jason Demas, Todd DeRego, Ellie Dobson, David Doyle, Alex Eames, Nicola Early, Jeff Echtenkamp, Andrew Edwards, Kevin Edwards, Phil Elwell, Dave Emett, Jiin Taur Eng, Gabrielle England, YG Eom, Peggy Escobedo, Andy Evans, Mark Evans, Florian Fainelli, David Ferguson, Ilan Finkelstein, Nick Francis, Liam Fraser, Ian Furlong, David Gammon, Jan Gaterman, Eric Gavami, Doug Giles, Andrew Goros, Tim Gover, Trevor Gowen, Peter Green, Simon Greening, Tracey Gregory, Efim Gukovsky, Gareth Halfacree, Mark Harris, Lucy Hattersley, James Hay, Richard Hayler, Gordon Henderson, Leon Hesch, Albert Hickey, Kevin Hill, Stefan Ho, Andrew Hoare, Lewis Hodder, William Hollingworth, Gordon Hollingworth, Michael Horne, Wanchen Hsu, David Hsu, Kevin YC Huang, Pei Huang, Peter Huang, Scofield Huang, James Hughes, Andy Hulbert, Carl Hunt, Rami Husni, Steven Hwang, Incognitum, Bruno Izern, Olivier Jacquemart, Mini Jain, Anurag Jain, Anand Jain, Geraint James, Dinesh Jayabharathi, Vinit Jayaraj, Nick Jeffery, Mengjie Jiang, David John, Alison Johnston, Lily Jones, Richard Jones, Tony Jones, Gareth Jones, Lijo Jose, Nevin Jose, Gary Kao, Gary Keall, Gerald Kelly, Ian Kersley, Gerard Khoo, Dani Kidouchim, Phil King, Andreas Knobloch, Bahar Kordi-Borojeni, Shuvra Kundu, Claire Kuo, Nicole Kuo, Wayne Kusumo, Koen Lampaert, Wyn Landon, Trever Latham, William Lee, Joon Lee, William Lee, Dave Lee, Simon Lewis, David Lewsey, Sherman Li, Xizhe Li, Jay Li, John CH Lin, Johan Lin, Jonic Linley, Chris Liou, Lestin Liu, Simon Long, Roy Longbottom, Patrick Loo, James Lougheed, Janice Lu, Fu Luo-Larson, Jeff Lussier, Helen Lynn, Terence Mackown, Neil MacLeod, Kevin Malone, Shahin Maloyan, Tim Mamtora, Stuart Martin, Simon Martin, Daniel Mason, Karen Matulis, Andrea Mauri, Scott McGregor, Steven Mcninch, Ben Mercer, Kamal Merchant, James Mills, Vassil Mitov, Ali Syed Mohammed, Brendan Moran, Alan Morgan, Giorgia Muirhead, Fiacre Muller, Aram Nahidipour, Siew Ling Ng, Thinh Nguyen, Lee Nguyen, Steve Noh, Paul Noonan, Keri Norris, Rhian Norris, Ben Nuttall, Brian O’Halloran, Martin O’Hanlon, Yong Oh, Simon Oliver, Mandy Oliver, Emma Ormond, Shiji Pan, Kamlesh Pandey, Christopher Pasqualino, Max Passell, Naush Patuck, Rajesh Perruri, Eric Phiri, Dominic Plunkett, Nutan Raj, Karthik Rajendran, Rajendra Ranmale, Ashwin Rao, Nick Raptopoulos, Chaitanya Ray, Justin Rees, Hias Reichl, Lorraine Richards, David Richardson, Tim Richardson, Dan Riiff, Peter de Rivaz, Josh Rix, Alwyn Roberts, Andrew Robinson, Kevin Robinson, Nigel Roles, Paul Rolfe, Marcelo Romero, Jonathan Rosenfeld, Sarah Roth, Matt Rowley, Matthew Rowley, Dave Saarinen, Ali Salem, Suzie Sanders, Graham Sanderson, Aniruddha Sane, Marion Scheuermann, Serge Schneider, Graham Scott, Marc Scott, Saran Kumar Seethapathi, Shawn Shadburn, Abdul Shaik, Mark Skala, Graham Smith, Michael Smith, Martin Sperl, Ajay Srivastava, Nick Steele, Ben Stephens, Dave Stevenson, Mike Stimson, Chee Siong Su, Austin Su, Prem Swaroop, Grant Taylor, Daniel Thompsett, Stuart Thomson, Eddie Thorn, Roger Thornton, Chris Tomlinson, Stephen Toomey, Mohamed Toubella, Frankie Tsai, Richard Tuck, Mike Unwin, Liz Upton, Manoj Vajhallya, Sandeep Venkatadas, Divya Vittal, John Wadsworth, Stefan Wahren, Irene Wang, Jeremy Wang, Rich Wells, Simon West, Joe Whaley, Craig Wightman, Oli Wilkin, Richard Wilkins, Sarah Williams, Jack Willis, Rob Wilson, Luke Wren, Romona Wu, Zheng Xu, Paul Yang, Pawel Zackiewicz, Ling Zhang, Jean Zhou, Ulf Ziemann, Rob Zwetsloot.

    If you’re not on this list and think you should be, please let me know, and accept my apologies.

    Website: LINK

  • Buy the official Raspberry Pi keyboard and mouse

    Buy the official Raspberry Pi keyboard and mouse

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    Liz interjects with a TL;DR: you can buy our official (and very lovely) keyboard and mouse from today from all good Raspberry Pi retailers. We’re very proud of them. Get ’em while they’re hot!

    Alex interjects with her own TL;DR: the keyboard is currently available in six layouts – English (UK), English (US), Spanish, French, German, and Italian – and we plan on producing more soon. Also, this video…what is…why is my left hand so weird at typing?!

    New and official Raspberry Pi keyboard and mouse

    It does what keyboards and mice do. Well, no, not what MICE do, but you get it.

    Over to Simon for more on the development.

    Magical mystery tour

    When I joined Raspberry Pi, there was a feeling that we should be making our own keyboards and mice, which could be sold separately or put into kits. My first assignment was the task of making this a reality.

