Where are all the Pi's?

[fridgefreezer]

Apologies if I've missed some update or blog post but I've been trying to buy a B+ through the usual suppliers and can't find anyone with one in stock - and looking round the net it seems like there's plenty of 3's, a few 2's, and almost none of anything else.

I realise the Zero is currently a unicorn, but have the other "base" models gone obsolete while I wasn't looking?

Edit: Pi Supply claim to have one but they want ~30% over the odds compared to RS/Farnell so they can whistle for that, I'm not desperate.

[RaTTuS]

Stock Due this summer ..
http://cpc.farnell.com/raspberry-pi/ras ... dp/SC13456
you can order and you'll get one when they are back in stock
lead times are a killer

pI0 and pI3 will be taking up most of the production capacity

[fridgefreezer]

Not just me then

I can see the back-order times on my RS account, I just thought the Pi foundation had a reasonable handle on production now and was surprised that so much of the range is unavailable.

[RaTTuS]

the foundation only make PI0
RS / E14 make PI 2, Pi3
the SOC for all have a 3month lead time
if something runs out then unless E14 / RS have been clever then there will be a pause in the flow

[jamesh]

They call come out of the same factory, and demand for Pi3 and Zero is huge. Hence even with increased production, it's still difficult to fit in low quantity runs of older product.

[Pithagoros]

The Zero is reasonably easy to get in the UK now, coming on sale weekly with another batch going on sale tomorrow (wednesday) according to the suppliers on twitter.

[mikerr]

The Zero is reasonably easy to get in the UK now

Not if you want more than 1 or two... but its getting better slowly...


IMO the B+ "clashes" with the Pi2B as the mid range pi.

At similar price, why use a B+ when pi2 is exact same form factor, but with 4x CPU and 2x RAM,
but the pi2 uses BCM2836 which isn't used in any other pi....

zero/A+/B+ share the BCM2835, pi3 uses its own BCM2837

[Pithagoros]

The Zero is reasonably easy to get in the UK now

Not if you want more than 1 or two... but its getting better slowly...

LOL, well I've purchased and passed on quite a few more than 2 now and it was never a struggle.

[Raspberry Paul]

At similar price, why use a B+ when pi2 is exact same form factor

RS quoting price of £18.23 for B+ and £24.50 for Pi2, a difference of £6.27. That's 34% more expensive to buy a 2 than a B+ (excludes VAT)

Add to that RS not expecting Pi 2 till 28th August versus 7th July for B+

Thanks to this thread I've stuck an order in for a few B+'s. If they're going to be in short supply for the next year might as well get my name down early.

[W. H. Heydt]

What it really comes down to is factory capacity. Pi Zero, A+512MB, CM, B+, Pi2B, and Pi3B are all fighting for the same production lines. Naturally, those boards that are more in demand are going to be the ones that the manufacturing clients want made and the more profitable boards will be the ones that the clients and the factory want made. That means, in effect, that the Pi3B gets priority with the RPT pushing to get moderate numbers of Pi Zeros. Everything else is going to be waiting for time slots.

In addition to that, we are promised a CM3 this year, followed by a Pi3A and enough of those need to be made to "prime the pump". As a result of ALL of this, I suspect that the CM3 will come along later rather than sooner and I wouldn't be surprised to see the Pi3A pushed out to 2017.

[kragil]

Well here in mainland europe zeros are really hard to come by. Everybody can just buy a 3, but Zeros .. just not available. And when someone has any they bundle them with lots of cheap china crap adaptors and sell them for €50+ .. I really don't like how the zero is handled tbh. It is just frustrating. I want my $5 Pi Zero and my pony!

[darkbibble]

the A+ 512mb is due out in 4 weeks according to rs-components

[W. H. Heydt]

the A+ 512mb is due out in 4 weeks according to rs-components

22 days, according to MCM.

[fridgefreezer]

I can see that in most cases just buying a 2 or 3 is more machine for not much extra money, but I've got one eye on power consumption... or are the Pi2 & Pi3 more efficient than a Pi1 when they're not doing very much?

Incidentally, does anyone else find the current practice of selling out of Pi Zero "board only" but still having "board plus starter kit" in stock is a cynical bit of business?

[mthomason]

Incidentally, does anyone else find the current practice of selling out of Pi Zero "board only" but still having "board plus starter kit" in stock is a cynical bit of business?

It can seem that way, until you realize the latter are probably the only ones the retailers are actually making any noticable profit on. I imagine they're doing the bare Zeros pretty much close to cost to meet a possible contractual requirement with the Foundation. So honestly, I don't really blame them.

[kragil]

If the foundation has so lame contractual agreements, then somebody needs to do his job right. Either there is a $5 zero or there is only a zero with lots of expensive extra crap nobody wants.

As I said before this whole $5 zero debacle is nothing to be proud of. It may be possible to get one in the UK, but everywhere else it just not available, although they said that it should be.

[stderr]

but everywhere else it just not available, although they said that it should be.

I was trying to use the whereismypizero site and it kept telling me that Adafruit had stock but when I'd go to the page, it would say out of stock. I think it's thinking I want the stuff that isn't the bare board, so I now am using this bash code to check just the bare board availability on Adafruit. Since I've never seen them with stock, I'm not sure how to search on that but this alone at least gives a good idea of whether the situation has changed:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash

echo "The current situation with regards to the bare pi zero on Adafruit appears to be:"
PAGE=$( wget -qO- https://www.adafruit.com/products/2885 )
if [[ $PAGE =~ "OUT OF STOCK" ]]; then
  echo "We found OUT OF STOCK on the Adafruit page"
else
  echo "We did not find OUT OF STOCK on Adafruit the page"
fi

[jamesh]

If the foundation has so lame contractual agreements, then somebody needs to do his job right. Either there is a $5 zero or there is only a zero with lots of expensive extra crap nobody wants.

As I said before this whole $5 zero debacle is nothing to be proud of. It may be possible to get one in the UK, but everywhere else it just not available, although they said that it should be.

Wow, three posts and thinks he is an expert. Well done.

Can I suggest reading up a bit on the whys and wherefores of Zero production and distribution. It's all be well covered here, in fact, so well covered, I think I'll lock this thread. Taken too much mod time.