Raspberry Pi Forums

I just ordered a Raspberry Pi Model B+.
The board is $35 but the cost soared to $50.86 at checkout.

Do not use their "standard shipping" It is over $13 . Use USPS and the price is $44.04, $6.41 for shipping! . Both methods say 2 to 3 days. It will be more like 4 or 5 here.

Standard shipping must include a hefty "handling fee" , because a Raspberry Pi just does not weigh that much! It must be that extra USB connector or those extra pins!

So I just read the Q&A thread on the B+.

Overall the foundation took a lot of concerns and wants and cured them:
More GPIO.
USB port overhangs less.
SD card overhangs less.
Connectors on only two sides of the board.
Much better power handling than before, lower wattage.
Four USB ports with better power specifications.
Better mounting system.

So it is somewhat smaller, uses less power and overall cost of use is reduced, as you really do not need a USB hub any longer. They followed what was discovered in the community and solved hot plugging. No more broken SD card slots. The two sided connector arrangement is much better than the four sided. Four mounting holes for a much better, robust mounting system. You no longer have to worry about hubs that back-power.

A loss in the I2c possibly.
No back-powering.
A switch in the RCA connector.
It will still not fit in an Altoids tin.
Can cause problems with things like the Cobbler and T-cobbler cables.
Some add on boards will no longer work.
None of the old cases will work.
Smaller Micro SD card

The jury is still out on the 40 pin GPIO being backwards compatible. But it mostly is compatible. I2c I think will work itself out somehow. No one really liked the idea of back-powering anyway. Composite out cabling might be a little harder to find now, but is under a standard. Still too tall for an Altoids tin but smaller than it was. The Cobbler and T-cobbler systems will be redesigned just as other system will be. Add on boards will adjust to the new pin arrangements. Everyone enjoys designing new cases so I do not see this as a big issue.

I do not see any big difference in the cost of a SD versus a Micro SD cards, at least here in the U.S.. Is availability going to be an issue in other parts of the world?

My thought is it was a well thought out redesign!

There is already some speculation as to an A+ having two USB rather than a single. I do not think that will be the case. One of the major savings between an A and a B model was the LAN9512 (Now the LAN9514) chip. The chip, the Ethernet connector and the single USB port saved most of the price difference between the A and B models. This has not changed.

The BCM2835 has a single USB out of the SoC. That has to go through a hub to be more than one USB. A two USB hub would have to be the same 64 pin QFN package size as the LAN9512/9514 packages. Microchips does not build a 2 USB hub chip that I could find that will fit. And if you use the LAN9512 then you might as well slap an Ethernet on there.

I hope they do use a LAN9512 chip and leave off the Ethernet, then we can put Ethernet on it ourselves. I am not holding my breath at all on this as it just does not fit into the A model price point at all!

Also one of the main power differences between an A model and the B Model is the power usage of the LAN95xx. So an A+ with a hub would use just as much power as a B+. The B+, even with the new power scheme, uses more power (600ma versus 350ma) than the current A Model!

I believe the A+ will be a B+ without a hub just as the A and B are now. You will gain the smaller size and the lower power usage, better mounting system and better card slot and the connectors on two sides. I do hope that they could move to the 512MB package as it obviously has dropped in price, but that really is hard to make any prediction on.

A prediction I can make, unqualified, is:
The A or A+ board is going to be to remain at the $25 price point no matter what they have to do to keep it there!

Richard

Lob0426 wrote:So I just read the Q&A thread on the B+.

so keep this there instead of starting one for oyou?

There is already some speculation as to an A+ having two USB rather than a single. I do not think that will be the case. One of the major savings between an A and a B model was the LAN9512 (Now the LAN9514) chip. The chip, the Ethernet connector and the single USB port saved most of the price difference between the A and B models. This has not changed.

the A+ will only have a single USB
I cannot see anywhere where people say it will have 2
the SOC only has one - there can be only one - one is all there will me
IMO

This is all covered in the Q&A thread, so will lock this one....but some points on the Model A.

1) Model A will have ONE USB port. People who keep saying two are not thinking before writing.
2) The price will not exceed $25.
3) You'll be pleasantly surprised, and like it when it comes out..!

For once, I did not want to join the quibbling going on in that thread. Just wanted to make my own observation. I did not ask a question and so far do not need a answer And my post may have very well hijacked the thread. So I placed it here.

Now I am intrigued about the "you will be pleasantly surprised"

There was a question about the price and I found a way to get it a bit cheaper by choosing a different than default shipping method.

That different shipping method appears to have set back my ship date to back August 5, even though the boards were in stock, so it appears they may be bound and determined to get a higher price for these initial sets of B+ board.

We will have to wait and see how that plays out. If that is true then it is an Ebay style trick with shipping to raise the price but stay within their contract with the foundation. I hope that is not going to be the case.

It could just be a order/auto mail bot that is nervous about stock levels!

Thought I had locked this thread....

Anyway, there shouldn't be any difference in prices on the move the B+. If you see any gouging from the distributors, tell the Foundation. There were a couple of erroneous prices up at first, but they should have been sorted.

Now I'm locking!