    It was clear early on that the only way we could compete on plastic housings and keyboard matrix assemblies was to get these manufactured and tested in China – we’d love to have done the job in the UK, but we just couldn’t get the logistics to work. So for the past few months, I have been disappearing off on mysterious trips to Shenzhen in China. The reason for these trips was a secret to my friends and family, and the only stories I could tell were of the exotic food I ate. It’s a great relief to finally be able to talk about what I’ve been up to!

    I’m delighted to announce the official Raspberry Pi keyboard with integrated USB Hub, and the official Raspberry Pi mouse.

    Raspberry Pi official keyboard

    Raspberry Pi official mouse

    The mouse is a three-button, scroll-wheel optical device with Raspberry Pi logos on the base and cable, coloured to match the Pi case. We opted for high-quality Omron switches to give the click the best quality feel, and we adjusted the weight of it to give it the best response to movement. I think you’ll like it.

    Raspberry Pi official mouse

    Raspberry Pi official keyboard

    The keyboard is a 78-key matrix, like those more commonly found in laptop computers. This is the same compact style used in previous Pi kits, just an awful lot nicer. We went through many prototype revisions to get the feel of the keys right, reduce the light leaks from the Caps Lock and Num Lock LEDs (who would have thought that red LEDs are transparent to red plastics?) and the surprisingly difficult task of getting the colours consistent.

    Country-specific keyboards

    The PCB for the keyboard and hub was designed by Raspberry Pi, so we control the quality of components and assembly.

    We fitted the best USB hub IC we could find, and we worked with Holtek on custom firmware for the key matrix management. The outcome of this is the ability for the Pi to auto-detect what country the keyboard is configured for. We plan to provide a range of country-specific keyboards: we’re launching today with the UK, US, Germany, France, Italy, Spain – and there will be many more to follow.

    And even if I say so myself, it’s really nice to have the matching kit of keyboard, mouse and Raspberry Pi case on your desk. Happy coding!

    Buy yours today

    The Raspberry Pi official keyboard and mouse are both available from our Approved Resellers. You can find your nearest Approved Reseller by selecting your country in the drop-down menu on our products pages.

    Raspberry Pi starter kit

    The official keyboard, in the English (UK) layout, and the mouse are also available at the Raspberry Pi shop in Cambridge, UK, and can be purchased individually or as part of our new Raspberry Pi Starter Kit, exclusive to our shop (for now!)

    Website: LINK

  • Compute Module 3+ on sale now from $25

    Compute Module 3+ on sale now from $25

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    Today we bring you the latest iteration of the Raspberry Pi Compute Module series: Compute Module 3+ (CM3+). This newest version of our flexible board for industrial applications offers over ten times the ARM performance, twice the RAM capacity, and up to eight times the Flash capacity of the original Compute Module.

    Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3+

    A long time ago…

    On 7 April 2014 we launched the original Compute Module (CM1), with a Broadcom BCM2835 application processor, a single-core ARM11 at 700MHz, 512MB of RAM, and 4GB of eMMC Flash. Although it seems like yesterday, that was nearly half a decade ago! At that point I had no kids, looked significantly younger (probably because I had no kids), and had more hair (fortunately I’m still better off in that department than Eben). [This is fair – Ed.]

    Just under three years later we launched Compute Module 3 (CM3) based on the quad-core BCM2837A1, and now, almost exactly two years on, we bring you the CM3+.

    The Compute Module has evolved

    While we’ve greatly improved the performance, RAM capacity, and Flash capacity of the Compute Module, some things remain the same: CM3+ is an evolution of CM3 and CM1, bringing new features while keeping the form factor, electrical compatibility, price point, and ease of use of the earlier products.

    Our aim for the Compute Module was to deliver the core Raspberry Pi technology in a form factor that allowed others to incorporate it into their own products cheaply and easily. If someone wanted to create a Raspberry Pi-based product but found the Model A or B Raspberry Pi boards did not fit their needs, they could use a Compute Module, create a simple low-tech carrier PCB, and make their own thing.

    It’s for enterprises of all sizes

    We limit the price so that the “maker in a shed” is not disadvantaged when producing only a few hundred products relative to professionals with much larger production runs. The Compute Module takes care of the high-tech bits (fine-pitched BGAs, high-speed memory interfaces, and core power supply), allowing the designer to focus on the differentiating features they really care about. The eMMC Flash device on a Compute Module is more reliable and robust than normal SD cards, so it is more suited to industrial applications. The Compute Module also provides more interfaces than the regular Raspberry Pi, supporting two cameras and two displays, as well as extra GPIO.

    A Compute Module 3+ inserted into a Compute Module IO board

    CM3+ in CMIO board

    CM1 and CM3 have proven very popular, with sales increasing steadily. We don’t generally get to see what the majority of our module customers are using them for, because they’re often companies that understandably want to keep the insides of their products secret, but one nice example application is Revolution Pi from Kunbus. Many NEC digital-signage displays incorporate a socket for CM3, and there are some excellent community efforts too, of which our current favourite is this nifty dual camera board. We’ve also seen enterprising companies start offering turnkey design services using the Compute Module, such as that offered by Kunst Engineering.

    So what is Compute Module 3+?

    CM3+ is derived from the CM3 board, but incorporates the improved thermal design and Broadcom BCM2837B0 application processor from Raspberry Pi 3B+. This means that, with the exception of a small increase in z-height, CM3+ is a drop-in replacement for CM3 from an electrical and form-factor perspective. Note that due to power-supply limitations the maximum processor speed remains at 1.2GHz, compared to 1.4GHz for Raspberry Pi 3B+.

    One of the most frequent requests from users and customers is for Compute Module variants with more on-board Flash memory. CM1 and CM3 both came with 4GB of Flash, and although we are fans of the Henry Ford philosophy of customer choice (“you can have any colour, as long as it’s black”), it was obvious that there was a need for more official options.

    With CM3+ we are making available three different eMMC Flash sizes, in addition to a Flash-less “Lite” variant, all at competitive prices:

    As CM3+ is a new product, it will need a recent version of the Raspberry Pi firmware (and operating system such as Raspbian) to operate correctly.

    Thermals

    Due to the improved PCB thermal design and BCM2837B0 processor, the CM3+ has better thermal behaviour under load. It has more thermal mass and can draw heat away from the processor faster than CM3. This can translate into lower average temperatures and/or longer sustained operation under heavy load before the processor hits 80°C and begins to reduce its clock speed.

