Zero grows a camera connector

The gift that keeps on giving. Thanks guys!!

We discussed this with Eben on the latest episode of The Pi Podcast. You can listen here:

http://thepipodcast.com/the-pi-podcast-22-eben-upton/

Wooo!

pimoroni still has the one pi zero per customer limit :-(

Amazing work as ever folks :)

I think it opens up a whole new range of project possibilities. Great move.
I managed to do a quick walkaround video here, showing camera in action too…

https://youtu.be/kpoqxVJ_X2Y

Time to upgrade my PiZero bot with a camera then!

Just need to work out how to squeeze on WiFi as well…

Echo the wifi!

Fantastic – now every Pi model has CSI camera

So is it the same connector as the compute module io board ?

I.e. can we use the ioboard adaptors and new cable interchangably ?

AWESOME

Best upgrade ever!

It’s a bit of a bummer that the adapter for the ‘new’ camera connector is as expensive as the zero itself …

Don’t think of it that the cable is expensive, but that the PiZero is so cheap. Mice and keyboards can certainly be more than $5/£4….
Texy

Having designed a few flex cables myself, custom parts were *surprisingly* expensive in small quantity. I’ve never done a large quantity, but if it’s possible to make it cheaper in whatever qty the market demands, no doubt that will eventually happen. Oh yes- the one cheaper flex vendors we tried had poor mechanical tolerance control, causing the cable to be unreliable in the fine-pitch socket.

so does the new zero come with the camera cable for all of us that already have camera boards, and does it work with the old 5mp module?

You can buy the camera cable separately e.g. https://shop.pimoroni.com/collections/pi-zero/products/camera-cable-raspberry-pi-zero-edition
Can’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work with the original camera.

It would double the price for the zero and people without the camera would get a cable they don’t require. So no, it does not come with the camera adapter cable ;-)
Texy

I just ordered a pi_zero with the camera and special cable from adafruit. Almost 50 dollars shipped for the set. About the same as an A+ with the standard camera set up. I ordered it just because but I doubt I’ll be using the zeros for camera work unless I really need the small size. Another benefit for the A+ as a camera set up is that you can easily and cheaply get various lengths of cables for the A+.

Nice one :)

You RPi guys and gals are superb as always. Thanks @all involved.

Fantastic – same price too.
Camera adapter cable is £4, FYI

Texy

I’d love to connect two cameras to the Pi and fire them simultaneously. I could build my own stereo camera then!

What about removing limit for 1 piece per customer? If you make as much as people want it, then it should be possible to buy more. Especially when delivery costs as much as pi zero

Yeah i totally agree. If I buy them at a local shop they cost about 30€ for the pi zero. And shipping costs a fortune if I only buy one.
So PLEASE remove the 1 unit per customer rule.

Blog post: http://blog.pimoroni.com/the-new-raspberry-pi-zero/
BilgeTank special: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLtSLrct7rE
Zero Stuffs: https://shop.pimoroni.com/collections/pi-zero

Orders coming in about twice the rate of the last batch of Pi Zero, so demand is still, predictably, huge. One order approx every 3 secs :O

So…many…projects :D

Well, in my case, when I get them I try to lose them :p

Perfect addition :) would have loved a emmc, but the camera was my second choice

This will be perfect for monitoring my bee hive. I just need to decide how I’m going to do both WiFi and microphone

I use one of these with my zero and it copes with a mic or a keyboard attached, as well as giving wifi without any extra power connected https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/usb-hub-and-wi-fi-adaptor

The camera connector was a totally unexpected feature, for me. I thought it would be analog sound holes.

Me too, there was a lack of analog sound outputs. i know gpio thing but also know it’s sucks.
if there is a analog video there should be analog sound right?

Uses the same micro camera connector as the compute module io board.

Can we use them interchangeably?

I.e. compute module camera adaptors with this,
and the new cable on compute module ?

I’d like to know this too ;-)

I compared the high-res FFC image above with the schematic in https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/computemodule/designfiles.md and they _appear_ to be compatible, with the exception that pins 13, 16 & 19 (on the Pi-end of the cable) possibly aren’t grounded whereas they are on the Compute Module Camera Adaptor?

They appear to be the grounds for the other two (unused) lanes. In the the pi-podcast linked to in the second post above, Eben confirms that the new cable can replace the adapter board on the CMIO (& thus vice versa OK too).

wow! incredible! :)
i also thought this would be too expensive and expected analog audio solder pins.
that’s so cool! :)

As usual, the Rpi fundation surprised us ! Of course the CSI connector was hoped, but it wasn’t the cheapest modification of all guesses !
Congratulations, you’re awesome ;)

Small note : the shipping rates to France surprisingly increased from 2.5£ to 4£ at Pi Hut ! Extra staff required for this sale ? I Hope this rise is temporary.

Very nice to see the camera connector. That was just what I needed in February

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=907464#p907464

for a smaller version of my autonomous toy car!

Hi,

What about availability ? when it will be wide available. Many core Raspberry Pi eshops still are without it, or sell just one pc per customer.

Thank you for extremely good job you are doing, but we need also the devices to use them ;-)

My Warmest Regards
Ioannis

http://www.pimodules.com

When we get to a point where demand isn’t so *completely* mental we’ll relax that.

Hi,
Are you planning to start distribution also from other big channels like the Farnell as also the ModMyPi, or you will stay only with the already existing.
We have finished series of new products supporting this superb device and looking to buy large number of them. We are working with Farnell and ModMyPi, but they haven’t stock. Is it possible to buy directly from you? However I would preferred to buy from them.

What is the distribution channel you are planning to setup. You will sell not hundred of thousands, you will sell thousands of thousands.

