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Compute Module development kits now available!

Fuelled by Welsh cakes and a lot of sunshine, the team at Sony Pencoed have finished building the first batch of Compute Modules (CM) and Compute Module IO Boards (CMIO). These are available today to buy from RS and Element14 in the form of Compute Module Development Kits. The MRP is $200.

In each kit you get a Compute Module, an IO Board, adaptors to convert the CMIO board camera and display interfaces to use the official Raspberry Pi Camera (and display when available later this year), 5V power supply and a micro USB cable for flashing the eMMC from a host PC.

Compute Module Development Kit (also includes 5V PSU and USB cable, not shown)

As of today the only operating system that is officially ‘Compute Module Aware’ is the very latest Raspbian (as of the 20/6/2014), so you’ll need to grab that and only that to flash on to the Compute Module. The remaining OSes will be updated shortly. Right now using NOOBS or any of the other OSes will (probably) not work properly, but YMMV.

We are working as we speak to improve the software stack to make it much easier to develop with the Compute Module. For example we are working on a new system to easily make the GPIOs controlled by the closed source drivers able to be remapped easily and also working to enable dual cameras. However these things aren’t ready quite yet. So a word to the early adopters – if you can do it with a Pi today, it will work. If you need more GPIO, it will work, if you need dual cameras or screens or any of the interfaces that are not working on a Pi then today it won’t work or might be more tricky than it eventually will be. We are working hard to get these improvements out just as soon as we can.

To get started with your Compute Module Development Kit please head on over to the official Raspberry Pi Compute Module documentation. Also feel free to post questions on the forum, and we will do our best to answer them.

Needless to say we are very excited to finally have the Compute Module winging its way into the hands of developers – we look forward to seeing what happens next!

110 comments

Hi,

I ordered the development kit of Friday, and will receive it today. No too bad, we are located in Greece. My question is what about the RaspberryPi Compute Modules, when do you plan to sell them. We have working extensively on 3 new products based on it and very soon will need these modules to play with them and doing basic tests before we will release our final PCBs to the production. We would be very interesting to buying about of 10-20 Raspberry Pi Compute Modules immediately, but without the development kit.

Thank you for your excellent products developments !!!

My Warmest Regards
Ioannis
http://www.pimodules.com

Same here! We made our Kickstarter project without a Compute Module :(
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/geekroo/como-booster-launch-your-raspberry-pi-compute-modu

Awesome news.

Will it eventually be possible to get our hands on more of the camera and display adapters separately for dual camera and display setups?

Cheers

Looks like the answer is yes :)
http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=569080#p569080

(apologies if this comes through as a duplicate comment!)

Thanks for the link :-)

The concept is great, but it came out with an unexpectedly high price (@Farnell)

Yea! Verily Yea! What a 60th Birthday present. But Ouch on the price.

I admit I’m very surprised by the price for the compute module, my expectations were something like a model b raspberry pi, this is more than 5 times more expensive than it.

can you please explain why the compute module is so expensive?

I am just curious as I was planning some DIY projects on the compute module but I can’t afford it. No intention at all to be polemic.
thank you

“dev kits” (for whatever platform) are generally expensive because of the low volume production.

make more dev kits then

@ Previous 5 posts:

The price point is in line with other commercial development platforms.

With the large user base that Raspberry Pi has, we see a “magpie effect” whenever we launch a new product: people will hit the buy button nearly automatically.

For the first production run at least, hiking the price point to be in-line with other commercial development platforms mitigates the magpie effect.

The development kit is not manufactured in volume as it’s aimed at embedded design engineers. We want these development kits in the hands of companies that are going to produce products using the Compute Module that ship in volume.

The price of the development kit is likely to be reduced once the “sunrise period” has passed.

It would really be great if the price could come down.. As the CM with the Dev board offers some opportunities even for hobbyists that the original pi doesn’t. Mainly the ability to add 2 cameras and 2 serial ports would be super for me.

Of course a raspberry model ‘C’ with all the ports enabled would be even better (wink wink)

I was shocked at the price, until I saw what was in the dev kit. There are many things in that kit, I have no need or use for.
Any way to put this up for sale ‘a la-carte’? so we can pick and choose what we want.

I think this would get the price point back to the realm of affordability for experimenters and teachers. Just a thought.

