The Raspberry Pi Model A went on sale in Europe yesterday. It’s a cut down version of the Raspberry Pi Model B that has been available for almost a year. The credit card sized mini bare bones computer has enjoyed hugely unexpected success according to Eben Upton, founder and trustee of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. The Model B has sold a million units in less than a year. Will the new cheaper Model A surprise everyone again?
The cheaper Model A consumes only a third of the power of the Model B
The Raspberry Pi blog informs us “The Model A is a stripped-down version of the Model B Raspberry Pi, with no Ethernet, one USB port and 256MB RAM. If you’d like to learn more, check out this post from a couple of months back.” However this specification reduction doesn’t just impact the price, the Raspberry Pi foundation states that “it consumes roughly a third of the power of the Model B”. This factor may be very important to you if you intend to use a RasPi board in a project running from batteries or solar power “robots, sensor platforms in remote locations, Wi-Fi repeaters attached to the local bus stop and so forth”. The foundation also added that the new cheaper Model A is still a capable media centre when running XBMC.
Raspberry Pi Model A
Cheap as chips
The Model A is available right now in Europe from both RS Components and Premier Farnell/element14. Readers of penny-pinching website HotUKDeals have uncovered a way to get a Raspberry Pi Model A for £18.88 including VAT and delivery in the UK. Until Friday you can order the Model A from Premier Farnell/element14 and input the code “WEBFREE” in the order comments box upon checkout; giving you free delivery.
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Want a useful RasPi project? Build a BananaPhone
Another new and useful RasPi project caught my eye today. We’ve all been bothered by robo-calls and even if you’ve opted out via the telephone preference service you can get annoying calls originating from overseas. A new RasPi project called the Banana Phone requires callers to input a randomly generated four digit code in order to become white-listed.
A little over a month ago Ars Technica compiled a list of ten RasPi creations it thought were amazing and/or useful including a MAME arcade emulator cabinet and a vegetable-interface beatbox musical instrument. Hopefully the new cheaper, less power hungry Model A will bring us even more stunning and useful RasPi inventions.
