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TEN BUCKS! TEN FREAKIN’ BUCKS! Zero W aftermath

Tuesday saw the launch of our brand-new $10 Raspberry Pi Zero W, the next step in the evolution of our tiniest computer, now equipped with wireless LAN and Bluetooth.

As we hoped, the Zero W was very well received, with units flying off the virtual shelves of our official distributors.

By close of business on launch day, Zero Ws were winging their way to tens of thousands of excited makers, all eager to retrofit their existing Zero projects, or find new ways to build with the updated tech.

Facebook Raspberry Pi Zero W

We wanted to highlight some of the best responses we’ve received over the last few days: a mix of tweets, status updates and videos that made us smile.

Andy definitely wins the prize for most excitable launch day video. His enthusiasm is infectious!

Pi Borg wasted no time in fitting the Zero W into one of their Pololu kits. We’re looking forward to seeing it in action at the Big Birthday Weekend on Saturday.

Raspberry Pi Foundation CEO Philip Colligan took the Zero W along with him yesterday when he joined the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to help launch the UK Government’s Digital Strategy.

And there’s always an eruption of excitement from the Comms team when Wil jumps on board!

We also saw some brilliant launch videos from members of our community.

We even became a Twitter Moment which, for many of us avid Tweeters, was kinda a big deal. Plus, well… pizza.

And we were trending!

All in all, a great fifth birthday launch day was had by all.

If you ordered a Pi Zero W, make sure you share your projects with us across all social media or in the comments below. We can’t wait to see what you get up to with our newborn bundle of joy!

 

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36 comments

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Mine got dropped off by the postman about 10 minutes ago!

Hoping to use it to upgrade my PiZero bot (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ops2zvhdac) before Saturday’s Birthday fun, however still waiting on one more item to get delivered and its not been marked as shipped yet :(

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That’s the perfect RPi for my next project. A smart thermostat mounted in a standard wall box and of course also controllable via web interface.

Pi Zero W is on its way to me and should arrive within few days.

The project is already started with a standard Pi Zero with wifi dongle, but there is still nothing on my blog about it for now…

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I managed to miss the boat on this one :( Ah well, I’ve got a few projects lined up, and I’ll get one ordered now lol

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It took me over a year to get the first version of a Zero, and that was without Wheaton groupies buying up all the inventory. WHEATON!!!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUWXjs2jPQI

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I have one on order, but in the meantime I have a question. What if anything is happening with the original Pi Zero? will it stay in production or is the W going to replace it?

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It stays in production, there is a new production line for the PI Zero W, this will hopefully also alleviate the availability problem.

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Thanks for the quick answer.

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Hi, I have the same doubt, because I have been unable to find any original Pi Zero in stock to buy: I have been checking daily in Adafruit, Pirmoroni, the Pi Hut and Mod My Pi. No one have any to sell from wednesday up to today…
I want to try a cluster of 7 o 8 Zero, but I’m only have 2 already.
Does anyone have any advice or information about availability (at US$ 5-6 price range)?

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Add CanaKit to the places you check. On Tuesday, they still had Pi0 in stock (as well as Pi0W). They won’t let you buy one of each at the same time, though, and their shipping rates are on the high side.

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Hello, I have the same doubt, because I have been unable to find an original Pi Zero in stock to buy: I have been checking daily Adafruit, Pirmoroni, Pi Hut and Mod My Pi. No one has any to sell from Wednesday to today …
I want to try clustering of 7 or 8 Zero, but I only have 2.
Does anyone have any advice or information about availability plans (at us$ 5-6 price range)?

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I noticed the lack of Pi0s recently and suspected that Something Was Up, but not what actually was up. I was anticipating that production time was being eaten up by making the initial supply of Pi3As. So I may have been correct as to what was going on, but not which product was eating up the manufacturing capacity.

It all makes one wonder just how many Pis could be sold in the different models if only enough could be made. Aka “Where is the top?” Does make me glad that I’m not the one in charge of setting production schedules…

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Can’t wait to get mine in the mail! We’ve been implementing microclimate monitoring at the Watershed Management Group Living Lab and the Pi Zero W will be perfect for solar-powered sensors that can display collected data via the web.

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Pions, you dun it again :)

Love the zero w. It will be running a smart doorbell + camera here Real Soon Now(tm).