    Note that CM3+ will still output the same amount of heat as CM3 for any given application, so performance (and particularly sustained performance) will depend heavily on the design of the carrier PCB and enclosure. As always, we recommend that product designers pay careful attention to thermal performance under expected use cases.

    Having characterised the behaviour of the new product, we have broadened the rated ambient temperature range to -20°C to 70°C.

    Development Kit

    We are also releasing a refreshed Compute Module 3+ Development Kit today. This kit contains 1 x Lite and 1 x 32GB CM3+ module, a Compute Module IO board, camera and display adapters, jumper wires, and a programming cable.

    Updated datasheet

    Our Compute Module datasheets have been updated to include a new one for CM3+.

    Long-term availability

    CM3+ will be available until at least January 2026.

    We are also moving the “legacy” CM1, CM3 and CM3 Lite products to “not recommended for new designs” status. They will continue to be available until at least January 2023 as previously stated, but we recommend customers use CM3+ for new designs, and where possible move existing designs to CM3+ for improved performance and longer availability.

    Compute Module 3+ is, like Raspberry Pi 3B+, the last in a line of 40nm-based Raspberry Pi products. We feel that it’s a fitting end to the line, rolling in the best bits of Raspberry Pi 3B+ and providing users with more design flexibility in an all‑round better product. We hope you enjoy it.

    Website: LINK

  • The Raspberry Pi Christmas shopping list 2018

    The Raspberry Pi Christmas shopping list 2018

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    Looking for this year’s perfect something to put under the tree ‘from Santa’? Well, look no further than right here — it’s time for our traditional Christmas shopping list!

    Woohoo!

    Which Raspberry Pi?

    As you are no doubt aware, the Raspberry Pi comes in more than one variety. And if you’re planning to give a Pi as a gift to a first-time user, you may be confused as to which one you should buy.

    Raspberry Pi 3B+

    For someone learning to write code for the first time, we recommend the Raspberry Pi 3B+. Anyone living in a home with an HDMI display, such as a computer monitor or television, will be able to plug directly into the 3B+, and in case they don’t already have a standard USB mouse and keyboard, these can both easily be acquired online, in many charity shops, or by sweet-talking a friend/neighbour/employer. You can even find some great Raspberry Pi starter kits that include many of the items needed to get started.

    Raspberry Pi Zero W

    The Raspberry Pi Zero W comes at a lower price, and with it, a smaller footprint than the 3B+. This makes the tiny Pi the perfect addition to any creator’s toolkit, ideal for projects that run on a Pi long-term, such as display builds, robots, or near-space HABs.

    Pre-loaded micro SD card

    Whatever Raspberry Pi you choose for the lucky receiver of your Christmas gift, we also recommend getting them a pre-loaded micro SD card. While it’s really easy to flash an operating system image onto one of the dusty old micro SD cards you have lurking in a drawer, pre-loaded cards allow new Pi owners to plug in and get started right off the bat. Plus, the ones with our operating system Raspbian on come in rather fancy, logo-adorned SD adapters. And who doesn’t like a rather fancy, logo-adorned SD adapter?

    Books, books, books

    We’re releasing two new books this week that are perfect for any Christmas stocking!

    Code Club Book of Scratch Volume 1

    Code Club Book of Scratch Volume 1

    The Code Club team is buzzing over the release of the first Code Club book, which is available to order now. Primarily aimed at learners aged 9–13, the book focuses on teaching the Scratch programming language, and it’s jam-packed with fun projects, tips, and stickers. The book also comes with a pair of super-special computer science glasses that allow you to see secret hints hidden throughout the book. Very, very cool.

    And since Scratch is pre-installed on Raspbian, the Code Club Book of Scratch is the perfect accompaniment to that Raspberry Pi you’re planning to get for the young person in your life!

    The Official Raspberry Pi Beginner’s Guide

    Raspberry Pi Beginner's Guide Book 2018

    From setting up a Raspberry Pi to using Scratch and Python to create games and animations, the hot-off-the-press Official Raspberry Pi Beginner’s Guide has everything your loved one needs to get started and keep going.

    And when we say ‘ hot-off-the-press’, we mean it — we only released the book this week!

    Both the Raspberry Pi Beginner’s Guide and the Code Club Book of Scratch are available with free international shipping. And if you’d like to give either of them a ‘try before you buy’ test drive, they should both available soon as free PDFs for you to download and peruse at your leisure.

    Magazine subscriptions

    Alongside our books, we have an array of magazines, including the brand-new, twice-monthly, video game–focused Wireframe! As with the books, you can download all issues of our magazines for a test read before you commit to a subscription.

    Twelve-month print subscriptions to HackSpace magazine or The MagPi will reward you with a technical treat: an Adafruit Circuit Playground or a Raspberry Pi 3A+.

    So not only can you give a gift that will last the entirety of 2019, but you’ll also automatically provide your favourite creative person with something rather lovely to play with when they receive their first issue.

    And if you sign them up now, you can give someone a six-issue subscription of Wireframe magazine for £12! Or save 49% on a twelve-month subscription of 26 magazines from £40.

    So many choices, so many ways to make the creators and tech fans in your life happy this holiday season.

    Accessories and such

    Maybe the person you’re shopping for already has every Raspberry Pi on the market. And as for our publications, their mailbox is full of magazines and books every week, and their smartphone and tablets are crammed with every PDF we’ve ever produced. So what next?

    Swag

    What do you buy the Raspberry Pi fan who has all the Pis? Swag, of course!

    From stickers and mugs, to coasters and pins, check out the Raspberry Pi swag store for some wonderful treats!

    (Edit: out of stock things shouldn’t be out of stock for too long – Alex)

    Add-ons

    Whether it’s a HAT (Hardware Attached on Top) for the Raspberry Pi, or a full kit to make something rather spectacular, our Approved Resellers stock all manner of Pi add-ons.

    You can find your nearest Raspberry Pi Approved Reseller by clicking on any item on our products page and then selecting your country.

    This isn’t all!

    We’ve been putting together a Raspberry Pi shopping list every year in response to the message we receive from you asking for gift ideas. So why not have a look back at our previous lists to get more inspiration for what to give, including more books, toolkit staples, non-Pi tech bits, and, of course, LEGO.

