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Made in the UK!

There’s a little bit of news about what’s new with the Rev2 board design we posted about yesterday that we saved for today.

Look carefully (click to enlarge). Alongside the obvious differences like the mounting holes, there are a few words along the short side on the right you might want to read. Many thanks to makeamillion.de (Homwer on our forums), who got his hands on this when the news was still embargoed but kept quiet about it – and took this very fine photo for us.

If you’ve been following us for a while, you’ll remember the time last year when we had to make the decision to manufacture the Raspberry Pi in China. The Raspberry Pi is a British enterprise, and as well as improving things in the computing industry’s future here by educating kids, we wanted to improve things in the present too, by actually doing our manufacture here in the UK.

Last year, when nobody had heard of the Raspberry Pi, we had been unable to find a British manufacturer whose prices per unit (especially at a point where we were thinking of sales in the tens of thousands, not the hundreds of thousands you’re seeing now) would work for us, and who believed that the project would be enough of a success for them to risk line space for us. There was just no way to make the Raspberry Pi in the UK and keep the price at $25 for the Model A (which will be released before the end of the year at the promised price) and $35 for the Model B.

Happily, things change.

Back at the beginning of April, Eben and I paid a visit to Sony’s UK manufacturing plant in Pencoed, South Wales. Several meetings, a factory tour, a lot of phone calls, some PowerPoint and sandwiches, and an up-close-and-personal with a wave soldering machine later, we were able to introduce our manufacturing and distributing partners to Sony’s Welsh facility, where, as well as making Sony products, Sony’s team undertakes contract electronic manufacture (CEM). It’s an incredibly impressive affair; the quietest, pleasantest plant I’ve ever been in, all comfortable lighting, ergonomic workspaces, cool air and relaxed staff. Sony’s quality control system is legendary, their ability to manufacture fast and cleanly is superb, and they’ve already invested in adding PoP (Package on Package – the fiddly stuff where the Broadcom chip at the heart of the Raspberry Pi is stacked beneath the RAM chip) hardware manufacture ability and expansion capability just for us. They’re also able to take on the huge task (currently undertaken by RS and Farnell) of ensuring the parts used are sourced ethically and to the highest ecological standards – every component has to pass standard compliance via Sony’s Green Management programme.

The upshot of all this? Element14/Premier Farnell have made the decision to move the bulk of their Raspberry Pi manufacture to South Wales. Moving manufacture like this is an enormous undertaking; from the start of the process, it’s taken us (especially Pete), Farnell and Sony nearly six months to get all our respective ducks in a row. The initial contract will see the Pencoed plant producing 30,000 Raspberry Pis a month, and creating around 30 new jobs.

How do you know if you’ve got a UK-made board? Easy. Look next to the power jack; you’ll see the words “Made in the UK”. We couldn’t be prouder.

179 comments

Cool!! When will the new batch ship? My Pi was shipped two days ago.

My Pi was shipped yesterday, I got it today and it is the new 2.0 revision. Bought from Farnell.

Farnel with me aswell.

Ordered mine on the Monday, received today (Friday 7th sep).

Was thinking ” dam should have waited” but i seem to have a rev 2 board as it says “Made in the UK” didn’t think I’d be saying that again ;)

I clearly ordered from the wrong place – RS. I am on a 18 week waiting list, and they already took my money. :-( Maybe I should cancel my order , and order from Farnel instead.

congratulation on this.

Congratulations all round… I had noticed those words yesterday ….

Nice to hear!

I’m assuming crummy RS decided to stick with the made in china approach? Probably for the best – hopefully it’ll make people buy from Farnell instead, and lower the burden on RS who are clearly not capable of handling such a high volume of orders.

Also, this may just be an optical illusion, but the USB bus on the Rev2 photo looks a little wonky…is it supposed to be or is it just me that’s seeing it?

Wow that’s amazing!
Still waiting on mine, should come around the first week of october, can’t wait.

It’s come home at last. Hope the accidental leak yesterday didn’t raise too many contractual arm-wrestles (though you have to admit the rapid cover-up afterwards was a laugh, you can’t blame us.)

“PowerPoint and sandwiches” – how terribly modern :)

Absolutely brilliant news. Well done to all involved in achieving this. No question, I’ll have to get a home-grown one to add to the collection.