I love Raspberry Pi 1,2,3; but they are computers and not strictly embedded.
I’m embedded man; and Zero, seems has been designed for me ;-)

Thank you in Advance
With My Warmest Regards
Ioannis
http://www.pimodules.com

From what has been posted earlier, distribution is not the issue, it is production, and they are being produced by RPiF instead of the big boys because (I assume) the big boys are not interested in the miniscule profits to be made on such thin margins. I believe unlikely to change, unless price goes up.

You guys are under some misguided belief that the demand for zeros would level off any day now. How many times does the market have to prove you wrong?

The zeros are so awesome and cheap, that people would keep buying them for new things. With the “big” Pi you can try and re-use one module for several project. With the zero it is cheaper to get a new one (except you can’t).

Please make 10x more.

I not so humbly submit that the manufacturing of the Pi zeros has become a bit of a cluster you-know-what. There’s been enough time to turn this around now. Inventory surplus worries surely can’t be a factor given the number of other Pis you sell. Love you guys but you’ve got to sort it out.

Neither PIMORONI nor the Pi-Hut will sell me the Pi Zero unless I spend lots of money buying extras I already have or don’t need. When will we be able to buy a Pi Zero for £4 (plus p&p)?

on the Pi Hut site, if you click on option a drop down will appear and you can select just the zero on its own.

I just did it :)

The new zero works a treat. Can’t wait for my camera adaptor to arrive. Another outstanding product – thanks again for all you’ve done!

Great stuff. My HAB friend down here in the South of France is “over the moon” (*sorry*). Definitely great news for his next flight. And so many other uses & projects. Glad there seems much more stock too for now. Looking forward to the day when production can meet (huge) demand.

My reason for flying this thing today isn’t to help sell more Zeroes (they don’t need my help!) but to test out the new Pi In The Sky board – Zero form factor and with RTTY and LoRa radios on the same board.

Funnily enough my mate Fab4Space said that the PITS/Lora board is exactly what I would need if I was interested in doing a flight as well as helping with his. I know he’s got it in mind for Constellation 2. According to him, I might not even need the HAM/amateur radio licence to use certain of the frequency/bands here. Think I fancy becoming an “OM” regardless anyway =o) 73s

The best SBC has just got insanely better! I am still staggered that this is possible!

The team has richly earned their place in maker heaven. :-D

Ordered 3 pi zeros from 3 different stores ?

It isn’t needed. It was enough to make three distinct orders from the same store.

However:
Adafruit: sold out (even kits)
Pimoroni: only 20 (pi zero only)

Good job! :D

Not so, Pimorini at least have said they check for and cancel multiple orders.

Sheer Dumb Luck occasionally smiles on those who deserve it..
Great work guys.

Excellent , just what I asked for !!

unable to order from Romania. Pimoroni: Out of Stock, PiHut doesn’t ship to Romania…

Any chance of an addition of some unmentioned audio output on the GPIO as well this pass? *fingers crossed*

I’m sure if they’d added any other ‘extra features’ they’d have mentioned them.

In the meantime, take a look at https://learn.adafruit.com/adding-basic-audio-ouput-to-raspberry-pi-zero/overview

Like other commenters, I’m amazed they managed to add on a camera connector too, and keep the PiZero at the same low price!

Builtin wifi would be usefull.

Lots of extra would be useful, but wait – there is the Pi3 for those applications ;-)
Texy

Not really – as I tweeted some time ago, for IoT WiFi (or possibly blue-tooth) is really important.

Too bad that all vendors do not ship to southern Europe citing “poor postage services” when Portugal and Spain have some of the best public postage services. So our only choice is to buy localy from the extremely overpriced “official importers”

I wonder why only the big raspberry pi European sellers say so, do those “official importers” have the monopoly?

Nice! I want to get one. :) still haven’t been able to get one.

Woot!!! Was hoping for a camera port but wasn’t holding my breath as it would add to the cost. Now if I can just manage to buy one before they are all sold out.

Single Pi Zeros are already sold out (I checked as soon as I could this morning), so *that* aspect of it hasn’t changed a bit.

The Pi Hut does not ship to Greece.
Pimoroni will ship to Greece, alas only via UPS Standard, just £17.99.
So…

I think that the Hubpixed and HubPiWi should still work with this camera since the Test pin locations are not changed.

When will Pi zero arrive in India!!!!

I have two zeros already, but I forgot what was there before the camera port.

Where can I get a “GPS+RTTY+LoRa radio board”?

Right now, you can’t, as it’s a new product and today was its first flight. Once we’re happy (and it worked perfectly today) production will start. It’ll be a few weeks before they’re on sale.

Hi,

great news, thanks !
and if I ask for 30 PI0 kits for my school (at least), when will you be able to provide this ?

Cheers

Philippe

You say that you “we’ll be making thousands more each day until demand is met” – does that mean that it is to be expected that the Zero can be bought in quantities in the future?

And a little OT – the B+ is out of stock for the next two months, both at RS and Farnell – is there an intend to discontinue the B+?

Albeit the model 3 is great, and with much more processing power, it is also overkill for at lot of applications and uses much more power than the B+, so I do really hope that the B+ will still will be produced, or replaced by another low-power version (however I see no future for the model 2).

The Pi Zero actually uses the exact same processor and memory as the B+. The only difference in power is that the Pi B+ was clocked at 700MhZ, whereas the Pi Zero is automatically overclocked on the B+’s “Turbo” setting, or 1GhZ. So if you overclock the B+, you have a Pi Zero essentially, but with more connectors and larger size. This also means that if the B+ gets discontinued (possible), the Pi Zero is like a miniature version of the B+, and it is cheaper.

Is the B+ being discontinued? Eben Upton, co-creator Raspberry Pi, said that as long as people keep buying them, they will never discontinue a product if they can help it. This means that as long as people keeping buying the B+, they will still make the B+. Otherwise, if almost nobody buys it, they will discontinue it.

