Alternatives to Raspberry pi Zero for Reef-pi

[KonradTO]

Hi all,
As title says. I want to build another controller for my pico tank (I already have reefpi installed on a Raspberry pi Zero and Robotank hardware in my 32g) but the Pi Zero now goes for 60$ (!!) in Europe. Do you know if the pico can run reefpi? or it has not enough ram? Any cheaper alternatives? I would need to run only the ATO and the temperature monitoring. Maybe a kessil in the future, so not much stuff. It should have wifi connection integrated because I have no router nearby.
Thanks!

 

[Sral]

Hi, have a look at this thread. Expansion to other Microcontrollers is planned for the future, like Pi Pico or ESP32, but currently that doesn't work I think.

I just scored a Pi Zero W on Ebay for 40$, so yeah, they are a lot pricier than intended.
I think any Pi would work (@Ranjib ?) , especially the 1s and 2s may be a little cheaper due to their age and missing WiFi if you can live without it.

 

[KonradTO]

Thanks for the link. Well for now it seems that they are planning to implement it but nothing now. I might just wait for some occasion for a pi zero on ebay

 

[Ranjib]

Hi, have a look at this thread. Expansion to other Microcontrollers is planned for the future, like Pi Pico or ESP32, but currently that doesn't work I think.

I just scored a Pi Zero W on Ebay for 40$, so yeah, they are a lot pricier than intended.
I think any Pi would work (@Ranjib ?) , especially the 1s and 2s may be a little cheaper due to their age and missing WiFi if you can live without it.

not any pi. any pi model B (40 pin) is required, 26 pin models are unlikely to work without significant changes

 

[KonradTO]

not any pi. any pi model B (40 pin) is required, 26 pin models are unlikely to work without significant changes

What are people using right now?

 

[DanTheReefer]

What are people using right now?

I have a 4B. It cost $40 a couple years ago. Those were the days. Replacement would cost $140 today.

 

[Ranjib]

What are people using right now?

pi zero, 3, 4, 2 (model Bs)

 

[KonradTO]

Thanks folks. I will try to find something secondhand. Crazy how the market changed in few months

 

[Sral]

Thanks folks. I will try to find something secondhand. Crazy how the market changed in few months

I think it went to that quite a while ago, during the beginning of corona, interruption of supply chains + other general chip shortage-problems.

The first thing that happens is that cheap things disappear first. If you can make two products with a similar chip, the more expensive one gets made, as it can pay a higher price for the chip. If there are not enough chips left, the cheaper one wont be produced.
And PIs are not known to be expensive products with good profit margins that enable the producers to bid higher prices for the existing chips ^^

 

[KonradTO]

I think it went to that quite a while ago, during the beginning of corona, interruption of supply chains + other general chip shortage-problems.

The first thing that happens is that cheap things disappear first. If you can make two products with a similar chip, the more expensive one gets made, as it can pay a higher price for the chip. If there are not enough chips left, the cheaper one wont be produced.
And PIs are not known to be expensive products with good profit margins that enable the producers to bid higher prices for the existing chips ^^

Ok that explains well what's making pi's costing 4 times more and smartphones more or less the same. Still my Pi Zero was purchased something like 6 months ago at 15€.

 

[Sral]

Ok that explains well what's making pi's costing 4 times more and smartphones more or less the same. Still my Pi Zero was purchased something like 6 months ago at 15€.

Congratulations then ^^

I guess that depends on a lot of factors. Maybe those were still on stock from some time ago, or the parts for production were still in stock then.

Other things include the vendors:
some vendors, as we see, still decide to sell the (very few) products they get on standard prices. Maybe that's because there are so little that the increase in price is not worth the loss in reputation to them.
A lot of people don't seem to understand economics as science, but as an ideology and start screaming swear words (greedy and scammer being some of them) at people who simply charge actually real prices. If you want something pretty badly that is low in stock, you should better be prepared to spend some money ^^

 

[KonradTO]

Congratulations then ^^

I guess that depends on a lot of factors. Maybe those were still on stock from some time ago, or the parts for production were still in stock then.

Other things include the vendors:
some vendors, as we see, still decide to sell the (very few) products they get on standard prices. Maybe that's because there are so little that the increase in price is not worth the loss in reputation to them.

Yes in my case I think I purchased it right when they were applying the "1 customer 1 raspberry" rule. Then probably things got worse. Maybe also the international tensions played a role (?)..