    Website: LINK

  • New product: Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ on sale now at $25

    New product: Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ on sale now at $25

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    TL;DR: you can now get the 1.4GHz clock speed, 5GHz wireless networking and improved thermals of Raspberry Pi 3B+ in a smaller form factor, and at the smaller price of $25. Meet the Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+.

    New Product Alert: Raspberry Pi 3A+

    You can now get the 1.4GHz clock speed, 5GHz wireless networking and improved thermals of Raspberry Pi 3B+ in a smaller form factor, and at the smaller price of $25. Meet the Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+.

    Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+

    Long-time readers will recall that back in 2014 the original Raspberry Pi 1 Model B+ was followed closely by a cut-down Model A+. By halving the RAM to 256MB, and removing the USB hub and Ethernet controller, we were able to hit a lower price point, and squeeze the product down to the size of a HAT.

    Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+

    Small but perfectly formed

    Although we didn’t make A+ form-factor versions of Raspberry Pi 2 or 3, it has been one of our most frequently requested “missing” products. Now, with Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ shipping in volume, we’re able to fill that gap by releasing Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+.

    Phenomenal cosmic powers! Itty-bitty living space

    Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ incorporates most of the neat enhancements we made to its big brother, and features:

    • A 1.4GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU
    • 512MB LPDDR2 SDRAM
    • Dual-band 802.11ac wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.2/BLE
    • Improved USB mass-storage booting
    • Improved thermal management

    Like its big brother, the entire board is certified as a radio module under FCC rules, which in turn will significantly reduce the cost of conformance testing Raspberry Pi–based products.

    In some ways this is rather a poignant product for us. Back in March, we explained that the 3+ platform is the final iteration of the “classic” Raspberry Pi: whatever we do next will of necessity be less of an evolution, because it will need new core silicon, on a new process node, with new memory technology. So 3A+ is about closing things out in style, answering one of our most frequent customer requests, and clearing the decks so we can start to think seriously about what comes next.

    Just in case

    Our official cases for Raspberry Pi 3B and 3B+ and Raspberry Pi Zero have been very popular, so of course we wanted to offer a case for this new device.

    Unfortunately it’s not quite ready yet, but as you can see it’s rather pretty: we’re expecting it to be available from the start of December, just in time to serve as a stocking filler for the geek in your life.

    Website: LINK

  • Introducing the Raspberry Pi TV HAT

    Introducing the Raspberry Pi TV HAT

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    Today we are excited to launch a new add-on board for your Raspberry Pi: the Raspberry Pi TV HAT, on sale now at $21.50.

    A photograph of a Raspberry Pi a TV HAT with aerial lead connected Oct 2018

    The TV HAT connects to the 40-pin GPIO header and to a suitable antenna, allowing your Raspberry Pi to receive DVB-T2 television broadcasts.

    A photograph of a Raspberry Pi Zero W with TV HAT connected Oct 2018

    Watch TV with your Raspberry Pi

    With the board, you can receive and view television on a Raspberry Pi, or you can use your Pi as a server to stream television over a network to other devices. The TV HAT works with all 40-pin GPIO Raspberry Pi boards when running as a server. If you want to watch TV on the Pi itself, we recommend using a Pi 2, 3, or 3B+, as you may need more processing power for this.

    A photograph of a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ with TV HAT connected Oct 2018

    Stream television over your network

    Viewing television is not restricted to Raspberry Pi computers: with a TV HAT connected to your network, you can view streams on any network-connected device. That includes other computers, mobile phones, and tablets. You can find instructions for setting up your TV HAT in our step-by-step guide.

    New HAT form factor

    The Raspberry Pi TV HAT follows a new form factor of HAT (Hardware Attached on Top), which we are also announcing today. The TV HAT is a half-size HAT that matches the outline of Raspberry Pi Zero boards. A new HAT spec is available now. No features have changed electrically – this is a purely mechanical change.

    Raspberry Pi TV HAT mechanical drawing Oct 2018

    A mechanical drawing of a Raspberry Pi TV HAT, exemplifying the spec of the new HAT form factor. Click to embiggen.

    The TV HAT has three bolt holes; we omitted the fourth so that the HAT can be placed on a large-size Pi without obstructing the display connector.

    The board comes with a set of mechanical spacers, a 40-way header, and an aerial adaptor.

    A photograph of a Raspberry Pi TV HAT Oct 2018

    Licences

    Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) is a widely adopted standard for transmitting broadcast television; see countries that have adopted the DVB standard here.

    Initially, we will be offering the TV HAT in Europe only. Compliance work is already underway to open other DVB-T2 regions. If you purchase a TV HAT, you must have the appropriate licence or approval to receive broadcast television. You can find a list of licences for Europe here. If in doubt, please contact your local licensing body.

    The Raspberry Pi TV HAT opens up some fantastic opportunities for people looking to embed a TV receiver into their networks. Head over to the TV HAT product page to find out where to get hold of yours. We can’t wait to see what you use it for!

    Website: LINK

  • Guess the weight, win a thing!

    Guess the weight, win a thing!

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Today marks the four-year anniversary of Nicola Early joining the Raspberry Pi team. Nicola works as Administrator at Pi Towers and is responsible for so many things that I dare not try to list them all. But among all her tasks, the most important one is the care and maintenance of the office rubber band ball.

    Pi Towers Raspberry Pi Rubber Band Ball

    The rubber band ball chronicles

    Every working day for the last four years, whenever the postman delivers the packs of letters, Nicola has had at least one new rubber band to collect. And so over time, the ball has grown and grown and grown.

    Nicola is very protective of the ball, so if you come to her desk in search for a rubber band, you’ll have to withstand her glare as she reluctantly removes one from her expanding collection.

    Pi Towers Raspberry Pi Rubber Band Ball

    If we are to consider that, in the UK, there are about 261 working days in a year, and Nicola has been working at Pi Towers for four years, it’s fair to estimate the ball consists of at least 1044 bands.

    So our question for you is this:

    How much does the ball weigh?

    Submit your guess in the comments below*, or in the tweet, Facebook post, or Instagram post for this blog, and the closest guess will win a Raspberry Pi T-shirt and, if we can manage it without her noticing, a band from the very ball in question.

