
Raspberry Pi Model A+ Board - zdw
http://www.cnx-software.com/2014/11/08/raspberry-pi-model-a-plus
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maguirre
I love the RPi and what it has done to introduce computing/programming/linux
to more people. However I can't get past how unreliable booting from an SD
card has been for me.

I know reliability depends heavily on the SD card used and on the quality of
board socket but I am disappointed that Rev 2 of the board did not come with
the option of on-board flash.

~~~
custardcream
Been lurking for a bit. Was hoping to say hello with a constructive comment
but I have to jump in here.

I bought a Pi model B for my daughter. Nothing but terrible unreliability.
Booting problems as you state, power problems with the USB ports, random hangs
and crashes and problems getting half of the devices recommended to work.

I kind of expected that for the money but the thing that really pissed me off
was when I raised these issues constructively on their forum, I was met with
nothing but vicious denial and had my post deleted and account closed within
an hour. Possibly the worst bit was the insinuation that I was clearly an
idiot and this was all my fault. I'm technically literate (I'm quite handy
with anything from an oscilloscope to GDB) but I can't imagine this doing well
in the hands of teachers I.e. one of the target markets.

She now uses an old ThinkPad X61 and finds it a million times more useful and
with all the extra bits required on the Pi to get it to work, considerably
better value for money.

Not impressed. When your policy is to silence critics the product should be
distrusted.

As for the initial design brief to produce a useful educational computer, I
think it fails entirely based on the sheer amount of friction between opening
the box and writing your first program. I was brought up on a diet of BBC
Micros and Acorn machines and despite the brand association, the Pi is nowhere
near the mark. Her school even bought 20 Pis that are wheeled out for open
evenings and otherwise never used as well in favour of bog standard PCs
running python.

~~~
teekert
I currently have 2 model B's and one A. I had an unsupported SD card in the
beginning, which annoyed me (it wasn't mentioned anywhere that this could
happen). But you can check here if a card will cause problems:
[http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeripherals](http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeripherals).
After finding a good one: no more problems.

I also blew up a cheap chinese power supply 1A/5V but since I have been using
a 2.5A/5V power supply I have had no problems (I back feed it via the "front"
usb port, the hub has power on the input line, although that is not
recommended.)

After that I never had any problems, 1 has been running OpenElec (XBMC) for
more than a year now. Another one switches my lighting, also never any
problems (running 24/7 for over a year), it is fed via the USB in my router.
One of them also spent half a year in a data-center
([http://raspberrycolocation.com/](http://raspberrycolocation.com/)), it never
failed.

There is no excuse for being treated so poorly on the forums but I have the
feeling like you just had bad luck so far. It happens, My Moto G had yellow
pixels and a failing audio system. Still a good phone judging from the
experience of others.

If you really just want it to work out of the box, buy the recommended power
supply (2A/5V I think), a good SD card or a preinstalled one with NOOBS
([http://www.raspberrypi.org/help/noobs-
setup/](http://www.raspberrypi.org/help/noobs-setup/)).

~~~
custardcream
My wife is on her 3rd Moto G due to charging problems so there are at least
two anecdotes there.

As said elsewhere (see entire thread) it was most likely a duff one.

My problem is with the community and the support and the quality, none of
which are suitable for the target market.

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rebootthesystem
Does anyone know of a Raspberry Pi type board (low cost, Linux capable, good
hardware graphics) with HDMI input and output suitable for image processing?

~~~
KaiserPro
Something like the intel NUC is possibly your only real choice, unless you
want to work really hard porting libraries.

It reasonably cheap, 10watts at full tilt, and has 2 real core (plus 2HT)

I use one for my openCV things, that need real time(ish) performance.

~~~
bduerst
Just looked it up - i5 cpu, DDR3, gigabit ethernet, USB 3.0, all in a small
form factor (very nice). $300 price tag is major killer though.

What type of OpenCV do you use it for?

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Aqwis
Is small size the only thing the A/A+ has over the B/B+ board? Is size really
such a big issue for prototyping boards like the Raspberry Pi?

~~~
lovelearning
Model A consumes less power than B, because it doesn't have the ethernet chip
or port, does not have an onboard USB hub, has a single USB port and has less
RAM.

A flatter profile is an advantage, when trying to tuck it into those narrow
altoid boxes along with other circuits and battery packs.

