<< Meccano Robots

Designed in the UK by the Raspberry Pi Foundation (a charity) and Broadcom for education. The UK has a long history of innovative products and this is produced in South Wales and is the most successful UK computer to date.

As it sports any of 9 different operating systems, including Linux, RiscOS and it’s own. It measures just 85 x 56mm although there are some variations because there are just so many processor, peripherals and power consumptions to choose from.

Onboard can be many options and set up configurations. The Model A and B’s have: a quad core processor, 1-5 USB ports, one Gigabit Ethernet port, Wifi & Bluetooth interfaces, a separate graphics processor producing two HD video streams, composite video in PAL-BGHID, PAL-M, PAL-N, NTSC and NTSC-J, stereo audio output, an HD camera input, micro SD slot, real-time clock and gigabytes of onboard memory. To save power the CPU can be under-clocked but if the power supply is cranked up and heat sinking & cooling are provided some models can be over-clocked to a staggering 1500Mhz which out performs many desktop computers. This leads me to think of this as more than just a microcontroller -many call it a PC in its own right.

The cost is £5 to £70 with the most common variant being £34*.

Laptop

Okdo* make a very beautiful laptop using a Pi for £229*.

(Click pictures for more information)

Plug In Hardware

Like all microcontrollers there are many ways to stack up extra hardware. This one is called the Cluster Hat from The Pi Hut* at £28*.

* I have no relationship with these companies so please do search for other suppliers. Prices are as of early 2021.

As you can imagine almost every programming language can be run on a Pi. Python is native. A large number of Integrated Development Environments are available for use. This one here by Industrial Networks is used for developing Java packages to run on the internet. The cost is so low that it makes paying out for a Mac or high spec pc foolishness.