Raspberry Pi alternative

Biochembob · Jul 17, 2022

Are there any confirmed Raspberry Pi alternatives that work without a ton of modifications? It looks like without paying $150+ or waiting until mid 2023 I won't be able to get a pi board.

Malcontent · Jul 17, 2022

Adafruit sells 2 GB model 4s every Wed or Thurs. They have a strict policy where each person gets to buy one and only one of any model until further notice. They require you to setup 2FA (an anti-bot measure). Get in stock notifications from rpilocator.com.

The other option is to backorder on Digikey. It took < 4 weeks for me to get two 8 GB model 4s. They don't charge your credit card until they ship.

Sral · Jul 18, 2022

I had a look on second hand sites, you do sometimes get Zeros and Zero W for something like 30-60€ over here.

Malcontent · Jul 18, 2022

Also, I forgot that some users have found them at Microcenters. They don't seem to be listed online as they found them in person.

Biochembob · Jul 18, 2022

No Microcenter close. Pi Zero can't be backordered on Digikey. I'll try Adafruit but I never can catch them in stock. Thanks for the suggestions though.

Malcontent · Jul 18, 2022

Yeah, the Zeros are harder to find. Does it have to be a Zero?

Biochembob · Jul 18, 2022

Malcontent said:
Yeah, the Zeros are harder to find. Does it have to be a Zero?

It doesn't. I would rather have the small form factor and the pi4 8gb is overkill and a bit pricer.

What tool is that?

Malcontent · Jul 18, 2022

Biochembob said:
It doesn't. I would rather have the small form factor and the pi4 8gb is overkill and a bit pricer.

What tool is that?

Find Raspberry Pi computers in stock - rpilocator

rpilocator.com

Ranjib · Jul 18, 2022

I think the original question was if we can use something else than pi to power reef-pi. Currently no .. there’s not much we can do without pi. Gpio , sensor integration and everything is tied to pi specifics. While we will not have any capabilities , we can still run reef-pi on something else (using dev mode ). We are working on to make it easier by next major release, followed by allowing ability to integrate things that will supplement the missing capabilities . We will not be able to make end to end systems that are cheap and standardized in this route. But we will have this available .

DanTheReefer · Jul 18, 2022

Ranjib said:
I think the original question was if we can use something else than pi to power reef-pi. Currently no .. there’s not much we can do without pi. Gpio , sensor integration and everything is tied to pi specifics. While we will not have any capabilities , we can still run reef-pi on something else (using dev mode ). We are working on to make it easier by next major release, followed by allowing ability to integrate things that will supplement the missing capabilities . We will not be able to make end to end systems that are cheap and standardized in this route. But we will have this available .

Really dumb question, is the wifi pi pico something we can run on in the future?

Biochembob · Jul 18, 2022

DanTheReefer said:
Really dumb question, is the wifi pi pico something we can run on in the future?

Not dumb. I wondered if some of the actual functioning parts could use them instead of pis

Ranjib · Jul 19, 2022

DanTheReefer said:
Really dumb question, is the wifi pi pico something we can run on in the future?

Yes. Not sure it will be pi pico or something else. But we’ll augment with other wifi or similar capable micro controllers. My current favorite is Esp32 . So expect that to be the first integration in those line , unless some one else chip in with other integrations

AydenLincoln · Jul 19, 2022

Blueberry pi(e)!

I’m sorry I saw an opportunity and I took it lol!

geekengineer · Sep 16, 2022

Well nice segway into this question. What about these orange pi's (from china) I saw someone mention? I'm not sure if they have the same connector tho.

Ranjib · Sep 21, 2022

geekengineer said:
Well nice segway into this question. What about these orange pi's (from china) I saw someone mention? I'm not sure if they have the same connector tho.

i read about it, and my take was its not pin compatible with raspberry pi. we have to add dedicated support for it in the code, if we want to support it