Model A ... with 512MB

[Holmes]

Hi All:

I'm new to the boards, but I thought I would post something about what I'm working on.

It's mainly a Raspberry Pi RetroPie setup crammed into a Nintendo Gameboy DMG case with a 3.5in display and a built-in battery. It's nothing new, and there are many plans out there for such beasts. I adapted my display to run off 3.3V, so my plan is to use a voltage regulator board to take my 3.7V Li-ion battery down to 3.3V, and then run the whole setup on this.

I am posting because I have noticed and have seen on my internet research, that EmulationStation does not work well on a Model A/A+, mainly because there is not enough VRAM to run the interface well. In my experience testing it, the text on the menus gets garbled (replaced with small blocks), and the menus sometimes get garbled, and the game image previews do not appear.

So I could probably disable the detailed EmulationStation view, and just do without the game images, but I would like to keep them. So what's the answer? A Model B/B+. The issue is I really like the current draw readings I was getting with the Model A/A+, so ideally I'd love to have a Model A/A+ with 512MB.

I experimented with deactivating the bus power (to the LAN chip and unfortunately the USB as well), and this dropped my tests of my Model B (running on 3.3V) from 0.34A to 0.21A (while running the console). I couldn't do any other current testing on it because the command to do this (echo 0 > ...buspower) deactivated the USB, and I couldn't get anything to work even via a powered USB hub.

So I looked online, and found this really cool blog post which showed exactly what to do to get a 512MB Model A.

http://freneticrapport.blogspot.com.au/ ... re_24.html

First, I thought maybe I could remove the LAN chip by holding a soldering iron to it, and tried using my regulated Weller soldering iron (I think it's 60W), and it didn't work. I looked into how the blog poster did it, and ended up buying a "BernzOmatic 6-in-1 Solder and Repair Micro Kit Handheld Torch" which goes for about $20 from Lowes or Home Depot + $5 for a can of butane. So I followed his excellent instructions on the blog, and my LAN chip came off without any issues. I soldered the bridges for the USB connector and retested the setup. The current draw dropped to 0.16A (idle in console)! Perfect!

So also, in the blog (in part 2), he talks about removing the rest of the unnecessary components, and I did this, and the current draw dropped further to 0.15A (idle in console).

So I wanted to post my results here in their entirety, so maybe this will help others:

Test results for current draw

Rpi results.gif (13.04 KiB) Viewed 705 times

So I'm very happy with this, and it looks like I can move on with my build.

Hope this helps.

[W. H. Heydt]

No one outside of the RPF knows of any plans to make a 512MB Model A+. It has been suggested before and a number of reasons why it would be a good idea have been put forth.

The big issue is: cost. The RPF is dead set and determined *not* to raise prices...and to cut them if they can. Note that the official price of A+ is $20 and the B+ was recently reduced to $25. *If* it becomes possible to create a Model A+ with 512MB and keep the price the same, I'm reasonably sure the RPF would do so...though we won't find out until such a beastie is released.

Eben has mentioned the idea of a "Pi2A" with the BCM2836 SoC. He hasn't talked much about how much RAM it would have, though I suspect it would pretty much have to be at least 512MB. The main thing holding back such a release is, again, cost.

In the mean time, having people bring up reasons why they'd like to see a 512MB A+ should probably be encouraged, so long as such suggestions make general sense (such as: saving inventory cost by not having to source both 256MB and 512MB RAM packages as well as making larger--and thus likely less expensive--purchases of 512MB packages). That is, suggestions that an MBA as well as a techie would see as beneficial.

[rpdom]

No one outside of the RPF knows of any plans to make a 512MB Model A+. It has been suggested before and a number of reasons why it would be a good idea have been put forth

OP isn't asking for a 512MB A+ to be produced. They have successfully modded a 512MB Model B by removing the LAN/USB chip to make a 512MB Model A and are very happy with that. Congratulations on doing that, Holmes, by the way

[Holmes]

Thanks!

I was very curious about how the current draw numbers would differ between the "shutting off LAN power" method vs. removing the LAN chip, and removing the chip certainly reduces power usage more, but is irreversible.