New post on the front page: a date that'll interest you, and a datasheet that will too.

[liz]

Enjoy!

[Prometheus]

Congratulations to all of you - it's a great achievement, and it must be great to finally have a completion date for the manufacturing of the first batch.

[fireraisr]

I noticed how you bolded the fact that manufacture would be completed on that date and didn't promise a sell by date

Looking forward to the email with the official availability announcement.

Thanks for the update Liz, now I can rest easy for a few weeks!

[timn]

Many thanks for the update and a concrete not-before date. Now I can set a diary reminder for the 19th and come back then, rather than having to check this site and the shop every day in case you've decided to soft-launch it

[Lynbarn]

205 pages of "datasheet"!  (not that it means anything to me - I don't understand a word of it!) Should keep a few people quiet for a while though - maybe even until the 'Pis are done!

Many thanks to Liz and all the team.

[grumpyoldgit]

If you believe that you'll believe anything. Questions on here are like the Hydra's head. Answer one question and two will spring up in it's place!

[Jongoleur]

Lynbarn said:


205 pages of "datasheet"!  (not that it means anything to me – I don't understand a word of it!) Should keep a few people quiet for a while though – maybe even until the 'Pis are done!

Many thanks to Liz and all the team.


I fear that the seekers of esoteric knowledge will decide that it doesn't answer all their questions in those 205 closely packed pages, and there'll be tears and pouts a'plenty.  Oh well, I'm going to put it on my Kindle and people looking over my shoulder on the train will think I'm an electronics whizz-kid……

Edit for rubbish spelling

[Lynbarn]

Grumpyoldgit said:


If you believe that you'll believe anything. Questions on here are like the Hydra's head. Answer one question and two will spring up in it's place!



Well, I am an eternal optomist! Although I did notice that it doesn't answer the ultimate question: Does it run Wind...? (oops - sorry - wash my mouth out with solder flux...)

2+1? I deserved that!

[kme]

I'm unimpressed. Almost exactly a month ago production start was announced, and then suddenly a key component - the oscillator - isn't available in the Far East, but readily available in Europe and nobody can fill a shoebox and ship it overnight to China? Huh?

Not impressed.

[Benedict White]

KME, I wonder how much of an issue exporting from Europe to China is. Besides which the problem has now been solved, it just took a few days to do.

[fireraisr]

kme said:


I'm unimpressed. Almost exactly a month ago production start was announced, and then suddenly a key component - the oscillator - isn't available in the Far East, but readily available in Europe and nobody can fill a shoebox and ship it overnight to China? Huh?

Not impressed.


True, I was expecting the email telling me I could buy it any day now but there is a silver lining. Oscillators aren't a hard component to design into the layout so this will help the foundation build more Pi's in the long run. As long as they're able to keep manufacturing the existing board while the new design is being tooled that is.

[error404]

Nice to see a decent datasheet. I'm sure there are some critical omissions, and the functional descriptions are pretty sparse, but it looks to be complete enough to be very useful. Still lots of goofing around to figure out how things work, but we know where to poke at now. Thanks

Now all we need is a schematic

[pauldow]

kme said:


...the oscillator - isn't available in the Far East, but readily available in Europe and nobody can fill a shoebox and ship it overnight to China?...



I'm no expert on that topic, but I would think that they would have to deal with the export / import factors for electronic components from the UK to China. I'll bet it's faster to make the design change than to deal with the bureaucracies. They also need to consider long term part sources too. If they are going to need to change that component for later batches, it might as well be done now.

[mgmt_idiot]

Y'know, when I asked for a datasheet, I kind of had in mind the 2-3 pages that you look at when you buy a new printer

[kme]

A few days? Oh, sure, who'd notice a missing oscillator on a computer board after a month? Mind you, a month after production start.

Put this on top that it was announced that the Foundation got 100 beta boards produced. Well, that turned out to be 100 PCB of which only 25 got populated.

Which makes it little wonder that no official Linux distro is ready yet. Not even the unofficial official Fedora is official... The distro fellas have no boards to play with.

Communication is working really poorly.