I’m really happy about this. It is hard for the UK to compete with some overseas countries when it comes to manufacture, and it’s wonderful that you’ve helped to create these jobs and opportunities within the UK. The impact of the Raspberry Pi can extend beyond purely educating the next generation of programmers.

On the contrary, manufacturing closer to where most of the customers live is just common sense. Shortens supply chains and will rpobably allow production to be ramped a bit quicker if necessary.

No one said anything about the components though.. which probably come from China either way.. :)

Some do, some don’t.

I see what’s happening here, the Pi people are producing lots of different Pi’s with a countless subtle nuances to create a collectors Pi-buy market. This will promote endless which is the better Pi arguments, “but of course, the UK made Pi is faster, because…”, a Pi collectors magazine “…this Pi with the black speaker output is one of the early models…”, a Pi comparison page on Wikipedia “..most notably the October 2012 rev.2c board has an Orange LED in place of the Red…”, and of course there will be the bidding frenzy on eBay when that board that’s supposed to have a green power LED got made with an Yellow one.

When will this madness end… :-)

PS. Congrats on getting a UK manufacturer.
PPS. Will you be doing a Pi with a Blue PCB? :-P

About a year ago people on this site were speculating on that very thing, the collectability of the first batch of 10,000 (how long ago that was). So you are in fact absolutely right!

Have a look at Apple, same story

Epic! Very good to hear this! It even put a little smile on my face haha.

Wow, Now more a Dragon Data than a BBC then ;)

Croeso i Gymru! :)
Fantastic news on so many levels; firstly, well done for making a designed in Britain, made in Britain dream into a reality. Secondly, ensuring and creating jobs in Wales. Wales is already well underway with various schemes to transform computing at school, from CAS Wales to Technocamps and beyond. There is far more scope for professionals and teachers to engage with each other in our small nation and as a result we’re seeing some really inspiring activities going on. Manufacturing the Pi in Wales can only help to further that inspiration.
Well done and bless you.

Thanks!

It’s also worth noting that although the SoC is officially a Broadcom (USA) part, the Arm part was designed in the UK, AND the GPU was designed in the UK! So it is very much a UK product (if you ignore the ethernet chip!)

This is fantastic news. I remember what a disappointing irony it was when you had to use overseas manufacturing to get the first units built quickly.

I’ve just had notice that the RasPi I ordered from Element14 has been shipped today, and I only ordered it yesterday, so I’m feeling pretty positive about Farnell at the moment.
Well done, all.

You are simply changing the world.

Hey, Liz. I was wondering about something. There are a lot of kids buying this around the world, so your vision of getting kids involved in computers is being realized. But there are a lot of folks, like myself, who are adults, and already into computers and computer programming. There are also a lot of folks who buy the RPi to do things like create PBXs or run media centers.

Outside of the publicity you’re getting from this, how do we help the foundation further computer science with school aged kids? I’m a little worried that the RPi I purchased isn’t “fulfilling it’s destiny,” and it might have been better off in the hands of a young, curious, kid. (Not that I’m going to give it up, mind you!)

I was under the impression the first batches were going out to devs and geeks so they could push the platform and make it a fitter environment, when the time comes to hoy them out to the kids.

I’m hoping at some point an option will be made available to buy a Pi for oneself and one for ‘some kid somewhere’ as a package of sorts…

I’m pretty much doing the same, using my first Pi as a headless server for various tasks and my next one for a media centre. I think an excellent thing we can do is to write up about our projects with details of how to reproduce it and to offer help on request. That way, children and adults alike can read about it and if it interests them, they can do the same. I’ll be adding my project details to my blog over the next couple of weeks for exactly this reason.

Thank you – we really do appreciate the community’s help on this stuff. (Raspberry Pi wouldn’t be what it *is* without people like you blogging projects, and we’re very grateful.)

Rick, all you need to do to help the cause is write about your pet projects and comment on other people’s. Buy Eben’s book, share links on social media sites etc. This ground-swell of support will help the educational goals of the Foundation. By buying one you have helped already boost the sales volumes. Not every Pi has to end up in school just in the hands of someone who appreciates it.

Something like this?

http://www.instructables.com/id/Charlieplexing-with-the-Raspberry-Pi/

Bravo guys. Jolly good work =)

Permission to shout “Bravo” at an annoyingly loud volume, sir?

