Raspberry Pi Forums

I notice that most addon boards etc.. are available in kit form rather than sold as a completed unit.

As a completed unit (already assembled) I know that it would cost more the sell because of the expense of the time it takes to put it together, but I am a bit curious why there are not some exceptions.

For example, the ADA Fruit Pi Plate comes with connectors to hold the the RPi to the board and a Breadboard. It doesn't come with the cable or connector to connect the cable to the bread board. You can buy their Pi Cobbler which contains the cable and the "parts" to create a connection to the breadboard, but not a completed assembled one. So before you can do any real connections to the breadboard without soldered connections, you have to solder the connector first.

I know you can just use jumpers, but I thought the whole point of the breadboard system which uses jumpers is the do this without soldering.

While some of the fun is the soldering part, it seems to me that in a teaching environment, when using a breadboard which is designed for non-solder connections, it would make sense if there were a assembled version available. I can see a bunch of kids doing a lot with electronics without having to touch soldering irons, solder, possible burns and damage to the boards, clothes, equipment etc...

Is it just cost? or are there some regulations like RoHS that are holding that back.

It is a question of supply and demand and whether any vendor decides there is enough demand to make it worth their while to set up an assembly line for this. Or any ebay seller decides it is worth their while to sell assembled boards.

See the following topic, if you do not want very many, this fellow will assemble Gertboards:

http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewt ... 42&t=18061

But really, the best place to ask this question is of the people who you think should sell assembled boards, to let them know there is an interest and ask them why they do not sell whatever preassembled board you are wanting. You cannot expect them to read every forum post, so I think contacting your vendor of choice to make your case is a better idea.

If nobody asks the potential vendor, then they have to assume there is not a significant market.

Dweeber wrote: While some of the fun is the soldering part, it seems to me that in a teaching environment, when using a breadboard which is designed for non-solder connections, it would make sense if there were a assembled version available. I can see a bunch of kids doing a lot with electronics without having to touch soldering irons, solder, possible burns and damage to the boards, clothes, equipment etc...

Is it just cost? or are there some regulations like RoHS that are holding that back.

Not sure what you mean by an assembled breadboard? The SKPang system doesn't need soldering, but you do need jumpers from the Pi to the breadboard. The Adafruit plate needs soldering, but that could be done by someone else, but even then, with a breadboard in the middle of the plate, you need jumpers. Same for the Mini Piio board - it has a mini breadboard, and connectors, but to get from the connectors to the breadboard needs jumpers...

So what exactly do you want? Even it it were a breadboard somehow onna Pi, you'd still need jumpers to extend the signals from one part of the breadboard to another...

Bit confused here... Although it sounds like the SKPang board is the closest to what you're after:

see e.g.: https://projects.drogon.net/raspberry-pi/gpio-examples/

-Gordon

Example. PI Cobbler is sold like this...



and needs to be assembled like this to use it.



I would think there would be a market for the latter even though it would cost more since there would be labor to assemble it. It is quite possible that once you assemble it and plug it into a breadboard (like the PI Plate) you may not need to solder anything else (ie a school environment). But before you can get there you have to assemble and solder it.

Perhaps here is not enough of a market? Of the cost it would have to sell for is would be prohibitive.

This is not a need, just curious.