    Pi Towers Raspberry Pi Rubber Band Ball

    To take part, you need to submit your guess in grams by midnight next Monday 17 September. Multiple guesses on the same platform from the same account will be ignored — so behave.

    *Members of the Raspberry Pi team may not take part, as there are scales on Nicola’s desk, and I don’t trust any of you.

    Website: LINK

  • Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ on sale now at $35

    Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ on sale now at $35

    Reading Time: 7 minutes

    Here’s a long post. We think you’ll find it interesting. If you don’t have time to read it all, we recommend you watch this video, which will fill you in with everything you need, and then head straight to the product page to fill yer boots. (We recommend the video anyway, even if you do have time for a long read. ‘Cos it’s fab.)

    A BRAND-NEW PI FOR π DAY

    Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ is now on sale now for $35, featuring: – A 1.4GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU – Dual-band 802.11ac wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.2 – Faster Ethernet (Gigabit Ethernet over USB 2.0) – Power-over-Ethernet support (with separate PoE HAT) – Improved PXE network and USB mass-storage booting – Improved thermal management Alongside a 200MHz increase in peak CPU clock frequency, we have roughly three times the wired and wireless network throughput, and the ability to sustain high performance for much longer periods.

    If you’ve been a Raspberry Pi watcher for a while now, you’ll have a bit of a feel for how we update our products. Just over two years ago, we released Raspberry Pi 3 Model B. This was our first 64-bit product, and our first product to feature integrated wireless connectivity. Since then, we’ve sold over nine million Raspberry Pi 3 units (we’ve sold 19 million Raspberry Pis in total), which have been put to work in schools, homes, offices and factories all over the globe.

    Those Raspberry Pi watchers will know that we have a history of releasing improved versions of our products a couple of years into their lives. The first example was Raspberry Pi 1 Model B+, which added two additional USB ports, introduced our current form factor, and rolled up a variety of other feedback from the community. Raspberry Pi 2 didn’t get this treatment, of course, as it was superseded after only one year; but it feels like it’s high time that Raspberry Pi 3 received the “plus” treatment.

    So, without further ado, Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ is now on sale for $35 (the same price as the existing Raspberry Pi 3 Model B), featuring:

    • A 1.4GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU
    • Dual-band 802.11ac wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.2
    • Faster Ethernet (Gigabit Ethernet over USB 2.0)
    • Power-over-Ethernet support (with separate PoE HAT)
    • Improved PXE network and USB mass-storage booting
    • Improved thermal management

    Alongside a 200MHz increase in peak CPU clock frequency, we have roughly three times the wired and wireless network throughput, and the ability to sustain high performance for much longer periods.

    Behold the shiny

    Raspberry Pi 3B+ is available to buy today from our network of Approved Resellers.

    New features, new chips

    Roger Thornton did the design work on this revision of the Raspberry Pi. Here, he and I have a chat about what’s new.

    Introducing the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+

    Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ is now on sale now for $35, featuring: – A 1.4GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU – Dual-band 802.11ac wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.2 – Faster Ethernet (Gigabit Ethernet over USB 2.0) – Power-over-Ethernet support (with separate PoE HAT) – Improved PXE network and USB mass-storage booting – Improved thermal management Alongside a 200MHz increase in peak CPU clock frequency, we have roughly three times the wired and wireless network throughput, and the ability to sustain high performance for much longer periods.

    The new product is built around BCM2837B0, an updated version of the 64-bit Broadcom application processor used in Raspberry Pi 3B, which incorporates power integrity optimisations, and a heat spreader (that’s the shiny metal bit you can see in the photos). Together these allow us to reach higher clock frequencies (or to run at lower voltages to reduce power consumption), and to more accurately monitor and control the temperature of the chip.

    Dual-band wireless LAN and Bluetooth are provided by the Cypress CYW43455 “combo” chip, connected to a Proant PCB antenna similar to the one used on Raspberry Pi Zero W. Compared to its predecessor, Raspberry Pi 3B+ delivers somewhat better performance in the 2.4GHz band, and far better performance in the 5GHz band, as demonstrated by these iperf results from LibreELEC developer Milhouse.

    Tx bandwidth (Mb/s) Rx bandwidth (Mb/s)
    Raspberry Pi 3B 35.7 35.6
    Raspberry Pi 3B+ (2.4GHz) 46.7 46.3
    Raspberry Pi 3B+ (5GHz) 102 102

    The wireless circuitry is encapsulated under a metal shield, rather fetchingly embossed with our logo. This has allowed us to certify the entire board as a radio module under FCC rules, which in turn will significantly reduce the cost of conformance testing Raspberry Pi-based products.

    We’ll be teaching metalwork next.

    Previous Raspberry Pi devices have used the LAN951x family of chips, which combine a USB hub and 10/100 Ethernet controller. For Raspberry Pi 3B+, Microchip have supported us with an upgraded version, LAN7515, which supports Gigabit Ethernet. While the USB 2.0 connection to the application processor limits the available bandwidth, we still see roughly a threefold increase in throughput compared to Raspberry Pi 3B. Again, here are some typical iperf results.

    Tx bandwidth (Mb/s) Rx bandwidth (Mb/s)
    Raspberry Pi 3B 94.1 95.5
    Raspberry Pi 3B+ 315 315

    We use a magjack that supports Power over Ethernet (PoE), and bring the relevant signals to a new 4-pin header. We will shortly launch a PoE HAT which can generate the 5V necessary to power the Raspberry Pi from the 48V PoE supply.

    There… are… four… pins!

    Coming soon to a Raspberry Pi 3B+ near you

    Raspberry Pi 3B was our first product to support PXE Ethernet boot. Testing it in the wild shook out a number of compatibility issues with particular switches and traffic environments. Gordon has rolled up fixes for all known issues into the BCM2837B0 boot ROM, and PXE boot is now enabled by default.

    Clocking, voltages and thermals

    The improved power integrity of the BCM2837B0 package, and the improved regulation accuracy of our new MaxLinear MxL7704 power management IC, have allowed us to tune our clocking and voltage rules for both better peak performance and longer-duration sustained performance.

    Below 70°C, we use the improvements to increase the core frequency to 1.4GHz. Above 70°C, we drop to 1.2GHz, and use the improvements to decrease the core voltage, increasing the period of time before we reach our 80°C thermal throttle; the reduction in power consumption is such that many use cases will never reach the throttle. Like a modern smartphone, we treat the thermal mass of the device as a resource, to be spent carefully with the goal of optimising user experience.