As for the Pi 2, there is not that much roadmap left for it. At least the co-creator believes the Pi 3 will have a much longer shelf life than Pi 2.

Yes, the Pi 3 is overkill for many things. If low power is necessary, that is a problem. However, Eben has said that a Pi 3 Model A (low-power version) is in the works. We will have to wait and see what Pi3A brings. I personally enjoy an overkill processor. Its $35, so if power isn’t a concern, do it! Especially for the wireless.

“This also means that if the B+ gets discontinued (possible), the Pi Zero is like a miniature version of the B+, and it is cheaper.”

First of all, it is not available, and especially not in quantities!

Secondly, it is two completely different products, as it is not only about the processor, but also the peripherals – in many situations Ethernet and at least two USB ports is a necessity.

“Otherwise, if almost nobody buys it, they will discontinue it.”

Hen or egg?
If it is out of stock for a long period, people have to buy alternatives, thus leading to the conclusion nobody buys it.

” Its $35, so if power isn’t a concern, do it! Especially for the wireless.”

Again, power is a concern, there is no need for burning a couple of watts for a unit that mostly is idling.

And normally a model with the suffix A indicates no Ethernet, thus giving a problem – WiFi is not always (or rather in many situations so definitely NOT) the answer – but a piggy board or hat, with Ethernet (for the Zero also) would be smart.

Idle current required would remain same or would it increase?
I am planning a PiZero with some temperature sensor and LCD display… all powered AA batteries. Need to make sure setup needs low current. I don’t care about camera port.

This is just plain brilliant! I cannot wait for Pi 3 A, and especially a Pi 4…

I know that you have said time and again that Arduino and Raspberry Pi have different use cases. I agree, but if the Pi keeps accelerating at this rate, the Arduino is (at least somewhat) toast. Obviously, open-source fans will still be on Arduino, but still…

Don’t write off the Arduino & variants. Almost everything I do with those (mostly the PJRC.com “Teensy” that I think of as Arduino++) relies on deterministic timing for the I/O. I think that could be done with RPi Zero IF you don’t use Linux, but still has no analog A/D inputs, not as many PWM, not as low power, etc.

Eben, you do not disappoint! This was high on my list, but I imagined it was just a pipe dream. Thank you so much! Almost as good as a jam sandwich or a pink unicorn.

Because this looked so unlikely, I was hoping for the audio header to be available on some unpopulated pads. That would be good for later. This upgrade is awesome!

Audio out could be achieved quite easily for the documented hobbyist (tutorials exists). This is not the case of adding a CSI connector, so, I appreciate this upgrade over the audio out ;)

You can repurpose some alternative pwm pins as audio out. Watched Lady Ada’s tutorial with the filters and stuff. The thing is, it would still be nice to have the pwm’s they normally use in the standard kernel so the gpio pwm’s are still available. Yes, the csi is better, but I was sure rerouting all those lines to a connector would be too much for such a quick upgrade.
really outdid yourselves.

totally agree!

I must congratulate the Foundation on managing to keep it a secret until launch :)

You didn’t tell the whole truth in https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/another-update-raspbian/

I’m willing to bet that Raspbian & NOOBS update was done to support the Zero+.

Well done on listening to the users and adding something that lots of folks answered. The burning question is whether I can wangle a Zero+ past the household finance director.

I’m willing to bet that Raspbian & NOOBS update was done to support the Zero+.

Sorry, Dougie, but you’re wrong – the code to support the Zero+ was quietly snuck out in a previous release! (I’m not saying which one…) This one was genuinely all about the Bluetooth.

Ah, so it is called the Zero+?
Or is it called Pi Zero Version 1.3?
Or some of my other suggestions in a comment below?

I was just quoting what Dougie had called it – don’t read anything official into that! Me, I’ve got no idea what we’re calling it – hardware’s not my department… ;)

There’s a single entry in dt-blob.dts configuring both revs 1.2 & 1.3 (labelled pins_pi0), so I guess it’s just a Zero, as per the blog post title.

“There’s a single entry in dt-blob.dts configuring both revs 1.2 & 1.3”

Hmmm, I wonder if that needs updating to hve a pi0 1.3 section, covering the camera details? (e.g. NUM_CAMERAS is no longer 0)

Please also add builtin wifi capability.

Any idea when can we get this in India?

We desperately need to build a few low cost camera traps to nab the poachers who have been stealing our more expensive all weather ones from the wildlife sanctuary where we want to study the undocumented species like Ratel, and hopefully the return of tigers.

What is the official name for this to compare with the old Pi Zeros? Is it the Pi Zero+, the Pi Zero version 1.3, Pi Zero (with Camera Connector), the Newer Pi Zero?

Pi Zero Retina anyone?

PI Zero revision 1.3.
Revision 1.2 was the older (first) version.
Its the only naming difference, and it is printed on the back.

All I have to say is TOTALLY AWESOME!!!!!

This is what I need and have been hoping for – you guys completely listen to your customers.
Now off to fight with the million other users to get some Zeros into my hands!

In the photo above of the high altitude ballooning (HAB) controller it shows 3 AA batteries (4.5V). Is it possible to run the Raspberry Pi Zero (with camera) off 4.5V? Also, it would be interesting to know the expected battery life for this application.

The HAB board has its own switching regulator, accepting 2 or 3 AAs and delivering 5V to the Pi.

I have done tests with the Pi Zero running at low voltages, and it can run down to about 3V in, so yes 3 AAs direct should be fine. You’d need to try it as any peripherals may have more strict voltage requirements.

Thanks for the feedback,

Can you share with us the project electrical design or at least the power switching regulator used for the HAL project. And a power consumption report would be really helpful. The RP zero does not have a cpu sleep capability correct?

