Raspberry Pi 4 for sale or for a donation, anyone?

Sat 22 Jan 2022, 01:35

Somebody has upgraded a Raspberry Pi 400 to 8GB, but it is, to put it mildly, not straightforward. The RAM on a the Pi is soldered onto the board and the only way to remove it is to apply a lot of heat (especially as it's lead free solder) and then to find a donor 8GB module from another SBC and "re-ball" that extremely carefully by adding a blob of solder to each of the pads. Then resoldering with a lot of heat.

The reason why somebody did this is probably (wipe that - definitely) because they just wanted he challenge of producing an 8GB Raspberry Pi 400 which is otherwise not available.

In other words, this is not something a normal human being would consider doing.

As for the keyboard, forget a simple switch as it's a ribbon cable, although I would think a USB attached keyboard would probably work (depending on the way that the O/S is configured).

From the supply point of view, then the Raspberry organisation seem to be at the mercy of wider supply issues. The ARM SoC fabrication facilities across he world appear to be beyond full stretch. ARM chips are the most popular microprocessor chips in the world, and I imagine that with the restrictions cause by COVID-19, then the production follows where the money is. Very probably, that means that the vast demands made by the car industry, the telecomms industry, washing machine manufacturers and much else will take precedence over what is (by most standards) a relatively small market. Faced with this, then most of us will have to decide on priorities and whether the best thing to do is wait unless it's critically important. From what I read, then the shortage is likely to continue well into 2022. The Chinese still have Omicron to deal with and heaven knows what that will result in.

Of course the Raspberry Pi Foundation was set up to produce an educational tool aimed at teaching schoolchildren how to program. The organisation is still a charity. However, reading the US site, they are more and more aware of commercial customers and how they are so badly affected by lack of supplies (and apologising for price increases). The Pi has grown wildly beyond it's original aim and I seem to recall it employs about 120 people.

So, commerce has a way of changing things as economics takes over. In the meantime, the Raspberry 400 is the best alternative I can offer besides patience.