A lot of people don't seem to understand economics as science, but as an ideology and start screaming swear words (greedy and scammer being some of them) at people who simply charge actually real prices. If you want something pretty badly that is low in stock, you should better be prepared to spend some money ^^

Sure. I mean, I hope that the difference in price goes directly to Raspberry or the chip producers and not to the vendors. Because at that point is actually a scam XD

 

[Malcontent]

Authorized Pi vendors are prohibited from selling above MSRP.

I had no problems purchasing three 4Bs at MSRP. It took a month but that's it.

 

[KonradTO]

Authorized Pi vendors are prohibited from selling above MSRP.

I had no problems purchasing three 4Bs at MSRP. It took a month but that's it.

I never considered pi 4s actually. Are those like pi zeros but with more ram and cpu?

 

[Sral]

I never considered pi 4s actually. Are those like pi zeros but with more ram and cpu?

More interfaces as well. Somebody mentioned that it’s supposedly necessary to run a PI 3 or 4 if you want to add a display on top of ReefPI. Not sure about the validity though.

A friend is running PI-hole plus an email server on a Zero, I think and that is coming to its limits in certain situations, since it’s only a single core.

 

[Malcontent]

I never considered pi 4s actually. Are those like pi zeros but with more ram and cpu?

Pretty much.

I'd rather pay an authorized retailer $55 (MSRP) for a new 4B 2 GB than pay a scalper that much for a Zero.

Likewise, the 4B 8 GB is more than I need for my 3D printers but I'd rather pay $75 for an 8 GB model from Digikey (and wait a month) than $90 for a 2 GB model on eBay from a scalper.

 

[Sral]

Pretty much.

I'd rather pay an authorized retailer $55 (MSRP) for a new 4B 2 GB than pay a scalper that much for a Zero.

Likewise, the 4B 8 GB is more than I need for my 3D printers but I'd rather pay $75 for an 8 GB model from Digikey (and wait a month) than $90 for a 2 GB model on eBay from a scalper.

Well, I got mine from a private person who had it lying around, so those are definitely no "scalpers".
For the rest: the bad guys are actually not the people selling the product for their actual price (aka "scalpers"), but the manufacturers (aka the PI foundation) who are not and are therefore causing the shortage in the first place ^^

 

[Malcontent]

Well, I got mine from a private person who had it lying around, so those are definitely no "scalpers".
For the rest: the bad guys are actually not the people selling the product for their actual price (aka "scalpers"), but the manufacturers (aka the PI foundation) who are not and are therefore causing the shortage in the first place ^^

All the authorized vendors are prohibited from selling above MSRP by the manufacturer. Bots buy them up (at MSRP) within minutes or even seconds when they come into stock. Then they end up on eBay and the like at inflated prices.

 

[Sral]

All the authorized vendors are prohibited from selling above MSRP by the manufacturer. Bots buy them up (at MSRP) within minutes or even seconds when they come into stock. Then they end up on eBay and the like at inflated prices.

I think you are confused about the meaning of "inflated prices".

You can only inflate prices if you are a monopolist and artificially decrease the number of available products below the demand (like the OPEC with oil, control and decrease the sold amount to increase price and profit on oil). The scalper's are neither monopolists nor do they artificially decrease the available number of products. They sell them all immediately. If the manufacturer had enough product to meet demand, the scalpers would not be able to sell with a profit. Therefore the manufacturer, as a monopolist, is actually trying to enforce deflated prices, which results in a demand that is higher than the supply.

Basic Economic Theory:
Inflated prices - decreased demand
Deflated prices - increased demand
In a free market the actual price then settles on the point where all suppliers make the most "profit" (however they ´define their personal profit). If you simply see profit as money earned, this means production equals demand, which is where the money earned is maximum.
If you enforce prices at a level too high, too little people will buy it, causing a surplus.
If you enforce prices at a level too low, too many people want to buy it, causing a shortage.

 

[DanTheReefer]

Well, I got mine from a private person who had it lying around, so those are definitely no "scalpers".
For the rest: the bad guys are actually not the people selling the product for their actual price (aka "scalpers"), but the manufacturers (aka the PI foundation) who are not and are therefore causing the shortage in the first place ^^

This is the issue. They mean well and want affordable products for students, etc, but if they were selling at market price there wouldn’t be an incentive for other actors to buy / resell and we’d have fewer middlemen to pay.