Raspberry Pi 500+ • Hacker News Board

Re: Raspberry Pi 500+

#121

Post by pinkmuffinere » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 10:17 PM UTC

kennywinker wrote: post #115

segmondy wrote: post #113

We are going to see a $1,000 Raspberry pi in the next decade, won't we?

Their original premise, a super low cost linux system for hardware exploration, is constantly being undermined by their price, imo. For most projects, as long as you don’t need GPIOs or super low power consumption, you should probably use an old mini pc that’s destined for scrap and cost less.

Is it really? If you want super low cost, they have the zero w2, the rpi2, the rpi3, etc. I feel they've already mostly perfected the products for that purpose. But of course they don't want to just 'stop building', so now they're moving up to more premium options. I feel there's nothing wrong with this. If you want the low cost exploration, stick with the things they designed forever ago, which fit that purpose.

Re: Raspberry Pi 500+

#122

Post by pinkmuffinere » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 10:19 PM UTC

IMO the coolest thing about this is that it all fits in a keyboard. It would be awesome if this came bundled with smart glasses, so I could walk into a coffee shop with just keyboard and glasses, and get work done without having to hunch over my laptop. Of course the present offering is lacking in computing power (and any form of display)

Re: Raspberry Pi 500+

#123

Post by analog31 » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 10:19 PM UTC

sys_64738 wrote: post #71

birdalbrocum wrote: post #39

For 200€, you can get yourself an old Thinkpad, flash it with some coreboot variation, install a GNU/Linux distribution and in process you will learn more things and it is not an RGB keyboard; it is really an "all-in-one PC".

The power of the Pi comes from the standardized 40 pin GPIO for hooking other devices up to.

This really comes down to a matter of preferences, but I've never used the GPIO either. The reason is that a microcontroller board makes a much better GPIO for my use. Then I can unplug it and put it away when I'm done, use it with any PC -- desktop or laptop -- give it away, and carry it into the room where my soldering station is. A microcontroller also opens up the whole world of stand-alone gadgets.

Naturally software / firmware support is an issue. If the stuff you want to do is easy to code on your preferred platform, that's a reason to keep using it.

Re: Raspberry Pi 500+

#124

Post by lsch1033 » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 10:20 PM UTC

Its dimensions are 312mm × 123.06mm × 35.76mm, so volumetrically it's 107.8% of a generic 14 inch laptop I'm currently typing on. The power button is the top right key on the keyboard, right next to the F12 / Delete key.

Re: Raspberry Pi 500+

#125

Post by watersb » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 10:24 PM UTC

Looks amazing.

Keyboards that put various control keys down the rightmost edge of the keyboard -- these drive me insane.

Fitt's Law and me with keyboards.

I could just remap the keys, or cover that edge of the keyboard somehow.

Which would also be an homage to the classic computers that we all grew up with: covering that Reset Key on the Apple ][ with a cassette tape case.

(fancy example https://www.callapple.org/vintage-apple-computers/apple-ii/h... )

Re: Raspberry Pi 500+

#126

Post by keernan » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 10:42 PM UTC

I've been using keyboards since ... well since they replaced electric typewriters which in turn replaced my Royal mechanical typewriter. I never much thought about keyboards until the keyboard on my Lenovo Ideapad. I thought that was the best keyboard ever.

Until I laid out $120 for a mechanical keyboard (a Nuphy Air75). I just love it.

And here is a mechanical keyboard with a computer inside (actually two; one just to program the keyboard) that isn't that much more than I paid for my Nuphy. I already own three rpi that I don't use. But the itch to buy one of these is attacking me. Maybe I'll get some AI glasses...

Re: Raspberry Pi 500+

#127

Post by thw_9a83c » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 10:55 PM UTC

vegancap wrote: post #118

thw_9a83c wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is astonishing! It's especially impressive when you realize that the motherboard itself is so small that most of the keyboard interior is basically empty space [0]. [0]: https://assets.raspberrypi.com/static/25912715ba437c32c56757...

That's incredible!

For a comparison, the "similar" computer from 2006 [0] had a maximum configuration of 4xCPU @ 1 GHz and 8GB of RAM. It weighed 60 lb (27 kg) and looked like this:

https://imgur.com/fc7BWTc

But Raspberry Pi 500+ has already 2.4GHz quad-core ARM64 CPU and 16GB RAM.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SGI_Tezro

Re: Raspberry Pi 500+

#128

Post by zamalek » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 11:00 PM UTC

deater wrote: post #120

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This made me do some research and I'd say it appears so. https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/raspberry-pi-500-and-raspbe... > Our experiences with that programme informed the development of Raspberry Pi 400, our all-in-one PC, whose form factor (and name) harks back to the great 8-bit and 16-bit computers – the BBC Micro, Sinclair Spectrum, and Commodore Amiga – of the 1980s and 1990s. (emphasis mine) So the 400 name is…

quite possible because it's from Europe, but remember that Apple was sticking + on the end of their model names 6 years before the Amiga existed.

I think that many companies have been appending + to the end of product names for an extremely long time. This is hardly an Apple innovation.

Re: Raspberry Pi 500+

#129

Post by zamalek » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 11:03 PM UTC

thw_9a83c wrote: post #114

vegancap wrote: post #111

I've been around long enough to find it absolutely astonishing, that you can now fit a computer with 16gb of ram, 265gb of storage and a quad core processor, with no cooling, inside a keyboard.

It is astonishing! It's especially impressive when you realize that the motherboard itself is so small that most of the keyboard interior is basically empty space [0]. [0]: https://assets.raspberrypi.com/static/25912715ba437c32c56757...

I'll be hanging around until someone mods more PIs into it.

Re: Raspberry Pi 500+

#130

Post by kevin_thibedeau » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 11:03 PM UTC

cesarb wrote: post #112

chrismorgan wrote: post #10

> The ultimate all-in-one PC I object to this labelling: the term “all-in-one PC” has always been used to mean a computer integrated into a screen , to which you must add a keyboard and mouse (or more likely it will be bundled with a low-quality keyboard and mouse). But this is a computer integrated into a (good) keyboard , to which you must add a screen and mouse—and screens are more expensive than keyboards. Even a…

> Even a basic not-too-horrible screen will cost another $80 I believe the idea is that you'd plug it into the TV you already have, like we did in the 1980s.

Or you just buy a below $200 laptop.