    This graph, courtesy of Gareth Halfacree, demonstrates that Raspberry Pi 3B+ runs faster and at a lower temperature for the duration of an eight‑minute quad‑core Sysbench CPU test.

    Note that Raspberry Pi 3B+ does consume substantially more power than its predecessor. We strongly encourage you to use a high-quality 2.5A power supply, such as the official Raspberry Pi Universal Power Supply.

    FAQs

    We’ll keep updating this list over the next couple of days, but here are a few to get you started.

    Are you discontinuing earlier Raspberry Pi models?

    No. We have a lot of industrial customers who will want to stick with the existing products for the time being. We’ll keep building these models for as long as there’s demand. Raspberry Pi 1B+, Raspberry Pi 2B, and Raspberry Pi 3B will continue to sell for $25, $35, and $35 respectively.

    What about Model A+?

    Raspberry Pi 1A+ continues to be the $20 entry-level “big” Raspberry Pi for the time being. We are considering the possibility of producing a Raspberry Pi 3A+ in due course.

    What about the Compute Module?

    CM1, CM3 and CM3L will continue to be available. We may offer versions of CM3 and CM3L with BCM2837B0 in due course, depending on customer demand.

    Are you still using VideoCore?

    Yes. VideoCore IV 3D is the only publicly-documented 3D graphics core for ARM‑based SoCs, and we want to make Raspberry Pi more open over time, not less.

    Credits

    A project like this requires a vast amount of focused work from a large team over an extended period. Particular credit is due to Roger Thornton, who designed the board and ran the exhaustive (and exhausting) RF compliance campaign, and to the team at the Sony UK Technology Centre in Pencoed, South Wales. A partial list of others who made major direct contributions to the BCM2837B0 chip program, CYW43455 integration, LAN7515 and MxL7704 developments, and Raspberry Pi 3B+ itself follows:

    James Adams, David Armour, Jonathan Bell, Maria Blazquez, Jamie Brogan-Shaw, Mike Buffham, Rob Campling, Cindy Cao, Victor Carmon, KK Chan, Nick Chase, Nigel Cheetham, Scott Clark, Nigel Clift, Dominic Cobley, Peter Coyle, John Cronk, Di Dai, Kurt Dennis, David Doyle, Andrew Edwards, Phil Elwell, John Ferdinand, Doug Freegard, Ian Furlong, Shawn Guo, Philip Harrison, Jason Hicks, Stefan Ho, Andrew Hoare, Gordon Hollingworth, Tuomas Hollman, EikPei Hu, James Hughes, Andy Hulbert, Anand Jain, David John, Prasanna Kerekoppa, Shaik Labeeb, Trevor Latham, Steve Le, David Lee, David Lewsey, Sherman Li, Xizhe Li, Simon Long, Fu Luo Larson, Juan Martinez, Sandhya Menon, Ben Mercer, James Mills, Max Passell, Mark Perry, Eric Phiri, Ashwin Rao, Justin Rees, James Reilly, Matt Rowley, Akshaye Sama, Ian Saturley, Serge Schneider, Manuel Sedlmair, Shawn Shadburn, Veeresh Shivashimper, Graham Smith, Ben Stephens, Mike Stimson, Yuree Tchong, Stuart Thomson, John Wadsworth, Ian Watch, Sarah Williams, Jason Zhu.

    If you’re not on this list and think you should be, please let me know, and accept my apologies.

    Website: LINK

  • The Raspberry Pi PiServer tool

    The Raspberry Pi PiServer tool

    Reading Time: 7 minutes

    As Simon mentioned in his recent blog post about Raspbian Stretch, we have developed a new piece of software called PiServer. Use this tool to easily set up a network of client Raspberry Pis connected to a single x86-based server via Ethernet. With PiServer, you don’t need SD cards, you can control all clients via the server, and you can add and configure user accounts — it’s ideal for the classroom, your home, or an industrial setting.

    PiServer diagram

    Client? Server?

    Before I go into more detail, let me quickly explain some terms.

    • Server — the server is the computer that provides the file system, boot files, and password authentication to the client(s)
    • Client — a client is a computer that retrieves boot files from the server over the network, and then uses a file system the server has shared. More than one client can connect to a server, but all clients use the same file system.
    • User – a user is a user name/password combination that allows someone to log into a client to access the file system on the server. Any user can log into any client with their credentials, and will always see the same server and share the same file system. Users do not have sudo capability on a client, meaning they cannot make significant changes to the file system and software.

    I see no SD cards

    Last year we described how the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B can be booted without an SD card over an Ethernet network from another computer (the server). This is called network booting or PXE (pronounced ‘pixie’) booting.

    Why would you want to do this?

    • A client computer (the Raspberry Pi) doesn’t need any permanent storage (an SD card) to boot.
    • You can network a large number of clients to one server, and all clients are exactly the same. If you log into one of the clients, you will see the same file system as if you logged into any other client.
    • The server can be run on an x86 system, which means you get to take advantage of the performance, network, and disk speed on the server.

    Sounds great, right? Of course, for the less technical, creating such a network is very difficult. For example, there’s setting up all the required DHCP and TFTP servers, and making sure they behave nicely with the rest of the network. If you get this wrong, you can break your entire network.

    PiServer to the rescue

    To make network booting easy, I thought it would be nice to develop an application which did everything for you. Let me introduce: PiServer!

    PiServer has the following functionalities:

    • It automatically detects Raspberry Pis trying to network boot, so you don’t have to work out their Ethernet addresses.
    • It sets up a DHCP server — the thing inside the router that gives all network devices an IP address — either in proxy mode or in full IP mode. No matter the mode, the DHCP server will only reply to the Raspberry Pis you have specified, which is important for network safety.
    • It creates user names and passwords for the server. This is great for a classroom full of Pis: just set up all the users beforehand, and everyone gets to log in with their passwords and keep all their work in a central place. Moreover, users cannot change the software, so educators have control over which programs their learners can use.
    • It uses a slightly altered Raspbian build which allows separation of temporary spaces, doesn’t have the default ‘pi’ user, and has LDAP enabled for log-in.