Permission granted, George.

BRAVO!

I’ll have to order a second Pi now. Got to support the “local” economy :-D

Wow, brings a tear to the eye in the day and age of made in china, consumed in the UK and binned in some unlucky country most people can’t pronounce.

Well done guys. :)

First of all, well done on bringing manufacturing back to the UK. I totally understood your decision to move to China in the beginning and now the project is successful, coming home is the right move.

However, I noticed that this blog post and the announcement by Farnell doesn’t mention anything about costs…

Are there any increased production costs with moving back to the UK and if so, will these be put into the price of the RaspberryPI?

Many Thanks
Stephen

No change to the end user price.

Congratulations to you all and many thanks for making the extra effort needed to secure this more ethical sourcing . 8-)

Fantastic news.
If it’s the factory I’m thinking of at J35 of the M4 I use to go there to do quality audits in the 90s when the manufactured monitors for my employer. Back then it was a great plan, with great people. Wonderful to see they are part of the next wave of technology in the UK.

Other than the POP piece the Raspberry Pi will be really easy for them to manufacturer as it is quite a well thought out and logical design.

Here’s looking forward to 30k a month rolling off the lines.

Well done to all involved from the Foundation, Farnell and Sony Pencoed.

This is excellent news. That Sony factury has been winning awards for years, an excellent choice.
I confess to having noticed the MADE IN THE UK label when the Rev 2 board photo appears a few days ago but chose to say nothing.

Thanks for keeping quiet. Gave us a chance to get all our ducks in a row :)

I thought the news about mounting holes was fairly exciting but this is extra amazing!

Made me chuckle that no one was interested until it became a runaway success … but we will forgive Sony (not for the root kit saga obviously).

Thank you to all concerned for your continuing hard work!

How about a little red dragon (for Wales, of course).

Congratulations!
Can’t wait for a 512MB made in UK! (if ever)

Wow that is amazing news :) Well done everyone who made this possible

I am happy to hear that the Raspberry Pi group will be doing good on yet another level by insourcing its production to the UK. Congratulations and keep up the excellent work!

This is some of the best news I’ve heard in a while, many congratulations to everyone involved. I’m sure it’s been quite a rough ride but you should be proud of everything you have accomplished.

An creating more UK jobs (doesn’t matter if it’s 3, 30, 300 or 3000, a job is a job and surely means a lot to the people involved).

Well done :)

Cheers

Matt

That makes me regretful decision to cancel my order from RS (having waited since mid-july, I didn’t appreciate the recent email from them implying I’d have to wait ’til November at least) a little easier to bear then — I look forward to ordering a UK-made unit when the time comes. All the best!

Meh. Still waiting for my original order of 1000 years ago, RS recently told me it has been delayed further.

Shouldn’t be a problem, hop back into your Tardis and skip forwards in time to the point of delivery

Or order one from Farnell/Element14 (see comment above) and get one for Tuesday. You can use the one on back order as a media centre :)

Excellent news just read about it on theregister http://www.reghardware.com/2012/09/06/raspberry_pi_production_moves_to_uk/ . I know costs may be higher bringing it over to the UK but my hat goes off to you as it means a boost to our economy more jobs and hopefully easier distribution to the suppliers thus enabling them to get to the end user quicker.

Brilliant news well done to all involved.

I spotted that on the photograph posted in the forum, and it seemed so improbable that I wondered whether it might be a spoof!

Nice to see, though, and good to know that you can get this sort of work done economically in this country.

Yeah – and sorry we had to hush things up about it! We had to move the date of this announcement up a few weeks because those boards had escaped into the wild, so the last few days have been a bit of a rush.

That’s understood. It would probably be better if it hadn’t leaked out at all while there’s still old stock to shift. As it happens I’m expecting a Pi from Farnell (my third) to arrive tomorrow. I dare say it will be a Rev1 board, but I’ll be happy with that – it was what I expected when I ordered it.

Indeed, it would have been better….!!

Somewhat ironic, given that Sony have been very litigious in the past when individuals want to hack/tinker with Sony products which they own.

Sony are just a contract manufacturer in this case, so I’m not sure it’s that ironic!

