BATC Forum

Hello,

the availability of Raspberry Pi's is becoming a problem. There are unknown wait times everywhere.
Are there any plans to move to another platform e.g. Odroid, ... ?

73's - Patrick - ON1BTE

Hi Patrick

Yes, this is a problem at the moment, but the reports from the Raspberry Pi management are that the situation should improve by mid-2023.

I have no plans to move Portsdown to a different platform, although I would have no problems if someone else wanted to work on a fork for another single-board computer.

In the meantime, keep an eye on https://rpilocator.com/. MC Hobby seemed to have stock last month. Please do not buy from non-approved resellers - this just makes the problem worse.

Dave, G8GKQ

I did a quick check on getting Pi 4's
RS have stopped making them.
Element 14 (Farnell) are quoting December 2023 delivery.
Raspberry Pi themselves are only shipping to commercial OEM's who use Pi's in their own products.
The few that appear on the open market are at vastly inflated prices.
Whilst I have a PC based RX system it would have been nice to build one of the new designs.
I would not want see all the good stuff we have wither because the parts are not available at hobbyist prices.
Difficult I know but we need a second basket for our eggs.

Rod

RS have never "made" Raspberry Pis. They were an authorised reseller for Raspberry Pi Ltd who do the manufacturing.

The current UK authorised retail resellers are: Rapid, CPC, Pimoroni, The Pi Hut, SB Components and Cool Components.

Raspberry Pi Ltd are shipping to UK authorised resellers for hobbyists, but only in limited numbers. Cool Components had Raspberry Pi 4s in stock for 36 hours last week, but were only selling them as part of a kit (with power supply and case) to prevent profiteering by the unauthorised resellers.

Authorised resellers are not allowed to sell at inflated prices. You can track who has stock of Raspberry Pis on this website: https://rpilocator.com/

I'm waiting for a volunteer to port the Portsdown capability to an alternative platform and to support it once published.

Dave, G8GKQ

Thanks Rod

I stand corrected. I was not aware that RS actually manufactured RPis.

Dave

Hi
As set up RS , Farnell and Raspberry Pi were all stated to be Manufacturers.
Its likely they each funded and sourced blank boards plus components.
It seems that all of the assembly has always been done in Wales by one Sony factory.
It appears that RS and Farnell both supplied OEM's , resellers and end users.
Raspberry Pi Ltd (not the charity part) supplied OEM's and resellers.

Raspberry Pi 4s with 4GB of RAM are in stock at Rapid (25 April 2:20 pm):

https://www.rapidonline.com/raspberry-p ... gb-75-1008

Dave

... and all gone an hour later!

Clive

https://thepihut.com/products/raspberry ... mputer-kit

May be suitable for some....

Martin G8LCE