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Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer
raspberrypi.org ^ | 26th Nov 2015 | Eben Upton

Posted on 11/26/2015 4:10:18 AM PST by Bobalu

Today, I’m pleased to be able to announce the immediate availability of Raspberry Pi Zero, made in Wales and priced at just $5. Zero is a full-fledged member of the Raspberry Pi family

(Excerpt) Read more at raspberrypi.org ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: computers; raspberry
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For all the Freeper computer geeks out there. Finally a Linux computer so cheap you can dedicate one to even the simplest project.

A hundred bucks will get you twenty computers...outstanding!

1 posted on 11/26/2015 4:10:18 AM PST by Bobalu
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To: Bobalu

2 posted on 11/26/2015 4:10:41 AM PST by Bobalu (Even if I could take off, I could never get past the tractor beam!)
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To: Bobalu

>> A hundred bucks will get you twenty computers...outstanding!

Until they’re sold out. ;-)


3 posted on 11/26/2015 4:16:56 AM PST by Nervous Tick (There is no "allah" but satan, and mohammed was his demon-possessed tool.)
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To: Nervous Tick

They’re sold out.

Utterly amazing so much computing capability can be so cheap.


4 posted on 11/26/2015 4:21:52 AM PST by ctdonath2 (History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the week or the timid. - Ike)
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To: ctdonath2

Have to wait a month or so but Micro Center will surely stock them in great volume... they always undercut the official price so they will probably have them for 4$ :-)

There’s a thread over on Hackaday
http://hackaday.com/2015/11/25/the-5-raspberry-pi-zero/


5 posted on 11/26/2015 4:25:35 AM PST by Bobalu (Even if I could take off, I could never get past the tractor beam!)
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To: Bobalu
Not really five bucks... and not really available. (It IS a pretty cool dream though, and maybe someday it'll be real.)


6 posted on 11/26/2015 4:26:11 AM PST by Nervous Tick (There is no "allah" but satan, and mohammed was his demon-possessed tool.)
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To: Nervous Tick

Once the hot newness wears off they will be avail for the 5$ price.

All the Pi models were sold at a premium by vendors when first released.

Like I said above, when Micro Center gets large stocks in they will probably sell a bit below the 5$ price. They discount all the models a little below the Pi.org price.

The hard part is the waiting!


7 posted on 11/26/2015 4:31:03 AM PST by Bobalu (Even if I could take off, I could never get past the tractor beam!)
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To: Bobalu

>> Once the hot newness wears off they will be avail for the 5$ price. The hard part is the waiting!

I hope so.

A couple years ago we got all hot to do a project with a Beagle Bone Black. So we ordered one.

SIX WEEKS later, when the dxmn thing finally arrived, the window of opportunity had closed. I had fun playing with it though. It IS an impressive piece of hardware. It’s still in the box under my desk.

There’s an economics lesson hidden in this quasi-open-source hardware game. There is NO money for wages, and NO money for profits. So the product, while impressive, dribbles out, and the supply chain is anything but certain.

Reminiscent of grocery stores in the Soviet Union. Everything is potentially hunky dory in kumbayah socialist paradise, except that the shelves are perennially bare and everyone spends their time queued up for the little available product.

/soapbox

As I said, it IS really cool that a gumstick-sized computer of this power can even be had for $5. I may or may not get in the queue ‘cause I have real work to do. :-)


8 posted on 11/26/2015 4:38:59 AM PST by Nervous Tick (There is no "allah" but satan, and mohammed was his demon-possessed tool.)
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To: Bobalu

I thought the headline was referring to The Won who is 0.


9 posted on 11/26/2015 4:44:11 AM PST by Blue Collar Christian (Ready for Teddy, Cruz that is.)
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To: Bobalu

The hard part is figuring out what to do with all these computers!


10 posted on 11/26/2015 4:45:22 AM PST by palmer (Net "neutrality" = Obama turning the internet over to foreign enemies)
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To: Blue Collar Christian

You were thinking of the Raspberry Pi Obama version. It costs about $2 billion and it doesn’t run any software.


11 posted on 11/26/2015 4:47:49 AM PST by palmer (Net "neutrality" = Obama turning the internet over to foreign enemies)
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To: palmer

>> the Raspberry Pi Obama version. It costs about $2 billion and it doesn’t run any software.

...but it’s shipping right now, and it’s mandatory for you to purchase it. :-)


12 posted on 11/26/2015 4:52:53 AM PST by Nervous Tick (There is no "allah" but satan, and mohammed was his demon-possessed tool.)
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To: Bobalu

I just spent 115 for a 32 bit compute stick with Windos 8.1 pre-installed. Testing it out for milk apps.


13 posted on 11/26/2015 5:05:53 AM PST by john316 (JOSHUA 24:15 ...choose you this day whom ye will serve...)
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To: Bobalu

Awesome post, very interesting

At this cost point, this will attract lots of hobbyists and educators to linux.

I am thinking through ideas myself for some projects to play around with at home.


14 posted on 11/26/2015 5:16:19 AM PST by dila813
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To: dila813

At 5$ I’m thinking of using these as a video interface for other devices.

I can use one to add HDMI video/audio to any embedded system.
I can feed it almost any sort of data like I2C. 1-wire, serial, canbus, ...whatever, and get a video display with sound... great for debugging among other things.


15 posted on 11/26/2015 5:39:23 AM PST by Bobalu (Even if I could take off, I could never get past the tractor beam!)
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To: Bobalu

Saving in my pings to show the hubster later. Thanks & Happy Thanksgiving!


16 posted on 11/26/2015 5:44:51 AM PST by leaning conservative (snow coming, school cancelled, yayyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!)
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To: Bobalu

Can it handle that kind of processing?

I was thinking about the same thing but had discarded that application because of the heavy HDMI encryption, I was thinking it might be possible to use it as a switch though.


17 posted on 11/26/2015 5:45:47 AM PST by dila813
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To: dila813

I’m thinking of simple applications where the Pi would display mostly text from the embedded system. More intense graphics could be stored on the Pi in the SD card for display on demand from the remote system though... to make things a bit more fancy :-)

It would be hard to send any sort of HD video to the Pi over something like I2C but that’s not my intention anyway.


18 posted on 11/26/2015 5:51:53 AM PST by Bobalu (Even if I could take off, I could never get past the tractor beam!)
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To: Nervous Tick
Not really five bucks... and not really available.
Note that the cables being included by some vendors make up most of the cost. The board itself really is $5.

Also note that they are including the board with every copy of the December issue of MagPi magazine. I'm not sure if the local Barnes and Noble stores carry that magazine, but if I find one, I'll almost certainly pick it up.

It's been years since I did any embedded systems development, but I'm feeling the urge to take it up again. :-)

19 posted on 11/26/2015 5:59:24 AM PST by Johnny B.
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To: Bobalu
I have been happily using my €41 raspberry 2 to convert my old big screen TV to a smart TV for several months now. It is a bit slow in making way through the various video choices and occasionally it will crash if the video is too long or if I view in high density rather than low-quality. It is cumbersome for surfing the web. It has a not insignificant learning curve and setting up kodi etc. for video viewing.

I recommend the thing for the price. I already had the cables and I stuck it in a cigar box so I was good to go after buying the chip.

4/5 stars.

Can someone tell me how to project my Samsung tablet onto my Samsung television so I can watch Fox news big screen? I have some success with some documentaries through "send to Samsung" app but the choices are limited.


20 posted on 11/26/2015 5:59:30 AM PST by nathanbedford ("Attack, repeat, attack!" Bull Halsey)
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