    What can I do with PiServer?

    Serve a whole classroom of Pis

    In a classroom, PiServer allows all files for lessons or projects to be stored on a central x86-based computer. Each user can have their own account, and any files they create are also stored on the server. Moreover, the networked Pis doesn’t need to be connected to the internet. The teacher has centralised control over all Pis, and all Pis are user-agnostic, meaning there’s no need to match a person with a computer or an SD card.

    Build a home server

    PiServer could be used in the home to serve file systems for all Raspberry Pis around the house — either a single common Raspbian file system for all Pis or a different operating system for each. Hopefully, our extensive OS suppliers will provide suitable build files in future.

    Use it as a controller for networked Pis

    In an industrial scenario, it is possible to use PiServer to develop a network of Raspberry Pis (maybe even using Power over Ethernet (PoE)) such that the control software for each Pi is stored remotely on a server. This enables easy remote control and provisioning of the Pis from a central repository.

    How to use PiServer

    The client machines

    So that you can use a Pi as a client, you need to enable network booting on it. Power it up using an SD card with a Raspbian Lite image, and open a terminal window. Type in

    echo program_usb_boot_mode=1 | sudo tee -a /boot/config.txt

    and press Return. This adds the line program_usb_boot_mode=1 to the end of the config.txt file in /boot. Now power the Pi down and remove the SD card. The next time you connect the Pi to a power source, you will be able to network boot it.

    The server machine

    As a server, you will need an x86 computer on which you can install x86 Debian Stretch. Refer to Simon’s blog post for additional information on this. It is possible to use a Raspberry Pi to serve to the client Pis, but the file system will be slower, especially at boot time.

    Make sure your server has a good amount of disk space available for the file system — in general, we recommend at least 16Gb SD cards for Raspberry Pis. The whole client file system is stored locally on the server, so the disk space requirement is fairly significant.

    Next, start PiServer by clicking on the start icon and then clicking Preferences > PiServer. This will open a graphical user interface — the wizard — that will walk you through setting up your network. Skip the introduction screen, and you should see a screen looking like this:

    PiServer GUI screenshot

    If you’ve enabled network booting on the client Pis and they are connected to a power source, their MAC addresses will automatically appear in the table shown above. When you have added all your Pis, click Next.

    PiServer GUI screenshot

    On the Add users screen, you can set up users on your server. These are pairs of user names and passwords that will be valid for logging into the client Raspberry Pis. Don’t worry, you can add more users at any point. Click Next again when you’re done.

    PiServer GUI screenshot

    The Add software screen allows you to select the operating system you want to run on the attached Pis. (You’ll have the option to assign an operating system to each client individually in the setting after the wizard has finished its job.) There are some automatically populated operating systems, such as Raspbian and Raspbian Lite. Hopefully, we’ll add more in due course. You can also provide your own operating system from a local file, or install it from a URL. For further information about how these operating system images are created, have a look at the scripts in /var/lib/piserver/scripts.

    Once you’re done, click Next again. The wizard will then install the necessary components and the operating systems you’ve chosen. This will take a little time, so grab a coffee (or decaffeinated drink of your choice).

    When the installation process is finished, PiServer is up and running — all you need to do is reboot the Pis to get them to run from the server.

    Shooting troubles

    If you have trouble getting clients connected to your network, there are a fewthings you can do to debug:

    1. If some clients are connecting but others are not, check whether you’ve enabled the network booting mode on the Pis that give you issues. To do that, plug an Ethernet cable into the Pi (with the SD card removed) — the LEDs on the Pi and connector should turn on. If that doesn’t happen, you’ll need to follow the instructions above to boot the Pi and edit its /boot/config.txt file.
    2. If you can’t connect to any clients, check whether your network is suitable: format an SD card, and copy bootcode.bin from /boot on a standard Raspbian image onto it. Plug the card into a client Pi, and check whether it appears as a new MAC address in the PiServer GUI. If it does, then the problem is a known issue, and you can head to our forums to ask for advice about it (the network booting code has a couple of problems which we’re already aware of). For a temporary fix, you can clone the SD card on which bootcode.bin is stored for all your clients.

    If neither of these things fix your problem, our forums are the place to find help — there’s a host of people there who’ve got PiServer working. If you’re sure you have identified a problem that hasn’t been addressed on the forums, or if you have a request for a functionality, then please add it to the GitHub issues.

    Website: LINK

  • The Raspberry Pi Christmas shopping list 2017

    The Raspberry Pi Christmas shopping list 2017

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    Looking for the perfect Christmas gift for a beloved maker in your life? Maybe you’d like to give a relative or friend a taste of the world of coding and Raspberry Pi? Whatever you’re looking for, the Raspberry Pi Christmas shopping list will point you in the right direction.

    An ice-skating Raspberry Pi - The Raspberry Pi Christmas Shopping List 2017

    For those getting started

    Thinking about introducing someone special to the wonders of Raspberry Pi during the holidays? Although you can set up your Pi with peripherals from around your home, such as a mobile phone charger, your PC’s keyboard, and the old mouse dwelling in an office drawer, a starter kit is a nice all-in-one package for the budding coder.

    Check out the starter kits from Raspberry Pi Approved Resellers such as Pimoroni, The Pi Hut, ModMyPi, Adafruit, CanaKit…the list is pretty long. Our products page will direct you to your closest reseller, or you can head to element14 to pick up the official Raspberry Pi Starter Kit.

    You can also buy the Raspberry Pi Press’s brand-new Raspberry Pi Beginners Book, which includes a Raspberry Pi Zero W, a case, a ready-made SD card, and adapter cables.

    Once you’ve presented a lucky person with their first Raspberry Pi, it’s time for them to spread their maker wings and learn some new skills.

    MagPi Essentials books - The Raspberry Pi Christmas Shopping List 2017

    To help them along, you could pick your favourite from among the Official Projects Book volume 3, The MagPi Essentials guides, and the brand-new third edition of Carrie Anne Philbin’s Adventures in Raspberry Pi. (She is super excited about this new edition!)

    And you can always add a link to our free resources on the gift tag.

    For the maker in your life

    If you’re looking for something for a confident digital maker, you can’t go wrong with adding to their arsenal of electric and electronic bits and bobs that are no doubt cluttering drawers and boxes throughout their house.

