Powerful, wallet-sized Raspberry Pi computer sells out in SECONDS
The first batch of 10,000 ARM-powered Raspberry Pi computers went on sale at 6am GMT on Wednesday - and sold out within minutes. According to distributor Premier Farnell, there were at least 600 orders, visits or pre-orders every SECOND, producing a 300 per cent hike in web traffic. The electronic component sales site was …
This topic is closed for new posts.
I'm hoping...
..it'll take me back to my Sinclair MK14 days. I learnt a helluvalot from that era.
Re: I'm hoping...
Then you might want to consider the FIGnicion instead. Sure, it's only 8bit, but it runs a bl**dy fast FORTH, it's cheap and I do believe it ships immediately. You'll need a soldering iron, though...
Re: Re: I'm hoping...
If you want FORTH, within a few days of getting hold of a Pi, I'll give you FORTH.
RS and Farnell notice traffic increase?
I would call that an impressive boast if it's actually true? Anyway - barebone dev kits have been around since, eh, can't remember - I'll guess decades. Is this new thingy really proper special step change stuff in some way or another or should I apologize for imagining I maybe smelled some hype?
Re: RS and Farnell notice traffic increase?
> I would call that an impressive boast if it's actually true?
Both sites completely toasted for several hours. Yeah, they noticed[1].
> Anyway - barebone dev kits have been around
This isn't a barebones dev board - you want the STM32F4-discover for that.
The Raspberry Pi is a complete computer. Just add ancillaries (power, keyboard, display) and it runs a full desktop.
> Is this new thingy really proper special step change stuff in some way
That's certainly the plan. I suspect it will be - if they can produce enough of the things (hint hint, James - ten to bloody six I got up this morning, and for nothing).
> should I apologize for imagining I maybe smelled some hype?
Probably, yes.
Vic.
[1] Let's face it, you'd have to be *seriously* incompetent not to. Even Farnell, "special" as they are, aren't that bad...
Re: RS and Farnell notice traffic increase?
> Is this .. really proper special step change stuff or ... hype?
Both.
It's remarkably cheap for a single board computer that can give you a Linux GUI (e.g. compare BeagleBoard prices - if you can find a UK supplier). Normally at this price you'd be fiddling around flashing LEDs on a PIC in assembler or some cut-down version of C (C-- ?).
OTOH every time I've heard throughout 2011 how wonderful it is, buried in the press release has also been notice of a further slip in the delivery date. So I'm glad I didn't get up by 6 am to find out that the Big Announcement was merely that you might, if you were lucky, be able to register to pre-order one, with actual product still being a month (months?) away.
Re: Re: RS and Farnell notice traffic increase?
The funny side of this is that the Pi foundation switched to more puissant hardware in anticipation of the traffic, but handed over the ordering process to two bunches of idiots who, er, didn't.
As EPIC FAILs go, that's quite a good one.
Re: Re: Re: RS and Farnell notice traffic increase?
You don't really need any "puissant" hardware to run a static page. Any CDN will do it for peanuts.
Online ordering, search and payment on the other hand..
You comparison is very very unfair.
Too bad...
I already bought a cheapo router to do what I would have done with the RPi; too bad, as the Pi would have been better at it, and easier to repurpose should the need arise.
They could still ramp up production
(I work at a company which produces electronics, usually more complex boards, with more common chip packages)
After all those 10k just take a day or so to run though the SMT mounter. It doesn't have a lot of parts. It would be trivial to just tell the manufacturer to just build a few times as many, at least if they can get the parts quickly.
Just as a point of reference, SMT mounters can mount about 10-100k parts an hour, depending on the mounter. This board doesn't seem to have a lot of parts,so the 10k batch should be finished in a day. What's more noteworthy is that the setup of an SMT mounter often takes a day, depending on how well it works. Those are machines which heavily rely on mechanics for precision, and handle a lot of tiny little parts. It's not uncommon for a little capacitor or resistor to somehow get into the mechanics and cause the strangest artefacts.