The original Pi is for experimenters and teachers. And costs between $25 and $35, so I think they’re probably doing OK.

Doesn’t the BeagleBone Black rev C offer pretty well all of what the Pi Compute Module does but for a fraction of the price? . . .

No.

If you had read the original blog, you will note that the RPF will sell eventually just the CM and 3rd party Manufacturers will develop I/O boards. This will bring down the price point, hopefully.

This is development kit and if you can find a comparible product at this price, then good luck !

Also this product is not aimed at the general public, the Rasp A & B are….

Indeed. This is the price for the Dev kit plus one CM. In bulk, the CM will sell for about $30 a piece, which is how commercial customers will buy it, to put in to their products. But they don’t want to buy a DK for each product, just for the developers whilst developing the product.

“Also this product is not aimed at the general public, the Rasp A & B are….”

Come on We all want 1 or 2 ah what the hell a dozen lol, Keep up the good work guys

Hello Everybody,
I do not agree with you about the price. I personally think that price of the development board is very good.
Please kindly notice that you need to buy it only once. So, 160 EURO for a development board I would say is very good.

Same with the price of the RaspberryPi Compute Modules. Please remember that is is a complete Linux device with a very powerful processor in a size of SODIMM.

This is my 5 cents to your discussion.

My Warmest Regards
Ioannis
http://www.pimodules.com

Any news on when the compute modules will be available separately in decent quantities?

Real Soon Now. :D

Liz,

Jerry Pournell (a science fiction author) used to write an article for Byte magazine back in the early days of computers and such. He would talk about products being released “Real Soon Now” in such a way that we soon came to understand that “Real Soon Now” is a time that comes right after the nether region freezes over.

I hope you truly mean very soon and not “Real Soon Now”!

Thank you and keep up the great work! 8>)

Is there already a documentation about the Secondary Memory Interface?

generally expensive! ;-) I love model B and A ;-)

Yes the price is in line with other commercial offerings, but they are also way overpriced. I understand the (expected) low volume (remember only 3500 units?) will cause the price to be higher, but this is somewhat of a self fulfilling prophesy. I still hoped that at least some of the original spirit that made the Pi such a success would follow through here too. For a board with nothing but connectors, a couple of voltage regulators and some discrete parts $100 would be a great price, much more like the original idea and another industry trend setter. $200 makes it unlikely that I will buy one, especially given the limited appeal of the old ARM architecture it uses and the much more modern and now numerous alternatives, although I would very much like to. The only saving grace here is the recent release of the GPU specifications which is a distinct advantage over all the competitors but only of limited use to me for now at least.

Anyway that’s my two cents worth.

This product isn’t for hobbyists or educational use. If you want a cheap single board computer, there’s the Model A and B.

This product is for industrial customers looking to buy modules in the hundreds or thousands. To them, the price is very good for what they get.

Also, proceeds go to fund the educational mission of the Foundation.

Makes sense to me :)

Yes I get all that. Your seem to have missed the point of almost everything I brought up in my post. Nothing I wrote had anything to do with wanting a cheap single board computer, just a reasonably priced development platform for the new compute module. A price that allows not just commercial firms but also independents to explore using the compute module and maybe in the process becoming one of those firms that purchase the modules in the hundreds or thousands of units.

Given the enthusiasm for the original Pi, it seems short sighted to limit who will be willing or able to purchase the development platform. What you get, especially considering the “hardware” involved is overpriced, and I’m not talking about making a killing Liz, just a reasonable price that still gives you a reasonable return and allows many more people to get involved. It worked once before.

And you appear to be missing the point that this IS A REASONABLY PRICED DEVELOPMENT BOARD. You only need to compare with other DK’s to see that. Just because you think it’s expensive, doesn’t mean it is.

It is aimed, fairly and squarely at developers who want to incorporate the CM in to a commercial product. If you are doing that then you are going to be buying a lot of CM’s – hundred, thousands, 10’s of thousands, maybe more. The cost of the DK is at that point irrelevant, so the Foundation could be charging twice or three times as much and the developer would not care at all. The price of the DK is small change.

So the price charged by the Foundation for the IO board is low, very low, for the target market.

Check Microchip and their PIC microcontroller development kits. Most are well below $200 and they have quite a spectrum of devices from 8 bit to 32 bit.

Jeff

There are exceptions to every rule. And really microcontrollers are a very different market.