    Components such as servomotors, displays, and sensors are staples of the maker world. And when it comes to jumper wires, buttons, and LEDs, one can never have enough.

    You could also consider getting your person a soldering iron, some helpings hands, or small tools such as a Dremel or screwdriver set.

    And to make their life a little less messy, pop it all inside a Really Useful Box…because they’re really useful.

    For kit makers

    While some people like to dive into making head-first and to build whatever comes to mind, others enjoy working with kits.

    The Naturebytes kit allows you to record the animal visitors of your garden with the help of a camera and a motion sensor. Footage of your local badgers, birds, deer, and more will be saved to an SD card, or tweeted or emailed to you if it’s in range of WiFi.

    Cortec Tiny 4WD - The Raspberry Pi Christmas Shopping List 2017

    Coretec’s Tiny 4WD is a kit for assembling a Pi Zero–powered remote-controlled robot at home. Not only is the robot adorable, building it also a great introduction to motors and wireless control.

    Bare Conductive’s Touch Board Pro Kit offers everything you need to create interactive electronics projects using conductive paint.

    Pi Hut Arcade Kit - The Raspberry Pi Christmas Shopping List 2017

    Finally, why not help your favourite maker create their own gaming arcade using the Arcade Building Kit from The Pi Hut?

    For the reader

    For those who like to curl up with a good read, or spend too much of their day on public transport, a book or magazine subscription is the perfect treat.

    For makers, hackers, and those interested in new technologies, our brand-new HackSpace magazine and the ever popular community magazine The MagPi are ideal. Both are available via a physical or digital subscription, and new subscribers to The MagPi also receive a free Raspberry Pi Zero W plus case.

    You can also check out other publications from the Raspberry Pi family, including CoderDojo’s new CoderDojo Nano: Make Your Own Game, Eben Upton and Gareth Halfacree’s Raspberry Pi User Guide, and Marc Scott’s A Beginner’s Guide to Coding. And have I mentioned Carrie Anne’s Adventures in Raspberry Pi yet?

    Stocking fillers for everyone

    Looking for something small to keep your loved ones occupied on Christmas morning? Or do you have to buy a Secret Santa gift for the office tech? Here are some wonderful stocking fillers to fill your boots with this season.

    Pi Hut 3D Christmas Tree - The Raspberry Pi Christmas Shopping List 2017

    The Pi Hut 3D Xmas Tree: available as both a pre-soldered and a DIY version, this gadget will work with any 40-pin Raspberry Pi and allows you to create your own mini light show.

    Google AIY Voice kit: build your own home assistant using a Raspberry Pi, the MagPi Essentials guide, and this brand-new kit. “Google, play Mariah Carey again…”

    Pimoroni’s Raspberry Pi Zero W Project Kits offer everything you need, including the Pi, to make your own time-lapse cameras, music players, and more.

    The official Raspberry Pi Sense HAT, Camera Module, and cases for the Pi 3 and Pi Zero will complete the collection of any Raspberry Pi owner, while also opening up exciting project opportunities.

    STEAM gifts that everyone will love

    Awesome Astronauts | Building LEGO’s Women of NASA!

    LEGO Idea’s bought out this amazing ‘Women of NASA’ set, and I thought it would be fun to build, play and learn from these inspiring women! First up, let’s discover a little more about Sally Ride and Mae Jemison, two AWESOME ASTRONAUTS!

    Treat the kids, and big kids, in your life to the newest LEGO Ideas set, the Women of NASA — starring Nancy Grace Roman, Margaret Hamilton, Sally Ride, and Mae Jemison!

    Explore the world of wearables with Pimoroni’s sewable, hackable, wearable, adorable Bearables kits.

    Add lights and motors to paper creations with the Activating Origami Kit, available from The Pi Hut.

    We all loved Hidden Figures, and the STEAM enthusiast you know will do too. The film’s available on DVD, and you can also buy the original book, along with other fascinating non-fiction such as Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rachel Ignotofsky’s Women in Science, and Sydney Padua’s (mostly true) The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage.

    Have we missed anything?

    With so many amazing kits, HATs, and books available from members of the Raspberry Pi community, it’s hard to only pick a few. Have you found something splendid for the maker in your life? Maybe you’ve created your own kit that uses the Raspberry Pi? Share your favourites with us in the comments below or via our social media accounts.

    Website: LINK

  • Brand new and blue: our Brazilian Raspberry Pi 3

    Brand new and blue: our Brazilian Raspberry Pi 3

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Programa de revendedor aprovado agora no Brasil — our Approved Reseller programme is live in Brazil, with Anatel-approved Raspberry Pis in a rather delicious shade of blue on sale from today.

    A photo of the blue-variant Raspberry Pi 3

    Blue Raspberry is more than just the best Jolly Ranger flavour

    The challenge

    The difficulty in buying our products — and the lack of Anatel certification — have been consistent points of feedback from our many Brazilian customers and followers. In much the same way that electrical products in the USA must be FCC-approved in order to be produced or sold there, products sold in Brazil must be approved by Anatel. And so we’re pleased to tell you that the Raspberry Pi finally has this approval.

    Blue Raspberry

    Today we’re also announcing the appointment of our first Approved Reseller in Brazil: FilipeFlop will be able to sell Raspberry Pi 3 units across the country.

    Filipeflop logo - Raspberry Pi Brazil

    A big shout-out to the team at FilipeFlop that has worked so hard with us to ensure that we’re getting the product on sale in Brazil at the right price. (They also helped us understand the various local duties and taxes which need to be paid!)

    Please note: the blue colouring of the Raspberry Pi 3 sold in Brazil is the only difference between it and the standard green model. People outside Brazil will not be able to purchase the blue variant from FilipeFlop.

    More Raspberry Pi Approved Resellers

    Raspberry Pi Approved Reseller logo - Raspberry Pi Brazil

    Since first announcing it back in August, we have further expanded our Approved Reseller programme by adding resellers for Austria, Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the US. All Approved Resellers are listed on our products page, and more will follow over the next few weeks!

    Make and share

    If you’re based in Brazil and you’re ordering the new, blue Raspberry Pi, make sure to share your projects with us on social media. We can’t wait to see what you get up to with them!

    Website: LINK