They’re manufacturing a product designed to encourage people to learn about hardware/software, hack and otherwise modify.

They’re well known for their legal actions against people doing exactly this with their own Sony branded products. Not very hacker/maker friendly company.

They installed root kits on computers of customers using Windows who played audio CDs released by Sony BMG: Untrustworthy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal

Perhaps your irony detector is broken.

Not sure what the rootkit fiasco has to do with contract manufacturing a PCB…

It shows them to be an untrustworthy organisation, as I clearly stated.

I suppose its no more ironic than Samsung contract manufacture the CPU in the iPhone….and yet Apple have just sued the living daylights out of them for something completely different!

I for one am tired of this patent trolling, it’s on the up and needs die.

It’s hard to find an organisation of that size which doesn’t have dodgy dealings (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung#Price_cartels etc), however Sony activly pursue individual hobbiests (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Hotz) for restoring functionality sold with the Sony device (PS3 boot other OS).

The rootkit issue is something they thought they’d get away with. It didn’t happen by accident.

Hobbiests, enthusiasts, hackers, kids of all ages, the target audiance of the Pi, the aims of which seem contrary to Sonys operational ethics.

Can we give this a rest for today at least, please, Robots? You’ve made your point; obviously, we don’t agree with you.

Is it a rule on the forum that any good news that is posted must have some negative comment posted just to take the edge off of any pleasure that the rest of us might take from it?

I think it’s a rule on *any* forum, isn’t it?

How about a nice cup of tea!

Excellent news! Nice to see you’ve managed to get manufacturing handled domestically and in an environmentally responsible manner.

I’m also noting the P2 header is no longer populated. Is that now standard? I ask because I have a PCB that mounts on top of the Pi and had previously had to desolder P2 to make room for components on my board.

Any chance of some pictures / video of the PI being manufactured in the new UK plant? It would be very educational!

Great news for UK and Wales manufacturing…. Does this make it a RaspberryPi.Boyo? :-)

Raspberry Dai? :)

Eben, Liz and the Foundation – fantastic news! I’m almost 100% sure that my BBC B (sadly I sold it when I went off to Uni) was assembles in Wales …

They certainly made a lot of them there; I think mine was made in Wales too. :)

Liz, I am so chuffed about this! Made my day! Many thanks to you, Eben and Pete.

Great news! I’m looking forward to buying another one already :)

Bugger, going to have to order another one now…. and a Union flag sticker for my UK made ModmyPi case :) Seriously though, well done in finding anywhere in the UK that can still do volume assembly at a sensible price – having worked in that industry for quite a few years I thought it had all but disappeared, glad to see you prove otherwise.

That’s brilliant news, and the fact that its creating extra jobs as well is an even bigger bonus. Well negotiated!

OMG w00t for mount holes lol. I was wondering where these were with the first release, but hey can’t complain too much. I look forward to getting my hands on this, I need mounts lol.

looks like il have to order another one now just for the made in the uk bit :D

Liz, with all the concerns about the economy at the moment, reading your latest news brought a tear to my eye.

I studied in South Wales and had friends working at the Pencoed plant and they always lived under cloud that they were about to loose their jobs and their work moved to China. I am so happy and glad that you and Eben have gone out of your way to support British industry.

Thanks also to Sony, Farnell and RS who are also supporting your ideas and visions.

I am so proud of what you have achieved by building up a complete ecosystem behind the Pi.

Not sure you should be thanking RS given that they opted to carry on making them oversees and disapointing customers with huge leads on delivery times ;)

I don’t know why everyone is hounding RS particularly. I expressed interest with both Farnell and RS back in April. Both said they would send me instructions on how to place an order. RS sent instructions (And I did place an order) and I’ve heard nothing from Farnell. Having said that there are still no signs of getting an Rpi from either of them.

I did the same and RS have allowed me to order one, but pushed the ship date back and Farnell have never got back to me.

No matter, if I get a Chiniese board I’ll still be happy. I may well order another one from Farnell too.

!m!

Farnell never got back to me either. Also, as I understand it, even if you’ve ordered from Farnell it doesn’t mean to say you’ll get a British board.

Good for you!

