i noticed the keyboard is blurred along with the name change =/
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hahahahahahaha!
more characters…
Received notice of beepberry shipment 7-10 days wooo hoooo
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Got bored waiting, bought myself a Pi 400. Should be interesting to have a fancy Pi in keyboard form factor to tinker with. Has the bonus of being pink and white so i can hand it down to a kid or something when i get bored.
I did notice that Pi 4B and some other rare Pis were in stock for once while I was shopping, so it looks like availability has improved.
Edit: Ooh, just found out there is a Linux From Scratch for the Raspberry Pi! Maybe i wont get bored of the Pi 400 so quickly? PiLFS - Linux From Scratch on the Raspberry Pi
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I heard that the keyboards on those are less than ideal. What’s your take?
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all the membrane keyboards are meh… but it’s a design compromise - imagine the cost of integrating a mechanical keyboard down to that scale! probably 3D printers in 10 years will achieve this mechetronic integration… I’ve ordered a pi zero w - I have a small screen … going to try to build something similar to the ‘beepy’ (what a pathetic name) but with a twist - I’ve ohmed out old IDE ribbon cable - if I solder the zero header pins down instead of up should be able to plug boards using the ribbon cable as a buss rather than stacked … this would allow me to build a pi-corder… (I can dream)
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no!!!
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Ordered it from PiShop.us about an hour before i posted that, tracking says it should arrive Monday. Watched a couple videos about it, seems like the keyboard is about equal to a cheap ChromeBook… so usable, but not great. I dont own a Pi or anything similar and figured this would be a quick easy learning platform.
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I started out with an early pi 2… now I have several pi 3’s but I install them in plastic cases and use the sense hat for doing barometric pressure monitoring - (we live in an area prone to severe weather and tornado’s) latest monitor is an esp32 with barometric pressure and lightning detection…
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If you haven’t messed around with rpi pico’s, they’re another great learning platform. Definitely worth the $4. That rp2040 MCU is awesome, and pairs with a stock RPI nicely.
You can use gcc/cmake with their SDK. Live debugging is supported using GDB/SWD. No terrible IDEs, or vendor locked, high $$ compilers. The examples in the SDK cover all major MCU features in both cpp and python.
If you want something cheap and easy to learn on, I highly recommend them as well.
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Are you using one of those AS3935 ICs for the lightening detection?
How well do they work? Is there a good way to verify the sensor measurements using NWS DBs, or something like that?
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It has a DSP on the chip - there are several code based settings - I have adjusted several times to compensate for false positives… code is out on gethub look up digital weather rock… its running on an ESP32 board… there is a presentation as welll as wiring diagrams… for a BMP280 as well…
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The damn things breed when I’m not looking… Currently have two RPi’s one running an OpenVPN server and another with a Wireguard VPN server running… Have a 3A running a MagicMirror, a ReTerminal I’m going to use as my replacement OpenHab server/ controller, a Biqu Raspberry Pad 5 I’m going to use as a portable Kali station and a collection of Zero W and Zero 2W i use for Red Team training
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back when they where cheap and plentiful I used them for everything - now used refurbished laptops at ham radio swap meets are cheaper - last year I picked up a Panasonic windows 7 tough book and ssd for $60…
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I have way too many normal x86 based computers to have considered bothering with Pis before now. For example I have 5 spare HP 600 G3 Minis (i5-7500T, 16gb ram, 500gb SSD) just gathering dust waiting for light homelab tasks or to be given to family and friends when they need a basic desktop.
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The keyboard is actually somehow worse than cheap educational chromebook level. The keys are mushy, dont have much travel, and need quite a bit of pressure to activate leading to missed key strokes and fatigue. That said, the keyboard is usable after you get used to it and people that are naturally more heavy fingered when they type wont really see many issues. I wouldn’t recommend using the built-in keyboard for typing long projects or heavy/complex coding sessions.
On the bright side it does feel like a keyboard that would last quite some time under heavy use without failing, and would feel right at home in a classroom setting. Keyboard flex is quite acceptable when placed on a flat desk and the plastics used dont feel overly cheap and fragile like i was expecting.
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I had the same vibe from the piTop.
I was super excited to get one, but grew disenchanted about two weeks in because of the keyboard. Too mushy for me and tmux.
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Was doing some looking and there are a few projects where someone has modified the Pi 400 to add a mechanical keyboard. This is the main one i find mentioned several places, but he uses a $130 USD keyboard and a 3D printed case and thats a little more than i want to put into a Pi project tbh. Plus i dont have a 3D printer, so i would have to order one through someplace like PCBway.
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Man, I think you’re right. The main shipping thread has once again returned to stormy sea’s. It’s best we stay in the safe harbor of the “wen ship” thread.
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