ARM is launching the Juno development platform that is far advanced compared to the Raspi. The hardware is much more capable along with a substantial support system for $192. (See link below) I am a big fan of the Raspberry Pi. They are changing the world the way PCs did in the 70s. However, I was taken aback by the development boards price. It is not a good value.

http://hothardware.com/News/ARM-Launches-New-Reference-Platform-For-64bit-Developers-Bakes-In-Linaro-Support/#!7u6eY

That’s really a different sort of product, though quite interesting. I wonder who is making the Juno chip, as I don’t think ARM make any chips at all. They only licence.

The $192 price was for a Nividia platform btw, not the Juno. I expect that board, which is huge and has a hell of a lot of components, will be considerably more than $192.

EDIT: Had a quick ask around. ARM have made DK’s like this since day one. They also make limited runs of their chip designs for testing and DK purposes. They don’t sell SoC to end users, I believe it’s just licences to chip makers. Their DK’s are very expensive ($1000’s). I doubt this will be any different.

I was expecting the price to be over $1000 so I’m very pleasantly surprised.

Here’s an example of what I’m used to:
http://uk.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Digi-International/NS-9215-NET/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMvFPGEOwQcrY9TRMhFjBnM1FqjfcAfvGvo%3d

doing a sort of similar products does prove the general high price tag related to dev kits:

http://uk.mouser.com/Search/Refine.aspx?N=4294759230+14977768+1323043&Ns=Pricing|1&FS=True

i was expecting £50-£60 for the compute and IO boards as a package

nearly £150 not a chance, very disappointed will have to wait a while and see if it comes down to a reasonable price or forget it

just seems like someone is trying to make a quick buck at our expense, i think you just missed a big market by pitching at the wrong price farnell and RS

For anyone planning to buy 100+ of the modules, which is where this is aimed, £140 for the dev kit is pretty much irrelevant – it just becomes a (small) part of the development costs.

I only see it being an issue for 1-off projects where someone needs the extra I/O or the dual cameras or displays, but then there are other options (e.g. add an Arduino for extra I/O, or use 2 Pi boards for 2 cameras).

Not just in response to @bluecar1, but I’ll chime in here for anyone with similar concerns – if you don’t understand why the price is so much higher than the price of the Pi on your desk, you can learn more about what and who the compute module is for by reading the posts here. Start with the post at the bottom and work up to this one! (And I hope you’ll come away with a realisation that we’re not making a big buck at your expense, and that nobody else is either…)

Liz et al, order placed and looking forward to its arrival.

Well done in getting this through production and out to market.

Gordon

Hi Liz and Dave

Whilst I understand where the compute module is aimed (industrial / embedded systems) I also see the way the module and IO board is of interest to the hobbyist like myself as far more GPIO’s available , dual camera, etc and the ability to design your own IO board ( robotics / sensor rich boards? )

I think like the original Pi the hobbyist market may exceed the target market if we can get it at a realistic price.

The interesting point may be if several of the Pi stores start selling them nearer the £60-£75 mark for the pair and see the response from RS / CPC

The Pi has got me back into electronics and coding after 30 years since i left college and i would love to get my hands on one of these and get back into making PCB’s again but not at the current prices

BC1

Seeing as how the foundation has an exclusive arrangement with RS and Farnell then the other Pi stores can not possibly sell them anywhere near the price you are asking as they will be buying them from one of those two distributors.

Sorry to say you will just have to either make do with an ordinary pi, pay the asking price for the compute kit for now.

I think there should be third party boards coming out fairly soon that take the CM. I am sure they will be cheaper. Or they may not, as people start to find out how expensive it actually is to make stuff like this and get it ready to sell!

Hi, I am just curious if you missed a letter in the article where you talked about the MRP being $200.00. Did you forget an “S”. I believe it should be MSRP for Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price. I wonder though, you are writing in the Queen’s English which is not always the same as American English, so you could very well mean MRP (Here in the States, I take MRP to to be Material Resource Plan).

I apolgize if I am wrong and will blame it on the differences in our common language! 8>)

Thank you,

I took it to be Manufacturer’s Recommended Price.

I’ll be waiting for the UPS man tomorrow (must set up a PIR detector) :)

Okay, I never thought of it that way and I can surely see that it works.