[grumpyoldgit]

It has been mentioned elsewhere that the Chinese do not like to import or re-import stuff. There was some sort of certificate mentioned. I gather that there are tariffs to discourage it.

[grumpyoldgit]

kme said:


A few days? Oh, sure, who'd notice a missing oscillator on a computer board after a month? Mind you, a month after production start.

Put this on top that it was announced that the Foundation got 100 beta boards produced. Well, that turned out to be 100 PCB of which only 25 got populated.

Which makes it little wonder that no official Linux distro is ready yet. Not even the unofficial official Fedora is official... The distro fellas have no boards to play with.

Communication is working really poorly.


Someone's cruising for a ban!

[Benedict White]

mgmt_idiot said:


Y'know, when I asked for a datasheet, I kind of had in mind the 2-3 pages that you look at when you buy a new printer


Well, you should be careful what you wish for. There will be an exam, the pass rate is 90% for those who asked for a data sheet. You don't want to know what will happen to those who fail! brawHahahahaha.....

Or possibly not.

[fireraisr]

kme said:


A few days? Oh, sure, who'd notice a missing oscillator on a computer board after a month? Mind you, a month after production start.

Put this on top that it was announced that the Foundation got 100 beta boards produced. Well, that turned out to be 100 PCB of which only 25 got populated.

Which makes it little wonder that no official Linux distro is ready yet. Not even the unofficial official Fedora is official... The distro fellas have no boards to play with.

Communication is working really poorly.


wow you got some anger built up huh?

Just because production was started doesn't mean they started populating boards that day. Production start entails getting the final design sent off to the pcb manufacturer, final ok on BOM and a host of other things. Just because they said it was in production does NOT mean they were assembling the boards right then.

I know what it's like having to deal with time tables and supply issues and I for one think the foundation is doing a fantastic job. I totally understand waiting until they had a firm date on board completion to tell us of the problem. Communities hate problems without solutions and the Pi foundation is doing a bang up job of keeping everyone in the loop as to what is going on.

[Benedict White]

kme said:


A few days? Oh, sure, who'd notice a missing oscillator on a computer board after a month? Mind you, a month after production start.

Put this on top that it was announced that the Foundation got 100 beta boards produced. Well, that turned out to be 100 PCB of which only 25 got populated.

Which makes it little wonder that no official Linux distro is ready yet. Not even the unofficial official Fedora is official... The distro fellas have no boards to play with.

Communication is working really poorly.


No... we have Some boards to work with, just nothing like as many as we would like or feel we actually need but are making progress all the same.

[Benedict White]

Grumpyoldgit said:


It has been mentioned elsewhere that the Chinese do not like to import or re-import stuff. There was some sort of certificate mentioned. I gather that there are tariffs to discourage it.


Ah yes. Tariffs to discourage trade and innovation. It's nice to know that the EU is not alone. Everyone else is an idiot too!

[grumpyoldgit]

Benedict White said:


Grumpyoldgit said:


It has been mentioned elsewhere that the Chinese do not like to import or re-import stuff. There was some sort of certificate mentioned. I gather that there are tariffs to discourage it.


Ah yes. Tariffs to discourage trade and innovation. It's nice to know that the EU is not alone. Everyone else is an idiot too!


The difference is that with them it is intentional. With us it is the usual incompetence of governments.

[kme]

fireraisr said:

Just because production was started doesn't mean they started populating boards that day. Production start entails getting the final design sent off to the pcb manufacturer, final ok on BOM...
Exactly. Someone would have noticed that the BOM didn't include a oscillator or at least a delivery date for this.

[liz]

@kme - you're dangerously close to a ban. Keep it civil, please.

[Benedict White]

Grumpyoldgit said:


Benedict White said:


Grumpyoldgit said:


It has been mentioned elsewhere that the Chinese do not like to import or re-import stuff. There was some sort of certificate mentioned. I gather that there are tariffs to discourage it.


Ah yes. Tariffs to discourage trade and innovation. It's nice to know that the EU is not alone. Everyone else is an idiot too!


The difference is that with them it is intentional. With us it is the usual incompetence of governments.


Ah yes. They are intentionally stupid whereas we are incidentally stupid! Now where do the USA and various African countries figure in this stupidity?