Parts for Raspberry Pi

It could be some time before I get my hands on a Raspberry Pi, but I thought that I might as well order some parts to be able to get it going.

I have purchased these:
http://www.oo.com.au/mbeat-7-Port-Powered-USB-Hub-_P21980.cfm (AU$19.95 + P&H)
http://www.oo.com.au/Micro-USB-5-Pin-to-USB-Cable-_P113935.cfm
http://www.oo.com.au/mbeat-Full-HD-1080p-HDMI-to-HD_P42027.cfm



The way I am intending to put it together is the USB hub will power the RasPi, via the micro-USB cable. The RasPi has a micro-USB socket that is only for 5V power. There is one other, and only one, normal USB socket, and I will connect that back to the input-USB socket on the hub.

There are cheaper powered USB hubs on the market, however as far as I could find out, the power adaptors are quite low current, for example two different 7-port hubs had 1A and 400mA 5V adaptors -- 400mA is ridiculous.

The one that I have purchased supplies 2A. It also has an Australian power plug (I think).

This gear adds up to more than the cost of the RasPi!

A note on the side: I was surprised that Farnell and RS had been chosen to sell the RasPi, as my memory of them 10+ years ago is that they are very expense. Everything has a huge markup. I looked around in the Farnell online catalog, and the big markups still seem to be the situation.

So why would those companies agree to sell the RasPi at low profit margin? Well, those guys ain't fools, and my guess is that they know that the RasPi is a barebones board, and people are going to want a lot of extra stuff to get them going.

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Comments

Ubislate 7+
Username: http://www.ubislate.com/features.html
http://www.ubislate.com/features.html For £22/£38 you get an included resistive screen and a standard USB 2x 'hub' on an A8 700 Cortex. Maybe a better initial platform for Puppy, as easier and [b]cheaper[/b], your [i]supra[/i] to expand, esp. using bog std kit?!

Cotton Candy
Username: Dougal
"Barry, this also looks interesting: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2012/02/linux-computer-the-size-of-a-thumb-drive-now-available-for-preorder.ars It has a Mali 400 GPU, for which an open driver is being developed: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTA1NjI

Puppy Py Python
Username: lobster
"New combined blog :-) all I need is an HDMI cable . . . and an ARM motherboard . . . got Debian on my SD card http://raspberrypy.tumblr.com/

Pi Mania
Username: BarryK
"Dougal, Very interesting. I came across something very similar recently. If lots of those things come on the market, and they catch on, it will be very interesting to see what happens to the price. Lobster, That's a good looking guy holding the mug :happy: [b]RasPi grumble[/b] I still maintain that a lot of RasPi owners are going to be disappointed with the slowness after they have got it going. As far as I can ascertain, all the ported distros so far are using an un-accelerated framebuffer driver for X11 rendering, which is very frustrating considering that there is a powerful GPU sitting there alongside a weak CPU. Also, how much more satisfactory it would have been if the RasPi had been designed with a Cortex A8 or A9 CPU, which have become the standard everywhere else. Then the older ARM architecture could be allowed to fade away. RasPi would then work with latest Ubuntu. Oh well. I am having a bit of a grumble here, but this is how I see the situation, so I might as well "say it". [b]Parts for RasPi[/b] I might add that I purchased the powered hub and the HDMI cable not just for the RasPi. I sometimes run out of ports on my laptop. Also, I am interested in using my new LED TV as a monitor for my laptop -- I have noticed sometimes, people reporting issues with getting an external monitor running with Puppy, so I want to check that out.

Shipping delayed
Username: Raffy
"There will be some delay in shipping the RPi because of the manufacturer's use of a wrong ethernet connector: [url=http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/781]http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/781

Powered hub very useful
Username: BarryK
"I have received my powered USB hub today, and have already put it to use -- on my laptop. My Acer 5742G laptop has a very inconvenient layout of the USB sockets. They are all on the sides, toward the front, one on the left, two on the right. The problem is, I have the mouse on the right, and it is extremely awkward to have USB cables sticking out right where my arm wants to rest. I find this so inconvenient that if I had realised beforehand, I would not have purchased this laptop. Anyway, the hub solves the problem, as I have plugged it in on the left side, with mouse and modem (and whatever else) plugged into the hub. Yay!

re USB hub
Username: 8-bit
"I have a powered USB hub that may be a step above yours. It is an Asante' FriendlyNet-Home USB Hub-7. It also has an overpower indicator for each attached device that can come in handy in knowing you are not taxing the supplied power beyond its limits.

Re USB hub
Username: BarryK
"8-bit, I looked up some specs on your hub: http://www.oocities.org/rosie26y/friendlynethomeusbhub7.html http://www.backoffice.be/prod_uk/Asante_Technologies/99-00574-07_asante_friendlynet_home_usb_hub_7_ports_us.asp The very brief documentation with mine states: "Over current detection and protection for each port" But there is only the one power-on LED, no individual LEDs as in your unit.

Pi power
Username: Aitch
"Barry I've posted some power info for the Pi http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=612860#612860 I think you were overcharged for your 7 port hub, I've bought several of those, with 2A PSU for about £4 freepost on ebay/from China There's a very useful variable constant current/variable o/p voltage board there too... I'm finding many USB cables incapable of powering hard drives, and some wifi dongles - causing errors...also sellers still selling USB1.1 old stock [8-bit!] I really hope this Raspberry is going to be a winner for the puppy community..... :) Aitch :)

Tags: general