Peter Gamma (Physiologist & Director) Meditation Research Institute Switzerland (MRIS)

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The fabulous world of the single board computers?

Posted bypg@petergamma.org

Last Updated on October 5, 2023 by pg@petergamma.org

  • We can currently see review after review how great the Raspberry Pi 5 is on YouTube. But we do not trust those anymore.
  • We mentioned here that the most reliable and interesting stock for Pi’s are for us personally used devices on eBay and Ricardo Switzerland:
Which single board computer or Linux phone to choose for mobile applications (update after the Raspberry Pi 5 has been announced today)?

But what to do if we are heavy users and Pi after Pi dies altough we tread those very carefully?

  • If we go into a big store in Zurich who offers single board computers they currently have 24 products on the on the shelve.
  • One of those is the Radxa Zero 4GB from which we can build a TRS 80 alternative:

https://ralsina.me/weblog/posts/so-i-built-a-laptop.html

  • If you are interested in this, go for it. It is delivered between Tue 10.10. and Wed 11.10, more than 10 items in stock at third-party supplier.
  • We can there also find an offer for the Raspberry Pi 5 pre-order without confirmed delivery date,
    ordered more than 10 pieces. We will not pre-order since we do not trust these offers anymore.
  • We can buy a Raspberry Pi 4 1G Model B under the 129 Raspberry Pi products offered there.
  • We can buy a Pi 4 with 4 GB in another shop which has the word «Play» in it. Would you trust this shop? We don t want to use our SBC to play with it.
  • We can buy a Raspberry Pi 4 8 G from a shop in Switzerland who is listed in the Pi locator, but nowhere else. We usually don’t buy in the shops listed in the Pi locator. Do these shops have a special connection to Raspberry Pi Inc?
  • This shop which is listed in the Pi locator sais that the Raspberry Pi 4 8 G is available in this shop, but if we go to the shop, it is not available there since a long time. Which shops tread costumers like this? It is the Pi-Shop.ch.
  • We can also buy a LattePanda single board computer without OS, but we cannot mention it in reviews since DF Robot does stock market speculations with it.
  • We can also buy a Orange Pi 5 on Ricardo Switzerland imported directly from China without warranty. But we are locked out of the amrbian forum to flash armbian on it.
  • Raspberry Pi’s are available again in Switzerland also new with warranty.

Trust is like a mirror, you can fix it if it’s broke, but you can still see the crack.

  • What happens when the next Corona Virus breaks out?
  • We have read that it is possible to build CM4 motherboard by ourselves which is great not to depend on a motherboard manufacturers. But then we still depend on CM4 s which is from Raspberry Pi which we do not trust anymore.

There is review after review about the Pi 5 and how great it is. The fabulous world of single board computers? Certainly not. It is more like a never ending story to find a suitable SBC from a reliable manufacturer which fits our needs and is available. And we still haven’t found what we are looking for.