Regards
Jim

Wow, those dummy security cameras will have plenty of room with one of these in them…

Let the hacking commence :-)

Do any of the apparently unused csi connector pins carry any signals?

I wouldn’t mind the one per customer if only I could get my hands on one.the only way to buy one is again with all the adaptors etc that I don’t need.
Looking forward to availability of the £4.00 version

Both Pimoroni and PiHut have stock, but only if you purchase one of their various ‘kits’. This is profiteering, if the have stock of the Pi Zero’s they should be selling them on their own. Can the Foundation please discuss this with their recommended retailers.

I came to the comments to point that out. I think it is not in the spirit to reserve some for the “kit forn”

You can buy just the Pi Zero for £4 by selecting the product drop-down (on the Pimoroni) page.
Regular stock available so check every week.

Tried that before I posted, they were out of stock.

Sign up for the newsletter and take your ‘lunch break’ at 9am, though there was stock for a few hours this time.

Some time ago (forgot which model) the audio out was ‘cleaned up’ (Thanks!). This made it better for driving a Ham/Amateur Radio rig, since most digi-stuff (and the likes of Echolink RF ports) is done at audio. Also, being Stereo, two separate (mono) streams are possible. The main block to more extensive use of Pi/variants in this field (read: market) has been lack of audio _IN_. Is there any way this can be done? I know: USB dongles. But they’re bulky/messy/power-hungry/port-hogs, and their output(s) are either redundant or sideline the Pi’s. Failing on-board, has anyone any other more elegant avenues?

Is this what you are looking for?

http://cpc.farnell.com/1/1/200026-wolfson-microelectronics-cirrus-logic-audio-card-rpi-a-b.html

I’ve had this working on a Pi Zero, and Pi2B and better still with a Pi3B :-)

http://pibat.afraidofsunlight.co.uk/

I would LOVE it if a ‘Pi Zero +” would bring out ALL of the BCM2835’s pins, so when we embed this $5 wonder, we’ll have plenty of IOs to use. I think the way to do this is bring the pins to a card-edge connector with high-density pinout, e.g. DRAM connector as used in a laptop. THEN one could provide a simple adaptor from ALL pins to the 40 used on the Pi for adaptor boards (if folks wanted that).

Clearly, being able to have Camera and Display pins, as well as the others, greatly enhances the range of projects we can build with the “Pi0+” without increasing cost.

Something like a Compute Module, perhaps?

Like this: https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/compute-module/

I would like to see the camera adaptor cable done the other way ’round: Keep the WIDE end near the camera, and within the first cm or so, transition to the more-narrow spacing of the new connector.

Thank you.

I would expect they will do that eventually because (at least in volume) the price is proportional to the area, so it is less expensive to manufacture that way.

Would the “thinner” parts of the cable being longer, mean more cable resistance though? *shrug*

The image on the Products page is old.

Liz / Eben:

What a great update to the PI Zero! Really looking forward to trying it out.

I put together http://stockalert.alexellis.io as a learning exercise to show the whereabouts and stock levels of the PI Zeros in the UK. It uses a cache so that it always gives an instant response and is kind to the webstores.. open sourced too.

Do you plan to supply additional other shops/stores in the UK?

whereismypizero.com is also very useful, but doesn’t feature stock levels.

So the differences with stockalert.alexellis.io are:
– it’s fully open source
– is careful and polite when scraping – it won’t scrape an endpoint more than once per minute
– pulls stock levels (as you mentioned)
– easily extensible to send emails etc
– takes < 1 second to update stock not 3-8 seconds

If you want to try it – it just needs two commands – git pull and docker-compose up. Or check out the technical deep dive for all the details on how it works:

http://blog.alexellis.io/rapid-prototype-docker-compose/

Just want to know when Pi 3 Model A will be out.

And its name shall be Cyclops…

Still havent met demand for the first Pi Zero.I’m still trying to get one for less than $200!!
I would have also thought WiFi or Bluetooth would have been a higher demand addition.

Adding those would increase the price a LOT. So not possible to do.

Surprising as the Pi 3 has both WiFi and bluetooth on board without price increase.

if the cpu of zero can be replaced with bcm2836,i will buy a lot more! the old arm11 chip is pretty low these days.

2836 costs more, price point would change. Negating purpose of Zero.

I know you like cameras, but ethernet on the motherboard would also be quite cool. Even more so if the connector allowed Pis to be plugged directly into an ethernet switch without cables and side by side. Just imagine a Beowulf cluster of Pi Zeros.

EWr, A zero with ethernet is a Pi3. Just get one of those. Much more power cores on the SoC and more memory as a bonus!

Id would be more correct to say that it is a B+!

But read my other comments regarding my concern of the power consumption (and the availability of the B+).

Just do it using wifi. Ethernet wouldn’t be good for pi zero as it takes a lot of space. Zero is great beacause it is small and you can make some wearables with it. With ethernet port it wouldn’t be useful for that kind of projects. I agree with people who say that jack audio output would be also great. But hey! It is great as it is and just for 5$. Hack it to make it work

You forget that EMC testing an inbuilt WiFi adapter is enormously expensive, (so not possible) and that the SoC has to stay exactly the same, and also the available GPIO’s, which means that adding an off the shelf WiFi module isn’t possible either. Just add your own low cost WiFi module (or Ethernet module) to the GPIO.

And yet the Pi 3 has both WiFi and Bluetooth onboard and adding an external WiFi adapter is bulky (including cable, unless they come with micro-USB connector these days) and costs more than the Zero.

Why not just double the price? You can spend the extra $5 on a house made of gold, or a rocket-car.