Re: They could still ramp up production
> After all those 10k just take a day or so to run though the SMT mounter
I have a suspicion there was something of a cashflow issue getting more built.
With a bit of luck, the banks might see the demand that has been shown today, and not be such utter dicks in future.
Vic.
Re: They could still ramp up production
That's hopefully the message Farnell and RS will take from this - There is a demand, a huge one, so get building!
I'm surprised it took the Foundation so long to realise they needed partners to meet the demand they'd created and left it so late in the day to bring them on board. If they had planned this sooner they could have had an orderly pre-ordering system with no getting up at the crack of dawn nonsense. Within days the partners would have seen the huge demand and been able to schedule a large first batch and probably meet all demand within a week or two. Everyone would have been happy.
It seems the Foundations issue was it did not want to take money up-front despite people willing to pre-order and companies like RS and Farnell hardly likely to run off with it. That was a poor decision IMO and meant no one could really tell what the interest really was.
The one thing I can't understand is why Broadcom weren't interested in facilitating production as it's their chip in the board. Perhaps because the level of interest could not be demonstrated? It seems Farnell and RS underestimated it; let's hope they can cope now people are looking at them to deliver the goods.
Re: Re: They could still ramp up production
yes, it was cashflow.
But banks have nothing to do with ramping it up from here on out, they went with Farnell and RS because Farnell and RS will be funding future batches (from what I have read). This way batches can be made to equal demand, rather then to equal the amount Liz can pull out of equity.
Long term this was definitely the right call, even if both sites where totally incompetant when saying they could deal with load.
Re: Re: They could still ramp up production
> I have a suspicion there was something of a cashflow issue getting more built.
Not quite sure about that. The argument for them not taking pre-orders was that they are, I cite: "adequately funded". That's better than requesting pre-payment for a device that might not be produced at all, but it almost guarantees that you won't meet demand. As someone wrote in a thread about the RPi, Unavailablium-based hardware is still better than vapor-based hardware...
Re: Re: Re: They could still ramp up production
Adequately funded for the first 10k run, the profits from that were to fund the next batch. Once it became clear that demand was going to be pretty high (and its has been much Much MUCH higher than even the wildest expectations),a different model was required - hence the bringing in of RS and Farnell who will now be doing manufacturer and distribution, with the Raspberry Pi foundation taking a fee for each board.
Re: Re: They could still ramp up production
Re Cash Flow: If the RPI Foundation had carried on with the original plan of funding the builds itself then yes cash flow (Working capital) would have been a big problem (need £1M+). Given the massive demand handing over production responsibility to Farnell & RS is the only solution.
RE Ramping production. Sourcing the components couid be the bottleneck. The SoC may be single source and the crystal used whilst readily available in Europe isn't in Asia apparently. With most/all mass production now done alsewhere European distributors hold little stock.
n.b. I have just had in quotes from UK distributors for sockets and pins for the RaspberryPi GPIO port and two distributors are quoting 6 weeks delivery on 1000+ items (We're using them in a RTC module we have developed for the RPi)
Money up front
They probably didn't want to take money up front because of the risk if something went wrong. Taking pre-orders and then having to ship kit before it was ready is oddly enough something the UK computer industry was associated with in the early 80's. I suspect they'd want to avoid what happened to Sir Clive!
Congrats to them
No seriously, no sarcasm (wow, thats so rare for me). My hats off to them for all the struggle and tears and work they've put into this off their own backs because they believed in it and have actually got some sold.
I bet you many people pooh-poohed them ever reaching market as they read the various blogs and announcements of plans and then eventual delays and issues that crept out. How many projects have you followed that looked so promising but never had the drive to get to that fabled 1.0 version and just disappeared in a whiff of disappoinment.
These guys, on a shoe string, and mostly by goodwill have found a way to get this thing shipped in a way that gives them a breathing space and hopefully lets them concentrate on what they want to do rather than having breakdowns and financial ruin. Every step of their process has been finding the best possible compromises whether it be time scales, or components, to keep to their design goal of price.