Hi, that’s good news. Not manufacuring the raspi in china anymore. However I’m a little bit disappointed by your choice. Sony targets exactly the people you want to love the Pi. Young peple who just want to mess with a piece of hardware/software. Yes I know it has already been pointed out that some poeple don’t like Sony because of the geohot case.
Please just regard this as a +1 for the geohot post. I’m happy with my made in china Pi, and I will not buy another one as long as they’re manufactured by sony.
Sorry.

Still, good luck to you guys :)

They are made in a Welsh factory which employs 30 Welsh workers, and increases tax revenue to the UK government, as opposed to a Chinese factory by Chinese workers where all the profit stay in China.

Your choice.

Darn cool!

Which is perfect since the last proper British made home computer was also made in Wales! (The SAM Coupe)

Makes me want to order some more, just to keep the production lines up to speed ;-) Although I’m not at UK resident, I’d rather order a UK produced item than an item from the Far East.

Wow, great job guys!

been a very long time since i have seen thoughs words on anything makes you feel all warm inside knowing we are not lost in Foreign Products and were once again have products in the market

This is excellent news.
And with the creation of jobs IMO this needs the BBC to be informed – they and government minsters love this sort of thing and its extra PR for pi.

And here it is:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19510040

Funny how it’s Farnell thats doing this and the BBC have used a video with RS in lol

Wow! I live around 5 miles from this plant and it’s nice to see it being put to such innovative use! Where do I apply for a job here? (Seriously!)

Just hope the Tax Free period (if any) isn’t about to expire!

This makes a huge difference. One shouldn’t be overly nationalistic, but the progressive decline in UKs manufacturing industry has been rather depressing…Are the dimensions identical BTW?

Yes! (That is: if you mean the board, not the manufacturing plant)

Oh, there is a place for overtly nationalistic, (besides the Olympics). Bravo for creating jobs at home. These jobs will pay the prople who create the RPi far more than any worker in China would receive.
Liz and Eben have done something enormous. I wish we had then here in the US.

You realise that this sort of manufacturing is automated? That is to say the vast majority of the process is done by machine with little human involvement.

30 jobs were created in Wales. How many jobs have you created?

awesome. personally what i would like most out of future revisions is having all the plugs for everything (hdmi, power, usb, and all) on the same side. i know from an engineering standpoint that may be a little difficult but i never even noticed how much of an issue it was until i started using my Pi.

I don’t think that this question has been asked before, but if I were to order (another) Raspberry Pi from Element14 in the UK (for example) could I guarantee that I would receive one of the the ‘Mark 2’ made in Wales models?

If so then I will certainly do so!

Thanks! :)

Wow, congrats guys. I can’t believe no one’s asked this yet though:
How do you know if your new order will be manufactured in the UK? Or how do you order one that will?

Interested me too. I want to order a Rpi, when we will be sure to receive a uk raspy?

The Chinese have been facing increasing problems with what to do with the majority of manufacturing workers who don’t have the education/training (much less innate ability) to do more than menial manual labor, particularly for quality products for First World markets where there can be absolutely no defects. Those who can’t work on electronics, automotive, and other high-end products are often just giving up and going home to nearly starve on the family farms rather than live in unheated/uncooled, abandoned, decades-old, former state-run company buildings, eating not much more than food scraps. At least they can be hungry with family and friends at home, rather than with a bunch of strangers in a uncaring metropolis being built on their backs, blood, sweat, and tears.

This is total BS.

The fact of the matter is that for a product like the RasPi the vast majority of the work is done by machines, and you will find that a factory with the capabilities to make a RasPi in the Far East is likely more similar to a European operation than you may think.

The vast majority of factories in the Far East (at least in China) are privately owned (Foxconn anyone?) Indeed there is a trend of workers staying in the rural areas, but it is not because they cannot find good paying jobs in the cities (there is in fact a big labour shortage in many areas) but that even rural areas are developing to a point that workers have a choice of whether to travel thousands of miles to work in a city.

As for “majority of manufacturing workers [not having the ability to build] quality products for First World markets where there can be absolutely no defects”, you do realize that the majority of your First World products are built in the far east, right? Sure there are some absolutely low-quality (and cheap) stuff being built, but that’s because markets demand it. Where markets demand it there are similar world-class manufacturing being done .

Nice post,

“(much less innate ability)” – where did that come from?

Absolutely great that they are now being manufactured in the UK as well however why Sony?

