Raspberry Pi 2.0 ready to ship
Two new holes, several fixes, no big changes
A new version of the Raspberry Pi has made its way into distribution channels.
Revision 2.0 boards, as the new model is known, don’t feature any substantive changes and the Raspberry Pi Foundation says most of us can ignore the upgrade, as:
“We don’t believe that the changes are large enough to make it worth “holding on” for revision 2.0, unless you have a specific requirement to add an audio codec or you need mounting holes for some industrial application.”
A few of the highlights of the upgrade include:
- The ability to power a Pi with a powered USB hub;
- A fix for an issue that caused problems when Pis were connected to TVs by HDMI;
- A new reset circuit;
- The aforementioned mounting holes, to help mount Pis for various applications
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All the changes are detailed here, and the Pi guys say the new version should appear once existing Pi stocks run dry. That may already have happened, as apparently some Pi 2.0s have already made their way into users’ hands. ®
COMMENTS
Re: Still waiting for mine and I ordered mind in March!
Well hopefully your mind will arrive before your Raspberry Pi does.
Re: Holes?
yes, they conform to a quite new standard. i'm not sure about its name, rpi form factor or something along these lines; its main feature being that holes for screws and ports are aligned to ports found on raspberry pi (however to use screws you need raspberry pi rev.2).
Re: Kinda hope
Hmmm ... I've been waiting on RS for 6 months now. Shocking communications - been told "shipping now" a couple of times, then I get an Email to say "delayed by up to 9 weeks" at the end of August. I won't bore this thread with the details, but RS scores a poor "must try harder" on their report card. Logistics planning absolute #FAIL. If it's not their fault, they would do well to say so.
I hope we're getting version 2.0 of the logistics and customer communication pipeline.
Kinda hope
I get one of these ones over the 1.0 ones. I placed an order with RS a while ago, and if some people are already being shipped the 2.0 boards I just hope I'm one of them.
Not so much for extra holes etc, mostly for the allowance to power it from a USB hub. I have plans.
Developer Board vs Final Product
The Raspberry Pi Model B (and possibly model A) was always planned to be and still is a developer board. The vast majority of the issues now being faced - notably the supply shortage - is due to the fact that sites like hotukdeals got their hands on it and said: "Look! A £25 computer that plays 1080p movies!!! They've only got 10,000 though, let's get 'em quick!"
The demand has soared beyond anything that they ever anticipated. That's not to say that I'm against the general public buying a Raspberry Pi, but the intention always was for the initial release to be aimed at developers & nerds; they're going to be the people who do a good deal of the work in making the thing usable and find all the issues, bugs & quirks. That is still going on of course, but now you also have a lot of disappointed people who were expecting to be able to spend £25 and have a machine equivalent to their average desktop computer. The media hype can be a double edged sword.
And the person that takes either the RPF, or their suppliers, to court can put on some concrete boots and take a long walk of the nearest pier.