The RPF will never increase the price.
They can make it for just under $5, so they are selling it for $5.
Its what the RPF has as goal, to sell it for as low a price as possible. And to make as many as possible without going bankrupt in the process.

Although I am very impressed by the Zero, I believe it kind of invalidates the price point of the CM. I mean all the extra ports on the Pi0 for 5$, compared to CM for ~ 30$. Shall we expect a price drop on the new CM3 or is it strategic pricing so that someone could not build a competing product to the RasPi using the CM?

Seriously, when will the 1 RasPi Zero per order FINALLY be lifted???

You guys keep coming up with great products and then availability on some of the spoils all the fun!

I’ve been waiting for for months (basically since Christmas) for a chance to buy several Zeros for my home automation / home security project. Now you’ve added the camera connector, which will make security cams based on the Zero instead of the B+ the cost-effective way to go. This only increases my need for several Zeros (now at least 5) and not just one. Ordering just one at a time is not an option if you have to pay about as much for shipping to Germany as for the Zero itself.

Shipping is out of the Foundation remit (but to transport something for 2000 miles to your doorstep, and you think $5 is excessive?), and Zero’s are being made as fast as possible. Not sure what else can be done.

First off, southern UK to the Rhein-Main Area of Germany is more like 650 km (about 400 miles)

Secondly, of course $5 for shipping is not excessive, but $25 is. If I wanted to get 5 Zeros, I’d have to place 5 separate orders!

What could be done, is outsourcing production to someone who can crank out a decent number of units at a decent quality. Considering the huge demand, ordering a batch of say half a million Zeros would be minimal risk to the Foundation and it would bring manufacturing cost down considerably.

Have a listen to the Pi PodCast with Eben and you might hear him suggest that the bulk sourcing option is/was being explored but the sourcing and production is costly, so as I understand it the margins are (very) thin. They’ve automated testing so some costs were taken out, but camera connected has added some back; swings and roundabouts.

Don’t forget it’s one order per supplier per batch :-)

I listened to the podcast when it first came out. But now that it’s obvious that demand is much higher than the Foundation ever expected, they should revisit this decision, ’cause higher production volume means lower per unit production cost.

“Seriously, when will the 1 RasPi Zero per order FINALLY be lifted???”

When demand and supply reach a balance.
That is when demand stops being mental.

You know something is seriously wrong when a manufacturer is complaining about hogh demand for its products.

To everyone not happy with the kits.

I would not be surprised if they loose money when they sell just the zero on it’s own. And I would expect that if all they did all day was ship single orders of a pi zero they would see a significant drop in their revenue.

If the foundation forced them to sell the zeros as single units they would run out of suppliers very quickly. With all the bad emails these suppliers are being subjected too I am surprised that they stocking it this time round, I would not.

I expected better from the maker community. :(

A big virtual hug to all involved.

The problem is 1 Zero per order. If there were enough Zeros available, they wouldn’t have to ship single units in the first place. Many people would buy 3-5 units, some even 10+. As it is now, buying multiple Zeros is expensive (due to shipping fees) and time consuming.

After being disappointed about lack of availability, I have decided to buy no more Zeros until I can get at least 5 units (without all the accessories I already have) at a time.

“I have decided to buy no more Zeros ”
Good, now someone how does not have one has a chance to buy one.

This is not about them losing any money, there is a profit margin for them, this is about them selling ‘kits’ with a massive markup, the other components of the kits can be had on eBay, with free delivery, for a fraction of what they cost in making up the kit.

Time to look at using other suppliers who would be more than willing to shift just the Zero on it’s own.

“massive markup”? an impressive hyperbolic statement. You do know that any Chinese supplier has heavily subsidised shipping? Comparing eBay sellers with the retail market is no comparison at all.
I guess the zero suppliers should put everything in stock at once. Grind their business to a halt whilst simultaneously preventing customers who wish to by other items from do so. Over working their staff and opening themselves to a barrage of complaints because it’s physically impossible to ship their entire stock in a week let alone a day.

Good business plan you have there…..

I never buy from Chinese suppliers so your comment is not applicable, the contents of these kits are available from UK retailers who use EBay to reach their market, I don’t really believe you understand the definition of ‘retailer’.

Yes, if these suppliers want to market Zero’s then that’s what I expect them to do, if they don’t like it or don’t have the resources to cope with the demand then they don’t have to do it, there are many other suppliers that would welcome the chance to supply them.

If the Foundation got their act together and got the basic supply issue correct then this issue would not arise as a constant flow of hardware would negate this.

And the vendors are going “Oh no, customers are threatening to give us their business”

They can only afford to set these limitations because there is no competition!

How on earth do other business manage high demand for a single product e.g. on release day of a blockbuster movie or video game?

If shipping 30.000 units of a product is getting your shipping department to grind to a halt, there is something seriously wrong within your organization.

“If shipping 30.000 units of a product is getting your shipping department to grind to a halt, there is something seriously wrong within your organization”.

Yes, you are right, which is why they don’t do this! Or do you think they should employ 20 extra staff to deal with the work then make them redundant a week later when all the orders are shipped and the stock has been depleted.

Your choice, exploit people so you can get your $5 device or manage the flow of the product so that your company is not destroyed by excessive demand and upset some unreasonable people who need to learn to grow up??

Surprise!!. A lot of kits stock, but no one Pi available for single purchase. Sorry, but I will not pay (more than for the Pi itself) for something I Don’t need. I just need the Pi, so in fact it could mean I will never buy a Raspberry Pi Zero…

Spatially restricted money roll springs to mind…….

Given the high demand for pi zero,

You need to make 4 turns on the Sony factory
and add more robot arm,

before the A.I. aware and put on strike … ;)

Why is the schematic and pcb not released? Is this open-source or not?

