First Raspberry Pi boards go under the hammer

Andrew Brush 2 Jan, 2012 at 3:38am ET Article published in Tech

That’s right—the eagerly anticipated credit-card-sized computer is one step closer to being in the hands of hackers worldwide with 10 beta boards hitting eBay over the next few days.

The board itself is a pre-release beta of the ‘$35’ Model B board, slightly updated since the alpha pictured above, but still offering a plethora of ports and tons of hacking potential on a tiny Broadcom BCM2835-based unit. In addition to the numbered board buyers will also get a certificate of authenticity, a USB power supply and an SD card preloaded with an ARM Linux distro.

From the look of the first auctions it’s certainly not going to be a cheap way to get hold of one, but if you have the green and fancy grabbing a piece of history or want to support a charity dedicated to bringing programming back to schools this could well be for you.

Comments

2 Jan 2012 ~ 9:49am BuddyJ Does it play WoW?

I'm all for small form factors. What's a real-world use for one of these?
2 Jan 2012 ~ 10:05am Kwitko HTPC, kiosk computer, to name two. I plan on picking up two- one to use as a cheapo net PC for my son, and another as a media player for my bedroom.
2 Jan 2012 ~ 10:57am BuddyJ Did more reading this morning on it. I love it! Gonna pick one up and play with it for sure. The HTPC use really interests me but I bet there will be automotive uses since there's a GPIO board for it coming soon after release.
2 Jan 2012 ~ 2:00pm Garg Awesome! With the GPIO board, I'd favor the Raspberry Pi over the Arduino for its full PC capability. Cheaper than the similar BeagleBoard and a great charity angle, this seems like a great choice.
2 Jan 2012 ~ 3:11pm ardichoke Hmm.... this + cheap speakers = internet radio for bathroom?
2 Jan 2012 ~ 5:13pm Kwitko This may make Arduino-like projects much more affordable and easier to assemble.
2 Jan 2012 ~ 6:26pm Basil As a single board computer it's closer to a BeagleBoard/Pandaboard than a microcontroller setup like an Arduino.

Should make that area interesting though, $35 for a model B vs $89 for a BeagleBone.
2 Jan 2012 ~ 7:04pm Garg One reason I never got an Arduino is that the costs add up so quickly for each expansion board you might need. For some projects, a Raspberry Pi would be overkill, but getting way more power for around the same money (depending on GPIO board $$) is pretty sweet.
2 Jan 2012 ~ 8:04pm mattgenton hi to all at icrontic.com i thought i had sent this newyears eve but it didnt send so i have sent it again all the best for new year to you all
- matt-gent
2 Jan 2012 ~ 10:08pm drasnor This (and BeagleBoard, Gumstix, Pandaboard, et al) play in a different space than Arduino. Arduino is an easy entry to the world of microcontrollers and is really good at providing an easy and rapid way to prototype low-level computationally-simple applications. There aren't any easy ways to do low-level development on ARM. Raspberry Pi, and Beagleboard, Pandaboard, Gumstix, et al provide a desktop-like embedded environment on which you can develop desktop-like embedded software.

To give an example, Arduino provides a software serial port implementation using bit-banged GPIO in case you need more serial ports than what's available in hardware. You include the software serial library into your code, declare which GPIO pins to use, and compile/link/flash the firmware. Doing the same thing in Linux requires you to write a kernel device driver implementing the port (either from scratch or with a reference code block you found somewhere) using the GPIO libraries for the ARM SoC you're using, assuming these libraries exist and are available. If they aren't, you have to get a register map for the SoC and write them yourself. Realistically, you would figure out how to make do with the built-in ports. Repeat ad nauseum for whichever peripherals you need but aren't available on your ARM SoC.

Things look a lot better if you don't try to use these things in that kind of application. All the applications listed in this thread are good applications for this kind of hardware.

P.S. Gargoyle, the easy solution is to not buy those expansion boards. Just get whichever parts you think you need and breadboard it. The schematics and bill of materials for those boards are available 9 times out of 10.
3 Jan 2012 ~ 11:12am Cliff_Forster I'll just stick with the trusty ole Compy 386.
3 Jan 2012 ~ 12:16pm Gameblade I don't know much about computer parts, nor do I have the cash flow to buy this. But I heard Linux....I hope someone has the good sense to replace the Linux components with infinitely superior Microsoft components.
3 Jan 2012 ~ 12:20pm shwaip
I don't know much about computer parts, nor do I have the cash flow to buy this. But I heard Linux....I hope someone has the good sense to replace the Linux components with infinitely superior Microsoft components.
I find the best solution is always to RAID the microsoft and linux components together. It allows you to use the benefits of both types of hardware.
3 Jan 2012 ~ 12:59pm Kwitko RAID? I prefer Black Flag.
3 Jan 2012 ~ 1:16pm Thrax sli oses are sweet
3 Jan 2012 ~ 1:16pm GHoosdum I consider Terro a clear winner for such applications.
4 Jan 2012 ~ 1:26pm allenpan it will be just cheaper to get any ARM dev board

http://www.aliexpress.com/product-fm/495116896-Mini6410-ARM11-S3C6410-Board-4-3-LCD-Touch-Screen-wholesalers.html
5 Jan 2012 ~ 1:04pm Kwitko
I'll just stick with the trusty ole Compy 386.
For your email?
5 Jan 2012 ~ 1:53pm GHoosdum Compy 386 only works for sbemails.
29 Feb 2012 ~ 9:36pm Kwitko Anybody order theirs yet?
9 Aug 2012 ~ 3:17pm MAGIC Anyone have a chance to play around with these yet? I'm thinking about getting a couple to run media center interfaces for my TVs.
9 Aug 2012 ~ 3:36pm mertesn No, but I have four on order. All should arrive in September or October. I'll bring one to ICOK.
9 Aug 2012 ~ 7:01pm midga I've got one coming in (with a swell case. Swag). I think it's supposed to get here in late October. I'm gonna turn it into a media (read: Netflix and Soma.FM) box for my bedroom, completely ignoring its potential and under-utilizing it.

Deal with it.
10 Aug 2012 ~ 12:43pm ardichoke I really want to get my hands on one of these and use it for home surveillance in conjunction with ZoneMinder... that's going to take some time and work to do though :/