The Raspberry Pi board had some serious competition price-wise with products such as Orange Pi PC, NanoPi, or even C.H.I.P, but the Raspberry Pi foundation has lowered the price barrier even further with the Raspberry Pi Zero board, based on the same processor as the original Raspberry Pi (model 1) boards but clocked at a higher speed, and in a much smaller form factor, and launching at an unbeatable price: $5.
Raspberry Pi Zero specifications:
- Processor – Broadcomm BCM2835 ARM11 processor @ 1GHz with VideoCore IV GPU
- System – 512MB RAM
- Storage – microSD slot
- Video Output – mini HDMI port and composite video (via 2 unpopulated pins)
- USB – 2x micro USB OTG ports for data and power
- Expansion – 40-pin through-holes
- Power Supply – 5V via micro USB port
- Power Consumption – 0.5-0.7W (100-140mA at 5.09V) according to Raspi.TV
- Dimensions – 65mm x 30mm x 5mm
The board is obviously software compatible with Raspberry Pi Model B/B+ and A+, and it’s a pretty exciting development.
The board is available in limited supplies in the UK via sites like Element14 or Pimoroni, and in the US via Microcenter and Adafruit. The board is also available for free with the December issue of The MagPi in UK stores.
If you find $5 is just too cheap, or Raspberry Pi Zero is out of stock, or you simply don’t happen to live in the US or UK, you can also fall back to Allwinner R8 based C.H.I.P board that’s available for pre-order on Cyber Monday for $8 + shipping.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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Isn’t the CPU 700Mhz, Single-core? I’m seeing it on http://pimoroni.com/zero , element14 just states “up to 1Ghz”….
afaik you can overclock it
@devgiant
The one in Pi Zero is running @ 1GHz by default instead of 700 Mhz, so the processor has been slightly improved.
Actually Adafruit will also ship internationally.. $5 for the board $12.55 for shipping.
Just wait for the Chinese on Aliexpress offering $3-$4 clones with free shipping.
@rm
Orange Pi Zero? 😉
@cnxsoft
Can you please make a walkthrough(if possible) and adjust this
http://www.win-raid.com/t58f16-Guide-Recover-from-failed-BIOS-flash-using-Raspberry-PI.html
to work with orange pi pc etc as orange pi don’t have any spi-bcm2708 or linux_spi:dev=/dev/spidev0.0
I would be tremendous help for the community to use this low cost dev board to save a few hundred/thousand SPI bios chips.
If possible include the image os used(firmware image).
Regards
I went to the element14 website to see if I could actually order one (although I am not in the US or UK).
surprise:
Price: £11.88 (Price is before tax)
Out of Stock
They also quote cpc:
Price: £10.54 (Price is before tax)
41 ship now
(link: http://www.element14.com/community/docs/DOC-79263?ICID=hp-pizero-ban, click the buy now button)
Didn’t know the pound dropped that much against the dollar 😉
cpc price is including cable bundle, but they give no additional info.
Pity the thing does not have networking (but of course it can be added over usb)
actually didn’t read carefully enough, the prices below are including a micro hdmi to hdmi adapter and a Micro USB “On the Go” to USB Adapter.
pimoroni sells the board alone for four pound and for an additional four pound will ship it to the Netherlands.
@FransM
Element14 is trying to make some money of adapters… They don’t seem to sell the bare board.
s/below/above/
why can’t I edit my post if I notice immediately after sending that I made a mistake
@FransM
Because WordPress does not allow this by default.
I’ve just enabled a plugin that will allow editing comments for 5 minutes.
LOL, an Ethernet adapter with a know working chipset costs more than the zero, eg. http://aliexpress.com/item/2014-New-5-Pin-Micro-USB-2-0-To-RJ45-LAN-Ethernet-USB-Network-card-Adapter/32251588877.html
FINALLY!!!!!!!!!
This is sooner than expected.
i expected price to go down to sub $10 for many ARM board early nxt yr, starting with strip down RPi to compete with CHIP, then possibly with single core cortex a35s, not this soon. hahahaha…..
at last price is low enough to do more complex project @ arduino price range
i juz read the comments lulz
got too excited too soon.
out of stock, expensive shipping, bundled accesories (i have all the accessories needed T~T)
i still hav to wait till nxt yr for it to be more available, and hopefully unbundled
@tkaiser
i suggest u buy this
http://www.dx.com/p/usb-wired-network-adapter-card-w-usb-2-0-3-port-hub-rj45-cable-white-black-404282#.VlcADHqsa00
it cost $3 more, and gives u 3port usb hub with lan, also u can use it as a powered usb hub, if u have a power barrel(DC2.5 or DC2.0, cant remember gotta measure it again).
i use it with a RPi A for 2yrs now
hmm… Looks like the ODROID-W.