PS I have the w; it’s the time that’s the problem

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Mine just arrived, downloading latest Raspbian now then tinkering time. Case looks great too.

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Hi !
Please remember that we still need possible best video driver, so please,please make some speedups in software..
( there are people with rpi model A &256MB ram, that don’t want to throw away their rpi)
Generally – congratulations on Very GOOD JOB !

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Just for security reasons, is there any jumper to disable the WiFi/BT Chip?

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No, but you can use rfkill to disable it in software – that’s what the “Turn off wifi / Bluetooth” options on the taskbar do.

If you really want to disable the wireless connectivity, you’d be better off buying a Zero without the W; they’ll probably be easier to buy once Ws get into the distribution channels as well.

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and insert the appropriate module name into modules blacklist, so it won’t load at boot.

If you are paranoid, delete the kernel module, but upon next update, it may reappear.

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and BT can also be disabled by setting serial port function on header – i.e. rerouting the serial port from BT to an onboard pin header. It works for RPI3B, I don’t know pin mappings for 0W. But it may also be beneficial. Also disable the service for BT – I see it as
[ + ] bluetooth

when I list services with

service –status-all

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Mine arrived – thanks to The Pi Hut. Not sure what to use this Pi for yet – maybe a universal infrared remote control :)

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Adding wireless makes a huge difference to what can be achieved. I’ve replaced my Pi Zero to provide an IoT Bow Tie.

https://twitter.com/stewartwatkiss/status/837270929856135169

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Well, I can get pizza delivered here for 5 bucks but still this is amazing, congratulations :-) Got one Zero W in mail ordered from Pimoroni, the only one that has cheap EU shipping and delivers to CZ :-)

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My first PI Zero W arrived on Wednesday. Yesterday I gave up waiting for the new case and put the latest version of Raspbian in. Installation was as simple as previous Pis with Raspbian/Pixel.

I’ve now got it running a wireless Mimic Panel on a computer monitor for an amateur exhibition model railway (using JMRI).

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My 0W arrived this morning so, as per tradition, I’ve X-Rayed it and posted the image on the Raspberry Pi Flickr group. The Zero W is revealed in all its glory at
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ultrapurple/33224746775/in/pool-1884120@N23/

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The MagPi used to give out a Pi Zero with a 6 month Subscription. Now it appears they are only handing out Zero Ms with a 12 Month subscription..

Has the 6 Month bonus stopped totally?

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I think one of the huge successful additions is the case as well! Great job including the three lids, and the camera cable! It would be fantastic if you could do the same thing for the Pi3 case too. Another great product folks and cannot wait for mine to arrive!

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Perfect. Finally a Zero-based music workstation without requiring a USB hub. Bluetooth keyboard / mouse, MIDI keys over single USB port, audio out via IQaudIO DAC. Brilliant.

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10$ …funny that the German site charges 13-14 euros in tranportation ends up more like 25 euros

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Got mine in the post yesterday – great service from the PiHut.

First question – what is the connector on the back side of the board for, the connector that is next to the FC CE logos?

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its a JTAG connector for testing the internals of the SoC during development, its not something a normal user has any use for.

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Thanks for that – it’s what I was suspecting, but was alo hoping that some form of ‘hardware easter egg’ might also have been present.
As I am now running virtually all of my Pi’s at the end of a PoE connection, some for of hard-wired Ethernet port might have made the Zero series even more useful than it already is. Not a problem though, I can still see solutions with ‘local’ Wi-Fi serving multiple Zero-W’s almost on a ‘room-by-room’ (or at least a zone-by-zone) basis.

Cheers,
Niall

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Until I can order 20 to 25 at one time for a class, they simply DO NOT EXIST. This one per shipment situation with Pi Zero has gone on for over a year. It only makes the shippers rich. So has the price gouging on the rest of the products. When do you plan to make enough? You may not be able to… I could use three or four “W”s a month just on home projects. You have this “free with the magazine subscription” concept backwards. Let me subscribe to 3 “Pi Zero W”s a month and through in the magazine free.

Sorry for the rant, just build more.

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Did you manage to break out the fm pin this time?

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Got ours Friday… quickly reconfigured all are projects that used the standard Zero to Zero W SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better… Dang need more W’s….. YOUR GITS for releasing this sexy little minx!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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shame they dropped the free zero(standard) for 6 month subscribtions :-( was a great deal

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Really hard to find in Australia… No impossible..

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