News about Raspberry Pi 6 and Microcontroller Development

^^^ when I tell people tangential to the field that the latest pi needs considerations of cooling solutions and a beefy power supply (no more just any old micro usb cable into any old usb port), they're astonished. It was a "microcontroller" you could program in Python with a friendly Linux environment and is now an expensive, power hungry, hot computer with a microcontroller hanging off of it

Raspberry Pi isn't in direct competition with N150's.

Their niche is the industrial/embedded space. For that market, power consumption doesn't matter. What matters is that each model is guaranteed to be available till a specific date.

They'll do whatever they do.

Maybe a tick-tock release cycle (one with new features and some speed, the next with the ~same features and more speed) is where they're headed, and maybe that makes sense. They wouldn't be the first.

I'd love to see even-lower-RAM versions, though. Most of what I use Raspberry Pis for at home for is not RAM-hungry at all.

My Pi4 network router has 2GB because that was the smallest/cheapest version at release when I got it, but the system itself consistently only uses about 64MB of RAM. It'd do perfectly well and have a ton of breathing room with just 128MB of RAM (which will never happen, but if it did happen...).

I suspect the Pi4 that I use as a set-top box with Kodi would be fine with 512MB.

I've used Zero Ws for all kinds of things over the years and never felt RAM-starved with their little 512MB of RAM.

So I'm learning towards 512MB.

But sure: 1GB options would also be fine even if it does double the price. Our comments serve to demonstrate that there's room in the marketplace for different SKUs with different memory capacities. :)

A Raspberry Pi with sleep and hibernation is like asking Valve to make Half Life 3. They just can't. It doesn't compute.

I think exactly the opposite: we have no shortage of embedded crap we can buy; what is useful is dismembering intel. It would be better if the pi were risc v but this will do for now.

A very small point, but pulling from a feather form factor BOM to compare.

$0.12 for microUSB female connector (rated 1A) $0.26 for a USB-C female (rated 3A). Needs 2 x resistors (< $0.01), 20% larger board area

I think the power capabilities are the biggest item. If you want to pull higher current from a laptop for development or supply from a wall, you have to switch to USB-C.

I don't think either of these prices are that aggressive - pretty sure the cost comes down at volume.

For what it's worth there are third-party rp2350 boards with USB-C connectors if that's important to you. Heck, WaveShare has one with two USB-C connectors: https://www.waveshare.com/rp2350-usb-c.htm

There are broadly available third party RP2350 boards with subc and a variety of additional capabilities if that is important for you.

https://shop.pimoroni.com/en-us/collections/rp2350

https://www.sparkfun.com/sparkfun-pro-micro-rp2350.html

https://www.dfrobot.com/product-2913.html

https://www.seeedstudio.com/Seeed-XIAO-RP2350-p-5944.html

Nvidia's software platform for the whole Jetson series was, at least in my experience, absolutely awful on the Jetson Nano and Orin boards I worked on. Has that improved at all? I did not appreciate that the only option they provided was a full desktop version of ancient Ubuntu... and even flashing the OS image was a bizarre process.

Edit: looks like they at least have a better headless option now.

I think at this point the brand reputation and software quality are a big selling point.

If you're trying to build a couple of units of some embedded thing where you need to toggle some GPIOs or serial devices in response to requests over the network, but don't have the expertise or resources to do it with a microcontroller, a Pi is a great option - you know you'll have software support, and you know that the vendor will be making the exact thing you bought for 5-10y.

For hobbyist stuff at home, I agree, though. A mini PC is probably better for homelab stuff, and an RP2350 or ESP32 is probably better for anything embedded or battery powered that you want to do.

> I have bought an rpi at every generation. And I still have yet to find an actual use for them.

It's amazing how well these fit into the category of products that people feel compelled to buy, play around with, and then forget about.

Flipper Zero is another product that landed in the same space.

What's sad is that Raspberry Pi does have a lot of legitimate use cases and people who want to use them, but the supply has always been swamped by all of the demand.

My use cases:

* Replacement controller for my UFO Catcher - It has WiFi, easy to update, and I can operate the machine remotely with it. It's bolted to the back of small touchscreen that lets me change the machine settings as well.

* Remote printer access - I can monitor from the USB cameras and gather statistics about the prints.(I suspect a lot of 3D printing enthusiasts use them for this purpose.)

Having a small low power computer has been useful for me in those instances.

> I just don't see the actual market position for these things.

Isn't it mainly for learning and hobby-ism?

Obviously the business model is selling a $30-100 SBC to jerks on Hacker News who simultaneously brag about buying literally every single model, but apparently have no use case for them. Even better, these schmucks will never plug the product in, never submit a warrantee, and never harass support. Brilliant model!

A physical TPM with their overall high-quality software support would be awesome.

I've spent far too much time messing around trying to get TPMs working over SPI or I2C to meet security requirements with 4Bs and 5s over the years.