Surely you should be looking towards helping smaller business and trying to source a smaller UK based company or collection of companies. Sony are a japanese multi billion pound company, hardly in the spirit.

I pointed out other concerns the maker/hacker community has with Sony earlier in the comments, and was effectivly asked to shut up

I noticed your comments. To be honest trying to keep myu opinion of the company themselves out of the discussion. It is more to do with handing such a contract with such a large company.

I can see benefits of course a larger company is more likely to be able to meet demand but some faith should be put into smaller business.

I completely agree about having more faith in small British businesses! I was reading about this home-grown startup the other day called the Raspberry Pi Foundation. They look quite promising.

Hmm, I recall back at the start of the year the main reason for not assembling in the UK was “import duties” on imported components as opposed to completed units.

No-one from the Foundation could point to the actual duties in question – and now they’re not mentioned at all.

Explanation?

Explanation: At 10k units the cost of import duties pushes it out of profitable. At 100k units the cost of import duties does not push it out of profitable.

Brilliant news! The story of the Raspberry Pi just gets more amazing.

So where’s that P5 with the I2S brought out to the connector?

Also, I’d better redesign my plastic base and get Shapeways to build me a few more. I am determined to build me a subtractive virtual analog symphony orchestra …

Simply fabulous news. Well done all of you.

This is one bit of nationalism I will join in with, well done, it’s excellent news.

Stunning news to have a UK invention being manufactured in the UK and only 45 minutes drive from where I live, glad I waited to get 2 more boards untill now , well done you guys.

Well, I has going to order a couple of these but I try to have as little to do with anything Sony touches as possible. Good luck with you doemstic endeavours though. Nice piece of kit regardless.

I received my Pi today, and about half an hour later read the post about the rev. 2 board. Having no time today to format an SD card and lookup the serial number, I was a bit disappointed! I’ve just come home and looked at the Rapi website, as I do regularly, and looked at this post…..I read up to the picture and then enlarged it, and honestly, the first thing I noticed was the ‘Made in the UK’….I was so pleased to see it – I’ve been following the Pi from before the official release, and remember the announcement that UK manufacturing was not possible at the prices the foundation was aiming for, which made me very disappointed (not with the foundation). I think the the aim of the foundation is fantastic, and even more so now they and Element 14 have Managed to get UK manufacturing sorted out…..will you ever cease to amaze. Oh, and I did rus to look at my board, and it’s made in the UK, so I’m really excited about plugging it in tomorrow!!!!

Would you believe that I’m a Student / Journalist for an un-named NY newspaper and I require a sample of this new board prior to the possible* purchase of a bazillion units?

*Assuming parallel universerves exist, playing out every possibility for every minute variation of everything, this purchase would occur in one or nore of those said universes.

Congratz on the new features and the new manufacturing location!

I’m not sure if I’m more impressed with the RPi or the two of you. My second and third RPi arrived today. I’m glad to have done a small part in supporting your efforts. Thank you, thank you, thank you…

Good on you RPi Foundation and your move in manufacturing to the UK. I was going to have my 10 year old buy his own, but now I think I will help him out a bit and order one. For those that are wondering how to build community for younger kids… Just keep doing what you are doing (and publish the results). I cut my teeth on a TS-1000 from Montgomery Wards (catalog store here in the US) for around $35.00 USD – strange price eh? Along with a healthy dose of books and Sync magazines to completely devour what I could on the subject of programming, and hardware I loved it as a kid, about my sons age now. Quite a bit of it was over my head, but as long as I could key it in and save it to tape, I could marvel at it and dissect it later. The knowledge I gained from the articles written by more senior folks in computing made it fun. I hope that spark gets passed on to future generations.

I think the move by the foundation to produce the boards in England is a great move economically, and environmentally. Fantastic work!

England? Queue lots of mad welsh ranting!

I think that would be “W”elsh Nick ;-)

very very good job,
for the next version we need:
1Gigabit LAN,
USB 3.0
Micro SD Card Slot
optional a optical Out

best regards

Pretty sure you can buy an PC motherboard that does all that!

Sounds like you’re looking for a CuBox:

http://www.solid-run.com/products/cubox

or similar device.

And I want a Pony!