Thanks

Maximum Resale Price? That would keep a dozen commenters happy.

Yup – Queen’s English, innit. :D

Hi guys,

Module for network(Ethernet or WiFi) is?

Cheers

The price is too high for me, but before long some of the small companies buying the development kit will produce their own kits aimed at poor hobbyists. I am grateful to the Raspberry Pi Foundation and Sony for getting the ball rolling.

First company to make an afordable board with ethernet, rs232, rs485 and all io 24v will get to be the start of a industrial pi project. would by such board at up to 100€ without second toughts

Is that even possible for 100 euro’s in small quantities?

The price in Mexico is overkill, (340.18 USD with all taxes plus the fluctuation of the USD), yes I know it’s a low volume development board, I really like the concept of the CM and I imagine myself developing cards for the compute module, but this starter kit takes me to think twice if I want develop cards for the CM.

At £126.68 from Farnell (and CPC), I think this is a pretty great deal. Don’t forget it comes complete with a PSU, 4 sets of mains pins, 2 USB cables, 2 CSI/DSI extension boards and 4 GPIO jumper leads, 4 GB flash memory (not found on the original Pi), 2 CSI ports, 2 DSI ports and, of course, the Pi compute module and basic motherboard. Did I miss anything?

Also, the Foundation delivered a product to us on time. Well done, Liz, Eben and all at Sony for making this happen so smoothly. That alone is worth the price, in my opinion. Now, if only we can get the display! ;)

*Points at display comment*: hear that, Hollingworth? :D

Yes, yes were working as fast as we can! One thing at a time…

Gordon

Are you moving at the speed of light, Gordon? ‘cos, if not Einstein says you can go that bit faster! Just try not to exceed that fundamental limit, c ;)

Thanks, for your hard work. We look forward to the results.

I totally misread the pricing I thought it was 200GBP. Which I thought was a fair commercial price for something you only need one of per engineers bench.

Then I realised it was 200USD or about £126 , Which by the time you take the likely cost of the compute module out of it, The development board is about £100 an absolute bargain for any serious product development..

It’s here, it’s real and it works. Collected it from the post office this morning and it’s now up and running. After all the things i’ve tracked down from reviews which turned out to be vapourware or kickstarter projects which may happen real-soon(tm) it’s so nice to find a product that exists, is delivered on schedule, and does what it promises. Well done the Foundation.

Clearly the foundation has not designed/priced/released this product (at this stage) for people who are looking for a cheap one off purchase.

I want a CM or 5, and a commercial board to run 2 or more on, and its clear to me that i am not the target market.

Whats so hard to understand? The foundation has been very clear about this product – and simply by waiting, you will be able to buy single modules at a good price at somempoint, and develop your own base board, or buy a commercial or kickstarted board.

For now, if you find the price or bundle unsuitable, you are not the target market. And thats okay.

Well done RPF.

Beale’s law: If you really believe that $200 is too expensive for a dev kit like this, then a dev kit like this is really not for you.

Hi,
I received my own today. Very good quality, well done !!!
Again, price is absolutely logical for a DK.
Just started playing with it.

My Warmest Regards
Ioannis
http://www.pimodules.com

The dev board is overpriced. That other companies charge ridiculous amounts for theirs is no argument. Anyway, I’m sure someone else will release a much cheaper dev/io board for the CM.

No it isn’t. If you think it is then you are not the target market and probably don’t really need one…! It’s like cars. I think Lambo’s are expensive, but I’m not the target market, sadly.

John – they didn’t want to make a dev board anyway – it is designed so that out make something (electrical wise), then plug it in.

Is there a dimensional drawing for the dev board anywhere ?

I am sure it will be good, but not in my price range and I have nothing to develop at the moment.

I don’t quite see how it fits in the RPI portfolio along side the A and B PIs.

Read the foundations original introduction and explanation. Its all plain as day :)

Yes l see its a product for industrial use, and l have no issue with that, but how does it fit in with “Our Foundation’s goal is to advance the education of adults and children, particularly in the field of computers, computer science and related subjects.”?

The Foundation’s charitable mission — teacher training, outreach, resources, £1 million education fund, donations, support, research etc etc — is all funded by selling hardware.