This desperately needs an ESP31 on it. It would raise the price by about $1.
ESP31 is the predecessor of the ESP32?
😉
@Jon Smirl
I’m sure broadcom would love to see a 3rd party WiFi/BT chipset on there.
@Sander
We don’t have all of the details from Espressif yet, but I believe the ESP31 corresponds to the the old ESP8089 and it is designed to be used as a peripheral. ESP32 (which is almost the same silicon) is a standalone SOC (new ESP8266). Since you would be attaching this to the RaspPi CPU you’d want the peripheral version (ESP31).
@milkboy
Thx for the recommendation but in the zero’s case I would prefer Micro USB. And then there are always the same two problems associated: which chipset is used and what about consumption — compare with http://elinux.org/RPi_USB_Ethernet_adapters
But I’m sure we’ll see a few USB-Wi-Fi adapters with Micro USB rather sooner than later…
Or if your in the US or UK buy a copy of the december magpi magazine and get a free pi zero
@tkaiser
i juz check mine via usb on ubuntu
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 0b95:772a ASIX Electronics Corp. AX88772A Fast Ethernet
it works with RPi and the site says
“Newlink NLUSB2-ETH USB 2.0 Ethernet Adapter. Works out of the box on Raspbian. Detected as ASIX AX88772, asix driver, Max current 250mA. Works without a powered hub or when plugged into an unpowered hub on a Model “A” Pi.”
i powered it with usb-DC2.5 cable and a usb charger, since i use it with ext hdd
i cant confirmed if they still sell the same hub thou, since the manufacturer might change the component or seller change supplier without notice,
Exactly, that’s why I search for the chipset first. If they write “ax88772” then chances you get this chip are a bit better than when relying on older reviews of the device. BTW: I had to learn recently that some features that are considered being “USB 3.0 only” you can also benefit from when using mainline kernel with USB 2.0, eg. UASP: http://linux-sunxi.org/USB/UAS
Since RPi is going mainline this would be the next thing to try out (UASP and GBit Ethernet). But since all RPi still suffer from their single USB2.0 connection to the outsude there it makes not that much sense
@cnxsoft
…Banana Pi Zero
@Demetris
I think you just need to recompile your OrangePi kernel, as it is explained here: http://www.orangepi.org/Docs/Kerneldriversporting.html#Porting_SPI_Devices_Driver
This post just made my day, thanks for good laugh, deets.
And there’s no obvious discussion, which is strange: do you guys think this board is subsidized? I of course think it is, but am really surprised there’re retailers which offer board at the raw price of $5. (I couldn’t see raw price for original Pi for about 2 years).
It is out of stock everywhere, if you have a link where to order it, I think this is worth a new article, especially for ordering in Europe…
Orange Pi One with H3 is coming soon. All in one. The unit price is lower than $10.
@Paul
I don’t think it is subsidized. That CPU/DRAM combo SOC is a $4.00 part (based on prices form other vendors for similar chips). There is nothing on this board that costs much of anything except for the SOC. Maybe 75 cents for the non-SOC stuff and assembly. I’d need more specific BOM info to give a more accurate estimate. I suspect there may even be a little room to give the distributors some margin, maybe 5%, so $4.75 wholesale. I would say it is being sold at variable costs, with no fixed cost recovery.
that was quick
@Demetris
Sure, my rate is $100USD / hour with a 10 hour minimum. 🙂
@Steven
Would be great if you use the 4 unused contacts inside the Ethernet jack to be used for passive PoE. Simply connect 2 of them to the DCIN test point and the other 2 to GND. Would turn the Orange Pi One into a more useful wired IoT tool.
@Steven
will there be any software support for OPI-PC and OPI+
or do we have to depend on donations(support) of the community.
the boards are pretty much useless,
Please if you dont want to support current boards please dont release the new boards before the previous boards are working SATISFACTORILY
Back in stock:
https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/raspberry-pi-zero
Buying this is like buying a car without wheels.
At least they got the mounting holes in the right places – the corners. BUT why do they need the damn connectors overhanging the edge of the PCB profile (and not included in the dimension specs)?
The new version of Raspberry Pi Zero includes a camera connector.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/zero-grows-camera-connector/
@cnxsoft
With camera connector now this devices makes some sense. Just checked the price of the special cable necessary to connect the camera modules, availability of Zero Pi (zero as usual), then checked cheapest bundle with bunch of adapters I don’t need and added shipping. Now scratching my head since RPi A+ is less expensive for me (or maybe for anyone outside the UK).
Thx for the reminder, @lex made some improvements to Orange Pi camera driver recently so time to try this out first before trying to order this zero thingie.