We've seen the hit even big companies like PC World/Comet have taken when there is great demand (HP I am looking at you) so congrats on having the same effect at 6 frigging am on two suppliers. Congrats on finding a business model that keeps you going and lets more of these be built going forward without the headache of continually financing it you've had upto now. Congrats on (without a marketing campaign) getting people talking about this and getting it shown prime time and getting people interested enough to decide whether its going to offer them something they want.
Ignore the nay-sayers about the validity of the project (personally I think its a great thing) you have actually done it and whilst it wasn't a 100% smooth launch, you've acted respectably (I love the way you are going after the ebay fleecers...) and done something damn near impossible because you believed in it and should be proud of everything you've done.
Re: Congrats to them
The barrage of hate mail yesterday is completely overwhelmed by posts such as yours.
Thanks!
Looking around the media I suspect a lot of interest was due to claims that make for good titles but won't be easy to achieve:
"Cheap media server!" - how cheap once you add in a the obligatory case and power supply? Remote control? How many hours to set it up? I paid £30 for my Seagate Theater.
"Cheap computer" - Well, 256Mb RAM won't go very far for today's Javascript engines and large webpages.
"Good to learn the fundamentals of programming" - I'm sorry but wouldn't a normal computer provide a better environment for that? Maybe once you're past the fundamentals it could be interesting.
Some publications were even saying it had Wifi - it doesn't.
The marketing was truly on overdrive on this.
Sure it's good for a few projects - have some in mind myself - but I suspect many of those initial 10,000 will be spending their lives stuck in frustated owners' drawers quite soon.
> "Good to learn the fundamentals of programming" - I'm sorry but wouldn't a normal computer provide a better environment for that?
It would if you have one. However in the school environment it is intended for any PC will be locked down to prevent any unapproved learning so won't be available for hacking code. The pi provides a cheap alternative, and is supposed to be unbrickable (just swap in a re-imaged SD card).
Earth to Grinch.....
Here are MY top 10 ideas for the Raspberry Pi,
1.Python Based Arcade Console
2.Python/PyGame Dev Tool
3.Portable Apps (to the extreme, http://www.portableapps.com)
4.Cheap School Computer Lab
5.Introduction into Linux, for the Windows/Mac users
6.HTPC
7.Messing with Hardware Dev
8.Small Embeded System Tasks (Electric Billboard)
9.Home Webserver
10.VNC Client
So, the Raspberry Pi will spend its life in a drawer will it
Sun Microsystems estimated that half of all programs written were written for embedded systems. The purpose of the Rasberry PI is to teach people how to write these embedded programs. Writing real time software for a PC is a very difficult proposition. It is far easier to teach embedded software development on a bare bones system such as the PI.
Well yeah, but...
your Seagate media server doesn't do HDMI, so... Fail.
It browses the web just fine thanks... because it doesn't use IE.
Not really, you can trash a R-Pi and be back in business in 2 mins... not like a WinPC...
Well, it can do WiFi with a £2 USB stick...
I suspect the first 10K will be battered by hardware/software hackers...
@Mike Flex
Are you saying that most people don't own a computer so if they want to learn how to program they would have to do it in school? Because (at least in the developed world), that's wrong. Also, what makes the school environment a good place to learn to program? I don't know of any schools that allow you to stay in the classrooms unless it's for an approved after-school activity (which could be some sort of programming club, which would invalidate your hypothesis that it's not available for hacking code). So you're implying that school PCs *should* be available for hacking code during school hours, when you should be learning Math and English. Someone that can't do basic math, read, write, or speak well isn't going to do anyone any good and isn't going to get a job, even if he can program.
Re: @Mike Flex
"So you're implying that school PCs *should* be available for hacking code during school hours, when you should be learning Math and English. Someone that can't do basic math, read, write, or speak well isn't going to do anyone any good and isn't going to get a job, even if he can program"
___________________
The team clearly criticised the I.T curriculum of UK schools and wanted programing to be available where word and excel were being taught instead of the programing availble in the past (when the team were at school)
Re: Earth to Grinch.....