The RPF encourages open-source software, but the boards (except the Compute Module Development Board) are not open-source. Also, it doesn’t actually make sense to open-source the Pi that much anyway. Why? The processor and many parts of the Pi are only available in bulk and are hard to soldier without very expensive tools. In other words, you couldn’t build your own Pi unless you had tons of money, factories, parts, storage, more money, etc. Few people have this, and the only ones who would use them and have the money would be competitors and counterfeit board designers, and possibly some of those ripoff companies in China. All of this would just cause harm to Raspberry Pi, so the designs aren’t open-source. It makes sense.

An example is that Broadcom, the processor company, only sells the processor in like orders of 50,000+ at least. That is just an example of one part.

I am the proud owner of a first-generation Raspberry Pi Zero.

I don’t need a camera connector to run game system emulators.

I’m really surprised that the camera is the most requested feature. I would expect Wifi to be just that.

No the most required feature is just to be able to actually purchase the Zero – but maybe the name is a chosen as a synonym for the availability.

When can we expect next shipment of zero to market(for example PiHut)? Is there schedule for next shipments?

There’s a hi-res X-Ray of the Pi Zero 1.3 at
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ultrapurple/26487109633/in/dateposted/
if anyone’s interested.

Very cool image! Nice work.

I see the text “G1MFG” positioned just below the SD card connector, is that something you overlaid on the image, or is that actually on the board (copper layer?)

Agreed, fascinating image!

“I see the text “G1MFG” positioned just below the SD card connector”

Well spotted JBeale. I strongly suspect it’s a ‘watermark’ that was manually added to the image afterwards as (a) it’s suspiciously close to the cut-out are in the corner (if it was part of the PCB, I’d expect it to be further from the edge), (b) it’s upside down when you rotate the photo to the ‘normal’ way up and (c) it’s a very different font to what you normally see used on PCBs.

….. Ah! Here’s definitive proof that it was a watermark added by the photographer http://qrz.com/db/G1MFG

Ooh, looking at his flicker page there are a bunch of other X-Ray Pi pics too :-D
Pi3B: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ultrapurple/25313223701/ (funky WiFi antenna!)

Original Zero: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ultrapurple/25263371932/

Rev1.0 ModelB: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ultrapurple/24077999706/

Thank you Giles!

I have a reasonably good understanding of supply issues, I just don’t understand why none of the sellers accept backorders. I don’t want to be notified via email and have to drop everything I’m doing in order to place my order within five minutes to purchase a Zero. I want to order one (or two) and be charged for them on the day they ship. Feels almost like a lottery to me right now. I teach full-time. “Oops, excuse me students. My phone just vibrated and I need to step over to my computer and try to place this order NOW. We’ll continue your education later.”

Correct me if I’m wrong but i think the raspberry pi zero is the #1 fastest selling computer in history right now. Beating out (based on my research) the c64 by 5000 units in the 24 hours. Great job guys, glad to finally order one with the new upgrade too.

You can in no way compare 595$ in 1982 with 4£ in 2016, it is utterly nonsens.

Also the Internet was not invented in 1982, and there was not a huge congregation waiting for the next revelation.

Is it correct that it is out of stock everywhere? After like how many days? Three?

I mean, undererstimating the demand the first time, okay, but now again?

Maybe you should call it ‘Pi Zero in Stock’ if you make another batch of 100.

Interesting to note that the copyright date on the back of the new V1.3 is 2015 not 2016, suggesting the ‘new’ design has actually been around for quite a while.

Or they just forgot to update the copyright year when doing the revisions.

Does the new Zero work with the old (v1.3) camera modules?

Yes, it does; we always try to keep everything backwards compatible.

Fantastic, thank you!

Camera connector added – perfect, thank you!
I’m happy owner of 1 piece of the first version of Pi Zero and adding camera connector is very good feature.
Analog audio output (in the same way as reset and analog video) somewhere at the PCB, is what I’m looking forward to.
It is true that one could use 2 pins from 40 pin header for analog audio (with filter), but at that point one have to redesign all previous circuits (and some of them uses all GPIO ports, so it is not possible). I hope that you will be able to find a place for analog audio output.
Thanks.

You know, I like the PiZero, I have a couple now and I can think of so many things I can use them for. What would be really really really really really really really really useful would be an additional Micro USB port, to save using Hubs. if the connector is a contributory cost that is prohibitive, at least place the pads for additional connector(s).

I am not sure if the BCM has more than one USB or if you have to add a USB controller for additional ports, if this is the case I can see why you wouldn’t do it.

All the best.

Only 1 port on the SoC. You would have to add a USB controller for additional ports, as was done on the RPi B, RPi2 B, RPi3.

Thanks for clearing that up, oh well, lets hope someone can make a USB Board for less than the cost of the current crop :)

WIll it be free on the new magpi!

What I would like and I don’t know if its possible, is a Pi Zero with built in bluetooth for ~£10. That would be really good for IoT devices placed all over your house and no wires and low power.
Any chances?

I second that, but my guess is that getting the device certified would make the Zero BLE ridiculously expensive.

On a side note: Would it be possible to include an U.FL antenna socket on the next revision of the Pi3? I’ve got 4 Pi3s and none of them is able to establish a WiFi connection to my FritzBox WLAN router over a distance of more the 10 meters! In one occasion the Pi was just on the other side of a wall (distance to the router about half a meter and a layer of bricks) and it didn’t work! The build-in WiFi antenna is really bad.

I have an EE broadband WiFi router and I am able to get a perfectly good connection to a Pi 3 (on 2.4GHz frequency) in my greenhouse over 20 metres away through a standard brick/block cavity wall. I often have my tablet in there playing internet radio and I was considering using the pi 3 for that as well.

i have not been able to buy the first version (sold out), and now you are announcing the second version with camera support.. ok thats good but, why announce a product if you cant satisfy the demand? when you go to the websites, all of them says Sold Out put email and we notify you.. i left my email in all website never received one.

