28 Jun
2012
28 Jun
'12
5:17 a.m.
On Wed, Jun 27, 2012 at 10:07 PM, Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
I must admit that I am not overly in favour of the
Raspberry pi...
What do you mean? Not in favour of it having been built? It being
marketed the way it is? Its design?
_You_ might not need it, or want it (as you say below) but that's OK,
noone is forcing you to buy one... But you make is sound as though
you think OTHER people should not buy it. There are many good reasons
why many people should NOT buy the R?.
Firstly it seems ot be an overhyped product, and that
always seems to
imply a product that I don;'t want. OK, perhaps that's a bit unfair, but...
While I kind of agree, it is a useful and perhaps _necessary_ thing to
do to make it work economically. You need the economics of scale to
make a device like this cheap. You want the mindshare in the general
(and specialist) community to create resources; documentation;
extensions, etc, etc.
As I mentioned above myself, I agree it's the wrong thing to buy for
many people even if they want one, and part of that _is_ due to the
hype. Typically it's not due to the reason that it's not a good thing
for you, Tony, but because they think it's something that it's not - a
cheap desktop replacement or a ready-to-go game console or media
player. As for the reasons you mentioned...
The Rpi board is only part of what you need. You also
need a PSU,
Have something that can produce 5V? Got a cell phone charger?
keyboard, mouse, USB hub, SD card and some kind of
monitor.
Ok, I can appreciate you not having a USB kbd or mouse, the hub is not
really needed, but the video can be on the composite out. I am fairly
certain you have _some_ display that can handle composite.
But of course to become popular, they have to aim the device at what
their target audience _today_ would typically have lying about. I
would think you'd be insulted if you'd be classified a typical
anything :-)
Even without the
last, that would essentailyl double the cost of the device. Please don't
tell me I can find those extras in the trash/junk box. I can't. My junk
box doesn't contain PC bits. It does contain enugh to build a computer
from scatch though.
At any largish garage sale, the bits could be picked up for less than
10 euros. So I think its reasonable to assume that many other people
have the things to make the R? work in their junk piles.
The docuemantion is attrocious. I couldn't find a
schematic, or a real
hardware manual.
Different times again. You would prefer paper documentation (I'm
assuming this, let's be hypothetical). That'd be great, but would
significantly add to costs, esp. w.r.t. shipping. These days - what
the kids are into on the intertubes - is to have a wiki. Here.
http://elinux.org/RaspberryPiBoard
Schematics? Datasheets? Here. http://elinux.org/RPi_Hardware
From waht I understnad (and please correct me) the
main 'IC' (Acutally a
multichip module I think) on the Rpi is one that was used in some other
large-prodcution device (smartphone?), and the Rpi is using the
'leftovers'. Part of the datasheet on this IC is covered by an NDA. Err,
no thanks. And I am worried that the supply of these ICs will dry up. I
am not goign to waste my time designing soemthign roudn a board that
won't be available when I want to make more of them.
You make it sound as though the R? is sourced from overstock, or
end-run of a product line. I'd be very surprised if that is the case.
Joe.
--
Joachim Thiemann :: http://jthiem.bitbucket.org