Some good ideas in this rev 2.
Just 2 things :
– the usb and the ethernet ports are still not aligned…
– a reset switch is good but a power switch is still missing

Awesome. Made in the UK.

Great achievement . Well done all involved in getting the Raspberry Pi made in the UK!

This is actually great news :)

Well done, I am proud to have finally bought something that is built near my home even though I have not yet received ! Only hope that the ‘precious’ coming soon to its destination so I can finally enjoy ;-)

That’s fantastic news, bringing some, if small, manfacturing back to the UK.

means a contrario, the RS will deliver yet Revision 1 board?
It is now time for us to cancel our remaining RS-orders?

No Beer with the powerpoint and sandwiches?

Be sure that sony does not install hidden spyware on the Raspberry! ;)

Great news, I’ll buy another!
Missed this yesterday as it was my birthday.

Moving the manufacture to the UK was a wonderful idea. Pulling it off without doubling the price is ridiculously impressive. Well done to all involved!

My Rev2 Made in UK Pi arrived today from Farnell.

Liz and Eben this is wonderful news!

Congrats! Very patriotic. I like it. Could use a little more patriotism here in the U.S.

So I get this right, at the beginning of the project, noone wanted to produce for you except for a Chinese company. And now you ditch the Chinese and move to someone who denied you at first? Doesn’t sound very thankful.

If I see this right, you guys will switch from two bad distributors (RS and Element 14) to one bad distributor by eliminating RS? Ooooooookay.

Considering that there are still many people waiting for their Raspberrys from both vendors, it’s a bold move to redesign the board (pretty much unannounced, just like the removal of the polyfuses) and switch production sites. It’s not like this project had a smooth run so far.

Looking around now, there are several much more poweful developer boards getting ready for barely more money. I wouldn’t count on high future Raspberry Pi sales anymore.

This post to so full of fail, to use yoof speak!

No distributors have been dumped – both RS and Farnell are still there.

We always wanted to assemble in the UK, now we can. It’s contract manufacture – that’s how it works – welcome to the real world. No thanks are required – any company will use whosoever they see fit to do their manufacturing for them – and the people they choose get paid.

I don’t believe anyway is now waiting on Farnell orders – RS they are.

The board hasn’t been redesigned – there have been some very minor changes to fix minor issues with the rev1. The rev2 has been in manufacture in the UK for 1 month already – and no-one noticed – that a pretty smooth changeover, don’t you think.

More cheap developers boards – great! That was the WHOLE point.

So, once again. Fail.

Excellent news. Thinking about EU produced electronics make me happy.
Also if the net balance is +30 workers you should be really, really proud.

When will bei the new Board rev. available?
Thank you

Ardeshir

“This connector …. is pinned to be mounted (ideally) on the underside due to connector clash.”

Hi, can someone clarify this please?

– Please point me at where the pinout is defined.
– What does ‘connector clash’ mean? Is it not possible to have both P1 and P5 populated on the same side? It looks like they are on a 2.54mm grid.

Sorry if this has been answered elsewhere, I looked but did not find anything.

In 2005 when Sony installed some hateful software on my PC without asking I was *really* annoyed at them ( I’d told my boyfriend that I’d copy Celine Dion’s On ne Change Pas for him and everything). I mean – I was furious!

Seven years later I have forgiven them (I’m embarrassed to say that the ‘anger’ and ‘bargaining’ stages of my grief lasted longer than they should have) and I *love* the fact that a unique, British product is being proudly built in my beautiful Wales.

Ok you sold me, will be ordering one on monday.. i reckon the government should buy a bulk of these for teaching in schools and to support uk manufacturing.

Go Team GB! :-)

Thanks for bringing the manufacturing back home, thanks for keeping the faith on that score.

Who knows, we may be able to generate interest in building things again

YES WE CAN ! :-)

Amazing. Super impressed with this! I was going to buy one for my self but in a totally out of character patriotic reaction I might well buy a few as gifts.

This is absolutely fantastic.
Congratulations!

That may be a good excuse to buy another – so I get one with made in UK on it.

I see 2 mounting holes, yesss. Pi stack.

This is brilliant work!. Congratulations on being able to manufacture outside of China. It’s very refreshing to see some production moving back to countries like the UK, I hope you manage to set a trend and inspire more companies to do the same. I am looking forward to ordering my second, improved pi made in the UK.

