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Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

raspberrypi.org

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Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#71

Post by sago »

jwr wrote: post #33

I learned to take these pricing claims with a large grain of salt. $5 sounds great and makes for great news. But then I head over to Farnell/element14 and learn that a) this is unobtainium, because the first shipment is expected on Dec 21, and b) it will cost me $17 + VAT + shipping. The title should say "the computer that might be available to some people at $5 at some time in the future ".

PiHut has the board for £4, with various add-on packages (cables, sd-card) up to £18 (all cables + 16 Gb SD).

S+H is £2.50

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#72

Post by TeMPOraL »

mgraupner wrote: post #59
TeMPOraL wrote: post #52

Arduino Uno for $2, NodeMCU for $3, RPi for $5... please let this trend continue. A year or two, and we'll basically have computronium - simple dev boards powerful and cheap enough to just tile your house with them. I've recently figured out that there's no point in designing your own PCB for placing sensors at home, when you can get an Arduino and an ESP8266 for $5; add power (and some ~$0 of voltage regulation) and…

Even more awesome: Skip the extra Arduino and use the ESP8266 as your Arduino. https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino

Good one, thanks!

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#73

Post by lucaspiller »

rwmj wrote: post #51

I know I'm complaining about an almost free computer, but ARM11 (ARMv6) isn't compatible with most Linux OSes which long ago moved to ARMv7. If only this was compatible with ARMv7 it would run a lot more stuff.

I don't see this as designed to be a general purpose computer, but as an alternative to Arduino and other microcontrollers in the hobbyist/maker space.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#75

Post by icebraining »

buserror wrote: post #56

Broadcom must be delighted to have managed to find a use for their obsolete part from 2007 or so. Some accountant, somewhere, is happy :-) Probably a neat little board too, but unlikely to be $5. It's at £11.88 [0] ex VAT ex shipping at farnell UK (and can't be ordered anyway) -- that's more like nearly $20 these days. [0]: http://uk.farnell.com/raspberry-pi/raspberrypi-zero/sbc-zero...

It's £4 in the Pi Hut (disabling the extras): http://thepihut.com/products/raspberry-pi-zero

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#76

Post by TeMPOraL »

de_Selby wrote: post #61
TeMPOraL wrote: post #52

Arduino Uno for $2, NodeMCU for $3, RPi for $5... please let this trend continue. A year or two, and we'll basically have computronium - simple dev boards powerful and cheap enough to just tile your house with them. I've recently figured out that there's no point in designing your own PCB for placing sensors at home, when you can get an Arduino and an ESP8266 for $5; add power (and some ~$0 of voltage regulation) and…

While I agree completely with what you're saying, I think it's almost unfair to be comparing this to an Arduino or NodeMCU - this is orders of magnitude more powerful.

At this price point, for many projects it doesn't matter; you can now use Raspberry Pi as a throwaway SOC for powering little stuff. I wouldn't, for example, put an $35 RPi 2 in charge of a bunch of sensors over my doors, but with $5 RPi it is an option.

EDIT:

And given the power, you can start offloading computation on what would otherwise be "dumb" control/data acquisition units. Hell, with that much compute you can start running serious DSP on it, which opens some additional use cases.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#78

Post by TeMPOraL »

moonchrome wrote: post #63
TeMPOraL wrote: post #52

Arduino Uno for $2, NodeMCU for $3, RPi for $5... please let this trend continue. A year or two, and we'll basically have computronium - simple dev boards powerful and cheap enough to just tile your house with them. I've recently figured out that there's no point in designing your own PCB for placing sensors at home, when you can get an Arduino and an ESP8266 for $5; add power (and some ~$0 of voltage regulation) and…

As a programmer who used to like taking things apart and playing with solder in school seeing these kinds of things fill me with enthusiasm and joy - and then I remember I need a wired power supply or a battery and suddenly enthusiasm is gone :( I wish we had wireless power transfer - for these kinds of things losses wouldn't even matter.

Yeah, powering stuff sucks. With ESP8266 you've pretty much eliminated the need for a data line for home automation, but you still need a power line.

My current solution (to be deployed in a week or two, after I get home): $2 Chinese fast charger with 4 USB ports (2x 2A, 2x 1A). I had a chance to test them personally before buying; they're decent enough for the task and cheap enough to buy a bunch. You can then use either an Arduino ($2-3 with USB cable) and ESP8266, or NodeMCU + $3 USB cable.

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