Raspberry Pi 400 desktop PC

[rSl]

nice!

Raspberry Pi 400: the $70 desktop PC - Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi 400 is your complete personal computer, built into a compact keyboard. It's our most powerful and easy-to-use computer yet.

www.raspberrypi.org

 

[JDTAY]

Classic home computers – BBC Micros, ZX Spectrums, Commodore Amigas, and the rest – integrated the motherboard directly into the keyboard.

Man, this reminds me, retro computing has much larger name recognition than handheld computing. Poor ED might be in the wrong market.

 

[levi]

Reportedly the keyboard's a bit finickety, but that probably makes sense if it's aping the original ZX81 and Spectrum.

 

[Blue Shadow]

Classic home computers – BBC Micros, ZX Spectrums, Commodore Amigas, and the rest – integrated the motherboard directly into the keyboard.

Not sure why they emphasized those models. A bit strange to find the Commodore 64 among "the rest"

Reportedly the keyboard's a bit finickety, but that probably makes sense if it's aping the original ZX81 and Spectrum.

Did they mention that they were specifically inspired by those? Especially ZX81 sounds unlikely, as it had a membrane keyboard. I'm pretty glad they did not make such a thing.

 

[levi]

No, I think I read they already had a similar model of pi keyboard on sale. This just angles it slightly and puts it in a case along with a PCB which contains the chip and a few other components. But you can't really complain at the price.

I don't see a 'the rest' category in the linked blog post. That post is written by Eben or one of his accolytes, and as a UKer the BBC was probably the most seen computer in the UK, every school being stuffed with them back in his day, and the most common computer under the tree at chrimbo was the ZX spectrum. Round where I was the Atari ST seemed much more common than the Amiga in the later 80s, but these days the Amiga is more fondly looked back on even here.

 

[Blue Shadow]

Not a category, I was just referring to the quote, wich talked about "BBC Micros, ZX Spectrums, Commodore Amigas, and the rest"
I am ware that the first two were very popular in the UK, mainly I was surprised why they mentioned the Amiga, but not the C64, as it is slightly more iconic IMO. But they probably mentioned computers from different areas, mentioning the most popular in the UK in each one.
That said, in the meantime I discovered the "Designing Raspberry Pi 400" article, where there was even an "Ode to commodore" (it's about Commodore 64, I found that short-term always slightly confusing,)
So it definitely got more than sufficient coverage.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/designing-raspberry-pi-400/

 

[pmprog]

I was disappointed to see no physical power button, and also that the was no eMMC or M2 port for a proper drive.
Imagine if HardKernel followed suit and built something similar (they usually have eMMC ports pm the boards)

 

[pimaster]

I don't understand why this isn't the first device to take the Compute Module 4 (after the dev board).
It seems like the perfect pair.
The base will be upgradable if a new module comes out (and they don't change the connector)
The people designing the all in one keyboard get to give feedback as a consumer to the module designers.

Now it seems like a slightly different revision of Pi 4 (has different clock speeds and different network chip?) that adds yet another variation.
But best of luck to them.

 

[rSl]

I don't understand why this isn't the first device to take the Compute Module 4 (after the dev board).

cost reduction, the rpi blog says:

Why not the Compute Module?
Some folks have asked us why we did not fit the Raspberry Pi Compute Module inside. The reason is that above a certain scale, it generally makes more sense to go with a custom PCB rather than a module with a carrier board. With hundreds of thousands of Raspberry Pi 400 units in the first instance, we are above that scale.

 

[rSl]

I discovered the "Designing Raspberry Pi 400" article, where there was even an "Ode to commodore"

it's faster than my c64g!

 

[pimaster]

Why not the Compute Module?
Some folks have asked us why we did not fit the Raspberry Pi Compute Module inside. The reason is that above a certain scale, it generally makes more sense to go with a custom PCB rather than a module with a carrier board. With hundreds of thousands of Raspberry Pi 400 units in the first instance, we are above that scale.

I know these aren't your words but it's an amusing point that they are producing these modules but recognise that they are only useful in smaller production runs. I wonder what that point is (although it probably depends on the size of your board)
Still doesn't address the point of upgradability.

 

[levi]

Well yes. The compute modules have always been made for small production run kind of situations. Things like machine tools or scientific apparatus that sells for thousands of dollars per unit, and don't ship more than a few dozen of each unit worldwide.

As for the idea of this keyboard project using a compute module, I'm not sure this is the kind of keyboard you'll really want to use for more than a couple of years.

 

[spud42]

 

[ClockworkCoder]

I was disappointed to see no physical power button

Did you mean something different to this:

How to use the Raspberry Pi 400 Power Key

The Raspberry Pi 400 can be safely turned off (and back on again) with the F10 key. Power Off Power off by holding down the Fn+F10 keys for two seconds. This carefully shuts down your operating sys...

support.thepihut.com

 

[TeDaDeS]

The combination is so simple but so good.

 

[ClockworkCoder]

This is exactly the type of thing I don't need, but I inexplicably want it! I somehow need to justify a use for it...

 

[pmprog]

Did you mean something different to this:

How to use the Raspberry Pi 400 Power Key

The Raspberry Pi 400 can be safely turned off (and back on again) with the F10 key. Power Off Power off by holding down the Fn+F10 keys for two seconds. This carefully shuts down your operating sys...

support.thepihut.com

Yes, I meant a dedicated power button/switch. Having a soft-power key requires software to be configured. I've had an Argon40 Pi case and a RetroFlag GPI case.
The Argon40 had a physical button, that whilst you could install a script, you could still force a power off by holding it, and you can tell it's actually gone off because of an LED visible at the front.
The GPI case had a switch inside that was either a direct power cutoff, or a "safe powerdown" (which was handled by a script).

I guess it's not so bad, considering they marked the F10 key with a power icon, though you don't usually require a 2 second hold on Fn shifted keys.

Maybe it's not really an issue in reality, though I think I read somebody somewhere saying that there's no LED to indicate power, which could potentially be a problem if you're plugging/unplugging from the GPIO whilst it's still powered because you think it's off?

I guess we'll find out if that's an issue as people start using it

 

[levi]

I forget when PCs went from a real goddamnit power button to a software advisory type button. I think the PC AT had a real power switch, but I'm pretty sure that went by the late 80s. I mean they dress it up with lights to make it look like a real power switch, but in practice the power supply is always running and waiting for that signal to boot up. It means if you only press it quickly when the machine is on, it'll enter a clean shutdown and at the very least try to preserve the file system integrity. If you press if for a few seconds (more than two, but I don't recall ever timing it) it'll kill power from the CPU, and act more like a real power switch.

 

[levi]

A video already posted to these board by Robert Taylor, albeit in a different thread:
And a new video from wifisheep, posted yesterday, although I only had chance to watch it now:
There's a patreon advert to begin with but I can consider part of the intro so that's fine. There's an advert for a chinese pcb manufacturer running into the 3 minutes, which I personally skipped since I've seen it already, and there's a bit at the end minute or two about his new desktop machine which is OT for this thread. But he's the first person I've seen who didn't buy a kit and just bought the plain rPI400 and added their own peripherals to the board.

 

[PokeParadox]

I'm wanting one of these for my son... (and for me! )