(Also note that the term “industrial” doesn’t mean it can only be used to control turbines in a petrochemical plant — you could produce, say, an educational robot kit around it ;))

What is the point of education, if you cannot do something with it in the real world? The Foundation may be interested in educating young (and not so young) people to enable them to do things when they leave school. It is so much more meaningful and purposeful if what they learn in academia can be applied to existing real world products. What better way to achieve this than to have Raspberry Pies everywhere you look, controlling everything from toys to industrial processes. I cannot think of a better way to achieve meaningful goals than this. Without industry adopting the Pi, it would be a waste of time, because sales would be so much lower, the learning would have less value (although still applicable to other platforms, but still less value) and the whole charitable thing would probably have fizzled out shortly after launch.
Don’t knock the industrial users and their applications, as it is these very things that make learning so important in the first place. Instead, realise that industry ultimately provides employment and tax funds, whilst giving products like this meaning to those outside of academia.

It’s all just a cunning plan to get the RPI into consumer products. I need two cameras in my fridge, one for “are we alright for milk” and another to monitor the compost in the salad draw.

one thing i do not understand, i get these are aimed at industrial / dev market, so why are there big articles in all the places where hobbyist read / go?

4 page article in raspberry pi geek, 3 pages in linux format, and other hobbyist mags, lots of info on here (ok on here you could argue it is the RPi main store front) so why no commercial tab on the top row and you guys seem surprised we want to get hold of them and all we get is “you are not the target market”

the hobbyist was not the target market for the original pi but look at what it has achieved due to the hobbyist and how much more you have been able to to do for the education market due to the volumes sold to the hobbyists, you exceeded your target by more than 10 times

to me it is a cross over sort of product, yes it gives industry a lovely new product in an industry standard package at a cheap price to use on embedded system and opens a new market for the foundation, but it is also so much more flexible with more i/o options for the hobbyist who wants to do more than just learn python / scratch etc and be free of the 8 gpio pins without resorting to i2c add on boards, 2 camera interface so you could do 3d photograghy, no ethernet, but a usb hub and dongle sorted

couple of things i do not understand
different connector for the camera so you require a adapter?
only 4gb flash
still only 1/2gb ram

the thing i was surprised at not being on the board was an AtoD convertor to show how simple it is to add to allow for temp measurement and analogue sensors etc without the dev having to create an addon, as to me a dev kit is show the kit off to its best and what can be done simply, also the main thing people critisise the pi for is the lack of analogue I/O

please don’t ignore us hobbyists to chase a commercial market which may or may not be there (time will tell and i wish you every success) you have brought a great product to market in a new more flexible format.

If the dev kit was available at a more hobbyist attractive price it would make little difference to the commercial market (as we are being told the price is pretty much irrelevant when you develop to do a run of hundreds or thousands of boards) but it would have a second market straight away and more chance of success

BC1

You like others have missed the point, it is a Development Kit and priced acccordingly.

Not everyone wants all the features offered by the I/O Board, therefore 3rd party manufactures will eventually offer I/O Boards to suit peoples needs, they can not manufactuer without a reference board..

When the CM is offered as a standalone product, it will be an OK price, just be patient.

The reason for the use of the Adaptor Cables and Memory have been explained.

When the announcement was first made about CM, like when the Model A was released, a lot of people started posting rubbish comments which totally missed the point.

3 million Pi’s and a handful of upset people who will walk away, I would say the RPF have got it spot on, ignore the Fud you are doing a great job….

I think most of your points have been covered elsewhere, but to and some more answers.

1. The Bcm2835 takes a PoP memory package. There are no 1GB memory packages available that fit.
2. No point in adding peripherals to the IO board simply because you will never satisfy everyone, and it increases the support burden. The IO board is a way of getting all the signals out so you can add what you want, put peripherals in the way and you just cheese people off who want to add something else.
3. 4GB of flash should be enough for any commercial application I can think of.
4. Hobbyists are not being ignored – you can still buy the Model A and B which do pretty much everything the CM can do (except 2 cameras and 2 DSI displays and fewer GPIO. Everything else is the same)
5. The Foundation has no control over what publications print about their products!
6. The target market for the CM is clearly industry. Clearly. It really isn’t suited to the charities primary aim of education, except as a revenue source. And yet the IO board is still very cheap – the Foundation could easily have charged double and still be less than many other dev boards.