Great news! This little thing gets even more attractive. Congrats to your efforts.
It fuels demand even higher above supply.
This reminds me at something which I would call the “tamagotchi effect”. The tamgotchi was a cute little gaming device in the 90ies. When it was introduced in the market, demand was so high, that in some countries the majority of would-be buyers never got one when there was the common hype and demand. Frustration turned back unluckily to the inventor.
When the pi zero was introduced. I was so excited, that I started developing board extensions in the same size. The form factor and its low power consumption made the zero my hero for the embedded world.
That was half a year ago.
Since then my hero turned into a zero, as I could not get some for testing. So I decided to choose the latest Raspi 3 as an interim testing alternative. Turned out to be not very stable in its early stage and too power consuming for my embedded needs.
So my strong wish would be that this great raspberry team would find a way to ease short supply.
Please keep on going to invent such cool devices but keep supply in mind.
Cheers
Aquila

Personally I think it is just an elaborate hoax. In all the time the zero is supposed to exist I have never seen a shop in the Netherlands actually selling the zero or met anyone that actually has one or has even seen one.

Personally, I think oliebollen are an elaborate hoax. In all this time I’ve known about them, I have never seen a shop in the UK actually selling oliebollen or met anyone that actually has one or has ever seen one.

(I’d be wrong, though, and I don’t think I’d express my conspiracy theory in public for fear that people might point and laugh at me.)

Already sold out in Europe, some resellers didn’t even had the posibility to sell only one of these! :-(

Hi Eben,

I’ve previously suggested a DIL version of the RP0 for easier breadboarding. Is there any chance it will happen?

Cheers

Olaf,

What about this :

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Raspberry-Pi-Zero-Breadboard-Adapter-/172241249508?

Nice, that would certainly help. But I still believe a DIL RP0 would be better, although I certainly understand that compatibility with the RP connector could be an issue for some.

Today I saw a tweet with a picture of a wearable Pi Zero 1.3 with camera claiming to be WiFi enabled and yet there was no sign of a WiFi adaptor. Has the Pi Zero now got on-board WiFi? I thought not from the above posts.

No, it hasn’t; I think the one you’re referring to was using a dongle.

Any chance of the Zero having a revision that has the DSI connector so that we can use it with the official Raspberry Pi Foundation touchscreen?

Seems unlikely. Why not just use an A+ ?

can I install windows in it to implement a virtual studio project in it , and who can I move the image from camera to the processor to get processing …
I want to implement a object detection project in this chip ?

Windows 10 IoT Core only runs on the Pi2 and Pi3 – see https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/

And for object-detection code you’ll also find the faster CPU in the Pi3 very useful.

And for camera-usage, see https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/usage/camera/README.md

thanks

i’d rather see dsi on pi zero

Or they could just produce a camera with a thinner ribbon cable and produce an adaptor to increase the size for earlier boards?

I’d like a new one with the camera port having bought one of the the originals… but of course it’s sold out everywhere with no mention of when they will be back in stock. Any ideas on when another batch might appear?

Got a Pi3 from RS Components and i love it to bits, Massive Headache though trying to get a pi zero in the UK, RS don’t even list them … if they actually do want to sell them though, would it be a good idea for them to let people pre-order them through their website? a big ask i know, but they do it when they run out of other stocked Pi’s. Do you have any influence on this?

RS and Farnell do not sell the Pi Zero – you need to go to The Pi Hut and Pimoroni if you’re in the UK. They get stock once a week, but Pi Zero is still very popular, so they tend to sell out after four or five hours; it’s worth signing up to their email lists.

after almost 7 months on waiting lists at the vendors sites, and having received a few “in-stock” notifications only to find that it was out of stock by the time I read the email.
Today I received another “in-stock” email from Pimoroni, tried my luck and finally managed to order one. They didn’t want to ship to Malaysia :/ So I shipped it to a friend in the UK.
You guys must be doing something right. I think the “1 pi zero per customer” policy must be helping tremendously.

I have just ordered the camera cable for the Pi Zero. I have not seen anything on how to fit it though, is it just a push friction fit to both the camera and the Zero.

To remove the original cable from the camera do I just pull it out?

You need to open the flap before inserting or removing the cable (for each end) and then close it afterwards.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/camera.md

I think there used to be a video showing how to do this on https://www.raspberrypi.org/help/ but it doesn’t seem to be there any more.

Yes, the production version of “Pi Platter” will work with the Pi Zero V1.3
Now you can have battery backup, 3 x USB, RTC and much more.

Are there updated mechanical specs available for the v1.3? I found v1.2, but now I’m looking for the camera connector accounted for in order to design a case around it.

Any change we’ll get a new https://github.com/raspberrypi/documentation/blob/master/hardware/raspberrypi/mechanical/rpi-zero-v1_2_dimensions.pdf soon?

I don’t believe that the most requested feature was a camera where the Zero lacks wifi so badly :(
True, you can connect it through USB, but a camera can be connected via USB too and I’d choose wifi over a camera any time!

I wish the Zero had 1 more micro USB port so that a USB hub is not necessary for basic operations. Otherwise, I love it.

The Zero is an incredible device for the price and the lack of a camera connector was the only thing keeping me from looking to buy one. With the connector, I have many, many uses for it.

Please rethink your decision to make Micro Center the only brick-and-mortar store in the US to carry the Raspberry Pi Zero. There are relatively few stores, and the nearest one to me and my family is 621 miles away (I live in South Florida, the nearest is in North Georgia).

