Yep, in most respects, the Pi looks brilliant. And it's British, so no
international shipping charges. :)
The only thing I can see wrong with it is that they don't seem to have
given it any sort of mounting system. Most circuit boards have some way
to mount them, either on brackets or pillars or something else (usually
via a nice hole in each corner), but this one doesn't seem to have any
way of structurally fixing it to something, and there's at least one
connector that seems to go right to the corner of the board, so you
can't rely on being able to clamp the sticky-out corners. You can
sometimes get around this sort of problem when a board features
screw-mount connectors, by fixing it to a mounting plate via its ports
(for instance, by using a VGA port plate's screwholes as a mount) ...
but the Pi's ports are things like USB and coaxial video and LAN, which
don't really allow this. :(
I think they're kinda imagining it more as an "educational" product that
lives on people's electronics workshop desks in a nest of wires, rather
than as something that people want to "consumerise" or build into actual
installations.
I'm thinking that "Sugru" might work as a way of sticking the board to
something, or for making a custom holder for it, but you'll probably
have to apply some ingenuity (or some duct tape!), or put it in a box
with some padding to stop it rattling around. Foam sticky-pads or the like.
Also it's currently LAN rather than Wifi. Which I don't suppose is a
problem if you're thinking of putting it somewhere where there's no
wifi-signal, as a completely stand-alone terminal.
Eric
On 03/01/2012 15:04, HARRIS TONY wrote:
> Is anyone considering using the forthcoming Raspberry Pi for video installations? I see from their FAQs they claim museums have already approached them about it, looks like it could be a great spacesaver, not mention powersaver and its vey inexpensive. It's also UK developed.
>
> http://www.raspberrypi.org/
>
> Regards
>
> Tony Harris
>
> New Media Officer& Photographer
> Government Art Collection
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