+1 EXACTLY

It’s unfair to assume this product will only be used for industrial purposes. Certainly there will be IO boards developed for hobbyists and educational uses. Some of those may be very affordable too. We’ll have to wait and see but I can certainly envision some cool stuff coming soon.

I don’t think anyone has assumed that. The assumption that is made is that the huge majority of CM boards that will be sold will be sold to industrial/commercial customers. When people sell product, they sell a lot of it. 100k, 200k at a time. That sort of order from just one customer would dwarf the sales to hobby buyers.

But yes, I expect CM base boards of various designs will start to pop up soon.

Point taken. After rereading the OP there’s no assumption of that.

The compute module dev kit can be used in the training of Electronic Engineers at the college level.

When I was in school the cost of the Dev kits used in my prototyping class was 600 USD and it did not come with all the extras that the Compute Dev lit comes with.

So the cost is very reasonable even in the education world.

Does that not fit with the core of the Raspberry Pi Foundataion’s ideals?

I too am a little confused as to why the foundation has presented this platform as a tool for industry only.

I fully understand the opportunities to generate revenue for the foundation to support their educational goals, but not the foundation’s reluctance to leverage this as part of those educational goals.

I understand you can’t take on support for the issues you know will come up, but you can support the community by providing them a space to support each other, like you’ve done with the Pi.

The general feel I get on the CM forum is “this is not for you, it’s over your head, go away”, which pretty much opposes the original goal and confuses the audience you have here.

If the Pi and CM really are that far apart than it would seem you might want to create a space just for the commercial support for the CM.

And they probably are that far apart. We may argue the cost of entry for the dev kit but we cannot argue the cost of entry for the software to design an IO board. From what I can find, that’s where the real hurdle lies.

“we cannot argue the cost of entry for the software to design an IO board. From what I can find, that’s where the real hurdle lies.”

If that’s your argument (really?) it’s probably a good time to give it a rest (at least on the Raspberry Pi blog — the Foundation doesn’t make EDA software you see…)

Actually this Blog is about the Development Kit and the wider community has not been forgotten, please read the previous CM Blog and other information.

Quite right the Development Kit is not aimed at hobbyists and at $200 it is way under-priced.

The actual CM will be sold as a standalone Pi, just like the A & B and will run the same software, the only caveat being the 4GB eMMC Drive limitation.

To use the CM you will need an I/O Board, which will not be the one in the $200 kit, but manufactured by a 3rd Party and eventually many choices will be offered, then it will be in the price bracket of $100.00

The RPF have not forgotten the goals, just need to prioritise what they can and can not do themselves.

As I have said before if one does not like the product, support, cost etal, then there is nothing to stop one buying another product, but 3 million can not all be dis-illusioned.

I have no complaint or argument, I’m just presenting some observations. I think the dev kit is awesome. I hope to get my hands on one asap.

What he said! Of course the educational side has not been forgotten – but there are two specific products for that – the A and B. The CM IS aimed as industrial and commercial applications, but that’s not going to stop people buying them for other purposes, and they are more than welcome. But just don’t expect the sort of price that the A and B run at.

And remember, that the software on the A or B will also work on the CM and vica versa (baring the small HW differences) so really, unless you need those HW difference you really are better of with the A or B.

James, I was speaking of the cost of EDA software. I don’t know if it’s possible to use KiCad to create a IO board, but if it is not there seems to be a pretty high cost of entry for those who might want to take a crack at creating one.

That’s not a criticism of the CM design, it’s just an observation. If it is possible to use KiCad then it’s practically a non-issue. I’ve not been able to sort that out yet.

Another observation is that because the CM is aimed at industrial and commercial applications announcing and supporting it here creates an uneasy mix. The foundation is now moving in two directions and, while both are exciting, this new direction blurs the focus of the original “educational” mission here and this blurring will continue as more announcements related to the commercial/industrial application of the CM are made here.

It’s easy to see this moving in two directions has already caused some friction among members here. Some have complain about the price of the dev kit and others get upset about those complaints. Shoot, I was told to ” to give it a rest” for observing the potential high cost of EDA software. The foundation itself has caused some of this friction with the mixed message of “The CM is really awesome and it’s not for you.”

This friction within the community isn’t causing a meltdown, but it is apparent and you certainly don’t want to chase members away because of it. You might want to consider if this will lead to further dividing your audience though, and how you’d deal with that here.