To make matters worse, when we were in Atlanta recently for a homeschoolers’ conference, we stopped by a store with “10+ available” (according to their website) and found out they have a one device per household policy. My wife stopped in the next day to speak with the manager, and after she explained that she needs several for students, he tried to scalp them for $10 each (claiming it’s “company policy”)!

Between the scalping and the extreme distance, the Raspberry Pi is essentially not available to the 20 million people in Florida.

Adafruit is only an option to those who actually need the components in the bundles they sell… if you already have these components, the kits are extremely overpriced. I was on their waiting list for a month before getting the email they were available, only to find them sold out before I could click the link. That, and (now that they finally have them in stock for the very first time that I’ve seen) shipping for one (the order limit) is $8.61 for the cheapest option… the scalped items at Micro Center were actually cheaper!

This is an update to my previous comments above.

Micro Center is indeed scalping the Pi Zero, as can be seen on their webpage archived below (it’s not just the manager of the one store).

I now see why Americans see the Raspberry Pi Zero as being in a perpetual shortage while the foundation sees plenty of shipments going out… MC is hoarding them.
I called several of their stores (I’m currently 1,500 miles from home, most Americans don’t drive such distances) and every one of them has between “several hundred” and “over 600” in stock, yet they’re on sale for $0.99 each with a limit of one per customer *at that price* (silly to put something like this on sale at all, the MSRP is fantastic).

If you load the archived webpage below, or likely still the original page, for a moment you’ll see how it appeared on September 7th (yesterday as I’m posting this) which shows they’re charging $9.99 each for 2-5 and $12.99 each for 6+. This is quickly replaced with only the single unit price (the elements are hidden), but the data is still in their webpage. To see this, right-click on the price and click “inspect” (I’m using Chrome) and you’ll see the price in a DIV tag in the pane that opens… open the next two DIV tags to expose the currently hidden prices. Note that this is also what they were doing before the sale, I just hadn’t looked at their website until recently. I should have archived the page yesterday while the prices were still being shown.

Another way to see it is to simply add one to your cart, then view your cart. They still have the above prices listed in the cart (although there is no way to archive a cart since I can’t get archive.org to add an item to its cart).

Note that you cannot actually *buy* any via their web store, they only sell them in their brick-and-mortar stores where you can get more than one at the above inflated prices.

*IF* the extra money went to the Raspberry Pi Foundation, I would not have a problem with this. Unfortunately, it’s fairly obvious this is not the case and they are no better than the people scalping them on ebay (because of the fact that the vast majority of the US is not within a reasonable distance of one of the very few Micro Center stores).

Again, please reconsider your exclusive distribution with Micro Center – they only have 25 stores in a few states, and they’re obviously not the most reputable of stores if they’re scalping like this. Radio Shack (for comparison) still has >1,700 stores in every state. Best Buy has even more.

https://web.archive.org/web/20160908192247/http://www.microcenter.com/product/463189/Zero_v13_Development_Board_-_Camera_Ready

Is it possible to connect two cameras to the Pi Zero?

camera connection to the Pi Zero v1.2? is this possible?If so how?

Hi,

Will you be publishing an updated mechanical drawing for the Pi Zero (V1.3) ?

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberrypi/mechanical/README.md

Can only find still the 1.2 sans CSI;

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberrypi/mechanical/rpi-zero-v1_2_dimensions.pdf

Just picked one up at Microcenter for $.99.

Interesting to note that the copyright date on the back of the new V1.3 is 2015 not 2016, suggesting the ‘new’ design has actually been around for quite a while. Speaking of which , if your business wants a IRS 211 , my wife used a fillable form here “https://goo.gl/t0m6AM“.

You’d be amazed how long compliance testing takes!

I think that what the Pi Zero needs is a WiFi/BT module like on the Pi 3. I’m sure that it won’t add much to the price.

well, well. it “grew” a camera connector. how nice. tell me when it grows wi-fi, and i am in. until then, i stay with b+, 2 or 3

You hit the nail on the head. Cool to read such a well-considered article! Try PDFfiller to fill IRS 211 here https://goo.gl/9jCDeM It allows you to to fill out PDF files.

Cool. Personally I would have loved to be able to connect to the 7″ Touchscreen even more. Of course this would require some kind of mechanical adapter because the 0 is smaller than the 2 & 3.

Hi. I’m currently try to connect Camera Pi to Pi Zero. Failed…
Device not detect. I install UV4L driver. Device not detect. How can I connect Camera Pi and install this device to use it ? Thanks for answer.

News

Related posts

Do more with your #PiZero in The MagPi 42

Dr Who theme on a Pi Zero

Game Boy Zero

Pi Zero projects

Next Post

Le Myope - a confused camera

Previous Post

The latest update to Raspbian

Share this post

220 comments

Gosub90

mneja

fanoush

David Pride

Larry Crumet

T-PAYNE

lidrol

snzci

Texy

JBeale

Simon

Jamie

Texy

James Carroll

Texy

Paul

Paweł Jankowski

AnonymousReindeer

Dave Akerman

dan3008

Gordon Johnstone

Şeref

Mike Redrobe

AndrewS

spock

laurent

Eric Olson

JBeale

Neil

Alan Harwood

Martyn Cole

Dave Akerman

Mr Richard E Collins

Herapus

Silvio

Leo

Ken MacIver

gordon77

bogdan

Shadowbyte

AndrewS

Trevor Hattis

Texy

Les-A

Brakeline

John-Paul

W. H. Heydt

Kostas

Vikas Shukla

Manoj

solar3000

Dave Akerman

Philippe Rousselot

Christian Nobel

G S

Christian Nobel

G S

JBeale

Shannon Spurling

laurent

Shannon

shawn

Gordon77

Raspberry Pi Staff Simon Long

G S

Raspberry Pi Staff Simon Long

AndrewS

Alex Texeira