11. Car PC - with usb hub linking: gps, 3g dongle, front+rear cameras, ODBC-II connector, scrolling LED status display ... all running off a 12v 7ah sla slave battery .. will suck much less juice than the current netbook version.
12. Central Heating / Water controller ... hardware interfacing using GPIO pins ... wireless usb running web server allowing remote control using iphone/ipad html5 interface .. networked to one-wire weather station to inside/outside temps, baro, wind etc ... keeps history of weather status and manual heating actuations to learn heating habits.
13. House Alarm ... GPIO hardware interfacing to existing alarm zones .. remote monitoring/alerting .. PIR / door monitoring for movements .. runs off same alarm supply with ups.
ASBO
"13. House Alarm ... GPIO hardware interfacing to existing alarm zones .. remote monitoring/alerting .. PIR / door monitoring for movements .. runs off same alarm supply with ups."
You're from the UK right?
Re: Well yeah, but...
> your Seagate media server doesn't do HDMI, so... Fail.
Wow really, if you say so I must be imagining the HDMI connection it's connected to.
> It browses the web just fine thanks... because it doesn't use IE.
Good luck running Firefox or Chrome with the V8 Javascript engine on a graphics/Javascript heavy page.
>Not really, you can trash a R-Pi and be back in business in 2 mins... not like a WinPC...
Trash a PC and recover in 2 minutes? Been there, done that. Heard of PXE boot?
>Well, it can do WiFi with a £2 USB stick.
Link to the Raspberry Pi compatible £2 USB Wifi stick please? Hopefully Linux supported?
re: wouldn't a normal computer provide a better environment...?
At the moment I suspect that the uptake is mostly from adult IT people and doesn't reflect the true general demand for the pi within its target market. It isn't supposed to be a media server. There's no SATA so it may all go wrong if you try to read and write a couple of HD video streams over USB. On the other hand, they are cheap enough to buy one per disk drive and cluster them, which might be an interesting project.
Larger computers provide a more complete environment, but at what cost? We aren't at the stage of be able to afford to give all the kids their own laptop. The idea is that these are pocket-money cheap for parents and not worth stealing once the kids get hold of them.
Also the larger computers may not be conducive to learning the fundamentals of programming. Bung in a browser and the kids will hit facebook and youtube in an instant. My own kids use Mathletics from school, but I've noticed that they spend half the time playing with the character at the side of the page. The shiny-shiny of the computer detracts from the learning process. With their own computers I can also lock down the network without having to bother with multiple user accounts or proxy user authentication. They can use their own and stay off mine. If you have a TV with several HDMI inputs you can leave them plugged into that.
A browser runs its own VM for javascript so we have computers within computers already at that point. The Pi will cope fine with programming languages - I had Pascal on my Apple ][+ with just a few kb RAM. I had C running on a 386 with 4Mb RAM. The Pi with 256Mb will do Ruby if you want abstraction but I think the idea is that you learn about assembly, stacks, linked-lists and arrays. C is a good starting point to ease the pain of assembly and helps you learn how a computer actually works. C++ and Ruby give you more object-oriented design facilities.
Perhaps this is Borland's big break! :D
@ Probing analyst
> I suspect many of those initial 10,000 will be spending their lives stuck in frustated owners' drawers quite soon.
I don't know about that. The Beagleboards sell quite well (given the limited maket) and they cost roughly 5 times as much. I personally considered buying some basic beagleboards but I was put off by the price. I will happily buy a few Raspberry Pis when they become available here (I even have the OK from my SO for pre-order, which is newsworthy on it's own). Let me tell you, they won't sit in a drawer.
As for your other aguments, way to miss the point... this thing is a hacker's wet dream. Good for teaching, too, I guess.
It is not supposed to be an end-user-ready device. If I have to solder a WiFi chip on it for specific applications, I will happily do so. These are not expensive (that's if I can't make it happen /via/ USB; an unlikely scenario to begin with).
As for the box, well, anyone with a well-tooled shed will know what to do. Failing that, a pair of scissors, some cardboard and a roll of tape might very well do the job.
