Is the raspberry pi fab still in the UK? So the issue isn’t the arm chip but some other components?
It's dire: Raspberry Pi availability tracker
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Re: It's dire: Raspberry Pi availability tracker
#12If you live near a Micro Center, they always seem to have them in stock. They sell them in-store only.
The one near me (St. Louis, MO) has been out of Pi 4 model B and CM4 since September. A couple CM3+ popped in stock for a few days but were gone shortly after. Checking right now, they only have some Pi 400s and Pi 3 A+ in stock. Plus a boatload of accessories, power supplies, and cases. At some point it might be worth figuring out a way to mash a Pi 400 into a Pi 4-size footprint.
A lot of times they get them and don't update the inventory on the website. I had the most success by just popping in once a week during a week day for a few weeks, eventually got almost what I was looking for (had to get 8gb instead of 4gb, oh well).
Re: It's dire: Raspberry Pi availability tracker
#13If you live near a Micro Center, they always seem to have them in stock. They sell them in-store only.
I was looking in the past week coincidentally. The website supposedly shows stock in-store, but says they're out at the local one. Suppose I could call them and ask directly if there's a possibility the website doesn't actually track stock closely.
Re: It's dire: Raspberry Pi availability tracker
#14Is the raspberry pi fab still in the UK? So the issue isn’t the arm chip but some other components?
I'm pretty sure only the final assembly gets done in the UK. Every other component has to come from somewhere else.
Re: It's dire: Raspberry Pi availability tracker
#15I'm sitting on 4xpi4 8 Gb and 4xpi4 4Gb, from a small cluster I built last year. In Sweden. If anyone needs a few I could probably be persuaded to part with them as they're just gathering dust right now.
Re: It's dire: Raspberry Pi availability tracker
#16This is really nice - is there one like this for graphics cards too?
Re: It's dire: Raspberry Pi availability tracker
#17Why all the obsession over the pi now all of a sudden? The pi4/400 has been out for a couple of years at this point. Yet they’re still out of stock?
The Pis, and especially the compute module forms, are used for more than just clasroom toys and low power geek desktops. The CMs are a long term support item that, in recent forms, are FCC certified with wireless. Because it's a "module," with onboard wireless/antenna/etc, you don't have to perform the (quite expensive) certification tests for a wide range of products that can then have a perfectly good little computer and wireless in them.
Unfortunately, when those aren't available, it's a problem for not just those who want Raspberry Pis, but for everyone who wants to buy or sell any of those products based around a Pi. You can't just trivially redesign to anything else, not that there's anything else available...
I'm trying to build some YARH handhelds for various projects, and outside the stock of Pis I have a few of, that's just going to end up on hold, because I can't get any of the boards I figured would regularly be in supply places.
It's another breakdown of JIT.
Re: It's dire: Raspberry Pi availability tracker
#18I'm impressed with how fast people buy them out after stock availability is announced. A few months ago, I got a notification that the Pi 0 2 was back in stock, and I have my eye on a couple units for 3D printer projects. An hour after the email was sent, all 700 had been sold. (Adafruit's emails helpfully say how many they had when the email was sent, which is how I know how quickly they burned through the stock.)
Re: It's dire: Raspberry Pi availability tracker
#19The Target near me has them in stock from time to time.
For projects, try HP thin clients on eBay.
Re: It's dire: Raspberry Pi availability tracker
#20It's a shame that so many are simply wasted. Lots of people bought multiple units in the past to run toy clusters for no reason. I myself have a Pico I got free with the magazine that I've yet to use. There must be thousands gathering dust that people could make use of.
Edit: In fact, if anyone does want to play with setting up a cluster (like for kubernetes or something) you can do it easily with VMs. Two great options for spinning up a virtual cluster are Vagrant and Docker Machine. The latter is specifically tailored for bringing up docker hosts. I'm not aware of any reason why you would need to use real hardware for learning.