How would you complete a Raspi for a needy child.

[Vindicator]

I am going to post this with a hope that others will get with the spirit of the original project.
Of course you would have to start with a Raspi. 25.00 or 35.00 ?

Keyboard [img]http://www.directron.com/skb2200hwh.html[/img] $3.99

Mouse [img]http://www.directron.com/mo5013u.html[/img] $3.49

Video monitor [img]http://www.ebay.com/itm/7-Philips-TFT-H ... 2313024c3b[/img] $31.99

Audio adapter [img]http://www.ramelectronics.net/audio-vid ... 00071.html[/img] $1.99

1.99+3.99+3.49+31.99+25.00=66.46 Does not include shipping or a power supply

power supply should be around $15.00 hopefully.$81.46

Yes this is not the quality system but it is functional. Please try to do better.
Remember A functional system is better than no system to a child.
Just think if the components were purchased in bulk and what the price might be reduced too.
The composite video will probably be better than my Timex Sinclair of many years ago that I started with as a high school student. (my high school didn\'t even have computers.)

[veronicathecow]

A quick trip to your local dump or car boot sale may provide all these things for nothing or a lot less. A PCB mounted screw connector for PSU with a diode included would mean a large percentage of standard PSUs from long dead phones etc could be used.
Even better start a give and take stall in your local community.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5047154730

[crundy]

It does seem to be a monitor that bumps the cost right up. I wonder if there\'s any chance of teaming up with a tech recycling group?

Of course, as the R-Pi has video-out you could just hook it up to your telly. A point which can\'t be emphasised enough as far as cost is concerned.

[crundy]

Assuming that someone is going to use their TV as a monitor, from eBuyer you can get:

Mouse (£2.98):
http://www.ebuyer.com/195848-shiny-grey ... sb-hm-3302

Keyboard (£2.99):
http://www.ebuyer.com/205159-black-usb- ... out-hk2001

USB Hub (£1.98):
http://www.ebuyer.com/259355-xenta-blac ... ub-n-uh004

Items: £7.95
Shipping: £4.18
Total: £16.93

Doesn\'t include a power supply as I\'m not sure what would work.

[fdufnews]

A TV can be really a pain to use as application are usually not tailored for small screens.
A few years ago I used an EeePC 701 with a 800x480 screen resolution. Many software had their window cut in the middle with no way to reduced its size to fit the screen. Many applications have, for example, a large toolbar that freezes the minimum size of the window to a value not compatible with a TV.
Of course when I talk about TV I mean an old TV set not the full HDMI that cost 100 times the cost of the Raspi..

[Eclipse]

[quote]Items: £7.95
Shipping: £4.18
Total: £16.93[/quote]

I think you\'ll find that the total is £12.13.

[crundy]

[quote]Quote from Eclipse on October 11, 2011, 13:12
[quote]Items: £7.95
Shipping: £4.18
Total: £16.93[/quote]

I think you\'ll find that the total is £12.13.[/quote]

lol, I just copied the total from the site but hadn\'t changed the delivery option to super saver. I fail today.

[Bacan]

Here in Northern California, local schools and non-profit organizations, are having eWaste collection drives as a way to raise funds. Anything electronic and electrical is collected for recycling and then turned in for cash. Getting useful items (TVs, keyboards, power-bricks, monitors(maybe)) diverted and re-purposed for a R-Pi would be great! The rub comes in testing and making/fixing the items for use.

I\'ve seen last generation, yet functional computers tossed. The people running the collection site only want the dollar or two a system is worth as scrap. Getting these systems working and back to kids is another bigger project taking too much effort and time. So, into the eWaste bin as scrap. Still it might be a source stream of useful parts.

I\'ll add to my list of projects; research and write an eBook on finding, testing and fixing eWaste for R-Pi.

[Bacan]

On the subject of screen size. Some of us remember what it was like to use a Apple ][ with a color TV as a monitor. Yes, a 64x16 character screen size sucks when compared to 80x24 VT100 terminal, and let us not even begin to compare it to HDTV. But it works! With it you can learn about computers. It is a starting point.

As developers, it is up to us to create applications that fit the devices attached; old TVs, HDTV or USB/Eithernet tethered hosts.

[kme]

I\'ve seen last generation, yet functional computers tossed.

I agree. Within the last six months I\'ve gotten 3xHP 3 GHz dual core Intel P4, one HP Core2 Duo 2.66 GHz. All without monitors/keyboards and in varying degree missing RAM and HDD. The RAM I had to buy, HDD I got elsewhere. Oh, and a dual core AMD Opteron 2,2 GHz with 3 GB RAM (no HDD). All in good condition except a few minor scratches barely visual.

All I needed to do was to pick it up myself and spend two beers. It\'s a ridiculous wold, really.

[Vindicator]

Bacan it has always amused me how part of california is called northern california which is somewhere around the middle SF or Sac Etc ( of course assuming you are in that area). and I am 250 miles north and I am not at the top border either by over another 100+ miles LOL.
for an area that does not have wide spread TV. usage the monitor seems to be the haggling point everything else is cheap enough for most people to deal with.
I would agree that the little 7\" monitor would probably have some kind of formatting problem with the smaller screen sizes.
I am using a computer that my brother gave me, which is a Q6600 quad over-driven to 3.GHz
At our county dump have seen pentium4 systems by the dozens being recycled also.
I still use a P4 system as my Linux box.

[PiOfCube]

If you could get some of the big charities on-board, the costs would drop dramatically and add in the possibility of manufacturers/vendors chipping-in by donating stock that now just gathers dust.

If some of the larger charities could work with local people to set up a small production facility to build Raspberry Pi units which could be sold to local residents, they could become self sufficient and bring computing to areas which either don\'t have access or must rely on internet cafés.

Of course, this on its own will not be enough as you would also need to support this with education. Teaching people to use the computer so they can teach others in the area. I can see great potential for the Raspberry Pi, particularly in developing areas where education and entertainment are things that only the wealthier can obtain. There was a big move in Brazil not so long ago to learn and make use of Java because it was free and some good stuff was done (although not enough to make a big difference IMHO and I guess it also depends upon your thoughts on Java generally).

If the government and/or charities can fund initiatives to give every child a laptop, or provide free mobile phones to people, an extremely cheap solution such as the Raspberry Pi should be more achievable, less costly and allow more ways for people to learn and develop.

EDIT:
Looking back on this post I realised that it might be easy to get the wrong idea about what I said about setting up production. What I meant by this was for people to get the completed Raspberry Pi boards and then put them into cases and add other hardware to them.

Thought I would clear that up a little.

[eicristian]

I can get a keyboard, mouse, audio adapter for a low price or as it was mentioned above these things can be found almost for free at places were they are collected for recycling, in my case I have to spend a little extra money for a hdmi to vga adapter because i\'m thinking of connecting the Raspi to a vga lcd i have laying around. (and i don\'t have anything else I\'m using a laptop )