As for teaching the fundamentals of programming, a "real" computer may arguably be better. Where can I find one for 35 bucks? Also, anything that may encourage kids to code efficiently and avoid bloat is good.
Re: @ Probing analyst (PS)
> a "real" computer may arguably be better. Where can I find one for 35 bucks?
My numerous* free machines notwithstanding, of course. Students can't be expected to be good scavengers from the start.
*seven an counting. Including the Dell workstation I'm posting this from. In my case, "fanless" is more important than "cheap".
Re: Re: @ Probing analyst (PS)
35 bucks is for the little board only - add:
Case (with locks so students to steal it)
Power supply
Monitor with at least DVI (and HDMI to DVI adapter if monitor doesn't have HDMI, cheap ones usually don't)
Keyboard
Mouse
USB Hub (since board only has two ports, students need USB storage)
SD Card
How much are we talking now? I suspect closer to the £150 range - depends on the monitor, but really cheap monitors usually are VGA only not DVI as required.
I now present you an All in One PC with Intel Pentium 3Ghz Windows XP - 1GB RAM - 80GB HDD for £169:
http://www.studentcomputers.co.uk/RM_All_in_One_PC_3000-1024_Refurbished_G_1405261.html
There are two types of media centres
Ones that run xbmc and ones that don't. _Every_ media centre I've seen that doesn't has some unconfigurable niggles that annoy me. Besides, I think it comes with a PSU, and seeing as it's that tiny it doesn't need a case; just blu-tac it to the back of the telly (or use the lego design someone's already made).
Plus you can use it to do other 'always on' low power stuff like bit torrent / usenet if that's your kind of thing without consuming lots of power.
Re: Earth to Grinch.....
I`ll but one if it runs quakelive...
BA-BOOM
Re: Earth to Grinch.....
I shall mostly just be attaching it to the back of the tv, with a small keyboard and mouse hidden away for use with it, connect it up to the router and use it for music & video from the internet.
Its under £25. And as powerful as the old pc i have in the loft that i keep meaning to do something with. That old pc only has a 17gb hard drive. I can put a 32gb sd card in this thing and its already "better".
If it'll play avi files my daughter can use to for watching her movies that i've got ripped onto the computer.
Re: Re: Re: @ Probing analyst (PS)
Power supply - Use your phone charger, they are all Micro USB these days. Sorry Nokia ;)
SD Card - Come on, you must have a few knocking around. Even so, £10 or under
USB hub/Mouse/Keyboard - Use your own or buy some for cheap. Ebuyer do some for £2-3 each.
Monitor: The whole point is that this can plug into monitors AND TVs. Your thinking is so small; think about the family TV, which has HDMI inputs. The whole point of the RasPi is that it harks back to days of yore when your $old-console plugged into the living room TV.
Case: I'm sure some enterprising people will have something available soon with the ability to loop a Kensington lock around it.
Re: Re: Re: Re: @ Probing analyst (PS)
> Your thinking is so small; think about the family TV, which has HDMI inputs.
No, sorry, your attention span is so small - that you're missing the context. The claim was that the Raspberry Pi is a perfect new computer for students.
For that application, either at school or at home, you need a monitor (or a TV, but any TV with HDMI will be more expensive).
Students are not about to hog the family TV with their computer, that may have worked back in Sinclair days but not in the age of the Internet and Facebook. It also doesn't work in schools, where obviously you need a monitor.
Once you add up all those costs you start getting into cheap PC territory.
Re: Re: Earth to Grinch.....
14. Relaunch the show Robot Wars, but rather than have them all radio controlled - give them pi for brains and automatic battles with pre-programmed routines!
Re: Earth to Grinch.....
Not to mention all the home automation tasks it could be doing - heating, lighting, feeding the cat etc.
Re: Re: Re: @ Probing analyst (PS)
Why lock it when the plan is for every student to have their own? The case will (for the educational version) be included in the price. I have knowingly bought a device without a case...
