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Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

raspberrypi.org

321–330 of 776 posts

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

#321

This tugs all the heartstrings for me as it mimics the computers of the early 80s. My only criticism is that their use of micro-HDMI makes it very easy for children to wreck the machine. I've had this happen twice to me on RPi4s, and it's not a terribly pleasant experience. Now all I want from them is a custom edition with the function keys in red, the rest in black, and the body in beige.

I can't understand the reason why this port even was invented. The cables I have seen are few times bigger than the connector itself, so there is a lot of pressure and tension being applied on that tiny port. Only thing I can think of is saving some PCB space, but if they put more effort into arranging components, then I am sure full size port would fit nicely.

Yup, and if you look at Jeff Geerling's teardown photos, there were acres of extra PCB space and they easily could've switched back to regular HDMI for this unit.

It's a senseless design defect in what otherwise looks to be a splendid little unit.

If I end up with one of these, the first thing I'm gonna do is cut a little base-plate to glue it to, which extends behind the unit and has places to secure the HDMI cables (and maybe some other goodies as long as I'm at it), to prevent exactly the torque we all know happens.

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

#322

I was lucky to get a pre-release version to test, and I decided to tear it down before I started trying it out. I posted this blog post with detailed pictures of the insides, and some more details and performance benchmarks: https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2020/raspberry-pi-400-tear... There are also a couple videos linked in the post, if you're more visually-inclined. Fun fact: the Pi 400 (and Compute Module 4) bo…

This is slightly disappointing, I was expecting it to be some kind of case for the the Compute Module (or at least for the RPi4. I don't know if it's unrealistic, but it would be nice to have some sort of upgrade or repair possibilities.

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

#323
post #295

It’d be cool if it can be used as as a regular keyboard that morphs into a computer on the flip of a switch.

You can use the USB Gadget framework to make it enumerate to another machine as a keyboard:

https://www.google.com/search?q=usb+gadget+keyboard

You'd still have to wait for the pi to boot, however.

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

#324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

E-waste is a massive problem nowadays. Why not assemble the lab out of "old" computers? They might take a bit more electricity to run, but, at least in the US, you can get truckloads of computers that were destined for the scrapyard, for free. One local school here threw away 50+ small dell quad-core i5's in their quest to make sure they spend their money wisely. I've assembled a small lab, with many computers, laser…

> One local school here threw away 50+ small dell quad-core i5's in their quest to make sure they spend their money wisely. I think broad computer illiteracy in the general population has convinced people that you "need" a new, powerful computer. In reality, 95% of the population can get away with any decent computer from the last 10 years. Grandma isn't training a neural net, she's checking Facebook. I continue to u…

These days, even a low-end Android phone, taken back forty years, would be a supercomputer beyond anything that existed then.

Unfortunately, layer after layer of framework on abstraction on framework on abstraction sometimes means that we need a supercomputer to render a user interface, and still end up with perceptible lag. :)

Regarding elsewhere where I mentioned running BOINC on a Pi 4B, I'd also note that (at least from a RAC standpoint) it's almost up there with a ThinkPad X201 Tablet with an i7-640LM throttled to 1.2 GHz. If I switch the BIOS from "balanced" to "performance" mode, the ThinkPad will run a bit faster but within an inch of thermal shutdown. I might be able to overclock the Pi enough to achieve parity with the throttled i7.

Eight years ago, I'd never had guessed that we'd see the Pi turn the corner to become a usable general-purpose desktop.

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

#325
post #126

Missed opportunities: full-sized HDMI, M.2 storage and a touchpad.

Oh wow, I hadn't even thought of m.2 but you're spot-on. There's a ton of space in there, and we know the SoC has PCIe lanes.

Welp, who's gonna solder one up first?

I wonder what signals are on the J5 connector...

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

#326

This tugs all the heartstrings for me as it mimics the computers of the early 80s. My only criticism is that their use of micro-HDMI makes it very easy for children to wreck the machine. I've had this happen twice to me on RPi4s, and it's not a terribly pleasant experience. Now all I want from them is a custom edition with the function keys in red, the rest in black, and the body in beige.

I think the Raspberry Pi 4 should have had one standard HDMI port and one micro HDMI port. That would have addressed the majority of users. Only the minority of users that want a second monitor on their RPi would need an adapter or special cable.

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

#328
post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a way to make Chrome OS run on Pi's, but it's insecure. Uses the Fyde version of Chromium OS. https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=227281

Weil that support the Linux add-on inside Chrome OS?

At that point, why not just run Linux? The official OS (Raspberry Pi OS) is a regular Debian-based Linux distro:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspberry-pi-os/

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

#329

A long time ago I had a Commodore VIC-20 which was a gift from my cousin. The IBM-compatible PCs were firmly entrenched by this time, so the VIC-20 was obsolete but still functioned. I spent many hours playing with it. Once I discovered the User I/O port, I realized its true power. It wasn't a powerful computer on its own, but the fact that it could easily interface with the real world gave it abilities that the PC c…

That's what I was thinking about as well when I saw it. It's very reminiscent of the VIC-20 and C64. A tinkerer's computer. It's really cool that products like that exist again today, and are so affordable. Almost anyone can buy this for their kid for Christmas!

I guess Python is the modern BASIC? I feel like what it's missing is an easy to use graphics package for drawing lines, circles and other basic shapes (kind of like the JS canvas, but more oriented towards beginners). I wonder if there's a pip package that does this well (and doesn't require installing a bunch of dependencies)?

I'm also thinking this computer could be further made easier to use for beginners by having a kind of breakout board that plugs into the GPIO and has written labels, makes it easier to connect things (screw terminals?).

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

#330
post #203

I was lucky to get a pre-release version to test, and I decided to tear it down before I started trying it out. I posted this blog post with detailed pictures of the insides, and some more details and performance benchmarks: https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2020/raspberry-pi-400-tear... There are also a couple videos linked in the post, if you're more visually-inclined. Fun fact: the Pi 400 (and Compute Module 4) bo…

How is the keyboard? It looks, uh, cheap, so I'm curious if typing on it is an ok experience.

Or alternatively, how hard is it to plug in and use another keyboard instead?
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