Personally, I think both the community here, including those who’s focus will now be on the CM, might be better served if the foundation created a site specifically for the commercial/industrial applications of the CM.

Looking forward it seems to me that this is almost inevitable and I’ll offer the sooner it happens the better. You’ll move faster in both directions if you put them on their own track.

Again, this is not a critique, these are just some observations and thoughts about them I feel are worth sharing.

Keep up the great work, you all have my deepest respect and admiration…

I htink you post has a number of inaccuracies.

Firstly, there are not ‘two directions’. The aim of the Foundation is education. To achieve that they need money. The CM is/will be a good source of money. And because it effectively the same as the Model B, there is no bifurcation of effort or need for clear separation (for example, the intention is the same firmware and Linux for both boards). I’m also not seeing any friction. There are certainly people who misunderstand what the CM is and what it is designed for, but they are few and far between. The Foundation has never said ‘the CM is not for you’ That’s for individuals to decide. It’s clearly aimed at industry, but there is not a ban of selling to others!

I understand how the hardware and software are on a similar track, and that the end goal of funding the foundation through sales is common to the A/B, and CM. It is the end use of those products that I refer to as different directions.

The need I perceive for clear separation is related to marketing and support for the commercial/industrial applications of the CM vs keeping the focus of this site on education. I don’t view this as a problem though, I see it as an opportunity to fully leverage the momentum the CM enjoys right now and that’s a pretty sweet position to be in.

When I ponder the advantages they add up quickly.

Carpe diem!

It’s not really possible to have clear separation., or indeed necessary. The Foundation has 4 full time engineers, and all their software efforts are equally (usually) applicable to all three devices. It’s not really feasible to separate efforts when you have such a small team. As for marketing, well, the same applies I guess.

Mine arrived today. I received two USB cables, both standard A to B. For a dev kit I would have expected everything I needed to plug it in and try it out but that is not to be I suppose… No play until Monday.. :-(

Contact the supplier you are not alone:

http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=98&t=80529

I notice that ssh is disabled by default in this release. Is there a quick way to enable it at first boot without a keyboard? If the names of the links in /etc/rc*.d/ are changed will that enable ssh or is there anywhere else that it is disabled?

Would this not be better answered on the Community Forum ??

http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewforum.php?f=98

when can we buy the cpu module alone? how much is it? 30usd?

The main problem of the model A and B always ware the much to few GPIO pins.

Now that there would be a chance to fix that the product doing that is not aimed on the hobbyist market.

look on your competition like the BeagleBone Black thay have plenty gpio pins…

I moderated your comment. Please don’t swear.

There are a bunch of different ways we could improve the spec according to each person’s needs but that’s not what we’re about. The price of the A and B is everything. You can use a port expander to gain access to more pins.

Well to my understanding alls this GPIO pins are there on the model A and B just hidden between the BGA balls of the CPU.

And thats really annoying as it makes the model A and B affectively a castrated product!

if you want to keep the compute module for the commercial user with a lot of cash, ok…

but than you should at least create a model C that would expose all pins the CPU has to offer.

Trax

http://www.abelectronics.co.uk/products/3/Raspberry-Pi/18/IO-Pi-32-Channel-Port-Expander-for-the-Raspberry-Pi-computer-boards

£20.39 each
for emulating pins the model A and B already have just hidden between the CPU and board <_<

thats a waist of money, bad for the environment and ultimately a waist of man kinds resources!

I agree! I’ve already reported them to Greenpeace and Al Gore, hiding pins between the CPU and board is an environmental scandal! Men kind should be ashamed of waisting those stuff and hiding flippin’ pins when there are actual engines powered by water.

The Founders should be ashamed of themselves for making stuff and scaming.

Billy, you are one of my fantasy dinner party guests. Thank you for that.

Jeez, just can not believe these sort of short sighted comments, this is now the second Blog reference the CM and still the same old negativity. Could someone post something informative and forward thinking ??

>Could someone post something informative and forward thinking ??

Make a model C that would expose all pins the CPU has to offer :D

That would have made them too expensive. The reason all the signals were not exposed on the A and B was cost. Both the cost of a more expensive multi layer PCB (you cannot get the signals out without adding more layers), and the added cost of the extra connectors.

It’s really quite simple.