I have a great keyboard with a mini USB hub, that'll deal with the storage - or you could lose the mouse. I mean, who needs them? :)
Personally I have umpteen keyboards/mice lying around, and with networked storage (or even just a second partition on the SD card) I don't need more. An unpowered hub might be useful - maybe £2?
Monitor? I'll be using my telly thank you. A DVI-HDMI convertor might make it's way into a kit if I do buy a second for my friends kid.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: @ Probing analyst (PS)
Still wrong.
Even assuming a monitor or TV needs to be purchased new, you're vastly overestimating cost.
Your assumption on what a family might allow on the family TV is your problem, not a problem everyone else has. I'd be happy for my kids to make use of the TV for something like this.
Most schools already have a bank of PC's and associated peripherals like monitors, you appear to be assuming they are going to bin all the old kit.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: @ Probing analyst (PS)
I'm not wrong, at the very least I'm as right as you are.
No, I'm not overestimating the cost. Please find out the prices for the equipment (as new) and let me know how far I'm off.
You also making the assumption yourself that a family will not have issues with their kid hogging the TV. It's not my problem, it's a fair assumption given many families like watching TV. Who's assumption is right or wrong? We'll see.
Most school's bank of existing monitor will not have the necessary HDMI/DVI connection. Old, cheap, monitors are schools are usually VGA only.
Again you're assuming that their monitors will be up to scratch - or you simply forgot about this small but relevant detail.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: @ Probing analyst (PS)
I'm not going to spend any time composing a detailed rebuttal highlighting the multitude of reasons that you are not correct as you are an arse.
The Raspberry Pi is an excellent piece of kit for the money and I'm sure it will become a valuable educational tool.
Re: @Mike Flex
Bjorg wrote:
> Are you saying that most people don't own a computer so if they want to learn how to program they would have to do it in school? Because (at least in the developed world), that's wrong.
No, I'm suggesting that school children who have access to computers just know how to use them (for social networking/media consumption at home or introductory MS Office, masquerading as ICT, at school). A few well-motivated children will learn to program by themselves but most children won't know it's even possible unless they are exposed to something like this at school.
> Also, what makes the school environment a good place to learn to program? I don't know of any schools that allow you to stay in the classrooms unless it's for an approved after-school activity (which could be some sort of programming club, which would invalidate your hypothesis that it's not available for hacking code). So you're implying that school PCs *should* be available for hacking code during school hours, when you should be learning Math and English.
Schools ought to be able to teach computing (some form of computer science) rather than just ICT (turning out the next generation of obedient MS office drones). The RPi is a handy platform to do that on. I don't think the school curriculum should be limited to two subjects.
> Someone that can't do basic math, read, write, or speak well isn't going to do anyone any good and isn't going to get a job, even if he can program.
Thank you, Sherlock. Such a student isn't going to get far programming.
Re: ASBO
Haha. Actually I'm less interested in the Alarm element (I live in an area of the UK where there is zero crime anyway .. its spooky but its true) ... I'm more interested in linking the PIR / door activations / Alarm set/unset events to the heating system so it does not heat the house up when no one is in etc.
Ah smells of nostalgia...
I remember getting my Sinclair ZX81 and a few decades later having to break it to my own brain that I am actually a bit of a thick twat that couldn't program himself out of a wet cardboard box. So Kudos to those that can! And who knows this may just open some door some where for somebody. It certainly won't do no harm!
I'm gonna get one coz it's got an audio jack. Try and run some VST shit on it. We'll see.
Congrats to them anyway!
I'm holding out for the Model C
I heard it will have dual floppy disc drives and bundled with a copy of Elite. ;-)
Seriously though, the Pi is cool and can't wait to see what people are doing with it. The GPU looks very impressive. Shame it can't be made in the UK for the same price though. That would have been the icing on the cake.
What a price point.
I tried and failed (around 7:45am). I eventually go through but all I got was the 'register your interest'.
I really can't wait for this one. I'd never even considered learning Python but at GBP32 (incl. VAT) I've already started looking at the video tutorials.
This topic is closed for new posts.