Indeed. I hope this sets a precedent. I’m sure we are among many with the same hopes.

haha, I was so p___ed-off when you outsourced, and now I’m un-p___ed-off.

Wow! I mean I am sure nobody meant it that way (at least I hope so) but a lot of these comments have a really racist undertone. I mean what you are basically saying is: “Thank god machines in the UK are now doing the job of poor people in China.” Because be realistic: The only reason they can produce in UK is because a machine does the job and not a human.

Well done folks, I’m following you since mid 2011 and I’m really happy for you and your staff, I know you’re achieving this results since there. I’m not an UK citizen or UK resident but I’m really glad you did it, this is a great day for UK and in a small factor for a great day for EU as well. I hope you’ll be a concrete example for other european projects and manufacturers, this is a tangible example about how “real” economy should work. You think it, you produce it, you sell it

Great Job
Thumbs up !

Ben

Hurray for “Made in the UK”!

“Make In the UK” has to be one of the most heart-warming news items that I have read recently! Dizzingly fantastic achievement and a boost for UK manufacturing, innovation, demonstration of excellence outside of London-centric UK. Mindsets. Will. Be. Changed. Much much love folks! (from a RaspberryPi v1 owner).

Glad to see that you are able to do your manufacturing in your home country. It always fills me with a warm fuzzy feeling to buy something that says “Made in the USA” and Im sure folks in the UK feel the same way. Nothing wrong with a little national pride, right?Besides, I’ll sleep better knowing my Pi was not made by an overworked Chinese kid that should be in school. Lets just hope Apple doesnt sue you… you know… they use a friut as an icon… you use a fruit… thats probably patent infringement in their eyes. ;)

Here in the Philippines, if you got something stamped with the words “Made in the U.S, UK, or EU” it will be highly regarded because of the degree of craftsmanship beckons it. Plus, bragging rights.
Lucky for me–and for everybody else who are patrons of Raspi, we get superior craftsmanship at the same cost. Hallelujah!

Is it possible to know when the UK boards will be available to the Canadian market? specifically from http://canada.newark.com/ ?
Is it possible to request the new board?

Congratulations to you all. Although I’m not based in the UK (I’m in the US), it’s great to see Western technology companies bring their production home. These are strategic industries that must be fostered at home as much as possible.

Got my Raspberry Pi kit from Maplin this morning. Its the old board
:(

read through this thread http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=8591 as long as your comfortable with a soldering and voiding your warranty then you can easily make a board a rev2 board ;-)

Thanks Abishur, I’ll make use of that.

“The Raspberry Pi is a British enterprise, and as well as improving things in the computing industry’s future here by educating kids, we wanted to improve things in the present too, by actually doing our manufacture here in the UK”

Fantastic news. Not just the news but the fact that we’re able to take this attitude. I don’t think Germans, French or Americans have a problem with having a preference for buying things built in their own countries (does anyone?) Dare I say some of them see it as a kind of ‘duty’.

We need to do the same. Too often if you talk patriotically, or about doing something for your country in the UK, people either stop listening, or worse start on about ‘imperialism’ or ‘xenophobia’.

It is neither. Patriotism is a natural thing that binds us together, and has nothing to do with nastier shades of nationalism like the BNP etc (to link the 2 is a great mistake). It’s also something we will need very much. Whether our future is as a part of Europe, as a United Kingdom, or as a separate England/Scotland/etc we need to a) feed ourselves and our kids, and b) preserve the parts of our way of life that we hold dear…no one else will do this for us.

Bit of a tirade, but there you go :) Well done. What a success story this is!

Ich habe nun meinen RS-RaspberryPi erhalten. Ein gutes Stück Made in UK :-)
Thanks to the Foundation and to Liz for info-updates.

Thank you so much for choosing to ethically source and for bringing production to Wales you are an inspiration to others that is badly needed.

We want set a Raspberrrrry,s montaige plant in Radzyn Podlaski in Poland Pleazzzzzzzze ,,)

My first pi has the “made in UK” on it, when I first got it October, it was the first 512MB pi.
But after a month, I order my second pi, and I got the “made in China” pi. Something wrong with this?

RS make all their boards in China, Farnell make MOST of their boards in the UK, but demand has meant some Chinese manufacture as well.

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