The A and B as they stand fit the educational target very well indeed. Very few people have need of any extra GPIO or cameras or displays. It would be mad to increase the price of the Raspi to get out those extra signals for so few customers.

The CM on the other hand doesn’t have ANY connectors except the SODIMM, so there are no added costs there. It also has more layers (AIUI), and that is reflected in the cost (along with the embedded flash)

Trax, you might want to pick up an open-source PCB design package like KiCad, and investigate exactly what it’d take to expose the signals you want – it’ll be a learning experience. You won’t be able to produce anything with a form factor that’s close to that of the Pi, you won’t be able to do it in as few layers, and you wouldn’t be able to be able to make it at a cost low enough for schools or kids to buy.

i recommend the pi for anyone who wants a feeling of mastering a pre assembled raw chip as a computer and even maybe an electronic interface.

you can just buy an easily found mini usb 1.0 cable(not a common little usb 2.0 that we are used to)

but use a ***usb 1.0*** to plug it directly into your usb charger or computer laptop or usb dongle of your phone.

****the following is how i finally got to feel like i wouldn’t be stupid for buying a pi.***

nobody knows the pi like mickey Rooney(who i love and pray will try to make me public ally pay for using his name even though i have already coked up with stage fright the accepted limit ,). but you will die laughing at his double entandra(which today, thanks to him, is just another way of saying he tells a killer straight man joke)

but aside from the pi,,

after a frustrating 2 decades with friends that uninspired, and were derogatory toward prosperity, and dramatically self pitying. i Got “a” friend to buy one when we went to Microcenter to return some 350 a pop smart TV’s. i thought it might lead him somewhere after his compulsive habit of buying Linux boxes and CE boxes and “thin client”s ,, and trying to hack into them to get them to be his bitch…and he has prospered beyond belief hacking into the pi with noobs, i think he may salvage a fragment of his life now.

he fell in love with it.

i recommend it for non enthusiasts but also dramatically, for all Obsessive “complex gadget” users too!!! its a cure all!

and people who want to feel a sense of accomplishment mastering a computer interface device

it has many rewarding functions and i feel it is like a blossom of the shareware industry that provides things like utorrent and chat clients and photo touch up app’s

the potential to develop pi software that makes the pi a smart appliance controller , security system , car computer, network controller,

like shareware made excel free!

soon the pi do the same exact thing for hardware.

computers that fail and cost 10’s of thousands to fix,

in :
cars fuel injection comptrollers,
smart security camera systems,
office LAN networks,
PBX style telephone communications that new seem obsolete ,,,

personal autonomous quad-copter drones for pickup and delivery to friends and family.

it has been delayed by the create new jobs program. but maybe it will be impossible for the cooperate guilds to stop this.

i am still frustrated at not being the target audience, but to those like me who don’t like the price i would say look at the costs

as it is a dev kit they are not going to sell 10’s of thousands of them and set up and accreditiation costs are a chunk of the unit cost

so i looked at making an I/O board for myself, the biggest areas of cost is not materials but design time, tooling for short runs, but the biggest i believe is the CE accreditation required to sell it, this requires all sorts of radition / interfernce test (look back to the blogs just before the model B was released and you will see some of it and the discussion about whether it was required). there is a self accreditation path but there are risks with that espcially if the roduct you are dealing with is going into industry

all we can do is hope they sell the initial batch quickly and get onto another batch where the cost should be lower as then it is just the production and component costs and hopefully they will pass some of the savings on

You won’t need CE accreditation for a development kit. If you are designing a board that WILL go in to product, then CE accreditation is required FOR THE WHOLE PRODUCT (not necessarily the IO board itself) – as with ANY device that goes in to production in the EU.

My thoughts are that the IO board as supplied by the Foundation is NOT suitable to go in to industrial end product, except in a number of small cases. It’s a DK, pure and simple. The whole intention is that industrial customers WILL be making their own boards to carry the CM. And when you do that, you need CE accreditation.

you can clearly see the CE mark (and other standards marks) on the I/O board,

also both RS and farnell/cpc now seemed to be indicating they are out of stock until september, so have they sold out of the initial run?

Surprised they sold out considering all the bitching about the price being to high, maybe this supports the RPF stand that at $230.00 it was a good price point, they should of charge a lot more in my opinion…..

200$ for a dev. kit whats in it that makes it so expesive

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